Will the Web Get Even Better? You Bet!

Firefox 3.5 'Web upgrade' planned for end of June

Firefox 3.5 comes with a spate of new features--5,000 total, according to Mozilla. Among the major ones: built-in video; local storage to enable richer Web applications that can work even with no network connection; a private browsing mode; geolocation to aid Web pages that can benefit from knowing a user's location; and faster performance loading pages and executing Web-based JavaScript programs.

Will new browsers really upgrade the Web?

Mozilla is exhorting users to "upgrade the Web" with Firefox 3.5 and variations on that better-browsing theme can be found with Google's Chrome, Apple's Safari, and Opera. The hope is that the Web will evolve from a series of relatively static pages to a lively home for Web applications--everything from today's e-mail to tomorrow's spreadsheets. But it could take awhile for reality to catch up with the vision. Interesting article.

Learning from Iran's Twitter Revolution

How did we have revolutions before Twitter? It seems like democracy is an inevitable result of Internet access, something that officials in Iran and China are now both fumbling with at their peril. As we watch both nations' ham-handed efforts at cramming the Internet genie back into the bottle, it's obvious that connected people are empowered people.

iTunes ain't the only gig in town

MediaMonkey is an excellent free jukebox that handles large collections especially well. Just updated to version 3.1, its ID3 tags, CD and DVD, and full-featured encoder are just the beginning. A $20 upgrade gets you, among other things, on-the-fly file conversion to your personal media player of choice. Other alternatives, like the free, open-source Songbird and aTunes, are also definitely worth your time and attention. CNET Download.com Editor Seth Rosenblatt explains what differentiates them here.

How to Buy a Digital Photo Frame

LCD technology is finally becoming affordable enough for these frames to be had at reasonable prices. We've reviewed a bunch of digital photo frames and have found that you can land a great bargain on an excellent one; but you need to know what to look for. So here are our rules for picking the perfect digital picture frame.