Mozilla Launches Firefox 4 Bug Countdown

In anticipation of the final release of Firefox 4, Mozilla is now showcasing a public buglist countdown. 22 blocking bugs to go.
The webpage can be found at canweshipyet.com and follows a recent trend at Mozilla to track the process of projects by providing as questions phrased domains - such as areweprettyyet.com or arewefastyet.com. Of course, the page suggests a certain self-irony as Mozilla has been trying for months to trim the number of bugs, which keep surfacing and prevent Firefox 4 from reaching the finish line. Yesterday, for example, the countdown was at 14 (blocking) bugs, today the counter is a 22.
According to today's meeting minutes, there were 20 blockers left (two new bugs have been found since then). Of those 20, 5 bugs did not have patches yet. Noteworthy recent fixes include memory saving patches, which were noticed by beta users in Firefox 4 Beta 11 and caused a wave of complaints. According to Mozilla, Firefox 4 Beta is now used by about 2.3 million users.
It is unclear whether Mozilla will be able to keep its most recent Firefox 4 release plans, which put Firefox 4 RC in a February time frame. The final release is said to be published sometime in March. On that note, IE9 is scheduled for a March 14 release. Right now it appears that Microsoft will have the advantage of release its new browser first. March should be an interesting month for the web browser.

VOTW: Playable Angry Birds Birthday Cake

Sure, you may have fashioned a real-life Angry Birds set out of Play-Doh and watched, content, as your children fired those cantankerous little birdies across the room, but anything made out of cake is instantly better than Play-Doh.


Mike Cooper from Electric Pig apparently has bit of a knack for making birthday cakes that would make your Nana weep with jealousy. For his son’s sixth birthday, he decided a playable version of Angry Birds was in order. Mike says it took him 10 hours to make and that his son managed to wreck it in approximately two minutes. Then they ate it. Well, we assume they did. They at least blew out candles.

Check out the process and gameplay below.

If you want to make your own Angry Birds cake, Electric Pig has posted a step-by-step guide for making the cake. Adorable 6-year-old sold separately.

Playable Angry Birds Birthday Cake

Motorola Atrix Now Launching Next Week

The Motorola Atrix stole our hearts when it was first seen at CES in January and now it looks like the little scamp of a superphone is about to surprise us once again: Moto is apparently moving the launch of the device forward by one week.
Ten days ago AT&T fully detailed the Motorola Atrix and said it would begin taking preorders February 13 for a March 6 release. However, it seems the folks at Motorola have been going over their calendar and have seen fit to make some changes. The following notification is supposedly being sent to AT&T customer service reps and indicates that the Atrix will actually be launching on February 22 -- just five days from now.

Obama Meeting With Jobs, Zuckerberg, Schmidt

Getting techie with the President.
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Barack Obama is the most tech savvy president that the U.S. has had yet. Tonight he'll be hosting a dinner event meeting with tech leaders in California.
According to ABC News, Obama will be meeting with Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The latter participant draws some interest after tabloid reports of his deteriorating health.
This won't be the first time that Jobs and Obama have met, though, as the two met last year for around 45 minutes, supposedly discussing technology, education and job creation.
“The president and the business leaders will discuss our shared goal of promoting American innovation, and discuss his commitment to new investments in research and development, education and clean energy,” a White House official said.
This would follow along Obama's State of the Union plans that he outlined in his speech last month.

Motorola's Xoom tablet priced at $799

We had a pretty good idea that it was going to be pricey, and now we know it’s going to be pricey.
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The pricing for Motorola’s Xoom tablet has officially been announced, and while it’s not quite the $1,199 we thought it could be, it is going to cost you quite a pretty penny. Speaking to Reuters, Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha confirmed that the 10.1-inch tablet would sell for an unsubsidized $799 at Verizon Wireless, while the WiFi-only version of the device will be priced at a more competitive $600.

Around the time of the super bowl a Best Buy ad priced the device at $800, but the price was not confirmed by Motorola. Earlier this week, a place-marker for a $1,199 Xoom set eager hearts racing. However, the new pricing, particularly the WiFi-only pricing, seems a lot easier to swallow. While 3G is nice feature to have, it comes with the added hassle of having to sign a one or two-year commitment and that’s not something a lot of people are willing to take on. That $200 price difference, along with the fact that WiFi access and hotspots are becoming so widespread, will make it pretty easy for people to talk themselves down from the 3G model.

A quick refresher course for those with memories that don’t serve as well as they used to: The Motorola Xoom packs Nvidia’s dual-core Tegra 2 chipset, a 10.1-inch widescreen 1280x800 HD display, HDMI out, 1080p video playback, two cameras (2-megapixels up front and 5-megapixels + LED Flash in the back), a built-in gyroscope, barometer, compass, accelerometer and adaptive lighting for new types of applications.

Worth $600? Worth $800? Let us know!

Intel May Have Leaked New MacBook Pro Design

If seeing Dell’s leaked smartphone and tablet roadmap for the next year or so doesn’t do it for you, there’s another leak floating around that might grab your interest. Fact is, Intel may have accidentally leaked the new MacBook Pro designs, just like it did last year.
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Here in this Intel ad is an unnamed, MacBook-a-like that the Apple blogs are suggesting could be the new MacBook Pro redesign. It shows a slimmer, sleeker design that’s closer in size to the MacBook Air than the MacBook Pro, if we’re being honest. Still, it’s possible Apple has decided to take some MBA design cues and incorporate them into the new MBPs. Fast Company points to that light patch on the right-hand side, which it's saying is an IR sensor, and claims the placement is "classic Apple design."

That said, there’s also nothing to indicate that this ad is even showing a MacBook Pro. It could be another laptop entirely, or even just a render from Intel. The thing that’s got everyone whipped into a tizz is the fact that Intel did precisely this last time the MBP was about to get a refresh: The company accidentally revealed the new model as part of a contest for Intel Spain. The prize was a MacBook Pro packing a new Intel Core i5 processor. Unfortunately, Intel ran this campaign before Apple had yet to announce the MacBook itself.

What do you think? Could Intel make the same mistake two years in a row? Or is this a very, very, very long shot?

Sony Announces 17- and 25-inch OLED Monitors

OLED monitors aren’t exactly on every desk in every office just yet, not even close, but for those who like staying ahead of the curve, Sony has just revealed two OLED panels for us to drool over.
Available in 17- and 25-inch flavors, the displays represent new additions to the company’s Trimaster EL line and will be dubbed the BVM-E series. Anyone who’s got a phone with an OLED display will be familiar with the rich colors, deep blacks and power-efficiency offered by OLED technology, however, Sony claims the BVM-E series are the first monitors to deliver full HD resolution OLED panels with RGB 10-bit drivers. You’ve got the usual 3G/HD/SD-SDI, HDMI and a DisplayPort, along with a panel resolution of 1920x1080. Standard luminance is 100 cd/m2.
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“These new monitors are the next step in professional displays, providing end users with extremely high picture quality,” said Gary Mandle, senior product manager at Sony Electronics’ Professional Solutions of America group. “This is breakthrough technology for applications where visual performance and accuracy are paramount, offering an unbeatable combination of image reproduction, color accuracy, reliability and stability.”

The BVM-E250 is set for availability sometime in the middle of April, while the 17-inch BVM-E170 will be out in June. Of course, pricing is a bit scary (they are OLED panels, after all), and unless you’re in the fortunate position of being able to convince your boss you actually really, really do need one, it’s going to cost you ¥1.3 million ($15,710) for the 17-inch BVM-E170 or ¥2.4 million ($28,910) for the 25-inch BVM-E250.