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“[Improved in Beta 4!] Firefox 3 Beta 4 includes more than 900 enhancements from the previous beta, including drastic improvements to performance and memory usage, as well as fixes for stability, platform enhancements and user interface improvements. Many of these improvements were based on community feedback from the previous beta.”

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The Open Handset Alliance (OHA), a group of more than 30 technology and mobile companies with Google at the forefront, have developed Android to become the first complete, open and free mobile platform.

The system will allow users to access core mobile device functionality through standard API calls and hopes to include such innovative features as combing information from the web with data on the phone, such as contacts or geographic location.

Google’s Android Software Developer (SDK), first released in November, is part of OHA and is based on the Linux 2.6 kernel using an operating system, middleware stack, customizable user interface and applications.

The preview version of the platform was released without real support for the hardware, while instead developers were given a software emulator based on Qemu.

Credited as one of the first developers to use Android in a hardware platform is Ben Leslie from Australia, using the Armadillo-500 from Atmark-Techno based on Freescale’s i.MX31L mobile processor.

Amateur animators will now be able to use software that the production teams from the sets of The Lord of the Rings trilogies and the Chronicles of Narnia have used for free.

Antics Technologies has released a downloadable version of its realtime animation software Antics V3 that will allow users to create characters and sets in an easy to use, point-and-click format.

Alastair Woolley, managing director of Antics, said that with “simple techniques like drag-and-drop and a simple user interface, anyone with a story to tell or an interest in filmmaking can now bring their ideas to life in real time.”

Users will still have access to the more complicated actions involving special scenes and camera angles that will allow “cameras to view the action from whatever angle and positions you want”, he added.

The free version of the software has a library of scenes and characters including everything from a Wild West scene to a modern city landscape and for an additional fee, enthusiasts can purchase more scenes, import third party animations and share content with other users in an open forum.

T-Mobile USA has announced the imminent launch of the T-Mobile Shadow, which could prove to be a rival to Apple’s iPhone.
It is designed for ease-of-use but loses none of the features of a modern multi-use phone, said T-Mobile, which will launch the Shadow on October 31st.

T-Mobile teamed up with design firm HTC to integrate style and function, making it more ‘intuitive’ for customers.

Features include an enhanced user-interface that is integrated with the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 platform, a two-megapixel digital camera and Wi-Fi internet access.

‘We’re calling the new line of devices Shadow because they’re designed to help people stay effortlessly connected with those who are closest to them,’ said T-Mobile president Robert Dotson.

‘Shadow finally makes staying connected to people simple, fun and easy - and all without the hassle of using a complicated device.’

Last month, T-Mobile announced that more than two million customers have signed up to its Flext tariff since its launch 18 months ago.