Spread Firefox

Guinness World Records – “Most software downloads in 24 hours” – that’s the record Firefox wants to break with the launch of Firefox 3 – Gran Paradiso.

You cannot actually download anything yet, but you can pledge that you’re ready to help them break the record. Over 383,000+ people have already pledged, and I bet this number would double in a month. There is even a cool flash map which shows how many people have pledged so far, from each countries. The US is in the lead, with Poland and Brazil holding the second and third place. 4579 Indians have pledged till now.

The actual date of the launch is, unfortunately, yet to be announced, but when it comes, you better be ready.

Photoshop CS4 – GPU and Physics Support

Adobe recently gave a demonstration, at Nvidia’s headquarters in Santa Clara, of  "Creative Suite Next" (or CS4), code-named “Stonehenge”, which adds GPU and physics support to its existing multi-core support.

TG Daily reports on this presentation by Adobe.

We saw the presenter playing with a 2 GB, 442 megapixel image like it was a 5 megapixel image on an 8-core Skulltrail system. Changes made through image zoom and through a new rotate canvas tool were applied almost instantly. Another impressive feature was the import of a 3D model into Photoshop, adding text and paint on a 3D surface and having that surface directly rendered with the 3D models’ reflection map.

Also part of the demo was Photoshop 3D accelerated panorama which lets artists to work inside a spherical image and fix any artifacts on the fly.

All of these new features are part of Photoshop CS4, which should be a part of the “CS Next” suite. The package is expected to be released on October 1 !!

iPhone 3G Confirmed ??

I just read this about 5 minutes ago on Giz.

We all suspected it, but now it is confirmed: sources close to the 3G iPhone launch have told Gizmodo that Apple will announce their new model at the WWDC Keynote on June 9th. The second-generation iPhone will be available worldwide right after the launch, and not at year’s end, as previously thought. The new model will also herald new sales policies in some countries.

In Spain, for example, the 3G iPhone will be available for sale at the June 18th grand opening of Telefonica’s megastore—an Apple Store-like shop located in the company’s historical building in Madrid’s Gran Vía— with nationwide availability right the next day or after a few hours. The other European countries with iPhone availability will have similar launch schedules.

According to the same reliable sources, the 3G iPhone will no longer be available at a fixed price point—at least in some countries, and its launch will also bring new sales policies, although these have not been completely specified yet.

The move is a logical step, since the iPhone has clearly solidified its position as the cellphone to beat during last twelve months, and companies in the cutthroat European cellphone market need to use it as an incentive to capture clients aggressively.

This most probably means the new 3G iPhone will be integrated in the usual marketing systems of carriers, with point-based trade-ups, discounts for carrier switchers, and other service-based subvention packages.

Apple….Come to India soon…..

Flash Player 10 – What does it pack?

Flash Player 10 public beta, code named named "Astro" was released a few days ago. You  can get it from Adobe labs. This new release has a ton of new stuff that’s gonna blow the minds of anyone who is playing around with Flash because it spans things like Rich-text (finally, right to left!!), 3D effects, Dynamic streaming, more Hardware acceleration, and custom filters that you can create yourself with Pixel Bender. Unfortunately we don’t have any tooling support for the beta yet, so if you want to dig in you’ll have to wait a bit.

• Custom Filters and Effects
  • This feature is pretty cool. Portable Filters, created using Pixel Blender which happens to be the same technology behind After Effects CS3. And adobe claims that custom filters will not make a big impact on the size of the app.
• 3D Effects
  • This was very obvious. I’ve been expecting this for a long time. PaperVision 3d, Sandy, Away 3d, everyone is in the game.
• New Text Engine
  • A brand new flexible text engine. And yes, right to left text flow and a whole lot more in here.
• GPU Compositing
  • Utilizing the processing power of the graphics card, Astro will accelerate compositing calculations faster than would be performed in software mode on the CPU. Open GL 2.0 video card with GLSL capabilities required for this feature to work.
• Dynamic Streaming
  • Video Streams that can automatically adjust to changing network conditions.
• File Reference (finally !!)
• Ubuntu OS Support

Download Flash Player 10 beta from here and Pixel Blender from here.

BioShock – The Movie

BioShock, one of 2007’s best games, one of the best games in history even, is heading for Hollywood. This is a no-brainer really. Everyone knew sooner or later this superb work of art would be brought to the movie screen.

Take Two Interactive, the publisher of BioShock, confirmed about the movie and that Gore Verbinski (of Pirates of the Caribean fame) will be directing it. Gore has an noticeable interest in games which was revealed back at D.I.C.E’08 Summit when he gave a wonderful talk on “The Homogentization of Voice“. He was particularly overwhelmed by the story-telling aspects of games like Mass Effect (very detailed characters and superb dialogue) and BioShock (the immersive atmosphere and gameplay mechanics). Gore seems to be in contact with the creator of BioShock, Ken Leviene, from 2k Boston.

John Logan will be writing the movie adaptation of the game. His previous screenplay works include an acclaimed Scorsese flick, The Aviator, and probably the worst movie in the series, Star Trek:Nemisis.

BioShock will hit the theatres in 2010. Right alongside Prince of Persia:Sands of Time I guess.