mikemuch writes “IE8 has left beta as of noon Pacific time today. The development team now considers the browser platform- and feature-complete, but won’t say how long until it goes gold. PCMag.com got an early look and has posted a full review of Internet Explorer 8 RC1. The release candidate differs only slightly from Beta 2, most notably in tweaks to its InPrivate Browsing feature, aka porn mode. That feature has been decoupled with InPrivate Filtering, which blocks third-party content providers from creating profile of your browsing habits. RC1 also improves on performance, especially in startup time, but still trails Firefox and Chrome in JavaScript speed. Protection against the relatively new threat of ‘clickjacking,’ where a site tries to get you to press buttons underneath a sham frame page, has also been added — the first browser to include such protections. Versions for 32-bit and 64-bit Vista, as well as for 32-bit XP are available, but Windows 7, which will ship with IE8, is stuck with an older beta for now.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

richlv writes “Popular Unix console file manager Midnight Commander has experienced a stall for the last few years. Most distributions (including the conservative Slackware) shipped patched packages or snapshots. Despite that, everybody had a favorite bug or two — either inability to specify ssh connection port, or problems with interrupted FTP sessions. Or maybe copying of larger datasets. Or maybe the infamous ’shell is still active’ message, which often brought unexpected changes of current directory with it. Whatever it was, we either cursed it every time, or learned to live with it. It seems that finally something many were waiting for has happened — there’s some activity on mc development. Check out the new homepage, and let’s hope revival is both healthy and lengthy.”

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An anonymous reader writes “A new bill is being introduced called the Camera Phone Predator Alert Act, which would require any mobile phone containing a digital camera to sound a tone whenever a photograph is taken with the phone’s camera. It would also prohibit such a phone from being equipped with a means of disabling or silencing the tone.”

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Spacedonkey writes “Researchers at Intel, RTI International of North Carolina, and Arizona State University have made ultra-thin ‘micro-refrigerators’ for computer chips. The device uses a thermoelectric cooler made from nanostructured thin-film superlattice that can reduce the temperature by 55C when a current passes through it. In testing, it reduced the temperature on part of a chip by 15C without impairing its performance. The researchers say the component could be particularly useful for cooling hot spots that frequently occur on multi-core chips.”

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stoolpigeon writes “Have you ever been reading a book or watching a film and as the plot moves to involve some use of technology you begin to brace yourself, and the cringe as you are ripped out of the story by what is an obviously ignorant treatment of matters you know well? Do you find the idea of creating a “gui interface using visual basic” to see about tracking an ip address as more fit for a sitcom rather than crime drama? And if so, have you ever wondered what it would be like if one of us, a geek, wrote a techno-thriller? What if someone who grokked our culture and understood our tech wrote something? Would it be great, or would it just get bogged down in the techno babble?” Keep reading for the rest of JR’s review.

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An anonymous reader writes “During CES a group of overclockers with access to liquid nitrogen and liquid helium for the extra boost of coldness cooled an AMD Phenom II X4 chip to -232 degrees Celsius. Once they got the chip cooled to this frigid temperature, they pushed the clock speed all the way up to 6.5GHz, which is a world record for a quad-core CPU, and then dished out an astonishing 45,474 3DMark05 score!”

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An anonymous reader writes “John Schiefer, the Los Angeles security consultant who in last 2007 admitted wielding a 250,000-node botnet to steal bank passwords, sometimes from work, says he’s spent the past 15 months working as a professional in the security scene while awaiting sentencing. Prosecutors are pushing for a five-year sentence, noting the exceptional threat he represented to society.”

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Barence writes “The European Commission could force Microsoft to bundle Firefox with future versions of Windows. The revelation came as part of Microsoft’s quarterly filing with the Security and Exchange Commission. Among the statements is a clause outlining the penalties being considered by the European watchdog, which recently ruled that Microsoft is harming competition by bundling Internet Explorer with Windows. The most interesting situation outlined in the filing would see either Microsoft or computer manufacturers forced to install Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari by default alongside Internet Explorer on new Windows-based PCs.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

AtariKee writes “Universe Today is reporting that a small 10m asteroid, discovered earlier this month and named 2009 BD, is passing within 400,000 miles of Earth. Although the asteroid poses no threat to the planet, the site reports that the asteroid is still very interesting, as it may be a rare co-orbital asteroid (as in, shares the same orbit as Earth).”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Analysts were already anticipating a killer Q4 for Netflix, and unlike practically every other company on the face of the planet, it delivered. The movie rental firm somehow managed to see net income rise to .7 million in the quarter, up from .7 million in Q4 2007. Revenue was also up by 19 percent, and subscriber growth was pegged at an amazing 26 percent. All told, the firm ended the quarter with 9.4 million subscribers, decimating its own forecast of ending Q4 with 9.15 million customers. Of course, some (Netflix included) are quick to assert that the recession has actually boosted business, with many consumers opting to stay home and rent versus taking the family out for a pricey night at the cinema. Netflix is now projecting to end 2008 with anywhere between 10.6 million to 11.3 million customers, and given all the hardware deals it keeps landing, we don’t see a reason why it won’t get there. Way to buck the trend, Netflix — we needed some bright news today.

[Via AP]

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Netflix profit up 45% in Q4, nears 10 million total subscribers originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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