The second beta of Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) is due to be released before the end of October, said a manager in Microsoft’s technical support group, who also warned web designers to start adding a new tag to their sites or risk those sites “breaking” when the new browser launches.

“We are encouraging site administrators to get their sites ready now for broad adoption of Internet Explorer 8, as there will be a beta release in the third quarter of this year targeted for all consumers,” said Nick MacKechnie, a senior manager for Microsoft’s New Zealand operations, in a blog entry earlier this week. (more…)

Ten high priority bugs have been discovered within Mozilla’s Firefox 3.0 Release Candidate 1, three of them labelled “critical”, but it won’t be decided until next week whether to release the browser anyway or restart the final stretch by issuing a second release candidate (RC2).

Firefox 3.0 Release Candidate 1 launched on May 16th, but Mozilla has not yet committed to RC2. Previously, Mozilla said it is targeting June as the release window for the final version. (more…)

Firefox 3 is one step closer to being launched; On Friday, Mozilla rolled out Release Candidate 1 of the revamped browser for developer and open-source communities to test.

The latest version is based on the Gecko 1.9 rendering platform; Mozilla says the new browser will be more secure, easier to use, more personal and faster.

Release Candidate 1 (RC1) is now available for download from Mozilla’s website for testing purposes in order to collect feedback from developers and the Firefox testing community. (more…)

Thursday brought the unveiling of the latest version of Adobe’s Flash Player browser plug-in, further advancing its series of latest graphical features such as 3-D animated effects with a beta version of Flash player 10 in an attempt to stay the best in its field.

With no set final release date, the new Flash player has several new features in aid of maintaining the plug-ins dominance (its penetration is over 98%) during a time of ever expanding Internet application platforms and development methodologies, including Microsoft Silverlight, JavaFX and Ajax. (more…)

Microsoft has warned users updating to Windows XP SP3 that they won’t be able to downgrade from IE7 to the older IE6 without uninstalling the service pack.

The warning first appeared in a post on the Internet Explorer blog, IEBlog. (more…)

Removing bloatware applications from your new PC or laptop can help speed up the performance of your system.

Bloatware can be defined as software that is so overloaded with functionality that its performance suffers. At the very least, it takes a long time to load the program. If you choose to install bloatware because you want/need it, then that is fine. But when it is installed by default, it is another matter.

Thankfully, a tool has been produced to do the hard work for you. (more…)