Are Google and HTC about to challenge both the iPhone and the Apple tablet, rumored to be called iSlate? HTC are also the company behind Google’s Nexus One SmartPhone (said to be launching on January 5th).

According to Australian Publication SmartHouse:

HTC, who have been working closely with Google for the past 18 months have several working models of a touch tablet including one model, is based on the new Google Chrome Operating System say sources.

An Android based device which is set to be shown privately to core HTC customers at the CES Show is set to incorporate new Qualcomm processors, touch technology and new software from Adobe.

Presently, it will be available for the Nokia N900, but then also be used in other models. Fennec will synchronize with Firefox. That means any Web page to open the PC’s browser automatically opens in the version for mobiles. “At the end of the day you can go home and stay connected to your terminal,” said Sullivan.

Sullivan further added that the browser is presently in its final stages of testing and could be available for download prior to the end of 2009.

Fennec will compete with other browsers such as Opera, Safari and Windows Mobile. The Mozilla foundation aims to repeat the success that they have achieved with Firefox, the second in position and just behind the various versions of Internet Explorer (Microsoft).

Fennec can be downloaded from the Mozilla website and from Ovi, Nokia’s shop. It is developing a version for Windows Mobile, the mobile operating system from Microsoft. At the moment there is no version for iPhone, due to restrictions of Apple, which only allows using browsers that use WebKit, the basis of its.

The wait for Google Chrome for Mac users is finally over. Google has finally released the first official beta release of Google Chrome for Mac. Mac users can Grab’s the beta copy today and experience a web browser that runs web pages and applications with lighting speed. Google Chrome is available for Intel based machines running Mac OS 10.5 or newer – Leopard and Snow Leopard.

What Chrome does bring to Mac is exceptionally fast browser speeds. It also starts up quickly in under 2 seconds flat. Google also implemented some important to make Google Chrome a Unique Modern Browser i.e. Crash Protection. Google Chrome for Mac also offers the “Omnibox” instead of the standard address bar and search bar across the top of your screen. The Omnibox (as the name suggests) is one box that you can use for both searching and entering URLs.

Official Page

According to Google Chrome Official Blog:

We’ve been working hard to deliver a first-class browser for the Mac — it took longer than we expected, but we hope the wait was worth it! We wanted Google Chrome to feel at home on the Mac, so we’ve focused on uniting our clean, simple design with subtle animations and effects to create a snappy and satisfying browsing experience on OS X. As you might expect, the speed of Google Chrome for Mac is something we’re very proud of. If you have a Mac, try installing the beta and see how fast it launches — there’s hardly even time for the icon in the dock to bounce!

For more details on this beta release of Google Chrome for Mac, read on in the Google Mac blog or watch this video from one of Google engineer’s, Mike Pinkerton:

Google’s Chrome is still on the fourth-place in terms of usage with 30 million active users. Google Chrome browser is quick and their latest versions seems even quicker. An advantage for Chrome extensions over Firefox add-ons is that you do not have to restart Chrome after installing the extensions. To manage the installed extensions, just type chrome://extensions in the browser Address Bar and hit enter.

According to Google’s Chrome Official Announcement on the release:

Today, we’re really happy to release a beta of extensions that begins to deliver on our initial vision. Extensions are as easy to create as webpages. Users can install and uninstall them quickly without restart, and extensions have a great polished look that fits in with Google Chrome’s (Google Chrome) minimalist aesthetic. When developers upload an extension it is available to users immediately, with limited restrictions and manual reviews only in a few situations.

Please keep in mind that it is still in a very initial stage, so some features might act a little wonky. Currently, Google Chrome extensions are only available for Windows users and Linux builds of Chromium. Hopefully Mac support is not too far around the corner. Please make sure that you are using the Beta Version of Google Chrome with extensions enabled.

Watch this video for an explanation of how to manage and install extensions for Google Chrome:

The Beta of Firefox 3.6 / Gecko 1.9.2 introduces several new features for users to evaluate:

• (New in this version) Support for the HTML5 File API
• A change to how third-party software integrates with Firefox to increase stability.
• The ability to run scripts asynchronously to speed up page load times.
• A mechanism to prevent incompatible software from crashing Firefox.
• Users can now change their browser’s appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.
• Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
• Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
• Support for the WOFF font format.
• Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
• Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.

Web developers and Add-on developers should read more detail about the many new features in Firefox 3.6 for developers on the Mozilla Developer Center. For the full list of changes since the alpha release of Firefox 3.6 see this list (it’s big).

Please use the following links to download Firefox 3.6 Beta, or visit the beta download page:

• Windows: Firefox 3.6 Beta 4 Setup.exe
• Mac OS X: Firefox 3.6 Beta 4.dmg
• Linux: firefox-3.6b4.tar.bz2

Hashes for the original Beta ISO of Office 2010 Professional Plus from MSDN & TechNet are as follows:

File Name: en_office_professional_plus_2010_beta_x64_x16-19234.exe
Date Posted (UTC): 11/16/2009 7:21:24 AM
ISO/CRC: D5C14D40
SHA1: D07BC0DEE307E05F955CE44825F85084B94595B8

Office 2010 continues the well received, but still controversial “ribbon” interface technology, that some regard as en evolution, and some as a degradation

Some Major updates to the Office 2010 from previous versions:

• Microsoft Office 2010 now offers you rich and powerful new ways to deliver your best work at work, home, or school — on your computer, from a Windows Mobile-based smartphone or via a Web browser.
• Quickly and creatively grab your audience’s attention and inspire people with your ideas by using enhanced and easy-to-use tools, customizable templates, color schemes, and photo-editing capabilities.
• With co-authoring experience across PowerPoint, Word, OneNote and Excel, you can work with people from different locations at the same time.
• By offering more ways to access your files from almost anywhere, Office 2010 puts you in control of getting things done according to your schedule.

You can easily download the Office 2010 Beta from Microsoft Developer Network and Microsoft TechNet Plus

Yahoo! claims that Yahoo Messenger 10 has been improved in the case of video call and latest update notification from your friends in Yahoo!, Flickr, Twitter, and many more.

Those users who want to try the reliability of Yahoo Messenger 10 final version can directly download at the official site of Yahoo Messenger.

Google’s again in the news today as they closed the developers’ preview of their new search architecture known as Caffeine. Back in August, Google announced they were planning a rollout of a new search engine.

If you visit the Google Caffeine Sandbox, you will be taken to a thank you page that reads:

We appreciate all the feedback from people who searched on our Caffeine sandbox.

Based on the success we’ve seen, we believe Caffeine is ready for a larger audience. Soon we will activate Caffeine more widely, beginning with one data center. This sandbox is no longer necessary and has been retired, but we appreciate the testing and positive input that webmasters and publishers have given.

Google Caffeine is coming soon to a data center near you. That means, Google will slowly replace the live Google.com results with the new Caffeine index. It totally depends on which of the many Google data centers they hit at the time they visit Google.

In these five years, over 330 million users use the firefox and almost a quarter of Internet users choose Firefox worldwide. Today, Firefox ships in more than 70 languages and offers users more than 7,000 add-ons to help customize their browsing experience.

According to the Christopher Blizzard over the Mozilla blog post:

Over the next five years everyone can expect that the browser should take part in a few new areas – to act as the user agent it should be. Issues around data, privacy and identity loom large. You will see the values of Mozilla’s public benefit mission reflected in our product choices in these areas to make users safer and help them understand what it means to share data with web sites.

Expect to see big changes in the video space. HTML5-based video and open video codec’s are starting to appear on the web as web developers make individual choices to support a standards-based, royalty-free approach. Expect to see changes in the expectations around the licensing of codec’s.

And over the next five years mobile will play an increasingly important role in our lives, and in the future of the web. The decisions of users, carriers, governments and the people who build phones will have far-reaching effects on this new extension to the Internet and how people will access information for decades to come.

Image By Christopher Blizzard

Mozilla plans to celebrate this milestone by throwing parties around the world. The campaign is called “Light the World with Firefox”, and it will include shining the Firefox logo in cities such as Paris, Tokyo, Rome and San Francisco. Find out more at www.spreadfirefox.com/5years/en-US/.

The next version of Firefox, 3.6, should be released before the end of the year. Mozilla’s road map puts Firefox 4 – complete with a new interface and multi-touch gesture support – down for an airing in autumn 2010.

Dashboard users can review and delete recent Google searches, see recently opened and shared documents, iGoogle gadgets, Google Reader, Profile, Tasks and survey their interactions with other Google-powered sites such as YouTube.