Cool Tech Reviews

It isn’t quite out yet, but Matthew D. Sarrel at PC Magazine reviews Release Candidate 3 of Firefox:

BOTTOM LINE:
The best browser gets even better with improved tab controls, reworked user preferences, a more robust extensions system, faster page loading and better security.

He gives it 4.5 out of 5 The detailed review is here and while there are some UI changes, the big changes are mostly behind the scenes. The only downside I see:

Firefox 1.5 includes an entirely new extension system, which unfortunately means that many older extensions won’t work (Adblock and Forecast Fox worked properly on our test machine). Developers are updating their extensions as you read this, so the updated extensions could be in pretty good shape by the time 1.5 launches. Mozilla has even revamped the extensions-installation system. Although the process worked well in most instances, the installation, upgrade, and uninstall subsystems were prone to error. When it was installing a new version of an extension, it occasionally left files from older versions behind, which could lead to incompatibilities and browser instability.

I guess it’s all to the good, but it still means taking an extension inventory and checking the compatibility or availabilty of new versions before you upgrade.

But don’t tell the boss! Reuters:

U.S. online holiday sales are expected to hit nearly $20 billion this year and should take off on Monday, when consumers return to work and their fast Internet connections after the long Thanksgiving weekend.

“Cyber Monday,” the term coined for the Monday after Thanksgiving, comes on the heels of the busy “Black Friday” shopping day when many brick-and-mortar retailers begin turning a profit.

The good news for online shoppers this year, is that “Cyber Monday” is becoming the Web shopping equivalent to “Black Friday” when retailers launch major sales and discounts to drive traffic, analysts said.
…
“Most people who shop online do it at work, not at home,” despite rising rates of high-speed home Internet connections, said Jay McIntosh, Americas director of retail and consumer products at Ernst & Young. Work connections tend to be faster than those at home, he said.

The regular “deal” sites like GottaDeal.com and SlickDeals.net will undoubtedly be all over the Cyber Monday offers since online bargains are their usual venue.

Colin Barker at ZDNet UK:

The technology dream of storing terabytes of data on a single disk has taken a step closer to reality

Information storage media company Maxell has said it will launch its first holographic storage products in September 2006. The first drive will have a capacity of 300GB and a throughput of 160Mbps.

Holographic storage works by storing information using light-sensitive crystals. Because it uses the whole volume of the disk, not just the surface, it’s possible to store much more information than is possible on a DVD.
…
The technology also has an impressive lineage. Hitachi-owned Maxell is working with InPhase Technologies, a subsidiary of Lucent, which has led development of holographic media.

And that’s just the first step. The full press release claims capacities up to 1.6 TB (that’s terabytes) with “50+ year media archive life and random data access”. The planned form factor is apparently a 5.25 inch removable disk and while no prices are quoted, I would expect them to be rather high at first as is always the case with first generation products. I’m thinking continuous data protection and backup, but of course it’s a race with hard disk capacities and the end user’s ability to fill it.

Check ‘em out at SlickDeals.net and GottaDeal.com. Not all are technology items, but many are. The best part is that some of them are available online for people like me who will definitely not be standing outside stores in the early morning hours of Friday, waiting for the doors to open.

Laptop Logic has a nice roundup of laptop deals for Black Friday bargain shoppers. The amazing thing is how well you can do for under $400: the HP Pavilion ze2108wm ($378 at Wal-Mart) and the Toshiba Satellite L25-S1192 ($379 at Best Buy). Aside from only 256 MB of memory and the Toshiba’s weak battery, these are capable systems. However, as with more and more “big name” systems, the Toshiba only has a 90 day warranty which leads to this observation:

Despite being a great value at $379 (compared to normal prices), rest assured that Best Buy employees WILL assault you over the extended warranty. While this writer feels that Best Buy’s warranty is better than most retail extended warranties, doesn’t adding $150-$300 to the price tag of a sub-$400 laptop kind of defeat the purpose?

If the other shoppers don’t get you on Black Friday, the salesmen will. More details and bargains by following the link.

Dan Nystedt at PCWorld:

Apple’s popular iTunes online music store edged out three traditional music retailers during the July through September time frame to leap into the number seven spot of top U.S. music retailers–and it’s likely to displace more stores by the end of the year, according to the NPD Group, a market research company.

The iTunes Music Store beat out Tower Records, Sam Goody, and Borders in NPD’s third quarter ranking to crack the top ten for the first time ever, said the NPD Group in a Monday report. The steep climb of the online music service to seventh place from fourteenth during the same time last year reflects the speed at which users are turning to music online.

It’s certainly something for Steve Jobs to mention when the recording industry starts whining. Of course, they may still figure out a way to kill the golden goose.