“I’m happy to announce the landing of Undo Close Window. This adds a menu & keyboard shortcut for reopening your previously closed windows. By default we store 3 windows (though sometimes more due to special cases involving pop-up windows),” revealed Mozilla’s Paul A. O’Shannessy. Handling recently closed windows was a project that debuted initially in Firefox 2.0 via a few APIs, but which failed to materialize. Only in Firefox 3.5 will the feature be fully implemented.

Mozilla is of course permitting end users some flexibility and control when it comes down to the new feature. In this regard, users will be able to modify the value of browser.sessionstore.max_windows_undo in about:config, in order to increase the number of windows and tabs that are stored and available to be restored. One important aspect that the end users have to notice is the fact that Firefox will monitor the tabs and windows closed and will keep track of each separately. In this regard, closed tabs will restore as tabs, and closed windows can only be re-opened as windows.

“My primary reason is that windows and tabs serve a different purpose. Opening a new window vs a new tab are not the same menu item (or keyboard shortcuts), so why should reopening them be the same keystroke,” O’Shannessy added. “By putting them in the same menu and giving them the same keyboard shortcut, I would argue you’re actually increasing memory load and forcing the use of the menu. If I were to close a window, then close a tab in a different window, I can’t get the window I closed back with a single key command. I have to click the menu, and look. By keeping the two separate, there might be one extra place to look, but they are clearly labeled. There’s an extra keystroke to learn, but it correlates to open window in the same way that undo close tab correlates with new tab.”

Firefox 3.0.9 and Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 for Windows is available here.

Firefox 3.0.9 and Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 for Linux is available here.

Firefox 3.0.9 and Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 for Mac OS X is available here.

“An error in handling URLs with a chromehtml: protocol could allow an attacker to run scripts of his choosing on any page or enumerate files on the local disk under certain conditions,” Mark Larson, Google Chrome program manager, stated.
“If a user has Google Chrome installed, visiting an attacker-controlled web page in Internet Explorer could have caused Google Chrome to launch, open multiple tabs, and load scripts that run after navigating to a URL of the attacker’s choice. Such an attack only works if Chrome is not already running.”

Earlier this week, Google also ensured the evolution of the successor of Chrome 1.0, offering testers Google Chrome 2.0.172.8 through the Beta channel. Larson indicated that build 2.0.172.8 of the browser was designed to resolve a couple of problems, which he described as having a major impact.

“On some sites, text disappears or is never drawn. For example, on Google Calendar, the titles for all day events do not display,” Larson stated. “Google Chrome Beta does not launch after the update to 172.6. This affects users who installed Google Chrome through Google Pack, joined the Beta channel, and do not run as an administrator.”

The latest Google Chrome releases are available for download here.

Right on schedule, the folks at Canonical released the latest version of Ubuntu Linux this morning. Ubuntu 9.04 adds a number of new features including a revamped notification system, support for the Ext4 file system, and updated applications like Firefox 3 and OpenOffice.org 3.0.

Canonical also worked hard on system performance, and Ubuntu 9.04 should boot up faster and feature more efficient suspend and reume features. The operating system can also intelligentally switchbetween WiFi and 3G environments using a number of 3G cards.

Ubuntu 9.04 comes in several different flavors. There’s a server edition, a desktop edition, and a Netbook Remix edition that’s optimized for mini-laptops with Intel Atom processors and low resolution displays.

Kubuntu 9.04 is also available for users who prefer the KDE desktop environment to Gnome. Many of the basic packages in Ubuntu and Kubuntu are the same. Mythbuntu, which comes preloaded with the popular MythTV media center application, has also been updated to version 9.04.

Other versions including Xubuntu (based on the Xfce desktop environment) and Edubuntu (with a focus on educational software) should be updated to 9.04 soon.

“We’ve added 20 new third-party content partners that you can integrate with Windows Live, bringing the total number of third-party content partners to more than 30,” Hall added. “According to the latest data from comScore, there are more than 600 million active users on the various blogging sites, social networks and photo sharing sites that Windows Live has partnered with, and many of these people also make up the 500 million users on Windows Live. This update will make it easier for Windows Live customers to connect with their activities on these other sites and share them with friends in their Windows Live network.”
In addition, Microsoft has also labored to make it easier for end users to control their contact data. The software giant has bridged Windows Live with MySpace, hi5 and Tagged, streamlining the process associated with inviting contacts to and from these online properties. What the Redmond company is attempting to do, is allow users to keep a single set of contacts over all websites, not just Windows Live, or their preferred social network.

“People love the availability of all these online capabilities, but it’s reaching a tipping point where the bigger challenge is bringing them together in a manageable way,” Hall added. “What we’re doing with this update is using Windows Live to integrate the best of social networking and other communication networks in a way that doesn’t require signing up for yet another social network. If you’re happy with a social network, that’s great. You should keep using it. Our goal is to make your online experience more valuable by connecting them together.”

“We strongly recommend that all Firefox users upgrade to this latest release. If you already have Firefox 3, you will receive an automated update notification within 24 to 48 hours. This update can also be applied manually by selecting “Check for Updates…” from the Help menu,” revealed Samuel Sidler, Quality Assurance engineer at Mozilla. “If you’re still using Firefox 2.0.0.x, this version is no longer supported and contains known security vulnerabilities. Please upgrade to Firefox 3.”

At the same time, Firefox 3.0.9 brings to the table patches for no less than nine critical vulnerabilities. Still, out of the whole nine, only one flaw was rated as Critical, in relation to crashes associated with memory corruption. Two out of the remaining vulnerabilities are considered as posing a High level of risk to end users, with another two just Moderate, and the rest being Low-level threats.

According to Mozilla, Firefox 3.5 Beta 4, the successor of Firefox 3.1 Beta 3, is scheduled to drop by the end of this week. On April 24, 2009, Mozilla has planned a test day for Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 and, in this regard, the next iteration of codename Shiretoko could be made available over the weekend. “Late in the week of April 20” is the only official deadline provided.

The initial announcement from Mozilla was that “we have 69 locales participating in beta 4. The number is huge, but it was the effort and patience from our localizers that was most impressive,” explained Seth Bindernagel, director of the Mozilla Localization team. “In the end 70 of our 71 localizations made it into the beta process, making this our most successful localized beta ever.”

According to Mozilla, at this point in time there are still seven blockers preventing the signing-off of Firefox 3.5 Beta 4. Testers can get the latest nightly build of Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 here.

Firefox 3.0.9 for Windows is available here.

Firefox 3.0.9 for Linux is available here.

Firefox 3.0.9 for Mac OS X is available here.

Download here

“The Internet Explorer 8 Language Packs install language specific resource files, allowing users to view the user interface (UI) of Internet Explorer 8 in a different supported language,” Microsoft informed. Currently users of the following languages will be able to take advantage of the IE8 RTW Language Packs: Arabic, Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Hong Kong), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal), Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish.

The individual language packs are available exclusively for Windows Vista RTM/SP1 and Windows Server 2008. This because users will need to deploy the language packs on top of IE8 RTW running on Vista and Windows Server 2008, but only if the operating system already has matching OS language pack installed. The software giant is offering no less than 50 downloads, as all Language Packs are offered for both the 32-bit and the 64-bit flavors of the Windows client and server platforms.

Internet Explorer 8 Language Packs for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 are available for download here :

“It includes everything that you need to get up and running to build your web solutions – from servers, tools, and technologies, including the most recently updated products. This means you don’t have to go to a different website and download to set up your dev machines or servers! With the WebPI, you can install the entire stack all from one website – www.microsoft.com/web and one installer. Additionally, the WebPI installs the community version of PHP 5.2.9-1 so you have easy integration with popular web applications. All you need is a Windows machine or hosted version of Windows,” revealed Mark Brown, Microsoft senior product manager.

Essentially, the Web Platform installer 2.0 makes sure that a variety of Microsoft, as well as third-party software, can be deployed from a single install designed to centralize otherwise disparate components. The WebPI brings to the table such solutions as .NET Framework, IIS and Extensions, SQL Server 2008 Express, Visual Web Developer Express, and even DotNetNuke and WordPress.

“What’s in the Web Platform Installer 2.0 Beta? IIS 5.1, 6.0 or 7.0 depending on your version of Windows; .NET Framework 3.5 SP1; Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition; IIS Extensions including: Media Services 3.0, Admin Pack, DB Manager, WebDav 7.5, FTP 7.5, FastCGI for PHP support, URL Rewriter, Application Routing, Web Deployment Tool; ASP.NET and features such as ASP.NET MVC; Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio and the Community Version of PHP v5.2.9-1,” Brown added.

Web Platform Installer 2.0 Beta is available for download here.

In a first phase, Microsoft will make IE8 RTW exclusively available for download. Moving forward, the Redmond company will offer the browser through Windows Update. The last phase in the IE8 delivery process involves serving the browser through Automatic Updates. In the final wave, all IE6 and IE7 users running an IE8-supported platform with AU enabled will have Internet Explorer 8 automatically downloaded and installed on their machines.

Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) RTW is available for download here :

(for 32-bit and 64-bit flavors of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008).

Opera Turbo is “a server-side optimization and compression technology that provides significant improvements in browsing speeds over limited-bandwidth connections by compressing network traffic. This does not only make you surf faster, but also lowers the cost of browsing when you are on a pay per usage plan,” revealed Roberto Mateu, a product manager at Opera Software.

Opera 10.0 Turbo Alpha Build 1355 is available for download here.