At about 8 a.m. PDT Friday, Firefox crossed the billion-download threshold–a notably large number for Mozilla’s open-source Web browser but one that doesn’t tell the whole story.
Firefox fans love their statistical milestones, and Mozilla enjoys fanning the flames by providing plenty of opportunities for self-congratulation. In 2008 was the Firefox Download Day, with more than 8 million downloads in 24 hours. Next came the Firefox 3.5 debut and its download tracker.
And now we have the billion-download figure on the Spread Firefox site. That includes updates people have fetched deliberately, not …

Apple Inc is responding to a security flaw in its iPhone devices that was uncovered by security experts on Thursday.
On Friday, Apple announced it would be releasing a patch for a security threat involving SMS messages on the smartphone.
On Thursday, experts Charlie Miller and Collin Mulliner at the Black Hat 2009 security conference revealed the threat that could allow hackers to hijack iPhones or knock the device from the network completely using a series of text messages.
An Apple spokesperson said the company would be releasing the new patch on iTunes …

PA popular laptop theft-recovery service that is embedded in notebooks made by HP, Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba, Gateway, Asus and Panasonic is actually a dangerous BIOS rootkit that can be hijacked and controlled by malicious hackers.
The service, known as Computrace LoJack for Laptops from Vancouver-based Absolute Software Corp., is subscribed to as a way to recover lost or stolen computers. Most people are unaware that the software exists in their computer, but it is pre-installed in about 60 percent of all new laptops.
The service contains design vulnerabilities and a lack of …

A Microsoft spokesperson said: “In the coming months, MSN [Microsoft’s news and entertainment portal] is planning a new music service in beta via its [MSN] Music channel in the UK. At this stage we won’t be confirming the details behind this but more information will be available soon and will be communicated in due course.”
Not many details are known about the free advertiser funded service at this stage. Peter Bale, executive producer of MSN, revealed the bare facts in an exclusive conversation with The Telegraph: “Music is an important area …

The Pyrenean ibex, a form of wild mountain goat, was officially declared extinct in 2000 when the last-known animal of its kind was found dead in northern Spain.
Shortly before its death, scientists preserved skin samples of the goat, a subspecies of the Spanish ibex that live in mountain ranges across the country, in liquid nitrogen.
Using DNA taken from these skin samples, the scientists were able to replace the genetic material in eggs from domestic goats, to clone a female Pyrenean ibex, or bucardo as they are known. It is the …