According to the June 1st stats from Net Applications, Internet Explorer continues to see their global browser market share fall, mainly at the hands of Google's Chrome.

IE, in all variations fell to 52.87 percent market share, with Internet Explorer 8 being the largest part of that share at 31.28 percent. Microsoft's latest, IE9, jumped to 4.19 percent despite not being available to Windows XP users.

Newly launched Firefox 4 already beat out Firefox 3.6, at 10.08 percent to 9.14 percent. Altogether, Firefox accounted for 21 percent share.

Google's Chrome moved to 11.86 percent share, with Chrome 11 leading the way.

Says Net Applications:

IE9 arrived in March, alongside updated versions from Mozilla and Google. Globally, across all operating systems, Firefox 4 has grabbed a 10% share, while Chrome 11 has 9.7% of the market.

Microsoft limited IE9's potential uptake by banning it from Windows XP - the decade-old OS that's still the most used OS globally - and focusing instead on Vista and Windows 7.

"When Microsoft decided not to support XP for Internet Explorer 9, it narrowed the front for the browser wars to Windows 7."

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This afternoon, Microsoft unveiled Windows 8, the upcoming operating system that should be a complete overhaul from Windows 7, released in 2009.

The goal of the OS, Microsoft says, is for users to have the same great experience whether they are on a tablet or on a desktop.

Microsoft showed off a new start screen that looks reminiscent of the tile-based UI of Windows Phone 7.

All programs can be viewed as tiles, and clickable with a mouse, or with the touch of a finger.

Windows 8 will also run two types of apps. The first are standard Windows apps while the others are HTML5/Javascript apps and should be optimized for tablets because they are "web-powered."

The OS will bring a touch interface, an app market, backwards compatibility, and an easier way for developers to share in revenue.

For those with lower-end systems, Microsoft says W8 will use less resources than even Windows 7.

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The Pentagon is set to publish a report on measures to tackle and respond to cyber warfare.

A cyber-attack last month targeting U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin has hastened the Pentagon's steps on the cyber-warfare plans. A report, due in a matter of weeks, is expected to deem cyber-attacks as an act of war, and to suggest whatever measures necessary to defend the country's infrastructure.

"A response to a cyber-incident or attack on the US would not necessarily be a cyber-response. All appropriate options would be on the table," Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan told reporters on Tuesday.

Areas of great concern include the already-strained power grid in the U.S., or systems that emergency response networks rely on. Attacks against systems particularly in urban areas could have devastating consequences for the civilian populations in the worst case.

"We reserve the right to use all necessary means - diplomatic, informational, military, and economic - as appropriate and consistent with applicable international law, in order to defend our nation, our allies, our partners and our interests," states a White House statement put out on May 16.

The United States is not alone in its feelings toward cyber-warfare either.

In 2007, the nation of Estonia came under a heavy denial of service attack in a dispute over the movement of a Soviet-era war monument. The attacks, believed to have come from Russia (though the Kremlin stresses there was no official involvement), targeted the government and financial services of the state, with harsh consequences for citizens in a country that relies heavily on digital transactions and other electronic services.

"Estonia supports, and has since the 2007 attacks advocated, the principle that cyber and physical attack would be treated on the same conceptual basis," Defence Minister Mart Laar told AFP. "If cyber-attacks create substantial economic damage, disruption of the functioning of society and human losses, they should be handled as a matter of national security and we should react accordingly."

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), of which Estonia is a member, will next week host a conference of IT defense experts.

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Anne Muir gets three years probation sentence for sharing music online.

She is the first person in Scotland to ever be convicted of illegally sharing music content on a P2P file sharing network. Muir admitted to distributing £54,000 worth of copyrighted music files over an unnamed file sharing network.

Her case began with complaints from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) as part of an investigation into heavy sharers of music. A formal complaint was made to Strathclyde Police, and Muir's home was searched.

Computer equipment was seized from the 58 year old's residence, and investigators found 7,493 digital music files and 24,243 karaoke files. The content has an estimated street value of £54,792.

Her lawyer said that Muir did not financially benefit from her illegal activities, and called the court's attention to Muir's ongoing state of depression, for which she is receiving psychiatric help.

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Mac users feel the pain of Windows users caught in the middle of a cat and mouse game with malware authors.

It only took a few hours after Apple released an update to protect Mac users against recent MacDefender scareware attacks for a new variant to show up that is immune to the current targeted protection being offered by Apple.

A sophisticated social engineering attack that targets Google search results and Facebook has led to thousands of Mac users installing scareware products under the MacDefender umbrella. The scareware, like its Windows lookalikes, prompts users with a phony list of detected threats on the machine, and tries to scam credit card and other information from the user.

Apple had promised a fix for Mac users, and delivered one on Tuesday. The OS X update detects MacDefender variants and removes them, as well as detecting them before they can be installed by the user.

However, it is being reported that within eight hours of the update going live, a new variant was already doing the rounds that is "specifically formulated" to get around the security update.

Since Macs will now automatically look for an updated list of known threats every 24 hours, Apple has the ability to respond quickly to new variants. Some speculate that this is a taste of what is to come for Apple in the near future.

On Windows, scareware / malware threats evolved over time to anticipate moves to fight them by Microsoft and dozens of security firms that offer products to fight infection. It is common for malware to utilize self-protection mechanisms, such as blocking Windows updates in any of dozens of ways, and blocking communications with anti-malware servers to stop periodic legitimate A/V updates or access to A/V software.

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Review of previous studies and evidence prompts group to call for further research.

The group of 31 scientists working under the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said that a review of all the available scientific evidence and data from previous studies led it to a conclusion that use of mobile phones is "possibly carcinogenic."

Specifically, the group formally classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as Group 2B carcinogenic agents. The decision to do so came from a suggestion from previous research that mobile phone use increased the risk of a glioma, a particularly deadly form of brain cancer.

It is important to note that other agents listed under Group 2B include pickled vegetables and coffee, but also have unnerving agents such as lead, which shows the broad scope of "potential risk" that mobile phone use now fits in to.

Industry groups were quick to play-down the classification, pointing out that the IARC group did not do any new research in its findings. "This IARC classification does not mean that cell phones cause cancer," said John Walls, VP of public affairs, CTIA.

He also pointed out that other health organizations around the world had come to different conclusions, with the FDA in the United States finding that the weight of evidence suggests no link between mobile phone usage and brain tumors.

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A privacy group that complained about being left out of Google's Buzz settlement gets a share.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) had complained about being left out of a proposed settlement in a privacy dispute involving Google services. EPIC had complained to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last year about the Buzz social network, saying it threatened the privacy of GMail users.

Google has since settled that case with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and moved to settle a separate proposed class action lawsuit brought to it by a GMail user. The proposed settlement would include $6 million for groups that advocate digital and privacy rights for consumers.

The list of groups did not include EPIC, which pointed out that the majority of funds would be given to groups that "receive support from Google for lobbying, consulting, or similar services." Google dismissed the argument, but a U.S. District Judge James Ware found that there was no reason to leave out EPIC and awarded the firm $500,000.

"EPIC has demonstrated that it is a well-established and respected organization within the field of Internet privacy," Ware wrote. EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg said that the group appreciated the court's recognition of its important work.

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Chinese firm will buyout German rival to increase presence in Europe.

Lenovo has agreed to buy German PC and notebook maker Medion in a deal worth about $900 million. The deal will double its market share in Germany to 14 percent. Germany has the largest economy in Europe, but it is a slow-growing market which has prompted some analysts to question the decision.

"Lenovo probably wants to add to its presence in mature markets," said Vincent Chen, an analyst with Yuanta Securities.

"The question is why Germany, because that's a very slow growth market and it raises questions on how much benefit this will bring to them."

Medion offers low-priced computer and electronics devices in Europe, and its affiliated with German discount retailer Aldi has given its name a boost in the European market.

At the same time as Lenovo was spilling the details on the Medion deal, Acer announced it would write down excessive inventory and cover potential losses in Europe with a $150 million charge. It will also layoff 300 employees in Europe.

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Some Hulu users will be able to watch popular films from Miramax' library.

Internet video streaming company Hulu has signed a multi-year agreement with film studio Miramax, which will see some of its subscribers gaining access to films from the studio. Hulu Plus subscribers will have access to titles such as Pulp Fiction and Good Will Hunting.

"Making our films available via premium digital distribution channels is extremely important to Miramax," said Mike Lang, CEO of Miramax.

Miramax recently stuck a similar deal with Netflix. Hulu is owned by Comact, News Corp. and Walt Disney Co., offering streaming videos of movies and TV shows.

No financial details of the deal with Hulu were disclosed.

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Nokia has moved to dismiss rumors being reported early on Wednesday.

The Finnish mobile phone giant has described rumors suggesting that Microsoft would buy its phone business as "100 percent baseless." The news being reported said the Windows-maker would acquire the business in a deal worth around $19 billion.

Earlier this year, Nokia agreed to start using Microsoft software in its upcoming handsets, as opposed to its own Symbian operating systems. Also, Nokia's recently appointed chief executive, Stephen Elop, is a former Microsoft executive.

These facts made it easy for such a rumor to spread online, and even pushed shares in Nokia Oyj up on Wednesday. "These rumors are 100 percent baseless," a Nokia spokesman told Reuters.

Nokia's shares have taken a hit during the past couple of days after the company failed to deliver on recovery targets it had previously set.

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HP has now added more batteries to its recall list, with each being a potential safety hazard according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

So far, HP has recalled 162,600 lithium ion batteries from HP and Compaq notebooks sold between July 2007 and July 2008.

The CPSC says the batteries in those 31 models of laptops can possibly "overheat and rupture, posing fire and burn hazards."

Overall, there have been 40 incidents of overheating/rupturing since May 2010, with 7 customers being burnt. There were 36 counts of property damage, as well.

HP notebook owners are encouraged to check this website to see if your model is part of the recall. HP replaces the batteries for free.

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The latest rumors claim that Microsoft will drop the price of the Xbox 360 next week at the E3 event.

A sponsored ad from Target on the official E3 site shows an Xbox 360 250 GB Kinect bundle for $299.99, $100 lower than current retail price.

For now, however, if you click-through the ad you get led to a product page with the full $399.99 price so it could possibly be an error.

If the price drop does occur, it is reasonable to assume the rest of the line will see similar cuts, with many expecting the low-end 4GB Xbox 360 to hit $149.99.

Microsoft is also expected to launch an enhanced version of the Kinect motion control system.

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Last week we reported that Sony CFO Masaru Kato implied the PlayStation 4 was already in development after saying increased R&D costs in Sony's books were largely due to next generation console development.

Today, the CFO has cleared up the statement, saying it was misconstrued.

"As for home consoles, the PS3 still has a product life," said Kato originally. "But this is a platform business, so for future platforms, though I can't say what we are going to release when, our development work is under way."

Those costs were mainly because of the PS Vita (NGP/PSP 2) he confirmed today, adding:

This is a good opportunity to clarify this. Some people misread what I said.

Any time we launch a product, from that day we already start thinking about the next one. This is just a general statement.

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The massive blockbuster that is Rovio's Angry Birds franchise is now headed to your TV.

Roku, the company behind many popular streaming set-top boxes has confirmed that the game will be part of a wider launch of casual games for the platform.

In July, Roku will make Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio available to set-top box owners.

Additionally, Roku will start an Angry Birds "channel" which features animated shorts and sell merchandise via the Roku Channel Store.

Roku CEO Anthony Wood also added that more announcements on casual games for the boxes were upcoming in the next weeks.

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This is complete rumor, but the story is picking up steam around the Web.

Eldar Murtazin has Tweeted today that Microsoft is set to purchase Nokia's mobile phone business for $19 billion cash.

Murtazin said two weeks ago that the software giant was in talks with Nokia about purchasing the unit, but a Nokia spokesperson shot down the report saying "Eldar's rumors are getting obviously less accurate with every passing moment."

Reads the latest Tweet:

One small software company decided last week that they could spent 19 bln USD to buy a part of small phone vendor. Thats it.

Earlier this year, the two companies struck a deal to place Windows Phone 7 on all new Nokia smartphones. Unfortunately for investors, Nokia's stock has seen some pretty big issues of late.

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