Stuart Parmenter of Mozilla has posted today that the company will not be creating a version of Firefox for Windows Phone 7 because "Microsoft decided to close off development to native applications."

Development of FF for Windows Mobile 6.5 will also be shut down given the fact that Microsoft has said they are betting the future on Win 7, not 6.5.

"Because we don't know if or when Microsoft will release a native development kit, we are putting our Windows Mobile development on hold," reads the post.

Parmenter does hope that eventually they can start development back up, but says they will move their focuses elsewhere. "While I hope that we do see Microsoft provide us with a way to build Firefox for Windows Phone 7, we will continue to focus on the things that we can control: building a great consumer product on both Android and Maemo."

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Last night Slashdot received an anonymous tip claiming that Palm was actively considering dropping the arguably superior mobile operating system WebOS for Android. The tip says Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein will release an internal memo on the matter in the near future.

Says the tipster of the memo: "While Palm is incredibly proud of our engineers who spent timeless work and effort to bring us this advanced operating system, consumers simply have not caught on. To provide a better future for ourselves and our customers, the only logical choice is to transition our hardware and software to the Android platform."

The tipster also notes that the WebOS UI will be integrated into Android, similarly to the popular HTC Sense interface which runs on top of Android 1.5-2.1.

PreCentral, the site which is pretty on top of Palm rumors, accurate or not, says the tip is likely a completely falsification, and we at AfterDawn are inclined to agree. The engineering necessary to create a working WebOS UI to work with Android will take too much time that Palm does not have.

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Blockbuster has announced this morning that it has reached a deal with Warner Bros. to have new Warner releases available for rental day-and-day with release date, and a full 28 days before rivals Redbox and Netflix get them.

The financials of the deal were not released but it is clear that the deal is only for brick-and-mortar stores and online rental and not for Blockbuster's thousands of kiosks.

Blockbuster has almost $900 million in debt, and analysts have given an "ongoing concern" notification for the company, implying bankruptcy may be on the horizon.

The first movie available because of the deal is "The Blind Side," available today for rent.

"The studios appreciate that we are the only business that has the ability to offer cross channels," says CEO James Keyes, via BW. "That enables us to give consumers access to movies when they want it and where they want it."

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Opera has submitted their Opera Mini browser for the iPhone today, hoping Apple will approve of the very fast browser which was first unveiled at the Mobile World Congress.

Opera Mini uses Opera's servers to render and compress pages, thus increasing speed for the end user. Apple could still possibly reject the app given that is a "duplication of core iPhone functionality," (Safari Mobile), however it has recently approved WebKit-based browsers.

The video shows off the Opera Mini browser in action, mainly running on AT&T's slower 2G (EDGE) data network, and Mini runs extremely fast. The interface is interesting as well.

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Gizmodo has unveiled an internal Apple document that shows that the company will begin offering contract-free iPhone 3G and 3GS models soon, allowing would-be buyers to pay a premium to buy the handset without needing to sign up for an AT&T contract or even provide proof of a current AT&T contract.

However, the phone will still be "locked," meaning unless you unlock it yourself, you must use the smartphone on AT&T and not other GSM providers.

The only restrictions are you must provide a valid form of ID and you are only allowed to purchase one device per day.

The 8GB iPhone 3G will be available for $500, the 16GB 3GS for $600 and the 32GB 3GS for $700.

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Microsoft has begun shipping a standalone 250GB HDD for the Xbox 360, giving the drive a $130 USD price tag.

The drive will be available starting on March 28th.

The drive had only been available in Japan and in North America via limited edition bundles such as the Modern Warfare 2 or Final Fantasy bundles.

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According to McAfee senior product manager Mark Maxwell, the term "Bearshare" is the riskiest search engine term, with a full 46 percent of the resulting sites being "unsafe" and full of malware.

In fact, "digital music" is twice as risky to your computer's security and health as porn is, which is usually targeted as a main reason that users get infected by malware, viruses or spam. McAfee says that 9 percent of adult sites lead to infection, while 19 percent of digital music sites will infect your computer.

Because porn sites are so legally profitable, there is less incentive to add "unwanted ads" or malware, says the LATimes, whereas with digital music sites, it is a lot harder to make a profit. "The tier-one adult sites are doing phenomenally well as businesses, and because of that they very much have their house in order," says Maxwell.

Following closely behind "Bearshare" is the term "screensavers" which leads to a full 42 percent of resulting sites being unsafe.

Additionally, searching for celebrities via search engines leads to "hazardous results" as well, with some, such as Britney Spears resulting in more dangerous sites than others.

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Rabid Neurosis (RNS), the once popular music release group was taken down last year by authorities working on tips from the RIAA.

A few of the most prominent members were arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement.

This week, Matthew Chow of RNS has been found not guilty by a jury. Additionally, Adil Cassim of the group has been found not guilty as well.

"I am relieved by the jury's verdict and I am grateful to my attorney for his hard work," says Chow. Adds his lawyer: "We encountered some extremely complex factual and legal issues in this case. The jury was very attentive during the trial. Their verdict was just."

The three other RNS members that were charged had already plead guilty and gave testimony for the prosecution.

Chow and Cassim were facing up to five years in prison and a $250,000 USD fine.

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Nintendo has confirmed that they will be releasing a new handheld system in Japan in early 2011, with a full introduction coming at the E3 event in June.

The system is dubbed the 3DS and will "incorporate 3D technology" without the need for 3D-glasses. The system, as is standard with new Nintendo handhelds, will be backwards compatible with all DS and DSi software.

The DS and DSi have sold over 125 million units globally, and the company says the 3DS will be a successor to the DS, not just a minor revision.

Although there are little other details available about the system, we reported earlier this month on an obscure DSiWare game called Rittai Kakushi E Atta Koreda (3D Hidden Images: Found it!), which, by using the front facing camera, tracked the player's face and eyes and created a 3D effect, with the screen moving to create a sense of depth.

That video is here:

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