Support for multitouch on Windows 7 computers and cross-platform improvements to how the browser handles JavaScript were the biggest changes brought by Mozilla to the third beta of Firefox 4, released Wednesday. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, Firefox 4 beta 3 doesn't make any changes to the interface but does make some important adjustments to how the browser handles JavaScript, an essential component of modern browsers.

The new beta adjusts how C++ represents JavaScript, which will allow Firefox to run numeric-heavy code more efficiently. In a blog post announcing the new version, Firefox said the end result of this change will be more streamlined graphics in Web apps. Firefox developer Rob Sayre offers more specifics on how this change affects the development of the JaegerMonkey JavaScript engine that's meant to debut in Firefox 4.

The beta also introduces native multitouch compatibility on Windows 7. This means that developers will be able to take advantage of the new multitouch API, which is expected to eventually filter down to users through add-ons.

On a note related to the ongoing development of the beta, some readers might have noticed that all of the options are missing from the Help sub-menu under the unified Firefox menu in the upper left corner of the interface. Mozilla spokeswoman Shannon Prior said that the developers are working on a fix for the bug, which includes the menu missing the "check for updates" option, the "About:" sub-menu that provides quick links to Firefox configuration menus such as "about:addons" and "about:config", and the "about:firefox" menu that provides current version data.

You can access it by forcing the menubar to appear under the Customize option. Users who only want to see their current version information can also type "about:" without the quotes to check which version of Firefox is currently being used.

We had the pleasure of sitting down in CNET's San Francisco offices on Wednesday with Finnish developers Mikael Hed and Peter Vesterbacka from Rovio, makers of hit iPhone and iPad game Angry Birds (download for iPhone/iPad).

Angry Birds has become the most successful paid iPhone app to date, selling more than 5 million copies of the 99-cent game in the past six months alone. Did it get there overnight? No, but in the world of App Store development, its ascension was brisk.

So how did it all start? Toward the end of last year, the Rovio developers said they decided they wanted to try to make what Vesterbacka called "the perfect iPhone game." They wanted to make the best use of the touch screen, create characters that people of all ages could identify with, and make a game that would have lasting value, all while making it clear to customers that they would get the most value for their money.

Once Angry Birds was ready for prime time, they looked at the iTunes App Store to see how they could get their pride and joy in front of the most users. The Rovio guys quickly figured out that popular iPhone game publisher Chillingo seemed to get highlighted by Apple the most, so they joined forces with the publishing behemoth in the hopes they would receive more exposure.

Nobody would have guessed what happened next. Over the course of only a few months, Angry Birds had shot to the top of the Finnish charts of the iTunes App Store. As Hed explained, this was mostly because of some viral marketing among Rovio's staff, simply showing friends and family their creation. Soon after, Angry Birds reached number one in the U.K. App Store, followed shortly thereafter by a top spot in the U.S.

According to Rovio, its Angry Birds app is being downloaded 60,000 downloads per day. But perhaps more astonishing is that 77 percent of Angry Birds owners update the game as soon as an update becomes available--which is a strong indication that people continue to play. The game has been a smashing success on the iPad as well, even though early iterations on the larger tablet device didn't keep pace with the added levels and bird choices in the iPhone versions. According to Rovio, this early neglect of the iPad user base made them decide to shift its focus and make the iPad the front-runner for changes and updates. Though the developers couldn't be specific, they assured us that more changes are on the way for Angry Birds in the near future. But, perhaps more interesting is their take on the vision of Angry Birds as a franchise.

Angry Birds players will probably agree that part of the allure of this physics-based touch screen demolition game is the unique and simple story line: Evil Green pigs have stolen the bird's eggs and now the birds are hell bent on getting them back. Those little muttering birds in all their incarnations are inescapably charming and even the evil green pigs are cute, if somewhat infuriating the longer a level takes to complete.

According to Rovio, rather than taking the easy route of coming out with numbered sequels, they want to expand on the Angry Birds world and continue to develop the Angry Birds characters in other games, start merchandising the characters with T-shirts, stuffed animals, and the like, and truly make Angry Birds a franchise. While they assured us that Angry Birds would continue to receive updates with new birds and new levels in the future, its larger vision is to model the Angry Birds franchise after other hit titles with lasting presence in the gaming world. At 60,000 downloads per day, we don't think it is so far-fetched they compare itself to hit game franchises such as Tetris and Nintendo's Mario.

As a company, Rovio wants to try to model its business after other success stories like Apple and Pixar. The developers said their philosophy is to continue to make superb products that stand out from the rest. Whether they achieve the status of those storied companies remains to be seen, but their lofty goals should let users know Rovio isn't going anywhere--Angry Birds in its current incarnation is only the beginning.

Right now, Angry Birds continues to rule the iTunes App Store, and it has become a household name for iPhone and iPad players of all ages. Starting next week, Angry Birds will be available on Palm and soon will come to Android devices as well. Though they are in the early stages, Vesterbacka says the company is envisioning bringing the title to other platforms, to give more people a shot at bringing down the evil green pigs.

While we wonder how long Rovio can sustain the popularity of Angry Birds, there is little doubt that it is currently one of the best games available for the iPhone and iPad. With Rovio's vision of the franchise, Apple's iTunes App Store and the iOS platform at large may just be the first step.

CNET's Josh Lowensohn contributed to this report.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

Laying fallow since the June debut of Chrome 6 in the developer's build, the beta build of Chrome received a major update on Wednesday when Google revised the beta up to version 6. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, Google Chrome beta 6.0.472.33 introduces to the beta build users many features that have been available to the developer's build users including changes to the interface, synchronization improvements, and a faster version of Google's V8 JavaScript engine.

Users familiar with Google Chrome dev (Windows | Mac | Linux) will find the beta lacking mostly minor and under-the--hood changes from the developer's build, although users can expect that to change as new features migrate from the bleeding-edge Chrome Canary build into the developer's version. However, the built-in PDF reader plug-in that currently ships in the developer's build is not present in the beta.

The new beta does include the form autofill feature, and autofill synchronization. Google said in a blog post announcing the beta that it will not insert the form data without user confirmation. This includes credit card data, which will explicitly prompt users to fill in that data in addition to the regular autofill prompt. Extensions in the beta are now synchronized, too, along with bookmarks and user settings. Interface changes include detaching the stop-refresh button from the location bar and giving it its own button on the left side of the interface, and merging the options menu to create more space for extension icons on the right side.

In the same blog post, Google touts the update to the V8 JavaScript engine in the new beta as being 15 percent faster than the stable build on its own V8 and SunSpider benchmarks, and 64 percent faster on Mozilla's Dromaeo DOM core benchmark.

An update earlier Wednesday to Chrome stable (Windows | Mac | Linux) upgraded the version of the built-in Flash Player plug-in that comes with that browser.

Freemake Video Converter promises to be to Windows users what Handbrake is to Mac users. This free app is built using Microsoft's .NET Framework 4, which is a programming model that allows developers to provide software with interfaces that are easy to use and visually appealing. Certainly, both are true when it comes to Freemake, which offers a Maclike window with rounded edges and large, explicit function buttons.

Downloading and installing Freemake Video Converter is a painless process, and the app takes up a modest amount of space (30MB) on your hard drive. As noted, the main window is very straightforward. Lining the top are media buttons for video, audio, DVD, and photo, each with a plus symbol adjacent to indicate that's how one can add the various file types. Once files are added, another set of soft keys along the bottom of the window lets you easily select the format you want to convert to.

Freemake Video Converter can transcode a huge array of video file types, including AVI, MOV, M4V, MP4, and FLV, and it can convert from virtually any audio file type into MP3. It also throws in photo support as an added bonus (not necessary, in our opinion, but still nice). It also works for backing up DVDs into a variety of video formats, and the program includes some handy helpers for converting video directly into a file type that's compatible with a particular device such as an iPhone 4, a Sony PSP, or a Zune. Freemake also offers companion freeware--Video Downloader--that lets you download content directly from sites such as Veoh and YouTube and covert in the process.

In our tests, we focused mainly on the video aspect of Freemake, since that's its main purpose. The software converted a variety of file types flawlessly to MP4 for our iPod Touch. The process was fairly slow--three videos totaling 17 minutes took more than 20 minutes to convert. Ripping from DVD presented some problems; the program crashed once and was generally painfully slow. But it did get the job done--for free--so we're willing to forgive some shortcomings. To improve performance and avoid impatience, we recommend doing your conversion jobs overnight.

Download Freemake Video Converter.

Adobe's beta version of Flash 10.1 player let you test out hardware accelerated video decoding on your Mac. Despite a few bugs, the beta version provided a notable decrease in CPU use when watching Flash videos. With its latest security update, Adobe adds hardware accelerated video decoding to the release version of Flash 10.1 player.

While Adobe usually reserves major feature additions for a full version update, the company must have felt it was too good of a feature to keep from users. Despite Flash now supporting hardware accelerated video decoding, it only works on recent Macs that have certain graphics chips, such as the GeForce 330M, GeForce 320M, and GeForce 9400M that Apple uses in several recent iMac, Mac Mini, MacBook, and MacBook Pro models.

You can download the update, version 10.1.82.76, from CNET Downloads.

Keep in mind that while this update has new and exciting features, it may be wise to wait before installing it so that others can test it out first. If you do decide you want to install it, be sure to back up your current version of Flash so you can revert to it if necessary.

Before you install the latest version, be sure to first run the uninstall app Adobe provides to remove current versions of Flash (instructions and uninstaller app), and then shut down all Web browsers. While you should not need to install the update in Safe Mode, be sure you close any application that use Internet plug-ins-- such as e-mail clients and Web browsers.

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Questions? Comments? Have a fix? Post them below or e-mail us!
Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums.

Originally posted at MacFixIt

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