Fulfilling a pledge to hasten the pace of Chrome releases, Google has issued its first beta edition of Chrome 7, but the big new changes in the browser come with a new developer-oriented release.

The new beta, Chrome 7.0.517.24, matches that of Tuesday's developer-channel release. That doesn't include too much directly visible to users--the about:labs feature for experimental options is one item--but it paves the way for major changes.

For a preview of those coming attractions, browser users should check the new developer version that's been cooking for weeks, version 7.0.536.2. The new features include the activation by default of the WebGL 3D graphics technology, an option for built-in Google Instant search results, and some hardware acceleration for some CSS transformations, a way of handling dynamic changes using the Cascading Style Sheets formatting standard.

"A lot of the work that's being done in 7.0 is largely not user facing and in some cases is a legitimate work in progress," said Chrome team member Anthony Laforge in a response to comments criticizing the version 7 release as insufficiently novel. "With our new release cycle and about:labs, I'd suggest you stay tuned, things are going to start moving quite fast."

The first feature enabled through about:labs is a new ability to show all tabs through an Expose-like feature on Mac OS X and to show tabs vertically on the left side of the browser on Windows. Those who wanted a three-finger downward swipe on a Mac trackpad to jump to the bottom of a Web page, as Firefox does, will be disappointed to find that gesture activates the tab Expose view.

Also through about:labs, Windows gets an upgrade to the omnibox, the dual-purpose address and search bar, so it shows the search-as-you-type behavior of Google Instant. It's awkward at this stage--the omnibox drop-down covers the top search results--but doubtless it'll improve.

A lot more hardware acceleration is on the way, but don't necessarily expect it to arrive for Chrome 7. Mozilla and Microsoft, the top two browser makers, have been racing to build hardware acceleration into their browsers as well.

The about:labs mechanism, which parallels Firefox's about:config option as an easier way to change under-the-hood browser settings, will be getting more exercise in the future. One item coming to about:labs is 2D Graphics acceleration, for example. For now, about:labs changes require a browser restart.

The last time the beta version passed a major milestone was August 11 with Chrome 6. Google is aiming to release new versions every six weeks, roughly double the earlier pace.

Originally posted at Deep Tech

Earlier this week, free and cross-platform bookmark sync tool Xmarks announced it would be closing up shop come January of next year, but there may be some life left in it yet.

This morning, on the Xmarks company blog, CEO James Joaquin said that the company is "revisiting the idea of Xmarks as a premium service"--something it has never offered, and one of the factors that led to the company failing to turn a profit.

To gauge interest in that idea, Joaquin and the other Xmarks founders have set up a page on Pledgebank where they're hopping to get 100,000 people to pledge to paying $10-$20 a year for a paid, premium service. "This is not a scientific experiment to predict what percent of our base will pay, but it's a data point that will definitely help," Joaquin wrote. At the time of this post, there are 2,122 users signed up, with another 97,878 slots left to be filled.

While there was never a paid version of the service, Xmarks was one of the initial add-on makers involved in the contributions program Mozilla launched in July of last year. Even so, it did not yield the results the company was expecting. "Participation was abysmal," Joaquin said. According to the company, 0.001 percent of Xmarks users actually ended up paying the $7 donation fee--echoing similar numbers to those shared with CNET by Mozilla developers shortly after the program was launched.

In order to keep the service running, Joaquin says the company needs $2 million a year. This amount, he said, goes toward hosting and keeping a full-time staff of engineers on-board for maintaining the software as browser makers roll out updates.

Besides contributions, Joaquin mentioned that Xmarks has been contacted by several companies that wanted to acquire the service and keep offering it. "No guarantees, but we've been pleasantly surprised by the volume of interest," he said.

Originally posted at Web Crawler

At the risk of affecting productivity planet-wide, I bring you this news: Clickgamer Technologies just rolled out a "big fat update" to Angry Birds--the first one in months.

Version 1.4.2 of the App Store's top-selling app includes 15 new levels, support for the iPhone 4's Retina display, and integration with Apple's new Game Center.

The updated Angry Birds also sports an "awesome new golden egg sound board," optimized memory usage, and language support for French, Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese.

Having finished all the game's levels a couple months ago, I must admit I haven't touched it in a while. (I'm not one to go back and replay levels just to see if I can get more stars.) But with 15 new ones to tackle, well, I don't plan on getting much work done this afternoon.

The added levels appear in Chapter 4, "The Big Setup," and represent the 10th batch of levels in the game overall. At the very least, there's one more batch to come. (And the title of Chapter 4 suggests at least one more chapter.)

Angry Birds continues to sell for 99 cents. And it continues to be one of my all-time favorite iPhone games. The update is available now.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

Microsoft today is releasing the final version of its new set of Windows Live apps, including updates to its photo- and video-editing programs, as well as synching and blogging tools.

The Windows Live Essentials 2011 apps have been in testing since June and are available for download from Microsoft's site. The collection includes Windows Live Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Messenger, and Mail, along with Windows Live Mesh, Family Safety, and Writer.

Microsoft also plans to announce that Dell will be the first global PC maker to start including the programs preloaded on its PCs.

Of note, the updated programs will work on Windows Vista or Windows 7, but not on Windows XP. Microsoft says the programs will be available in 48 languages over the next few hours.

Without a new release of Windows, Microsoft is counting on the updated versions of Windows Live to help boost holiday PC sales. Microsoft announced on Monday that it was getting rid of its Windows Live Spaces blogging site and will instead transfer users to WordPress.com. WordPress will also be the default blog option within the Windows Live Writer blogging program that is part of the new app suite.

Stephen Sinofsky, president of the Windows unit, said in an interview earlier this month that Microsoft plans to tout the hardware acceleration of its Windows Live Essentials as an example of how Windows adds power on top of a generic Web experience.

"There [are] some really exciting and innovative things in it, and they also tap into the power of hardware," he said. "Movie Maker and Photo Gallery are all hardware-accelerated and do a really great job using accelerated video and accelerated graphics in general."

The photo program adds a number of features including face recognition and the ability to combine multiple group photos, choosing the best shot of each person to create a new, better family photo. Microsoft is also adding more options in Photo Gallery and Movie Maker for uploading to other services as part of a concerted effort to focus not just on its own Web services, but also more widely used services, such as Facebook.

Messenger, which got an updated beta last month, now allows users to chat with their Facebook friends--the first major IM program to do so, while Movie Maker can now upload to Flickr.

Windows Live Mesh, the synching program, combines elements of the prior Live Mesh preview and Windows Live Sync. Earlier this week, Microsoft posted a beta version of Windows Live Sync for the Mac (Guess they didn't get the memo on going back to the Mesh name.)

Originally posted at Beyond Binary

Anyone who starts feeling creative enough to toy around with digital media would be well-advised to do a little research into the multitude of multimedia tools floating around the Interwebs. At some point, you'll no doubt stumble across something by Magix, an entertainment software maker that has put out a shocking array of audio, photo, and video editing programs, including the lovely and simple FunPix Maker and the GarageBand-like Music Maker.

Today, the company released its latest offering in the form of Magix Movie Edit Pro 17 Plus. In addition to providing all of the video-editing features from version 16, the update includes the ability to edit 3D video. This new functionality, which only very recently made its debut in Roxio Creator 2011, will certainly creep into more editing suites going forward, though its staying power remains to be seen.

Some of the more noteworthy carry-over features from the last version of Movie Edit Pro include a library of more than 1,500 special effects, cinematic transitions and templates; advanced audio dubbing via a Dolby Digital 5.1 mixer; HD camcorder support; Blu-ray disc authoring; free background music selections; and easy YouTube uploading. For version 17, Magix has improved performance and modernized the interface, as well as added the ability to import Photoshop layers directly as menu templates and export directly to Facebook.

For the next 24 hours, you can find Magix Movie Edit Pro 17 Plus exclusively on Download.com. Give the free 30-day trial a spin and decide if you want to shell out $89.99 for the long term.