Just a few weeks after the first release of Firefox Aurora, Mozilla's "developer's" build of Firefox, the browser maker debuted a switch that lets users switch on the fly among Aurora, Beta, and Release versions of the browser.

Released in today's Aurora update (download for Windows | Mac | Linux), the benefit of the built-in channel changer is that users who want to see what's coming in future versions of Firefox can now do so without having to download a separate installer. Change the channel and restart the browser, and the version that opens ought to be the new channel.

Mozilla noted in a blog post that the switch points to a mirrored copy of Aurora as the Beta release. An actual beta release is expected in the coming weeks. Choosing the Release version of Firefox currently makes no changes to the browser, likely because Firefox 4.0.1 was released before the channel changer code was introduced.

Related stories
• Firefox Aurora debuts, Mozilla's 'dev' channel
• Opera Next makes it easier to get 'dev'
• Cutting-edge Chrome Canary arrives for Mac

To change Firefox channels, you must first be running the Aurora version. Go to the menu button, then Help, and choose About Aurora. The first sentence below the version information reads, "You are currently on the Aurora update channel. Change." Click Change, and the window shows the change channel drop-down. Choose the new channel you want to use, then select the Apply and Update button below.

When Firefox restarts, it ought to be running the new channel you've chosen. You can confirm this by going back to Help, then About. Mozilla has explained more about how the channel changer works in an article on its site. The channel changer does not affect your profile, so your tabs and other settings should all remain the same.

For the first time since it was announced, I officially want an iPad 2. Why? So I can snap photos with it and instantly turn them into cool, custom comic books with Comic Life ($7.99).

A camera-equipped iPad isn't a requirement, of course, just a convenience. The app, based on the award-winning Mac program of the same name, works with any photos on any iPad, regardless of how they got there. And it's really, really cool.

As you've probably guessed from the name, Comic Life enables you to create comic book pages using photos as your artwork. The app comes with various templates to get you started, but you can also design a layout from the ground up using the backgrounds and colors of your choice.

For any given page, you can add and arrange all the usual comic book elements: text, captions, shapes, and your choice of a dozen kinds of word balloon--each with a "tail" you can size and position to your liking.

Comic Life's design tools, most of them of the tap-to-select and drag-to-resize variety, are easy to learn and use. A double-tap brings up an object's context menu or enables you to enter text. And if you use multiple fingers, you can move multiple objects simultaneously.

When you're done with your comic, you can e-mail it, print it (assuming you have an AirPrint-compatible printer), share it on Facebook, or even copy it to other Comic Life-equipped iPads (via a new Tray feature I wasn't able to test).

The app could use a little fine-tuning. For example, after viewing some help pages (which load in Safari) and returning to the app, I found I could no longer select any of my objects. I exited and restarted the app, at which point it crashed. Only by manually shutting it down and restarting could I get back to editing. (This was a reproduceable glitch, by the way--it happened three times.)

Those minor bugs aside, Comic Life is loads of fun, especially for iPad 2 users who can generate new photos on the fly.

Originally posted at iPad Atlas

We first learned about the free JotNot Scanner for iPhone (and the 99-cent JotNot Scanner Pro) from a lawyer who uses the app daily to scan and send documents to colleagues. We immediately saw the app's potential for also sending along easy-to-read receipts, photos of whiteboards, and scans of other documents--whether for work or for daily life. Since the JotNot family of apps strips away photographic artifacts like shadows and other noise, it tends to focus on the text for clear comprehension. Other tools help keep scans looking straight and clean.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

Users of Internet Explorer can now get rid of those persistent "Flash cookies" thanks to the latest version of Adobe Flash and support from within Microsoft's IE.

Cookies are files created on your PC and used by sites to keep track of certain data, such as site settings and usernames. All the major Web browsers let you remove cookies. But one flavor of cookie, known as a Flash cookie, doesn't get thrown out when you delete your traditional Web cookies. That limitation has triggered privacy concerns.

But the latest release candidate of Adobe Flash 10.3 integrates with the "delete browsing history" feature in Internet Explorer 8 and 9. This means that when you delete your browsing history or your cookies specifically in IE, the Flash cookies will now go along for the ride.

As discussed in a Microsoft blog yesterday, the company has outlined a few steps to test this feature. You'll first need to install the Adobe Flash 10.3 Release Candidate and then go to the Flash Cookies demo page. From there, follow the instructions on creating a Flash cookie and then see if the cookie you entered disappears after you clear all cookies and refresh the page.

Beyond Internet Explorer, the latest developers release of Google Chrome also provides a way to remove Flash cookies, promising that this ability should pop up in the next full release of the browser. No word yet on whether Firefox will get the same courtesy, but it seems likely since Mozilla worked with Adobe and Google to implement this new feature.

Originally posted at News - Microsoft

The other day my awesome cousin Rachel and her equally awesome boyfriend Marc related an all-too-common tale of woe: several years' worth of home movies recorded on their hard-disk camcorder had suddenly and inexplicably disappeared. The sad part? They'd never taken the time to offload the videos from the camcorder to a PC.

If you've ever lost personal data--photos, documents, or whatever--you know how devastating this can be. (And take it from me: this is not the moment to say, "You should have made a backup!" You can't kick a person harder than he's kicking himself.)

Marc had priced local data-recovery services, and the numbers weren't exactly budget-friendly. Indeed, these kinds of services often start at around $200.

"Bring me the camcorder," I told them, "and I'll see what I can do." About an hour later, I'd managed to recover 123 deleted movies--not everything, but a lot of what was missing. Yay!

I'm no magician (but don't tell them that); I merely know the right tools for the right job. In this case, it was Piriform's free Recuva utility for Windows (download), which was created expressly to "recuva" (get it?) lost, deleted, and/or damaged files. I simply connected the camcorder to my PC (where it appeared as a removable hard drive), ran Recuva, and pointed it at the drive.

Interestingly, the program tagged roughly half the discovered files as "unrecoverable"--but then somehow recovered them anyway. It's the software equivalent of under-promising and over-delivering. (Your mileage will almost certainly vary.)

The key to success with this or any other data-recovery solution is to immediately stop using whatever media contains the missing data--memory card, hard drive, flash drive, or smartphone. That's because any additional write activity can more permanently erase or damage the files you're trying to recover.

Recuva is compatible with Windows XP and later. It's one of those freebie gems everyone should keep on hand in case of emergency. (There's also a portable version you can keep on your flash drive, phone, or whatever for anytime, anywhere use--no installation required.) Here's hoping you never need it! (But, for heaven's sake, make backups, people!)

Bonus deal: Game time! Direct2Drive has the puzzle-platform adventure Braid (Windows) for just $1.99. This "indie" game is breathtakingly beautiful (for the eyes and ears alike) and deceptively difficult. Consider your brain warned. But for $2, there's no better game deal on the planet.

Originally posted at The Cheapskate

Rdio, the subscription-based social music service, today announced the addition of its Rdio app to the Verizon V Cast Apps storefront. Available only to customers with select Android devices, the app is one of the first in Verizon's app store to offer subscriptions via direct carrier billing.

While the service remains the same, the new option to lump your monthly subscription fee in with your Verizon Wireless bill is sure to entice at least a handful of new subscribers. "Our new relationship with Verizon Wireless makes the Rdio social music experience available to millions of mobile subscribers and simple to pay for through direct carrier billing," said Drew Larner, CEO of Rdio. Considering the growing competition in the social music space, lowering the barrier of entry into their service is certainly a smooth move.

For those interested, just download Rdio from the V Cast Apps store to get a seven-day free trial. After that, you can elect to subscribe to Rdio Unlimited for $9.99 per month. And parents, you might want to pay extra careful attention to your music-loving children's wireless bills.