Take your Android notifications from good to great with one of these apps.

Since its inception, one of the best features built into the Android experience is the manner in which notifications are handled. Yet, as great as the status bar is at displaying missed calls and new emails, app developers have come up with even more clever ways of delivering bite-size broadcasts.

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I've collected a smattering of Android applications designed to enhance notifications and updates, some of which you can highly customize. If you're interested in putting a new twist on those boring old text message notifications, these are ... [Read more]

Harvey Anderson, Mozilla's SVP of business and legal affairs

Mozilla has tangled with advertisers, for example making it harder for Web sites to use tracking files called cookies and supporting do-not-track effort to curtail online behavior tracking. But today, it announced an effort that could make advertisers happier.

The nonprofit organization announced an interface that Web sites could use to slurp up information about a user's interests. The idea is to let Web sites customize content and ads according to a user's behavior, but to keep the user in control over what gets shared rather than rely on today's online behavior tracking methods.

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The Lite Brite demo on the developer's preview for IE 11 on Windows 7.

Browser aficionados and haters alike will be overjoyed that Microsoft is keeping its promise to keep the new Internet Explorer up-to-date on Windows 7 as well as Windows 8.

The Internet Explorer 11 Developer's Preview for Windows 7, which debuted on Thursday, introduces the most of the new features and functionality of the Windows 8.1 default browser.

Roger Capriotti, Microsoft's marketing director for Internet Explorer, said that, like IE 10 for Windows 7, IE 11 won't have the modern interface, but it will have performance benefits.

"We're faster than the folks at Chrome or the folks at Firefox," he said. "We've got better CPU [processing times], better usage, and better load time overall."

In addition to usual pitch of improved overall performance, the specifics of the Windows 7 IE 11 Developer's Preview include updated standards support and overhauled developer tools.

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