SAN FRANCISCO – Mozilla may still be weeks away from automatically upgrading users of its aging Firefox 3.5 browser, but even without the benefit of those additional users its latest browser version continues to blast past Microsoft’s competing Internet Explorer 9 in usage.
In fact, early this month Firefox 4′s usage began to show a sharp increase while IE9 continued on a much more gradual climb, Mozilla’s Asa Dotzler pointed out on Sunday.

“Since activating the Firefox Update system and alerting Firefox 3.5 and 3.6 users to the availability of Firefox 4, the line has really picked up some speed,” Dotzler wrote in a blog post with an accompanying graph.
“Internet Explorer 9′s trajectory looks very similar to what we saw with IE8 and IE7 before it,” he added. “Microsoft pushes new versions at an excruciatingly slow pace.”

12 Million More Users

According to the StatCounter data Dotzler based his analysis on, Firefox 4 accounted for close to 16 percent of the browser market on Monday, he said, while IE9 was approaching 5 percent. “IE9′s steady progress should put it around 10 percent in a couple of months,” he predicted.

Mozilla recently announced that in June it will begin automatically upgrading users of its Firefox 3.5 browser to a newer version–preferably the latest one, but at the very least Firefox 3.6 instead. The move–which will be the first time it has undertaken such a step–could potentially bring an additional 12 million users into the Firefox 4 fold.

Several weeks ago Mozilla released the last security patch for Firefox 3.5 as the release approaches its end of life. The software made its debut back in 2009.
100 Million Downloads

It will be interesting to see reactions to Mozilla’s new automatic upgrade plan, not to mention the overall effect on Firefox 4 usage.

In the meantime, there seems to be no end of good news about the winning open source browser, including the new IonMonkey just-in-time (JIT) compiler as well as speed improvements for those using Firefox on Linux. Firefox 4 also recently announced that it had surpassed 100 million downloads in its first month.
Will Firefox 4 win this round of the browser wars? Only time will tell. As of today, though, things are looking pretty good.

SAN FRANCISCO – After hackers knocked its PlayStation Network offline for nearly a month, Sony is now trying to make amends by giving customers free video games.

Sony made the announcement Monday, saying it was a way of thanking the millions of gamers on its network for their “patience, support and continued loyalty during the service outage.”

In the U.S. and Canada, PlayStation Network and Qriocity subscribers will soon be able to register for two new games each — either in PS3 or PSP format — at the PlayStation Store. The PlayStation Store isn’t online yet, but when it comes back, gamers will have 30 days to get their goods.

PS3 users can choose from the following titles: Dead Nation, inFAMOUS, LittleBigPlanet, Super Stardust HD and Wipeout HD + Fury. The PSP options are: LittleBigPlanet, ModNation Racers, Pursuit Force and Killzone: Liberation.

Depending on the package they’ve signed up for, subscribers will also get free movies, enhanced services packages and free virtual items.

Sony is offering similar plans to European and Latin American users, but the company has not said what it will do in Asia, where the network is still offline.

Last month, Sony disclosed that it had been hacked and warned its 77 million PlayStation Network users that personal information — e-mail addresses, for example — may have been compromised. Then in early May the company said that another network, the Sony Online Entertainment network, had also been broken into.This second incident affected close to 25 million users.

Sony spent the past weekend slowly bringing its gaming networks online.

Sony will give the Online Entertainment users 45 days’ free access to the service and a year’s worth of identity protection from Debix. The company has said that it will also offer PlayStation Network customers ID theft protection, but it hasn’t yet spelled out the details of that package.

STOCKHOLM – Nokia will abandon its Ovi mobile services brand as it prepares to sell smartphones based on Microsoft’s Windows Phone software, it said in a blog posting on Monday.

Starting with services on some new Nokia phones in July and August, Ovi services will be rebranded as Nokia services in a transition that the company expects will continue into next year, according to a blog post. For example, Ovi Maps will become Nokia Maps.

It is only a name-changing exercise and the services will continue as before. It’s likely that anybody buying a new Nokia smartphone or mobile phone later this year will see the new branding on services included on them. Users that already own a Nokia phone will see the new branding through future software updates, Nokia said.

The Ovi services brand was born in 2007, and has seen it fair share of problems. Nokia’s answer to Apple’s App Store, the Ovi store couldn’t cope with demand on opening day. However, insufficient demand seems to have put an end to another Ovi service in some countries: In January the company said it would stop offering Ovi Music Unlimited in 27 of the 33 countries where it operated.

The abandonment of Ovi is an admission that the stand-alone brand has failed, and will now act as a way to reduce consumer confusion as the partnership with Microsoft grows, CCS Insight wrote in a research note.

The reasons for this decision includes the fact that Nokia is a well-known brand the world over, Nokia’s chief marketing officer Jerri DeVard said in the blog post.

The change is the first “bold move” made by DeVard since she joined the company in January, according to CCS Insight. Nokia’s brand is not as a today as it was five years ago, but it still carries a lot of resonance in emerging markets, said Geoff Blaber, analyst at CCS Insight.

Since Nokia announced its intention to move to Windows Phone as its primary smartphone operating system, the company has made a number of changes, including outsourcing its Symbian software activities to Accenture and transferring 3,000 employees to the consulting company in the process.

However, the company hasn’t yet said when the first Nokia Windows smartphone will arrive. The company won’t divulge ship dates until closer to when the first phones arrive, but the pressure is on to deliver the devices this year, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said when the company announced its first quarter results.

FRAMINGHAM – Research in Motion said it has recalled an estimated 1,000 PlayBook tablets, indicating a small number had reached customers who were unable to properly load software at setup.

Engadget first reported that the group of faulty PlayBooks had been shipped to Staples Inc., but that report could not be confirmed. RIM’s recall statement appeared in several published reports but RIM could not be reached for further details.

RIM said most of the problem devices were still in warehouses or stores and hadn’t reached customers. RIM said it will replace the affected devices and told customers who had received one to contact RIM for assistance.

The 7-in. PlayBook has not been perceived as a device that would outsell the iPad or iPad 2 tablets, but is expected to draw greater interest from corporate IT and business users of BlackBerry smartphones .

Still, the PlayBook got lukewarm reviews when introduced April 19, partly because it doesn’t have natively installed email, requiring users to rely on Web email or a Bluetooth tether to a BlackBerry smartphone already connected to corporate email through the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. RIM was also generally criticized for taking so long to launch the tablet, first unveiling it last fall.

Late last month, RIM warned its first quarter results would be lower than expected and said smartphone launches would be later than expected. Its stock has dropped in recent weeks. First quarter results are due out June 16.

FRAMINGHAM – Here are the top iPhone 5 rumors for the week ending Friday, May 13: iPhone 5 “Lite,” reading the meaning of iPhone 5 parts, speaking of voice recognition, and Thunderbolt I/O on the iPhone as a sign of the Apocalypse. You heard it all here second.

(More iPhone 5 rumors from the week of May 6.)

A public service warning: iPhone 5 causing spam. iPhone 5 rumor-mongering now is being exploited by spammers. Facebook users who click on a link called “First Exposure: iPhone 5″ are being duped into spreading spam, reports CNET’s Elinor Mills, who has the details on the clickjacking exploit.

New “Lite” iPhone 5: The “most convincing clue yet” that Apple is readying a lower-cost, and perhaps smaller iPhone “Lite” model is guess what? The “old”  iPhone 3GS and original iPad are often outselling newer Android rivals.

That’s the odd idea put forward this week by FastCompany’s Kit Eaton. He cites a research note by Michael Walkley, a tech analyst with investment bank Canaccord Genuity, (originally picked up by AppleInsider).

Walkley wrote: “[O]ur April checks indicated continued strong demand for the iPhone 3GS at AT&T and iPad 1 at Verizon, as these older generation products with reduced prices often outsold new Android products. We believe this highlights Apple’s significant competitive advantage, and these older products help Apple offer a tiered pricing strategy at key channels.”

APPLE IPHONEYS: The iPhone 5 edition

Eaton says, reasonably, that Apple may just continue this practice with iPhone 4 when iPhone 5 is eventually released. But then he argues that the success of the lower-priced, older Apple hardware shows that Apple might try to appeal to the same set of cost-conscious buyers with a “Lite” iPhone 5 model — one that may have a smaller screen, smaller battery, less memory, more plastic.

“These are all tweaks that would significantly reduce the production price without necessarily degrading the user experience…,” Eaton claims. “A drop in price like this would let Apple sell an iPhone Lite at a knock-down price…, enabling it to scoop up more of the low-end market that it’s partially ceded to Android.”

But the high-quality engineering of Apple’s products *is* part of the “user experience.” And there doesn’t seem to be much other “evidence” that Apple has any interest in the low-end market, for any of its products.

iPhone 5 parts surface: In case you were wondering what the iPhone 5 speaker and home button might look like, Cult of Mac is all over it. “Is This The Speaker And Home Button Of The iPhone 5?” is the breathless headline.

The accompanying somewhat out of focus photo, showing something that looks vaguely like a black wrench with a couple of attached wires, is supposed to be the speaker. The original story is the Italian website, PhoneItalia, “which doesn’t have a terrible history in the past with such rumors,” Cult of Mac helpfully notes.

But why let a little thing like that get in the way of speculation? “What can be gleaned from these parts?” Cult of Mac asks. Quite a lot, apparently. Like, for instance, “rumors that the iPhone 5 will have a capacitive home button are junk.” Junk, because a new rumor “proves” an older rumor is false. Secondly, “sadly, it appears that the iPhone 5′s speaker will continue to be a mono affair.”

What can be learned from this? Quite a lot, apparently. Cult of Mac: “The iPhone 5 won’t be a big leap forward for either the home button or the audio. [See "junk" above] However, the shape of the [rumored] new dock connector and speaker do imply that there will be notable changes to the iPhone 5′s shape and internal make-up compared to the iPhone 4, probably necessitated by the rumored larger displays.”

Enhanced voice recognition: A number of sites, like Gadgets and Gizmos, are rumoring that iPhone 5 will have an “enhanced voice recognition service.” Apple can’t do anything that is just “new.” In this case, the Gadgets and Gizmos headline excitedly, and awkwardly, wonders “Will the iPhone 5 to Include Ground Breaking Voice Recognition Features?”

The source for this wonderment is a considerably more substantive news story by MG Siegler at Techcrunch. Siegler reports that Apple is currently running Nuance Communications’ voice recognition software at its huge new North Carolina data center, a facility widely believed to be the foundation for new as-yet-unannounced cloud services from Apple. Siegler says this arrangement will let Apple “process this voice information for iOS users faster,” keep that data away from third-party servers, and build on and improve voice processing services at will.

And, he says, it will make sense out of Apple’s acquisition last year of Siri, a company that developed a “virtual personal assistant” iPhone app, based on Nuance’s technology, which responds to spoken commands (“find activities for the kids in San Francisco”) with recommendations. In March, Siegler noted that Siri’s technology “is said to be a big part of” iOS 5, less as a discrete app and more as a broader platform for application developers to exploit. Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in early June is expected by many to be where Apple unveils iOS 5. Siegler says questions still to be answered include how much of this voice recognition/process technology will be available to non-Apple software developers at the outset.

Thunderbolt I/O port: SemiAccurate tech news site’s Charlie Demerjian announced that iPhone 5 will have a Thunderbolt I/O port.  He had previously claimed that he’d been shown an iPhone 5 prototype earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show, with a Displayport to output video. But now he thinks the Displayport will be Thunderbolt, the high-throughput I/O interface created by Intel and Apple.

Thunderbolt offers two-way channels with each delivering 10Gbps. Apple rolled it out on the new MacBook line in February and earlier this month on new iMacs.

That might sound good to you, but you’re not Charlie Demerjian. He is not impressed. “This may sound good, but it is nothing more than a vicious attempt at lock in and price extortion,” he writes.

“So, why would Apple use vastly more expensive parts that do exactly what USB3 does, cost more, is much harder to design in, limits supplier choices, and isn’t compatible with 99.9% of the devices out there?”

There’s only one possible answer. “Easy, to lock you in.” He forgot the “price extortion” part here.

“Capitalism and competition be damned, this is about profit margins, and that is exactly what Apple and Intel want,” Demerjian writes. “That is why you will get Thunderbolt, not USB3 or Mini-Displayport on the iPhone 5, and you will pay dearly for it.”

SAN FRANCISCO – Samsung will unveil a 10.1-inch tablet display next week with 2560-by-1600 resolution that draws 40 percent less power than older RGB stripe LCD screens. The new PenTile WQXGA display has double the resolution found in the forthcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and has more than five times as many total pixels as the iPad’s 1024-by-768 display.