Windows XP SP3 available for download now

Windows XP Service pack 3 was Released to Manufacturing (RTM). At the event, Microsoft's Chris Keroack said “We are also in the final stages of preparing for release to the web (i.e. you!) on April 29th, via Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center”. “Online documentation for Windows XP SP3, such as Microsoft Knowledge Base articles and the Microsoft TechNet Windows XP TechCenter, will be updated then. For customers who use Windows XP at home, Windows XP SP3 Automatic Update distribution for users at home will begin in early summer.”

A link to the 316MB service pack was posted on BetaNews. Although Microsoft windows updater isn't yet hosting a download page for SP3.

The service pack includes roughly 1,100 hotfixes/patches and new features like Network Access Protection and Black Hole Router Detection.

Headphone buying guide

Getting best quality of sound from your MP3/PMP/Personal Audio device is absolutely depends upon the kind of earphones or headphones you use. With all the published parameters, types, & properties, it is very difficult to make sense out of it.

The following guide from CNET helps in understanding what that stuff actually means, rest it all depends on your personal likings and listening experience.

Here is the link for the Headphone buying guide.

New version of Internet Explorer for Mobiles

Microsoft announced a new version of Internet Explorer Mobile for Windows Mobile devices at CTIA trade show. Windows Mobile 6.1 was also released there.

Newer version of Internet Explorer Mobile will support Adobe's Flash, Microsoft's Silverlight and H.264 streaming, making it possible for Windows Mobile device users to surf rich multimedia content.

Firefox 3.0 beta 5 available for downloads

Firefox 3.0 beta 5 is now available for download here. Primarily a testing release for new features and some improvement in performance, speed and memory usage.

Firefox 3 Beta 5 includes more than 750 changes from the previous beta, improving stability and web compatibility, providing platform and user interface enhancements, and resulting in the fastest Firefox ever. Many of these improvements were based on community feedback from the previous beta.

According to mozilla site, new features and changes are:

• Improvements to the user interface based on user feedback, including changes to the look and feel on Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OS X and Linux.
• Changes and fixes for new features such as the location bar autocomplete, bookmark backup and restore, full page zoom, and others, based on feedback from our community.
• Fixes and improvements to platform features to improve security, web compatabilty and stability.
• Continued performance improvements: changes to our JavaScript engine as well as profile guided optimization continues to improve performance over previous releases as measured by the popular SunSpider test from Apple, and in the speed of web applications like Google Mail and Zoho Office.

Intel Atom Processors

Intel's Atom Processors will be launched in June this year. The new processors are based on 'Diamondville' platform. There will be three processors on this platform : Intel Atom, Intel Celeron 220 and Celeron 440. The latter two being Intel Core processors.

It is observed that the new processor will likely sell for upwards of $30 at the low-end and will cost Intel just $6 to $8, including production, packaging and shipping.

Initial 1.6GHz Atom 230 series processor may fit the UMPC or affordable computing bandwagon, a sub $300 category of computers.

Following Atom 230, Intel will be dishing out two more 1.87GHz processors, one of which will be a dual-core model, while the other will follow in the 230s footsteps with a 533MHz bus and 512KB of Level 2 cache memory.