Two and half months after Firefox's 1.0 launch, the Mozilla Foundation has more to celebrate than non-stop media coverage: Firefox has surpassed 20 million downloads. The milestone comes just days after new tallies of Web browser usage shows strong gains by the open source newcomer, which is slowly chipping away at Internet Explorer's dominance.

Last November, Microsoft IE product manager Gary Schare told BetaNews, "We think that getting the first set of early adopters is a lot easier than getting the next set, and then crossing over into the mainstream is pretty difficult." But Firefox is refusing to relent, garnering up to 270,000 downloads per day.

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Despite Windows Longhorn development being ramped up in preparation for Beta 1, Microsoft has given pink slips to 62 internal beta testers. Microsoft says the layoffs, which affect the company's Windows division, are the result of a push towards more automated testing environments and not outsourcing.

According to a Seattle Times report, Microsoft didn't give much notice; the company contacted employees last Tuesday and Wednesday, and the layoffs took effect by Friday. Testers can choose to stay on the Redmond campus for an additional six weeks, but must find another job within that period.

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Apple and Pepsi are at it again, joining forces for the second consecutive year in order to give away millions of songs via the iTunes Music Store. This time around, codes for up to 200 million free tunes will be distributed underneath the cap of special marked Pepsi 20oz. and 1-liter soft drink bottles.

To further encourage users to download their winnings, which was a problem with last year's promotion, winners will be entered into a drawing for a silver iPod mini. Over 1,700 iPod minis will be given away, one every hour during the three month campaign. Apple and Pepsi are set to launch the promotion on midnight January 31, and users will have until May 23 to redeem music.

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Google is looking to the past in order to crack down on the increasing problem of comment spam, promoting the adoption of a simple HTML link attribute that tells search engines to ignore its contents. As Web logs continue to proliferate, spammers have taken to filling comment areas with links, which in turns gives them a higher ranking in Web searches.

But now, Google will not give credit to links with the attribute rel="nofollow" when it ranks the popularity of Web sites. The search giant says the additional tag "isn't a negative vote for the site where the comment was posted; it's just a way to make sure that spammers get no benefit from abusing public areas like blog comments, trackbacks, and referrer lists."

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Just days after launching its program to provide free Web browser licenses to universities, Opera Software has characterized the response as "overwhelming" and says over 500 schools have signed up.

Although it previously offered free licenses to primary and secondary schools, high education institutions had to pay for an ad-free version of Opera. Now, the company is not only offering its browser free of charge, but will also fully customize Opera for a school's needs, including using the school colors and mascot in the interface.

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Through an agreement with online audiobook store Audible.com, the National Football League will soon offer for download broadcasts of this year's playoff games. Football fans will be able to purchase recordings the morning after each game and listen to them on music players including Apple's iPod.

Pricing for a complete game broadcast will run $10 USD, while the highlights will cost between $0.95 and $4.95 USD. The NFL understands that most fans will opt to watch the playoffs live or simply read the post-game highlights, but says the audio downloads are targeted at fans who "want a keepsake of the event or who to want hear the local call of the event."

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The second iteration of Picasa, the photo organizing software acquired last summer by Google, has been released. Picasa 2.0 touts more advanced editing tools and improved organization, while simplifying overall photo management for users of all skill levels.

Picasa users now can utilize 12 photographic filter effects, along with color adjustments, cropping and red-eye removal. Labels and stars can be added to photos for faster ordering and searching.

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Netscape has released a minor update to its reincarnated Web browser, which debuted in prototype form at the end of November. The new release -- available to registered testers -- brings the Netscape code base up to Firefox 1.0 in order to resolve potential security issues, in addition to fixing a few bugs.

As first reported by BetaNews, the browser prototype is being developed in conjunction with Mercurial Communications and features support for switching to Microsoft's IE engine.

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After hogging retail shelf space for a decade, Microsoft is working to place Windows in a new location: inside the register. As part of its Smarter Retailing initiative, launched last year at the National Retail Federation Conference, Microsoft has unveiled a customized version of Windows XP Embedded for retail outlets. The software, dubbed Windows Embedded for Point of Service, is due for release in spring 2005.

The embedded operating system utilizes plug-and-play to ease the installation of retail peripherals, the first solution to provide such capability according to Microsoft. "Our vision for Smarter Retailing is paying off with retail solutions that take advantage of the interoperability and integration advantages of the Microsoft .NET Framework combined with standards-based software that will provide immediate and long-term benefits to retailers," said Brian Scott, general manager for the Retail & Hospitality Industry Solutions Unit at Microsoft.

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Following in the footsteps of Time Warner, Comcast plans to boost the speed of its broadband cable offerings by at least 30 percent. Standard cable customers will see their connections jump from 3Mbits to 4Mbits per second, with upload speeds of 384Kbps. Subscribers of Comcast's 4Mbits per second offering will see an increase of 2Mbits, bringing download speeds up to 6Mbits per second.

The faster speeds are expected to reach customers later this year in a effort to keep users from switching to DSL, which runs on existing phone lines and is often cheaper than its cable counterpart. But Comcast and Time Warner aren't the only ones looking to provide incentives to subscribers; Cox Communications said it would also raise download limits to 4Mbits per second.

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Today at the National Retail Federation Convention, Sun Microsystems announced an entry-level RFID solution for retailers based on the company's Java System. Sun also unveiled what it calls "Industry Solution Architectures" for more complex RFID management such as integration with back-end enterprise systems.

Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are small transmitters placed on products, which are often used for tracking or inventory purposes. According to the company, Sun's Java System RFID software "enables customers to process RFID tagged cases or pallets at the rate of approximately one to two seconds per unit and is designed to help customers meet retail mandates in approximately one week."

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Beta test firm Centercode is seeking Mac users who are digital video professionals or DV enthusiasts to test software for integrating audio into video projects. According to Centercode, "This new application is designed to interactively browse and shape royalty-free music to suit your video, DVD, or Web project in a matter of minutes."

Signups for the beta test will only be accepted until January 17, and are open to those with a G5 or dual G4 processors in their Macs. Users must be familiar with Mac OS X and have an audio device capable of 44.1kHz stereo output. More information and application instructions are available in Centercode's beta call-out.

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Complementing its announcement at CES that it will develop wearable Bluetooth devices with snowboard apparel maker Burton, Motorola has joined Oakley to create Bluetooth enabled eyewear. Although designs will be kept under wraps until mid-2005, the companies say users will be able to control electronic devices directly from their sunglasses.

Motorola demoed at CES its high-tech apparel with buttons for making and receiving calls, along with changing songs on a portable music player. "By teaming with Motorola, we're dramatically expanding the possibilities for our new electronics category," said Cos Lykos, Oakley's Vice President of Business Development. "Oakley's engineering team now has an expanded technology arsenal to develop new and innovative electronic products."

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Samsung Electronics has reported its quarterly profits have dropped 42 percent, amid falling cell phone prices and added pressure from rival Nokia. One year ago the number two mobile phone manufacturer was riding high on $2.5 billion in profits. But Samsung says it aims to sell 100 million phones this year, compared to 86 million in 2004.

Despite the growing sales, the company was forced to lower prices due to increased competition from mobile industry leader Nokia. Samsung, however, expects numbers to rebound once it rolls out higher priced phones later this quarter. Samsung's profits were also hurt by falling demand in LCDs, with uptake of flat screen televisions slower than expected.

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Trend Micro is preparing to beta test an updated product that secures Microsoft SharePoint Portal environments with file blocking, logging and virus protection. PortalProtect 1.6 builds minor usability adjustments into the software and the beta program will begin February 4 and run until March 23.

The company will also later this month release a beta version of its antivirus technology for enterprise IM, which works with Microsoft Live Communications Server. Dubbed Trend Micro IM Security, the product features virus protection, content filtering, file blocking, policy management, as well as reporting and alerts. The IM Security beta program is set to begin January 24.

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