In its latest effort to take back some market share from Apple's iPod, Creative on Wednesday introduced the Zen Vision music player with photo viewing and video playback. The Vision sports a large 3.7-inch color screen and 30GB internal hard drive for storing media.

Video will be a primary feature of the Zen Vision that its Apple counterpart lacks, and Creative is boasting a screen size three times that of the color iPod. Vision's 640x480 pixel resolution is also 10 times more than the iPod.

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The Mozilla Foundation announced Wednesday the formation of a for-profit subsidiary that will take over development of Firefox and Thunderbird. The Mozilla Corporation will better enable the organization to generate revenue and build a successful business around the browser platform.

The majority of the Mozilla Foundation's employees will migrate to the new corporation, which will be headed by current president Mitchell Baker. But despite its change to commercial status, Baker insists not much else will change; development will continue as planned and Firefox will remain free.

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While Microsoft admits few CSS bugs were fixed for Internet Explorer 7 Beta 1, which shipped to testers and MSDN subscribers last week, developers have shed some light on what to expect in Beta 2 and the final release. IE7 will not, however, pass the Acid2 CSS standards test published by the Web Standards Project.

In a posting to the IEBlog, IE7 lead Chris Wilson said that security will be the top priority of the new browser. Following that, the team will work to remove the "biggest causes of difficulty for Web developers."

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In an effort to raise its bottom-rung ranking in Web browser usage statistics, Opera Software is changing a longstanding policy of spoofing the Internet Explorer user agent in its browser. Starting with version 8.02 Opera will now identify itself as Opera with optional spoofing on a per-site basis.

The user agent is a string of data sent by Web browsers, which enables Web sites to custom tailor functionality depending on what technology is supported by a specific browser. For example, DHTML supported only by Internet Explorer can be disabled for visitors using Firefox.

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Some Internet Explorer 7 testers who loaded the Beta 1 bits onto their systems have found a nasty surprise BetaNews has learned: their instant messaging software crashes.

Trillian, a popular multi-network IM client, Gaim and IM2 all spit out error messages when loaded alongside IE7, and the only fix is to uninstall Microsoft's new browser.

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At the company's annual Financual Analyst Meeting Thursday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had no qualms about boasting his expectation that Microsoft will win on the Web just as it did on the desktop. While MSN may be struggling to keep up with Google and Yahoo, Ballmer said the Web is now a top priority for Microsoft.

"When you look at the last 10 years, we have won on the desktop. I think a lot of people can now fairly say, with what we've done with Windows Server, we have won in the business marketplace. And now we really are going to win on the Web," Ballmer said in his presentation.

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The Beta 1 release of Internet Explorer 7 adds an integrated search box that enables users to directly search the Internet without having to load a third-party toolbar - similar to features offered in Firefox and Opera. But the current search options are restricted to just a few sites, prompting concern of favoritism.

Microsoft tells BetaNews, however, that IE7 will feature a fully configurable search bar in its final form and users can choose whatever search they prefer. "In Beta 1, it's limited to a group of popular search providers and inherits its default setting from the search-provider setting the user had chosen for AutoSearch in Internet Explorer 6," a Microsoft spokesperson said. "However, for the final release, this toolbar search box will be extensible for users to add any search provider they choose."

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Touting the success of its anti-piracy campaigns, Microsoft senior VP Will Poole said on Tuesday at the company's annual Financial Analyst Meeting that over 100,000 copies of Windows XP Starter Edition have been sold. The slimmed down OS is now available in 22 countries and six languages.

Starter Edition was first introduced last year and was recently expanded to all of Latin America. The idea of the program is to make available a low-cost version of Windows in areas with high piracy rates. "We feel very good about how this has gotten going, and we have I think a lot of good opportunities ahead of us as we work closely with local governments and others who want to bring PC technology to first-time PC users," said Poole.

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UPDATED Less than 24 hours after Microsoft announced the release of Windows Vista Beta 1 and Internet Explorer 7 Beta 1 to testers and MSDN subscribers, both betas have leaked to Internet sites and newsgroups along with a crack for Windows Product Activation, according to BetaNews sources.

The Vista download weighs in at close to 2.5GB, but the operating system's heft did not keep the pirates away. The next-generation Windows beta likely uses the same activation technology found in Windows XP, which was compromised long ago.

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America Online unveiled on Thursday a beta version of My AOL, a personalized homepage feature of its newly launched AOL.com portal that enables users to choose content they wish to view using RSS feeds. AOL has partnered with Feedster, an RSS search engine, to provide searching and feed subscribing.

As previously reported by BetaNews, My AOL begins as a "blank slate" that can be populated with content from RSS feeds in an attempt to bring order to "the chaos of the Web."

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Nearly 433,000 people tuned in to watch the Space Shuttle Discovery roar into space Tuesday morning, in an event that smashed a streaming video record set by AOL earlier this month. 335,000 people simultaneously watched via Yahoo in Windows Media, while Akamai served up the other streams in Real Video format.

AOL jumped into the record books on July 2 when Live 8 concerts were streamed to over 175,000 people simultaneously. The shuttle launch more than doubled those numbers, and quadrupled NASA's prior record of 118,000 streams for the Deep Impact mission.

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Contrary to some expectations, Microsoft says Internet Explorer 7 Beta 1 will not be publicly available for download. Only invited beta testers and Microsoft TechNet subscribers will be provided access to the bits. The company did not say whether a public beta would follow, and has no timeline for a final IE7 release.

"Windows Vista Beta 1 and Internet Explorer 7 Beta 1 are available for support through the MSDN download center. Unsupported access for Windows Vista Beta 1 and Internet Explorer 7 Beta 1 are available to TechNet Subscribers," a Microsoft spokesperson told BetaNews. "There will be no public access to Windows Vista Beta 1 or Internet Explorer Beta 1."

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AOL has expanded its mobile search service to offer a suite of tools for users on the run, including comparison shopping and Yellow Pages data. Mobile AOL Search pulls up full Web results - not just WAP-enabled sites. To accomplish this, AOL has employed transcoding technology that adapts pages for the small screens of mobile devices.

Pinpoint Shopping details products, pricing and merchant ratings, while AOL Yellow Pages pulls up local business listings and maps. "We have 'Right-Sized the Internet' for small mobile screens, giving users the power to search or shop for anything they need," said AOL Mobile general manager Himesh Bhise. The beta service can be launched by visiting mobile.aolsearch.com in a mobile browser.

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Apple announced Wednesday that it will supply 30,000 iBooks to Broward County Public Schools in Florida, which will be used by students in kindergarten through high school. The school system touted the iBook's performance, and noted its durability will protect against damage while being carried in students' backpacks.

"We're excited to work with Broward County to provide students with the best learning tools available," said Tim Cook, Apple's executive vice president of Worldwide Sales and Operations. "The addition of 30,000 iBooks will do much to help provide students with necessary 21st century skills."

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Symantec has released a public beta of Norton AntiVirus 2006, an updated version of its popular PC protection software. NAV 2006 includes improvements and new features to block Internet worms and protect e-mail. Symantec is also expected to begin testing SystemWorks and Internet Security 2006 in the coming weeks.

To reward testers, Symantec will give a free copy of the software to the first 50 users who find undocumented bugs. The release only works with Windows 2000 and XP and will expire 30 days after installation. Norton AntiVirus 2006 beta is available for download via FileForum.

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