It's been just about five months since Microsoft put out the first beta of Internet Explorer 9, and on Thursday, it officially reached Release Candidate (RC) status, and is now just about feature-complete.

The hallmarks of Internet Explorer 9 RC are: its support for new Web technologies based on HTML5, its treatment of sites like apps with pinnable shortcuts that can send dock notifications, improved privacy and tracking protection, and the ability for users to set filters for ActiveX elements on the Web.

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So much for the big Verizon iPhone launch: The lines are simply astonishing, as in so small you need a magnifying glass to see them. Don't blink as you walk by the local Apple or Verizon store. You might miss the people waiting to buy a CDMA iPhone 4.

Perhaps it's all those preorders.

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For those of us who spend far too much time in front of the computer, it's easy to forget about the dangers of gluing yourself to your desk. There's the dreaded RSI acronym, as your hands and wrists succumb after all those hours of typing and mouse clicking. What about your eyes? We all blink less when staring at the screen, which isn't good news either. And then there's the lack of exercise as you sit hunched over the keyboard ignoring the strains your body are going under.

The solution already exists: take regular mini breaks from your computer, try stretching and walking about and tear your eyes away from the screen long enough for them to regain such much needed moisture. But while the theory is good, putting it into practice is more difficult -- how will you remind yourself to take those all-important breaks? The answer for Linux and Windows users lies with Workrave.

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Agnitum has released version 7.1 of its flagship product, Outpost Security Suite FREE. It's a maintenance upgrade for the most part, with under-the-hood bug fixes and minor tweaks, but there are some notable exceptions.

Top of the list is the inclusion of a second anti-malware engine. The suite now includes one antivirus engine, and a second focused on spyware, adware and trojans. The company claimed in a blog post that this offers "double the protection" and "more targeted security for Windows users"; there are no related controls or options exposed in the interface, though, so you can continue to use Outpost Security Suite as you always have.

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In an unexpected turn, Android did better by Gartner's measure than other talliers' reckonings, and the numbers have more punch. Unlike other analyst firms, which measure shipments to carriers and dealers -- what's sometimes called "sales-in" -- Gartner measures "sales-out" to buyers. Manufacturers shipped 67.2 million Android smartphones last year, up from 6.8 million in 2009. That works out to an average 184,000 Android smartphones sold per day. By comparison, Apple sold an average 127,000 iOS smartphones a day, or 46.6 million for the year.

Android's smartphone OS market share rose to 22.7 percent, putting it in second place, up from 3.9 percent in 2009. Android benefitted from strong manufacturer support. Among the top 10 global handset manufacturers, seven ship Android phones -- second-ranked Samsung and third-ranked LG among them. However, Samsung and LG both lost global handset market share for all 2010.

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Today, the FCC's Enforcement Bureau announced it is clamping down on the marketing, sale, and use of illegal cellphone and GPS jamming devices because they can very easily jam signals used by the public safety and law enforcement sectors.

Cell jammers have become pretty popular items. At CTIA 2010 last year, we saw quite a few companies offering low-power jamming solutions for prisons, board rooms, movie theaters, and really anywhere else that privacy and radio silence is important.

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Aiming to make Flash more nimble and less power-consuming, Adobe on Wednesday introduced Stage Video as part of an overall larger update to the multimedia platform. The technology takes advantage of hardware acceleration which in turn uses less processing power and thus less battery power.

With an increasing amount of Flash content being played back on mobile devices, it has become necessary for Adobe to deal with the power-intensive playback of content. The company said 1080p video playback was now possible with only 1-15% CPU usage, up to 34 times more efficient than earlier versions.

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Contrary to reports which said they were released in January Microsoft today announced that Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 were released to OEM partners today, and the updates will be available to consumers on February 22.

As we've known since back in June when the first beta invites went out for SP1, this is a very minor release. However, the RemoteFX and Dynamic Memory virtualization features in Windows Server are especially noteworthy this time around.

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Since Palm Inc. was acquired by Hewlett-Packard ten months ago, the tech world has been expecting a WebOS-powered slate, while simultaneously wondering what would happen to Palm's critically acclaimed line of WebOS smartphones.

Wednesday, HP answered all questions, by unveiling the TouchPad tablet, the Pre 3, and a new WebOS phone called Veer.

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Today, Microsoft began the big, rumored management shakeup with the appointment of Satya Nadella as president of the Server and Tools Business. Supposedly, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is putting more engineering-focused employees in key, management positions. Nadella replaces Bob Muglia, who essentially was fired last month by Ballmer; Muglia will remain during a transition period through summer.

Like Muglia, Nadella is a long-time Microsoft employee, since 1992, and he more recently oversaw engineering efforts within Microsoft's perennially, money-losing Online Services Business unit. It's an interesting move, to sack the leader who helped build up the highly successful and profitable Server and Tools Business unit and replace him with someone working, since 2007, in a flailing group. OSB has been flapping like a chicken trying to fly above Google for years. Microsoft lags far behind its rival in search share, and the Online Services Business loses money quarter after quarter. It's a money pit.

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Israel-based software maker my6sense has branched out from its mobile app roots and launched a Chrome browser extension for Twitter on Wednesday. Like the my6sense app for iOS and Android, the Chrome browser extension strives to reduce the spam and irrelevant content for Twitter users who find themselves following just a bit too many people.

How many people can you follow on Twitter and not lose information? It's been a subject of discussion for years, which prompted Twitter to launch list-based filtering back in 2009. Indeed, there are many third-party applications to help users organize and filter the potential Twitter overload.

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Yesterday, I chuckled reading the many posts about IDC fourth-quarter smartphone shipment data. As many writers observed, manufacturers shipped more smartphones than PCs -- 100.9 million versus 92.1 million, respectively. This turnabout was inevitable, and it is more than hugely symbolic. The cloud-connected mobile device era has dawned.

Frankly, I shouldn't need to declare that the PC era is over, but I expect sharp criticism from many Betanews readers in comments. I say to you: End the denial, and look ahead rather than behind. The PC's decline is inevitable, as was the mainframe's. It was never a matter of if but when, and it's a process still underway that will take years to complete.

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Wednesday, Mobile loyalty card app CardStar announced it has become the first app of its ilk to partner with Groupon, the extremely hot daily deal service, and users of its iPhone and Android apps in more than 160 cities will have location-specific access to Groupon deals.

CardStar lets users scan or manually enter all those shopping rewards cards into a single app, and then their smartphone's screen can be scanned at the cash register when they check out. Generally speaking, the app focuses on cards that users already have or ones that they get separately from CardStar. But with this new version of the software, users can now sign up for new cards directly through the app, and with the Groupon deal, membership isn't even required to view the daily deals.

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As the world slowly recovers from years of economic crises, the United States remains in peril with both a massive deficit and the lingering unemployment problem. This year, Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro has emerged as one of the few industry organization leaders who has put the health of the U.S. economy as his primary focus, and he's done so with great conviction.

In his CES 2011 keynote, Shapiro took the stage to sharply criticize Washington's trade policies, saying they discourage innovation and encourage senseless overspending.

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In December I asked: "Should Apple stop selling software in its retail stores?" I reasoned that the Mac App Store greatly diminished the need for Apple retail stores to carry boxed software, which takes up valuable shelf space. In early January, Apple released the Mac App Store, which is part of Mac OS X 10.6 (aka Snow Leopard). I expected Apple would soon go all digital, removing packaged software from its stores. Late last night, MacRumors claimed Apple is preparing to do just that: "Based on what we've heard from our sources, however, Apple is planning on making the move to all digital sooner than expected at their retail stores. Apple is working towards eliminating boxed software and presumably focusing sales through the Mac App Store."

I can't attest whether or not the rumor is true, or vouch for MacRumors sourcing, but it's what I expected Apple to do, which is why I asked the question. Not everyone agrees this is the right move. In December, Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis told me that "only 43 percent of online software buyers want a digital download only; 30 percent want a box and 22 percent want a download and a box." He didn't see how Apple could meet consumer preferences by going digital download only. I see it differently: 43 percent represents a helluva lot of people, and right now Apple only needs to be concerned with Mac owners.

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