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According to Net Applications, which monitors browser usage at major Web sites,
Firefox 3 rapidly ascended to what I’d call force-to-be-reckoned-with status, something Web designers shouldn’t be ignoring. For comparison, Apple’s
Safari had 6.25 percent share in May, and Opera had 0.71 percent.

Mozilla, which sponsors and oversees development of the open-source Web browser, released Firefox 3 for download on Tuesday. It primed the publicity pump with an effort to set a 24-hour download record, and interest by the abundant Firefox loyalists brought Mozilla’s servers to their knees for nearly two hours Wednesday.

Undoubtedly, most Firefox 3 activity is from existing Firefox users, but it’s still a notable achievement, given that software companies constantly struggle to get users to adopt the latest products.

Firefox 3 gained market share rapidly, even before it was 24 hours old.

(Credit:
Net Applications)

The download rate, which peaked at 14,000 per minute Tuesday, was about 6,600 per minute Wednesday morning.

Firefox 3 is spreading fast, claiming more than 4 percent of the share of Web browser usage less than 24 hours after its release.

Mozilla has been fulfilling pent-up demand ever since. Sometime after 7 a.m. PDT, downloads crossed the 7 million mark, according to Mozilla’s download counter, which is fun to watch, even though it’s badly formatted.

For full coverage, including reviews and videos, see CNET’s Firefox 3 resource center.

Though AT&T has yet to concur, Samsung has added a new AT&T cell phone to its Web site. Samsung originally told us about the new phone earlier this week, but we were expecting that they wouldn’t actually launch it for a few days. But in any case, the SGH-A137 isn’t too much to get excited about. The simple flip phone is so basic that it doesn’t even offer an external display. The feature set is centered squarely on making calls and messaging but it offers a couple of extras including a music player and Bluetooth. Pricing isn’t available yet but it should be headed for AT&T’s Go Phone prepaid service. The SGH-A137 is the fifth new phone that Samsung has introduced this week. Though none of the new handsets are groundbreaking, there is plenty of room in cell phone land for basic handsets.

Samsung SGH-A137

Thanks Phone Scoop.

(Credit:
Samsung)

Chris Anderson comments on Shirky’s speech, suggesting that “it takes a generation or two to figure out how to properly use some resource that used to be scarce but is now abundant. In this case that resource is time….” Anderson believes we’ve found our way beyond the TV to “fill [our time] more productively, and to greater satisfaction.”

Perhaps one other rule for Anderson and Shirky is that society is ever convincing itself that it uses its time and means better than the last generation. We think we’re progressing through some Hegelian dialectic toward greater truth. We may be doing so individually, but we’re not doing so socially.

Shirky argues that gin was society’s early response to the Industrial Revolution (”I can’t deal with this, I’d better drink”), and that modern society’s response to modernization (More people entering the workforce, etc.) is the sitcom (”I can’t deal with this, I’d better watch TV”). I don’t know that he’s pinpointed the correct “outlet” on our frustrations, but it makes sense that it would take time for societies to effectively channel abundance.

The other day I came home to find my kids engrossed in Webkinz. (If you don’t know what they are, consider yourself blessed.) Webkinz are the Cabbage Patch Dolls of the 21st Century, except that unlike the Dolls, Webkinz require active management, offline and online.

Despite some not-so-obvious arguments (”Media that’s targeted at you but doesn’t include you may not be worth sitting still for”), the transcript for a recent Clay Shirky speech reveals some highly intriguing thoughts. The basic gist is that society’s collective crises of togetherness give way to more productive management of such crises. We learn how to cope with rising complexity, in short.

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I’m not so sure. In fact, I think the opposite is happening, at least in my life. I’ve already commented once on my addiction to the web. Unfortunately, my kids are learning the same addictions from me and from my wife.

The web strikes me as a good, Shirkian example of a technological response to society’s crisis of faith in social connections (”I’m feeling alone, I’d better ‘friend’ promiscuously’”). Perhaps down the road it will become useful in bringing us together. For now, it feels like it’s helping a planet “bowl alone” while helping us make believe that we’re “bowling together.”

My kids have become slaves to Webkinz in the same way that I am a slave to this blog and to email. I have ever increasing amounts of “free” time, all of which is spoken for before I wake up by all the email and blogging I did the day before. I watch almost no TV (except soccer), but is my time better spent? I don’t think so.

It used to be that your plans to marry had to be read out in churches. (This allowed parishioners to raise an objection. “He’s stumpy and stupid.” “She’s far too beautiful for you.” That sort of thing.)

Gary Dean, a British businessman, who seems to have made quite a lot of money out of advertising, is deeply sensitive to public relations.

Please forgive me, but how does anyone cherish number plates (or, as they’re known in certain parts, license plates)?

And why would anyone feel the need to publicize the sheer power of this number-plate cherishing in a divorce settlement?

But I find myself struggling with both my mental and physical equilibrium to read that he also gave her “cherished number plates 7HD and 10HD.”

“I have been painted in some quarters as a greedy, tight, ruthless bastard who abandoned my wife and children, walking off with millions and leaving my family almost destitute,” he writes. “It’s simply not true at all and I’ve decided that instead of allowing the rumour-mill to continue churning out nonsense - I’d just set out the actual facts to stop it.”

Mr. Dean helps us to understand that divorce in England and Wales is dropping (yes, I’d heard beer sales were declining) and he compares his situation to a recent case in which a relatively famous English soccer player, Ray Parlour, once of Arsenal, suffered a mighty financial tackle from behind.

Not in the area between Preston and Blackpool

His ex-wife declared in court that without her, Mr. Parlour would have been a mere journeyman hacker. Which many observers had thought he always had been.

Mr. Dean declares that the rumors had resonated “mainly in the area between Preston and Blackpool,” which would at the very least suggest precise market research is one of his strengths.

He was so upset that people were calling him unpleasant names like “greedy” when he divorced his wife of nineteen years that he set up a website (at cost, I’m thinking) and published their divorce settlement.

(Credit:
banjo d)

It would also suggest that these rumors came from a wet, windy wilderness as desolate as the location of “No Country For Old Men,” but with far better beer.

No, no. Now it’s “only in the area between Preston and Blackpool.”

Now, divorce settlements are being slapped on websites.

And to publicly declare that his wife received around $7.5million, plus
cars, child maintenance and jewelry.

I find myself wondering just how skin-tighteningly heinous the gossip must have been for Mr. Dean to feel the necessity to express his views with such bowel-assaulting sincerity.

Mr. Dean feels very strongly about this:
“With no disrespect to her, or indeed to my ex-wife, success in business or on the playing field, at least in my opinion, are based on the abilities of the ‘player’. To my mind it wouldn’t have mattered how much support Mrs Parlour had provided to Ray - if he’d been crap on the pitch they wouldn’t have been getting the cash they both enjoyed.”

They used to say “only in America”, right?

The company, though, is actually oriented around making that software dependency into a strength. CEO Bobby Fishkin wrote to me, “Within mass communities we can let members discuss the news as a community, filter for only comments by members, improve fund-raising by helping improve engagement, and drive traffic for these nonprofits with free branded groups.” By which I think he means that he envisions Reframe It being used sort of like a tour bus for the Web, in which groups can see everything out there, but stick together nonetheless.

I found using the service a good community experience, although I believe the concept is dated. For one, nearly all sites now have their own communities and discussion threads, and adding another discussion system could actually splinter a community instead of drawing it together. Furthermore, Reframe It currently works primarily through a browser plug-in (on
Firefox and Internet Explorer). Betting on software to carry community is a long shot.

On this New Yorker article, the user highlighted text (in yellow, left) and then commented on that clip in the Reframe It sidebar at right.

Here we go again. A new company, Reframe It, is launching its Web markup product on Wednesday. Like ThirdVoice and Stickis before it, Reframe It lets you highlight a piece of a Web page, comment on it, and discuss those comments with other visitors to the site.

The service also integrates with other social networks, Fishkin says, so when you’re trolling the Web with Reframe It active you can easily filter out comments from people outside your circle.

See also: GooseGrade lets readers copyedit your blog.

All well and good, but I stand by my assertion that the technology has no hope for widespread adoption as a standalone browser extension. To be fair, the company has a widgetized version of the product that publishers can add to their sites. This lets visitors to the site flag items on pages and chat about them. They can’t, though, just go to any site on the Web and have the same experience, as they can if they have the extension. But the tool for publishers is Reframe It’s best avenue for success, even though it competes with other native comment systems (the ones you get on any blogging platform) as well as third-party comment products like Disqus. Alternatively, I could see this concept getting necessary traction, even as an extension, if it was very closely married to an existing social-network platform like Facebook. Reframe It needs a viral distribution push that I don’t think it will get otherwise.

Yay! Apple’s iPhone
2.0.2 software update has fixed our broken iPhone 3G. Its endless loop of system restores is over, and it’s now back in working order.

AppleInsider reported that in the music player the transition from list to Cover Flow mode has changed, but I’m not seeing a difference just yet. Perhaps, I’m looking in the wrong place, though, so if you find it please let me know. I haven’t seen a difference in 3G reception either, but (to be fair) there was never any promise that this update would fix that problem. Still, I maintain what I said earlier: Apple needs to acknowledge what’s going on.

Update: It appears Apple finally has acknowledged the 3G issue. On Tuesday the company told the Associated Press that the 2.0.2 update “improved communication with 3G networks.” Let me know if that’s the case for you.

Are you noticing other changes from the update? If so, please let me know.

It’s all better now.

Yet, that seems to be just about the only change from the update. Apple promised that 2.0.2 would bring “bug fixes” (and did it it ever) but the company hasn’t promised anything else. Like others I have noticed a slight improvement in the typing speed when using the keyboard, but that seems to be about it.

(Credit:
Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

The questions from passerby this evening, whether legitimately curious or intent on snickering at us, generally follows the same line: “Why put yourself through this just for some consumer good?”

The iPhone 3G debuts Friday morning and across the country, Apple fans,
iPhone lovers, and people curious about why friends say the device has changed their lives, are sleeping on the streets. They want to be the first to enter Apple’s retail stores when doors open at 8 a.m.

(Credit:
Greg Sandoval/CNET Networks)

(Credit:
Greg Sandoval/CNET Networks)

The iPhone, many of them believe, is ready to take up a spot alongside the
Mac and
iPod.

So If you’re reading this and happen to be in downtown San Francisco in the wee hours this morning, don’t bother asking why we’re out here. Just read the T-shirts handed out to everyone in line by employees of Fastmac.com, a company that sells Apple accessories.

Still, nothing dampened his enthusiasm for the iPhone. “I would get excited over any product that works as well,” Larson said. “But nothing does. This device opens everything up. Developers can develop and consumers can take advantage of their innovation.”

SAN FRANCISCO–The twenty-something woman trash-talking us is definitely no fan girl.

Come on San Francisco, you’re being out-teched by New York. The shame…

Dale Larson is customer No.1 at this store. The 39-year old consultant on mobile products said says he’s not particularly tied to Apple gear but he acknowledges he started camping out on Wednesday evening.

“They’ll be selling these stupid phones on eBay in a year,” she snarls as she stalks past the 25 of us lined up outside Apple’s store here late Thursday evening.

He pitched a tent and stayed the night. He said he felt a little embarrassed when Apple’s watchman said goodnight and he was the only person in line. “I thought there would be so many more people here,” he said.

Dale Larson, first in line outside San Francisco's Apple store sits near his tent and answers the curious.

Harcore iPhone fans lined up outside San Francisco's Apple store.

Consumer good? To the bleary-eyed people standing in line with me, the hope is that they will be among the first to own the next transcendent and culture-changing Apple gadget.

She’s wearing a sweatshirt from a college in the Midwest and toting a shopping bag so someone barks back: “tourist!” But she’s not the only one who mocks us for camping out all night–braving this city’s shivery summer air–for something as ho-hum as a cell phone. “Is it really that serious?” asks a man wearing a tweed sport coat and smirk.

The blog must be getting big if Matt Marshall or Dean Takahashi aren’t out here. Missed you guys.

“This device has changed my life,” declares Ilan Fehler, a 21-year-old student at the University of Arizona, who considers himself lucky to be third in line.

Forgive them Steve Jobs. They know not what they do.

Click here for CNET News’ complete iPhone 3G coverage.

2nd UPDATE: Way to go S.F.. It’s 6:45 a.m. PT and there’s easily 150 people standing in line, including some of my competitors from VentureBeat. They’re showing me up a bit by handing out some delicious donuts in a shameless marketing gimmick. For the record, I’m ahead of them in line (The non hackers didn’t show up until midnight).

Larson said that the first version of iPhone was enough to generate intense interest in version 2, with it’s faster 3G network and cheaper price.

Written on the T-shirt is: “You had me at…” and it ends with the symbol of a phone.”

CNN is reporting that more than 1,000 people waited in line for the iPhone 3G in Tokyo.

UPDATE: About 50 people are in line here at 4:50 a.m. PT. I made a rough count of those videotaped by my colleague Caroline McCarthy outside of New York’s Fifth Avenue Apple Store and there are at least three times as many there.

Alltel is now selling the Samsung Muse. As we told you in January, the Muse is a slim flip phone in midnight blue. Though its rather generic design won’t stand out from the Samsung crowd, it offers more features than you might expect. Inside you’ll find a 2-megapixel camera, GPS capabilities with Alltel’s Axcess Mobile Guide preloaded, stereo Bluetooth, and a music player. And on an original note, it is compatible with Alltel’s new Celltop music-streaming application. The Muse is $269 if you pay full price, but you should be able to get it for $89 with service.

Samsung Muse

(Credit:
Alltel)

Nope.

Hint: Not in Office.

The fact is that people already have a desktop. They don’t want a new desktop from GNOME, from Apple, or from Microsoft. Making another desktop does not add anything to the world. On average, people who have GNOME want to keep it, and the same for the other desktops.

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In a recent blog post, Havoc rubbished the idea of anyone needing a new (traditional) desktop:

I agree. I’ve long argued that what is needed is not Yet Another Desktop, but rather a novel conception of what “desktop” means. Microsoft won the desktop war. Time to move on to the next battle. It’s not about Vista or GNOME. It’s about what “office productivity” means and where I do it.

Havoc Pennington has long been one of the pioneers of the Linux desktop movement, and a primary GNOME developer. Once at Red Hat, now at Litl (cool name, by the way), Havoc should be the poster boy for Linux desktop advocacy.

GNOME 2.0 and KDE 4 are bad models for change. They rewrote and broke the code, but from a user-goals perspective, they are the same thing as before. We shouldn’t feel bad;
Windows Vista made the same mistake. Nobody cares about Vista, because XP allows users to accomplish all the same goals. Even if Vista didn’t have a bunch of regressions, nobody would really care about it.

The service will send you daily e-mails with updates. There’s no RSS feed yet.

An evolving position, or a flip-flop?

Versionista is reminiscent of Iterasi (review), an archival system for Web pages that will at some point add a feature to automatically capture pages into an archive. But if you’re more interested in tracking changes than building a library, Versionista is a cleaner solution.

Found at Wired: McCain Campaign Uses Web Spider to Sting Obama.

It’s a great tool for trapping politicians, although of course it could backfire. Change in a platform can leave a politician open to justifiable attack, but some can be good. (See “Flip-Flop Flap” in the current New Yorker magazine.)

You can see changes in pages you’re tracking in a wiki-like list, and you can display two versions of a page side-by-side, with the differences highlighted. The system can also track all the pages linked to from your target.

You can see a wiki-like revision history for any page you're tracking.

Beyond the gotcha value, there are other very useful applications for this service. You can use it to monitor prices on a product page. You can keep an eye on a competitor’s site for changes relevant to your business, or for additions to their news page (although Google alerts can also work for that). Writers or commenters on blogs can use the service to see what changes publishers make to their stories after initial publication.

Versionista is a newish online utility that tracks changes to Web pages you’re interested in. Used most recently, and famously, by the John McCain presidential campaign to highlight the changes in Barack Obama’s written positions on issues like the Iraq war, it provides a wiki-like revision history of any page or site you feed into it.

See also: The Internet Archive.

You can track two pages for free. Paid versions range from $16 to $499 a month and give you more URLs and storage space, and more control over filters.