Mozilla successfuly released yesterday the latest major edition of Firefox, though faced by an animation major blooper in its attempt to make a Guinness record for biggest number of downloads on the first day as its entire went down as a result of the massive number of people attempting to download the new version. Mozilla has recovered now and you can download the shiny new Firefox 3.0 with enhanced support of DOM, CSS, SVG and the newly added the capability to display animated PNGs (if you know how to make them!).

Serious web developers should also check out Firefox add-on Firebug and the Web Developer Toolbar to help them debug and test their websites in Firefox.

Download the new Firefox 3.0 via this link.

Adobe recently released a new version of its leading software, Acrobat 9. The whole new Acrobat 9 deliveries modern features that enables the pdf files to be more rich and flexiable. Its worth mentioning that in the ninth installment of Acrobat, you are able to create polished PDF files, present multiple documents in a PDF Portfolio, and even add multimedia such as flash animations. And all in a single file. You can read more about the Acrobat Family’s new features here.

Adobe released yesterday the public beta of the next edition of its image prototyping application Fireworks CS4, web development application Dreamweaver CS4, and sound editing tool Soundbooth. Major enhancements in Fireworks CS4 include a new UI, CSS export, PDF export, support for Adobe’s new Adobe Type font engine, and AIR authoring tools. Dreamweaver CS4 on the other and adds a new live viewer for better display of content within Dreamweaver, a new related file manager for CSS, JavaScript, and XML navigation, enhanced CSS functionality, support for Photoshop Smart Objects, and Adobe AIR authoring tools as well.

These beta applications can be downloaded at Adobe Labs, holders of CS3 licenses can use the beta versions indefinitely until the official version comes out while non-CS3 license holders can try the applications for two days only. Check out Adobe Labs for more info.

Some dude with loads of free time on his hands has decided to create a mobile application for modeling 3D objects by plotting NURBS curves on tiny mobile screens. Objects modeled using the Maya On-The-Go Java application can then be saved and imported onto Maya and Softimage | XSI to be used in *bigger* projects. I cannot think of a reason why anybody would want to spend time away from a computer modeling little 3D boxes, but you can try it out if you have the time just for the novelty of this free mobile application. Check out Maya On-The-Go to learn more about it and download the mobile application for free (Compatible only with Nokia phones).

[via CGIndia]

Softimage announced the release of its 3D character facial animation technology, SOFTIMAGE Face Robot 1.9. Face Robot lets 3D artists create realistic human facial animations without the need for complex rigging steps. This edition of Face Robot introduces exporter for Autodesk Maya to facilitate moving completed facial rigs and animation data from Face Robot into Maya. You can learn more about Face Robot from here.

Geeks aren’t always the best artists, but there are plenty of ways to use technology to get around that and create some stylish graphics. One of the easiest of these is Viscosity, winner of the Best Art award at this year’s SXSW.

Your Viscosity image starts out as 9 shaded horizontal stripes, but a few clicks will make it bloom into a multi-colored, semi-transparent, almost sculptural piece of transcendent web-stuff. Viscosity has just a few controls. You can slide your brushes from mushy to angular, and change sizes, colors and opacities, but that’s about it. It’s a basic interface that produces unexpectedly complex results.

Visit Viscosity for more.

Microsoft has posted two new web pages related to their next generation web browser, Internet Explorer 8 beta 1. New and exciting features include, Activities, WebSlices, Favorites Bar, Automatic Crash Recovery, Improved Phishing Filter. Most of those features that are previously avalible in FireFox 2.0. You can read more about the new features here. You can also download and install your very own copy of the first beta edition of Internet Explorer 8 here.

VectorDesign is a program similar to Adobe Illustrator and Freehand developed by TweakerSoft, it has recently won the MacWord best of Show Award for its simplicity and power. VectorDesign features all the basic features of vector tools such as smart shapes, bezier creation tools, boolean tool for combining shapes, and even a tool for conversion of raster images to bezier. An interesting feature of VectorDesign is the integration of a Flickr browser to easy search and insert images.

VectorDesign is available for the Mac OS only, it can be purchased for $70. Click here to learn more about it and to download the applications trial.

Adobe released earlier this week the 1.0 version of Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), a technology for running rich internet application (RIAs) on the desktop using technologies such as AJAX, Flex, and Flash. AIR creates new opportunities for ActionScript and web developers by letting them use their existing skills to create cross platform applications with desktop-responsiveness and web based features such as data portability and collaboration.

AIR technology has been demonstrated by new applications from companies such as FedEx, eBay, Nickelodeon, Nasdaq, and AOL all of which can be used once you download and install the free AIR runtime on your desktop.

AIR is available for Windows and Mac currently, the Linux version should be out soon.

PFTracK, the video production tool used for tracking and match-moving (i.e. inserting special effects into real footage video), has released the Personal Learning Edition of its latest version. The PLE of PFTrack is a fully function edition that will allows students and professionals to evaluate and master PFTrack without the need to purchase a license. You can learn more about this video production tool from its official website here.