Windows 8 is being developed in two flavors: one for desktop computers and one for tablets and phones, with consistencies across both versions. This brings Windows closer to the model that Apple has adopted with its Mac OS X operating system, the desktop version of which has slowly been adopting similarities with the experience iOS offers on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Think Windows 7 meets Windows Phone 7.

This isn't the first app store Microsoft has made available, but if they are in fact going with the name "App Store" it will be the first time it's called that, Apple's trademark wishes be damned.

The first glimpses the world has seen of Windows 8 have shown hints of a Windows Phone 7 influence, complete with tiled widgets and other mobile-inspired UI elements.

Windows 8 is expected to be available next year.

BlueStacks will be showcasing its technology at the Citrix Synergy conference this week. The company will need to convince computer makers to load its software, but BlueStacks does insist that this will be something that consumers won't have to think about as its technology will provide a seamless experience as they move back and forth between Android and Windows' applications.

The company also announced today that it has secured $7.6 million in Series A funding from Ignition Ventures, Radar Partners, Redpoint Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz.

These improvements focus on the social and sharing aspects of Evernote, giving Windows users the ability to share notes for the first time. You can share individual notes to Facebook or Twitter or email. You can also share entire notebooks - idea when you're working on a group project.

One of the benefits of shared notes and linked notebooks on the desktop is that they're stored locally. That means you can access them even when you're offline.

Another couple of minor, but useful additions to Evernote for Windows are aimed at writers: a status bar that tracks word and character count, the addition of CTRL+F (find and replace), and better and more consistent indentation.

As is the case with most of the improvements to Evernote, these new features for Windows users will likely make their way to other platforms soon.

All the time on the Web, things are happening. Comments are being left, blogs updated, messages sent, tweets tweeted, and so on. If you're an information junkie, then you don't want to know later, you want to know now.

One way of knowing now is setting up a mobile notification app, like Boxcar, to let you know the moment everything happens when you're out and about. But what about if you're sitting at your desk? For that, the company has just released a desktop version of Boxcar for the Mac and the app is soon on its way to a number of other devices and platforms.

The company announced that Boxcar for Mac, a desktop version of the popular mobile iOS app that brings push notifications for a variety of services to your desktop, is available. (Think Twitter, Google Buzz, email, Twitter lists, Reddit, GitHub and several more.) But why would you want a desktop version? Boxcar CEO Jonathan George had a simple explanation.

"We built it because we were tired of picking up our phones all the time to see what messages we'd gotten," said George.

George admitted that, for now, users running both aps will get notifications on both their mobile phone as well as their Mac.

"We'll  get smarter about where we deliver messages as we build out the product," said George. "Since we have a native app on the desktop, we can detect presence. With the users permission, we can discover whether the screensaver is running, how long ago the user last typed, whether or not the mouse has moved. All can be used to create a presence detection system that will allow us to discover where to send the messages to at the right time."

The Mac desktop app is available to download from the Boxcar website and will be available at a later point in the Mac App Store.

Even more exciting, for you non-Apple types, is that Boxcar is spreading its wings and moving on to other lands - Windows, Android and even Honeycomb, to be precise. George says that a Windows version, as well as an Android version, is coming in the next couple of weeks. For you TV fiends, a Google TV just might be in production a little bit on down the line too.

Freak out, Android information addicts - Boxcar will soon come for you too. See?

The announcement is part of a larger upgrade for Parallels which now supports enhanced speed, performance and graphics, including Direct X 9. Mac users - as well as iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users - can now access Windows applications, file formats and even games from their various devices.

"With the popularity of mobile devices skyrocketing, our customers overwhelmingly desire the ability to do more from anywhere without the restrictions that usually come from working remotely," said Parallels CEO Serguei Beloussov.

As long as an instance of Parallels is open on your Mac, just fire up the app on your mobile device and your windows environment is instantly synced in real-time to your iPad, iPod or iPhone. This could be great for the iPad owner who wants to use the device to show a PowerPoint presentation without having to first convert it to an iPad-friendly format.

Part of making the mobile experience smooth for Parallels included boosting speed of the app to make it launch and run apps faster. Parallels says it can now boot up into a Windows application 41% faster than the previous version.

The application can now fully virtualize and leverage 64-bit apps and can reproduce 5.1 digital surround sound. Enhanced 3D capabilities mean gamers can better enjoy PC games on their Mac, though virtualizing games on the iPad probably won't work too well with the touch-screen interface (unless Monkey Island is your kind of game!)

So if you've always wanted to run Internet Explorer (or Firefox, for that matter) on your iOS device, Parallels Desktop 6 is probably the app for you. Check out a free trial at the Parallels homepage and give the free iOS app a whirl.

Additionally, this newest version of Chrome now supports some fancy new HTML5 features, including geolocation APIs and drag-and-drop functionality. Beta release testers of Chrome may have already spotted the ability to use Google Maps' location functions, as well as drag-and-drop of attachments from within Gmail.

According to Google, today's release of Chrome is the fastest ever, improving "by 213 percent and 305 percent in Javascript performance by the V8 and SunSpider benchmarks" since its initial beta release. Google is also working with Adobe to fully integrate Flash into the browser with new plug-in APIs, but this will not be available until the next full release of Flash Player, which is slated to happen in the near future.

Image by Christoph Niemann.

The new tablet, to be possibly introduced in Q3, is code-named Hurricane and will run on Palm's mobile operating system. HP bought Palm for $1.2 billion last month.

Maybe the Hurricane will be as fast as its namesake. Or maybe it will just blow through and leave a mess behind.

Le Meur told us that a native Windows client was something that Seesmic's users had been requesting for quite a while. The Seesmic team worked on this new client for the last few months, though the company managed to keep this development under wraps and today's release comes as a surprise. While there are quite a few good native Twitter clients for OSX, the most popular Twitter clients on Windows are currently AIR apps.

Features

Being a native client, Seesmic can now also make use of some of Windows' built-in features like a system-wide spellchecker or Windows 7's location services. While Twitter hasn't launched it's location API yet, Seesmic will now be able to tab into this data quickly.

The new client will also allow users to drag and drop their friends' avatars into user lists.

Just like the current beta version of its AIR app, Seesmic for Windows will support Twitter's userlists and while the look and feel is similar to the AIR app, the Windows client also features vertical tabs in the sidebar that allow users to quickly switch between different views (all, accounts, userlists and searches).

Plugins for Seesmic

For developers, of course, the new plugin infrastructure also means that they can now offer their services directly in a Twitter client. The current version already showcases plugins from TweetMeme and MrTweet. According to Le Meur, this will also allow other Twitter-like services to build their own plugins and build their own columns in Seesmic without having to establish a formal relationship with the company. In a few weeks, Seesmic will launch a plugin gallery to showcase these extensions.

What About the AIR App?

Seesmic will continue to develop its Adobe AIR client for the time being, though chances are that the company is also looking at developing a native Mac client.

While the in-home kick-off concept is an interesting launch tactic, we have difficulty believing that the people in the campaign's imagery are actually huddled around the computer enthralled by the Windows 7 experience. Are you sure this isn't a YouTube party? Balloons, shrimp cocktail AND models? If it's going to be this kind of a party, let's just hope no one does any keg stands over your keyboard. To register as a party host visit the house party page.

The creators of Firefox had the sense to realize that their uphill battle against Microsoft's IE was not going to be fought between equal armies. Internet Explorer was already pre-installed on almost every PC, and the Redmond company had ten times the resources to spend on development and research than their open-source competitor. Spread Firefox began as an effort to harness the collective voices of the programmers, marketers and enthusiasts contributing to the Mozilla project. Rather than positioning themselves as a corporate competitor, Firefox likened itself to a political cause. Externally, the group referred to itself as a "movement", and internally, the very infrastructure of the community site was powered by CivicSpace (formerly DeanSpace). The site is a modified version of the Drupal content management system created for Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign.

Spread Firefox became a rallying hub for open-source advocates and Microsoft dissenters. Since the very beginning, Firefox was humanized as the eager young candidate with a can-do attitude, while Microsoft's IE was portrayed as being bloated, corrupt and resting on his laurels.

In this world, the initial political platforms had nothing to do with health care or fiscal responsibility, but rather the impending threats of spyware and Trojan horses. Instead of putting signs on their lawns, volunteers put "Get Firefox" buttons on their personal websites. Instead of holding bake sales, they held hack-a-thons to build new extensions.

It's not unreasonable to compare the browser's fans to Howard Dean's leaflet-touting Deaniacs. While most enthusiasts opt to don t-shirts or work on web development, there are certainly zealots. One group of hardcore Oregon State University fans went so far as to create a 220 ft. Firefox crop circle.

Both Dean's campaign strategies and Spread Firefox are testament to small contributions and the power of the internet. The race to 1 billion downloads is a huge step in the browser territory struggle; however, as with Dean's campaign, it's still a long way from single-handedly toppling the status quo. Nevertheless, the Firefox campaign may be aided by Microsoft's antitrust case and the company's recent proposal to include rival web browsers in the Windows OS throughout Europe.

Mozilla's bid to become commander in chief, at least in Europe, may actually be achieved in the foreseeable future. It will be interesting to see if Opera, Safari and Chrome will step in to split the vote.

For more information on Firefox, visit the Spread Firefox site, or to download the browser, visit the product page.

According to Stat Counter, Internet Explorer currently holds the majority market share for browsers at 61%. The next competitor is Firefox with roughly 30% of installs and Opera, Safari and Chrome make up the difference. While non-IE users have had to install their browser of choice, Internet Explorer's rise to success can be attributed to having been bundled on every Windows PC. With the new multi-browser bundling, competitors will finally reap the rewards of Microsoft's distribution channels. As new PC's are purchased, it's likely that Firefox and Chrome will see a new opportunity to thrive.

Less than tech-savvy users who've never questioned IE bundling with Windows may purchase new machines and choose their browser for reasons that have nothing to do with performance or popularity. A user may simply choose to run Opera because they're a music lover or Chrome because they're a car enthusiast. While it's too early to tell how consumer habits will change, if the EU chooses to settle with Microsoft, browser developers will see a major shift in the market place.

For now, the code has not yet been submitted to the Linux kernel and the community will most definitely look at it with a fine tooth comb. The Linux community's backlash against Microsoft is somewhat justified. In 2001, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer spoke to the Chicago Sun-Times and likened Linux to a cancer. He said, "Open source is not available to commercial companies. The way the license is written, if you use any open-source software, you have to make the rest of your software open source... Linux is not in the public domain. Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches. That's the way that the license works."

Nevertheless, whether for legal purposes or business purposes, it appears that Microsoft is wholly ready to release the isolated device driver code to the open source community. The code would directly benefit the company in expanding Microsoft's market share amongst administrators running Linux.

The granddaddy of Linux, Linus Torvalds has not yet looked at the code; however he made the statement to Linux Magazine, "We all "scratch our own itches". It's why I started Linux, it's why I started git, and it's why I am still involved...Complaining about the fact that Microsoft picked a selfish area to work on is just silly. Of course they picked an area that helps them. That's the point of open source - the ability to make the code better for your particular needs, whoever the 'your' in question happens to be."

UPDATE: In response to Stephen Hemminger's accusations, Microsoft spokesperson Sam Ramji made the following statement to Port 25, "Microsoft's decision was not based on any perceived obligations tied to the GPLv2 license. For business reasons and for customers, we determined it was beneficial to release the drivers to the kernel community under the GPLv2 license through a process that involved working closely with Greg Kroah-Hartman, who helped us understand the community norms and licensing options surrounding the drivers." Too see the full statement, visit Port 25.

In the comments of the Yodel Anecdotal blog post and the Yahoo Search blog post about the toolbar's release, several commenters noted that the toolbar did not install on Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system. Another complained that it crashed when installing to IE8. Later, a Yahoo employee jumped in to report that the team "made some adjustments" and asked the commenters to try again.

Unfortunately, as of this morning, I'm still unable to test the new toolbar on my Windows 7 PCs. Going to toolbar.yahoo.com brings me to a page where the download button is greyed out and the text beneath it reads:

We're sorry. This version of Yahoo! Toolbar requires Windows 2000 or later. It will not work on your system.

Nice going, Yahoo. Way to test your software before releasing it.

Toolbar Features

It's too bad that the toolbar is broken because it has a couple of features that look like they might be interesting to try. The first new addition is something being called "Preview and Go" which provides drop-down boxes reminiscent of IE8's "Web Slices" feature that deliver live previews of other web sites without you having to leave the page you're currently on. This is handy for checking multiple email inboxes, staying on top of your eBay listings, reading breaking news, checking stocks, weather, or movie showtimes, and more. Since Web Slices are IE8-only, the Yahoo! Toolbar could deliver similar functionality to those who prefer surfing in Firefox instead.

The other new feature of note is the toolbar's Inquisitor integration. If you haven't tried Inquisitor before, already available as a browser plugin for Safari, Firefox, and Internet Explorer, you're missing out on one of the cooler search experiences coming out of Yahoo. The toolbar, like the plugin, lets you search using traditional searche engines like Yahoo or Google, but also site-specific engines like Flickr, Wikipedia, and Amazon. You can customize Inquisitor, too, by adding other search engines to its list.

Sadly, I can't actually try any of these new features because Yahoo's Toolbar doesn't work on Windows 7 - in either Firefox or IE. Although Windows 7 has not publicly launched, its release candidate has been out for a while now. You would think Yahoo would want to support the millions of users who have downloaded the latest version of Windows. Apparently, Yahoo thinks they've fixed the issue so who knows when Windows 7 users will ever get a chance to try the new toolbar.

In a word, the release allows Microsoft-rooted corporate networks to keep information in a shared, collaborative environment rather than locked in individual PCs' "application silos." The suite includes Aurelia Reporter (for publishing and sharing versioned documents), Desktop Connector (for dragging and dropping files or directories into the MindTouch environment), and Microsoft Word and Outlook Connectors (for one-click publishing of documents, threaded conversations, and attachments). These tools enable working via web browsers and permit collaboration without installed software.

"MindTouch is pretty unique in what we're doing," said MindTouch founder and CEO, Aaron Fulkerson, in a phone conversation last night. "Most people deploy our service behind a firewall and use it as a wiki. You don't have to be a programmer to deploy it, and it lets you connect systems and get real-time data from other systems, applications, and databases."

When considering the scope, scalability, and depth of the features MindTouch offers, Fulkerson noted that there is little comparison between Google Docs or similar offerings, which he feels only work well for small businesses.

This point could be convincingly countered by Google, which has been promoting its premier suite applications as suitable and scalable for large enterprises. As we wrote yesterday, auto supplier company Valeo is now deploying Google Apps to 30,000 of its employees.

Still, Fulkerson by no means considers MindTouch to be dwelling in the shadow of a much larger competitor.

"Because we have a web-oriented architecture, IT and business users can do rapid application development on the platform, which takes weeks instead of months. Also because of the WOA, it makes it easy for MindTouch to develop the productivity tools on the desktop. And it's easy for users to adapt MindTouch to how they work and get more value out of other systems they're using."

"Whatever your workflow is," he continued, "MindTouch allows you to get more out of it. Microsoft Office docs can be published to MindTouch. It's taggable, searchable, editable from the web, sharable through a URL or email or Twitter DMs or chat IMs, and usable in a way it would never be if it was trapped on your desktop."

The Desktop Connector feature allows users to drag and drop any kind of document or even whole directories into MindTouch. All files then become web-based, searchable, etc. For richly formatted documents with images, even the formatting gets imported.

The new Aurelia Reporter in Desktop Suite is particularly impressive. It allows any Windows document to be published as a MindTouch page. That page is then accessible from a web browser and editable even if the user doesn't have the software on their PCs. As with all MindTouch pages, the content is editable, indexed for search, versioned, and able to be permissioned for specific users and groups.

And with Microsoft Word and Outlook Connectors, email threads are publishable and searchable by any involved users and from multiple sources.