Three of the biggest names in the computing industry have joined forces in order to improve the research efforts being done for cloud computing. Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Yahoo are combining their expertise for cloud computing, which could be the IT delivery model of the future. Cloud is a network that is made of thousands of networks and cheap servers that are only as powerful as your home PC but holds huge amount of data from the Web. Through this partnership, HP, Intel and Yahoo will develop a global Open Source testing site for cloud computing. They hope to make six centers with 1,000 to 4,000 Intel processors to make up the cloud structure. This test bed will be powered by the Open Source software PIG, as well as Apache Hadoop and a program made by Yahoo Research.

Google did not foresee that one of its former employees would come up with a search engine that could possibly overthrow Google as the search giant. Launched just this Monday is the new search engine called Cuil. Don’t be fooled by its spelling because you can easily pronounce it as “cool.” Cuil is the creation of former Google employee Anna Patterson and her husband Tom Costello, who also function as the President and CEO of the said search engine. And also acting as vice president of engineering and a third cofounder of Cuil is another former Google employee, Russell Power.

Heard of Qik? Though it is pronounced as quick it is not a verb. Qik is the new means by which you can enjoy live video service right in your mobile device. A public beta is now available for your inspection after almost year private of beta testing. Together with going public, Qik is installed with neat features to make it easily serviceable. Curious to know what these features are? Restricted group access, self-service event streams, and a new embedded player are the things to look forward to in Qik. Through the group access feature offered by the site, users can choose only those who they want to view and upload clips. Qik also includes a new Events feature in the site.

I’ve already written a handful of articles about the upcoming Firefox 3 while it was still in the making and in the beta testing stage. After all that effort, I guess I’d be depriving you if I fail to write about it now that it has been released – OFFICIALLY! It’s about time actually after being three years in the making. Because of its development duration, we can expect all fixes have been done for it to be compatible both in Windows and Mac OS. Mozilla officially released the Firefox 3 yesterday, June 17. Together with its release, Mozilla also hopes to set a Guinness World Record for this new browser’s total number of download in a day.

Have you been waiting for the Mozilla FIrefox 3? The newly released Moxilla Firefox 3 Release Candidate is not yet the final version, rather, it is the fourth Beta version of F3. This version is catered for developers who need to carefully analyze if their codes properly work in the new browser. Wth the changes done on the browser, users can expect a faster, easier and more secure browsing. Some improvements were done on Firefox’s memory and speed that is why it was able to pass the Acid2 test as well as the Acid3 test.

Adobe has been busy! But their preoccupation has yielded another beneficial product for techies – the Adobe Media Player. This is advantageous software because unlike other desktop video players available today, the Adobe Media Player allows users to stream and download videos from major content providers. It also enables the user to import video feeds by means of an RSS feed. Users can also play stored music in this player. However, Adobe Media Player has limitation; this can only play FLV files or MPEG-4. So, even if you can download a variety of file formats with this Player, actually playing them is a different matter.

We all know about that active proliferation of online storage services nowadays. Well, Hewlett-Packard is adding to its number with their newly launched HP Upline. This service is a beneficial one for backing up of files as well as file sharing. Intriguing? I think so. This new service also features automatic backup and 1-click restore capability. HP Upline offers unlimited storage for an affordable fee of $59 for one year. However, if you also want to just try it out, you can. If you only want to try and but buy, HP offers a limited 1GB storage for free. But there’s a catch. When the year is up, you have to upgrade to the paid service otherwise you’ll never see your files again.

Many of you might have heard of ‘Blackle’, an alternative to Google that apparently saves energy and now as part of this quest to save the world one watt at a time ‘LocalCooling’ was created. I must admit I thought it was a sport’s drink when I first heard of it but it turns out it’s a desktop application that not only estimates the energy use of your computer but suggest how to being that number down. You download ‘LocalCooling’ its scans your computer and gives you its estimate and suggestions then you can create an account on their website and turn it into a competition of who can save the most.

Christmas is the season of giving…we all know that and DivX knows it too that is why they are offering the DivX Pro Player bundle for FREE! You can save your $20 dollars for something else because this player can be downloaded from the DivX site without costing you a penny. The bundle includes the official DivX converter and DivX Pro codec that allows the quicker encoding and decoding of data when using dual CPU. For those who are not familiar with how DivX Pro works, this makes it possible for users to convert videos into the DivX format. You can also create your own videos with the DivX Pro bundle.

Mozilla Corp. is moving on to their new browser. On Monday the company launched the Mozilla 3.0 beta. However, ordinary users like myself are being warned to stay using the Firefox 2.0. The Firefox 3.0 beta is recommended for developers as well as testers. The application can be downloaded to Mac OS X, Linux 21 as well as Windows. Mozilla’s interface designer Mike Beltzner revealed that the Firefox 3.0 carries many improvements. These improvements pertain to the speed, security and convenient usage.

There are a lot of web browsers nowadays and I can’t say that I’ve had the pleasure of trying out all of them… and you know that browsers are not only being used for the PC, they’re being integrated into mobile devices as well. To be more competitive Mozilla Corp. is developing another mobile browser. The Mobile Firefox is already in progress now, Mozila having hired 2 new developers to assist in the venture. These two are Christian Sejersen from Openwire Systems Inc. and Brad Lassey from France Telecom R&D.

Home users and especially the business organizations will have a better tool to use in managing their hundreds of files and various important papers. Last Sept 18 at the IBM Collaboration Summit in New York, the company announced the tool set, which they call Lotus Symphony. Right now IBM is offering this new software for free! This is a great treat because aside from being free, these tools can help a lot in creating and sharing documents as well as spreadsheets and presentations.

To cater more on corporate-oriented individual’s need for bigger and higher capacity hard drives, Hitachi launched its 2.5-inch, 200GB hard drive officially named as the Travelstar 7K200. This hard drive can run at 7200 RPM; compared to its predecessor this rate is double its capacity and 22% higher in terms of performance. Its also has a 350 Gs operating shock tolerance that enable it to withstand potentially damaging vibration, drops and knocks. Aside from the faster speed and bigger capacity, the Travelstar 7K200 is also equipped with an optional data encryption or their “Bulk Data Encryption” technology. For those people who use their laptop in business and for storing delicate data, this encryption technology would be heaven-sent because it can prevent data theft and piracy.

As computer users, we all have the same concerns especially when it comes to online security. Viruses are just some of the major worries when using the PC especially for those who have no way of knowing that they are already entering an unsafe site. Aside from that, one of the most recent problems is phishing. Well now you have a way to feel secure while going online. Symantec recently launched their product, the Norton 360 All-In-One Security. Retail price of this new product is $79.99 with a one-year subscription for use as well as receive Symantec’s protection updates.