There are some things that just make you stop and wonder: “Is this the beginning of the end?” Things like global warming, widespread war and poverty, and – of course – the mystifying popularity of Twilight. And then there are things that make you quit your job and spend all your money on a tour of the world's greatest steakhouses, because – damn it all – the four horsemen of the apocalypse are banging down your door right now. Thing numero uno? Duke Nukem Forever's rapidly approaching release date.

Yep, you read that correctly. Duke Nukem Forever's landing on shelves this time. For real. The reason? Gearbox Software – they of Borderlands and Brothers in Arms fame – have started cracking the whip on Duke's notoriously meandering development cycle, and they're making sure the game finally waltzes out the door in time for a 2011 release.

"It's coming in 2011. It's coming in 2011. It's absolutely going to come, and we will have it shipped. We brought you Borderlands last year. We know what we're doing. It's coming on the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 and Windows PC," said Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford during the big unveiling. 

But this is Duke Nukem Forever we're talking about. What reason do you have to believe there's not just another 12 year delay waiting around the corner to ambush you the second you get your hopes up? Well, the game's playable at the Penny Arcade Expo, for one. Right now. Look! Here are some videos! You can watch (or read about) Duke Nukem taking a nice, relieving pee this very moment. Let it soothe your fears just as it soothes him.

Ewww. That was a pretty weird sentence. Good thing the apocalypse is happening any day now, or we'd probably never live it down. And on that note, we're making our exit. We've got steakhouses to tour, after all.

At the time of its theatrical release, many in the consumer electronics industry hoped that “Avatar” would usher in a new era in home entertainment, an era where 3D is no longer a novelty but the norm. James Cameron's magnum opus didn't disappoint and is now viewed by many as a watershed in 3D's march to the living room. 

However, its upcoming release on 3D Blu-ray is unlikely to strengthen the case for 3D's place in the living room. Panasonic execs have confirmed that the Avatar 3D Blu-ray disc will be exclusive to the company's Viera 3D TVs when it arrives in December, 2010. 

According to a TWICE report, the 3D Blu-ray disc will only be available as part of a bundle with “Viera 3D TVs and related equipment” for an unspecified period of time after launch.

"For the consumer, there is really no better way to experience 3D in the home than with this particular disc," Victor Carlson, Panasonic's consumer marketing VP, told TWICE. "This is the perfect marriage between this blockbuster made for 3D and what we think is the ultimate home entertainment system for enjoying 3D using our TV sets."

Image Credit: Joystiq

Apple and Google have begun sparring over who has the fastest growing mobile OS, with both gloating on the sheer number of devices they are activating each day. However, it is often difficult to extricate the truth from such unabashed preening. Maybe Quantcast's latest monthly mobile data usage report could offer a more balanced perspective.

According to Quantcast, Android emerged as a more popular web browsing platform at the end of August, gaining another 2% share of mobile Web usage in the US. It managed an identical leap in July as well. Android devices now account for a quarter of all mobile data consumption in the country.

Apple's iOS, while still the leading devourer of mobile data bandwidth, is slowly but steadily conceding ground to Android. After dropping 2% over the past two months, it now accounts for 56% of all mobile data usage in the US.

We all knew it was a distinct possibility that at some point that Google could be looking at a viable antitrust investigation. It's not clear if this is the day for it, but we do know that the Texas Attorney General is investigating the search giant to see if they are violating antitrust laws. At issue here is the accusation from some companies that Google is manipulating its paid search results in a way designed to disadvantage competitors.

Google has confirmed that the official investigation started in July, and more information would be coming soon. The companies known to have filed the complaint are three vertical search engines (meaning they provide categories to click through to filter results). They allege that Google is keeping them down because they perceive a threat. 

None of the complaining companies are large enough for Google to pay attention to, let alone discriminate against. Still, you never know what an AG investigation will turn up.

 

We appreciate all the wonderful (and sometimes not) comments we've been receiving from our weekly "Photo Awesome" series, but in the interest of narrowing the gap between us and, well you, our loyal readers, we thought we'd have a little competition and let you decide the outcome. 

So we picked our best and most awesome t-shirts, brought them to work, and want YOU to tell us which is best (because we bicker enough among each other as it is). 

 

"My shirt should win so that sad hecka skeleton can be magically transformed into a happy hecka skeleton: full of win." 

-Amber Bouman

 

"My shirt should win because it harnesses the incredible power of nostalgia.  If it also had a Tamogotchi and the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air on it, I'd be a shoo-in."

-Alex Castle

 

"Edward James Olmos wins.  End of story." 

-Nathan Edwards

 

 

"I know what you're thinking:  'Whoa, kick-ass breast pocket bro'.  I know, I know.  $1.99 at Walgreens." 

-Alan Fackler

"My shirt should win because I just ate five Jack in the Box tacos and really couldn't care less about anything else right now except not being sick.  And, by the way, did you know they no longer make Monster Tacos?" 

-Gordon Mah Ung

"If I don’t win this T-shirt contest it’s because of a vast, multi-national conspiracy to squelch the free flow of supercool, kick-ass T-shirts. But let’s pretend the conspiracy doesn’t exist, and my shirt has as good a chance as any. So why should it win? I’ll give you a three-part answer. First, my shirt is mad geeky-funny-ironic. Sure, Nathan’s T-shirt is ironic, but its irony responds to all that vampire hullabaloo, and that’s just annoying. Second, my shirt is about cars, and cars are cooler than any of the other subject matter you’ll see on my competitors’ shirts. Third, my shirt is black, and black goes with anything, and is sort of “formal” within the scope of T-shirt design. In other words, I can wear this shirt at a semi-fancy restaurant, and if I lay low and avoid making a scene, I stand a good chance of not getting kicked out. So there you have it, folks: The explanation of why my T-shirt wins. I will thank you in advance for your generous vote."

-Jon Phillips

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You can buy the shirt Jon is wearing here. 

And now, a special guest appearence from Kate Byrne, Future's VP of Tech and Living. 

 

There you have it.  Who wins?  Let us know in the comments will ya?  And, while you're at it, have yourself a great weekend!

As Google puts it, their privacy policies are, "long, complicated and lawyerly." We'd say that's probably accurate. Have you ever tried to read one of those things? Google is looking to change that by updating their privacy policies with less jargon, less volume, and more clear language. The Google blog post does go to great pains to point out that this is not an excuse to sneak less favorable policies into the mix, this is just about making things more readable.

Google will first be reducing the total number of privacy documents they maintain. Most products are covered by the main Google privacy policy, but some products have their own. So 12 of these sub-documents will be going away. For example, Gmail, Docs, Talk, and Calendar will use the same policy, since they are all governed by Google Contacts.

The Big G will also be rewriting the more legalistic parts of the main policy so average people can read and follow more of it. There is also a lot of repetition that is currently in it for the lawyers' sakes. That should all go away. Google expects all the changes to be done by October 3. Then at least you'll be able to figure out just how Google is spying on you. Have you ever read the Google privacy policy? Will you now?

 

A few months back, Voltage Studios (the indie studio that made "The Hurt Locker") began legal proceedings against those seen illegally sharing the movie online. 5,000 "John Doe" lawsuits were filed by the film's producers. Voltage Pictures has now started moving ahead with the next phase of the legal process. Several ISP customers have received notices that their provider has been subpoenaed, and must turn over their names to Voltage's lawyers. 

A number of small movie studios have been working with the law firm of Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver. This firm is managing the cases in exchange for a portion of any settlements of judgments that result. The ACLU and EFF have both strongly opposed this action. Some ISPs have even objected due to the huge number of subpoenas they are likely to get.

Some alleged infringers have already been offered settlement offers of several thousand dollars. When faced with the possibility of huge legal fees, many individuals may choose to settle. This strategy didn't work out so well for the RIAA, do you think the producers of The Hurt Locker have a better chance of success?

Image Credit: Voltage Pictures

 

If you’ve been following our tablet coverage, you know we’ve been waiting patiently for legitimate iPad competitors. You also know we gave a disappointing 6 verdict to the Dell Streak – more of a large smartphone “phablet” than a legitimate tablet – and that we’re looking forward to the Samsung Galaxy Tab, though one can only guess when that piece of gear will hit US shores.

But just when the whole world is focusing on the big-boy hardware vendors – your Dells, your Samsungs, your Toshibas and your RIMs – up pops the little-known Stream TV Networks with a clean, for-all-intents-finished prototype in hand, along with promises to hand off a reviewable unit next week. The tablet is called the eLocity A7, and we basically liked what we saw during 30 minutes of hands-on use.

Screen size is 7 inches diagonal, a soon-to-be popular dimension that you’ll be seeing in a lot of would-be iPad killers. This screen size allows for a smaller, lighter hardware chassis than what you’ll find in the iPad, but still provides enough screen real estate for comfortable virtual typing and other tablet-specific activity. Resolution is 800x480, which isn’t class-leading (the iPad does 1024x768), but you’re not going to get much better with any Android tablet, as the Android resolution limit is currently 854x480. 

Resolution limits aside, the A7 comes with Android version 2.2 (Froyo), the current best-available OS version. Some completely fine smartphones are running version 2.1, so we must commend Stream TV Networks for offering the best OS in the Android ecosystem.

Here’s how the physical footprint compares to the iPhone. Please note that this A7 prototype’s red shell will not be available at launch. Instead, all units will be black as seen in our beauty shots.

The A7 tablet is anchored by Nvidia’s Tegra 2 T20 system-on-chip. It’s a dual-core, 1GHz SoC that boasts 1MB of L2 cache, support for Adobe Flash, and of course Nvidia’s famous programmable 3D mojo. All of this processing power is mated to 512MB of DDR2 system memory, and 4GB of flash storage (plus a microSD slot for up 32GB more storage capacity).

Ports include HDMI and a full (not mini) USB slot. Thanks to the HDMI port and the video power of the Tegra  2, the A7 can output 1080p video to your HDTV or computer monitor. We saw it in action, and, yes, it was 1080P with no visual hiccups, at least in the brief video demos we saw. Of course, the A7’s built-in screen can’t display 1080p, but it’s nice to have the option available for external displays.

The A7 includes a 1.3MP front-facing camera for videochat, but that’s the extent of its camera offerings (which is fine by us, because we don’t expect pure tablets to double as digicams). Data I/O is handled by 802.11b/g WiFi and Bluetooth. You’ll find no 3G inside this tablet, but a 3G version is in the works.

And, finally, the price: We were impressed to learn that everything above – along with an HDMI cable and a USB-to-USB “networking cable” – will cost you just $349. At launch, the only way to buy the A7 will be through Amazon, but other retail options will open up in time.

All in all, the eLocity A7 appeared to be an interesting package, but one can only glean so much from a half-hour of use. Stay tuned for the official review.

 

DXG’s A85V falls into an odd market niche. It looks like a standard, hand-held camcorder, complete with flip-out LCD display. Even the feature set lies somewhere between a standard camcorder and a Flip-style camcorder. Let’s first take a look at the physical specs, then take a look at how it fares when shooting 1080p video.

The key features include full support for HD video (1080p resolution at 30fps.) The lens is a 12x optical zoom, supplemented by 10x digital zoom. We generally avoid using digital zoom, since you lose resolution, so the 12x optical zoom is welcome. That 12x translates to an effective zoom of 36-428mm (based on 35mm SLR format). Video is captured in H.264 .MOV file format. The sensor consists of a 1/2.3-inch CMOS 10-megapixel unit, which can capture still images at full resolution. The A85V also supports a 12-megapixel, interpolated resolution for still captures.

The DXG-A85V is a conventional camcorder with an unconventional price tag.

The video resolutions this camcorder supports are a little odd: There’s support for 1080p at 30fps, but not 1080p/24 or 1080i. It also handles 720p at 30- and 60 fps, as well as lower resolutions for standard-def shooting. The A85V also includes a stereo microphone, but it’s built almost flush into the camera body, and it didn’t always capture at listenable levels. There’s no provision for using external microphones. There’s also a built-in strobe, but it’s fairly anemic.

NTSC and PAL formats are user selectable, as are the 50- or 60Hz refresh rates. External interfaces are via HDMI (for video) and USB (for file transfers) While the A85V includes 128MB of built in flash, that’s not enough for extended recording, so you’ll likely want to add an SD card; SDHC is fully supported, up to 32MB (but be prepared to your fingernail or a knife blade to release the card). The battery is Lithium-Ion and slides into a slot; unlike pricier camcorders with external battery mounts, you can’t add a larger battery for longer shoots (although you can attach a USB charger for continuous power).

Overall, the feature set looks pretty good for a $319 (MSRP) high-definition camcorder that’s available online as low as $249. The lack of microphone input is problematic; then again, it’s not something we expect to find on a low-cost camcorder. The more important question is how well does it shoot? The answer: mediocre. We’re not comparing the DXGA85V to Canon Vixia HFS-100, which costs three times as much, but we’re focusing on the basics here, not any enhanced features.

The DXG-A85V has an SD slot, but extricating an SD card from it is a frustrating experience.

It’s worth talking about the user interface for changing settings. The DXG-A85V uses a straightforward and uncluttered touch-screen interface; of course, it’s uncluttered because it doesn’t deliver a lot of control: There are no programmed modes—such as “action” or “portrait,” for example.

Auto white balance isn’t particularly good. Varying light sources resulted in noticeable variances in color balance, something not so noticeable with the Canon. Low-light noise is actually pretty good, however, but you should be prepared to alter white balance or be prepared to “fix it in post” if need be. Note that the camcorder lacks any provision for manually setting white balance, so fixing it when you’re editing video may end up being your only option.

When shooting outdoor action scenes, DXG’s camcorder tracks pans pretty well, but the colors seemed a little muted. The green from an artificial-turf football field looked washed out and lacked detail when compared to the Canon.

The biggest problem was autofocus, particularly in relatively low light conditions. Even with high-contrast images, we experienced a lot of focus hunting with indoor lighting conditions, and cases where the autofocus just didn’t lock on to a static, high-contrast image. In brightly lit, outdoor conditions, autofocus still hunted a little more than we would have liked. Overall bit rates seemed adequate for 1080p, 30fps shooting, however.

In the end, a conventional camcorder that can shoot 1080p video and is available for under $300 sounds like a terrific deal. Just be aware of the limitations before you buy.

DXG-A85V HD Camcorder Stanley Kubrick

Inexpensive; fairly sharp 12x optical zoom; simple user interface.

Uwe Boll

Wonky autofocus; washed-out colors; ineffective auto white balance.

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John Carmack needs no introduction - since 1991 he's been the main engine development guy for id Software. Shortly after his 40th birthday, we caught up with the tru engineer for a quick 8-question Q&A.

 

Do you have a target performance level or specific platform in mind when you begin planning your engines?
For this generation, we picked the 360 / PS3 as the target platform, knowing that the PC platform would be well past that performance level when we were done.  I am thinking about the next generation now, which is rather difficult because we don’t know much about what is being considered for future consoles.  I may just try to see what I can do with a state of the art PC platform in research mode.
                                          
What’s been the most challenging aspect of building the id Tech 5 engine?
The enormous virtual textures have been challenging for both the workflow and runtime code, but that was the core bet that we made for the project.
 
We’re curious to hear your take on hardware-accelerated tessellation. Any thoughts?
Tesselation has been expected to be “the next big thing” for the last three hardware generations.  It hasn’t been.  Extreme geometric smoothness is needed for movie rendering where it is common for a character’s face to occupy the entire screen for extended periods of times, but that isn’t common for games.  In most cases, the additional vertexes needed for the control mesh on traditional geometric patches could be better spent on additional interesting triangular detail.
 
With the very latest generation of hardware, we may finally be at a point where displacement mapped surfaces are a credible design target.  It has been possible to do it for a while, but it only makes good sense when the average triangle size gets down to only a couple pixels, which used to waste large fractions of the fill rate on GPUs.  Good anti-aliasing is also required to prevent all those tessellated and displaced edges from turning into a ton of noise on screen.
 
If it doesn’t turn out that some form of ray tracing can cut it for our next gen game engine, my fallback plan has always been to extend the current megatexture architecture and workflow to support unique displacement maps on the entire world.

 
What kind of system have you been using to work on the new engine?
I have been using an eight core intel system, but I am upgrading to a 12 core/24 thread system this week.  A 64 bit OS is now mandatory for our development tools.
 
Will we be able to benchmark using Rage / id Tech 5?
We haven’t added specific benchmark code yet, but I’m sure we will before shipping.  It will be a little more complicated because of the dynamic streaming nature of the texturing, so we will probably have to offer a “locked page file cache” option or possibly a “no texture updates” option to give repeatable results.
 
A lot of attention has focused on how id Tech 5 is more developer-friendly. Beyond this, what other features are you most excited about?
The combination of designed-for-60fps gameplay and the character that the world has with the unique art everywhere are the prime things that the technology has enabled.  Every aspect of the game is damn good, but my involvement in performance and graphics biases my views.

 
What’s your take on PC gaming these days? Last year, people were saying it’s dead, which was clearly an exaggeration. The category feels like it’s picking up now, however.
We expect to be successful in the PC market, but the consoles are still the dominant targets for an action game.
 
As you approach your 40th birthday, do you have any reflections on some of the gaming-related tech you’ve helped kick-start -- the first person-shooter genre; 3D acceleration; etc – or PC gaming in general? Are you still playing games?
I did go through a period where I had pretty much stopped playing games, but in recent years I have been playing regularly with my son, which has been a good thing for my engagement with my work.  I’m proud of what I have done, but I almost never reminisce about the past, because I am so excited about the present and future.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation reminded us that it's not a good idea to let your pets hang around dangling cords, especially those carrying an electric current. Cats and dogs tend to chew on such things and, well, the results aren't pretty. Here's another tip: keep your pets away from power strips.

I had to learn this one the freakishly hard way when, earlier this morning, my cat Shizzle, who I may rename to Chev Chelios, decided to lay down next to my Belkin power strip. That usually wouldn't be cause for concern, except that he used it as a pillow with his metal ID tag draping dangerously close to the sockets. Can you guess what happened next?

One glance at the pic above says it all. Though I wasn't in the room at the time, I was told there were sparks and a crackling sound as the steel ID tag and power strip got up close and personal with each other. I could smell the smoke from the next room over.

Notice that the ID tag didn't just get charred, it melted in two different places, which answers Physics Forum member "wj's" question on how to melt stell with electricity.

As for Shizzle, cat lovers and our PETA readers will be happy to know that he's fine (and so are the electronics I had plugged into the outlet -- router and cable modem), albeit down to 8 lives, or 7 if you're deducting one for having him neutered. And his steel ID tag? He'll be wearing a plastic one next time.

Do you have any freakish electronics stories? Share them in the comments section below!

Without any fanfare or press release that we can find, Nvidia launched a new graphics card for OEMs this week, the GeForce GT 420.

The GeForce GT 420 ranks as the first truly low-end Fermi part with support for DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4, and unless something changes, you won't find this card in retail. The OEM-only graphics card has found its way into a handful of Dell, HP, and other pre-built systems, and that's where it will probably stay.

From a hardware standpoint, the GeForce GT 420 sports a 40nm GPU clocked at 700MHz, 48 CUDA cores, 2GB of GDDR3 clocked at 1800MHz on a 128-bit memory bus, and shaders clocked at 1400MHz. It also sports a low-profile design with DVI, HDMI, and D-sub outputs.

Image Credit: Nvidia

Call it a blatant stereotype if you will, but there's no way adult texters come close to text messaging teenage girls who send and receive thousands of texts every month. But that doesn't mean grownups are left living in the cell phone Stone Age, either. According to Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, 72 percent of adult cell phone owners now partake in texting.

That still trails teens in general (male or female), of which 87 percent of those who carry a mobile phone keep in contact with friends and family through text messaging. And we don't even want to know how the comparison breaks down when looking at the total number of messages whisked through the airwaves, though Pew Research revealed this stat anyway. On average, your teenage son or daughter (or YOU, as the case may be) send some 50 text messages every day, compared to the "typical 10 text messages" adults send and receive on a daily basis.

But let's forget about the quantity -- teens are always going to 'win' that one. What's interesting is the steady rise in the number of adults warming up to text messages. In December 2007, a little more than half -- 58 percent -- of adult cell phone owners participated in texting, and that number jumped to 65 percent in September 2009. 

"It may be that folks have been pushed by pricing into unlimited texting plans, which has the effect of encouraging people with those plans to text more, because they no longer think of the cost, and then text more often," said Amanda Lenhart, Pew senior research specialist.

Goals are good, according to our parents, elementary school teachers from yesteryear, and everyone else who told us to aim high. A little graphics card company called Nvidia -- perhaps you've heard of them? -- took those words of encouragement to heart and has set its sights on regaining its top position in the graphics card market.

It's not a matter of if, but when, according to Nvidia's general manager of notebook product business, Rene Haas. Why is a notebook product manager getting into the discussion about graphics card? Well, Haas predicts the company's mobile Fermi-based GeForce 400M series will put the company back on top.

Haas points out that Nvidia has gone and released seven GeForce 400M-based GPUs, all of which support the company's Optimus technology and run, on average, 40 percent faster than the competition. And despite Nvidia's past problems in the mobile sector, companies aren't holding a grudge. Acer, Asus, Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, MSI, and Toshiba are all using GeForce 400M graphics in their notebook lineup.

Don't let the lack of 3D content get you down. For those of you suffering from the 3D Blu-ray blues with your Toshiba Satellite A665-3DV laptop, the latest software update adds a 2D to 3D conversion application so you can pretend that all your existing 2D content is really three-dimensional.

There's also new firmware available that promises to shuttle stereoscopic games and video over the integrated HDMI port, as well as tweak the Blu-ray drive so that it can play 3D movies, because apparently it didn't already do that.

Otherwise, everything else is as you remember it. The $1,600 laptop comes with an Intel Core i7 740QM processor, 4GB of DDR3 memory, GeForce GTS 350M graphics, a 15.6-inch widescreen display, 640GB hard drive spinning at 5400RPM, Blu-ray burner, and of course Nvidia's 3D Vision Kit.

Image Credit: Toshiba via Engadget

For those of you who don't mind walking on the beta side of software, there's a new version of Skype available, version 5.0 Beta 2. Among the handful of changes, Skype 5.0 beefs up its group video calling feature with support for up to 10 people. For it to work, however, everyone in the group needs to be running the latest beta release.

The new version also comes with a revamped UI that Skype says is "sleeker, neater, and crisper than before." Skype Home has been added, where you can keep tabs on your contacts' mood messages, set your own mood message,  select a profile picture and receive account notifications.

Otherwise, most of the changes are internal. Skype says it managed to improve call quality when making group calls and squashed a number of bugs that mucked with stability.

Skype 5.0 Beta 2 Download

Image Credit: Skype

Hewlett Packard (HP) expects to become the world's second largest supplier of netbooks in 2011, and should the company get there, they should consider sending a bottle of Cristal to Intel, the world's No. 1 chip maker. It only seems fitting, considering Intel just shipped a large number of its new dual-core Atom N550 processors to HP for $65, representing a significant 25 percent savings over the chip's official $86 price tag.

As it currently stands, Acer, Samsung, and Asus are the three largest netbook suppliers in the world, in that order. MSI could have been in the mix too, but the company is putting on the brakes somewhat citing concerns over market demand for dual-core netbooks. Instead, MSI is reportedly stepping back to focus on single-core units, and eventually will exit the market in favor of traditional notebooks.

Image Credit: HP

We can think of several items that should be included in the ultimate spy kit, most of them fake, but totally awesome gadgets conceived by Hollywood. Out in the real world, however, it's those pesky BlackBerry devices that hav the United Arab Emirates in a tizzy.

Starting October 11, the UAE will block all BlackBerry email, messaging, and Web services so long as authorities are unable to access the encrypted data. Doing so will effectively hamstring about 500,000 local subscribers and have BlackBerry toting tourists thinking twice about their travel destination.

The reason for the hard stance has to do with concerns over espionage and fear of information sharing. Dubai's police chief, Lt. Gen. Dahi Kahlfan Tamim said the restrictions are also "meant to control false rumors and defamation of public figures due to the absence of surveillance."

The UEA isn't alone here. India has given RIM 60 days to allow authorities to monitor BlackBerry traffic, while Saudi Arabia has concerns of its own, though did allow services to continue last month following "positive developments" in talks with RIM.

Image Credit: blackberrycool.com

Browsers grow up so fast, don't they? Just a short while ago, Google Chrome was nothing more than an idea, and now it's a spunky two-year-old browser with a 7.52 percent share of the market, trailing only Internet Explorer (60.40 percent) and Firefox (22.93 percent). To celebrate the occasion, Google has gone and released a new version of its open source browser, Chrome 6.

"Today, we're releasing a new stable version of Chrome that is even faster and more streamlined," Google wrote in a blog post. "Chrome is now three times faster than it was two years ago on JavaScript performance. We've also been working on simplifying the 'chrome' of Chrome. As you can see, we took the already minimalist user interface and stripped it down a bit more to make it easier to use."

Chrome's two menus are now combined into one, and Google slightly "adjusted the color scheme of the browser to be easier on the eyes." Not yet part of the package is hardware acceleration, though Google says it's in the pipeline.

You can get the update by clicking on the wrench icon and selecting 'About Google Chrome,' or grab the download from here.

Let's cut right to the chase -- according to security firm Panda Security, the infamous Nigerian scam ranks as the decade's most popular online ploy to swindle victims.

"This was the first type of scam to appear on the Internet and continues to be widely used by cybercriminals today," Panda Security says.

Coming in second are lottery-based scams, in which potential victims receive an email claiming that they won the lottery. The ones that fall for it end up sending out something like $1,000 to supposedly cover bank related fees and other expenses in order to transfer the winnings, only the victim never sees a dime.

"As with all the classic scams that predate the Internet, many of the numerous users that fall for these tricks and lose their money are reticent to report the crime," says Luis Corrons, technical director of Panda Labs. "If recovering the stolen money was difficult in the old days, it is even harder now because criminals' tracks are often lost across the Web. The best defense is to learn how to identify these scams an avoid taking the bait."

You can view the entire list here.

Image Credit: icanhascheezeburger.com