Futuremark's YouGamers website has a blog for 3DMark developer Nick Renqvist, who in his third entry talks a bit about the next release of this benchmark program. Among the things mentioned is that the next 3DMark is Vista only, and requires DirectX10 compatible hardware. A previous blog entry goes over the construction of a program like 3DMark.

The guys at Mozilla have released a new version of Firefox, now at v2.0.0.2. Release notes can be found here, most notable is that there are "Many enhancements and fixes for Windows Vista".

Futuremark sends along updated builds of their popular 3DMark and PCMark benchmark programs, offering Windows Vista and IE7 compatibility, improved startup speed and several bug fixes. Over at FileShack you can find 3DMark 06 1.1.0 (or the patch for those who have 1.0.2 installed), 3DMark05 1.3.0 (no patch and its recommended you uninstall older releases first) and PCMark 05 1.2.0 along with a patch for older installations.

Available now on the Mozilla website is the version 2.0 release of Firefox. Firefox 2 features an updated user interface, phishing protection, search box enhancements, JavaScript 1.7 support and much more.

Over at Microsoft.com you can now find the final release of Internet Explorer 7, with Microsoft's web browser updated to join the 21st century with support for things like tabbed browsing and RSS feeds.

Over at the Mozilla website you can find the version 1.5.0.7 release of Firefox. Release notes can be found here. Thanks inchwide.

Been having problems with Windows Media content in Firefox recently? It isn't you, it is the fox. A new version 1.5.0.6 of Firefox is now available to fix that issue. Thanks inchwide.

As noted on the Mozilla website, new Firefox has been released. Version 1.5.0.5 is available in various flavors here. Thanks MikkleThePickle.

Microsoft has pumped out a third beta build of Internet Explorer 7, matching the code to the IE found in the latest Windows Vista build. Among other changes you can now re-order tabs, there's the addition of an email button to the IE toolbar and several more rendering issues have been resolved.

If you were wondering about game performance under Vista Beta 2, Extreme Tech has posted a benchmark article. They took a look at World of Warcraft, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, F.E.A.R, Oblivion and several other games.

No Vista for consumers in 2006 as Microsoft has announced that their new operating system has been delayed. The new ETA is January of 2007. Corporate versions are still expected in November.

More on FiringSquad as JCal has also posted a Gamebryo Graphics Engine Q&A. Emergent COO John Austin answers questions about the technology, which is used by Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion among other games.

Microsoft has officially announced its Vista product lineup, revealing that five versions of the OS will hit the market later this year. There are two business versions in Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Enterprise, and three consumer versions: Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate. Premium is superior to Basic in that it features integrated DVD burning, has Windows Media Center capabilities and comes with the new user interface Windows Aero.

Futuremark has released their latest benchmarking tool, 3DMark 06, which you can download from FileShack. The 577mb benchmark program includes new Shader Model 2 tests, new CPU tests and HDR Shader Model 3 tests for system-wide gaming performance measurement. More info can be found at the Futuremark website.

3DMark06 is the first product from Futuremark using the AGEIA(tm) PhysX software physics library in two very complex, game-like threaded CPU tests conceived to measure properly performances of single processor, multi-core and multiple processor systems in next generation of games. In addition to using real-time physics, both CPU tests also employ multi-threaded artificial intelligence algorithms. By combining the results of the two CPU tests and four graphics tests, 3DMark06 enables users to get a 3DMark score which reflects the overall gaming performance of their PC. Futuremark and their industry partners anticipate that CPU performance promises to be increasingly important in next generation PC games as new titles increase their use of artificial intelligence and complex physics and their reliance on multithreaded processing.

A few days earlier than expected Microsoft has finally released a patch for the WMF exploit thats's been making the rounds. Patches for the "critical" flaw are available for Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, Windows XP Service Pack 1 & 2, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, and various flavors of Windows 2003.

According to this eWeek article, Microsoft is looking to minimize system update reboots for Windows Vista. The company is working on Restart Manager, a program designed to update parts of the Vista OS and only restart those specific areas without rebooting the entire machine. In case that Vista does have to shut down the machine, the Restart Manager will save the state of your programs and restore them after the reboot.

Though at the moment not yet reflected on the official site, version 1.5 of the popular Firefox browser is now available. Grab your copies from FileShack. Thanks inchwide.

Tech Report takes a look at the K8T900 chipset this morning, which is VIA's latest. The new chipset features an improved PCI Express implementation for better SLI support, four SATA ports, and several other features.

The guys at Beyond3D have posted a new Q&A with Nicklas Renqvist of Futuremark. Questions are focused on the next 3DMark benchmarking tool.

Mozilla has released a new Firefox build, fixing a few exploit issues in their popular browser. Release notes can be found here.