Well, Firefox Download Day was nothing if not eventful. First and foremost, Mozilla appears to have succeeded in breaking the Guinness World Record for most software downloads in a 24-hour period as well as surpassing its lofty 5 million-download target for the the day. Not everything was rainbows and butterflies for Mozilla however. The first two hours were rough, very rough in fact. Apparently Mozilla underestimated the initial punch and just didn’t have the goods to support the first wave of anxious downloaders. BGR reader comments on our Download Day post covered the outage quite eloquently:

I have 3.0 RC3 and I like it, I was just going to attempt to get 3.0 release just for the world record, but it seems somebody really F-ed up. -MadMike

I’m not sure what record they are trying to set, but at the very least they’ll set the “most http request failed page refreshes”, the “most unsuccessful downloads”, and the “most feet ever swallowed” records hands down. -Paul

FF DOWNLOAD DAY = EPIC FAIL -poser

Despite all that, Mozilla servers shook off the criticism and came back just before 3:00 pm; about two hours after Download Day officially started. Would Mozilla be able to bounce back after the outage? Over 8 million downloads say yes. When all was said and done, it looks like Firefox Download Day will indeed result in a new world record. What’s more, the Mozilla network served over 83 terabytes of data during the 24-hour period and peaked at about 17,000 downloads per minute. Wow.

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After what has been quite a long wait for many eager BlackBerry users, Palringo has finally made its BlackBerry IM client available to the public. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Palringo’s IM client, it’s definitely time to remedy that. Already fairly popular on Symbian and Windows Mobile devices, Palringo provides text, voice and image IM services - for free. Beyond its own IM service it also supports just about every popular IM platform like Google Talk, AIM, MSN Yahoo and more. Let’s break it down by service:

• Text IM: Standard, run-of-the-mill instant messaging.
• Voice IM: More commonly known as Push to Talk (PTT), users can instantly exchange voice messages in near real-time. Think of it as a free walkie talkie on your mobile. PTT is a service that has been very limited in consumer acceptance due to high prices, handset compatibility issues and carrier limitations. Enter Palringo. Now that a solid java client is available, for free, PTT couldn’t be more accessible. Also of note, Palringo supports voice messaging to third-party IM clients (GTalk, AIM, etc) as well. While Palringo -> Palringo voice messages will play automatically on the recipient’s device, Palringo -> ‘Other’ messages will be delivered as links that the recipient can click on to play the audio file hosted on Palringo’s servers.
• Image IM: Exactly what it sounds like. Click the picture button and Palringo will activate the handset’s camera. Snap a picture, hit send and the image will display right in the Palringo client on the recipient’s handset. Users can also send images to third-party IM services (GTalk, AIM, etc). Just like voice IM, your buddy will receive a link that will allow him / her to view and even save the image hosted on Palringo’s servers.

Palringo also includes some other nice features such as group chat with image and voice support; meaning you can send one text, voice or image IM that will be received simultaneously by any number of users in a group. To download the app on your BlackBerry, just visit palringo.mobi from your mobile browser or hit the read link to visit Palringo’s site and check out other download options.

UPDATE: Sorry guys, we forgot to mention that for the time being you’ll need a Pearl, Curve or 8800 series to play.

[Via Press Release]

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Considering all that Mozilla has done for us - displaced Internet Explorer by giving us what is arguably the best and most versatile web browsing experience, for free - the least we can do is help them out when they ask us for help. What is it they want us to do? Download the latest version of the Firefox browser. Yup, that’s it! Mozilla is trying to set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloads in a 24-hour period. The official release of Firefox 3 will become available for public download at 10:00 am PST / 1:00pm EST and judging by the tremendous loyalty that Firefox users typically display and the crazy amount of buzz, the record should be theirs. We’ve been using version 3 for a while now and we have to say, it’s good stuff. Mozilla claims that Firefox 3 brings with it over 15,000 improvements; no small upgrade! Most notably in our eyes, the latest release candidate is worlds faster than Firefox 2 and gobbles much less resources. It will take about a week for the Guinness World Record judges to review Mozilla’s download logs so we should find out whether or not Mozilla successfully broke the record around this time next week. As of the time this post was written, just under 1,690,000 have pledged that they will download Firefox 3 today.

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We need it, we want it, we have to have it. Mozilla’s Head of User Experience Aza Raskin has just posted a video preview and extensive post covering the concept behind of one of Mozilla’s latest endeavors, Firefox Mobile. Let’s cut to the chase… It looks amazing so far. Firefox, the best thing to happen to the internet since Al Gore, is currently used by about 200 million people. Why? Because it simplified and improved the process that is interfacing with the web, essentially changing the way people use the internet. Those are some pretty big shoes to fill! Firefox Mobile, as outlined in the video above, doesn’t look quite as revolutionary but it does look like it will fill some holes currently found in comparable offerings such as Nokia’s S60 Browser and Apple’s mobile Safari. The GUI looks very cool, though raw, and Mozilla appears to be on the right path toward optimizing user experience and accommodating for small screen sizes. Firefox Mobile will be usable on touchscreen devices, keypad-operated devices and everything in between. Definitely hit the read link for an in-depth look into where Mozilla is at right now.

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One of the biggest and most common complaints when it comes to S60 is the way that data connections are handled. For those who haven’t had an S60 handset, it’s pretty bad. Each connection path is stored as an individual Access Point (AP). Applications that need internet connectivity to operate most often have one and only one AP defined within the app settings. This means that users who pass through multiple WiFi networks for example, can only define one WiFi AP in an application’s settings. S60 tried to solve the problem by implementing AP Groups on some Eseries devices but only allowed a handful of OEM applications to access the groups. Crazy, we know. All that has changed as of this morning however, and we have the team at Psiloc to thank. Its latest application, a utility called Psiloc Connect, creates a new AP on your S60 device. Any app that uses the new Psiloc Connect AP will first try to connect through WiFi and will search for all WiFi APs, not just one. If no WiFi is available, the app will then connect through 3G / EDGE / GPRS or not at all if you configure Psiloc Connect to use WiFi only. Fantastic. This is how data should work on a mobile handset and it’s pretty crazy that it doesn’t on S60. Let the device worry about connecting via the fastest available data network and leave the user and individual applications out of it.

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The greatest thing to happen to Microsoft Outlook since - well, since ever, has just been made available to the public. We’ve mentioned Xobni’s Outlook plug-in a few times here on BGR but if you missed it for whatever reason, Insight is essentially a plug-in that adds lightning-fast searches, social functionality and a variety of other features to Outlook. Rejoice! Xobni just announced that its Insight plug-in is now available to the public. The public beta was announced yesterday and media buzz is already swimming in full force, including a great feature in the New York Times. Oh Microsoft, you’ve missed the boat yet again it would seem. Microsoft has been trying to acquire Xobni for quite some time and as has become commonplace for the software giant, it couldn’t seal the deal. All hopes of snagging Xobni on the cheap are pretty much out the window now. If Microsoft does decide to continue pursuing Xobni, it’ll have to offer quite a premium at this point. We don’t see Xobni slowing down any time soon.

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You may remember my rendezvous with the BoxTone team during last year’s Wireless Enterprise Symposium… let’s just say that a lot of drunk material was ‘corrected’ by our editor. The Kings of Cool are back in Orlando this year and look to make a splash with the BoxTone Mobile User Management Lounge area at the annual BlackBerry conference.

According to a post by BoxTone’s Jon Edmunds, the Lounge area will be split into three sections - the Mash Up Room, the Pro’s Corner, and the Gamer’s Pad. I know BoxTone has been working on these plans for quite some time, so I’m expecting to be floored when I am actually able to put eyes on the area. This area will feature food and beverages, as well as plasma’s and the Nintendo Wii and games. If you’re in Orlando during that week, you know where to find me on Monday evening between 6:00-8:00 PM.

BoxTone will also have a booth set up in the Solutions Showcase - Booth 531. Be sure to check them out while you’re on the floor, as they are the industry leader for BlackBerry monitoring solutions and have an amazing product.

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It’s only Tuesday and this has already been quite a week for mobile software updates. Sling Media is continuing the trend with some solid new updates of its oh-so-great SlingPlayer Mobile application. The lucky platforms? Windows Mobile PocketPC, Windows Mobile Smartphone and Symbian S60. Here are some highlights:

• Added support for additional handsets (Nokia N95 8GB, Samsung i760, Treo 500v and more)
• Improved video streaming quality on select handsets (Sprint HTC Mogul for example)
• Added support for additional set-top box models and improved control on some currently supported models
• Added new channel favorite logos
• A few additional behind the scenes tweaks

Of course the upgrade is free for current SlingPlayer Mobile users so definitely hit the read link to fire up the latest builds. If you have a compatible smartphone and a Slingbox but haven’t made the leap yet, you’ll be happy to know there’s a generous 30-day trial; definitely worth checking out. Also of note, the BlackBerry and Symbian UIQ versions of the player are still under development and are slated for release later this year.

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We’ve been waiting for a long time for this update and it’s finally here! What was likely already the best music player / recommendation service available, MyStrands Social Player, has just received a major revision and trust us when we tell you, you can’t get it installed soon enough. The newly renamed Strands team has outdone themselves, and there are three key highlights to take note of:

• New native S60 application and Java version (S40-optimized) released!
• New Player UI - vastly improved interface, better controls
• Scrobbling support! Send track data to Last.fm as you listen

The post on the Strands Blog includes links to download both the native S60 app as well as the Java app. Now there’s really no reason why you can’t enjoy the complete interactive experience that Social Player provides on any Nokia (or other) device. Kudos to Strands!

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