Firefox 3.5 includes the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, which is said to be more than twice as fast as in v3.0 and ten times faster than Firefox 2, together with native integration of Ogg Theora video, and Location Aware Browsing.

There’s also some new privacy controls, including a “private browsing” mode that keeps no history, as well as a “Forget this Site” feature that clears all the temporary files, passwords, stored logins from a particular domain. The browser market has been heating up lately, with Microsoft releasing Internet Explorer 8, Google’s Chrome getting several updates and Apple debuting a new version of Safari at WWDC 2009 etc.

While downloading Internet Explorer 8, users found the following message: “Only complete downloads of Windows Internet Explorer 8 through browserforthebetter.com from June 8, 2009 through August 8, 2009 qualify for the charitable donation to Feeding America. Microsoft is donating $1.15 per download to Feeding America up to a maximum of $1,000,000. Meals are used for illustrative purposes only. Meal conversion is effective until June 30th, 2010.”

When you do the math and split $1.15 among 8 users, it means $0.14 per meal. How is that feeding anyone?

Fans of BitTorrent downloads have something to get excited about. Word is that Myka will begin to ship the long awaited BitTorrent downloading TV box within 4 to 6 weeks, after a half year delay. The delay was due to the company failing to raise financing to begin production, but it’s all been resolved and the factories in China are now “humming”.

Those who placed a pre-order will be able to get them soon hands on one pretty soon. The device is available in 80GB, 160GB and 500GB sizes. The Myka Torrent Box will hook up to the Internet and TV directly and features a built-in BitTorrent protocol that downloads flagged videos while transferring them to your computing device.

Netflix streaming has made it’s way into everything and people like it. As usual, Blockbuster is behind. But here’s some good news for the company.

According to Chairman Jim Keyes, Blockbuster’s download-to-rent service in a Blu-ray player will be here by Q1 of next year. Basically, if you’re an HD film fan then you’ll be able to rent HD quality films from Blockbuster directly through your Blu-ray Disc machine. No word if this will be in the form of a firmware update for existing hardware or part of a new player, but it’ll need to standout a bit and lower the price in order to compete with Netflix.

Like lollipops or Popsicles, some of us like our software on a USB drive. So, looks like some German guy is offering a no-install, “lite” version of the Google CHROME BROWSER. Google on a stick if you will. On a USB flash drive. Carsten created a portable version of Google Chrome that has all the features of the main browser but requires no installation. Just unzip all the files and start using it. It will run directly from the USB stick on any Windows computer and all of your user settings like web history, cookies, etc. will also get saved to the same folder on the stick. The software is downloadable.

Sony just announced that Playstation Network users will now have the ability to rent and buy movies and TV shows. They aren’t wasting any time either. The service gets switched on TONIGHT. And it’s more then just bland Sony content, with content from Fox, MGM, Lions Gate, Warner, Disney, Paramount, Turner, and Funimation. TV pricing starts at $1.99, while movies will cost $9.99 - $14.99, with rentals costing $2.99 - $5.99. The videos can even be downloaded to your PS3 and watched on multiple PSPs. Video is available in both SD and HD. Pretty nice!

Sony has released an update to it’s corporate strategy through 2010. It talks about initiatives to move Sony from recovery to the “leading global provider of networked consumer electronics and entertainment.” The most welcome short term news is that Sony will have a movie download service available to US PlayStation 3 owners this summer.

Japan and Europe will have to wait until later for once. More details should be coming “next month,” probably at E3. As far as Sony’s gaming business, they expect it to be profitable by March 2009, the end of this fiscal year. There you go, summer. You won’t have to wait as long as you thought.