A major feature has been silently slipped into the latest update of Firefox 10 Nightly, which has the potential to phase out one of the most popular and extremely useful Firefox add-on – Firebug. Yes, Firefox‘s native Code/Style inspector is here.

Firebug is probably the single tool web developers need the most. For some, it is the only reason to use Firefox. Of course, all other major browsers have developed their native style inspectors, Firebug is still the favorite of the masses. But soon, it may have to face a fight for existence. The code/style inspector in Firefox 10 Nightly looks a bit juvenile but it’s just the beginning. The screenshot below shows that it already has some basic options in place, like ‘Inspect’, ‘Style’ and ‘HTML’ panes and a fly-out window called ‘Style Inspector’.

As of now, you can’t fiddle with any of the HTML or CSS code. I suspect Mozilla might take a different approach to CSS debugging compared to Firebug. Like I said, this is the first glimpse of Firefox‘s native code/style inspector so all we can do is to hope that the final outcome is satisfactory. It is definitely something I’d be looking forward to. Below is the screenshot of the Mozilla Wiki page that shows the feature is currently under development and will be available in Firefox 10.

Download the latest Firefox Nightly here.

So, what do you think of Firefox’s native Code/Style Inspector? Will it be a threat to Firebug? Or not?

This is unexpected but some of the Apple Retail stores across US have already started selling factory unlocked, contract-free iPhone 4S which were otherwise scheduled to go on shelves sometime in November.

Once you buy a factory unlocked, contract-free iPhone 4S and connect it to your computer and starting up iTunes, the following message will display on the screen: "Congratulations, your iPhone has been unlocked." This is completely legit because 9to5Mac, a popular Apple-only blog has confirmed it.

Although Apple says that they will begin selling unlocked, contract-free iPhone 4S units in the United States in November, we have learned otherwise. Select Apple Stores in the United States have begun selling contract-free versions of the iPhone 4S, which our friend Steven Troughton-Smith was able to both verify and purchase.

The confirmation also comes from Steven Troughton-Smith (the person who ported Siri to iPhone 4) who successfully used T-Mobile’s EDGE network using an O2 SIM card on his unlocked iPhone 4S.

If you are looking for a factory unlocked, contract free iPhone, you might get lucky to order one in one of the Apple Retail stores near you. However, it will take weeks for the iPhone to land up in your hand, thanks to the high demand of the device. All wireless carriers in the United States are sold out with pre-orders hitting 1 million mark and counting in the first 24 hours. We mentioned the pricing of the factory unlocked, contract-free iPhone 4S in our previous post. Take a quick glance at it again:

It seems like more and more of our lives today are conducted on or with the aid or our mobile phones. Many people have completely disconnected their land lines and stopped using their GPS devices, favoring instead the multi-function utility of most cell phones.

Given this trend, it isn’t so surprising—though it is still impressive and just plain cool—that Google is releasing an application for Google devices that transforms your phone into a wallet, appropriately named Google Wallet.

Google Wallet allows users to make purchases simply by swiping their phone near a payment station. Those with a Citi Mastercard can charge purchases directly to their account, and anyone else can start a Google prepaid card which can be replenished anytime (even while you’re on the go, thanks to your phone’s internet browsing capabilities).

Using your phone as a wallet might seem unusual at first, but it has several advantages over carrying a physical wallet. First, it is safer. If you don’t carry cash, it can’t be stolen. It is also very secure, and is protected by several measures, both in the phone and by Google. Furthermore, Google Wallet makes saving easy—you can save coupons on your phone and immediately apply them when you shop.

Google Wallet is also more convenient for shoppers, as you won’t have to carry so much with you while shopping. Chances are you already take your phone with you everywhere—now you can pay for your purchases with it too!

As the app gains popularity it will probably spread to other platforms, but for now it is limited to Sprint Google devices.

Mariana Ashley is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031@gmail.com.

In case you have been in a hiatus, you might already know that Apple has released iPhone 4S (a powerful superset of the iPhone 4) as opposed to the widely rumored iPhone 5. Well, what comes as a bigger surprise is that Apple has already planned the official unlocked iPhone 4S to go on sale just a month after the contract-based iPhone 4S release. While the latter will be available from Oct 14, 8 AM onwards at Apple Retail Stores, the official unlocked iPhone 4S will hit the shelves sometime in November 2011.

The unlocked iPhone includes all the features of iPhone but without a contract commitment. You can activate and use it on the supported GSM wireless network of your choice, such as AT&T in the United States.* The unlocked iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S will not work with CDMA-based carriers such as Verizon Wireless or Sprint.

For more, visit Apple Store.

It’s been a while since some real news about Windows 8 made rounds. The next Microsoft OS is expected to have some drastic improvements and better features. In some of our earlier posts about Windows 8, we’ve covered some of the features being developed into Windows 8. Now Microsoft has rolled out some new information about how the Windows Explorer in Windows 8 will look like. The Ribbon UI is now an integrated part of the Windows [File] Explorer, packed with some useful tools for file management.

The Ribbon UI, well used and appreciated by users since it was first introduced in Microsoft Office 2007, will bring forward some of the basic and important but hidden Explorer features by making them ‘always available’ in the Explorer. 

The goals of the new Windows Explorer, as stated by the Windows 8 blog can be precisely stated:

In a stunning revelation today, Steve Jobs has announced to step down from his position as the CEO of Apple.The board of directors confirmed the same and stated that Tim Cook will be the next Apple CEO, effective immediately. In his official resignation letter, Steve Jobs wrote:

August 24, 2011–To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community: I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come. I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee. As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple. I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role. I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Art Levinson, Chairman of Genentech, on behalf of Apple’s Board said,

Steve’s extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world’s most innovative and valuable technology company. Steve has made countless contributions to Apple’s success, and he has attracted and inspired Apple’s immensely creative employees and world class executive team. In his new role as Chairman of the Board, Steve will continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration.

The next Apple CEO, Tim Cook, previously worked as the company’s COO and was responsible for sales and operations worldwide. He played a substantial role in maintaining strategic relationships between resellers and suppliers and also headed the company’s Macintosh division.

Skype app for iPhone has been around since December 2010 and owing to the increased demands, the king of video chat rolled out an app for iPad as well. The Skype app for iPad is optimized for larger screens and has all its regular features i.e. Video chat, IM and SMS.

Those who have the first version iPad might not be able to use the two-way video chat feature but still can receive video calls. With Skype credits, the app is as good as the desktop client for you can chat with users on multiple platforms. Check out the Skype App at the App Store.

If you keep up with the latest tech news, you’d know that Google has recently launched a new social networking service Google+ which emphasizes on privacy and bring about a new dimension to how we interact with our friends and acquaintances online.

Going by the looks of it, it has some serious potential to give a tough fight to the social behemoth – Facebook. Tons of blogs already compared the two services and Google+ is mostly being appreciated all over. In such conditions, you’d least expect Mark Zuckerberg to have a Google+ profile. But, he actually went ahead and created one.

When one of the Google+ users spotted Mark’s profile, it created a stir in the web community regarding whether or not it was an authentic account. To verify, Robert Scobble, asked Mark via a text message to which he replied, “Why are people so surprised that I’d have a Google account?”, revealed Robert in a tweet.

This may be Mark’s way of expressing his (ahem) generosity especially because Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were reluctant to create their profiles on Facebook in the past. I think the online world and services therein have intermingled with each other to an extent that it’s only foolish not to have a ‘Mark’ even on your competitors services. Good going Zuck.

Google is currently under a massive overhaul. With lots of iterative design changes, the internet giant has revamped Gmail too. You will have to activate the new ‘preview theme’ to experience the new avatar of Gmail, complementing heavily with the new design changes that Google brought about in search and other services. The flavor of the new theme goes along side with the likes of Google’s newest baby – Google+.

This is what the new Preview theme in Gmail looks like:

To activate:

Go to Gmail Options (the small gear button on the top-right) > Mail Settings > Themes tab > Preview

Enjoy the new sleek theme. You can also select the Preview Dense version if you prefer less white-space. I personally loved the theme. It is clean and so much 2011. What do you guys have to say?

Opera, known for its bold and innovative steps to make browsing a better experience has rolled out exciting new features in the latest release Opera 11.50, the most prominent being live content in Speed Dials.

Essentially, the Speed Dials will now work more like widgets. Dynamic content will be fetched from websites and shown with live updates within the browsers landing page. This makes so much sense as it completely eliminates one user-action. Weather updates, stock trends, live news feeds, etc will replace the generic images in Speed Dials.

Other worth mentionable improvements in Opera 11.50 include password synchronization across Opera installations on multiple computers, integrated Read It Later support, slight changes in GUI, better web standards support, performance boosts, etc. Fan or not, you should try Opera because it just keeps getting better.

Download Opera