Mozilla has officially updated Firefox, releasing version 156 for macOS, Windows, and Linux and adding several improvements to the open-source browser that should make it significantly easier to live with. Firefox 156 can be downloaded directly from Mozilla's website, and existing Firefox can auto-update using their preferred software manager or Firefox's built-in updater where applicable.

The headline changes to Firefox all relate to performance, with a claimed 45% faster start-up for the built-in PDF reader, improved memory and CPU usage when displaying scaled JPEG images, and H.264 decoding for video calling using WebRTC on Arm64 processors. All of those improvements are small changes on their own, but they build to improved battery life and efficiency for users on laptops.

Geekbench 7 has officially launched as the newest stable release of the cross-platform CPU benchmarking tool, which last saw a full release in 2023 with Geekbench 6. It is available for download for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, and Windows, and the release notes detail a handful of new benchmarks that have been added to measure more diverse workloads.

Geekbench 7 continues the modernization of the Geekbench benchmarking tool, adding a new game physics benchmark, which relies on the Jolt physics engine, currently in use in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Horizon Forbidden West, and War Thunder's Dagor Engine. Game physics will test rigid body physics and collisions in a 3D environment. There are also new media benchmarks: video encode is tested with the AV1 codec and the AOM library; audio encoding is tested on music and speech using the Opus compression codec to compress data; and the video decode test uses the AV1 video codec, the Opus audio codec, and the Whisper speech recognition model to test video and audio decoding, audio resampling, and speech recognition.

Microsoft seems to be on the verge of introducing a new file recovery tool in a future Windows 10 update. The news, courtesy of The verge, paints a MS-DOS-based tool that would allow users to recover most of the "basic" files they'd be looking for after accidental deletion: MP3 files, MP4 videos, PDFs, JPEG images, and Office, Word as well as PowerPoint documents. The File Recovery Tool is already available as a download from Microsoft's app store (and requires Windows 10 version 19041.0 or higher).

The lack of a GUI could be a put-off for some users; but again, this is a free tool from the company. As a refresher, a file isn't fully deleted if you only use Windows' "delete" function - even if you delete it from the Recycle Bin afterwards. All that does is tell the OS that that those particular storage addresses are available for being written to again - the bits that the file is made of are still there. This is the reason why successful file recovery depends mostly on whether or not new information has been written to those particular cells again. If it has, chances to recover your data are slim.

YouTube began posting its first test videos that implement the AV1 video CODEC, which aims to significantly reduce video stream bandwidths without sacrificing quality, exceeding the compression standards set by even HEVC. AV1 provides an architecture for both moving and still images, and Google, which is partly funding its development, foresees a future in which it replaces entrenched standards such as JPEG and H.264. Besides better compression, its key USP is its royalty-free license, which could translate to tangible operating-cost savings for YouTube and other video streaming services.

YouTube developers posted this playlist with a selection of videos that are encoded in AV1. You may not notice a reduction in your data consumption just yet, because the first batch of videos have been encoded at a very high bitrate to test performance. Future playlists (which will pop up on YouTube Developers channel), could test the CODEC's other more important aspects, such as data savings. To watch them, and test YouTube's AV1 player for them, you'll either need Chrome 70 beta or the latest nightly-build of Firefox (64.0a1), which pack AV1 support.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS announces its first JPEG XS codec implementation for video production at the NAB Show in Las Vegas from April 9-12 2018. The coding specialists of Fraunhofer IIS will demonstrate the JPEG XS codec as an input format for post-production in a software plug-in for Adobe Premiere Pro CC with real-time playback capability of 4k60p UHD video.

With ever-increasing amounts of data from higher resolution and dynamic range in videos, long-distance transmission from coax cables in studios will soon become outdated. At the same time, production companies and studios are trying to substitute specialized cables and switches for video transmission by commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components with the introduction of simple and cost-effective IP transmission over standard Ethernet infrastructures.

Google and Mozilla, the companies behind the Chrome and Firefox cross-platform web-browsers; are pushing for the adoption of a new web image format to replace the ageing and inefficient JPEG, and the license-ridden HEIC. The two companies are leading a consortium of Internet businesses, called the Alliance for Open Media, to push for the proliferation and standardization of the new AV1 image file format. Early testing shows AV1 files to be 15 percent smaller than HEIC for comparable quality, which in turn promises half the file-size of JPEG for comparable quality. Apple uses HEIC as the default image file format for iOS and MacOS, while JPEG, PNG, and GIF continue to be the dominant web image formats, and have been prevalent for over two decades now.

"It seems downright silly that we're still relying on compression tech from 20 years ago," said Kelly Thompson, general manager at 500px, a photo sharing and sales site. "The equipment we're using to capture and display images is now exceeding JPEG's upper limits." JPEG is not just inefficient, but also has severe color palette limitations, and lack of support for transparency. Adoption of newer image file formats could significantly reduce Internet bandwidth usage benefiting both end-users running on slower/metered connections; and for infrastructure providers, such as ISPs.

AMD rolled out the Catalyst 14.9 WHQL driver suite, its quarterly release of WHQL-signed drivers for AMD Radeon discrete- and integrated GPUs. The drivers add support for some of the newer Radeon GPUs, such as the R9 285; and introduce a large list of game-specific performance improvements. The drivers also introduce AMD Eyefinity mixed-resolution modes, Eyefinity display alignment, new video-color and display settings in Catalyst Control Center, an updated AMD Mantle API runtime, and JPEG decoding acceleration for certain GPUs.DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 14.9 WHQL for Windows 8.1/7/Vista 64-bit | AMD Catalyst 14.9 WHQL for Windows 8.1/7/Vista 32-bit

The change-log follows.

Synology Inc. today launched VisualStation VS240HD, a cost-effective surveillance solution designed for ease of multi-channel viewing on local HDMI displays.

VS240HD boasts powerful image decoding capability by supporting up to 24 channels of simultaneous high-definition viewing at 240 FPS in 720p. Dual HDMI video outputs make it an ideal surveillance solution for large-scale deployments, allowing users to stream high-quality footage to different screens in a state-of-the-art security control center.

Genius announces an ultra wide angle webcam for conference calls - WideCam 320. With its 100° view angle the entire boardroom can be captured in a single frame.

The ultra wide 100° angle view ensures that everyone around the conference table can be seen without any crowding together. The high-quality manual focus lens ensures well-defined video of the entire room. Everyone can be heard clearly around the room as well. The WideCam 320 has a built-in sensitive microphone that picks up the speaker's voice clearly while filtering out any background noise.

QNAP Systems, Inc. announced today a major expansion of the number of compatible peripherals available for its family of Turbo NAS products. The major additions include a Seagate 2.5-inch 1TB internal SATA hard drive and 2.5-inch 1TB external storage device, two Arkeia Software 3rd party software apps and seventy network cameras.

Conexant Systems Inc., a leading supplier of innovative semiconductor solutions for imaging, audio, embedded modem, and video surveillance applications, today announced the CX93610, a low power DIFT JPEG encoder that includes a 656 camera interface and optional microphone input. A monolithic mixed signal Application-Specific Standard Product (ASSP), the CX93610 is designed for monitoring and surveillance camera applications, including PIR sensor with video, video intercom/door phones, baby monitors and remote home monitoring.

Featuring low cost, low power and high image compression capability, Conexant's CX93610 is ideally suited for wireless camera security solutions requiring visual verification, and can significantly reduce file sizes.

QNAP Systems, Inc. today unveils the next generation of its extremely popular and award-winning TuboNAS server lineup, along with its latest VioStor NVR video surveillance systems. In addition, the company is pleased to debut new NAS Firmware (3.6) and a new storage expansion solution for its business-class Turbo NAS.

The new NAS series, available in 2, 4, 5, 6, or 8-drive versions, are powered by a high performance dual-core Intel Atom processor. This new range provides the perfect blend of performance, business-ready features and value that make QNAP the ideal networked storage choice for small and medium-sized businesses.

Genesys Logic announced its newest application processor, the GL3620. This chip is designed to be the prime-mover of tomorrow's high-definition 1080p web-cameras, which will strike mainstream price-points. This chip takes advantage of the USB 3.0 interface, particularly its isochronous transfer mode, which guarantees sufficient bandwidth to stream uncompressed (lossless) 1080p (1920 x 1080 pixels) video at 30 frames per second. This defined theoretical bandwidth limit is about 380 MB/s between the chip and the USB 3.0 host. Lossless video streaming from the webcam gives users the ability to use higher-quality software video encoders.

The Genesys Logic GL3620 also packs native HISP, which encodes RGB RAW data from CMOS sensors to interpolated YUV format. It also looks after bad pixel correction, image scaling, gamma correction, image quality enhancement, etc., to maintain backwards compatibility with USB 2.0, probably albeit, at lower resolutions. The chip also includes a native MJPEG encoder that offloads the host CPU from doing the lossless stream to MJPEG conversion to stream to IM clients. Genesys Logic will exhibit GL3620 demo at CES 2012 in Las Vegas from January 10th to January 13th 2012. In related news, Genesys logic will also demo its three other new USB 3.0 chips, the GL3520, which is a USB 3.0 hub controller; the GL3321, which is a USB 3.0 to SATA bridge chip; and GL3220, which is a USB 3.0 flash card reader controller.

Matrox Graphics Inc. today introduces the Matrox SMD-2 streaming media decoder, a second-generation universal IP video decode solution designed to decode - in parallel - large numbers of network video streams in different resolutions and formats. The ideal building block for large-scale IP video decode applications, each SMD-2 board can simultaneously decode up to 64 QCIF, 16 D1, or 2 HD 1080 streams. By combining multiple SMD-2 boards within a single system, users can decode and display hundreds of IP streams on any video display wall.

In light of their newly announced partnership, Matrox Graphics and Trenton are currently working together to engineer a validated system capable of supporting multiple SMD-2 cards within a single chassis, to be available later in the year. SMD-2 is fully integrated with the Matrox PPX Series and will be compatible with the Mura MPX Series later in the summer. With its capacity to cost-effectively support large-scale, high-density IP stream decoding, the Matrox SMD-2 is ideal for use in security surveillance, public security, and critical infrastructure sectors.

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) announced PlayStation Vita (PS Vita) (PCH-1000 series) as the official platform name for the next generation portable entertainment system at E3 2011. With an RRP of €249 for the Wireless model and €299 for the Wireless/3G version, PS Vita will launch in the global market starting at the end of 2011.

"Vita", which means "Life" in Latin, was chosen as the most appropriate name for the next generation portable entertainment system as it enables a revolutionary combination of rich gaming and social connectivity within a real world context as SCE aims to transform every aspect of a user's daily life into an entertainment experience and an opportunity to play.

Transcend Information, Inc., a worldwide leader in memory and storage products, has announced the availability of the largest-ever 32GB microSDHC memory card, which doubles the capacity for cell phones and other mobile devices that rely on microSDHC storage. Transcend's new 32GB Class 2 microSDHC card is no bigger than a thumb nail and weighs less than a paper clip. Despite its tiny dimensions, the 32GB microSDHC card offers sufficient space to store up to 6552 pictures (based on 10 megapixel JPEG compression format), 480 minutes of Full HD video, countless hours of music, or thousands of electronic texts.

MicroSD and microSDHC cards are commonly used in mobile phones, as well as in some newer devices such as eBooks, handheld GPS devices, portable gaming consoles, and so on. microSDHC cards are aimed at heavy mobile users of cell phones or eBooks. Moreover, Transcend's highest capacity microSDHC cards are the most economical memory-expanding solution to increase the amount of built-in memory for expandable mobile devices.

The multinational Joint Photographic Experts Group, responsible for the JPEG standard used in virtually all mainstream imaging, has decided that the next iteration of its standard will be based on Microsoft's HD Photo format. HD Photo is built into Windows Vista, and was originally dubbed Windows Media Photo, hoped to offer some degree of proprietary control for the company; in its new incarnation however it will be called JPEG XR, and remain neutral as with the current JPEG technology. The "XR" addition stands for Extended Range, and like HD Photo, should allow a wider and subtler range of tones, as well as an expanded color palette, better compression and support for in-camera image processing.