OStatic

We've written before about Foxmarks, which recently went through a name change to Xmarks. Though it now works with several browsers, it was popularized as a Firefox extension used by many mobile users who want to synchronize their bookmarks and profiles across devices. Good as it is, I also like to use MozBackup--another Firefox extension--for backing up profiles and many similar tasks. MozBackup is compatible with a slew of browsers, and lets you back up and restore bookmarks, mail, contacts, history, extensions, cache and more. Here's what you get with it.

As JKOnTheRun reports, owners of the T-Mobile G1 Android phones are starting today to get over-the-air upgrades to Cupcake, the new version of Android that we covered here. Users in the U.K. and the U.S. are already getting the new firmware, according to Phandroid. We discussed the fact that the new version has a software keyboard, but some of the other features include YouTube video uploads, stereo Bluetooth support, Picasa photo uploads, and video recording. Check out more from JKOnTheRun.?

Over the past few years, implementing security properly has become a big issue for software applications of all stripes, including open source applications and platforms. That's why I noted with interest a couple of blog posts on the topic from leaders behind two high-profile open source projects: Firefox and Drupal. In a piece called Learning From Mozilla Security on InternetNews, Jonathan Nightingale of Mozilla's security team, who has the title Human Shield, provides some instructive examples of the lengths Mozilla goes to to keep Firefox secure (and security is the reason some people use the browser). Meanwhile, Dries Buytaert, founder of the open source Drupal content management system, has a post up on strategic steps he wants to put in place for a security team to police Drupal and its many modules.?

Today must be cloud computing day in the open source world. In addition to this morning's announcement about Eucalyptus Systems focusing on open source cloud tools, SugarCRM has announced that it is putting an offering called Sugar Express on its Sugar Open Cloud. Sugar Open Cloud is an on-demand computing platform, and Sugar Express is an online hosted version of SugarCRM's open source customer relationship management software aimed at individuals and businesses who need a low-cost solution, --apparently. Comparatively, though, the cost doesn't seem to be so low.?

Last summer, OStatic broke the news about Eucalyptus, an open source (under a FreeBSD-style license) infrastructure for cloud computing on clusters that duplicates the functionality of Amazon's EC2, using the Amazon command-line tools directly. The project rose out of the Computer Science Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and has made quite a few waves for its innovative, cost-saving and open approach to cloud computing infrastructure. Fast forward to today, and Eucalyptus Systems is announcing its debut as a commercial company. Eucalyptus Systems has just closed a $5.5 million Series A round of venture financing led by Benchmark Capital with BV Capital also participating. Here's what the company offers.

Have you ever heard of EpiSurveyor? It's an open source tool designed to allow anyone in the world to create handheld data entry forms, use them to collect data on mobile devices, and transfer the data to other devices for analysis. Developed by Dr. Joel Selanikio (shown), it's widely used in public health efforts all around the world, for disease surveillance and collecting public health data. Today, the Lemelson-MIT Program has announced?that Selanikio is the recipient of its 2009 $100,000 Award for Sustainability for his contributions to public health. Here is what's significant about EpiSurveyor, and how there is room for open source apps like it.

Mozilla has finally released Beta 4 of Firefox 3.5 (formerly called Firefox 3.1), and this beta is fast and stable enough that I'm using it as my primary browser. You can download it here. As we've noted several times, TraceMonkey technology for faster Javascript performance has been one of Mozilla's goals with this browser since the beginning, and it's in place in this beta. Beta 4 is very fast, and it includes Private Browsing Mode, and Location Aware Browsing, for the growing number of geo-location based applications that are arriving. Here's more on what you get and don't get in Beta 4.

Today, Hewlett-Packard--the world's number one PC vendor--has announced a new line of notebook computers called ProBooks, with one shown here. The systems fall into the prosumer space (professional/consumer) and are bigger and more fully stocked than most netbooks. Notably, HP is offering SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 as an operating system choice on the ProBooks, in addition to Windows Vista and XP. HP's arch-rival Dell is also continuing to ship portable computers with Linux installed, and is seeing many users satisfied with Linux. Can Linux remain a fixture on portable systems?

As reported on DeviceGuru and the Boxee blog, there is now a new Linux version of the Boxee open source media center application, including support for Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope (9.04). The new release adds many of the features that have already made it into the Mac OS X and Windows versions of Boxee, including App Box (a Boxee application store), Pandora and RadioTime for radio, and a customized browser that offers support for what Boxee officials have said is the number one form of requested content on its platform: Hulu. With Boxee out in rich, flexible versions on multiple platforms, there could be even more opportunities for hardware bundles and other commercial opportunities than ever.?