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Fresh out the door, users of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 are complaining of glitches one day after the IE8 final build was made available at noon Eastern time on Thursday. Dozens of posters are complaining about printing from Web sites, search functions, and disappearing images.

The browser, which was supposed to make navigating a Web site easier and faster by adding a new favorites bar, address bar, and tabs bar, is instead making the user experience not so easy.

“I have just installed IE8 and still the search option doesn’t work; all I get is a blank line with no search box, so what and where is the problem?” asked Aviramof on Microsoft’s feedback discussion board.

Facebook Problems

A poster writing as Dexus said his toolbar, including all the File menu items, went completely black. And another poster wasn’t happy about a “dragging Facebook applications bug” that had not been fixed. Multiple users complained that they weren’t able to drag photos on their Facebook pages in IE8.

A post by Bessler listed a few problems with the IE8 install. Bessler said the boot-up time doubled, the application used an additional 4GB of hard-drive space, and the calendar was outlined in violet.

Kris Krueger, the test lead for IE8, said that Microsoft fixed many of the top issues identified by beta testers, and those issues were prioritized based on votes by the community.

IE8 is currently available from Microsoft’s main download center as a manual download and on the IE8 page. Microsoft said it plans to begin automatically installing the new browser on machines running IE6 or IE7 in the future.

Requests for information from Microsoft weren’t returned in time for publication.

Losing, Then Gaining, Market Share

Microsoft needed to get this release right, as the software giant’s browser was under scrutiny for losing market share. According to Net Applications, which…

Longtime PDA manufacturer Palm lost $98 million, or 89 cents a share, in its third fiscal quarter. That’s a substantial increase from its $57 million, or 53 cents a share, loss in the same quarter last year.

“We’re proceeding through a challenging transitional period,” said Ed Colligan, Palm president and chief executive officer. “However, our current results shouldn’t overshadow the tremendous progress we’ve made against our strategic goals. We’re poised to usher in a new era at Palm.”

Wall Street wasn’t particularly fazed by the earnings report. Analysts had anticipated the company would fall short of profitability, although not as severely as Colligan reported. Palm share prices were up slightly in afternoon trading.

Vague Palm Plans

Potentially more problematic is that Colligan was unable to say exactly when Palm’s corporate life raft, the eagerly awaited Pre smartphone, will float into Sprint stores. During a conference call to discuss the company’s financial results and upcoming plans, Colligan said Palm planned to “deliver this product into the hands of consumers within the next 15 weeks.”

This lack of specifics could prove problematic for a couple of reasons.

First, expectations for the new device have been high ever since it was introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. The anticipation has eaten into sales of Palm’s existing devices as consumers elect to wait for the new hardware. The longer it takes for the Pre to arrive, the greater the lost sales will be.

Sour Apples?

The second and perhaps greater concern is the changes Apple announced earlier this week for its iPhone operating system. Many of the features Apple is adding to version 3.0 are features that gained oohs and aahs when the Pre’s webOS was deomonstrated at CES. Each day that the Pre is not on shelves is another day closer to the media and consumer frenzy that will…

White-hat security experts attending the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver this week have succeeded in exploiting previously unknown vulnerabilities in fully patched versions of Firefox, Internet Explorer 8 and Safari. According to Tipping Point, which sponsored the contest at CanSecWest, only Chrome remained impervious to assaults on Wednesday and Thursday.

The primary goal of the annual Pwn2Own contest is to responsibly unearth new vulnerabilities within computing systems so that the affected vendors can address them, noted TippingPoint, which manages the Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) program team responsible for awarding prizes to this year’s winning contestants.

“All winners are asked to sign and agree to the general ZDI nondisclosure agreement, and the bugs will be turned over directly to the affected vendors,” said Terri Forslof, TippingPoint’s manager of security response.

Rock-Star Performance

The contest’s first winner was Charlie Miller, who took down Safari on Mac OS X within two minutes — winning free computing gear and a $5,000 cash prize in the process. Contestant Julien Tinnes also successfully exploited both Firefox and Safari, but “unfortunately his efforts fell outside the contest criteria and therefore could not be rewarded,” Forslof observed.

However, the most impressive performance of the day came from the contestant known simply as Nils — “You know, like ‘Prince’ or ‘Madonna,’” said Forslof. Nils “ran a sleek exploit against IE8, defying Microsoft’s latest built-in protection technologies — DEP (Data Execution Prevention) as well as ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization).” He won $5,000 for his efforts.

Even better, Nils’ successful IE8 exploit was just the warm-up exercise for what turned into a trifecta. He picked up another $5,000 by quickly taking down Apple’s Safari browser, then ended the day with a flourish by cracking Firefox, which boosted his total cash winnings to $15,000.

The Microsoft Security Response Center notified Forslof on Thursday morning that it had…

After all the controversy about unlocking Apple’s iPhones, AT&T has made it moot by agreeing to sell iPhone 3Gs without a two-year contract. The company confirmed an Associated Press report that it will begin selling unlocked iPhones next Thursday for $599 and $699, depending on memory configuration.

Consumers can still purchase iPhone 3Gs for $199 and $299 with the two-year contract, or purchase a refurbished model for $149 from AT&T or Best Buy.

An unlocked iPhone has been on AT&T’s agenda since at least July. When Apple released the iPhone 3G last summer, the wireless carrier said it would sell a contract-free iPhone in the U.S., but didn’t give a date. The unlocked iPhone can be used on T-Mobile or AT&T networks, but it’s not compatible with Verizon or Sprint networks.

A Stampede Is Unlikely

AT&T’s announcement brings the iPhone into line with standard procedures for every other phone on the market, according to Avi Greengart, a wireless analyst at Current Analysis. AT&T has always been willing to sell the phones it offers unlocked without a contract if consumers ask and are willing to pay for it, he said, but the iPhone has been an exception.

“One of the reasons AT&T hadn’t sold the iPhone unlocked is because there was a kickback to Apple for service revenues,” Greengart said. “The ability to get an unlocked phone is less of a threat to Apple’s goal of getting carrier distribution in multiple markets with the second-generation iPhone. Consumers can buy iPhones from local carriers in Europe and parts of Asia.”

Despite the availability of an unlocked iPhone, analysts don’t expect a rush on AT&T. That’s because, for most people, there’s no need for an unlocked iPhone. For consumers who intend to use the iPhone in the U.S., it makes better financial sense to allow AT&T to…

iTunes movies in high-definition. That’s the word from Apple, which announced Thursday that customers of the popular online iTunes Store can now rent or buy movies in HD for a Mac, a PC, or a TV set with Apple TV.

The HD movies include such new releases as Quantum of Solace and Twilight. Prices are $19.99 for a download purchase and $4.99 as a rental within 30 days from release.

HD Evolution on iTunes

Each HD movie also comes in a standard-definition version for watching on an iPhone or an iPod with video. iTunes 8.1 or later is needed for downloading.

Eddy Cue, Apple vice president of Internet services, said iTunes customers have already made HD content on the service “a hit, with over 50 percent of TV programming being purchased in HD when available.”

Other new movie titles available in HD include Transporter 3, Punisher: War Zone, Bangkok Dangerous, Saw V, Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys, Religulous and, beginning April 14, the action/comedy The Spirit.

The availability of HD movies is part of a high-definition evolution on iTunes. In January 2008, Apple introduced its movie rentals, which included HD versions that were only available through Apple TV. Last fall, with the release of iTunes 8, the company said customers would be able to download HDTV programs.

Some observers have speculated whether HD movies on iTunes and other online stores could be a problem for the Blu-ray format. iTunes can have an enormous impact on the entertainment industry, given its catalog of more than 10 million songs, 40,000 TV episodes, and 5,000 movies.

‘Minimal Impact’ on Blu-ray

But Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for consumer technology at the NPD Group, said HD on iTunes will “likely have minimal impact on Blu-ray.” He added, “We’ve seen HD offerings via online before,” such as with the Xbox, but…

Have you ever hit the send button too soon? Sent a sensitive e-mail to the wrong person? Said something you wish you hadn’t in an electronic message? If so, you’ll be pleased with Google’s latest Gmail innovation: An unsend button.

Google on Thursday rolled out the new feature called Undo Send that aims to help erase embarrassing faux pas that hurried e-mail users sometimes stumble into. AOL once allowed its users to delete e-mails sent to other AOL members as long as they hadn’t been opened. But this is a different approach, allowing Gmail users to block the sending of e-mails to people who are not Gmail users.

The function builds on the Mail Goggles tool launched last October to eliminate the “morning after” regret of e-mail and the Forgotten Attachment Detector it debuted last September that offers an alert if you mention attaching a file but forgot to do so.

“Sometimes I regret sending a message the morning after. Other times I send a message and then immediately notice a mistake. I forget to attach a file or e-mail the birthday girl that I can’t make her surprise party,” said Michael Leggett, a Google user experience designer. “I can rush to close my browser or unplug the Internet — but Gmail almost always wins that race.”

The Five-Second Rule

Leggett tells the story of how an e-mail to “the wrong Larry” led him to develop Undo Send. He said he could undo just about any other action in Gmail except for unsend, so he started talking with his colleagues about the concept.

“My theory (which others shared) was that even just five seconds would be enough time to catch most of those regrettable e-mails. And now you can do just that,” Leggett said. “Turn on Undo Send in Gmail Labs under Settings, and…