Wow, really!?  Not only did Mozilla have an anniversary, but they’ve gone mobile as well.

Firefox Facebook fans can get a free Firefox Mobile Kit to celebrate the Firefox 4 beta for Android and Maemo release.

Send in a postcard to the Firefox offices for a chance at a limited edition mobile T-Shirt.

There’s more info on their Facebook page under the Fox Cards tab at facebook.com/Firefox

I would be bigger and very popular with the ladies, multi-lingual, plus getting some great discounts on every drug known to mankind. I would have a brand new kitchen, along with new hip replacements, a new iPhone4, cheap lasik surgery, a fistful of brand new credit cards with no limits, unlimited dating, free online TV, and a new security system.

My life would forever be enhanced by easy payday loans, brand name pharmaceuticals at ridiculously low prices, discount brand name software from Microsoft and Adobe, a new iPad for $20, free online movies, successful online dating, rapid weight loss, and a new work-at-home job that pays $5000 a week for only 20 hours of work.

It’s really amazing the kind of crap that fills our spam folders these days. Also amazing is the amount of spam that rapidly accumulates and chokes our Inboxes and Spam filters.

Just think…if you actually believed in any of these scams, OR if they were actually true, what a world this would be.

Don’t believe it for a moment!

I used to be afraid to tackle the confusing array of upgrade configuration options, but now all of my WordPress 2.9 installations offer an upgrade link at the top of the admin panel.   I’m done with only a couple of clicks!

The Admin Panel doesn’t look much different in WordPress 3.0, which won’t confuse current users with a totally new interface.

The most convenient and time-saving feature about WordPress3.0 is Bulk Updates, so you can upgrade 15 plugins at once with a single click

The new default theme is Twenty Ten, which includes a cool new menu system.  Of course, the Theme you’re currently using has to support these new features to be usable.  But it’s great not having to spend an hour upgrading to a new version of my favorite CMS.

It’s recommended to back up your files first before an upgrade; Click open Tools menu, click Export.  The resulting XML file contains all your posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, and tags.  It can be imported back into your blog in case of a disaster.

Source: WordPress Blog

There’s more great info on WordPress3.0 at planet.wordpress.org

The free version is pretty basic and your video creation is limited to one minute, but it does have some cool features, like professionally designed themes and transitions, plus a sharing feature to export your video to YouTube or Facebook. You do have to allow permission for the application to connect, just like Facebook does for sharing. That calls for a certain amount of trust, doesn’t it?

Plus you’ve got to have Google Apps installed on your server, which is not an average daily user thing. But it’s a huge deal for small business, and a great group collaboration tool, if you can afford it.

The Stupeflix Studio App allows you to mix and mash up photos and videos, add text to any image or video, add in a soundtrack anywhere in the timeline, create discrete groups to separate videos and images, and manipulate special effects in each group.

There’s five different slide transitions, or what Stupeflix calls a “group effect,” applying that effect to anything inside that particular group. Auto is set by default, which cycles through all five transitions.

There’s no way to tweak audio levels in the basic free version, and video editing is limited to the time you allow for each element inside a group. Video runtime starts at zero, there’s no way to edit different segments of a video, start at 0 and set the time per element, just like a slide show.

Unlike YouTube who’s announced their online video editor, where you can trim the beginning and/or ending of your videos. Plus YouTube gives you the ability to add soundtracks from their 10K file AudioSwap library, and you don’t have to fret about file formats. Plus they say it’s one click publishing now without the upload.

Nice!

Fade to black…

@cybercoder on Twitter said: By far the easiest way to make a PDF file has got to be using Google Docs, just work it up, and download it.

It’s just that easy…you can create a PDF from a text file or a spreadsheet. With a text document open in Google Docs, go to the…
File Menu…
Download As…
PDF

Thanks @cybercoder for the great time-saving tip. I remember jumping through hoops years ago in an office environment trying to create a PDF document for a co-worker. We’ve made light-years of progress since then.

If you haven’t tried Google Docs yet, it’s a great easy way to save and share your documents online.

By the same token, we’re familiar with browser plug-ins that extend the capability of our web browsers.

Google Extensions do the same for Google Chrome, they add more features and functionality to the browser.

Extensions let you customize Google Chrome with features you like, while keeping your browser free of clutter that you don’t use. Source: google.com/support/chrome/

Try Google Extensions at: chrome.google.com/extensions

The WP team has assembled some well done tutorial videos for learning WordPress.

Welcome to WordPress TV, is a visual reference for all things WordPress.

There’s also a Blog for WordPress TV at blog.wordpress.tv

Here’s some other useful WordPress sites:

weeklywp.com offers weekly updated podcasts, tips and tricks. They also cover the various WordCamps, offering workshops and instruction on WordPress.

WordPress Tweaking has video instruction at wptopsites.wordpress.com

The original WordPress Code Site at codex.wordpress.org/

We’re going to see some important improvements in this new version, which will push WordPress even further along as the leading CMS tool on the web.

The WordPress Blog has posted about some of the biggest changes in the 3.0 Beta, listed here:

• A Custom Menu System
• WordPress and WordPress MU have merged
• A New Default Theme called Twenty Ten
• Custom Post Type Functionality

The new WordPress 3.0 Beta has the blogosphere buzzing…I’ve found the following posts have been the most informative.

• CyberCoder on Twitter:
  Nice changes to the WordPress 3.0 Edit Themes page, cleaner file names, descriptions, selected file. The new Default Theme and Custom Menu in WordPress 3.0 appears to be a nice addition.
• CyberCoder is testing the WordPress 3.0 Beta here.
• mashable.com WordPress Beta 3.0 Released
• net.tutsplus.com 10 Features to Look Forward to in WordPress 3.0
• WordPress Development Updates wpdevel.wordpress.com/
• WordPress Trac Timeline core.trac.wordpress.org/timeline
• WordPress Planet planet.wordpress.org
• Beta testers can report bugs at wp-testers mailing list

PayPal Mobile enables you to check your PayPal balance, view past transactions, send money, or shop eBay.

You can also use it via text messaging by using basic or advanced keywords.

PayPal Mobile is secure because every payment is confirmed by your PIN or password.

Visit m.paypal.com on your phone or the
iTunes App Store.

PayPal Mobile @ paypal.com/mobile

Leading web designers engage in debate about CMS tools.

Question; Is WordPress killing web design?

WordPress has been named the leader among popular CMS tools, Movable Type, Joomla!, and Mambo.

So is WordPress creating a new set of design conventions that designers feel obliged to follow? Are CMS tools making web designers lose creative focus, making them lazy?

Official SXSW YouTube Channel

Follow SXSW on Twitter

SXSW on Facebook