internet explorer

A lot has changed since the 1990s when the search engine of choice was AltaVista, when Internet connections ran through a phone line, and when Netscape battled Internet Explorer for browsing supremacy. Now Google, apparently nostalgic for the days of Presidential impeachment and O.J. Simpson, has reignited the wars with the roll out of its new application, a browser named Chrome.

The big news on the browser horizon is the release of Microsofts Internet Explorer 8. Its promising new contextual serviceslike being able to Digg a page with an integrated menuand a feature called WebSlices, which lets you bookmark and track only a certain portion of a page. But Microsoft isnt the only one with updates in store. The other big browsers are rolling out changes at least as promising as IE8's.

Until it went on sale last November, Microsoft's Zune was heralded as the first true iPod-killer. But with its overly aggressive copyright protection and the odd, self-imposed limits to its most innovative features (like built-in Wi-Fi), it has so far failed to make even a dent in the iPod's shiny white-and-chrome armor. It's likely the Zune will improve with version 2.0 and beyond, but until then, here are three easy Zune tune-ups to ease the pain of waiting for a better model.