217w ago - The honeymoon appears to be over for Internet Explorer 8 - and it wasn't much of a honeymoon to begin with, either. Just days after the browser's big debut, its market share has fallen a full 28 percent from its peak.

Alternative browsers, meanwhile, have held steady ground, losing no significant number of users to Microsoft's new offering.

To quote: IE 8 managed to break the 2 percent mark within a day of its release last Thursday, according to tracking data by analytics firm Net Applications. It grew slowly over the weekend, topping out at 2.59 percent of the overall browser market at 3 a.m. (EDT) Sunday. From there, things started heading downhill.

With a steady decline, Internet Explorer 8 dropped down to 1.86 percent of the market by Monday morning. It's bounced up and down a bit since then, but thus far, there's been no sign of a second wave of supporters rushing to make the switch.

Compare that with the release of Firefox 3 last summer: Within just three days of its launch, Mozilla's next-generation browser more than doubled its beta share, jumping up to nearly 19 percent of the market.

"I suppose the kindest description of user reaction to IE 8's first public outing would be 'underwhelming'," says Aodhan Cullen, CEO and founder of online data firm StatCounter.

238w ago - Logic-Sunrise has shared the results of their investigation into the screen issues with the latest edition PSP-3000 consoles.

They took out a microscope in order to test the difference between the screens as follows:

On PSP-3000 and newest PSP-3004, Everyone get a "bad screen" (scanline effect). But what happen on these screens ? in fact we get a microscope, and we tested differencies between old good screens, and newest bad screens.

In fact, after looking it 40X bigger, we can see all pixels. As you know, a pixel got 3 colors : blue, green and red. The biggest issue is the blue part of the pixel is not "light", but very dark, near black ... The or issue is that the blue part is horizon aligned, not vertical aligned, like old screens. It's why we have a scanline effect.

Also, we contacted SONY: No new console will be changed or screen replaced. We made a simple: gaming. It's VERY awful to play on these console, and we recommend everybody to bye old slim psp (psp-2004 for exemple) or wait for new screens on PSP 3000 and psp 3004 consoles.

We made 2 pictures, to compare.

248w ago - Nearly half a million people are employed in developing countries earning virtual goods in online games to sell to players, a study has found.

Research by Manchester University shows that the practice, known as gold-farming, is growing rapidly.

Researchers say the industry, which is largely based in China, currently employs about 400,000 young people who earn £80 per month on average.

Games companies have attempted to crack down on the practice. Players in the popular online game World of Warcraft acquire virtual gold by fighting monsters and completing quests.

Alternatively, some simply buy it from a fast-growing workforce employed to play this and other games.

Manchester University says the young people, described in the study as "playbourers", sell gold or other virtual goods, despite the practice being against the rules of many online games.

However, the report's authors say an industry which connects cash-rich time-poor players with those willing to work long hours for little reward is likely to go on growing.