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Here’s the latest action:

Dell wants greener PCs (now if only their customers did too) — The computer maker says its laptops and desktops should consume 25 percent less energy by 2010. But the Wall Street Journal notes that Dell has an uphill battle in its effort to become the self-proclaimed “greenest IT company”, because many IT departments think environmentally-friendly computers are too expensive.

Atari releases exercise game system to compete with Nintendo’s — The new Wii Fit isn’t the only option for gamers who want to get in shape without leaving the comfort of their living rooms. Atari plans to release Family Trainer, a product for the Wii, this fall. It’s being billed as a simplified Wii Fit; players use an interactive floor mat for outdoor games like river rafting and log jumping.

Mozilla shares a few details about data collection project — As the company tries to expand beyond its Firefox web browser, one of its next projects is a service that could provide a fresh take on web analytics. Mozilla chief executive John Lilly writes that he project’s goal is to collect and share user data in a way that gives users control and protects their privacy, and to enable everyone to analyze and mash-up that data. That’s not a lot of information to go on, but it’ll be exciting to see what Mozilla comes up with.

Ask.com to buy Lexico — Apparently, the most popular query on search engine Ask.com is the word “dictionary”, so it kind of makes sense that IAC/Ask would purchase the Lexico Publishing Group, which owns Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com. Ask says the deal will make it the ninth most visited property online, ahead of Facebook. Acquisition details haven’t been disclosed, but presumably the number is close to Answers.com’s $100 million offer for Lexico last year.

Google creates an encyclopedia for web developers — The site, called Doctype, will include articles on web security, best practices and more, as well as reference materials on HTML, DOM and CSS, and even some unused Google code that was developed for internal use. Taking a page from Wikipedia, Doctype can be edited by anyone with a Google account.

IBM develops technology to let solar cells stand the heat of more than 1,000 suns — That’s an important step, because cooling is a big concern with the photovoltaic cells used in solar panels. IBM’s stated performance is better than some companies like SolFocus and Greenvolts, but not as good as a recent upstart called Sunrgi.

The Linux Mobile Foundation, or LiMo, has been trying to create an open-source platform for device manufacturers, carriers, third-party application developers and others in the mobile industry since last year. By using the open source Linux operating system, companies across segments of the mobile industry will have lower technical and cost barriers to mobile operating system innovation, the effort hopes.

Today, LiMo has gotten a big boost, maybe: Eight new member organizations have joined, including the largest US carrier, Verizon, and Firefox browser creator, Mozilla.

LiMo goes to great pains to bring everybody under its tent. Its members provide intellectual property to its “middleware” platform — the operating system of a phone, rather than its applications and content. See screenshot for a diagram of the components that LiMo works in (in green); LiMo background information PDF here.

At its core, LiMo seems to be pitting carriers like new LiMo member Verizon against the Google-led Android effort, even though they’re not quite the same thing — both Google and incumbent carriers hope to maintain some control over operating systems on their phones, so they can promote their own ads and applications.

LiMo, for example, will allow carriers like Verizon to cut the cost of putting together an operating system. It lets carriers customize their own user interfaces for the LiMo operating system, as Linux Watch points out, which is a way for these companies to introduce applications that they can control and make money from.

The closest rival here is the Open Handset Alliance, or OHA, led by Google, that is implementing the Google-developed Android operating system — based on a different distribution of Linux. In contrast to LiMo, Android has its own user interface. Through this interface, Google will give preference to its own ads and applications like Gmail and Google Maps, as well as partner third-party applications.

Mobile Linux is arriving, but for whom?

Mobile Linux operating systems has until recently been viewed skeptically with the mobile industry. They haven’t gained much traction among more expensive and complex “smartphones.”

But the competition to be more open, spurred by Android, has forced carriers like Verizon to look at ways of giving developers more control. The catch is that everything still being developed. There are only a few LiMo-enabled phones out now (like the Motorola U9, pictured, via Linux Devices), and the first Android phone won’t be out until later this year.

Long-term, though, mid to high-range Linux-based phones are expected to reach twenty percent worldwide market share by 2013, according to one study. Meanwhile, the other competitors have grown large. Apple is seeing surging purchases of its iPhone, which runs on its own operating system — a study from last fall says the iPhone has already gained 27 percent of the smartphone market in the U.S.

And, of course, the largest hardware manufacturer in the world, Nokia, already has its own operating system, Symbian. Microsoft’s mobile version of Windows has also already become popular on high-end “smartphones” that allow better web access. LiMo hopes to be a cheaper, jointly-controlled alternative.

Where does all this talk of open efforts leave third-party developers? First of all, it will ultimately create new ways to build applications that run on one operating system across many types of phones, on carriers around the world. That’s also one downside for LiMo — partners are able to customize their implementations of it, which means an application may need extensive re-working to function across carriers.

Android, because it is run by Google, promises a more seamless operating system, user interface and other features for third parties to build applications. This leads some Android advocates to believe that its OS will achieve dominance.

Verizon, at least, seems to be thinking about the possibility of Android’s success. The carrier suggests it will allow Android phones to operate on its service, but that obviously won’t be its focus with LiMo. Here’s the thing. If Android is very successful and LiMo is not, the questions as to why Verizon didn’t simply align with that movement will get very loud. Especially for the company that turned down the iPhone.

Also of note: Mozilla’s participation. The company has already said that it’s coming out with an open source web browser. By joining LiMo, the non-profit organization shows it is looking well beyond its search-revenue partner, Google. Presumably, Mozilla’s mobile web browser will include Google as its default search option just like it does on the web — and on LiMo-based operating systems.

So far, LiMo has gained 40 members. Besides Verizon and Mozilla, members announced today include Infineon Technologies, Kvaleberg AS, Red Bend Software, Sagem Mobiles, SFR and SK Telecom.

Big companies are trying to promote third-party innovation

Nearly every big company in mobile is offering rewards to promising developers. Venture firm Kleiner Perkins has a $100 million fund for companies that build for the iPhone. Smartphone Blackberry maker Research In Motion has just joined together with Thomson Financial and other investors, putting $150 million total towards companies that build for the Blackberry.

LiMo, meanwhile, says it will reward promising developers with “special access and support,” according to Forbes, with its winners being announced in September.

Android is leading the charge here by being first (although not in the funding it provides). Yesterday, it announced its 50 winning application companies from among the more than 1,700 applicants. The winners will receive seed-funding portions of a $10 million total fund. Not all of them have launched. For a list with links to the company names, see here; for some more in-depth reviews, see here.

To unleash the wild creativity of the Internet on mobile phones, we have to open them up to the real Internet, says Mitchell Baker, the second speaker of the morning at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.

The chairman (er, chairwoman) of Mozilla says it shouldn’t matter what device you use to access the web.

Mozilla is the nonprofit that makes the Firefox browser, which is being used by hundreds of millions of people as an alternative to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. (For a view of how big, check our Q&A with Mozilla CEO John Lilly)

She says that mobile browsers should all just work. The use cases do argue for different devices, but you will always want things quickly and with few keystrokes. “The information is the same,” she said. “We should be able to access it, mix it up, mash it up, save it, store it. All of those things should be the same if I am on a laptop or phone, at home or on a train.”

Use cases are driven by the constraints of a mobile device. One reason why having one web is important, she said, is that mobile devices need to deliver the same kind of experience, where you can discover new uses for the device after you buy it and after you start browsing the web. The good thing about the PC is that the experience keeps evolving and those new uses are as important as what we bought the machine for, she said.

She noted that the metaphor “browser” is archaic. How many of us simply browse? The web is far more active than the word implies. We need, she says, an open web-based platform in the form of Firefox so that Web 2.0 developers can reach people on mobile phones. It will have competition, she says. (In fact, Opera’s CEO Jon von Tetzchner recently told me that Opera Mini is on 40 million devices now and Opera Mobile has many users too).

Developers get a base from Firefox and can build on top of it. Closed systems like Microsoft aren’t innovative or helpful at promoting diversity, she said. The browser can bring masses of innovation to the mobile web, she said. Firefox does fit on mobile devices now, including phones from Nokia and others.

“Throughout 2008, you’ll see new ideas and experiments,” she said.

Why does the open platform and one web matter? Say you want to find a restaurant near you. She wants to use the phone to find it. But she doesn’t want it wandering off somewhere and doing things on its own, particularly if she loses it.

“We can see it’s possible,” she said. “Firefox will be the fastest, most efficient way to get there.”

Again, I’m sure that Opera’s von Tetzchner will beg to differ. He told me that Opera was the fastest browser with the smallest footprint and has been proven for years in the mobile environment.

Mozilla, the maker of the free open source Firefox browser, is turning 10 years old on Monday.

More than 160 million users use Firefox, which competes with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or Apple’s Safari. The nonprofit Mozilla, based in Mountain View, Calif., also publishes the open source Thunderbird email client. I use the beta version of Firefox 3.0. I’m happy with its speed and superior functions (like “restore session” which returns you to all of your open browser windows the next time you start your computer).

Matt Marshall and I sat down with Mozilla CEO John Lilly, who was recently promoted to the top post (our coverage). We talked about everything from the origins of Firefox to what’s wrong with Google’s Android cell phone platform. (update: the latest on Firefox 3.0 beta 5 is here)

Q: What is the organization like?
A: We are an unusual organization. I previously sold Reactivity, a venture-backed startup, to Cisco for $135 million. I was CEO. We have entrepreneurs here. We are acting like we are entrepreneurs but are going against a mission. We are owned by a nonprofit. We aren’t going public. We aren’t raising money. We aren’t making stock options. We pressed pause on our careers because this is really important. It’s exciting to have our fingers on the future of the web. We aren’t complacent. Read the rest of this entry »

The latest versions of the web browsers Opera and Safari are claiming to have reached the big 100/100 score milestone in the Acid3 web standards compatibility test, making them the first browsers to do so. The two sides are thought to have completed the task within minutes of each other, both beating the much more popular Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers to the milestone.

The Acid browser test is developed by The Web Standards Project in order to check various parts of a web browser to ensure it is compatible with the latest set of web standards. Acid3 is the third variation of such a test, hence the “3″. Acid3 in particular tests for specifications that enable “web 2.0″ dynamic applications to run as they were intended. A full list of those specifications can be found here.

To “pass” the test, a browser must receive a 100 out of 100 score and also must have a test image that is pixel perfect and run the test animation smoothly. The WebKit team (makers of Safari) claim to have completed the score requirement as well as the pixel perfect requirement.

You can test your own browser here simply by going to this URL: http://acid3.acidtests.org. For some reference points, my Firefox 3 beta received a 68/100 on the test, while my Camino browser received a 53/100. Apple’s latest released version of Safari (3.1) faired better, receiving a 75/100.

[Above: The image you will see if your browser passes the Acid3 test]

Safari was also the first browser to pass the Acid2 (the predecessor to the Acid3) test. It did so in 2005. Opera also passed that test while no final release version of either Firefox or Internet Explorer were able to. The Internet Explorer team made some headlines in December by saying that their early testing version of the unreleased Internet Explorer 8 had passed the Acid2 test. The new Acid3 test was released in the beginning of this month.

While passing the Acid2 test was not a huge priority for browser makers (hence why Firefox and Internet Explorer released builds never got around to it), passing Acid3 could become more important given its alignment with dynamic web application compatibility.

Here’s the latest action:
1) Dan Farber takes the helm at CNET
2) Mozilla launches email-focused subsidiary
3) Scribd creates iPaper, an Acrobat competitor
4) Hewlett-Packard has great first quarter
5) Tesla Motors pulls in another $40M
6) Verizon, AT&T unveil new unlimited wireless plans
7) Oligarchs, proletariat run amok in Silicon Valley
8) Scientists suck up CO2 to make alternative fuel

Dan Farber takes the helm at CNET — One familiar figure is stepping aside for another at CNET, where long-time editor-in-chief Jai Singh is ending his long rule over the editorial arm of the media company. Farber, a veteran journalist and former EIC at some of the tech world’s most recognized publications, takes on the role at a time that CNET is struggling with activist investors including Spark Capital and Jana Partners. His own thoughts on the transition are here. (Image by Scott Beale of Laughing Squid.)

Mozilla launches new subsidiary to improve email — The Mozilla Foundation, which makes the Firefox browser, has launched a subsidiary called Mozilla Messaging that will work on improving the Thunderbird email client, another of the company’s products. In a painfully vague blog post, David Ascher, the CEO-to-be of Messaging, says that the new division will give Thunderbird the kind of attention Firefox has always gotten, adding new features and opening it to more contributions from outside developers. Despite the vagueness, as a major competitor to Microsoft Outlook, a next-generation version of Thunderbird may (eventually) be big news.

Scribd creates iPaper, an Acrobat competitor — Does clicking a link only to find it opening up a PDF file in a separate window bug the hell out of you? Scribd is hoping it can tap into that pain point to get a foothold over Adobe’s Acrobat, with a new document viewer called iPaper that will be embedded directly in web pages. The viewer will be able to display a variety of formats including normal text and Powerpoint presentations and, get this, advertisements powered by Google Adsense, without requiring a download. The app is quite similar to Macromedia’s FlashPaper, which Adobe effectively abandoned when it acquired that company. Ironically, iPaper is also made with Adobe Flash.

Hewlett-Packard has an excellent first quarter — Giant computer maker HP had an excellent first quarter, especially as compared to the recent earnings and stock performance of most of its compatriots on the NASDAQ. The company saw a small bump in North American revenue, accompanied by a jump in Asia and Europe. It’s often considered an indicator for the enterprise sector, so strong results coming now from HP suggest that the recession might not be so bad after all, at least for tech.

Tesla Motors pulls in another $40 million — Electric car maker Tesla has taken another $40 million, raising total investment in the company to date to $140 million, as we briefly mentioned yesterday. The lead investors were Valor Equity Partners and Elon Musk, the company’s chairman. Tesla is shooting for $250 million more over the next two years, and the launch of a new model; for more details, see yesterday’s article.

Two major carriers unveil new unlimited wireless plans — Verizon and AT&T now both offer unlimited-use wireless plans, starting at $99. Directed at the high-end market, the new packages are a significant step away from the set-minute “buckets” that the largest carriers have favored to date. They mark a further move toward using value-added services like applications and data as the major differentiator between wireless plans.

Oligarchs, proletariat run amok in Silicon Valley; middle class vanishing — Petit bourgeousie, where art thee? Recent employment figures for Silicon Valley show that overall employment levels are rising, but jobs in the $30,000 - $80,000 earning range are on the decline. Worse, the job growth for low-end earners  making less than $30,000 was at five percent, while growth for the $80,000-plus group was at only one percent. This might have something to do with an increasingly common business model: One well-paid CEO, one small army of interns.

Suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to make fuel — A couple of new schemes hope to pull carbon dioxide from the air to create an alternative fuel. The idea reported here by the New York Times involves using a nuclear plant as the power source for the electrochemical reaction that would produce the fuel, though, so don’t plan on seeing it any time soon.

Mozilla, the Silicon Valley company that runs the popular browser Firefox, said John Lilly (pictured below), its chief operating officer, has become chief executive.

The move comes after steady growth of market share by Firefox, which now has about 17 percent, compared to Microsoft Internet Explorer’s 76 percent, according to NetApplications.

The gulf is still large, but Firefox’s share is up significantly from just a few percentage points four years ago. Some people believe the browser should be more popular than it is. Its open source underpinnings allow people to create extensions and add-ons that make it more useful.

Mitchell Baker, Mozilla’s chief executive, will step down and continue as chairman and an executive focused on Mozilla’s product development in the areas of “standards and interoperability,” and seeking ways to support the organization financially. Her blog post about the move is here.

Lilly will focus on overall product technology and execution, the company said in a statement. His blog post about the move is here. Among his comments:

We’ve got a lot to do in the coming years, starting with getting Firefox 3 out the door, and then swiftly followed up by our work in mobile and services. Mozilla2 will be a major step forward on the platform after that, not to mention our new experiments in Labs and the work that we’re doing to move the whole Web forward with Javascript 2, HTML 5 and other standards work.

Prior to Mozilla, Lilly founded Reactivity, an XML security company, and before that was senior scientist at Apple and as director of product design at Trilogy Software. Earlier he worked at HP and Sun, and has a bachelor’s and master’s in computer science from Stanford.

Update: John Markoff, of the NYTimes, has more details on the challenges facing Mozilla, which is a non-profit foundation with a for-profit subsidiary and must manage a host of volunteer developers even as it makes millions of dollars from a relationship with Google.

Mozilla recently launched a new online service called Weave. Weave allows you to store settings and other data so that it can be used across multiple devices. For example, you can save your personal bookmarks in Weave (it is saved on a Mozilla server), and then recall them when working on a different PC or even a cellphone.

Weave serves as a buffer between the Internet and a user’s desktop, and is Mozilla’s first step into offering online services. In addition, the project focuses on personal user information, a first for Mozilla.

In Weave, user data is first pushed into the “cloud.” The data is known as “metadata,” consisting of things like bookmarks, web history, passwords, preferences and customizations. Users can also share access of this information to friends or other third-parties. If grandma is having trouble with the settings of her browser, you could relay your settings to her using Weave.

Weave is an open framework. Mozilla currently plans release an API for Weave, allowing outside developers to build applications for it. Mozilla’s Firefox browser has been successful partly due to add-ons that developers create for integration with the browser.

User trust in the safety of their personal information with Mozilla is pivotal to the success of Weave. Mozilla says it has organized the product around privacy: It requires client-side encryption by default before you can use Weave. In addition, all data stored on Mozilla servers is encrypted again.

The focus on privacy is relevant, given that other players, such as Facebook and Google have come under attack recently after privacy concerns. Traditionally, syncing and data services have been the domain of large commercial conglomerates such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. The budget and resources of these companies far outdo that of Mozilla, however, Mozilla possesses a key advantage over these corporations. Mozilla is viewed as a neutral party, and arguably is less likely to attempt to commercialize the data its stores on its servers. This perception could serve it well.

Over time, Mozilla hopes to develop Weave into a social platform that encourages open collaboration between friends, families, and third parties.

Weave 0.2, which is set for an early 2008 release, will let users delegate and revoke access to their data.

Weave can be used only with the latest Firefox 3 Beta 2 release. Mozilla’ popular browser, along with a powerful email client, may help push distribution of Weave. Mozilla says it is actively pursuing other methods with which it can blend “the desktop and the Web through deeper integration of the browser with online services.” Mozilla envisions establishing itself as a gateway between the desktop and the web.

Gabriel Ikram is a contributing author for VentureBeat.

Want to author a piece for VentureBeat? Get in touch with us at venturebeat at gmail dot com.

1) Yahoo launches brick-and-mortar internet cafes in Vietnam
2) Mozilla Corp., maker of the popular Firefox web browser, made $66 million in revenue in 2006
3) The internet still probably won’t be taxed in the US, through 2014
4) Adware company Zango buys comparison shopping service Smartshopper, a $9 million backflip
5) Tioti, social TV site, raises first round
6) Anti-aging product review site RealSelf.com launches, announces nearly $1 million in funding

Yahoo launches brick-and-mortar internet cafes in Vietnam – It’s an effort to bring the internet — and Yahoo, in particular — to people who otherwise might not have good access. More here.

Mozilla Corp., maker of the popular Firefox web browser, made $66 million in revenue in 2006 – Its main source of money is fees paid to it by Google in exchange for running Google as its first option in its search box. This revenue shows the browser’s increasing popularity: revenue was up 26 percent from 2005, with the browser now used by 120 million people around the world, or 13 percent of the market.

The internet still probably won’t be taxed in the US, through 2014 – The bill would prohibit state and local governments from taxing services that connect users to the internet. The Senate revised and then approved an earlier bill from the House; now the House needs to approve the changes before it goes to the White House to get signed and made law.

Adware company Zango buys comparison shopping service Smartshopper, a $9 million backflip – Bellevue-based Zango had bought HotBar, Smartshopper’s parent company, in 2006.

At that time, Oren Dobronsky, one of the owners of HotBar, bought SmartShopper back from Zango for $250,000 then tried and failed to raise funding for it. Almost one and a half years later, Dobronsky has sold it back to them for $9 million, reports Alarm Clock.

Zango is best known for its dastardly tactic of secretly installing software that pops up advertising windows on users’ computers, software that is extremely difficult to remove.

Tioti, social TV site, raises first round — The Seattle company allows users to find TV content, comment on it and recommend and share it with friends with things like an online widget. It has raised a first round of funding from Pond Venture Partners, amount unknown. The company launched this month after acquiring some 18,000 users during a testing period.

Anti-aging product review site RealSelf.com launches, announces nearly $1 million in funding – The Seattle company has raised money from a number of angel investors; release here.

The Coop is a new social networking feature by Mozilla, which will let users of its Firefox browser keep track of what their friends are doing online, and share content with them.

It will integrate with web services, using data feeds so that you can keep up your friends’ activities on various sites. This may hurt Flock, the browser company that was about to release a version with similar features (we saw a demo several months ago).

And if it reminds you of Friendster, it should. Though it works with Friendster, not against it.

According to the Mozilla blog:

[One build] uses Facebook’s “Share” feature as the data transport layer for now, and allows you to share web content by dragging it onto your friend’s picture. As the project page indicates, we’re thinking of several different data transport mechanisms, as well as how we want to expose various interactions. This prototype really helps to get a feeling of what The Coop might become over time.

Jockeying for control of the so-called third screen is intensifying, now that most people are carrying around a phone with them, and will consume more and more information from them.

The move to the cellphone may be one of the biggest trends of the decade.

Microsoft has just released Deepfish, a browser that aims to preserve the layout of documents on mobile devices and making Web navigation more easy — enabling you to zoom in and out of a page, and downloading only areas you are interested in. It uploads a thumbnail of pages initially (see image below), and keeps navigation menus, lists of search results or news headlines more intact. It has limited its client release for now; we tried to sign up but were shut out.

It is an answer to the popular Opera mobile browser, which has shown momentum lately. It also follows the release Tuesday by the Minimo Project of another browser (hosted by Mozilla) that boasts faster access, support for modern web standards Javascript and AJAX, some of which Deepfish doesn’t have yet, and things like social bookmarking, tag browsing and RSS support (but still looks like it has some way to go).