After five weeks of testing on the Firefox Aurora channel, Firefox 5 has graduated
Have you gotten your invite yet? No, not the one to the party, but to Google's Music Beta service. Don't hang your head and pout if you haven't received yours yet, it will probably arrive soon, assuming you requested one in the first place. Word on the web is that Google has begun sending out invites to us regular folk, opening up the beta service to non-Xoom owners.
There's a new version
Our desire for Diablo III has been well-documented, but – for the uninitiated – we would do terrible, terrible things to obtain it. Talking during a movie? In a heartbeat. Eating food that someone's clearly claimed with a Sharpie scrawling of their name? Without a second thought. We might even change lanes without signaling, but frankly, we're not breaking that glass unless an unlikely Skyrim delay emergency pops up. At any rate, the Diablo III beta's now just around the corner. Join us in rejoicing.
Microsoft introduced its cloud-based productivity suite, Office 365, in limited beta last year, giving small businesses access to always up-to-date versions of Microsoft Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, and Lync Online from remote locations. According to Microsoft, the private beta was such a hit that the Redmond software company decided to open it up to the public, expanding Office 365 availability to millions more people in nearly twice as many countries and languages.
Just three short years ago, the announcement of a new Norton product would have been met with a "big whoop" from the enthusiast community. Some of you might still feel that way, but take it from us, Symantec seriously stepped up its game starting with the 2009 releases, and Norton has been faring well in our annual antivirus roundups ever since, including a 9 verdict awarded to Norton Internet Security 2011. If you want to see what's in store for next year's release, Symantec just made available Norton Internet Security and Norton Antivirus 2012 in beta form.
TweetDeck is one of the most popular desktop Twitter clients out there, and a new beta program is aiming to bring the app into the web. TweetDeck is preparing to open a limited beta test of the new HTML5 TweetDeck web app. The product will initially support Chrome, Firefox 3.6, Firefox 4 and Safari. Internet Explorer 9 and Opera support will be added later. 
Experimenting with beta drivers isn't for the faint of heart, especially when it comes to videocards. After all, this is your pricey GPU we're talking about, and a poorly coded driver can wreak all kinds of havoc, from instability to artifacting, to even overheating if the fan doesn't kick on when it's supposed to. That said, if you're down for playing with pre-release drivers, Nvidia has made available its GeForce 270.51 driver set in beta form.
The Opera Software team on Thursday made available its next generation browser in beta form. Opera 11.10, or "Barracuda," as it's codenamed, jumps on the minimalistic UI bandwagon by introducing a streamlined interface. The Opera team is also talking up an enhanced Speed Dial that provides clearer previews and can dynamically show live content for websites.
Google recently released its Chrome 10 browser in beta form, and with it come a handful of upgrades over previous versions. First and foremost is performance. Google promises a "dramatic improvement in JavaScript" speed, making it "quick as a bunny." Put in more measurable terms, Chrome 10 beta is supposed to be 66 percent faster than the latest stable build, or at least that's the case in Google's V8 benchmark suite.
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