Actually, it’ll only be rotating if you use it on a laptop that has a built-in accelerometer, similar to the one found in the iPhone. But still, the fact that the new version of Firefox (3.6) can recognize your screen orientationand adapt accordingly is awesome and signifies that we’ll see more and more accelerometer-equipped lappies in the future. Oh, and it’ll also fuel more Apple Tablet rumors. Why? Because you can’t really imagine this feature being too useful on a regular laptop. It’s much easier to imagine it on a keyboardless, thin, compact device which you can easily turn into a vertical position.This new feature was announced by Mozilla evangelist Christopher Blizzard. “One new feature that we’re including as part of Firefox 3.6 is support for web pages to access machine orientation information if it’s available. Many modern MacBooks and ThinkPads contain devices and drivers that expose this information. We’ve added support for Linux, Macs and some ThinkPads where drivers and devices are available,” he said. It’s nice to see a flashy, innovative feature like this announced for Firefox; its recent iterationshave been more about bug squashing and stability. To see what Firefox plans for 2010., check out this post. Reviews: Firefox, linuxTags: accelerometer, Firefox

  Throughout the entire 2008 and the better part of 2009, we’ve reported on Facebook and Twitter’s explosive growth. Monthafter month, we’ve seen tremendous numbers from both these services, while some giants of old, such as MySpace, dropped lower and lower. Somewhere in June, however, Twitter stopped growing, at least according to Compete. The same thing happened to Facebook at the exact same time; at first we’ve attributed the traffic numbers to the summer slumber, but now that Compete’s numbers for September are out, there’s no doubt that both Facebook and Twitter are no longer growing, at least in the eyes of the (admittedly US-centric) Compete. Summer is one thing, but September is the month when everyone comes back to work, when the IT industry wakes up and when things, generally, start happening. A bump in the stats of almost everything that’s online is natural, so Facebook’s meager 1.96% growth when it comes to unique visitors isn’t something you’d write home about. There’s a difference between these two, however: Facebook is already huge; there’s always a question of whether it has room for further growth at all. Twitter is several orders of magnitude smaller; accustomed to its explosive growth, we’ve already started calling it the “new SMS”, but if it stays where it is, numbers-wise, it’s not going to cut it. In September, its unique visitors fell by 0.17%, to 23,538,791. Over the last three months, it has grown approximately three times less than in May alone. Furthermore, if we look at visits, Facebook experienced a solid 3.99% increase to 2,290,512,524, but Twitter actually dropped by a further 2.68% to 144,661,590. This doesn’t look too bad until you remember that Twitter’s growth in the last three months has been a staggering 463.62%. When it comes to other social networking powerhouses of old, the situation is far, far worse. MySpace and Bebo are bleeding users at an oustanding pace: 11.15% and 15.41%, respectively. If the trend continues, we might see these sites join services like GeoCitiesin the geek history books in a couple of years. We’ve noticed, however, that LinkedIn has been steadily growing lately, and the trend continued into September, with the service recording a solid +5.68% growth. Finally, we’ve noticed last month that Digg’s numbers look excellent, but in September, they remained almost the same with a tiny 0.25% growth to 43,888,259 uniques.Judging by these (very diverse) numbers, I have a feeling that the period ahead of us will be different than before. Users are getting picky about what they want; they’re very fast to jump on and off bandwagons, and the movements in the social networking space are getting harder and harder to predict. A good example is another social media darling that recently got sold to Facebook: FriendFeed. Once touted as the next big thing, it seems to have sold at just the right time, as Compete’s numbers show a huge dropin both unique visitors (-28.41%) and visits (-27.96%). A couple more months, and it might completely drop off the charts. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Norebbo. Reviews: Bebo, Digg, Facebook, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, iStockphotoTags: bebo, compete, facebook, linkedin, myspace, stats, twitter

  If you’ve been surfing Mashable the last few weeks, you probably have already have already seen a few Web Faceoffs, our new weekly series where we let two popular web apps duke it out via reader vote. Two enter, only one can claim the title.We have some great faceoffs already. Nearly 9000 of you voted in our web browser brawl, while only 31 votes separated Last.fm from Pandora. But now, in our fourth installment of Web Faceoff, we decided to up it by a notch.In the entire web and social media industry, two platforms have captured nearly all the attention: Facebookand Twitter. Facebook is the world’s largest social network, while Twitter is considered by most the hottest.We’ve compared the two, discussed when most people use Twitter versus Facebook, and even analyzed who will win in real-time search. But we’ve never actually put them head-to-head. We’ve never asked you which of these two powerhouses you prefer.That’s exactly what we’re going to do today – right here, right now. Facebook or Twitter: which one do you prefer? Cast your vote in the poll below. You have until noon EST on Friday October 16th before the polls close. Let the great battle begin.Who would win in a fight: Facebook or Twitter?(poll)Web Faceoff: Overall ResultsWeek 1:- Mozilla Firefox vs. Google Chrome- WINNER: Firefox, 4600 votes (Chrome: 3310 votes, Tie: 911 votes)Week 2:- Tumblr vs. Posterous- WINNER: Tumblr, 1809 votes (Posterous: 1496 votes, Tie: 256 votes)Week 3:- Pandora vs. Last.fm- WINNER: Tumblr, 1809 votes (Posterous: 1496 votes, Tie: 256 votes)Reviews: Chrome, Facebook, Firefox, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Pandora, Posterous, Tumblr, TwitterTags: facebook, social media, twitter, web faceoff

  The Mystery Googlewebsite offers a seriously strange riff on the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button: instead of taking you to the number one result for your own query, it takes you to the search results for the user who searched just before you.If you’re in the mood for discovery or just plain randomness, Mystery Google might just teach you something new.Our search for “Donors Choose” took us to the results for a search on “life is normal today :[” which turned up the My Life is Averagesite, which is awesome (the same folks put out the recent AverageCatsLOLcats parody, which is also awesome). In other words, serendipity: check!It reminds us of a recent post on Japan’s Ogori Cafe, where you receive what the person in front of you ordered. Neither of these things is for the unadventurous, but if you’re craving a little mystery in your life, Mystery Google is the easier of the two to get to for most of us!It’s also vaguely reminiscent of Google Suggest, which shows you a zeitgeist of what others have searched on in the past based on the string of text you’ve input so far (sometimes with hilarious results.) Have you had a chance to try the quirky Mystery Google? Let us know if you made any illuminating discoveries in the comments.Tags: Fun, Google, mystery google, Search

  With a reported 11 million Facebook membersusing casual games company Zynga’s FarmVille every day on Facebook, it makes perfect sense that the company is looking for the next big thing.According to Trademork, the next big thing might be fish. The video game developer filed for a trademark last week for the term “FishVille” in relation to online games.There aren’t any details as yet regarding what kind of title FishVille might be, but one can assume from the similarity to FarmVille that it will most likely be a resource-management type virtual sim as well. And since Zyngamakes money from virtual item sales, we can expect a similar business model embedded in FishVille too.When we last posted about FarmVille, a number of readers came out of the woodwork with enthusiasm for the casual Facebook game. Do you play FarmVille, and/or would you consider playing a similar and perhaps more nautical title from the same company?Reviews: FacebookTags: casual games, facebook, farmville, fishville, games, microtransactions, social gaming, virtual currency, virtual goods, Zynga

  Last month, Bit.ly surpassed TinyURLto become the Web’s most popular URL shortener. This month, the story is about separating from the pack.Ever since Twitter made Bit.ly its default shortener, the 5 character domain’s growth has skyrocketed. According to the most recent U.S. traffic stats fromCompete, Bit.ly’s unique visitors jumped by over 12% in September, while TinyURL, Tr.im, and its other competitors aren’t even close. This is quickly becoming a “One and the Rest” market.The best way to understand this growing dichotomy is to take a look at the numbers:- Bit.ly: 6.43 million U.S. visitors, +12.65% growth from August to September- TinyURL:5.55 million U.S. visitors, -1.47% growth from August to September- is.gd: 631,000 U.S. visitors, -13.66% growth from August to September- Tr.im: 416,000 U.S. visitors, -39.87% growth from August to September- Ow.ly: 1.41 million U.S. visitors, +9.45% growth from August to SeptemberIt isn’t even close – Bit.ly’s continuing to grow quickly, while all of its competitors are either dropping or not growing anywhere near fast enough to provide any threat. Tr.im has denounced Bit.ly and Twitterfor what it believes to be the coronation of Bit.ly by Twitter. It’s tough to argue that Twitter’s decision hasn’t had a big impact in this market.Does anyone have a shot to compete, or is it Bit.ly’s kingdom now? Let us know what you think in the comments.Reviews: TwitterTags: bit.ly, compete, TinyURL, url shortener

  Hello again, music fans! It’s another Free Music Mondayfor your ears and the brain between them. We’re of course celebrating the #musicmondaytradition on Twitter.Last week’s special Rock and Pop Editionwent over well, so we’ll be continuing the genre-specific theme this week. In the spotlight today is electronic music, from bleeps and bloops to melodic synths and much in between.Read on for for your weekly free music fix!1. [ELECTROPOP] Ladyhawke: My Delirium — Deservedly high up on TheSixtyOne’s Dance charts this week is New Zealand multi-instrumentalist Ladyhawke (tastefully named after that Ladyhawke) with this catchy upbeat track. Stream it below.2. [REMIX] Florence & the Machine: You’ve Got the Love (the XX Remix) — Check out a stream or downloadof this tasty remix of Florence & the Machine from the XX. 3. [DANCE] WinkSound: I Can’t Stop — Check out the embed for this track below and snag a download of the entire Volume 2 compilation. These folks also offer a number of video tutorials for producers and music makers at Winksound.com.I Can’t Stop by WinkSound4. [SOULFUL HOUSE] Monte Carlo Method: Butterflies (featuring Michael Jackson) — Check out this smooth remix featuring the late, great Michael Jackson from Monte Carlo Method, embedded below.5. [TRANCE] Tiësto: Club Life 100 — Stream an almost 2-hour long set from the famed Dutch DJ on Mugasha.com.6. [ELECTRONICA / EXPERIMENTAL] Fever Ray: If I Had a Heart — Stream the dark and mysterious solo debut from The Knife’s iconic singer Karin Dreijer Andersson below, and download “If I Had a Heart” from her websiteas well.7. [DUBSTEP] Mental Groove Records: Dubstep Allstars — Check out a super mega mix of dubstep — over 4 hours! — compiled by Mental Groove Records over at Fairtilizer, embedded below (special thanks to Antoine for the Mashable-branded player!).8. [DANCE] Pretty Lights: Sunday School — Download this tight dancefloor offering Sunday Schoolfrom independent Colorado-based producer Derek Vincent Smith. If you like what you hear, get a whole boatload of more free downloads from the downloads sectionof the Pretty Lights website.9. [TRIP-HOP] Massive Attack: Teardrop — An oldie but goodiefrom the British trip-hop duo, featuring vocals from the Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser.10. [TURNTABLISM] The Slew: Robbing Banks (Kid Koala remix) — Originally remixed for the soundtrack of a scrapped documentary, the below embedded track features a psych-rock meets turntable mayhem with production help from Dynomite D. You can also download it from RCRD LBL._RLT.render('6598c4c05876a04ce961907e597a7b47');Huge thanks for tuning in for Free Music Monday! And if you enjoy this feature, please help it continue by sending it to your music-loving friends. You can always find the latest edition (as well as all the past editions) of this feature by hitting up the Free Music Mondaytag page. Feel free to bookmark it and check back every Monday for 10 more tracks, albums, playlists and/or videos. And of course, don’t forget: if you’re an artist, band, label or PR rep with a track or album you’d like us to feature during a future edition of Music Monday just drop us a line at barb AT mashable DOT com. Thanks everyone!Reviews: MashableTags: free music monday, mp3s, music, music monday

  Twilight fans are a very fanatical bunch. With the next installment about to hit theaters in November, fans are more anxious than ever to get sneak peaks, even if it’s just a trailer leaked to the web.Today they can all rejoice, as there’s now an official Twilight Twitter account [@Twilight]. Although unverified, the account appears to be legitimate, complete with tweets from director Chris Weitz.The Twilight Twitter account has just over 6 hours of tweeting under his belt, but it already has upwards of 22,000 followers, and that number is rapidly rising every time we refresh the page. Of course once even more of the film’s legions of fans discover the new Twitter account, you can expect that number to continue to grow exponentially. Based on previous trending topics and heavily retweeted Twilight news, we don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to anticipate that the Twilight Twitter account will hit a million followers, or break the top 10, in record speed.From today’s updates alone we’ve already learned exclusive tidbits like the fact that final run time of The Twilight Saga: New Moon is 2 hours and 10 minutes. We’ve even been privy to a Twitter exclusive New Moon Twitpic (as seen above). Who needs Miley or her YouTube Twitter quitter rap? Twilight has arrived. And look out Ashton and Ellen, you may finally have a real challenger on your hands.As more outagescontinue, the only question remains: can Twitter keep pace with the rapid-fire retweeting of teens and tweens the world round?Reviews: Twitter, twilightTags: twilight, twilight saga, twitter

  More interesting news from the electronic book reader department: shortly after Barnes & Noble announced plans to unveil the first color eReader, it looks like LG is vying to put out the first solar-powered digital book reader.The reader from LG Display will be equipped with a solar cell developed in-house, allowing the device to charge about a day’s worth of reading time with 4 to 5 hours of exposure to sunlight.The 6-inch display panel will employ a thin-filmsolar cell that is both lightweight and small enough to avoid adding extra bulk to the eReader at a mere 0.7mm thick (about the width of a credit card). The solar LG reader could help stave off the worry about running out of battery life in the middle of an engrossing reading session.Because the energy requirements of E-Ink based eReaders are already fairly low, however — with power generally required only to refresh a page — LG’s solar reader might not end up being quite the game changer they’re probably hoping for. And with Amazon aggressively trying to keep the Kindle in the lead with its recent price cut and international version, LG will have to hustle to find a class of very heavy readers (or very environmentally-conscious folks) to market this to. Still, a solar-powered eReader might be just the ticket for frequent travelers and researchers or others who have a tendency to be off the grid for long stretches of time. Would you consider picking up a solar-powered reader over the currently-available slate of eReaders, and if so what price point would it have to be to make it worth your while? [via Inhabitat]Tags: e-books, e-ink, ereader, LG, solar

  Despite some recentinnovationsby the former king of social networking (as well as a CEO replacement), it looks like the MySpace exodus is rapidly accelerating. Can MySpace’s freefall be stopped?Numbers released by web analytics firm Compete.com paint a terribly bleak picture for the future of MySpace. According to the Compete numbers, MySpace’s U.S. traffic dropped from 55.6 million unique visitors in August to 50.2 million in September. It has nearly shed off 20% of its U.S. traffic since June. Here is the gut-wrenching traffic graph to illustrate just how far MySpace has fallen:Here are some major takeaways from the data:- MySpace’s downfall is accelerating. It lost a little over a million U.S. visitors between June and July, but more than 4 million between July and August and over 5 million between last month and this month. I don’t think I have to tell you what will happen if this trend continues.- MySpace is quickly shedding value. In fact, it’s losing hundreds of millionsfor its parent company, News Corp.- Its change in leadership has not yet produced results. In fact, MySpace now has less visitors than it did in April, when it kicked out Chris DeWolfe and hired former Facebook executive Owen Van Natta to save MySpace.Let’s be clear: MySpace is still a valuable social network to millions of people, and it is not going to disappear. But if this trend continues, you could see it completely fade away in terms of relevancy. The company had better sound the emergency alarm, because this ship is sinking.Image credit: Ecstaticistvia FlickrReviews: Facebook, Flickr, MySpaceTags: compete, myspace

  There’s been a huge reaction to our post earlier today about AMP’s new iPhone app– “before you scoreâ€� – that aims to help guys land women. The responses have ranged from threats of boycotting Pepsi to comments about what politically correct sissies we’ve all become to adulation of AMP for humorously portraying modern chivalry (ok, that’s not exactly how supporters have put it).In any event, AMPand parent company PepsiCohave responded, using Twitterto explain the campaign and apologize to those that might be offended:Interestingly, they attached the #pepsifailhashtag that has emerged around the story to their tweet. That means the users most passionate about the issue are more likely to see their comment, but associating “failâ€� with your brand from an official account also seems fairly brazen. In any event, at least they’re clearly on top of the story and monitoring feedback. There are really only two ways this story could go from here: it could just quietly die down, or #pepsifail could become so loud that Pepsi and AMP have to do something more dramatic, like pull the app. Ultimately, that will depend on how loud those offended become about “before you scoreâ€� and how much support they’re able to rally.What do you think of Pepsi’s response? Do you expect more to come of this, or is this the end of the fiasco? Share your thoughts in the comments. Reviews: TwitterTags: amp, iphone, Pepsi, social media

  A couple of small tweaks add some nice user workflow improvements to Google Docstoday. First, collaboration just got more convenient with the ability to create shared folders. Next up, you now have the ability to upload multiple files at the same time. This could be a real time-saver when you have a group of documents to send to the cloud.Shared folders have been the most requested Google Docs featurefor some time. Happily, they work just like they should, letting you set the same level of permissions to your collaborators for all documents in the folder (including edit and view-only access levels). If you have a group of files you need to share with the same group of people, a shared folder can simplify giving everyone access.Multiple file uploads is also an easy process. From the upload page, simply use “shift” or “CTRL” to select multiple files in the upload dialogue box, and when ready click “start upload.” Progress bars have been added so you can get immediate visual feedback on how the process is going.Both of these features will be rolling out Monday, and should be completely available to everyone by the end of the day. Let us know what you think of the new changes — will they make it easier for your group to use Google Docs for collaboration?Reviews: Google DocsTags: cloud computing, cloud storage, Google, google docs, office suites

  Are people under the age of 35 addicted to social media? Retrevo.comset out to answer that question with their latest Gadgetology Report.771 online panelists were surveyed on their social media and texting behaviors, and separated into two distinct categories: people under 35, and people over 35. Behavioral disparities were apparent by age, with survey data from online interviews showing that under 35 year-olds check Facebook more frequently, with 27% checking in more than 10 times per day. The younger crowd is also quite keen on tweeting, texting, and checking Facebook after sex (36%), while driving (40%), while at work (64%), and when on vacation (65%).While the Retrevo blog post is short on survey methodology, the results are quite interesting, and even align somewhat with a previous study showing that we like to tweet from strange and inappropriate places, like in a car and from a toilet.The study also concluded that most people under 35 check Facebook and Twitter multiple times per day, with 27% exceeding 10 Facebook logins on a daily basis, and 39% of Twitterers checking tweets more than 10 times per day. Plus, side-by-side comparisons, as shown in the graph above, demonstrate that the social media and texting behaviors of those over 35 differ drastically from those under 35, with activity amongst the older demographic significantly lower across the board.The results may be unscientific, but they do demonstrate that tweeting and using Facebook are becoming more predominant activities in the lives of young people. So for those of you under 35, the next time you do the deed and pick up Twitter over a cigarette, at least you can be comforted by the fact that you’re not alone. Of course, we’d recommend that you keep some of those post-coital tweets to yourself, and offer the same advice to those of you who still tweet while driving.Image from Steve Rhodeon FlickrReviews: Facebook, Flickr, TwitterTags: facebook, sex, survey, twitter

  On Saturday, photo number four billion was uploadedto photo sharing site Flickr. This comes just five and a half months after the 3 billionthand nearly 18 months after photo number two billion.As impressive as four billion photos is, that figure is trounced by Facebook, which reported more than 15 billionphotos in its database back in April and currently adds two billionmore photos each month.Founded in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005, Flickr remains a prime destination for photo lovers. Still, the lure of unlimited photo uploads and an expanded userbase (plus tagging!) has led many users off to Facebook’spastures.Do you still use Flickr as much as you used to? What’s your favorite photo sharing service?(Photograph courtesy of punimoeon Flickr)Reviews: Facebook, FlickrTags: facebook, flickr, Photos