Chrome leaves beta stage

Google's Chrome Internet browser is no longer a beta version and it has made a full version of the product available for download, reports PC World.

"We have removed the beta label as our goals for stability and performance have been met, but our work is far from done," says Sundar Pichai, Google product manager and VP.

Chrome programmers say they have fixed a multitude of bugs that plagued the browser's early days. These included video and audio glitches and other plug-in performance-related issues. Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine has grown 1.5 times faster since the software's first beta release.

Microsoft has warned that attackers are actively exploiting a critical bug in Internet Explorer 7, reports ITWorld.

The software giant says it's aware of attacks that attempt to use this vulnerability, adding that users running IE7 in Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 are at risk.

On completion of Microsoft's investigation, the company says it will release a solution through a service pack with security updates.

Video game giant Electronic Arts (EA) says its holiday sales have so far been worse than expected, reports BBC News.

At the end of October, EA warned on profits and plans to cut between 500 and 600 jobs. It says its performance will fall short of already low forecasts, although it will not make an updated forecast until February.

EA's shares had fallen 11.5% before the announcement was made and dropped another 10% in electronic after-hours trading.

The brain fitness software market, which includes Nintendo DS's Brain Age, has been growing significantly, reports CNN.

Worldwide revenue surged to $850 million last year, up from $250 million in 2005, according to SharpBrains, a company that tracks the mental fitness industry.

Research showing mental exercises can be beneficial to the brain has helped the industry flourish. "There is still a lot of work that needs to be done. There is no definitive consensus over whether these programs are as beneficial as people would like to think they are," says Dr Mark Mapstone, associate professor of neurology at the University of Rochester Medical Centre in New York.