At the JavaOne convention Oracle announced a new NoSQL database system.

The NoSQL database is a key-value store. Later today Oracle will formally announce this new product

Adobe Systems Incorporated today announced Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium, the complete software solution for video and post-production that helps deliver content to virtually any screen.

Better performance, workflow improvements, creative innovations, and powerful new audio editing capabilities build upon the huge customer momentum Production Premium is experiencing with broadcasters, filmmakers and video professionals worldwide.

New versions receiving major updates include Adobe Premiere® Pro CS5.5, Adobe After Effects® CS5.5, Adobe Flash® Professional CS5.5, Adobe Flash Catalyst® CS5.5, Adobe Story, Adobe Media Encoder CS5.5, and Adobe Device Central CS5.5. New to Creative Suite 5.5 is Adobe Audition® CS5.5, bringing its audio-for-video multitrack editing environment to both Mac OS and Windows® for the first time.

Microsoft has released its Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) web browser, saying that it “unleashes a more beautiful web”.

Microsoft has been publicly testing IE9 beta releases for some time and revealed that over 40 million people had downloaded the betas. The Vole has been aggressively promoting a number of IE9 features, with the highlight being HTML5 hardware acceleration.

This has led Microsoft to come out with unsubstantiated hyperbole such as “IE9 harnesses the power of the graphics processing unit (GPU), unlocking 90 per cent of the PC’s power that went previously untapped by web browsers.” Admittedly GPU acceleration for both HTML5 and Adobe’s Flash Player will help performance, but it should also improve battery life on laptops.

Google has released version 10 of its browser. The update brings hundreds of bug fixes as well as many features that have been available on the Chrome beta and dev channels to users interested in using Chrome’s latest builds. Chrome 10 also addresses 23 security vulnerabilities in the WebKit-based browser (easily more than Google has ever fixed before): 15 rated as High, three rated as Medium, and five rated as Low.

The new Chrome version is significantly faster in some respects (a 66 percent improvement in JavaScript performance on Google’s own V8 benchmark suite) and adds features such a new settings interface with a search box that shows you the settings you’re looking for as you type, the ability to synchronize passwords across your computers and encrypt them with your own secret passphrase for extra security, as well as the options to sync bookmarks, extensions, preferences, themes, and more.

Continuing its campaign to turn Microsoft customers to Google Apps customers, Google on Thursday released Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office and announced a new partner program that allows businesses to test drive its online applications.

Initially released as a limited preview in November 2010, Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office is now available worldwide. It allows users to create documents in Microsoft Office 2003, 2007, or 2010, and then to share and sync them through Google Apps.

Mozilla has begun to wind down work on the next generation of its Firefox browser. In today’s release of Firefox 4 beta 12, there are few improvements that will be instantly noticed by most users. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, what has changed are under-the-hood improvements to how Firefox 4 handles Flash and more stable overall performance.

One visual change has been to move hover-over links to the bottom of the window, rather than place them in the location bar as was done in the previous beta. Along with the changes to Flash handling and stability, Mozilla said in its release notes for Firefox 4 beta 12 that the browser now has better integration of add-ons with hardware acceleration support.

For eight years, government officials turned to Dennis Montgomery, a California computer programmer, for eye-popping technology that he said could catch terrorists. Now, federal officials want nothing to do with him and are going to extraordinary lengths to ensure that his dealings with Washington stay secret.

The Justice Department, which in the last few months has gotten protective orders from two federal judges keeping details of the technology out of court, says it is guarding state secrets that would threaten national security if disclosed. But others involved in the case say that what the government is trying to avoid is public embarrassment over evidence that Mr. Montgomery bamboozled federal officials.

A new version of the free iPhone app for Skype SA will let users make and receive video calls.

Users of the Internet calling and messaging service will be able to use both Wi-Fi and AT&T Inc.’s 3G cellular network. FaceTime software, which comes with iPhones, works only with Wi-Fi.

The app, which is being released Thursday through Apple Inc.’s iTunes Store, will let iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS users make free video calls to other Skype users who are using the app or have access to the feature using Skype on their computer or other video phone.

If you use the popular AVG Free as your anti-malware app of choice, an update to the 2011 version of the application has bricked 64-bit Windows 7 machines. If you’re running Windows 7 64-bit and use AVG, you might want to hold off on the update; if you’ve already updated and are experiencing this problem, AVG offers this quick fix.

Nearly 5 million consumers have downloaded a Skype Web telephony application that launched Sunday, allowing users of Apple Inc’s iPhone to use privately held Skype’s service over the cellular network for the first time, Skype said on Wednesday.

Before the launch of the application for use on high-speed third generation (3G) networks on May 30, consumers could only use Skype on their iPhone when they had access to Wi-Fi

Microsoft Corp launched an updated version of its Office software on Wednesday, aiming to keep its grip on the hugely profitable business application market while countering the challenge of free online alternatives from Google Inc.

The world’s largest software company is upgrading its popular Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint applications and rolling out its own online versions to keep up with the new class of mobile, Web-connected users that has emerged since the last upgrade in 2006.

Microsoft announced several improvements on Wednesday, such as editing photos in Word, using video in PowerPoint, collaborating on documents and connecting email contacts to Facebook information.

But the biggest change is Microsoft’s move into the “cloud” — allowing users to manipulate documents stored on remote servers from anywhere — where Google has been setting the pace.

Adobe is no longer investing in iPhone-based Flash development, Adobe principal product manager Mike Chambers wrote in a Tuesday blog post.

The move comes after Apple put out new draft of its iPhone developer program license, which banned private APIs and required apps to be written in Objective-C, C, C , or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine.

“Essentially, this has the effect of restricting applications built with a number of technologies, including Unity, Titanium, MonoTouch, and Flash CS5,” Chamber wrote. “While it appears that Apple may selectively enforce the terms, it is our belief that Apple will enforce those terms as they apply to content created with Flash CS5.”

Adobe will still provide the ability to target the iPhone and iPad in Flash CS5, but the company is “not currently planning any additional investments in that feature,” he said.