Word is that Microsoft will be releasing Internet Explorer 8 today.

The new version of Microsoft’s browser is ready to go.  And just as IE7 was less annoying than IE6, IE8 promises to be even better, with updates to its rendering, including expanded CSS support.  Better AJAX functionality and RSS tools are also included.

The main features of the new browser, though, revolve around security, privacy and speed — IE8 is supposed to be a much safer, faster browser to use, brining it closer to its fast-moving competitors.

The browser is set to launch at around noon today, according to Microsoft.  When the final becomes available, it’ll show up here.  I guess this afternoon I’ll need to take it for a spin around my sites, and my clients’ sites, to make sure everything plays nice in IE8.

Hopefully this also encourages some people (and IT departments) to move away from IE6, now that it’s two versions behind.

Being a bit of a gamer myself, it’s always interesting to see the gaming world touch on my professional world.  Here’s an example of the gaming industry getting social media right.

Game developer Infinity Ward, the company behind the immensely popular Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is calling on gamers to submit suggestions for its next title via Twitter.  In order to submit a suggestion for Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 2, or answer the current question posed by the dev team, just include the hash tag #MW2 in your tweet.

The company has launched a web app to compile the replies, which is now live at twitter.infinityward.com, and is already collecting huge amounts of feedback from the dev community.

This is a great thing for Infinity Ward in a number of ways.  For one, getting lots of feedback and identifying the trends is just going to make the game better, which is great for the company and its customers.  Additionally, it’s building better relationships with their target audience, and helping them ensure that its games remain in gamers’ minds between releases.  (Good call on this one @fourzerotwo!)

I had neglected to grab a couple of Wordpress updates, so when I saw the notice about Wordpress 2.7 on one of my dashboards today, I figured it was about time.  I went to download it, installed, and was suprised to see… things were different.

The new dashboard on my Xbox Living blog.

The Wordpress team has been busy, it seems.  It wasn’t that long ago that the Wordpress Admin had design change, but this takes things further.  The buttons feel very Safari/Apple-inspired, but the interface still feels like Wordpress.  I’m going to have to play around with it, but I’m finding it very easy to work with.  I haven’t struggled to find anything yet.

So far, I’m impressed.

Last night was the English debate for the Canadian party leaders, as well as the VP candidates debate in the United States.  I don’t know who decided to schedule them both at the exact same time, but it certainly kept Twitter busy.  Throughout the debate viewers on both sides of the border were all posting about the election to Twitter — as were some of the candidates.

The Canadian party leaders participating in the debate.

In Canada, New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton (@jacklayton) brought pieces of the debate right into Twitter.  He apparently had a team working behind the scenes to offer NDP responses to some of the things said by the other leaders (mostly Harper).  During the debate, several “fact check” tweets were posted, linking to various statements on the NDP website that offered the NDP account of what really happened.

Most of the other candidates have Twitter accounts too — Prime Minister Stephen Harper (@pmharper), Green Party leader Elizabeth May (@ElizabethMay) and Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe (@gillesduceppe) are all up there.  The only Canadian leader who doesn’t seem to have an active Twitter profile (at least not one that I could find) is Liberal leader Stéphane Dion.  @stephanedion isn’t following anyone, and has only a “Hello Twitter!” statement from over a year ago.

I’ve followed all of the leaders, but so far only Jack Layton and Stephen Harper have followed me back.  (Seeing “Stephen Harper is now following you on Twitter!” pop up in my email was amusing to me.)  I’ll be disappointed if Elizabeth May doesn’t follow me, but she hasn’t posted a tweet since the debate, and it looks like she genuinely manages her own Twitter account.

I do hope that whoever becomes Prime Minister does keep using Twitter.

The past couple of days, I’ve been having trouble with my iPhone. I thought I’d post the answer here, in case anyone else encounters this — or to make fun of myself, because the solution was surprisingly simple.

I was repeatedly seeing “Call Failed” when I tried to make or answer phone calls.  I would answer my phone, for example, and a few seconds later it would abruptly drop the call.  At first I assumed it was Rogers’ fault… just because it usually is.  But in this case, it was not.  The solution is simple.

Turn your phone off.

The iPhone is a computer, and as you’re probably aware, computers suck.  They don’t always work like they should, and after some time, they need a restart.  Powering off the phone and turning it back on seems to fix the problem.  I’ll try to remember to restart my iPhone each time I charge it.  (Thanks to the guy in the Rogers Plus store for letting me know.)

I’ll admit, I felt a little stupid after that.  Normally, when I call a support desk or ask for help, I’ve already tried the obvious stuff like restarting my PC, checking all the cords, etc.  For some reason I wasn’t expecting the same with my phone.

I hope this helps someone.