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It seems that Mozilla must credit a fairly large portion of its Guinness World Record for the highest number of software downloads in a 24 hour period to none other than Stephen Colbert himself. It’s not surprising to hear that Colbert’s on-show guests experience a rush of publicity immediately after being viewed on the show, but could Colbert also have an influence on Al Gore’s internets? Apparently, after mentioning the release of Firefox 3 on his show, “The Colbert Report,“ Mozilla’s servers experienced a huge spike in downloads from their site on Download Day. Referred to as the “Colbert Bump,“ the effect of the rush in publicity is known to earn increased sales, news interviews, and in this case, and incredible number of downloads. At minute 23 of the broadcast, Colbert says just 7 words: “Firefox 3 just got the Colbert Bump.“ Sure enough, minutes later Mozilla sees a huge jump in downloads on their website. Not only was the “bump” felt during the live broadcast, but another bump can be seen when the episode was replayed a couple hours later. Now, if he can influence the hearts of thousands of internet users, why did he drop out of that election? He is the Internet (And So Can You!).

Via [Mozilla Blog]

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Sections: Web, Downloads, Web Browsers

While Samsung remains happy enough with its 5.9mm Samsung U100 cellphone, a little known device called the Modu stole the world record for the lightest cellphone in the world. It stands at 2.8 inches x 1.4 inches x 0.3 inch and weighs just 1.5 ounces. Obviously, there’s isn’t much technology you can pack in a cellphone as small as that, but the Modu isn’t a cellphone in itself anyway, and instead is only a modular cell phone. To use it, you place it inside some kind of “jacket” (a separate housing) which then increases the overall size and makes the Modu work like a typical handset.

The Modu features a small display, a mini USB port, a charger jack and a few navigational controls. It’s as small as, no, actually smaller than a credit card and yet it works just as well as most ordinary cellphones. I have to admit it’s a pretty tight phone. But I wonder, who would want one? I know I don’t.

Via [Crave]

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