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According to sources , the iPhone 3GS will be launched in India on the 24th of March.
Like before the handset will come with a dataplan and will be locked to the network providing the handset for a year. In this case it still isn't clear which service providers will be offering the iPhone 3GS.
The iPhone 4G is all set to hit the US market and we still haven't gotten 3G in India barring MTNL and BSNL.
The Google Nexus One though is expected to be launched here albeit in a stripped down avatar.
Chip czar Intel has once again set new benchmark records with its latest CPUs, the Core i7 series. CHIP reveals the technical innovations inside them.
Intel's development model for processors is known as the “Tick Tock” cycle. Every alternate year, they focus is on miniaturizing the existing production technology for CPUs (known as a process shrink—“Tick”), while in the next year a new architecture will be introduced, based on this process (“Tock”). The system has been functioning well for four years now. The Core i7 architecture, formerly known by its codename “Nehalem”, was introduced in November 2008, after the original Core architecture was shrunk to 45 nm around the end of 2007 (products codenamed “Penryn”). The new design brings a series of changes with it, all aimed at optimizing performance, power consumption and reliability.
New package
The last time Intel changed its processor package was in 2004, when it went from 478 contact pins to 775 pads. Since then, the package and matching socket has remained the same despite many CPU refreshes, but now Nehalem requires a radical turnabout. The new CPU requires about 600 more pins for all its new functions. Core i7 CPUs won’t fit into older motherboards since they now have 1,366 contact pads instead of 775. Even if they did fit physically, nothing would work since there are many new elements on the CPU which need to be connected to the motherboard and the rest of the computer’s components. The transition is understandable since it’s been a long time and there are genuine needs and advantages, but anyone who wants to use the new Intel technology must buy a new motherboard.
Goodbye FSB
The most significant innovation with the Nehalem architecture is the obsolescence of the Front Side Bus (FSB), which has been responsible for all communication between CPU and chipset so far. Its successor is known as the QuickPath Interconnect (QPI). The FSB was replaced mainly because its bandwidth was found to be inadequate: QPI provides 20-bit wide, bidirectional links resulting in a maximum data rate of 25.6 GB/s. This is immediately twice the speed of what an FSB at its highest possible rating of 1,600 MHz could offer. QPI is very similar to the HyperTransport technology used by AMD since 2001, which is now at version 3.1 and achieves similar transfer rates.
Intel has chosen to adopt another technique very successfully applied by AMD: a memory controller integrated in the processor package. Intel’s desktop architectures until now have placed the memory controller in the chipset. The specialty of current high end Core i7s is their triple-channel memory controller. Three memory modules can now be ganged up to achieve data transfer rates fast enough to keep the CPU fed with fresh data so that its potential is used optimally. The result is that PCs which make use of this will have 3, 6 or 12 GB of RAM, which is unconventional compared to the progression we’re used to. However, lower-cost Nehalem CPUs which are yet to be launched will feature more traditional dual-channel memory controllers and a different, smaller socket with only 1156 contact pads.
HyperThreading makes a comeback
Since the end of the Pentium 4 generation, HyperThreading disappeared almost completely, but it is now making a comeback. Intel refers to a processor’s ability to process two program threads at the same time as Simultaneous Multi-Threading (SMT). So in addition to the impressive figure of eight CPU cores on a chip in the Windows task manager—four virtual and four real—SMT allows the cores to be utilized more efficiently, with a promised increase in performance of up to 30 percent.
New clock speed tricks
Core i7 processors can run with each individual core at a different clock speed. Turbo mode is especially interesting, because it allows some cores to be overclocked when a non-multithreaded task taxes one or two cores while the others are left idle. Such a situation allows the application to run more efficiently and utilize resources more effectively—and can result in a performance increase of up to 10 percent. On the other hand, a new power saving mode switches idle cores to the C6 state (deep powerdown). In this state, the core is simply disconnected from the power supply. This is taken care of by microcontroller logic which monitors the temperature and power consumption of each core.
New design: Small L2 cache and large common L3 cache
One of the weak points of the cache design on Intel’s previous CPUs was that on a quad-core CPU, each pair of two cores shared a 6 MB L2 cache which was exclusive to them. This was great for fast data exchanges between those two cores, but bad for exchanges between all four, which required the data to travel through the much slower Front Side Bus. In Core i7 CPUs, each core now has its own L2 cache, which is considerably downsized to 256 KB, but with its speed increased by 50 percent. Like in AMD’sAthlon CPUs, a common 8 MB L3 cache (for the current quad-core models) is added to enable data exchange between the cores. This cache receives all data from the cores’ L1 and L2 caches, which in turn considerably accelerates data processing. This allows each core to be shut down without any risk of losing data that's in transit between caches.
A CPU design for all applications
The scalability of the Core i7 architecture is quite unique. Nehalem is suitable for desktops, servers and notebooks as well. Thanks to the new cache design and the introduction of the QPI, two, four or eight cores can now be integrated in a single processor die. Furthermore, the high speed of the QPI enables quick communication between several CPUs on one motherboard for high-end and server configurations. When 8-core Nehalem chips are available, power users should be able to gang two of them up for a grand total of 16 cores and 32 virtual CPUs!
At present, three Core i7 models are available in the market, with more to come soon. By the end of the year 2009, lower cost versions of Nehalem (codenamed Lynnfield and Havendale) will hit the market, with many more innovations and performance advantages in store for users.
After much delay, Firefox 3.6 Final has been released. The new version brings many new features with a major change in the way extensions are handled which will make the browser more secure. While the 3.5 to 3.6 update might seem small, it has quite a few new changes which makes this an important update.
Here is a video of the new features in Firefox 3.6, in HTML5's video tag if your browser supports it:
Extensibility improvements
One of the biggest changes you might notice is in-built support for personas in Firefox 3.6 which means that personas can now be installed without the need for having the plug-in installed. Of course, if you already had the personas add-on installed you might notice nothing at all! With personas, Firefox can now easily be dressed with simple and light themes which change the looks of the browser without needing a restart. As stated before, this was earlier possible using the personas plugin but is now an integral part of Firefox 3.6.
Personas is an effort to simplify the process of extending and customizing the Firefox experience for both the developers / designers and the end-users. Another project which makes the development and installation of add-ons simple is the JetPack project. With the Personas and JetPack projects, a Firefox user can install extensions and themes without needing to restart the browser. Like Personas, JetPack is available for download as an add-on and will be integrated in Firefox in the future.
A popular misconception is that these methods of extending Firefox will replace the current and much more powerful XUL-based plugin system. As the developers of Firefox have said, this is just not true. However the need for add-ons to use the rather more complicated XUL-based system should be considerably reduced as the functionality of JetPack nears that of the native system. Unless the plug-in adds significant functionality which is not exposed by JetPack, most add-ons will hopefully use that.
Performance improvements
JavaScript performance in Firefox 3.6 has been improved, and operations such as Garbage collection have been optimized to make for a smoother experience. JavaSctipt animations in particular should now appear much smoother.
In Firefox 3.5 we got the new TraceMonkey JIT (Just in Time) engine which improved the performance of the browser considerably. However, while TraceMonkey was enabled (by default) for webpage content, it was disabled for any scripts which run in the extensions. The functionality in Firefox extensions themselves is coded in JavaScript and XUL so while the performance benefits could have become applicable for the browser operations themselves this performance boost was absent from Fx 3.5. In Firefox 3.6 the browser will come with the new TraceMonkey engine enabled for chrome content as well and people with many add-ons installed should see a boost.
Many other improvements have been made in JavaScript performance in this version, and many operations have been become speeder up by many times.
A new JavaScript feature has also been added which allows for running scripts asynchronously. While this won't affect existing pages, it can be utilized by web developers to significantly improve a page's responsiveness. A web application such as Google Wave could then perform complicated JavaScript operations in the background keeping the UI JavaScript responsive.
Security upgrades
Firefox 3.6 has upgraded many aspects of plug-in and add-on security in this release. One of the most important updates being the way Firefox can be extended by external applications.
Earlier versions of Firefox allowed for extensions to Firefox being made by directly adding files to the components directory in the Firefox folder. Such add-ons were installed by 3rd party applications to integrate with Firefox. Since these add-ons were not managed by Firefox, they could severely affect the stability of the browser in case an update to Firefox made them incompatible.
Firefox 3.6 will now also warn you in case your plug-ins are out of date ensuring that you have the latest and most secure versions of each plug-in. Earlier a user needed to check for plug-in updates manually.
More web standards support
Firefox 3.6 furthers support for HTML5 and CSS3 features. Some of the most important ones being:
HTML5 file API. With this web application will be able to process local files
HTML5 Drag and drop API. For the drag and drop functionality in Google Wave. Future application could use this to allow you to drag and drop your images into the browser instead of using the file browse dialog.
Support for a poster frame in HTML5
Support for playing HTML5
WOFF Font support
New CSS support for background size, gradients and pointer events
Features! Features! Features!
Firefox 3.6 comes with many new small features which can make your web experience more powerful, such as hiding the menu bar to save space -- the menu bar will auto show when you use a keyboard accelerator -- screen orientation aware web pages and add-ons etc.
While this may just be a minor update in the Firefox release cycle it brings quite a few new features, and for Firefox 3.6 users, this is not the end. A change is coming in the very way Firefox delivers new features to users.
This new pattern of releases has be misrepresented in many places as a dropping of Firefox 3.7 from the release roadmap, however it is not an abandonment of features, just a revamp of how they are delivered.
For any user, an update which improves performance and security without any visual or interactivity changes is not something that will alarm the user. Mozilla's director Mike Beltzner equates this to finding out your car performance has increased significantly as result of a servicing. Nothing to be unhappy about and nothing that a user would mind.
However a changing the location of your gearbox, or painting your car pink are things you'd probably wouldn't want done before being told first!
In essence, any update to Firefox which does not affect the way the browser looks or interacts with the user need not wait for a major version upgrade to be delivered. For example, Mozilla's Electrolysis project, which allows plug-ins to run in a separate process is something which improves the stability of the browser -- since plug-in crashes will no longer crash the browser -- and yet the user need not be aware of anything more than the fact the their browser is working better.
Out of process plug-ins could then make it into Firefox as part of a 3.6.1 or 3.6.2, or other minor upgrade instead of waiting till 3.7. This could possibly delay the release of Firefox 3.7 as more testing will be required for the new feature, however 3.7 is not abandoned.
This release strategy might be adopted for future versions of Firefox as well.
Firefox 3.7 and beyond
So what can you expect from Firefox 3.7 and beyond? Some very interesting things are on the line. Firefox 3.7 has become quite famous already, many months before its release due to the visual revamp it comes with.
Firefox 4 is to come with an even bigger visual upgrade, as the browser will adopt a look similar to Chrome, and works towards this has already begun. In Firefox 3.6 you now have the option to hide the menu bar to save space, and Firefox 3.7 will come with a visual style which lies between the current and Firefox 4 styles.
In 3.7 the menubar will be gone, and the browser will adopt a more native look for each OS, with Glass transparency support in Windows Vista / 7. By version 4 you will probably have a UI with tabs on top no menu bar, no bookmarks bar, no space wasted at all!
There are some features in works for Firefox which are very very exciting. Among those would be the new JetPack model for creating add-ons, however that is not it. Here are some of the features coming in future versions of Firefox which I find most exciting:
Multi-process plugins. Plugins such as Flash and Silverlight will run in a separate process than the browser, meaning that a crash of a plugin doesn't mean the browser will crash as well. This might be extended to add-ons and Tabs too in the future.
Integration of Mozilla Weave with Firefox. Currently available as an add-on, Weave synchronizes your browsing history, your password, your bookmarks and even you open tabs so you can access them from any Firefox set up with weave.
Home Page. Firefox, starting with 3.7 will feature a new home page like the one in Chrome.
App tabs. With a growing focus on web application, app tabs will allow Firefox to recognize some tabs as application. Think of this as pinned tabs in Chrome.
New notifications system. While the notification bar is nice, it is quite flawed, as it has poor support for multiple notifications and it is difficult to get it back in case you dismiss it hastily.
Tab progress bar. Tabs will feature a minimalistic progress bar which will give feedback of loading progress. You can get an idea of what this will be like by installing this extension.
New updater. With a new updater for Firefox users will get better notification of new major Firefox releases. While this is something which doesn't seem too glamorous, it means that more users will upgrade to newer Firefox versions faster.
New approaches to tab management. While Firefox might be good at handling tabs, the fact that any power internet user will need to install some or the other extension for the same means something is missing. Fortunately, the developers have some nice ideas.
Firefox 4 will be a completely new browser, and while many users might feel that the old design was better, this is where add-ons and themes come in! They are the biggest strengths of Firefox giving us the worlds most customizable browser.
While you patiently wait for the new Firefox versions to arrive you can stay ahead of the rest by downloading and using the Nightly versions of Firefox,, which as their name suggests are crated every night from the latest version of the Firefox code.
Note: If you are worried about doing important work on a potentially highly unstable browser, here is a small trick for you. You can actually run two version of Firefox in parallel by using a special commandline parameter. However this will require you to create an additional profile as the same profile cannot be used by two instances.
Launch Firefox with the commandline parameter "-no-remote -P"
You can do this by creating link to the Firefox executable file and adding the "-no-remote -P" at the end.
Here the "-no-remote" allows you to run multiple instances of Firefox (different or same version) on the same computer, and the "-P" launches the Profile manager which will let you create and select a profile to use with this instance.
The year 2009 is now coming to a close, and it's time to take a look back over the past 12 months through photographs. Historic elections were held in Iran, India and the United States, some wars wound down while others escalated, China turned 60, and the Berlin Wall was remembered 20 years after it came down. Each photo tells its own tale, weaving together into the larger story of 2009. This is a multi-entry story, 120 photographs over three days. Please see also part 1 and part 2. (40 photos total)
Fireworks illuminate the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin November 9, 2009, during celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. (REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay)
The new PS20 solar tower at the Solucar Platform in Sanlucar la Mayor, southern Spain, seen on Sept. 23, 2009. PS20, one of the most powerful commercial solar tower in the world, consists of a solar field made up of 1,255 mirrored heliostats aimed at the tower, producing steam which is converted into electricity generation by a turbine. (AP Photo/Miguel Angel Morenatti) #
A reveler of Leandro de Itaquera samba school parades at the Sambadrome, as part of Carnival celebrations in Sao Paulo, Brazil, late on February 21, 2009. (MAURICIO LIMA/AFP/Getty Images) #
Supporters of ousted Honduras' President Manuel Zelaya clash with soldiers near the presidential residency Tegucigalpa, Monday, June 29. 2009. Police fired tear gas to hold back thousands of Hondurans outside the occupied presidential residency as world leaders from Barack Obama to Hugo Chavez appealed to Honduras to reinstate Zelaya as president. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix) #
Ted Kennedy Jr. kisses the casket of his father in Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica during a funeral mass in the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston on August 29, 2009. President Barack Obama, three former presidents and a nation's elite gathered in the rain to attend a grand Catholic funeral for Ted Kennedy, America's legendary political patriarch. (JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images) #
A Hindu woman devotee offers prayers after taking a holy dip in the waters of river Ganga in the northern Indian city of Allahabad May 4, 2009. (REUTERS/Jitendra Prakash) #
A young girl and her dog looks out from a vehicle as she and her family wait for security clearance at a checkpoint on the outskirt of Bannu, a town on edge of the Pakistani tribal region of Waziristan, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009 as they flee a military offensive in South Waziristan. Pakistani troops and the Taliban fought fierce battles in Waziristan, a militant sanctuary near the Afghan border, with both sides claiming early victories in an army campaign that could shape the future of the country's battle against extremism. (AP Photo/Ijaz Muhammad) #
Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) employees work on the last-pre cast segments (rings) of the Phase-II underground tunneling project between neighborhoods Jangpura and Lajpat Nagar in New Delhi on October 12, 2009, part of a larger project to have metro lines to cover the entire National Capital Region for the 2010 Commonwealth Games (MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP/Getty Images) #
A US Marine of 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade runs to safety moments after an IED blast in Garmsir district of Helmand Province in Afghanistan on July 13, 2009. Two US Marine soldiers were killed when the explosion occurred as they tried to clear a route into the Taliban heartland of southern Helmand province. (MANPREET ROMANA/AFP/Getty Images) #
A US Marine from Fox Company 2nd Battalion 3rd Marines rests as his platoon finishes searching houses for the day during day two of Operation Germinate into the restive Bhuji Bhast Pass in Farah Province, southern Afghanistan, on October 8, 2009. The Bhuji Bhast Pass is effectively a Taliban corridor, mined with IEDs from one end to the other, and lined with villages that are hostile to the Western troop presence. (DAVID FURST/AFP/Getty Images) #
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo is unveiled in Mojave, California December 7, 2009. Billionaire Richard Branson on Monday unveiled the first commercial passenger spaceship, a sleek black-and-white vessel that represents an expensive gamble on creating a commercial space tourism industry. (REUTERS/Phil McCarten) #
A North Korean woman carries water she collected from the Yalu River in the North Korean city of Hyesan, which borders China's Changbai county, April 6, 2009. (REUTERS/Reinhard Krause) #
A competitor crosses the Start/Finish line during the Northern Ireland Bog Snorkeling Championships in Peatlands Park, Dungannon, County Tyrone July 26, 2009. (REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton) #
Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic watches a shot during Game 1 of their NBA Finals basketball game against the Los Angeles Lakers in Los Angeles, June 4, 2009. (REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson) #
Wadee Daoud, a five-year-old visually impaired Palestinian boy, reacts to light after a teacher opened the window blinds in his classroom at the Helen Keller Center for blind and visually impaired children in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina September 10, 2009. The Center was founded as a home for blind girls by English missionary, Mary Lovell, in the 1890s. (REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis) #
A local woman on a crutch shouts at Chinese soldiers wearing riot gear as a crowd of angry locals confront security forces on a street in the city of Urumqi in China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region July 7, 2009. Hundreds of Uighur protesters clashed with riot police in the capital of China's Muslim region of Xinjiang on Tuesday, two days after ethnic unrest left 156 dead and more than 800 injured. (REUTERS/David Gray) #
Owen Rabago (left) wipes a tear from the face of his father, Specialist Sheldon Rabago, as his mother Nancy wraps her arms around both of them during a candlelight vigil at Hood Stadium on the Fort Hood Army Post in Fort Hood, Texas November 6, 2009. The day before, An Army psychiatrist opened fire at the post, killing 13 people and wounding 30 others. (REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi) #
A section of the Rocky Mountain News newsroom sits empty on February 27, 2009 in Denver, Colorado. The edition on Friday the 27th was the last one for the nearly 150-year-old daily, Colorado's oldest newspaper. The owner E.W. Scripps Co. announced the day before that the paper was closing down after efforts to sell the money-losing newspaper failed. (John Moore/Getty Images) #
Police officials detain a suspected militant from the site of a shooting at a police training center in Lahore March 30, 2009. Pakistani security forces took control of the police academy in Lahore on Monday after militants rampaged through the complex, killing at least eight cadets and wounding scores before holing up inside for hours. (REUTERS/Mohsin Raza) #
Miss USA, Kristen Dalton, applies lipstick while posing for photographers on the "Top of the Rock" observation deck at the Rockefeller Center in New York September 2, 2009. (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson) #
Chinese parents gather to sleep at an auditorium after they accompanied their children to a university to start their first semester in Wuhan, central China's Hubei province on September 7, 2009. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) #
An injured girl cries during an evacuation after an earthquake hit Padang, Indonesia's Sumatra island September 30, 2009. A 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck off the city of Padang on Indonesia's Sumatra island on September 30, 2009, killing at over 1,000 people and trapping thousands under rubble. (REUTERS/Muhammad Fitrah/Singgalang Newspaper) #
Burnt out trees outside Kinglake that were destroyed by fire are viewed from this aerial shot on February 8, 2009. Over 170 people were killed and entire towns razed in one of the worst wildfire disasters in Australian history, sending thousands fleeing in scenes Prime Minister Kevin Rudd compared to "hell". (MARK SMITH/AFP/Getty Images) #
Maldivian Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture Ibrahim Didi signs a declaration calling on countries to cut down carbon dioxide emissions ahead of a major U.N. climate change conference in December, in the Maldives, October 17, 2009. The Maldivian president and ministers held the world's first underwater cabinet meeting, in a symbolic cry for help over rising sea levels that threaten the tropical archipelago's existence. (REUTERS/Maldives Government) #
A rocket fired by Palestinian militants from the northern Gaza Strip flies towards an Israeli target Friday, Jan. 2, 2009. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) #
An Israeli boy takes cover under a desk in a bomb shelter at a school in Jerusalem June 2, 2009, after a siren was sounded during a nationwide civil defense drill simulating a rocket attack. (REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun) #
A Jewish settler (right) and a Palestinian demonstrator shout at each other during a protest against an illegal outpost near the Israeli settlement of Kharsina in the West Bank city of Hebron on May 22, 2009. (HAZEM BADER/AFP/Getty Images) #
The NASA space shuttle Atlantis and the Hubble Space Telescope are seen in silhouette, side by side during solar transit on May 13, 2009, from west of Vero Beach, Florida in this image released by NASA May 14. The two spaceships were at an altitude of 600 km (375 miles) and they zipped across the sun in only 0.8 seconds during a risky but successful mission to rescue the Hubble telescope. (REUTERS/Thierry Legault/NASA/Handout) #
Scientists at CERN's control center celebrate after the successful restart operation of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) on November 20, 2009 near Geneva, Switzerland. The world's biggest atom-smasher had shut down after its inauguration in September 2008 amid technical faults, and restarted on November 20, 2009. CERN spokesman James Gillies said the injections lasted a fraction of a second, enough for "a half or even a complete circuit" of the Large Hadron Collider built in a 27-kilometer (17-mile) long tunnel straddling the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva. (STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images) #
Seven-time Tour de France winner and Kazakh cycling team Astana (AST)'s Lance Armstrong of the United States rides in the pack under heavy rains on July 17, 2009 in the 200 km and thirteenth stage of the 2009 Tour de France cycling race run between Vittel and Colmar. Armstrong went onto finish the tour in third place, behind winner Alberto Contador. (JOEL SAGET/AFP/Getty Images) #
A car plows into a parade that included Queen Beatrix and the royal family on the national Queen's Day holiday in the Dutch city of Apeldoorn April 30, 2009. Ten people were injured and eight killed in the attack, including the 38-year-old driver, who narrowly missed the open-top bus carrying Queen Beatrix and the royal family. (REUTERS/Robin Utrecht/Pool) #
A gymnast balances on the beam during a practice session for the World Gymnastics at the O2 arena in London, Monday, Oct. 12, 2009. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant) #
Warning:
This image contains graphic
or objectionable content
Militants from Hizbul Islam haul the bloodied body of Mohamed Ibrahim, 48, from a chest-deep pit after stoning him to death for illicit sexual intercourse with a woman in the Afgoye district, Somalia on December 13, 2009. Ibrahim was sentenced to death by a local Islamic court after he was found guilty of infidelity. (REUTERS/Stringer) #
A hunter holds his hawk during an annual hunting competition in Chengelsy Gorge, some 150 km (93 miles) east of Almaty, Kazakhstan on December 5, 2009. (REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov) #
U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Bill Mesta replaces an official picture of outgoing President George W. Bush with that of newly-sworn-in U.S. President Barack Obama, in the lobby of the headquarters of the U.S. Naval Base January 20, 2009 in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (Brennan Linsley-Pool/Getty Images) #
Supporters cheer during the opening ceremony of the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Alexandria, Egypt on September 24, 2009. Host Egypt played against Trinidad and Tobago in the opening soccer match, winning the match 4-1 . (REUTERS/Marko Djurica)
The year 2009 is now coming to a close, and it's time to take a look back over the past 12 months through photographs. Historic elections were held in Iran, India and the United States, some wars wound down while others escalated, China turned 60, and the Berlin Wall was remembered 20 years after it came down. Each photo tells its own tale, weaving together into the larger story of 2009. This is a multi-entry story, 120 photographs over three days. Please watch for part 3 tomorrow and have a look back at part 1 from yesterday. (40 photos total)
Before the Iranian election, a supporter of main challenger and reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi forms a heart shape with her hands to indicate her support, while wearing green ribbons - the color of the party, amidst a festive atmosphere at an election rally rally in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, June 9, 2009. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
An Iranian supporter of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi is beaten by Basiji (volunteer paramilitary militia) and government security members as supporters come to his aid during riots in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 14, 2009. Iranian youth opposed to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad take to the streets Sunday, setting dumpsters and tires on fire, in a second day of clashes triggered by voter fraud claims. (AP Photo) #
A supporter of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi helps evacuate an injured Iranian riot-police officer during riots in Tehran on June 13, 2009. Hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won a crushing victory in Iran's hotly-disputed presidential vote, according to official results that triggered mass opposition protests. (OLIVIER LABAN-MATTEI/AFP/Getty Images) #
A boy touches an ice sculpture of a polar bear as it melts to reveal a bronze skeleton in Copenhagen, Denmark, host city of the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference, on December 8, 2009. (REUTERS/Bob Strong) #
Smoke from the Station Fire rises over downtown Los Angeles Monday, Aug. 31, 2009. The Station Fire (caused by arson) lasted over a month, burning over 250 square miles, destroying 200 structures, and cost over $100 million (USD) and the lives of two Los Angeles County Firefighters. (AP Photo/Jon Vidar) #
War-orphan Faustin Mugisa, 8, who has machete scars on his head and body, stands at the Kizito orphanage in Bunia in northeastern Congo February 24, 2009. Mugisa was left for dead in a pile of corpses when ethnic Lendu militiamen hacked to death his mother and seven siblings in 2003. Mugisa's father discovered him alive and took him to the bush to recover, but his father was later hacked to death by the same militia group. Ethnic violence has simmered for years in northeastern Congo, part of broader civil and regional conflict currently uprooting hundreds of thousands of Congolese fleeing massacres and reprisal killings by various armed groups roaming the country's vast and lawless wilds. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #
A burning Su-27 jet from the Russian air force elite aerobatic team Russkiye Vityazi (Russian Knights), dives just seconds after the aircraft collided with a two-seat Su-27, not seen, not far from the Zhukovsky airfield, east of Moscow, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2009. Two Russian air force jets rehearsing aerobatic maneuvers collided Sunday near Moscow, killing one stunt pilot and sending one fighter crashing into nearby vacation homes, a military official said. The Su-27 fighters were part of the elite Russian Knights flying group preparing to perform at the MAKS-2009 air show, the largest and most important showcase for Russia's aerospace industry. (AP Photo/Dmitry Karpov) #
Snow-covered pine trees sit in flood water March 31, 2009 near Moorhead, Minnesota. A snowstorm slowed recovery efforts as residents of Moorhead and neighboring Fargo, North Dakota tried to return to their homes as the flooded Red River slowly receded. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) #
A bushman from the Khomani San community stands on a dry pan, in the Southern Kalahari desert on October 15, 2009 in the Kalahari, South Africa. One of the largest studies of African genetics by an international team from the University of Pennsylvania, published in April 2009, revealed that the San, the last indigenous people of South Africa, are the most genetically diverse on earth, and that the San homeland could be the spot where modern humanity began. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) #
Warning:
This image contains graphic
or objectionable content
Spanish matador Israel Lancho is gored by a Palha's ranch bull during a bullfight at the San Isidro's fair in Las Ventas bullring in, Madrid, on May 27, 2009. Lancho was hospitalized with an eight-inch wound below his ribcage. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza) #
Pakistani men pray next to a bullet-ridden vehicle parked in the compound of radical Lal Masjid or Red mosque as the chief cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz, not seen, talks to his supporters during Friday prayers, in Islamabad, Pakistan, on April 17, 2009. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) #
Gigantic puppets The Big Giant and the Little Giantess, part of France's Royal de Luxe street theatre company production titled "The Berlin Reunion". The two sleep, reunited once again, in each others' arms in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009. (AP Photo/Maya Hitij) #
Romain Grosjean (left) and Adam Khan (right) test Renault F1 cars in the desert in Dubai, April 9, 2009. The testing was part of the Renault F1 Roadshow taking place in Dubai. (REUTERS/ Eric Vargiolu) #
Chinese military singers take part in a chorus performance of patriotic songs involving 10,000 participants held at a gym in Beijing, China, Wednesday Aug. 26, 2009. More than 80 chorus groups from various units in Beijing sang patriotic songs to celebrate China's 60th national day. (AP Photo) #
Pakistani Imran Zargul, 71, from the tribal region of Bajur wait to get donated food during a distribution at the Jalozai refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan, Friday, Feb. 13, 2009. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) #
Stars in the night sky rotate above the distinctive chimney stack on the top of Cape Cornwall near St Just on April 12, 2009 in Cornwall, England. The landmark, originally built for the Cape Cornwall Mine in 1850 and was recently damaged when it was struck by lightning, was bought, along with the rest of Cape Cornwall, for the nation by Heinz in 1987 and given to the National Trust to mark Heinz's centenary. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images) #
A boy suffering from malnutrition is cradled in the arms of his mother at a camp for Internally Displaced People (IDP) on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia on July 11, 2009. More than 200,000 people had been displaced in the previous two months, while hundreds of civilians were believed to have been killed and wounded, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. In an effort to escape the fighting, thousands of families relocated to refugee camps outside the city where they faced extremely harsh living conditions. (MOHAMED DAHIR/AFP/Getty Images) #
People sunbathe as Ferrari Brazilian's driver Felipe Massa drives at the Monaco racetrack on May 21, 2009 in Monte Carlo, during the second free practice session of the Monaco Formula One Grand Prix. (PASCAL GUYOT/AFP/Getty Images) #
An old car dropped in an industrial trash bin advertising the Cash for Clunkers program at Battlefield Ford in Culpepper, Virginia, August 1, 2009. "Cash for Clunkers", or the Car Allowance Rebate System was a $3 billion U.S. federal scrappage program to allow U.S. residents to trade in older cars for newer, more fuel-efficient models. Nearly 700,000 cars were traded under the program. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst) #
Pro-democracy protesters carrying a mock coffin try to cross a police line during a demonstration demanding China improve its human rights record, outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong October 1, 2009 as China celebrates the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. (REUTERS/Tyrone Siu) #
Norway's Anders Jacobsen competes in the first jump during the third stage of the Four Hills FIS ski jumping championship (Vierschanzentournee) on January 04, 2009 in Innsbruck. (JOE KLAMAR/AFP/Getty Images) #
Michael Jackson's daughter Paris (center) is comforted by family members at a memorial service for the music legend at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on July 7, 2009. (GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images) #
From 20 degrees above the ring plane, Cassini's wide angle camera shot 75 exposures in succession for this mosaic showing Saturn, its rings, and a few of its moons a day and a half after exact Saturn equinox, when the sun's disk was exactly overhead at the planet's equator. The images were taken on Aug. 12, 2009, at a distance of approximately 847,000 km (526,000 mi) from Saturn. (NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute) #
A leopard walks with a tranquilizer dart hanging from its neck, in the residential area of Jyotikuchi in Guwahati, the capital city of the northeastern state of Assam, India on March 15, 2009. Three people were mauled by the leopard after the cat strayed into the city before it was tranquilized by forestry department officials. The full grown male leopard was wandering through a part of the densely populated city when curious crowds startled the animal, a wildlife official said. (BIJU BORO/AFP/Getty Images) #
Palestinian civilians and medics run to safety during an Israeli strike over a UN school in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip early on January 17, 2009. A woman and a child were killed early today in the Israeli strike on the UN-run school in northern Gaza where civilians were sheltering from the fighting, medics and witnesses said. (MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images) #
Thousands of scrapped taxis are abandoned at a yard in the center of Chongqing city on March 4, 2009. Traffic congestion and pollution have worsened dramatically in Chinese cities as the country's long-running economic expansion has allowed increasing numbers of consumers to make big-ticket purchases such as cars. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) #
Bengal Tiger Kingda Ka smashes pumpkins during Fall at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, November 8, 2009. (REUTERS/Six Flags Great Adventure) #
A Palestinian demonstrator uses a tennis racket to return an empty tear gas canister at Israeli soldiers during a protest against the controversial Israeli barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin near Ramallah October 23, 2009. (REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis) #
Ultra-Orthodox Jews belonging to the Vishnitz Hassidic sect dance on their benches as they celebrate the Jewish festival of Purim late on March 9, 2009 in Bnei Brak, a religious town near Tel Aviv. (MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images) #
A ring of water vapour is created around pilot Lt. Justin Halligan (left) and Lt. Michael Witt (right) as they fly their F/A-18F Super Hornet airplane while performing at New York Air Show at Jones Beach in Wantagh, New York, May 23, 2009. (REUTERS/Christopher Pasatieri) #
SC Braga's goalkeeper Eduardo Carvalho pulls his shirt over his head at the end of their Portuguese First league football match against FC Porto at the AXA Stadium in Braga, on September 19, 2009. Braga won the match 1-0. (MIGUEL RIOPA/AFP/Getty Images) #
Supporters of former South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun gather during a funeral ceremony in downtown Seoul on May 29, 2009. Thousands of weeping mourners packed the streets to pay their last respects to former President Roh Moo-Hyun amid a massive outpouring of grief and tight security. (KOREA POOL/AFP/Getty Images) #
Belgian milk producers pour about 3 million liters (793,000 gallons) of milk onto a field near the Belgian city of Ciney September 16, 2009 in protest over a growing industrial dispute over low prices. Support is growing among European Union member states for a new regulatory set-up for milk farmers struggling with depressed prices, France's agriculture minister, Michel Barnier, said on Tuesday. (REUTERS/Yves Herman) #
Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin rides a horse in southern Siberia's Tuva region August 3, 2009. Putin, a judo black belt who has flown in a fighter aircraft and shot a Siberian tiger in the wild, plunged into the depths of Lake Baikal aboard a mini-submersible on Saturday in a mission that added a new dimension to his macho image. (REUTERS/RIA Novosti/Pool/Alexei Druzhinin) #
Debris hangs on a destroyed building next to a giant statue and restaurant boat swept away along the Marikina river on September 29, 2009, outside Manila. Hundreds of thousands of exhausted Philippine flood survivors endured squalor in schools, gymnasiums and other makeshift shelters on September 29 as the death toll from Typhoon Ketsana (known in the Phillippines as "Ondoy") eventually climbed to over 650. (TED ALJIBE/AFP/Getty Images) #
A strange light phenomenon is sighted in the night sky above parts of northern Norway early December 9, 2009. Russia's new submarine-based intercontinental missile suffered the latest in a series of test failures, newspapers reported on Thursday, as unusual lights were spotted in Norway across the border from the launch site. (REUTERS/Anita Olsen/Scanpix Norway) #
A local performer dressed in traditional costume sings during the celebrations for the lantern festival in the city of Tianjin, located 100 km (62 miles) east of Beijing February 9, 2009. The lantern festival marks the last day of the two-week Chinese lunar new year celebrations. (REUTERS/David Gray) #
An empty wheelchair belonging to quadriplegic Patrick Ivison, 15, sits idle on the beach while Ivison, his mother, and friends prepare for another surf ride at the Cardiff State Beach in San Diego, California on October 6th, 2009. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)
