Firefox 3 has launched! In addition to being the fastest browser on the planet, it’s simply a joy to use. For example, the new auto-complete system for URLs, aka ‘the awesome bar’, is almost as revolutionary as tabbed browsing. It already drives me crazy to use other browsers that don’t have it.

Today is also Download Day: Firefox will set a world record for the most downloads of software in a 24 hour period. You’d be crazy not to download Firefox now.

And does anyone honestly believe it’s a coincidence that Firefox 3 is launching exactly one week after release of Tha Carter III?

The best rapper alive and the best browser alive both use incredible skill and intelligence, but what truly carries them to greatness is passion that comes from putting their heart at the center of everything they do. It’s absolutely true.

Here’s the Microsoft dis track from Carter III: Lil’ Wayne - Playin’ With Fire.

“So you got so many diamonds,
you wear all the finest clothes,
and your grill is shining,
as you’re driving down the street of gold,
but you can’t blame me if I set this stage on fire.”

The new Miro Non-Profit Co-Branding Service

We launched the Miro customization and co-branding program earlier this year in order to give video producers a tool for simple, integrated distribution of many podcasts. We’ve had interest from lots of non-profits looking for simple ways to distribute video content online and we’ve always wanted to offer the co-branding service to them for free. These have included both public broadcasters and organizations that do independent media and activism.

Unfortunately, we’ve been unable to serve all of these non-profits because we haven’t had enough people to work with them. Rather than throwing up our hands, we’ve built a simplified, externally facing version of our co-branding tool especially for non-profit organizations. Now, any non-profit can get a co-branded version of Miro for free that will automatically update to include the latest Miro features.

If you are a non-profit and would like to have a custom version of Miro for your organization - “Miro - MyGroup Edition” - you can make it now. It will come pre-subscribed to your channels and with your own startuppage. It’s a great way to turn visitors to your website into subscribers.

Miro Non-Profit Co-Brander

This is one of the things I love about working for Miro: we’re able to do projects like this that are focused directly on serving our mission and helping non-commercial broadcasters reach an audience. It’s exactly why we’re here.

As usual, for-profit companies should contact us about co-branding opportunities. Email jessep@pculture.org for more info. Revision3, TED Conference, Deutsche Welle, and other companies and organizations are already offering custom versions of Miro with great results.

Update: Worcester, MA public access station WCCA has already used the custom Miro generator to make a “Public Access TV” version of Miro with feeds from stations around the country. Download the player or just those station feeds here.

It turns out that 22% of Miro users are in Germany. So to those of you reading from Deutschland, please join us in crafting a custom version of Miro just for you!

You can help in three ways:

1. Moderate: We need people to choose which channels get featured on the German home page, as well as check to make sure that newly submitted channels work in Miro, are legal, and aren’t pornographic.
2. Translate: We need people to help improve the German translations of Miro’s site, content guide, and application. To get involved visitwww.getmiro.com/code/translate
3. Recommend: If you have favorite German podcasts or video sites that should be included in the German player, please let us know!

Please comment on this post if you want to be a German moderator or if you have recommendations for German channels. Thanks! If you aren’t primarily a German or English speaker, don’t worry — this is just the first of many community efforts to come.

Also, Holmes and I were in Berlin last week at Re:publica and had a fantastic time. Thanks to Markus Beckedahl for bringing us into the German participatory media scene!

Update: Please join the DeutschMiro Mailing List!

Last week we started the release candidate testing for Miro 1.2. We got some good feedback with the regression testing , made some more important fixes and posted rc1 last night.

We are hoping that rc1 will be the last testing build before release and we could really use your help.

If you take a look at the latest post on the miro testing blog, it will give you some extra information about the fixes and enhancements that are in this release.

Thanks.