Good morning, here’s a quick round-up of some of the interesting stuff that’s been going on overnight.
IE9: 27 downloads per second
Microsoft proudly declared the new browser, IE9, a success with the initial figures for downloads from its website. In the first 24 hours, there were 2.3 million of them, or 27 every second. More on this from Erica Ho.
Link: Microsoft
Bargain time
Asus brought us Eee computers and for a while made us all think that a tiny low-cost netbook was exactly what we needed, until the iPad came along and ruined the party somewhat. Maybe the solution is to make netbooks even cheaper, or get the price so low that they can be given away with phone contracts. How about a $200 Chrome netbook? Fancy one of those?
And while we’re talking bargains, Android Central says you can get an HTC Thunderbolt for $180 from Amazon. Be quick now.
Link: CrunchGear
Iran launches test space craft
This morning, Iran announced the successful launch and return to Earth of a test space craft called Kavoshgar-4, designed to “sustain life in orbit”.
Link: MSNBC
Samsung’s Air challenger goes on sale today
Jeff Bertolucci at PC World says it certainly isn’t a “MacBook Air killer”, but it certainly is a challenger: Samsung’s new Series 9 laptop is light and thin and you can buy one today for $1649.
Link: PC World
The $20 nap
Hard-working bankers in central London need to take a break every now and again, but snoozing at your desk just isn’t the done thing. Snoozing in a specially designed pod, for $20 an hour, though? You never know, it might just catch on.
Link: Reuters