Daily Update: IE 9 RC on WU, IE 9 Blocker, More

Good morning.

Microsoft has added the Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate (RC) as an optional update on Windows Update for Windows 7 (and, I assume, Windows Vista) users. That should generate a bit of controversy, but I think the good news here is that Microsoft is clearly pretty confident this is a high quality release.

Also available: An update blocker that will help corporate environments hide the coming final release of IE 9.

Not a surprise, but Apple announces that it is enabling a subscription service for all content publishers on its App Store.

Speaking of Apple, the company has also released the results of an audit of its suicide-prone supplier, Foxconn. So surprise, but it's "magical and revolutionary." I guess self-inflicted deaths are waaay down now at the Chinese sweatshop.

Speaking of death and Apple, while the iPhone's auto-correct capabilities are the source of much humor, sometimes it actually gets pretty serious. Yikes.

According to Foote Partners, Microsoft certifications won't help you get a better-paying job. But apparently Cisco, Oracle, EMC, VMware, IBM, SAP and Red Hat skills are a better bet. This makes no sense to me, sorry.

Facebook has released a new photo viewer and it is TERRIBLE. In fact, the first few times I saw it, I assumed it was the result of a web browser rendering error and re-loaded the page. Please, Facebook.  You must fix this.

You're going to see the term Yet Another Android Tablet a lot this year, so just get used to it. Here's another one.

Headline of the year: Microsoft CEO promises better Windows Phone. The gag: It's not clear is the year is 2010 or 2011, since that promise was made in both.