NetBeans 6.9 Release Emphasizes JavaFX – NetBeans positioned as the primary environment for JavaFX with release supporting JavaFX 1.3, Java Card Connected 3, the Spring 3.0 framework, the PHP Zend Framework and Ruby on Rails 3.0.

Messenger for iPhone Hits a Million in Five Days, paving the way for beta testing of Windows Live Messenger Connect to allow developers to build apps that work with Messenger.

Apache Unleashes New Tomcat Open Source Web Server – the Tomcat 7 release includes release include improved memory leak detection and prevention and support for aliasing directories into an application’s URL space

New BIRT 2.6 Features in Helios – the new release for the reporting framework includes the addition of a Polar/Radar style charts, palette hashing, sorting improvements, multiple resource files and class path enhancements.

Microsoft offers globalization for JavaScript apps – and it’s open source

Self-trackers use sensors, software and spreadsheets to improve their lives – “The Quantified Self” movement has individuals measure the minutia of moods, weight, pain, muscle mass, even their innermost thoughts, in an effort to know themselves better and improve their lives.

NetBeans IDE upgrade equips JavaFX developers – developers using JavaFX Composer can build, visually edit, and debug rich Internet applications and bind components to various data sources, including Web services – and it’s open source

Using PHP and want to know it works with SQL server? Microsoft has announced the release of the second Community Technology Preview (CTP2) of the SQL Server Driver for PHP 2.0. To play around with it, see how the drivers work and give your feedback on how we can improve, why not download it the drivers. We really need your feedback to make it work – thanks!