Version Numbers:
Firefox 1.0 was released last week, which is why there was all the noise in the press.
Before that there was 1.0PR (Pre-Release) and 1.0 RC1 (Release candidate 1), which may explain the confusion. I don't think Firefox automatically flagged new updates available between 1.0RC, 1.0PR and 1.0 proper.

Development will continue, of course, but the 1.0 is a stable release which add-ons (like Googlebar) can make themselves compatible with without becoming unexpectedly out of date.

Anahata