Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 3 -- free with registration
It's all very well buying a photo editing package with lots of bells, whistles and complicated tools, but actually having to learn and use all that functionality can, to put it mildly, be slightly off-putting. Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 3 is designed to simplify the process of improving your photos by providing a number of one-click tools that can quickly improve individual photos or entire albums up to scratch.
Ordinarily, Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 3 would cost you $9.99, but the good news is that you can download and use the software for free via this link -- all you have to do is register by email within 10 days and you won't have to pay a dime.
How would you like to get more from your Firefox tabs?
If you're the kind of person who regularly runs Firefox with multiple tabs open, you might find keeping track of which website is where challenging. In those circumstances, Tab Scope for Firefox is the perfect add-on for your needs.
Tab Scope for Firefox allows you to preview any tab by rolling the mouse over it, just like the Aero Peek feature in Windows Vista and 7. A small pop-up preview of that tab's contents will appear, allowing you to quickly locate the tab you're looking for. But while that's impressive in itself, there's more: not only does Tab Scope provide you with some handy shortcuts for that tab via its preview window, it's also infinitely customizable too.
Opera Software co-founder and former CEO quits
Opera Software co-founder and former CEO Jon S. von Tetzchner announced he is leaving the browser company in one week's time, giving no word as to what his next move will be.
Von Tetzchner had been serving in an advisory position after stepping down from his position as CEO last year, and his resignation today came as the result of differences he held from the executive board.
Creepy can reveal your location to anyone, anywhere, at anytime
From Twitter to tablets, cameras to mobile phones, geolocation services are everywhere. And if you just want to record exactly where you took a set of holiday photos, then that's fine. But, of course, there are privacy implications. A new program called Creepy shows just how serious they can be, by attempting to locate anyone through their tweets or web images.
Give the tool a Twitter or Flickr user name and it'll go to work, using Twitter's own tweet location information, geolocation data from image hosting services, the EXIF data in any photos it finds, and more. And if it finds any locations then they can be displayed on Google Earth, Virtual Earth or OpenStreetMap, or exported as a KML or CSV file.
LulzSec victim: 'They are terrorists!'
Editor's note: Yesterday, hacker group LulzSec Security released a cache of documents taken from Arizona Dept. of Public Safety servers. The data dump included personal information, such as home address and spouse's name, for cops. Here, a victim from an earlier LulzSec data dump -- 62,000 stolen usernames and passwords, many connected to public services like AOL and Gmail -- has something to say about the group. This commentary is edited together from separate emails. Fearing reprisals, the LulzSec victim requests anonymity, so we can't fully verify the story. But based on email exchanges we're confident it's legit.
The feelings that morning as all my accounts were being shut down for no apparent reason was like my experience in Washington, DC on 9/11-- initially confusing. Then as news reports leaked out and I realized that I was a target, the panic ensued. Just [like] we were hearing that our building might possibly be a target of an aircraft on 9/11.
Online banking is about to undergo a generational shift, says Yodlee CEO
If you use online banking, chances are good that you see the same things in your account that I see when I log into mine (albeit with different numbers): a lot of transaction data, and maybe some basic budgeting tools or low-level personalization.
But over the next few months, many of the United States' top ten largest banks will replace their current online banking experience with something more akin to an app store model, where customers are presented financial apps to make their banking experience more personal and more effective.
Mozilla and Google force businesses to use Internet Explorer
Rapid updates, manageability gaps make Chrome and especially Firefox tough to accept for large businesses with managed networks and stability concerns.
In my experience dealing with businesses, it's rare to find them using anything other than Internet Explorer as their preferred web browser, and no surprise why. The other major browsers make life really hard for IT support. Whatever your opinion, it's way easier to support IE in an enterprise than Firefox or Chrome.
LulzSec outdoes WikiLeaks in stunning disclosure of Arizona documents
Would WikiLeaks be so bold as to release personal information -- like home address and spouse's name -- of cops? That's exactly what hacker group LulzSec Security did late today. The hackers took the sensitive information from Arizona Dept. of Public Safety servers. The agency has confirmed the data breach.
Key takeaways you'll find in this post: 1) LulzSec chose a target that would be divisive regarding public opinion -- is this a hacktivist/anarchist group of do-gooders or terrorists? 2) One victim of LulzSec's earlier data disclosure calls the group "terrorists". 3) A Betanews poll finds respondents to be equally divided about whether LulzSec is a hacktivist group revealing secrets or cybercriminals who should be prosecuted.
Mac OS X 10.6.8 is out, and you need it for Lion
Say, had you wondered about those strange system requirements for Apple's Final Cut Pro X -- Mac OS X 10.6.8, yet only dot seven was available? Wonder no more. Late today, Apple released the dot 8 update, quite likely the last before OS X 10.7, aka "Lion", releases next month.
In fact v10.6.8 is preparation for Lion, which Apple will deliver through Mac App Store -- an add-on to v10.7 Snow Leopard and built into Lion. The update does something to Mac App Store for Lion delivery.
What if Apple released $799 MacBook Air?
Rumors about an impending MacBook Air refresh engulfed the web this month. If you believe them, Apple is poised to make the thin-and-light laptop its flagship portable. Oh yeah? So why not grab some market share, too, by lowering the price where mere mortals could afford to buy one? With Intel bringing on UltraBook as clear MacBook Air competitor, it's reasonable to wonder about Apple's response.
I asked two analysts, Roger Kay and Stephen Baker, for their response to the headline's question, but I was more interested in Baker's opinion. In the past, he strongly advocated Apple releasing a $799 Mac.
Nokia's first Windows Phone device: 'Sea Ray'
It may be the worst thing to tell a crowd: "put away your cameras." But that is exactly what Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said speaking to a meeting of company employees this week in debuting a "super confidential product:" Nokia's first Windows Phone 7 device.
Codenamed "Sea Ray," the device looks much like the Nokia N9. Elop did not specify specs of the Windows Phone version, but the N9 specs are as follows: a 3.9-inch AMOLED display, scratch-resistant glass, 8-megapixel camera, and NFC capabilities.
You can't trust consumers to protect themselves
Whatever happened to disposable credit card numbers? They're a great idea and they can work really well, but few banks offer them and even those don't push them really hard. The problem is users: To use these numbers, users would have to think about their own security.
Almost every security proposal, especially the really broad ones, has an element of user education in it. "We've got to train users to look for these things and avoid them" or something to that effect. Many security experts will sigh and tell you that it's like teaching math to your dog. Not only will they not learn it, they don't even get the point.
BitTorrent launches, then pulls new distributed chat app
Filesharing software company BitTorrent on Thursday released two new pieces of software: µTorrent 3.0, a new stable release to the popular freeware BitTorrent client, and µChat beta, a new distributed chat app for µTorrent and BitTorrent Chrysalis.
µChat lets users communicate with each other from within their filesharing clients, with the ability to create persistent or temporary chatrooms by topic, to engage in private one-to-one conversation, to create buddy lists, and to "quick share" torrents via direct links to chat buddies.
SeaMonkey 2.2 runs with the rest of the Mozilla pack, debuts in beta
Mozilla and the community of developers behind the SeaMonkey Internet application suite have released the first beta of SeaMonkey 2.2 just over a week after issuing a major update with SeaMonkey 2.1.
Changes to the Gecko layout engine that affect all the community's projects (Firefox, Thunderbird, Lightning, Sunbird, Camino) will naturally also take effect in SeaMonkey 2.2. This means the suite now supports CSS animations, improved support for HTML5, XHR, MathML, SMIL, Canvas, and general performance and security improvements have been made.
CyberLink Photo Director 2011 takes on Apple Aperture and Adobe Lightroom
Cyberlink has unveiled the final release of PhotoDirector 2011, a photo-editing tool aimed at photo enthusiasts and semi-professional users. It takes a workflow-based approach to organizing and editing images, steering the user through the process of importing, managing, correcting and finally exporting and sharing photos.
PhotoDirector 2011 includes native support for RAW-format images from Canon and Nikon cameras, a non-destructive editing environment allowing users to experiment with different edits before committing to changes, and an online resource for pros called DirectorZone where users can share and download image editing presets.
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