Adobe AIR applications haven't exactly been renowned for their great performance to date, but that could begin to change with AIR 2.6, released today, which comes packed with major new features.

The new SquirrelFish Extreme JavaScript engine should run code 50-percent faster than before, for instance. Adobe claims that a smaller and more efficient runtime will cut CPU usage by up to 30 percent, and reduce memory consumption immediately, no application recompilation required. And hardware graphics acceleration should help to maximize rendering performance on Android and iOS systems.

Continue reading →

When you're developing a website, it's important to check how your pages are displayed in all the main browsers. But that's not always straightforward, especially with Internet Explorer, as you can't easily install multiple versions on the same system.

Fortunately there's a simple alternative in Microsoft's Express Web SuperPreview, an Expression Web component that's also available as a stand-alone trial version. The latest version has just been released and it makes a very useful addition to every web developer's testing toolkit.

Continue reading →

LogMeIn Ignition for iPhone and iPad has long been one of the most impressive remote access tools for iOS, but things just improved even further in the latest version of the app. LogMeIn Ignition 2 adds a number of important features including the ability to gain remote access to more than one Mac or PC and to view their files. But perhaps more importantly there are now a number of interesting new options relating to file transfers.

The app has always made it possible to view remote files on iOS devices, but this latest version allows remote files to be moved or copied to an iPhone or iPad. This helps to avoid the need for work-around solutions such as sending files as email attachments, and the ability to create folders locally means that it is easy to keep files neatly organized.

Continue reading →

Web of Trust Services has released a major new update to its free WOT browser plug-in, which provides security and privacy ratings for websites. Past versions of WOT also provided ratings for major search engine results, allowing the user to see a site's rating before attempting to visit it. The latest release extends this functionality to provide ratings for links displayed in Facebook and Twitter, as well as links that have been shortened using services such as bit.ly or t.co.

WOT rates websites for both security and privacy, based on community feedback from millions of WOT users worldwide. These ratings are displayed as clearly visible icons using traffic light colors to help identify safe sites (rated green) from potentially dangerous and hazardous ones (amber or red). The current site's rating is displayed in the browser toolbar. If a site is rated red, access will be temporarily blocked and the user clearly warned that the site in question is considered dangerous. This can be overridden by the user, but provides an additional layer of security by helping to steer users away from malware-infested and fake websites.

Continue reading →

The web is a dangerous place, packed with all kinds of threats, so it's important to take steps to ensure your browsing security. Browser add-ons aren't always the answer. Many grab too many resources, and either offer too little functionality, or don't work with all the browsers you need -- a real disappointment.

BitDefender's new TrafficLight beta, however, takes a new approach, and the difference is obvious from the moment you install it. The program adds a service to your PC that filters web traffic at the protocol level, so it doesn't show up as an add-on in Internet Explorer or Firefox, or add an extra toolbar to your browser.

Continue reading →

The simplest of tools are often the best, and this is something demonstrated perfectly by CalendarBar for Mac OS X. This tiny utility adds an icon to the menu bar of OS X that provides access to a list of calendar events stored in iCal, Google Calendar or even in your Facebook account. As the app is based in the menu bar, it is always available, eliminating the need to switch apps to check the date or time of an upcoming appointment.

To help make things even easier, a keyboard shortcut can be created to toggle the display of the CalendarBar popup, and the menu bar icon can be configured to indicate the number of appointments that are due today -- ideal for checking how busy your day's schedule is at a glance.

Continue reading →

With so many video codecs to choose from, there will invariably come a time when you want to play back media files on a particular device, or use it in a certain way, only to find that an incompatible format has been used. Ordinarily, converting videos between formats can be something of an arduous process, but the free Mac app Media Converter aims to keep things as simple and speedy as possible.

Unlike other conversion tools, Media Converter offers a number of benefits, starting with the fact that it is free. The software offers support for a wide range of video formats and the process of converting takes nothing more than selecting the desired output format from a drop down menu before dragging and dropping the original video onto the program window.

Continue reading →

IObit has released version 2 of its freeware defragmentation tool for Windows. Smart Defrag 2.0 includes one major new feature -- a boot-time defrag option -- as well as a redesigned user interface and numerous performance improvements to speed up the analysis and defrag processes.

Smart Defrag 2.0 is one of a growing number of free defrag tools that aim to replace the inadequate defragmentation tools built into Windows. By offering such options as automatic defrag, boot-time defrag and defragging on a schedule, Smart Defrag is able to keep a user's files from fragmenting, which noticeably slows performance and can also reduce the lifespan of a hard drive due to the extra work it has to perform in reading and writing to a fragmented drive.

Continue reading →

Everyone should have layered protection when it comes to malware. Unfortunately, different antivirus and antispyware programs aren't designed to sit side-by-side and play nice with each other due to the always-on nature of their protection, but that doesn't mean you can't beef up your security with the help of some free scan-and-remove tools.

The only downside with this approach is that it helps to have these installed before you become infected. The nature of malware is to make it as difficult as possible to install any new software after infection, so what can you do if you've already been infected? If you have access to another, uninfected computer and a blank CD or USB flash drive, then read on for a potential solution.

Continue reading →

Today, Opera released a public beta of its browser of the same name. Opera 11.10 beta, codenamed "Barracuda," features a much improved Speed Dial, more seamless experience loading certain required plug-ins and updated support for various web standards.

The standout among this list of changes is the improved Speed Dial feature, which now supports an unlimited number of dials thanks to a new button that allows the user to add new sites to the list, either by typing the address manually or by picking from a list of selections made by Opera. Existing entries can now also be edited to change the site address or display name.

Continue reading →

Copying files in Windows can be slow and inflexible, so it makes sense to look for a little third-party help. And as we found out recently, it can make a real difference: FastCopy was able to copy files up to 30 percent faster than Windows, in some situations.

There are plenty of similar tools around, though, and one of the oldest, Copy Handler, recently saw its first release of 2011. Could the experience behind this nine-year-old open source project improve on FastCopy's excellent performance? We went back to the benchmarks in an effort to find out.

Continue reading →

To accompany its various other iOS apps, Sky News has released a dedicated iPad news app that provides access to the 24 hour news station and a range of other content. The app is currently free of charge to everyone, but in the future access will be free to Sky subscribers, while a monthly fee with be payable by anyone who does not have a satellite package. The app is more varied that other news services, providing a number of different ways to access the latest and recent news.

As Sky News is a 24 hour rolling news channel, the option to view the channel live is to be expected. There is also the option of browsing through the news in Timeline mode which provides access to a collection of news video from the last 24 hours. Whether you are watching live or recorded video, a rewind option is always available so you can review sections you have missed.

Continue reading →

Google's iOS app has undergone a makeover and rebadging. Previously known as Google Mobile App, Google Search still provides easy access to all of Google's online tools, such as Google Docs and Gmail, but the search interface has been redesigned and gesture support has been added. The main focus of the app, as reflected in the name change, is web searching, but links to other online services are still available via a button.

Web searches can be performed in a number of ways -- typing in the usual way, by using voice commands or by taking photographs with your iPhone's camera. However a search is performed, once the results are displayed, a swipe to the right provides access to options that can be used to refine your search, limiting results to images, news, videos and a number of other categories.

Continue reading →

When I buy a book at the book store in my town they charge me 7 percent extra to send to the state of New Jersey. But when I buy it from Amazon.com I don't pay the 7 percent. It's a great deal for Amazon.com and for me, but it's fundamentally unfair. It's time to end the distinction.

I'm one who believes that taxes, as a general matter, should be kept as low as possible. This isn't about revenue -- it's about fairness. There's no logical reason why retail businesses with a physical presence should have to collect sales taxes but e-commerce (and phone/catalog) retailers don't.

Continue reading →

Dropbox is a handy online service that can be used to synchronize files between multiple computers, share files with others and backup important documents. Using Frenzy for Mac, it can also be transformed into a personal social networking tool that makes it easy to share files and links with friends and colleagues. The app is available as a free beta version and it is compatible with both free and paid-for Dropbox accounts.

Setting up the app is a breeze. Simply launch the software and indicate which of your Dropbox folders should be used for sharing, and the content you choose to share can only be seen by friends with Macs running Frenzy. To make it as easy as possible to share with others, keyboard shortcuts can be used to share files and web links without the need to explicitly launch an app. Once something has been shared, Frenzy returns focus to the app you were using so you can get straight back to what you were doing.

Continue reading →