Latest Technology News

Google Books is a gigantic and ever-expanding online library of books and magazines that can be used to read classic titles free of charge as well as to purchase new releases in all manner of categories. But you may be one of the many people who have found that the interface for the website and the way you interact with books leaves a little to be desired. Enter GooReader, a desktop app that enables you to browse your books both on and offline.

You can take advantage of a handy interface that makes it easy to navigate through the pages of your books and you can also zoom in and out, which is great if you are using a laptop with a smaller screen, and perform searches. All of the books you have purchased can be accessed from within the app and organization of your library is delightfully simple. When it comes to lengthy tomes or even an average sized novel, bookmarks can be used to quickly jump the place you left off.

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Creating a website is something that many people feel an urge to do but, as with many things, the perceived steep learning curve is enough to put most folks off the idea. In reality, it is actually quite simple to create web site -- obviously, the greater your knowledge the more impressive  site you can create -- and there are a number of WYSIWYG editors to choose from that mean you do not need to know HTML, CSS or any other form of coding.

Coming from the team behind WYSIWYG Web Builder, Quick ‘n’ Easy Web Builder is a cross-platform website creation tool that shows great signs of promise.

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Sony will promote Kazuo Hirai to president and CEO in April, ending Sir Howard Stringer's six year reign as the company's chief executive. Hirai was Stringer's personal recommendation to succeed him, and Stringer will continue to serve in an executive capacity with the company as chairman of the board beginning in June 2012.

"Three years ago, I started to work with the Board on succession plans, and in February, 2009 we named a new generation of leaders to be my management team", Stringer says. "Among them was Kaz Hirai, who had distinguished himself through his work in the PlayStation® and networked entertainment businesses".

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Chrome's browser usage share fell in January, according to Net Applications, after 14 months of consecutive, solid growth. Competition didn't kill Chrome growth, Google did, with its decision to reduce the browser's search page rank. Which browser benefitted most? Internet Explorer, of course.

It's a stunning turnabout for Chrome, which likely will see continued trend during February. On January 3, Google announced a temporary downgrading of Chrome's page rank -- how high it appears in searches -- following a minor scandal with a third-party ad agency. The marketer paid bloggers to write about Chrome, which violates Google policies on sponsored links. The search and information giant treated itself like other advertisers, perhaps more harshly, and lowered Chrome's search ranking for 60 days.

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Microsoft on Wednesday launched its Kinect for Windows commercial program, allowing businesses to build for-profit applications and solutions using Microsoft's popular free-space interface.

More than 300 companies are already developing their own solutions using Kinect for Windows, Microsoft said on Wednesday, including United Health Group, American Express, Mattel, Telefonica, and Toyota. So we expect to see a whole family of new Kinect applications hitting the market in the next year for health care, education, and industry.

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Salesforce, the gold standard of cloud-based CRM, launched on Tuesday a new customer support application called Desk.com, which gives small and medium-sized businesses a "social help desk" designed so ultraconnected, smartphone-toting employees can appropriately connect with the ultraconnected, smartphone-toting customer.

Desk.com grew out of Salesforce's 50 million dollar acquisition of Assistly just five months ago. The Assistly application was notable because it took customer relationships on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and then integrated them with "traditional" support channels such as e-mail and telephone, making social network relationships among the most important methods of communication for companies.

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Piriform Software has released the first stable release of CCleaner for Mac, its free cleaning utility for Mac OS X. Based on the popular Windows version, CCleaner for Mac 1.01 FINAL boasts fewer features compared to its long-established sibling, but we expect this to change over time.

The new release enters an increasingly crowded market for free cleanup tools, and will compete against the likes of EASEUS’ CleanGenius Free as it bids to establish a foothold on the Mac platform.

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Users of MegaUpload may have a brief window to retrieve files from the site after the law firm representing the file sharing service says it is negotiating a solution with the US Government. While the primary function of the negotiations is likely to gather evidence so that MegaUpload's lawyers can build their defense, it is possible the general public may temporarily gain access to their accounts.

In the United States, the file sharing service uses two hosting providers to store data, Carpathia Hosting and Cogent Communications. When US authorities shut down the service two weeks ago, it also froze MegaUpload's assets, leaving it no money to pay bills.

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Hey, Firefox fans, don't settle for just the desktop browser that popped up on Mozilla servers overnight. Firefox 10 mobile is also available at the Android Market. While the big browser offers significantly improved plug-in support, it's still DOA on the small one. That means no Adobe Flash for you, Bud.

New features include anti-aliasing for WebGL and accelerated layer-support via OpenGL ES. Firefox 10 mobile improves sync and HTML5 capabilities, as well. Among the fixes: "Extremely rare case where the browser may become unable to load web pages or close tabs".

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A week after telling users to disable its pcAnywhere, Symantec says the remote computing software is now safe to use, with a few caveats. First, the app must be upgraded to version 12.5, and a critical software patch applied to plug the hole.

In a statement posted to its website, Symantec says that it had patched all versions of the software back to 12.0. A patch for 12.0 and 12.1 was released on January 27, following a patch that was released for 12.5 on January 25.

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Usage of Amazon's cloud services skyrocketed in 2011, with the company reporting that its cloud storage service Amazon S3 played host to 762 million objects as of the fourth quarter of 2011. This was up by 500 million objects over last year, year-over-year growth of 192 percent and the biggest expansion in the service's five year history.

Amazon credits the large jump in making it easier for users to get data into the system via a host of new features introduced over the past year. It also says the jump in cloud usage requires manpower, and it is hiring for software engineers, product managers, and other management postions for the S3 team.

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That's the question, following big updates available today. How big? So big Apple even issued a press release. I ask the question because of professionals' negative reactions to the software soon after its late-June 2011 release. The uproar was loud enough that "Conan" did a skit about it. In September, responding to customer requests, Apple brought back older version Final Cut Studio 3 on a limited basis. That was then, this is now. Is Final Cut Pro X finally good enough for you?

Many pros complained that Final Cut Pro X was too iMovie-like, while stripping away features they depend on for editing broadcast or film videos. Others complained Apple abandoned core customers to make Final Cut easier for non-pros to use. The software offered more to amateurs and less -- actually took features away -- for professionals. Today's update (v 10.0.3) adds some surprising pro features, and they're not the first. This is the third update since the software's launch.

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CyberLink has today released the latest version of its flagship media player, PowerDVD 12 -- and the build sees major steps forward in the formats it can handle, and the way the program works with mobile devices, social media and more.

PowerDVD 12 now supports playing back all the main video formats, for instance, including MK3D, MKV (H.264), FLV (H.264), WTV, 3GP and 3G2. A new focus on audio means the program can also handle cinematic quality and lossless sound formats: DTS-HD 7.1, Dolby TrueHD 7.1, OGG, FLAC and more. And PowerDVD’s old ability to view your digital photos is now extended by native RAW format support.

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Ahead of its official unveiling, Firefox 10 FINAL has appeared on the Mozilla download servers, allowing impatient users the opportunity to download and install the new version up to a day early.

Version 10’s headline new feature will appeal to those frustrated with having to wait for browser extensions to be recognized as compatible by new builds: from version 10 onwards, browser extensions will automatically be considered compatible unless specifically marked otherwise. It will also see a minor interface tweak, the loss of the browser forward button, and some new tools that will appeal to developers.

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Symantec on Tuesday launched the public beta of Norton Identity Safe, a free password management application for mobile and desktop devices. The software was originally a feature built into Norton Internet Security and Norton 360, and is now available for the first time as a standalone application.

Norton Identity Safe beta is designed to be a simple and secure way for users to store and manage their logins and passwords for all their different applications and services. With the application installed, the user only needs to remember their master password, and then they can launch any of their stored services. This login information can be synched across the users' different devices as well.

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