Developerinabox has released a major update to its powerful open-source surveillance software. iSpy 3.5.0 allows Windows users to use a collection of webcams and microphones as part of a complete security system for free, although certain features, including remote access and email alerts, require a monthly subscription.

Version 3.5 promises vastly improved resource management, and adds two major new features: the ability to detect and recover from crashes and hangs, plus a built-in media browser.

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I wouldn't, and I'm probably wasting time bothering to ask. Many of you won't either. But, please, do tell. Your reasons why or why not are valuable, and you can offer them up in comments.

Droid XYBOARD replaces the XOOM, and it's unclear whether the predecessor's brand disappears (I assume not) or if XYBOARD is a Verizon-exclusive brand like Droid (I assume yes). Whichever, the new tablet is all about rebranding, rather than being a worthy successor to XOOM. By the specs, there nary is anything to tell the tablets apart -- other than price, a little Battlestar Galactica-like trim to the corners and introduction of a smaller model. Now there's an 8.2-inch Moto tablet to compliment the 10.1-incher.

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It may only be the second week of December, but the Christmas feeling has already taken over. Software publishers are still releasing software throughout the festive season and we’ve collected together twenty of the biggest titles from the past seven days that you may have missed.

Whether you get a new camcorder for Christmas, or you’re using an existing camera to capture the seasonal excitement on film, CyberLink PowerDirector 10 Ultra (build 1129a) includes everything you need to edit, burn and share your footage. If your needs aren’t quite as high, you could opt for the slightly cheaper, but still powerful, CyberLink PowerDirector 10 Deluxe (build 1129a).

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Taking care of your computer means that it will serve you well and hopefully delay the need to upgrade your hardware for as long as possible. The festive season is now upon us, which  means over-indulging in the food and drink departments and generally failing to look after ourselves. But this does not mean that our computers also need to be neglected.

If you’re feeling the pinch after splashing out on Christmas presents for friends and family, our great sale prices on optimization and maintenance software means that you will still be able to keep your system in top shape. There are a number of tools to choose from, all of which are very gentle on the pocket.

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Apple's impressive streak of courtroom victories is over as the company was dealt a serious blow in its patent fight with Motorola. A German court on Friday sided with Motorola, saying Apple's cellular-enabled devices -- the iPhone and iPad -- infringe on GPRS patents held by the company. The ruling may result in an injunction that would prohibit sales of Apple's products within the country.

Since it involves GPRS -- a 2.5G technology -- this means every iPhone produced is impacted by the preliminary injunction, as are both iPad 3G models. It also may give Motoorola leverage elsewhere in the European Union to seek a broader injunction against Apple products. While the ruling is against Apple's European arm, it initially only impacts Apple products within Germany.

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Earlier this week, Google proclaimed an important milestone for Android Market: 10 billion downloads. That's still something like 8 billion behind Apple's App Store. The questions: who, what, when and where? There are answers in a handy infographic posted by Eric Chu, Android Developer Ecosystem, yesterday.

Asia rules, based on per-capita downloads -- four of the top-five are from the Pacific Rim. South Korea leads, while the United States nudges past Singapore to capture the fourth spot. European nations claim four of the next five spots, with Israel pushing between Sweden and Denmark for sixth place. Apparently, by the per-capita measure, the Americas aren't so hot for Android Market.

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Hewlett-Packard announced on Friday that it is turning webOS software over to the open source community while still remaining a participant and investor in the project.

The future of WebOS has been uncertain since HP announced it was considering spinning off its consumer PC division to concentrate more on comprehensive cloud offerings for enterprise. Now that the company has decided to keep its PC systems division, WebOS looks like it will be going the way of the Android, except that it will be purely open source.

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Twitter has released the first stable release of TweetDeck 1.0, its recently acquired, multi-columned Twitter client. TweetDeck 1.0, which runs on both Mac and Windows, is the first release to be written in native code as opposed to as an Adobe AIR application.

The release has proved controversial -- many users feel let down by the loss of a number of features that were present in earlier, beta releases of the software. Users must also register separately with TweetDeck before being able to use the new app -- in previous releases, registration was optional.

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System Restore is an excellent Windows technology, one that’s saved our PCs many times -- but it’s not exactly flexible. You can restore an entire system point, or maybe a shadow copy or two (right-click a folder, select Properties > Previous Versions), but that’s about it.

So it’s good to see System Restore Explorer offering an alternative approach. Launch the program and it’ll display a list of restore points, but when you choose one of these it’ll be mounted and displayed in an Explorer window. So you can now manually browse through the restore point, and if you locate a file which you need, then retrieval is as easy as a drag and drop.

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BitTorrent has released the first premium version of its compact file sharing client, uTorrent. And so, if you’re happy to accept the $24.95 annual subscription, then you, too, can unlock a pile of high-end additional features.

Integrated BitDefender-based antivirus will scan your downloads for threats. An integrated HD media player displays videos in their full high-definition glory. If the file you’ve found isn’t in a convenient format, then uTorrent Plus will quickly transcode it to something else. Initial support for the MPEG-4, H.264, Theora, and VP8 video codecs, and MP3, AAC and AC-3 audio codecs should make it easy to convert the file to something Apple, Android or just generally mobile device-friendly.

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Google has updated its popular cross-platform image-viewing, editing and sharing tool, Picasa to version 3.9. Despite the minor version number, there are a significant number of new features and improvements.

Google is keen to showcase Picasa’s new Google+ sharing capabilities, but of more interest to most will be the smorgasbord selection of new photo editing effects and the ability to compare “before” and “after” images side-by-side.

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PortableApps.com has announced the first public release of Platform 10, a powerful framework for building a customised portable toolkit that you can carry around on a USB drive with you.

And if you’ve always liked the idea of doing something along those lines, but never quite managed to make it happen, then Platform 10 could be very useful way to make it happen.

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Steve Ballmer won't get a Christmas card from me this year. Or next.

Microsoft's assault on BetaNews' Xbox 360 dashboard review continues. I awoke to find a take-down notice waiting in Gmail, for photos posted with the review. A few hours ago, our reviewer, a BetaNews reader, informed me that Microsoft had kicked him out of the Preview program for violating the NDA. But did he?

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Amazon wants you to shop on its website this Saturday. How much so? It is enticing users of Amazon Price Check with up to $15 savings on items they scan in stores and end up buying through the retailer. Users can earn up to a $5 discount per purchase (five percent) on electronics, toys, sports, music and DVDs.

The company is using those scanning to effectively spy on brick-and-mortar retailers for them by enabling a share price function in the app. Amazon says it will use this data to keep its prices competitive. To earn the discount, customers would need to use the checkout function within Price Check.

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Google on Thursday officially launched Google Currents, a news reading application for Android and iOS-based smartphones and tablets, and publishing backend for content producers.

Similar in concept to Flipboard, Zite or any of the dozens of "iPad magazines," Google Currents lets readers subscribe to different news sites and view their Google Reader RSS feeds paginated like a magazine, instead of infinitely vertical like a website. A user's Gmail account is tied with their Currents reading list, so sharing on Google+ has been built into the service.

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