Russian security company Kaspersky has dropped the beta tag from Anti-Virus 2012 and Internet Security 2012 products, launching both today. While there are no revolutionary changes on offer, Kaspersky has provided more than enough general improvements and enhancements to justify giving the programs a closer look.

Significant low-level changes sees both Anti-Virus and Internet Security 2012 offering strong protection even earlier in the boot process, for instance, making it harder for rootkits to modify the operating system, and blocking attempts by malware to disable the antivirus engine.

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BitSum Technologies has updated its process automation and optimization utility, Process Lasso, to version 5.0.0.25. Available in 32-bit and 64-bit builds, Process Lasso uses ProBalance technology to balance the competing demands of applications and system processes, ensuring no single process can cause sluggish performance or temporary freezes through excessive use of available resources. Although designed to be fine-tuned by experts, Process Lasso is also configured by default to run in fully automated mode for less experienced users too.

Version 5, which is available in free and paid-for versions, introduces a number of new features. Support for setting I/O priorities for processes in Vista and Windows 7, plus a new option to automatically install updates as and when they become available, are present in all versions, but a new default power scheme, replacing the old High Performance Option, is only found in the Pro version.

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Even though Windows Phone has been leading the innovation curve for the next generation of all of Microsoft's graphical interfaces --everything from Windows 8 to Xbox Live is expected to adopt the mobile OS' "live tile" system-- Windows Phone seemed to have been lost in the shuffle in Microsoft's E3 keynote yesterday.

Updates to Kinect, Xbox Live, and of course the Halo franchise took center stage, and nearly nothing was said about Windows Phone and its upcoming improvements in the gaming realm and deepened integration with Xbox Live.

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The latest version of Apple's flagship software iTunes has been released. The big news in iTunes 10.3 is support for the new iCloud service that can be used to automatically download apps, music and other purchases -- this is being labeled as iTunes in the Cloud. There is also newly added support for iBookstore which enables users to purchase ebooks from within iTunes.

iCloud is the replacement for MobileMe and will be made available to users completely free of charge. Once content, such as an app, has been purchased it can then be re-downloaded on any other compatible device without the need for payment. The purchasing options available in iTunes have been extended with the introduction of iBookstore that can be used to browse and buy a selection of ebooks that can be downloaded and synchronized in the same way as apps and music.

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Apple's iOS 5 is slated for release this fall, presumably with iPhone 5. But the Android Army doesn't have to wait, like the iPhone idolators. Android users can have some of those features now. Looks like Apple has been doing a little copycatting. Again.

It's funny, since hardcore Apple enthusiasts are so quick to accuse whenever they see anyone copying the slightest thing from Steve Jobs' company. They're not as fast to acknowledge when Apple does the, ah, borrowing. I'm glad to do it for them.

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Shown in early previews as "NGP" or "Next Generation Portable," Sony officially announced the PlayStation Portable's successor will be called PlayStation Vita, and it will be available with AT&T 3G connectivity.

Sony's new portable combines the traditional dual-analog gamepad interface with a smartphone-like capacitive OLED touchscreen, and adds a rear-mounted touchpad, and sixaxis motion sensors for a versatile gaming experience. It is also equipped with a quad-core ARM Cortex A9 processor and an SGX 543MP4+ graphics processor.

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At Sony's afternoon E3 keynote, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) Jack Tretton issued an apology to third party partners, retailers and consumers for the massive Playstation Network outage.

To the media, who profited a great deal off of the bad news, Tretton said "you're welcome."

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That's right. During Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference today, CEO Steve Jobs said that MobileMe's price would drop from $99 to free. But there's more to it. I just received email from Apple stating the service will retire in little more than year.

No surprise, iCloud, which Jobs announced today, will replace MobileMe. How many times is Apple going to change the name and function of its online service, I wonder. Anyone remember iTools, which Apple debuted in January 2000? That was a free service, too. Then in summer 2002, Apple unveiled .Mac, which would replace iTools and institute a yearly subscription fee.

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I'm having freaky sense of déjà vu, today. Apple may be late to cloud computing, but what's that saying about better late than never? Late has worked for Apple before, and I expect it to do so again.

Apple was late to music, when it launched iTunes in January 2001. The Napster revolution was well underway and Windows PC manufacturers shipped CD-RW drives. Now look at Apple and music. Apple was late to smartphones and tablets. Now it has shipped 200 million iOS devices, 25 million of them iPads -- in just 14 months. The list is longer, but you get the point.

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Since Betanews' original report last Wednesday, dozens of readers have e-mailed their own reports of account issues, most dealing with Sega's Kingdom Conquest. Some of these initial reports were detailed in a followup to our original piece, but we have received more since then.

(Betanews is still actively collecting reports. If you've been hacked, whether it's Kingdom Conquest or not, we'd like to know. Send your reports to ed at edoswald dot com.)

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Apple's newest operating system, Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion" is coming next month, with Apple passing big savings to customers. But you'll need v10.6 "Snow Leopard" to get it. The announcement came earlier today during Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference.

Lion will be distributed as a software download through the Mac App Store, which is available as an add-on to Snow Leopard. Mac App Store is built into Lion. The in-app upgrade is a new distribution mechanism for Apple, and the company is passing on savings to its customers. Apple offered v10.6 Snow Leopard as a $29 upgrade from v10.5 Leopard on DVD. More typically Apple charged $129 for a single license and $199 for 5-license Family Pack.

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Apple on Monday debuted a new subscription service called iTunes Match which scans a user's library of music, and "matches" the user's songs with iTunes' database of 18 million songs. Instead of actually uploading the songs to a server like Amazon Cloud Player and Google Music Beta, iTunes Match simply identifies the song on the user's machine and then makes the equivalent song available "in the cloud" for download on other devices.

The company did not reveal whether the service will have any methods of detecting music ownership.

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In Apple's unveiling of iOS 5 on Monday, the company revealed iMessage, a new feature that brings the functionality of BlackBerry Messenger to all iOS devices: iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.

The feature lets users send texts, photos, videos, contact information and group messages over Wi-Fi or 3G. It has delivery receipts and "read receipts" and live typing notifications which are pushed to all of a user's iOS devices.

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Though the name and concept behind Kinect Fun Lab leaked before its keynote, Microsoft showed off three very cool features available in Kinect Fun Labs when it launches for all Xbox 360 users later today.

The first was Xbox Live avatar creation demo called Kinect Me, which lets you snap pictures of your face and clothing with Kinect, and it's rendered as an Xbox Live avatar. It's actually exactly the same thing that Nintendo did with the Mii Maker for 3DS, but the results look a lot more sophisticated, and the clothing-scanning feature adds a bit more depth.

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Apple CEO Steve Jobs today dispelled the rumors surrounding the company's new cloud service. For months, the rumor mill churned out thousands of webpages of guesses about iCloud. Would it be a cloud-based music locker, MobileMe revamp or something else?

Simply stated, iCloud is a synchronization service for pushing data out to all your connected devices. Jobs introduced the service during the Worldwide Developer Conference keynote this afternoon. For more than a half decade, I've said that synchronization is the killer application for the connected world.

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