Stop me if you heard this one before: the Zune is dead. Buried within Microsoft's slate of announcements at E3 was a change in branding, which effectively kills off the Zune altogether. A new music service is in the cards, called Xbox Music, which will be its replacement.

The Xbox branding is more appropriate considering the service will be available across Microsoft's disparate platforms -- Windows 8 computers and devices, Windows Phones, and the Xbox 360. Removing the Zune branding also gives the service a fresh start, free from the negative connotations the Zune name may have among many consumers.

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Netflix is building its own content delivery network, a sign that the company wants to be able to deliver its content on its own terms. The move signals trouble for current content delivery partners, many of which get a large portion of their revenues through contracts with Netflix.

The company is not immediately tearing up these contracts: rather Netflix will continue to use these commercial networks for the "next few years". Eventually, however, most Netflix content will be delivered through its own pipes, called the "Open Connect Network".

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Music software developer Freemake dropped an intriguing infographic in my inbox this morning, claiming most people won't pay for music next year. Heck, who does today, I ask.

My daughter has a music library with more than 7,000 songs, but she now just streams Pandora on her iPhone to connected speakers. She hasn't listened to anything from her own library for months. She pays zero. I'm a big fan of Vevo. I don't often have time to watch music videos, but I can listen to them streaming in the background.

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By far the biggest releases of the past week come from Microsoft. The up-coming Windows 8 is now really not too far away and you can check to see whether your computer is going to be able to run it by downloading yourself a copy of Microsoft Windows 8 Release Preview Setup. This simple little tool can also be used to obtain a product key that can be used to install Microsoft Windows 8 Release Preview (32-bit) or Microsoft Windows 8 Release Preview (64-bit).

Whether you are using the very latest version of Windows or a slightly older one, security is of the utmost importance, and ZoneAlarm Free 10.2.47.0 is a free firewall that helps to protect your internet connection, while IObit Advanced SystemCare 5.3.0.246 is a complete security suite with added optimization options. From the same stables, there is also IObit Advanced SystemCare with Antivirus 2012 (v5.5.2) Beta 2 add virus protection in this preview release.

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There they sit: a large group of photos you need to process for one reason or another. Perhaps you simply want to rename them to something more descriptive than the choice made by your digital camera. Perhaps they need resizing to share with someone else. Whatever the reason, wading through that little lot by hand is going to take you some time.

Thankfully, there’s a free tool that can do all the hard work for you. Image Tuner 3.1 is a small, perfectly formed tool designed to simplify the process of batch-editing a large group of photos. And the icing on the cake is the fact it’s free.

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Taipei, Taiwan-based CyberLink has issued updates for its flagship media viewing and editing products, including CyberLink PowerDirector 10 Deluxe, CyberLink PowerDVD 12 Pro and CyberLink MediaShow 6 Ultra.

The updates are all designed to take full advantage of the new second-generation AMD A-Series APUs (Accelerated Processing Units) recently launched by AMD. APUs integrate graphics and CPU chips on to a single die for performance gains and are currently available on new notebooks, with desktop chips due later this year.

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You started off with good intentions, creating a neat image library where all your digital photos are properly organized in sensibly-named folders. But the organization probably didn’t last. It’s all too easy to drag and drop images to other folders, resave them in other formats or resolutions, maybe rework them with minor edits, and before you know it your hard drive is cluttered with a host of duplicate (or very similar) images.

Locating these files manually can be tricky, but fortunately there are some very capable tools around which can do most of the hard work for you. And VisiPics is one of the most interesting. It’s not been updated for a very long time (the current release dates back to 2008), but the program worked just fine on our Windows 7 test PC and still has the power to clean up your photo library.

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A couple of weeks ago we wrote about wpic, a console tool that could easily save a complete webpage as an image. But while this works well, it seemed a little basic, and is probably best used within scripts if you needed to automate the saving process. If you were also interested in the core idea, but wished wpic had more features, though, Web Page Saver might appeal: it can also save webpages for you, but takes the idea to the next level.

The program’s simple GUI allows you to enter up to five URLs, for instance, which can then all be saved in the same operation. (You need to enter the protocol, though -- http://my.domain.com, not just my.domain.com -- for this to work properly.) And it can also import URLs from text or CSV files, which may be handy if you often need to capture the same groups of sites.

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Looking for an impressive way to show off your digital photos? Juicebox may be just what the doctor ordered. This free Adobe AIR app can be used on Macs as well as PCs running Windows or Linux and whatever platform you use to create your gallery, you can be sure that it’ll look great on both desktop and mobile platforms. The app has been designed specifically with online photo galleries in mind, and despite the fact that stunning HTML5 galleries can be created, you do not need to know a single line of coding.

One of the problems that faces anyone looking to create an online gallery is finding a way to ensure that your photo slideshows look good on a number of different devices and platforms, particularly taking into account mobile devices with smaller screens. This is not a problem with Juicebox -- you can simply choose a design and layout that you would like to use and it will be automatically scaled to suit different screen sizes. From an end-user’s point of view, navigation is made wonderfully easy thanks to support for not only mouse and keyboard controls, but also touch screen navigation.

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Equipping your PC for professional graphics work normally involves buying several different applications, learning their various interfaces and hoping they’ll somehow all work together.

Xara’s philosophy is a little different, though: their new Photo & Graphic Designer MX 8.1 can handle photo editing, illustration, vector drawing, DTP, web graphics, even simple Flash animation, and all in a single $89 application.

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Halfway through May and the software release schedule shows no sign of abating, and beta releases stand out over the past week. Some of the biggest releases come from security experts Norton, which updated 2013 public betas. Norton AntiVirus 2013 v20.0.0.106 beta, Norton Internet Security 2013 v20.0.0.106 beta and Norton 360 2013 v20.0.0.106 beta provide an early look at what to expect from the upcoming security line, and all of these tools are free during the beta testing period.

But Norton is far from the only name in the security world, and ESET Smart Security 6 Beta (32-bit) includes not only antivirus protection but a firewall and interesting anti-theft features for laptop users; there’s also a 64-bit version of the program available -- ESET Smart Security 6 Beta (64-bit).

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GPUs first revolutionized visual computing, and now may revolutionize cloud computing as well. Nvidia introduced its GPUs for the cloud Tuesday at the annual GPU Technology Conference, an innovation it calls the third important milestone for the industry since the introduction of the GPU in 1993.

Nvidia's cloud GPUs are based on the company's Kepler architecture and has been in development for the past five years. The virtualization capabilities of Kepler make it ideal for use in large datacenters, and allows it to be shared by multiple users at the same time. Lag is reduced by built-in streaming capabilities, and Nvidia claims power efficiency and processing density enhancements will keep costs down.

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Xara unveiled the latest versions of the Designer family, Photo and Graphic Designer MX 8 and Designer Pro X 8. (Which, if the names mean nothing to you, are the packages formerly known as Xara Xtreme and Xara Xtreme Pro.)

As usual with these particular applications, Xara aims for maximum versatility. So both programs can handle most photo-editing, illustration, basic Flash animation and web graphics tasks, while Xara Designer Pro X 8 can also create complete websites and online presentations and has support for a stack of high-end design features (PANTONE, colour separation, PDF/X, XPS and more).

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The second week of May has passed, and it was as busy as ever in the world of software. If you haven’t kept your finger on the pulse, we have put together this roundup to bring you back up to speed.

Windows users looking to bring one of the features of OS X to their PCs will be interested in TweakNow DriveShortcut 1.0.0, which can be used to automatically create desktop shortcuts whenever removable media is inserted. If you’re looking to clean up your hard drive, the release of GeekUninstaller 1.0.0.2 is very timely, while EASEUS Todo Backup Free 4.5 has been updated with support for Windows 8 -- if you want to protect your valuable files. In a similar vein is Acronis True Image Home 2012 (Update 2) v15.0.7119, which has been enhanced with a number of tweaks and new features.

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We’re nearly halfway through May, the weather’s getting warmer and there is a bunch of deals in the Downloadcrew Software Store if you’re looking to save on your purchases. Starting off this month’s selection of offers is a series of deals on TuneUp Utilities 2012 that includes everything you need to optimize, fix or customize your computer.

TuneUp Utilities 2012, complete with a 3-PC, lifetime non-expiring license can be yours for just $18.99, saving you 62 percent, while anyone who needs more licenses should take a look at TuneUp Utilities Business Edition 2012 [5-PC, lifetime license] which costs just $22.95 – saving of 73 percent. Looking to secure your PC as well as speed it up? Look no further than the TuneUp Utilities 2012 + AVG Internet Security 2012 bundle which costs just $22.95 (a saving of 80 percent) and the TuneUp Utilities 2012 + avast! Pro Antivirus 7 bundle which at just $19.95 will save you an impressive 78 percent off the MSRP.

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