Articles about Software

TechSmith Corporation has unveiled the latest Snagit for Windows and Mac (that’s version 12 and 3, respectively), and while it’s not as revolutionary an upgrade as version 11, there are still some major changes and additions.

The bad news is the removal of support for XP and Vista. This is no great surprise -- Snagit has become much simpler and more streamlined lately, and it’s a logical step -- but that’s not much consolation if you’re affected.

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BurnAware Technologies has released BurnAware 7.0 Free, BurnAware 7.0 Premium and BurnAware 7.0 Professional, the latest builds of its free and paid-for disc burning products for Windows.

Version 7 adds a new user interface to all of its tools, plus adds a multi-erase tool for wiping discs simultaneously. It also replaces the built-in file browser with an external file manager.

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WiggleGif is a $0.99 Windows 8 app which can give your images a fun animated 3D effect (look right for an example).

While this can look quite sophisticated, the underlying principles are very basic. There’s no clever combining of multiple images here, WiggleGif generates the different views itself and exports the results as an animated GIF.

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Research specialist IDC has released the latest results of its Worldwide Semiannual Software Tracker showing that the software market grew by 5.5 percent in 2013, reaching a total size of $369 billion.

IDC divides the market into three segments: Applications; Application Development and Deployment (AD&D); and Systems Infrastructure Software. These segments all grew between 5.4 and 5.6 percent, meaning that none of them had a significantly better performance in 2013.

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Install a good antivirus tool and it’ll keep you safe from most online threats. But there are no 100 percent guarantees, of course, and it’s possible that some malware will avoid detection and sneak through the cracks.

One way to reduce the risk of infection is to install a "second opinion" scanner, which runs alongside your main antivirus engine and -- hopefully -- detects any threats it might miss.

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Xara has announced the release of Xara Web Designer 10 ($49.99) and Xara Web Designer 10 Premium ($99.99), its WYSIWG web design tools.

Premium-only additions start with Responsive Web Design support. You can now create variations of your page for different devices (desktop, tablet, phone), sharing content but with their own custom layout. Web Designer Premium 10 exports the finished result as a single HTML file, and it'll then automatically adjust depending on the screen size of the viewer.

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SmartSoft has unveiled SmartFTP 6.0 (32-bit) and SmartFTP 6.0 (64-bit), a major new update of its powerful FTP client for Windows machines. Version 6 debuts a new ribbon-based interface, plus vastly improved text editor and remote browser.

It also sees a rewrite of various features, removing all legacy code relating to Windows XP, which -- along with Vista -- is no longer supported as of this release.

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AgileBits Inc has released 1Password for iOS 4.5, a major rewrite of its password management tool for iPhone and iPad. The release is accompanied by a less radical, but still relatively major, upgrade to the Mac version with the release of 1Password for Mac 4.3.

The iOS version boasts a complete rebuild with the promise of improved speed and a more accessible Search tool. Support for AirDrop sharing of items and multiple vaults created using the Windows or Mac version have also been added.

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Bohemian Coding has released Sketch 3.0, a major new version of its Mac vector-based design tool. Version 3.0 adds a brand new feature called Symbols, which lets users combine multi-layered objects into a reusable group.

Other changes include major improvements to the Export Tool, redesigned Text and Layer Styles, a revamped inspector and a new Presentation Mode for showing off designs in full screen.

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EASEUS has released Partition Master 10 Free and Partition Master 10 Professional, the latest editions of its excellent disk management tool.

The new build now includes a wizard to migrate your system disk to a new drive (SDD and HDD), and make it bootable.

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CyberLink Corp has launched PowerDVD 14, the latest edition of its universal media player.

The top-of-the-range PowerDVD 14 Ultra now includes a free year’s subscription to 10GB of space on CyberLink Cloud. There’s new support for syncing media between PC and mobile devices (iOS, Android, Windows 8), while auto-transcoding of videos, photos & music from PC to Cloud should improve performance.

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jAlbum AB has released jAlbum 12, a major update of its popular web album builder.

A major interface revamp sees the program now include an embedded web browser (Chromium), enabling you to preview changes as soon as you adjust your project settings.

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Stardock Corporation has released Start 8 1.4, a minor update to its Windows 8 Start button and menu replacement tool. There are no new features in version 1.4, just a series of bug fixes and one key compatibility update.

That update is support for the forthcoming Windows 8.1 Update, due to ship on "Patch Tuesday" next week. Existing Start8 users should therefore update this before April 8th rolls around.

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Ashampoo GmbH has unveiled WinOptimizer 11, the latest edition of its PC cleanup, optimization and maintenance suite.

The new release introduces Game Booster, a tool which frees up valuable system resources by temporarily shutting down non-essential services and processes.

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DigiDNA has released DiskAid 6.6, a new build of its tool for converting spare storage on an iOS device into an external hard drive for wireless or USB access from a Windows or Mac computer.

Version 6.6 speeds up cloning one device to others, improves support for restoring device backups and allows users to manually add or remove contacts on the iPhone via USB.

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