tools

Finding App Store apps that aren't featured prominently on the front page generally tends to revert into the proverbial needle-hunt in the haystack. Good news: new search tabs have magically appeared as of this morning, making app-browsing just a little easier.

The new pull-down search categories, as seen above, cover price, rating, platform, release window, and the like. They appear when using the search function, and can help narrow down a wide field of apps (such as, say, "dog apps"). It's a solid first step, but it doesn't help address flaws that are already in … Read more

One of my favorite features in Apple's iOS is the quietly-hidden capability to take screenshots. Back when I was doing deep dives on iPhone apps for stories, the feature was just there, and it worked. Outside of CNET, it let me do things like grab pictures from sites (before that feature was officially added), and put together quick step-by-step how-to guides for friends and family, turning the device into less of a consumptive tool, and into something that would help me get work done without a computer.

But in the past few months of me putting Microsoft's Windows … Read more

After three rounds of betas, Microsoft tomorrow is releasing a finalized version of its Webmatrix Web development software. The software, which was first introduced in July, gives users tools to create and manage Web sites while staying compatible with Microsoft's Visual Studio and SQL Server products.

The company expects a fully-baked version of the software to make it more attractive to first-time users. "The majority of the users are going to be new to this. That's one of the explicit goals here," Brian Goldfarb, the director of developer platform marketing at Microsoft, told CNET in an … Read more

Anyone who's spent much time downloading software knows that search tools--bars, boxes, enhancers, filters, whatever--are among the most ubiquitous freeware on the Internet, and they vary widely in usefulness. GGSearch is a Google-based search tool that's actually useful in a lot of ways. It lets you quickly filter searches for everything from the whole Web to blogs, pictures, Linux, maps, stocks, Webquotes, and YouTube. It offers a plethora of options, including the ability to translate results into and from dozens of languages. GGSearch uses Google's search engine and some other Google components, but it's not affiliated … Read more

Leaving your computer running all the time isn't good for its performance or for your electric bill. Sometimes, though, you don't want to sit around waiting for a large download to finish so that you can turn off your computer before you leave or go to bed. Auto Shutdown - InBasic is a Firefox add-on that will automatically shut down your computer when your downloads are complete, provided you're using Firefox's download manager.

The extension installs easily, and once we'd made the required restart of Firefox, it appeared as a small power button icon in … Read more

The bottom line: PC Tools Spyware Doctor with Antivirus 2011 will give you strong security, but a not-insignificant performance hit. For a mid-range suite, though, its features are solid and it's a better bet than PC Tools' high-end Internet Security 2011.

Review: Editors' note: Portions of this review are based on CNET's review for PC Tools Internet Security 2011. The screenshots and slideshow also are taken from the similar PC Tools Internet Security 2011.

PC Tools Spyware Doctor with Antivirus 2011 competently juggles the competing requirements of an effective and usable security suite. Although we were disappointed by … Read more

The bottom line: PC Tools Internet Security 2011 will give you strong security, but a not-insignificant performance hit. Couple that with a less than competitive feature set for high-end security suites, and you're left with a definite mixed bag.

Review:

PC Tools Internet Security 2011 competently juggles the competing requirements of an effective and usable security suite. Although we were disappointed by the performance hit, the interface is clean and easy to navigate, the scans were reasonably fast, and the suite generally received high marks from independent effectiveness tests.

Installation PC Tools' installation is a simple and fast affair, … Read more

Microsoft unloaded a dump truck's worth of changes on its Bing service earlier today, and some of the real gems to come out of the lot are the updates to Bing mobile.

New to the company's iPhone app--and soon other mobile iterations of Bing--are two very visually impressive, and downright useful additions: a Streetside viewer for local maps, and something called Bing Vision, which adds a way for users to pick out specific words from photos to create a customized Web search.

Missing from the update but headed to the app in a future release is the real … Read more

It's a small world, but try telling that to anyone who shares a PC with someone who not only speaks a different language but uses an entirely different character set. Diplomatic relations are possible, thanks to Quick Locale Switcher by Captain Caveman. It's a free Firefox add-on that lets users quickly switch locale-related settings, including languages, spell checkers, context menus, and more. It will even translate complete Web sites automatically, if your browser settings support it. You can configure Quick Locale Switcher for automatic switches or manual function with notifications. Even if your locale isn't listed, you'… Read more