downloader

Google is planning to launch a music download service to complement its music locker, the company's Android chief Andy Rubin said today at the All Things Digital AsiaD conference in Hong Kong.

Responding to a question on his company's plans for a music service, Rubin said that Google is "close" to launching an offering that would allow customers to download music. And to distinguish it from rivals, he said, Google's offering will "have a little twist--it will have a little Google in it."

Google launched its music locker service, Music Beta, earlier this … Read more

Long before the iTunes Store was a glimmer in Steve Jobs' eye, Download.com launched in 1996 as the most comprehensive, safest place to get all your software, from the latest drivers and codecs to professional-grade programs. It was, and still is, notable for scanning and testing its software catalog to ensure that none would infect your computer. We take a look at the history of the software world before Download.com, the rise of modern software, and where software stands now.

The software world before Download.com: The software world grew rapidly throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. In … Read more

Starting this week, Amazon is expected to start letting consumers preorder digital game downloads for PCs.

The Swiss Army Knife of Internet companies is already offering several titles for sale in download form. Amazon's entry joins a crowded space that includes EA's Origin, Steam, direct2drive, GameStop, and many other PC game download providers.

However, it is Amazon that has the popularity, network infrastructure, and deal-oriented presence to expand its role and shake up the PC gaming marketplace. Amazon told CNET there will be preorder opportunities set up for upcoming games such as Battlefield 3, Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Saints Row: The Third, and Sims 3: Pets. … Read more

UPDATE September 26, 2011: This offer has now ended.

Ever wanted to know how you to download music from some of the most popular music and video sites? Now you can in just a couple of clicks. Musicjacker 2 is a program that allows you to download music from some of the most popular music and video sites such as MySpace, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Hype Machine, letting you download music that may otherwise be hard to find. In addition, it also features a unique feature called MusicScraper, which allows you to search for the name of an artist or a … Read more

Every day computer criminals find new ways to trick us into downloading viruses, keyloggers, adware, and other software intended to steal our personal information, spy on us, or simply irritate. But malware prevention doesn't have to be complicated. A few simple precautions can keep your PC free of infection.

Computer security begins and ends with the operating system. If you use Windows, upgrade to Windows 7. The upgrade-to-the-latest-version rule is less stringent for older releases of Mac OS X, Linux, and Android, but Windows XP and Vista should be considered … Read more

If you were hoping to one day grab Super Mario Bros. or other Nintendo hits from your smartphone's app store, the future does not look good.

In an interview last week with Japanese news site Nikkei, Nintendo President and Chief Executive Satoru Iwata reiterated the company's stance against bringing its titles to smartphones versus keeping them on its own hardware.

Iwata said the company was not considering that option, and that if it did, the move would diminish the company's strength in building its hardware and software in-house.

In a translated statement, Iwata acknowledged that offering Nintendo'… Read more

Android is expected to surpass Apple in application downloads for the first time, according to research firm Ovum.

Android could notch 8.1 billion app downloads this year, compared with 6 billion for Apple's iOS devices. That marks an explosion of growth for both platforms; Apple had 2.7 billion downloads and Android recorded 1.4 billion last year. The total number of application downloads is expected to grow by 144 percent this year, Ovum said in a report issued today.

"Consumers' seemingly insatiable demand for mobile applications is set to continue this year, with downloads from app … Read more

While the various programs and services on a computer are meant to offer you convenience, there are times when you may need to do repetitive tasks using the various tools and programs on the system. In these cases, the use of scripting tools can be exceptionally useful. Unlike programming, scripting is when you take a set of current tools and utilities and automate their interactions with commands. For instance, with Javascript you can tell a browser to change the way it renders HTML content, or with Automator you can tell the Finder to organize files in a certain way.

Recently … Read more

If you're a heavy user of e-mail attachments, you know how tedious it can be to download them individually and make sure that they're saved in the right location. But they can also take up a lot space within your e-mail account, so letting them hang out there isn't always a great idea, either. Mail Attachment Editor is an innovative program that can automatically find and download your e-mail attachments and save them wherever you'd like. We haven't seen anything quite like it, and we were very impressed with both its ease of use and … Read more