Software

After 10 years and with millions of users worldwide, Apple's QuickTime player still provides one of the best solutions for digital media. Whether you're watching streaming movie trailers online or diving headlong into QuickTime as a creation platform, you'll find little to quibble about in this veteran player.

Its few quirks are quickly offset by the elegant Apple interface and the top-notch audio/video playback quality. QuickTime 7 comes in two varieties. The free standard player handles popular audio, graphic, and video formats, including the much-ballyhooed H.264 and MPEG-4. Also, for $29.95, you can upgrade … Read more

This top-rated trial for one of the most popular solitaire programs around continues to improve. The 2008 version of SolSuite Solitaire adds another two original games, bringing the grand total to 480...for now. Expect to see even more new games in later releases. The excellent trial offers a free month of play (with three shuffles per game), and big solitaire fans will likely register before the 30 days are up.

The helpful interface lets you browse games grouped by type, time, difficulty, and skill level, or you can have the program choose a variation at random. SolSuite provides a … Read more

Programs that grab videos from Web sites such as YouTube aren't a dime a dozen--they're a dime for 200 dozen. Most of them aren't that good, either, which makes Ashampoo's freeware ClipFinder such a breath of fresh air in the video-grabbing game.

ClipFinder sports an atypical interface that's simple to navigate. The main window holds a series of long filmstrips. Each of the 14 strips represents a video site, which are searchable either individually or globally. Unfortunately, you can't add new portals, but the ones available include all the major video sites: YouTube, Yahoo, … Read more

This free software lets you view and print Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files. As the open standard for worldwide electronic document distribution, Adobe PDF files preserve all the formatting, the graphics and the colors of the original document, so Acrobat users know they're delivering the exact same presentation to everyone.

Adobe Acrobat Reader offers several display options at different zoom levels depending on the documents need for exacting details. A full-screen mode lets you view documents without distraction. You can also complete and submit PDF forms online, a feature that will become more useful as companies adopt the … Read more

Beneath this clipboard manager's deceptively drab exterior lies a smart set of clip-management tools. Rather than holding one clip at a time, as the Windows Clipboard does, M8 Multi Clipboard can hold up to 25.

If you want to save a particular clip, you can store up to 30 in a single group. From there, you can create up to 100 libraries, each holding 100 groups. The libraries, groups, and clips can be renamed for better organization, and it's easy to move or copy clips from one group to another.

The program's other notable features include built-in … Read more

Although iTunes has always been one of the best pieces of jukebox software available, the company improved upon a great thing with version 7, which has added enhanced video capabilities, ringtone editing for the iPhone and new ways to view your music library.

A cleaned-up left sidebar makes finding your music and videos a snap and the new Album and Cover-Flow view options let you flip through CDs in style. The built-in video player accommodates both your own files and ones bought at the iTunes Store. Right-clicking a clip lets you render it iPod-compatible. With the addition of full-length movies … Read more

Although iTunes has always been one of the best pieces of jukebox software available, the company improved upon a great thing with version 7, which has added enhanced video capabilities, ringtone editing for the iPhone and new ways to view your music library.

A cleaned-up left sidebar makes finding your music and videos a snap and the new Album and Cover-Flow view options let you flip through CDs in style. The built-in video player accommodates both your own files and ones bought at the iTunes Store. Right-clicking a clip lets you render it iPod-compatible. With the addition of full-length movies … Read more

AVG Internet Security 8.0 has many new features including Linkscanner technology, which AVG Technologies acquired with its recent purchase of Exploit Prevention Labs. Overall, the product falls flat as an Internet security suite.

Missing from the suite is adequate antiphishing protection beyond e-mail blocking. AVG Internet Security 8.0 flags malicious Web sites, however, unlike the standalone version of Linkscanner there is no additional information provided about a threat. We also found the AVG suite to be resource heavy and produced false positives.

AVG installs Yahoo as the default search engine in up to two locations within your Internet … Read more

With Trend Micro Internet Security 2008, you need only to provide your e-mail address to activate the full function 30-day free trial.

Once installed, the protection provided by Trend Micro is good. The two-way firewall blocks Internet threats, while scanners remove viruses, spyware, and rootkits. The interface is clean and intuitive, with configuration settings accessible for more advanced users. The suite includes additional tools to identify legitimate Wi-Fi hot spots (Wi-Fi Advisor), parental controls, Internet Web protection, home network protection, and even a system tune-up diagnostic (System Tuner).

Trend Micro provides free telephone, e-mail, and chat technical support, which is … Read more