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Bitdefender Virus Scanner is an antivirus scanner for the iMac and MacBook that employs the well-known Bitdefender engine and signature files in the Mac environment. Notably, it can also detect Windows viruses in emulation and virtual windows. With hourly virus signature upgrades, Bitdefender Virus Scanner can monitor your system in real time.

Bitdefender Virus Scanner installs easily enough. The interface looks similar to almost every other antivirus product on the market for Mac and Windows machines, with the ability to trigger an on-demand scan or set it up for continuous monitoring. A Fast Scan capability for typical attack points, as … Read more

Byterun Solitaire for Mac is a version of traditional solitaire, made famous as the favorite time-waster on Windows. Implementing Klondike Solitaire, your goal is to get all the cards in each suit in ascending order (as if you didn't know!). This app is a free download and installs easily.

The graphics in Byterun Solitaire for Mac are a bit basic, almost cartoonish, which is unfortunate. A little more care on the cards and card backs would have made this a more attractive game visually. Where Solitaire does shine is playability. The game mechanics are good, and there are basic … Read more

It started as an iOS app, and now it is available on the Mac OS X platform, too: Battle Nations is a free game that combines city-building -- including harvesting resources and creating goods -- with combat, as you are also in charge of training troops and defending territory. While the combination of too many elements results in simplified building mechanics and combat (maybe too simplified), the overall gaming experience is enjoyable.

Everyone has a story, even the virtual characters, and we liked the action-movie type introduction of the characters at first launch; we wondered if this aimed to replace … Read more

The era of visiting carnivals and arcades may be over, but Prize Claw is a free iOS app that aims to re-create that old time feeling. The main problem is an overly cluttered interface that takes some time to figure out without delivering much of an incentive to keep playing (at least for free).

Prize Claw's interface is packed with ads and other information that made it hard to find the claw controller at first. There is a Help screen with instructions about the game, which helped us get oriented. Apart from the cluttered screen, we also weren't … Read more

If you thought photo editing on an iPhone was limited by touch and the device's 3.5-inch screen, you must try out HDR FX, a free, intuitive piece of digital photo software designed for the iPhone.

At launch, the app looks like any other app used for taking images, yet it has additional features such as antishake, which is very handy for taking clear pictures. However, HDR FX goes beyond just providing a set of tools with which to take cool pictures. Right after you've snapped an image, the fun begins, as the app begins to analyze it … Read more

Edifier, which has made a few funky-looking media speaker systems over the years, has now added another aesthetically interesting unit to its lineup: the Prisma, a 2.1 Bluetooth speaker system that just hit the market for $129.99.

Aside from the design, Edifier is highlighting the fact that the Prisma has a 48-watt power rating and its wired remote control is equipped with two auxiliary input ports, plus a headphone jack.

Continue reading about the Edifier Prisma

If you've ever tried to create some "easy" photo effects using a not-so-easy tool, you'll appreciate Easy Photo Effects, a free tool that actually makes it easy to apply cool effects to your digital photos. It handles basic chores like resizing and adding borders and adjusting brightness and contrast, but it also has interesting filters such as sepia, colored grid, and embossed effects. With easy-to-access settings for each individual effect and a prominent Undo button, Easy Photo Effects lets you quickly apply, view, and change effects until you get it right. Easy Photo Effects only handles … Read more

Since Windows is meant to be all things to most people, it leaves room for improvement on many fronts, such as copying files. Copying speed in Windows is mostly determined by your system's resources, but that's the point: by maximizing the copying according to your system's capabilities, it's possible to copy even very large files faster than Windows can. How much faster? Up to eight times faster, according to Easersoft, makers of ExtremeCopy Free, which optimizes copying speed based on your machine's resources. The standard version is free for personal and home use, though a … Read more

Windows 8 is coming soon, bringing with it a snazzy new look with lots of animation and visual effects. For a preview of some of what it will bring to your desktop, try Aero QLaunch. As a program, it's prosaic: just another freeware quick-launch toolbar for the desktop. As a desktop enhancement, it's anything but subtle, adding some dazzling 3D fireworks to an updated theme based on the new look of Windows 8. Aero QLaunch is available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions. As part of the setup process, Aero QLaunch downloaded and installed the latest applicable version of … Read more