2.8

Registry teaser

Over time, the Windows Registry becomes a tangled jungle as programs are installed and removed and the debris of daily computing piles up. A good registry cleaner can scan your registry for invalid, orphaned, and corrupted entries and take out the trash, which typically makes your PC run a bit faster, more smoothly, and more safely. Registry Cleaner Free promises to analyze, clean, and optimize your registry. However, we found that the "free" part only goes so far.

Registry Cleaner Free has the stylish dark background, white fonts, and large, sleek, 3D buttons typical of the breed. The … Read more

Keylogger kryptonite

Keyloggers are sneaky little programs that can record everything you type, including usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, and other sensitive information. Although antivirus software is often able to detect and eliminate such programs once you're infected, they're not foolproof. KeyScrambler Personal promises to encrypt your keystrokes at the level of your keyboard driver and decrypt them when they reach your browser so they're visible to you. Sounds good in theory, but does it work? We can't guarantee that it's perfect, but we can say that it worked just fine when we tried it.

Obviously, if … Read more

iOS 4.3.3 arrives, patches location database

Apple today released, as promised, an iOS update addressing location-tracking behavior, and the security of that information on its portable devices.

iOS 4.3.3, which is a free update delivered through Apple's iTunes software, reduces the size of the "crowdsourced" location cache, no longer backs up the cache to iTunes in the form of a device recovery image, and deletes the cache when a user turns Location Services off.

Two of those issues--the size of the database, and the failure to delete the cache from the device--Apple had called "bugs" when addressing the issue … Read more

Faster Firefox releases and a new Chrome

What does Google have going for it that Mozilla does not? A faster rev cycle for its browser, according to some. Mozilla's aiming to change that this coming year, though. The developer has a new plan for Firefox in 2011: Turn the crank faster. Mozilla is set to deliver Firefox 4 in coming weeks. And according to a draft Firefox roadmap, the director of Firefox, proposed releasing versions 5, 6, and 7 in 2011, too. This fast-release ethos, pioneered in the browser world by Google's Chrome, means smaller changes arrive more frequently.

Speaking of Chrome, we took a … Read more

Mouse-Click-O-Matic

Free Mouse Auto Clicker? Calm down, Sylvester: It's not "free mouse," it's freeware that automatically generates mouse clicks or hotkeys at intervals ranging from one-tenth of a second to 100 hours. It can simulate single or double clicks for the right or left mouse button and start or stop any combination of hotkeys from Ctrl + F1 through F12. What's it good for? It can repeatedly click a button, interface, or window to keep an app, document, or process from closing, for example, or automate repetitious clicks, or start and stop processes via hotkeys.

Free Mouse … Read more

A1 3D CG Free

Art of Illusion, a free, Java-based, open-source 3D graphics suite from Peter Eastman, is powerful and flexible enough for pro users, but its ample explanations, tutorials, wizards, and other assistance actually make it possible for beginners to learn the basics of 3D modeling just by using it.

Art of Illusion's user interface is based on Java Swing, so it's almost completely customizable. The default layout consists of four view windows displaying selectable front, back, and side views as well as a camera perspective; a sidebar containing the Objects List and Objects Property Panel; and a set of tool … Read more

Pocket Amazon

If you're looking for one-stop shopping on your iPhone, Amazon's app is about as representative of a Web site as one can find in a mobile app. You'll need a strong data or Wi-Fi connection to troll Amazon's vast database of merchandise, but if you do, you'll be be able to easily find anything you need that the retail giant can sell. Deals, recommendations, and other tools you find on the online site have also made it into this app, and you can log in to see your wish lists and shopping cart. Moreover, you … Read more