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BitTorrent Surf is a new Chrome add-on (download) that turns the browser into a torrent client. While that's not an innovation on its own, this is the first time the company has built a complete torrent-manager for the browser.

In development for the past six months, according to the BitTorrent blog announcing the add-on, Surf lets you find torrents on the Web and download them.

Still in rough alpha, Surf goes beyond that. It allows for automatic torrent detection when you navigate to a site, and you can save favorite sites to "create your own combined engine," … Read more

I've had a lot of great adventures producing Always On, but I've had a lifelong dream to see a space shuttle launch, and with this show, I got to get pretty close: I flew down to Cape Canaveral to watch the Falcon 9 rocket blast off with the Dragon cargo capsule on board. It was, as you might imagine, a pretty spectacular sight: and a pretty exciting start to the future of privatized space flight.

This episode also features another pretty awesome day for me: a spin around Ford's test track in the 2013 Shelby GT500 Mustang. … Read more

The bottom line: Bitdefender Total Security 2013 remains one of the best high-end security suites around. This update gives you a fully isolated Web browser for secure financial transactions.

Review: Bitdefender Total Security 2013 presents a convincing alternative to its better-known competitors. It's a strong program, with all the major tools that users expect, and some additional useful tricks in its arsenal. When it comes to efficacy, Bitdefender isn't the best in every area, but it's definitely competitive.

Editors' note: Portions of this review are based on CNET's review of Bitdefender Total Security 2012.

Installation Bitdefender … Read more

Twitter said today that it will implement a change in February that will extend the number of characters used in its automatic t.co link shortener by two.

Such a move may seem insignificant to the average Twitter user, but it does mean that there will be two fewer characters available under the 140-character limit in a tweet.

Twitter had no comment on the rationale behind the switch, but on its blog for developers, it simply spelled out the plans. "We're going to be extending the maximum length of t.co wrapped links from 20 to 22 characters … Read more

If you'd like an alternative to Windows Media Player that plays just about every kind of audio and video file and is widely customizable and flexible enough to serve many roles, including DVD and Blu-Ray player, you really only have a few choices, and one of them is Media Player Classic, aka MPC. Actually, several others might be MPC too since this open-source freeware serves as the basis of more than one media player for Windows. The latest version is Media Player Classic-Home Cinema. MPC-HC is available in separate downloads for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows. We tried the 64-bit … Read more

Allowing you to transmit Web-based data and content via Bluetooth, PdaNet for Android allows your PC to connect to the Internet using both the phone's standard radio and its Bluetooth radio. PdaNet for Android is free to try but the full version will cost you $23.95.

The version of the app discussed here is the one paired with a 64-bit Windows machine. When it comes to the interface, access to the PdaNet for Android app is almost instantaneous. You are just given two options, to enable USB tether or to enable Bluetooth DUN. Each option, when chosen, provides … Read more

Hewlett-Packard is offering decent Black Friday deals on some of its premier Windows 8 laptops. And the company has announced shipment dates for a couple of its newest touch-screen entries.

HP's Spectre and Spectre XT models are its top-of-the-line lappies. While just-announced Spectres got tiny discounts, a couple of not-so-recent entries are selling for $100 off today. … Read more

Happy Black Friday, cheeps! (That's "cheapskates" plus "peeps" in case you're new around here.)

In honor of this crazy day of shopping madness, and to cap off the celebration of my fifth anniversary writing the Cheapskate blog, I've got one seriously killer contest for you.

Because it's a fifth anniversary, I decided one prize wouldn't do -- I needed five. And thanks to some very generous companies, that's what I ended up with. I'm overjoyed with this roster of goodies, which you can easily enter to win by following … Read more

The damages award against illegal file-sharer Kywan Fisher will most likely send him to the poor house. Illinois federal court Judge John Lee ordered Fisher to fork out $1.5 million to adult entertainment company Flava Works this week, according to TorrentFreak.

Flava Works sued Fisher for sharing 10 movies he'd previously paid for via BitTorrent. The damages award amount was reached by fining Fisher $150,000 per movie. This is the largest damages award ever ordered in a BitTorrent case.

Flava Works caught Fisher sharing its movies by tracing the illegal copies he was accused of sharing back … Read more