client

The PC isn't dead, but it's still a post-PC era

In early June, market researcher IDC cut its forecast growth for PCs in 2011 from 7.1 percent to 4.2 percent. Gartner Group, another IT analyst firm, had earlier trimmed its numbers. Meanwhile, Apple iPad sales continue to skyrocket, with 183 percent growth compared to the year-ago quarter. Android tablets remain more of a mixed bag when it comes to gaining buyers, but they'll gain traction over time as well.

Those numbers would seem to lay out the case for a post-PC world rather starkly. Especially when you consider that they don't even consider phones which, in … Read more

All-in-one chat client for Android

IM+ takes all the fuss out of mobile instant messaging by enabling you to connect to your Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger, AIM, Facebook, and other IM accounts, all from a single application window. With its clean design and simple user interface, chatty folks on the go may wonder how they ever lived without it.

Under the Contacts tab, all of your contacts are compiled in a single list. That way, you don't have to bother with switching among accounts in order to chat. In fact, once you're on IM+, you should feel absolutely no distinction between the different … Read more

All-in-one chat client for Android

Twitter for Android updated

Twitter for Android stepped up its game today with a couple of new features that users probably wish it had incorporated a long time ago.

Now, users get the option to receive Push Notifications, which are essentially real-time, automatic updates. Previously, users had to set the app to refresh at timed intervals. Now they can go into account settings and enable Automatic Refresh to get instant Status Bar notifications for Direct Messages, @Mentions, and Tweets.

Also, the updated app now supports multiple account sign-in, making it easy to switch between your social media alter egos.

The new version of Twitter … Read more

As expected, Gmail app is strong at the basics

The Gmail app gives you quick access to your Google e-mail account (or multiple accounts) right from your Android mobile device. As expected, it integrates nicely with your other Android applications as well as with your device's contacts.

Gmail for Android packs all of the e-mail basics like composing, reading, deleting, and replying into a simple, user-friendly interface. Like its full Web browser counterpart, it also lets you browse through your messages by label, and even apply labels to messages. Adding Stars, reporting Spam, and creating a Signature are also simple.

While the Gmail app is strong at all … Read more

Chrome's security overhaul begins with PDF plug-in

Google has begun work on the first step of rebuilding Chrome from the inside out on a more secure foundation called Native Client, CNET has learned.

That first step is the built-in Chrome module used to let Google's browser read PDF (Portable Document Format) files. Linus Upson, vice president of engineering for the Chrome team, revealed the plan in May at the Google I/O conference, and now evidence is emerging that the first step is under way.

References to the Native Client version of the PDF extension have begun cropping up on the Native Client's bug-tracking database. … Read more

Yahoo Mail is a winner

Yahoo Mail for Android gives you quick access to your Yahoo e-mail account (or multiple accounts) right from your mobile device. As a mobile mail client, we really couldn't ask for more. It's clean, user-friendly, and it includes some added bonuses that make it feel very much like its desktop counterpart. For instance, composing messages is a much richer experience than in other mobile e-mail apps, thanks to all the formatting tools that Yahoo Mail offers. It lets you make text bold, italicized, or underlined. It even lets you change font color, size, or add emoticons.

Overall, we … Read more

How Google Apps could boost Chromebook sales

Google faces plenty of skeptics when it comes to Chrome OS, the browser-based operating system it hopes will catalyze a Web app future.

But when it comes to selling the vision, the company also has a group of potentially influential allies that already have a foot in the door: partners making a business selling the Google Apps suite.

Google Apps is the suite of Gmail, calendar, word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation Web apps that Google sells in subscription form for $50 per user per year. And although Google Apps hasn't come close to pushing aside Microsoft Office, it does … Read more

Twitter 2.0 for BlackBerry is official

A mere two weeks after Twitter 2.0's arrival in BlackBerry Beta Zone, it looks like the newly refreshed client has emerged unscathed. Twitter 2.0 for Blackberry is official, and will be generally available in BlackBerry App World over the next 24 hours.

For those who weren't on the beta train, Twitter 2.0 boasts speedier and more streamlined Twitter Search via a single screen combining the Find People, Search, and Popular Topics functions, along with Trends and Saved Searches. For BlackBerry 6 users, Universal Search on your phone now pulls results from Twitter as well. And … Read more

Trillian 5 adds Pro features for free

Trillian, the popular multiple-personality IM client, recently upgraded to version 5, giving it a refreshed interface, improved social integration, and, get this, all of the Pro features from previous versions, all for free. Now every user can enjoy themes, activity history viewer, and multiple location sign-in, along with the newly developed continuous client feature, which keeps chats synced across all devices. For now, these upgrades have only hit the Windows client (download) and the now free Android app (download). Mac, iOS, and Blackberry are all on deck.

While the idea of free is nice, as we all know, nothing ever … Read more