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You don't have to have an Internet connection to enjoy your favorite online videos; there are plenty of ways to download files from YouTube and many other popular video sites. IE DownloadHelper is an Internet Explorer extension that makes the downloading process easy, although it doesn't have quite as many features as some similar programs we've encountered.

Once IE DownloadHelper is installed, it appears as a small blue arrow icon in the browser's status bar. When a downloadable video is detected on a Web page the arrow turns green. To download the video, simply right-click on … Read more

Users of Internet Explorer can now get rid of those persistent "Flash cookies" thanks to the latest version of Adobe Flash and support from within Microsoft's IE.

Cookies are files created on your PC and used by sites to keep track of certain data, such as site settings and usernames. All the major Web browsers let you remove cookies. But one flavor of cookie, known as a Flash cookie, doesn't get thrown out when you delete your traditional Web cookies. That limitation has triggered privacy concerns.

But the latest release candidate of Adobe Flash 10.3 … Read more

Microsoft's browser continues to lose share of worldwide usage, but its new IE9 version managed to gain enough usage that new statistics show it surpassing one smaller rival, Opera.

Internet Explorer 9 accounted for 2.41 percent of browser usage in April, its first full month on the market, according to Net Applications. Opera accounted for 2.14 percent. And IE overall dropped from 55.9 percent in March to 55.1 percent in April.

Two browsers, Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari, outpaced the overall growth in Web usage. Chrome rose from 11.6 percent to 11.… Read more

A week after an Australian creative agency launched The World's Biggest Pac-Man, players have built nearly 12,000 levels for it. And eaten nearly 300 million dots.

Launched last week at Microsoft's Mix 11 event in Las Vegas, the game was built as a promotion for Namco-Bandai, the publisher of the all-time classic video game. And it is a brilliant departure for Pac-Man. This time around, anyone can create their own level and then connect in a global map of others' levels. It's all playable, and scores are ranked on a worldwide leader board.

The game was … Read more

Brian Cooley joins the show today to talk about the new privacy bill of rights--which apparently does nothing that browser Do Not Track buttons don't do, and exempts the federal government while doing it. "It" being "nothing." Also, T-Mobile tries to win new customers with new unlimited plans, Apple may get into the Netflix-killing game, and whether we should ban the "Twilight" books just to save ourselves from Facebook scams. --Molly

After a three-week IE9 immersion, I've concluded that Microsoft once again has a competitive Web browser.

And even though Internet Explorer remains the most-used browser on the Net today, convincing me that Internet Explorer 9 is a real browser was quite an accomplishment. Here's why.

IE6, now a decade old, is loathed by Web developers the world over for its lack of standards support, and it's the focus of a Microsoft effort that's trying to get the companies and people using the browser to modernize. After a five-year hiatus, IE7 emerged with some handy features, such … Read more

Despite arriving a week later, Firefox 4 is outpacing Internet Explorer 9 in real-world use so far, new statistics show.

Microsoft released IE9 on March 14, and Mozilla's Firefox 4 arrived on March 22--both brand-new even by the fast-moving standards of today's software market. By month's end, IE9 accounted for 1.0 percent of browsing activity worldwide, according to statistics from analytics firm Net Applications. Firefox 4, though, reached 1.7 percent, despite its later start.

Firefox 4 has a big advantage in usage statistics over IE9: Windows XP. Mozilla's browser works on the decade-old operating … Read more

Microsoft tries to poke the European antitrust bear and point them in the direction of Google--ok, guys. Just, you know, beware of karma. Also, Google cracks down on the Android chaos (and hopefully the crapware, too), the +1 button points to, yet again, the all-consuming importance of recommendations, and Samsung did not--I repeat, did NOT--install keylogger software on its laptops. Plus, introducing our new app, Smart Fart. (Sigh.) --Molly

After some real-world tests, Microsoft has concluded IE9 is the most energy-efficient of the major browsers on the market.

Microsoft compared its new browser with Opera 11, Firefox 4, Chrome 10, and Safari 5 on an Intel laptop, measuring how many watts the machine consumed with the browser idling, showing a news site, and running graphics-intensive Web tests.

The upshot: IE9 is the most efficient in the test, meaning it'll take the smallest toll on the battery.

"We hope and encourage the industry and other browser vendors to follow us on the path to a more power efficient … Read more