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Collage Creator lets you combine several of your photos into a cool, artistic collage to share on any social network. The only thing holding Collage Creator back from being a five-star app is how long it takes to get started.

The app tries to get you to log in to Facebook, but you don't have to give up any password to get to any of the app's main features. If you do log in with Facebook, you can snag photos from your profile to add to your collages. Collage Creator makes you tap through several different tutorials before … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google is nearly done with its VP9 video technology, and it wants the world to use it.

At its Google I/O conference Wednesday, company employees made the case for the royalty-free, open-source technology as a higher-quality alternative to today's dominant video codec, H.264. Moving to VP9 -- available now in testing on Chrome and YouTube -- will save bandwidth costs.

"If you adopt VP9, as you can very quickly, you'll have tremendous advantages over anyone else out there using H.264 or VP8, (its predecessor)," said VP9 engineer Ronald Bultje in … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- Everybody knows that YouTube is growing, but Google revealed on Wednesday just how big it's gotten.

Matt Frost, senior business product manager for the Chrome Web Media Team, listed these statistics at the Google I/O show for developers:

• More than 1 billion monthly users;

• More than 4 billion video views per day;

• More than 6 billion hours of video watched per month;

• More than 72 hours of video uploaded each minute

• And 25 percent of consumption is with mobile devices.

In addition, Frost said that HD video is "becoming dominant."

That's obviously … Read more

For those who want a scanning program that adds features over those of native Mac applications, VueScan for Mac does just that--and it performed well in our tests.

VueScan for Mac comes with a free trial version that limits the scanners available for use. The full version costs $39.95 to unlock. The download completed as quickly as expected via a high-speed connection. A user guide was available as a link to the developer's Web site, which was a helpful feature. Support for updates also appeared to be available. The main menu had a dated design, but was functional. … Read more

Managing a large volume of files and folders is definitely a headache for most users. Feature-packed muCommander for Mac offers a great tool for anyone looking for an advanced file manager. This application performs well and offers a high level of customization.

The installation of muCommander for Mac literally takes seconds as all you need to do is drag the application into your Applications folder. The installation does require you to have the latest Java Runtime Environment, so if you don't have it you will be automatically taken to java.com to download it. Upon startup you can customize … Read more

For a long time, Apple did not allow third-party companies to publish Web browsers on the App Store. While Safari--the built-in browser for iOS devices--is a good browser, it lacks a lot of tools people want, like Flash support. One of the best tools to get it right is Fast Web Browser Free.

Fast Web Browser is exactly what it says, a quick and streamlined Web browser that provides a huge range of features you don't expect to see in any third-party app, let alone a Web browser. From automatic full-screen browsing to intuitive input of URLs, Web previews, … Read more

Google plans to finish defining its VP9 video codec on June 17, providing a date on which the company will be able to start using the next-generation compression technology in Chrome and on YouTube.

"Last week, we hosted over 100 guests at a summit meeting for VP9, the WebM Project's next-generation open video codec. We were particularly happy to welcome our friends from YouTube, who spoke about their plans to support VP9 once support lands in Chrome," Matt Frost, senior business product manager for the WebM Project, said in a blog post Friday.

WebM is Google's … Read more

Users who have trouble with font caches may need an easy way to display and clear them. FontNuke for Mac is an easy-to-use, yet effective program for those few users who must remove these records.

This free program downloaded and installed easily without any problems. A simple readme file accompanied the program, but it contained no user instructions. Support for updates was available, but the presence of other technical support was unknown. The main purpose of FontNuke for Mac is to display and remove font caches, which are temporary files a computer uses to track font use. Sometimes these become … Read more

Excentro for Mac allows for the creation of unique vintage designs, but its lack of modern security and limited usability make it difficult to recommend for most users.

Excentro for Mac comes as a free trial version that lacks the ability to save. The complete application requires a hefty payment of $500 to unlock. The program downloaded fairly quickly over a high-speed Internet connection. Instructions did not come with the program, but after searching the readme file, there was a link to a manual on the developer's Web site. It was also unclear if technical support was available. The … Read more