Software & Apps News - Page 161

The latest and most important Software & Apps news - Page 161.

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Skype releases official 5.5 Update with Facebook integration

Steve Dougherty | Jul 28, 2011 11:32 AM CDT

Based on user feedback from its June beta release, Skype has now rolled out the final 5.5 build of its software which is available for download immediately.

Skype 5.5 adds deeper Facebook integration in that you can view which of your FB friends are online from it directly as well as being able to instant message them from the new 'Facebook Contacts' tab. The ability to view and update your Facebook status is also possible as well as being able to view and 'like' posts from your wall directly from Skype Home.

Focusing more on Skype specific functions, there has been a number of updates made to improve general Skype calling with better controls for video and group video calling in Windows as well as more solid video calling reliability and some design changes to help make things a little easier in all.

Continue reading: Skype releases official 5.5 Update with Facebook integration (full post)

NVIDIA 280.19 Beta Driver brings a ton of fixes

Steve Dougherty | Jul 28, 2011 9:54 AM CDT

A new beta driver for NVIDIA cards has been made available over at GeForce.com today in the R280.19s. It promises a ton of fixes along with new and updated 3D Vision profiles as well as a couple new features.

Furthermore, while it isn't mentioned in the release notes, these drivers are recommended for testing the BattleField 3 Alpha release as they are said to address a number of in-game glitches seen in previous driver releases while helping in the performance dept.

If you happen to be running an SLI rig in conjunction with a 3D Vision kit, these drivers are also recommended to enable 3DVisionLive.com and YouTube 3D video support. On that note, the 280.19s will also give you the ability to enable Window mode in the most recent version of the 3D Vision player.

Continue reading: NVIDIA 280.19 Beta Driver brings a ton of fixes (full post)

Apple's OS X Lion downloaded 1 million times on launch day

Anthony Garreffa | Jul 21, 2011 8:12 PM CDT

Apple's OS X Lion was downloaded 1 million times yesterday. Apple made the announcement just as Microsoft announced their earnings results for the fiscal fourth quarter, another swipe of the claw from Apple. If every one of those million downloads were paid, that means Apple grossed $30 million yesterday just from Lion, within 24 hours. Phil Schiller, Apple's SVP of Worldwide Product Marketing said in a statement:

Lion is off to a great start, user reviews and industry reaction have been fantastic. Lion is a huge step forward, it's not only packed with innovative features but it's incredibly easy for users to update their Macs to the best OS we've ever made.

Apple's full press release is below:

Continue reading: Apple's OS X Lion downloaded 1 million times on launch day (full post)

Firefox 8 for Windows x64 - finally.

Anthony Garreffa | Jul 20, 2011 9:30 PM CDT

Mozilla has been blowing air into the hot air balloon that is 64-bit browsers. Finally, there are people working on Firefox for Windows x64 and this means that from Firefox 8, there'll be two builds; 32-bit and 64-bit. The 64-bit version will obviously take advantage of operating in native 64-bit and use its memory space. The x64 build of Firefox 8 is roughly 10-percent faster than the 32-bit version, but its not just speed.

Encryption and filtering functions are superior on Firefox 8 x64, the handling of DOM Operations benchmark shows a 25-percent increase, this results in every dynamic website loading faster and feeling more responsive. The 64-bit build of Firefox 8 does however use more memory. In a benchmark by ExtremeTech, the 64-bit build had a memory footprint of 320MB with the 32-bit build using just 230MB.

The plug-in container was also double the size in the 64-bit build at 100MB versus 50MB when playing a YouTube video. But, in the days of memory being so cheap, this isn't really such a big problem. I'm sure people will make their minds up when the time comes and I'm definitely looking forward to taking the x64 build of Firefox 8 for a spin.

Continue reading: Firefox 8 for Windows x64 - finally. (full post)

Steam update includes download speed increases, also teases DoTA2

Anthony Garreffa | Jul 18, 2011 11:00 PM CDT

Steam is about to update (and probably has for some) and includes some very nice tweaks which results in downloads being sped up considerably. The new tricks involve caching at the ISP level, more firewall-friendly protocols (downloads will be coming through HTTP) and probably the best feature; a system that gives incremental patch downloads instead of having to re-download big parts of the game if they become corrupt, etc.

Let's say an individual file on your hard drive was to be modified by a game update, your client would require to download the entire file. The new system supports delivering only the differences between the old and new files, meaning game updates are considerably smaller and much, much quicker. The new content system will also allow Valve to build several new features that users have asked to be included.

These features will be things like download scheduling, bandwidth throttling and prioritizing which games get downloaded first. You'll also be able to download an update to a game, while you're playing that game. Steam will apply any updates downloaded once you exit the game.

Continue reading: Steam update includes download speed increases, also teases DoTA2 (full post)

Adobe release Flash 11 beta for Windows, Mac and Linux

Anthony Garreffa | Jul 14, 2011 8:47 PM CDT

Adobe has released a beta version of Flash 11 for Windows, Mac and Linux. Adobe have also announced the availability of the Adobe AIR 3 beta which is available for Windows and Mac, but has been killed on Linux in favour for Adobe to focus on mobile instead. Adobe says this is this first beta is a desktop release with mobile on it's way soon. 64-bit support is now included which is a pretty big step since the preview of it back in September of 2010.

Adobe have also listed a bunch of features and performance enhancements included in both the Flash Player 11 and AIR 3:

Captive Runtime for AIR - this popular feature from AIR for iOS will now be available on AIR for desktop. Simplify the app installation process, reduce testing and certification cost by encapsulating the AIR runtime in your Windows, Mac, andAndroid apps.

Continue reading: Adobe release Flash 11 beta for Windows, Mac and Linux (full post)

Microsoft lay plans to combine ecosystems of Windows and Windows Phone

Anthony Garreffa | Jul 13, 2011 10:08 PM CDT

Microsoft have outlined their vision for a single ecosystem of Windows, the vision will include phones and PCs and was outlined by Microsoft's president of the Windows Phone Division, Andy Lees who spoke at a keynote address during Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference on Tuesday in Los Angeles. Lees explains that there are key trends that are fundamentally changing the world of devices and form factors.

Lees, talking about Microsoft's first Windows 8 demo at CES said:

It starts right at the core of the devices themselves, the core technology. You can put all of the key things required to run a computer into a single chip." The system-on-a-chip transformation will assist in the form factors of PCs explained Lees.

Continue reading: Microsoft lay plans to combine ecosystems of Windows and Windows Phone (full post)

Mozilla outs another Firefox build - 7.0 Aurora

Steve Dougherty | Jul 8, 2011 6:43 AM CDT

Mozilla's Firefox development team appear to be working faster than ever lately with a new alpha (Aurora) build 7 now available, less than a month after Firefox 5 Final was released to the masses. They sure are chewing through version numbers of late.

The new 7.0 Aurora (alpha, 7.0a2) build brings what looks to be a decent amount of new features and improvements. with reported optimizations including a faster startup time, faster rendering performance and less memory usage. The new build also has an improved sync manager for syncing up your bookmarks and passwords effortlessly and instantly with your other devices.

Other benefits include better font rendering When GPu acceleration is enabled and some new web and server tools that allow developers to build performance tests directly into the browser.

Continue reading: Mozilla outs another Firefox build - 7.0 Aurora (full post)

Skype 5.2 released for Mac, includes group screen sharing and video calls

Anthony Garreffa | Jul 6, 2011 11:00 AM CDT

Just after the magical release of Skype 5.5 for Windows which included deep Facebook integration (why do I feel dirty saying that?), they've just launched their new solution for Apple. Skype 5.2 for Mac is now available and seems to be much better equipped than the 5.1 version that was released back in November of 2010. The new video is not only capable of group video calls (which was available in the November beta) but also share their screens during that call.

Screen sharing is already available for free on a one-to-one Skype call, but the new ability to share documents, photos, presentations and whatever else you choose with multiple people in a single session really makes the product shine. The downfall? To take advantage of the group video calling and screen sharing function, one or more call participants must have a Skype Premium subscription.

These subscriptions cost between $4.49 and $8.99 per month, with a day pass available for $4.99 if you only use it every now and again. The call control bar now includes video when you multi-task during a video call, this allows you to still see the person you're Skyping as well as being able to hang up or mute the conversation when you're engaged in a different program. Skype have also made it easier to find your most active conversations under "Recents" which is found in the sidebar and they've also added a "History" section where users can see those who are not as active.

Continue reading: Skype 5.2 released for Mac, includes group screen sharing and video calls (full post)