Filed under: Beta

Filed under: Security, Windows, Freeware, Beta

Get Panda Cloud Antivirus installed in Windows 7

by Lee Mathews Jul 2nd 2009

Panda's recently-introduced Cloud Antivirus generated a lot of buzz when it hit blogs like ours. It's certainly a good, free program for protecting your system from various nasties. It's just too bad that the installer craps out if you try and launch it on a Windows 7 system.

Well, there's a way around this, and it's not too complicated.

First, download Cloud AV and extract the contents of the .exe file. Any decent archiver should be able to do that for you. Since I use 7-zip (a free download), I just right click on CloudAntivirus.exe and choose 7-zip -> extract to -> "CloudAntivirus\".

Next, you need to utilize compatibility mode. Navigate into the newly-created CloudAntivirus folder and right-click on Setup.exe. Choose properties, and then click on the Compatibility tab. Check the box marked "Run this program..." and set the drop-down menu to Vista (I used SP2, but the other options worked, too). Click ok.

Now you're ready to run the installer. Click through the prompts until it completes, and voila! Panda Cloud Antivirus on Windows 7. Scanning worked flawlessly on my test system, and the realtime protection appears to be just fine as well.

While it works, Cloud AV obviously isn't fully Windows 7 friendly. If you're unsure, stick with another antivirus option until support is added!

Tags: compatibility-mode, panda-cloud-antivirus, windows-7, workaround

Filed under: E-mail, Productivity, Beta

Mozilla-based email client Postbox finally gets add-ons

by Jay Hathaway Jul 1st 2009

Postbox is a powerful email client based on Mozilla's Thunderbird, and, like Thunderbird, it now supports extensions. The selection of add-ons is limited right now, but it includes some useful ones: ReminderFox handles reminders and to-do items. Minimize to Tray is just what it sounds like, allowing Windows users to put Postbox in the system tray. Nostalgy adds keyboard shortcuts, and MozBackup backs up your messages and settings. This is a good start, but it'll interesting to see what other useful extensions pop up now that the door is open.

The latest build of Postbox also adds a long list of other useful features. If you're switching from Mail.app, you can now easily migrate your settings to Postbox. Postbox will now also pull photos for your contacts from OS X's address book or from Twitter. Several performance upgrades and fixes of annoying issues from earlier versions are also in place now, so it looks like a good time to consider giving Postbox a try.

Tags: add-ons, email, extensions, mail, mozilla, postbox

Filed under: Mozilla, Beta, Browsers

Mozilla Weave 0.4: Synchronize Firefox settings across computers

by Brad Linder Jun 29th 2009

Mozilla has released an updated version of Weave, a Firefox plugin that lets you synchronize your profile, settings, and passwords across multiple computers. In other words, every time you change your bookmarks, web site login information, or other data on your work computer, the changes will be reflected on your home machine as long as you have Weave installed on both systems.

Weave 0.4 adds support for preference syncing, automatic logins, and support for Fennec 1.0 beta 2 for Maemo Linux. That last one means you the mobile version of Firefox for Nokia Internet Tablets can be configured to have all of your desktop bookmarks, passwords, and other settings with just a few clicks. Eventually Weave should also work with Fennec for Windows Mobile and other mobile platforms, which could save you an awful lot of time when setting up a mobile browser.

Tags: firefox, mozilla-weave, weave, weave-0.4

Filed under: OS Updates, Windows, Microsoft, Commercial, Beta, Windows x64

Microsoft to OEMs: cut off free Vista to Windows 7 upgrades at 25

by Lee Mathews Jun 29th 2009

When pricing information for Windows 7 upgrades first appeared, it sounded like more good news for consumers. The leaked Best Buy memo offered a price of $49.99, and Windows 7 fanatics everywhere cheered. That, coupled with the free upgrade coupons OEMs were offering to consumers sure made it look like Microsoft was going to be extremely aggressive with pricing.

Fast forward, and now we know that the rock-bottom price is for pre-orders only and retail copies will set you back $119.99 for Home Premium and $199.99 for Professional. That's only $10 less than Vista upgrades ran initially, and hardly what I'd call aggressive.

Further disappointing news is that Microsoft has now instructed OEMs to cap free upgrades on volume purchase at 25 units. While that's plenty of room for smaller businesses, it's a sharp two-finger salute to medium and large business.

Four small businesses can get 100 free upgrades, but your large enterprise has to pay for the extra 75?

Ouch.

That's not really the kind of announcement that will make IT administrators jump at the chance to get new metal running Windows 7.

[via Daily Tech]

Tags: enterprise, upgrade-coupon, vista-to-7, windows-7

Filed under: Mozilla, Open Source, Beta, Browsers

Dear Mozilla: Can haz non-RC Firefox 3.5? Thanx!

by Lee Mathews Jun 26th 2009

Mozilla, we love you and all, but could you do us a favor? Could you please, please drop the RC from Firefox 3.5 already? Because, honestly, I think if I read another battery of "Firefox RC# Released" reports, I'm probably going to puke on my shoes.

On the plus side for Mozilla, all these releases are great publicity. Three candidates times the number of blogs reporting on Firefox equals...what? 16 billion blogs posts? Exaggerated, I know, but it seems like I can't open Google Reader without someone poking me in the eye with another update notice.

I know there are probably still some last-minute things that need touching up, and I want a Firefox 3.5 that's as close to perfect as possible too...but is this the only way to get it?

Little annoyances can always be patched after the release, right? Like they were with Firefox 3.0, remember?

On second thought, maybe that's exactly what they're trying to avoid this time. Well, carry on then!

Tags: firefox-3.5

Filed under: Security, Windows, Microsoft, Freeware, Beta, Windows x64

Microsoft Security Essentials tested, passes with flying colors

by Lee Mathews Jun 26th 2009

Regular Download Squad readers already know that I've been testing Microsoft's new Security Essentials since it first appeared in the wild last week and that I've been quite impressed with it so far. Some commenters weren't impressed, however, waving the NOD32 flag even though SE removed threats from my machine that NOD had missed.

AV-Test Labs has now put SE through a slightly more grueling test than scanning my piddly PC. They threw 3,200 different bots, trojans, and viruses along with a slew of items designed to trigger false positives and Security Essentials was up for the task.

In an email to Computerworld, Andreas Marx of AV-Test reported "All files were properly detected and treated by the product," said Marx in an e-mail. "That's good, as several other [antivirus] scanners are still not able to detect and kill all of these critters yet. None of the clean files were noted as malicious." The program was also able to tackle rootkits, though AV-Test will put it through more comprehensive testing before making a verdict on that particular ability.

Marx also addressed the concerns that SE was using Microsoft's own servers for cloud-based scanning. "The scanner works with the locally-installed anti-virus and anti-spyware databases -- it doesn't appear to use 'in-the-cloud scanning' methods," he stated.

If you missed out on the original download from Microsoft, don't fret. The nice folks at Softpedia have mirrored the SE files for you.

Tags: antivirus, malware, microsoft-security-essentials, morro, rootkit, virus

Filed under: Audio, Google, VoIP, Beta

Google Voice still in private beta, but invites on their way

by Brad Linder Jun 25th 2009

Google is beginning to send out invites to people who signed up to try Google Voice. The service is still in private beta, but this is the first time new users will be able to gain access to the service since Google purchased the technology from GrandCentral. Up until now, only former GrandCentral users have been able to use Google Voice.

Google Voice allows users to route all of their phone calls through a central phone number. For instance, if you have a home phone, cellphone, and work number, you can link them all to Google Voice and just give out a single number to your contacts. When they call your Google Voice number, all of your phones will ring. You can also use the service to check your voicemail online, transcribe voicemails and forward them to your email account, screen calls, or perform a whole slew of other nifty features.

As part of the wider launch, Google will begin sending out invites to users who signed up to request them. New users will be able to choose a new phone number, hopefully in a local area code. Google also has a new tool that will let you try to snag a phone number that matches a word or phrase (see the image above for an example).

If you haven't already requested an invite yet, Google is still accepting requests.

Tags: google-voice, grandcentral

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Mozilla, Beta, Browsers

Firefox 3.5 RC3 released (security update)

by Brad Linder Jun 25th 2009

Mozilla pushed out a third release candidate for Firefox 3.5 last night. If you're running an earlier release candidate or Firefox 3.5 beta, you may have woken up this morning to a message alerting you that there's a new security and stability update.

The tricky thing is Mozilla has a habit of leaving the "RC" out of the labels for its release candidates. This can prompt a lot of folks to think that they've just downloaded the final build of Firefox 3.5. The reason Mozilla does this is because if there are no major problems with the release candidate, effectively it will be Firefox 3.5. And it'd be silly to expect you to download and install an identical version of the browser just to get rid of the "RC" in its name.

That said, Firefox 3.5 RC3 is now available for download from the Firefox beta page. Existing users can upgrade by clicking the "check for updates" option in the Help menu of their browsers.

Tags: firefox-3.5, firefox-3.5-rc3, release-candidate

Filed under: Audio, Internet, Video, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Beta

Boxee media center now available for Windows, adds live MLB games

by Brad Linder Jun 24th 2009

After months of private Alpha testing, the Boxee team has finally released a public alpha of the Boxee media center application for Windows. That means you can now run Boxee on Mac, Windows or Ubuntu Linux. The public alpha for Windows does seem to be a bit more stable and responsive than the earlier private alpha version.

Boxee provides you with a full screen browser designed for managing and accessing internet media as well as audio and video stored on your hard drive. Over the past few weeks, Boxee has gained a ton of features through a new "App Store" which allows third party developers to create plugins for the media center.

In addition to launching a public Windows Alpha, Boxee also announced last night a new partnership with MLB.com to offer live and recorded Major League Baseball games through Boxee. Boxee has also added support for Digg, Current.tv and Tumblr.

Tags: boxee, boxee-alpha-for-windows, media-center

Filed under: OS Updates, Windows, Microsoft, Beta

Windows 7 RC downloads only available through August 15th

by Brad Linder Jun 23rd 2009

If you've been using an early build of Windows 7 beta and haven't upgraded to the Release Candidate yet, you'll probably want to do that by next week. Starting on July 1st, anyone still using Windows 7 Beta will have to put up with their computers rebooting every hour. The beta will expire altogether on August 1st.

Meanwhile, the download program for Windows 7 RC closes on August 15th. You don't necessarily need to install the release candidate by that point, but you will need to download it by then.

It's not surprising that Microsoft is flipping the off switch soon. The company is on track to launch the retail version of Windows on October 22nd, and it's gong to be a lot easier to convince people to buy the software if they can't get it for free.

Tags: windows-7, windows-7-beta, windows-7-rc

Filed under: Security, Windows, Microsoft, Freeware, Beta, Windows x64

Microsoft Security Essentials public beta now available to download

by Lee Mathews Jun 23rd 2009

It leaked last week, but it didn't take long for Microsoft to follow up with a legitimate download for interested testers: the download page for Microsoft Security Essentials (formerly Moro) is now live.

You'll need to sign in with your Connect account or register for a new one to gain access to the download - for now. There will no doubt be hundreds of happy seeders sharing the Beta on torrent trackers later today.

Microsoft had originally slated only 75,000 spots for beta testers, though they have since announced that the number will be increased to accomodate demand. Interest will likely be high considering the generally positive reviews SE has generated since we first got our hands on it.

We've got a big gallery of screenshots of SE in action, including it detecting the trojan that I *ahem* intentionally left on my machine so I could test the program fully. I've been very happy so far with SE's level of protection and low impact on system performance.

Tags: antivirus, free, microsoft-security-essentials, morro

Filed under: Google, Freeware, Open Source, Beta, Browsers

Chromium nightly debuts a new 'New Tab' concept for Google Chrome (video)

by Lee Mathews Jun 23rd 2009

While it's not active in Chrome yet, Google is playing with a new concept for the browser's new tab page in the latest builds of Chromium.

The number of thumbnails on the page has been reduced to eight and two optional elements have been added. They are the recent activities list, which displays your last three visited pages and downloaded files and suggestions. While it currently reads "What Will We Put Here?" it's safe to assume that this would include recommendations Google makes based on your browsing history.

What's missing? The column that contained recent bookmarks, history search, and recently closed tabs/windows.

Rearranging your thumbnails has also been simplified. You no longer have to enter editing mode, just drag, pin, and remove items to your heart's content. Accidentally delete something? You'll be prompted to undo removals just in case. You can also switch from thumbnail to a two-column list / favicon view.

To try the new page out, you'll need to download the buildbot's latest version of Chromium. Once you've got it installed, add --new-new-tab-page to the target in your shortcut properties. The same switch in the Chrome dev channel build yields a different (and much less pleasant) result: two rows of four thumbnails and a lengthy history list below.

Video after the break!

[via Google OS]

Tags: google-chrome, new-tab-page

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Mozilla, Beta, Browsers

Firefox 3.5 RC 2 released

by Brad Linder Jun 20th 2009

Just a few days after pushing out the first release candidate for Firefox 3.5 to beta testers, Mozilla has made Firefox 3.5 RC2 available to the general public. While the only way to test out the first release candidate was to install Firefox 3.5 beta 4 and upgrade from within the browser, anyone can download and install the latest release candidate... or you can just wait until the full version of Firefox 3.5 is released, which should happen any day now.

Firefox 3.5 offers a ton of bug fixes and new features including:

Private browsing mode that doesn't save your history or cached data when your browser session is over
Tab tearing feature that lets you drag a tabs between browser windows or drag a tab into a new window
Watch a video in your browser without any plugins or external programs

Sure, some of these features have been available in other browsers like Google Chrome since day one. But it's nice to see them coming to Firefox. Firefox 3.5 RC2 is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Tags: firefox, firefox-3.5, firefox-3.5-rc2

Filed under: Mozilla, Open Source, Beta, Browsers

New Jetpack add-on puts any web page in the slidebar

by Lee Mathews Jun 18th 2009

The Mozilla Jetpack "In the Wild" page seems to get a little bigger every day. Mozilla is rightfully proud of the fledgling project, and for good reason. Jetpack brings no-restart add-on installation to Firefox and it opens development to a huge base of coders since they need only know HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

Any Webpage Slidebar is a good example of what Jetpack can do in a very limited amount of code. In 10 lines, the developer has created a way for you to embed, well, any page you want into the Slidebar.

Paste the URL into the Any Webpage generator and set your desired width in pixels, and submit. The install button will appear on the next page. Click install, and you can pop out your page at any time by clicking the blue Jetpack arrow.

To test, I used Dabr - a web-based Twitter client optimized for mobile browsing - which is well-suited to being crammed into a 300-pixel wide column.

It's not quite as slick as Opera's dead-simple click and drag to panels, but it's a simple, effective way to make better use of your widescreen real estate in Firefox.

Tags: firefox-addon, jetpack, slidebar

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Freeware, Beta

VirtualBox 3.0 beta 1 released (cross-platform virtualization app)

by Brad Linder Jun 17th 2009

VirtualBox is a free virtualization application for Windows, OS X, or Linux. Like VirtualPC, or VMWare, VirtualBox lets you run an operating system within an operating system. Say, for example, you want to test out Ubuntu Linux without installing it or even logging out of Windows. Just download the Ubuntu installation disc image, fire up VirtualBox, and load the disc image.

Today VirtualBox 3.0 beta 1 was released. The update brings:

Support for up to 32 virtual CPUs
Direct3D 8/9 applications on Windows guests
Support for OpenGL 2.0 for Windows, Linux, and Solaris guests

There are also a number of bug fixes including better virtual mouse drivers, improved suspend/resume functionality on Solaris hosts, and GUI enhancements. You can read a more detailed list in the release notes.

VirtualBox 3.0 beta is pre-release software, and it could contain some bugs. I wouldn't recommend using it if you're afraid of mucking up your system, but the beta does provide a sneak peek at where this program is heading. The beta is available for download for a number of platforms including Windows, OS X, Solaris, and a whole slew of Linux distributions.

Tags: virtualbox, virtualbox-3.0-beta-1, virtualization

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

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