software - News, Features, and Slideshows

Features

• Why Android users are such a happy lot

  Smartphone users tend to hold strong opinions about the various mobile platforms out there, often displaying feverish loyalty to the one they use and outright disdain for all others.

• ClamAV promises free antivirus app for businesses

  Most of us don't like paying for antivirus (AV) software, but at least home users can rely on one of the free options, such as Microsoft Security Essentials, avast!, or AVG Free.

• Is Android less secure than iPhone? Um, no.

  One can only hope that security software provider Trend Micro saw a nice sales boost after the proclamation of its chairman earlier this week that Android phones are more vulnerable to hacking than iPhones are. If it didn't, those blatantly self-serving statements were made for nothing.

• Windows on verge of dropping below 90% market share

  Windows is on the verge of dropping below 90% market share, with smartphones and tablets posing an increasingly serious threat to Microsoft's dominance of the operating system market.

• In HTML5 war, Microsoft guy slams "President of the United States of Google"

  Microsoft and Google are fighting yet another public relations battle, this time over the HTML5 video standards to be used in the next generation of Web browsers.

• Wozniak: Voice recognition is computing's next frontier

  Look for more robust voice recognition to take hold in the realm of personal computing, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said in a brief interview this week that also touched on topics ranging from tablet computing, Oracle's acquisition strategy, and enterprise memory technology.

• Wikipedia celebrates a decade of edit wars, controversy and Internet dominance

  Wikipedia and its users are planning more than 300 celebration events across six continents for the 10th anniversary of the free, online encyclopedia that has become an Internet juggernaut by spreading access to information with a model that lets anyone edit its articles.

• ConTEXT text editor a boon for programmers

  ConTEXT is a powerful, free, and open-source text editor squarely aimed at programmers. Its feature set makes it especially useful for system administrators, toolsmiths, and Web mavens, all of whom often have to juggle many small files written in a variety of languages or markups.

• For an old or slow PC, try Puppy Linux 5.2

  There's no doubt Canonical's popular Ubuntu Linux distribution gets the majority of attention in the Linux world these days, but there are myriad others equally worthy of consideration.

• Patch Tuesday defined by the flaws that aren't fixed

  Microsoft is easing in to 2011 with a light Patch Tuesday for January. There are only two security bulletins this month, and only one of those two is rated as Critical by Microsoft.

• ARM CEO: PC market not our target

  Chip design firm ARM grabbed the spotlight at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week when Microsoft announced that its new Windows OS would work on the ARM architecture. ARM processors go into most of the world's smartphones and tablets, and with Windows support, the company can now focus on the wider market for PCs, where it has virtually no presence. Nvidia also announced that it was building its first ARM-based chip, code-named Denver, for PCs and servers.

• 10 new open source projects to watch

  One of the most exciting things about open-source software is the sheer diversity of projects that are always under way. Aiming to recognize some of the most promising of those projects, Black Duck Software on Friday announced its 2010 open-source "Rookies of the Year" list.

• Analysis: Why I'm not sold on mobile video chat

  Prior to CES, there were only a handful of phones with front-facing cameras: the iPhone 4, the EVO 4G and the T-Mobile myTouch 4G to name a few. This year's CES was all about 4G, for sure, but video chat is definitely one of the apps carriers love to use as an example of how great the next generation of data speeds is.

• Asus unveils three tablets and a slate

  At CES 2011 today, Asus announced three new Android tablets and a Windows 7 based slate PC. The tablets, all Android-based, go by the moniker "Eee Pad" while the Windows 7 device is called an "Eee Slate." Each one offers some unique features, from stylus input options to sliding keyboards or docking stations. Unfortunately, we don't yet have exact shipping dates or prices for the Android tablets, and the Eee Slate looks to be fairly pricey.

• Why Apple’s iPhone Will 'Drown in a Sea of Androids'

  Google's Android mobile platform may still follow Apple's iPhone in the smartphone race, according to fresh Nielsen data released Monday, but that advantage may not last long.