The Download Dispatch

As we return from the long holiday weekend, presumably sunburned and slightly plumper, let's take a look at some of the biggest stories to hit the Download shores over the past week.

Office 365, Microsoft's answer to Google Docs, hit the market, and professionals and small businesses can use it to work from anywhere using familiar-feeling Web-enabled applications. Sure, we all like the idea of cloud-enabled collaboration, but are the subscription pricing tiers just a tad too high? You tell us.

In other news, Mozilla Thunderbird, Firefox's open-source e-mail sibling and Outlook alternative, jumped up to version 5, … Read more

Over the past week or so, CNET's own Seth Rosenblatt has been traveling the globe, relaying to us in-depth coverage of some of the most popular security software companies out there. At his first stop in Brno, Czech Republic, Seth took us into AVG's virus lab and showed us a bit about how these good guys fight the malware. Next, he hopped over to Prague where he visited AVG's rival, Avast and got the scoop on some big news. Needless to say, it takes a lot to keep the PCs of ordinary folks like us secure. We … Read more

Don't get too comfortable with Firefox 4, folks, because Mozilla recently upgraded its eventual successor, Firefox 5, from beta to "release candidate" status. Memory management, JavaScript rendering, canvas, and networking performance have all been enhanced, and background tabs will load faster.

Not to be outdone, Google also gave us a browser bump this past week, as it pushed Chrome 14 to Google's dev channel. It comes with improved secure HTTP support thanks to an updated V8 JavaScript engine, and tightened security when installing Web apps from the Chrome Web Store.

Meanwhile, it's been confirmed that … Read more

This week, we saw a major update in browsing as Google pushed Chrome 12 out to its stable browser channel. While Chrome 12 doesn't contain any surprises from its beta release a month ago, it does bring more hardware acceleration support and better browsing security. It also marks the end of public support for Google Gears, the offline Web app tool.

If you like your digital life in the browser, then the Chrome OS could be a clarion siren that's hard to resist. It's fast, it's geared for an Internet tether yet able to function on … Read more

The successor to Windows 7 debuted this past week at the D9 conference, and so far it appears to be Windows Phone 7's interface and tile-style app management bolted on top of Windows 7. Code-named "Windows 8" by Microsoft, the next-generation OS is also expected to be a touch-friendly environment that works seamlessly on tablets, desktops, and laptops.

This week, we also learned that Microsoft is now restricting the number of Windows Phone apps that it will approve from a single developer to 20 per day. Microsoft says the new restriction is aimed at cutting down on &… Read more

This week, we took a look at a couple of crowd-powered Windows-cleaning utilities. Newly updated Soluto combines in-house engineers and crowdsourcing to diagnose and prevent Windows crashes. It provides suggestions for crash solutions, as well as links to research the crash on the Web. SlimCleaner also draws on anonymously contributed data from its users to keep your computer running efficiently. However, this more powerful piece of software might be better suited for more-advanced users.

In other news, Foxit, the widely recognized No. 2 behind Adobe in the PDF software market, has revamped its lineup. Foxit PDF Reader jumped up to … Read more

This week we found out that Android users running version 2.3.3 or earlier are vulnerable to a security hole that could potentially allow attackers to access calendar and contact data over an unencrypted Wi-Fi network. Since around 99.7 percent of all users qualified as vulnerable, it was quite a scare. Fortunately, Google has since issued a fix that forces the affected Google apps to connect via the secure protocol HTTPS, and now everyone seems to be breathing a little easier.

In other news, Trillian 5 is out. It's got a newly designed interface and every Pro … Read more

You may have heard that this past week was Google's annual Google I/O developer event. Often a site for big, potentially game-changing announcements, the conference this year was no exception.

Day 1 gave us news on two major fronts. First, Google indeed launched its cloud music service in the form of both an Android app and a beta Web site. Second, the home-appliance-invading future of the Android platform, was revealed.

Day 2 brought us the first Chromebooks. These lean machines are based on Google's Chrome OS and provide an always-on and always-connected computing experience. Look for them … Read more

One of the bigger stories in download news this past week was the likely security breach of popular online password manager LastPass. The incident had many of us considering switching password managers, but LastPass CEO Joe Siegrist urged us to keep calm, and even suggested that users with strong passwords had no reason at all to worry.

In other news, barely a week after upgrading its stable version of Chrome to 11, Google bumped its beta users to version 12. The new build introduced better hardware acceleration, stronger privacy controls, and slightly safer file downloads, among other changes. Google also … Read more