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Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

Apple sends out invites, apparently for the launch of the second-generation iPad

A new lineup of MacBook Pros is announced

Microsoft says the software update for Windows Phone 7 does not brick phones 90 percent of the time

The Open Library announces its free e-book lending program

Netflix announces a two-year deal to stream shows from our parent company, CBS

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is immortalized in a new comic book

Enter OverDrive Media Console is an app that cuts out the middleman (i.e., your PC) when it comes to getting free epubs on your mobile device. With OverDrive, you can download library e-books (and audiobooks) directly to your iOS device.

That's the good news. The bad news is that getting the app set up is a major pain, and as e-book readers go, it's mediocre at best. Plus, the selection isn't what we'd call extensive, at least from our test library.

To download books, you must first "Add a Website" (meaning choose your … Read more

Back in November I told you about Bluefire Reader, an iOS app with support for the ePub e-book format used by many public libraries.

In other words, you can use it to check out books free of charge--but you had to do a lot of desktop hoop-jumping to make it happen.

Enter OverDrive Media Console, an app that cuts out the middleman (i.e., your PC). With OverDrive, you can download library e-books (and audiobooks!) directly to your iOS device. I just grabbed "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," and I have "The Help" … Read more

For people who love to read but don't have a lot of extra cash to spend on books, nothing beats the public library. (Thanks Ben Franklin!) Even better, in recent years, many libraries have started offering e-books that you can check out for a few weeks, just like the real thing. Unfortunately, despite the plethora of e-book readers in the App Store, you couldn't read these DRM-protected library titles on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad.

Until now, that is. Bluefire Reader supports not only ePub and PDF formats, but also the Adobe DRM used by most libraries. During … Read more

What's SEP? If you Google the SEP file extension, you might think it's an enhancer for The Sims, the popular game. Or maybe it's a TIFF, or maybe a printer separation page. For our purposes, SEP stands for Sursen e-Paper. It's a proprietary digital document technology that competes with Adobe's PDF format, especially in China, where it holds a substantial market share, according to the developer. So, sooner or later, a lot of people will probably need to open and read SEP files. That's where Sursen's SEP Reader comes in. It's a … Read more

Google helped make Adobe Systems' PDF files a first-class citizen on the Web years ago by indexing their content with its search engine. Now it's gone another step by building the ability to read them into its latest browser, Chrome 8, released yesterday for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

That means when people click a PDF link, the document will open directly in the browser. Chrome's built-in PDF reader is also walled up within a sandbox, lowering the risk that security issues will escape a confined region of memory to facilitate a broader attack on a computer.

The PDF … Read more

UPDATE January 7, 2010: This bundle has SOLD OUT and is no longer available. Check out our Software Deals page. for other great offers!

Got a new PC?

If you are one of the millions of shoppers in the market for a new computer this holiday season, you won't want to miss CNET download.com's "New Year, New PC" bundle. We've teamed up with AVG, IObit, Smith Micro and Foxit to offer you this exclusive deal for a limited time only - a $170 worth of software essentials for just $30. That's a total … Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed from our readers. This week we have questions on Web browsers not loading Web pages, trackpads and mice getting stuck in a "clicked" mode, and Safari not being able to load PDF files. We continually answer e-mail questions, and while we present a few here, we certainly welcome alternative approaches and views from readers and encourage you to post your suggestions in the comments.

Question: Browser not loading Web pages or connecting to Wi-Fi hot spots

MacFixIt reader "Philippe" asks:

Until last week, [my daughter] … Read more

For people who love to read but don't have a lot of extra cash to spend on books, nothing beats the public library. Love ya, Ben Franklin!

In recent years, many libraries have started offering e-books that you can check out for a few weeks, just like the real thing. Unfortunately, despite the plethora of e-book readers in the App Store, you couldn't read these DRM-protected library titles on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad.

Now you can. Bluefire Reader now supports not only ePub and PDF formats, but also the Adobe DRM used by most libraries. I just … Read more