Software

With an impressive collection of flexible tools, Adobe Photoshop Elements is one of the most powerful consumer-level photo editors around. Batch processing, image layering, cloning, and Web optimization are just a few of the software's time-saving tools.

It's taken a while for Elements to crawl out from the shadow of its celebrity sibling, Photoshop, but these days you'd be hard-pressed to find similarities between the two. There's the occasional familiar dialog box and a handful of traditional Photoshop interface quirks that may elude newbies, but if Photoshop CS is the "pro" version, Elements is … Read more

Providing one-stop shopping for all your video needs, open-source Miro deserves much of the praise that's been heaped upon it.

The concept is brilliant, yet simple: create a video player that can subscribe to and download video podcasts while comprehensively managing your saved videos. On the face of it, this might sound like iTunes, but the sharing component is an essential aspect of the program. Miro has always been geared toward video and it shows in the program's design. When you launch the app, a left sidebar hosts a folder tree for managing your videos. The central pane … Read more

Read CNET senior editor Rob Vamosi's extended review of Firefox 2, or watch a video tour of the new features.

Even though Internet Explorer dominates the Web browser market, you might wonder why if you spend some time with Mozilla Firefox. This light and nimble Web wonder brought tabbed browsing into the mainstream (IE7 recently jumped on the bandwagon) and offers countless ways to customize it through extensions and themes. Drag-and-drop tabs with individual close buttons help keep your content organized the way you like, and you can further streamline your browsing through the use of extensive hot keys. … Read more

Read CNET senior editor Rob Vamosi's extended review of Firefox 2, or watch a video tour of the new features.

Though it's difficult to unseat Safari as the preferred browser of Mac users, Mozilla Firefox garners attention through its solid design and extra features, making it a worthy alternative. Even though Internet Explorer dominates the Web browser market, you might wonder why if you spend some time with Mozilla Firefox. This light and nimble Web wonder brought tabbed browsing into the mainstream (IE7 recently jumped on the bandwagon) and offers countless ways to customize it through extensions and … Read more

Programs that grab videos from Web sites such as YouTube aren't a dime a dozen--they're a dime for 200 dozen. Most of them aren't that good, either, which makes Ashampoo's freeware ClipFinder such a breath of fresh air in the video-grabbing game.

ClipFinder sports an atypical interface that's simple to navigate. The main window holds a series of long filmstrips. Each of the 14 strips represents a video site, which are searchable either individually or globally. Unfortunately, you can't add new portals, but the ones available include all the major video sites: YouTube, Yahoo, … Read more

Providing one-stop shopping for all your video needs, open-source Miro deserves much of the praise that's been heaped upon it.

The concept is brilliant, yet simple: create a video player that can subscribe to and download video podcasts while comprehensively managing your saved videos. On the face of it, this might sound like iTunes, but the sharing component is an essential aspect of the program. Miro has always been geared toward video and it shows in the program's design. When you launch the app, a left sidebar hosts a folder tree for managing your videos. The central pane … Read more

This impressive software provides the same steadfast protection of well-known antivirus programs, yet it's surprisingly free.

Avast Home Edition guards your PC and the network with multiple shields that scan executables and files. You can select parameters for scanning, and even choose wildcards to exclude specific file types. You can adjust the sensitivity level for the program's detectors when it comes to scanning downloaded files, instant messages, e-mails, and a host of P2Ps. Its efficient interface opens up window after window to tweak its settings to your liking, for novice to advanced level protection.

Though it took quite … Read more

Programs that grab videos from Web sites such as YouTube aren't a dime a dozen--they're a dime for 200 dozen. Most of them aren't that good, either, which makes Ashampoo's freeware ClipFinder such a breath of fresh air in the video-grabbing game.

ClipFinder sports an atypical interface that's simple to navigate. The main window holds a series of long filmstrips. Each of the 14 strips represents a video site, which are searchable either individually or globally. Unfortunately, you can't add new portals, but the ones available include all the major video sites: YouTube, Yahoo, … Read more

Providing one-stop shopping for all your video needs, open-source Miro deserves much of the praise that's been heaped upon it.

The concept is brilliant, yet simple: create a video player that can subscribe to and download video podcasts while comprehensively managing your saved videos. On the face of it, this might sound like iTunes, but the sharing component is an essential aspect of the program. Miro has always been geared toward video and it shows in the program's design. When you launch the app, a left sidebar hosts a folder tree for managing your videos. The central pane … Read more