5.1

We'll get straight to the point: QTranslate is one of the best translation tools we've encountered. It's versatile, powerful, and easy to use. It's an excellent choice for people who read or writes in a language other than their mother tongue.

QTranslate is deceptively simple to use. The interface is separated into two panes. To translate a chunk of text, paste it into the top pane (QTranslate will automatically detect its language), select the desired translation language, and the translated text will appear in the bottom pane. Although we liked this aspect of QTranslate, the application … Read more

Absinthe 2.0 has been released, bringing with it an untethered jailbreak for iOS devices running iOS 5.1.1. The jailbreak is compatible with almost every iOS device, with the lone exception being the revised $399 iPad 2 with 32nm A5 chip. A solution for the "new" iPad 2 will be released at a later date.

Before you begin, it's my job to remind you that jailbreaking your device is something you do at your own risk. Things are bound to go wrong when you're messing with settings Apple never intended for users to mess … Read more

After Apple's iOS 5.1.1 update was released last week, several users began reporting that their iOS devices had taken a significant battery life hit.

While the issues are not common to most users, it appears as though some iPhone and iPad owners found that the battery life they had come to expect was not apparent after updating to iOS 5.1.1 using Apple's over-the-air updating.

If you find your device is not getting the battery life it once was, a few troubleshooting tips provided by Apple Support Communities user sbaily4 could be of help.

First, … Read more

At the end of May, Onkyo will start selling Dolby TrueHD 5.1-channel music downloads, first in Japan, and by the fall of this year worldwide. That's either a brave or foolhardy move.

Multichannel music formats -- starting with quadraphonic LPs and tapes in the early 1970s, DTS encoded surround CDs in the 1990s, and DVD Audio and SACD in the early 2000s -- have all suffered from a lack of consumer demand. Very, very few surround releases were initially recorded in surround; most rock and jazz titles are remixed from older stereo recordings. The Blu-ray format has now … Read more

You might be surprised at how many processes run in Windows, though maybe not if you find your system slowing down and even freezing during a processor-intensive task, even when you thought you'd closed everything. Certainly, with Bitsum's Process Lasso you have less of an excuse, since it displays practically everything that can be displayed about your system's running processes. More than that, Process Lasso lets you set priorities for individual processes, balancing the load on your CPU and system resources according to need. For example, the gaming mode prioritizes speed and display processes and can even … Read more

If your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch is running iOS 5 or higher, you can now receive software updates over the air. What this means, to you, is that you'll no longer have to tether to a computer to download and install the update. Instead, you'll be alerted on your device of an available update. You can then can download and install it while on the go. Here's how it works.

To check for an available update, to go Settings > General > Software Update.

If an update is available, you'll see a screen similar to … Read more

Apple has launched an update to its iOS platform.

The company's iOS 5.1.1 update comes with bug fixes for AirPlay video playback and the "Unable to purchase" error message popping up after users buy something from their device. In addition, Apple fixed a bug that prevented the new iPad from switching between 2G and 3G networks.

Apple's iOS 5.1.1 update comes just a couple of months after the company revealed iOS 5.1. That update delivered a host of new bug fixes, a few interface tweaks, and even a hint that the next iPhone could come with 4G LTE support. … Read more

Collectors of all sorts have started turning to software to catalog and organize their collections. Coin Collector is a program that's designed to help you handle your numismatic pursuits. It's a fairly basic program, but it's not a bad choice if you're looking for a way to record and organize the details of your collection.

Coin Collector certainly won't be winning any design awards with its dated-looking interface, but it's pretty easy to figure out. Coins are organized in tabs labeled 1 Center, 10 Center, 25 Center, 5 Center, and 50 Center. Why these … Read more

Amazon has updated the firmware for the Kindle Touch to version 5.1 and it actually has a few significant feature enhancements, including one that a lot of folks have been clamoring for: a landscape reading mode.

When Amazon first released the Kindle Touch, some people were upset you couldn't turn the device horizontally and read with more words on a line (for people who read with larger font sizes, landscape reading makes a lot of sense). Landscape mode was available in the $79 non-touch Kindle but not the touch-screen step-up model, which starts at $99. … Read more