presents

Later this month I'll be canceling my subscription to a leading security suite that runs on two of my home-office PCs. I'll replace it with Microsoft's free Security Essentials, which I've been using on my notebook since I bought it two years ago. I realized several months ago that I simply no longer needed to spend money for the convenience of an all-in-one security app.

That got me thinking: Is there any software that the average PC user needs to pay for? Most of us bought our current operating system--usually Windows or Mac OS X--as … Read more

Office 365, announced today, gives professionals and small businesses a subscription service that lets them work from anywhere using familiar-feeling Web-enabled applications. Combined with hosted versions of Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync, Office 365 is designed to enable users to share, collaborate, and communicate in the cloud. In our testing during the beta, we found that the tools worked well across the board (with some hiccups), and expect that many people who use Office on desktop Macs and PCs will appreciate the familiar look and feel, which should help them get up and running quickly.

Obviously, Office 365 is going to … Read more

One of the coolest features of RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is how well the device works as a multimedia presentation tool. With its integrated HDMI output and suite of Documents To Go apps, you can deliver high-resolution presentations with ease.

RIM also added a few tweaks to give the PlayBook an advantage over the iPad, such as the capability of selectively locking presentation content to the HDMI output while freeing up the tablet screen for private use and shuffling elements behind the scenes.

For those who want to learn more, I've put together this video and slideshow to … Read more

MetroPCS is violating the FCC's recently approved Net neutrality rules by blocking certain Internet content, say several public interest groups.

A letter (PDF) sent Monday to the Federal Communications Commission from Free Press, Center for Media Justice, Media Access Project, New America Foundation Open Technology Institute, and Presente.org accuse the wireless carrier of playing fast and loose with Net neutrality by apparently blocking services such as Skype and Netflix under certain lower-cost data plans.

MetroPCS is offering a new 4G plan that promises unlimited talk, text, Web browsing, and YouTube access for $40 a month. But another category … Read more

This week's post is a special edition of the iPhone apps of the week. Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year, and though I can't help you beat the lines or navigate through the crowds, I've rounded up a couple of apps that might make your holiday shopping a bit easier. These apps are made for price-checking on the go, so you can make sure you're getting the lowest price for the item in front of you.

Amazon Mobile needs little in the way of introduction as the mobile companion to the popular shopping site, with a huge database of products so you can compare prices on the go. But I would also like to introduce you to TheFind, a new iPhone app with a unique set of shopping tools that help you get the most bang for your buck by working in tandem with TheFind.com. With these apps in your arsenal and a little luck, you might get exactly what you're looking for at prices that won't break the bank.

This week's apps are both tools for holiday shopping. Get quick access to a huge database of products and prices along with some helpful shopping tools to make your shopping experience easier.… Read more

Anyone interested in producing professional-looking movies and demos from the computer screen needs some quality screencasting software, and TechSmith's Camtasia definitely fits the bill. This app strikes the perfect balance between powerful tools and ease of use.

Considering the relatively minor boost in version number, Camtasia offers quite a few feature updates. The program now includes the capability to record system audio, as well as automatically resize windows during recording. Plus, you get the option to "smartfocus" on key frames and add closed captions to your presentation. Additonally, the app offers speech-to-text with a voice training feature; … Read more

Arguably one of the best screen capture programs for Windows is now available on the Mac. TechSmith's Snagit has a long history with Windows fans as a highly flexible and feature-rich tool for quickly grabbing visual info on your screen. The software's main strength is that it offers a number of tools for adding graphics--like arrows, boxes, and thought and speech balloons--to call out specific areas on the screen. When you're finished with a capture, you can quickly add the project to a presentation, just about any document, or send the screen capture through e-mail. One of … Read more

Web-based presentation creation tool SlideRocket is rolling out a handful of new features today, all of which are aimed at business users. Together, they promise to make it easier to see how the people you're sending a presentation to are viewing it, as well as help those involved in its creation get and manage feedback both before and after it goes out.

That first bit of collaboration is a new commenting tool, which lets a presentation maker ask the viewer, or any colleagues, to leave a comment on any particular slide. Viewers can place these anywhere on a slide, … Read more

In spite of being viewed as the "other guys" in some Mac users' minds, Microsoft has generally put out an excellent productivity suite for the Mac with Microsoft Office. Though the latest package is still not on par with the Windows version (you get only the four main programs--a big difference when you consider the Windows version has 10), Microsoft made a big leap with this latest version for the Mac in several other ways. Not only has it nearly reached feature parity (and cross compatibility) with the Mac counterparts to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, but it has … Read more