The guys over at Mozilla continue working on the development of Firefox, adding new features to this excellent web browser and improving the ones it already offers. The latest version that has come out from their labs is Firefox 3.6 Beta 1.

If you prefer using stable releases, you'd better stay away from this one because like with any other Beta version, you can experiment unexpected behavior, bugs and even browser crashes. But early adopters will be happy to take a sneak peek at the new features to be included in the future 3.6.

These innovations include seamless integration with Personas (for a wider, better selection of skins to customize the browser's interface), native support to watch videos in full screen – as long as they're implemented with the HTML5 'video' tag – and a special utility called Mozilla Firefox Plugin Check, which enables the browser to detect new versions for your extensions and makes sure you always have them up to date.

Last but not least, Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 includes the latest version of the Gecko engine and an improved Javascript performance. These two elements are meant to provide a faster user experience when browsing the web with Firefox – which has lately been its weakest point.

If you feel like taking a look at all the new features coming up in Firefox 3.6, give this first Beta version a go. Just bear in mind it's still in development!

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After introducing it officially back in July, Microsoft have now launched a first Beta version of the long-awaited Microsoft Office 2010.

I tested the Technical Preview released a few months ago, and happily I've found a bunch of new features and improvements in this beta. For starters, the Microsoft Office 2010 pack now includes more apps, namely Access, Excel, Infopath Designer, InfoPath Filler, OneNote, Outlook, Powerpoint, Publisher, SharePoint Workspace and Word.

As regards appearance, all the Microsoft Office 2010 apps have been slightly modified. They still keep the "ribbon" interface – in a much clearer, almost minimalist style – but the Office button has been renamed to "File" and now shows a different pane. Not only does it include direct access to all document-related tasks, but also shows detailed information about the document you're currently working on.

Leaving changes aside, the truth is that Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus Beta has pretty much the same features we already saw in the Technical Preview. The context menu in Word, for example, has been greatly improved and lets you see changes in real time as you browse through the different options. You can now add videos to your PowerPoint presentations, remove redundant messages from conversations in Outlook and insert small color charts inside cells in Excel spreadsheets. There are also tools to translate text, take and use screenshots, and apply special effects to the images you use in your documents. What's more, you can now save your documents on SkyDrive and share them online in just two clicks.

Regarding performance, Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus Beta seems to be as fast and light on system resources as the Technical Preview. There's a significant improvement in the time the suite apps take to launch, and how they behave when working on your documents.

In all, Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus Beta is an excellent productivity suite with great new features that make it easier and more comfortable to use, and also turn it into an even more professional solution for daily work tasks.

Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus Beta lets you fully test the new, long-awaited version of the world's most popular productivity suite.

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After testing the desktop version of Glary Utilities a while ago, I was pleased to see that the developers of this great PC toolkit have now released a portable edition.

With Glary Utilities Portable you can now take all the program's tools anywhere with you, and use them to optimize, repair, tweak and improve any computer without leaving any usage traces on the host computer. Glary Utilities Portable doesn't require installation and can be run directly from any USB device.

Now, don't let yourself be fooled by the "portable" tag of this program. Glary Utilities Portable is by no means a stripped-down version of the desktop program. It does include all the system utilities you need for all sorts of PC maintenance tasks, and they're all neatly organized into several categories so you can easily find what you're looking for: disk cleaner, startup manager, tracks eraser, duplicate file finder and many more.

All the tools included in Glary Utilities Portable are generally very easy to use, so don't be afraid of trying them out. Also, in the case where any of them make important changes to the system – such as the Registry Cleaner – the program creates a backup copy first. The only weird thing is that the appearance of these tools is completely different from the program's main interface, but that's no big deal.

Glary Utilities Portable is a light yet powerful maintenance toolkit that you can take anywhere to repair, clean, optimize and improve any computer.

Download Glary Utilities Portable 2.17.0.776 in Softonic

When analyzing a software application one must praise its virtues, but also look for possible flaws that developers can improve in future versions. However, in the case of Glary Utilities it's really difficult to find anything that we don't like.

This excellent toolkit includes a handful of system utilities that enable you to tweak, repair, optimize and improve your system's performance. Tools are conveniently categorized so that you can quickly find what you're looking for: disk cleaner, uninstall manager, memory optimizer, file shredder, duplicates finder, tracks eraser... just about any tool you need. They're all generally very intuitive and in case they make important changes to the system (like the Registry repairing tool) the program creates a backup copy first.

Not all the tools included in Glary Utilities include configuration settings, something we missed in some of them such as the Disk cleaner. Also, we would like to have a Firefox Assistant, the same way the program includes an Internet Explorer Assistant.

Download Glary Utilities 2.17.0.776 in Softonic

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Security is one of the main concerns among computer users. This is why it's important to have reliable applications that you can count on to protect our systems and data from potential dangers. Sometimes free security apps are regarded as being less safe but you might change your mind after testing AVG Anti-Virus.

AVG Anti-Virus is one of the handiest antivirus systems I've seen so far (and believe me, I've tested a few). Being a smaller application, AVG may not feature such a wide range of tools or utilities as the other antivirus programs do. However, it makes up for it by offering a neat, effective protection which stays silently minimized in your system tray and only activates when needed.

This is precisely one of the best things about AVG Anti-Virus. It works completely in the background, without the need of half the system resources and of course, without constantly bothering you with warning windows or update messages. You can just go on with your work and you won't even notice you have an antivirus application up and running. Being the free version of a complete program, AVG Anti-Virus shows the odd nagging notification encouraging you to buy AVG Professional which may annoy the more sensitive users.

AVG Anti-Virus features real time system protection against viruses and spyware, an email scanner (which doesn't prevent spam from coming into your mailbox though its spam filter is a Pro-only feature) , special plug-ins for Office and a browser toolbar that lets you browse the web safe and sound. Bear in mind though that this toolbar changes your default browser to Yahoo!, and also customizes your new tab page. Luckily you can revert both changes.

The whole package should be enough to ensure you're not infected with any virus. Also, the program integrates seamlessly with Windows Explorer, thus allowing you to scan files from their context menus. AVG Anti-Virus's database is automatically updated on a daily basis, so you're always protected even from the most recently discovered threats. The program supports scheduled scans as well.

AVG Antivirus remains a perfect security solution for the average computer user, providing quite a powerful weapon against viruses.

Download AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 9.0.707 in Softonic

Everyone knows post-its, those yellow notes we use everyday to remind us of tasks, missed calls and other important things? You can now use them in their digital version!

With Stickies you can replace the traditional sticky yellow notes with more ecological, efficient digital notes that are 'pinned' to your desktop. These notes are much more than small text fragments: you can customize their appearance with new background colors and text fonts, attach a file to them, add an alarm to them and more.

Stickies runs in the background but is very lightweight on system resources. The program puts an icon in the system tray, from which you can access its main functions. Other interesting extra functions are the ability to share notes by email or in a local network, as well as the backup option that makes sure you'll never lose an important note.

Stickies is a handy little program that will remind you of anything – and help you save a few trees!

Download Stickies 7.0 b in Softonic

PepSky All-in-One is a multimedia center, a collection of programs under one roof that aim to be all you need in terms of copying, converting and burning discs.

The front interface splits the functions into four groups - burning, copying and ripping, multimedia and tools. The burning center is where you put various file types onto writable discs, whether you want a data disc, audio or video. The Copy and ripper is for importing audio and DVD discs, and also copying from disc to disc. Multimedia actually houses the converters, which are pretty comprehensive. The Tools are just a disc analyzer, and an eraser for re-writable CDs.

The organization of PepSky All-in-One is pretty good, and while there are more attractive apps, it's by no means ugly. Each tool opens in a new window however, making this feel more like a collection fronted by an interface, rather than a single program. All the tools work well, and the only thing missing really is an MP3 splitter and joiner (it has those for video only).

If you want to do things with CDs and DVDs, the chances are that whatever that is will be found in PepSky All-in-One, and it's all user friendly.

Download PepSky All-in-One 5.2 in Softonic

Power users often find the standard Windows File Explorer too limited and need a more complete file manager to suit their needs. If you're among them look no further because we've got the right app for you.

Q-Dir is a multi-pane file manager for Windows that makes file management more convenient and above all, far more comfortable for you. Having several windows pointing to different locations on your hard drive makes it much easier to move or copy data from one folder to another, and also makes browsing faster. Q-Dir supports different layouts with 2, 3 o 4 panes and each one of them can be configured separately.

The program doesn't really add any extra function to the ones already featured in Windows Explorer, but there's one special feature I did like: the possibility to show files in different colors according to the file type, such as blue for images, red for music and so on. Plus, this color code is totally customizable.

Q-Dir doesn't require installation and can even been run from a USB stick.

Though it doesn't feature any special tool, Q-Dir is still a more complete file manager with multiple panes and customizable color codes for file types.

Download Q-Dir 3.95 in Softonic

WinSnap Portable is a handy screen capturing tool that you can take anywhere with you, because it's been especially designed to work from a removable device.

This tool is based on the original WinSnap; in fact, it's basically the same program, except for the fact that this WinSnap doesn't use Windows registry and can be run without installing anything on the computer, which makes it suitable to use with a USB key.

The program can capture the screen in different ways and also applies some simple effects such as a sepia or black and white layer, a dropping shadow or a watermark to identify your images – though this watermark can only be another image and not text. Also, effects cannot be customized in any way - you either apply them or not.

WinSnap Portable saves captured images in the most popular formats, and also allows you to send them by email and copy them to the clipboard straight away.

If you ever need to make screenshots on the go, WinSnap Portable is an excellent choice for its simplicity of use and variety of tools and effects.

Download WinSnap Portable Edition 3.1.4 in Softonic

Personas for Firefox is a special extension that improves theme management for Firefox and makes it easier.

So far, applying a new theme to your favorite web browser implies searching for it on Google, downloading the correspondent file to your PC, installing it on Firefox and then restarting the browser in order to see the results. Personas makes this whole process much simpler: just install the extension and you'll see a tiny button on the lower left corner of your browser window. Then, every time you want to apply a new theme to Firefox, simply click on this button and select it from the context menu.

Personas for Firefox currently includes about fifty themes, but chances are there'll be more in the near future, especially if we take into account that this extension also makes theme designing and updating much easier. I guess we'll have to wait patiently as you can't add any new themes to the menu, but use only the ones that come shipped with the extension.

The included themes are classified into several categories (Firefox, Holidays, Nature, Scenery, Sports and others) for a more convenient browsing. Though some of them make menu bars really hard to read, many others give a nice touch of color to the browser window. Also, bear in mind that the themes only change the main window's appearance – icons and menus remain the same.

Despite the limitations of a first version, Personas for Firefox is a great extension to change your browser's appearance in just two clicks.

Download Personas for Firefox 1.4 in Softonic

JKDefrag GUI goes beyond the standard defragmenter included in Windows and offers you a very complete tool that makes disk defragmenting easier and more convenient.

The program features a bunch of configuration options divided into several tabs. You can thus adjust the defrag process to your needs very easily, for example choosing the kind of analysis you want to perform using filters to include or exclude certain file types or scheduling an automatic shutdown after the whole process is complete.

We also liked the possibility to schedule periodic defrags, so that you can keep your disk in good shape without any worries. On the downside, the graphic used during the analysis and optimization processes is very confusing and not attractive at all.

Download JKDefrag GUI 1.10 in Softonic

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While the developers claim that "Free 100% Real-Time Protection" is something that most similar programs charge for may be stretching the truth somewhat, Spyware Terminator & Web Security Guard is a powerful spyware solution.

Spyware Terminator includes all the options you expect to find in such a product including those to manually carry out or schedule scans as well as options to deny or allow access to certain programs to your PC. The program is not just a spyware scanner however as it also includes an antivirus scanner. The developers have also seen fit to include a "Web Security Guard" which carries out the the job that most anti-phishing and pop up blockers in Internet Explorer and Firefox already carry out.

This feature also has user generated website reviews along with warnings as to whether the site could be potentially harmful or not. Note that the developers warn that if you are using an unsupported operating system (such as Windows 98 or ME), you it may be better to use version 1.9 which offers the same protection but is much lighter on resources as the one drawback of this program is that it is rather slow to start and close and can hog your memory at peak scanning periods.

Spyware Terminator is a comprehensive security solution that has all avenues of attack covered although if you're already using a virus scanner, you may be better to stick with it as it seems to be the weakest part of what is generally an excellent package.

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If you’ve ever had to publish, send or receive particularly large files sizes, you’ll know that it can throw up all kinds of problems – crashed servers, blocked inboxes and transfers that suddenly just hang-up. Pando aims to take the pain out of this process and according to the developers, 3 million people agree that it does exactly that.

Pando is based on a P2P network that enables you to send files of up to 1GB in size by e-mail or by publishing it to the web. It supports all multimedia file types including video, audio and photos meaning it’s great for people who deal with audio-visual files regularly.

For most users, the major benefit will be with e-mail attachments and the good news is, there's no need to change your existing e-mail client. Pando works by creating a torrent-like link file which you can then send in the body of your e-mail for the recipient to click on. There’s no need to be online when the recipient downloads the file and there’s no compression, FTP or dodgy web uploading applets to deal with. The reason you don’'t need to be online is because Pando sends files to its "super-node" servers, which means that there's always at least one "seeder" online at any given time. This seed is guaranteed for 14 days so even if you log off, your recipient can still view it. Obviously, the more people that share it too, the faster the download.

For those unfamiliar with FTP, Pando is fantastic since it works on the same principle as a Bittorrent client. Once the small interface is opened, you can drag and drop or select “add-file” to create a ".pando” file which you can then e-mail to whoever you want once it is uploaded.

The main drawback is that the recipient has to have Pando installed to receive the file. If you transfer files to someone regularly, this is not a problem but if it’'s just the odd file you want to send, then it could be a nuisance to ask someone to install it just to see your file. Be warned also that Pando cannot guarantee security although the developers assure that Pando has 256bit AES end-to-end encryption built in making it technically one of the most secure ways to transfers files online today. The only way that someone could realistically compromise your security however is by hacking into your e-mail account.

Whilst Pando is obviously open to abuse by sharing illegal files, most people go to the major Torrent sites to do that, meaning Pando is refreshingly free of any copyrighted material flying around and causing problems. Overall, it’'s a great solution for those unfamiliar with FTP who need to send big files regularly.

Download Pando 2.3.1.2 in Softonic

Don't ask me why but Hello Kitty is massively popular brand even though it looks like it's based on some kind of kids cartoon.

If you're a Windows user and a fan of the cute cartoon cat, you will love this collection of Hello Kitty Icons that represent the best of the brand. This collection includes nine different high-resolution icons to spice up your desktop with the Japanese brand. All the icons are free for personal use although not for commercial use and there are nine designs to choose from.

To use these icons, simply right-click the mouse on an existing icon to open the context menu. Select the 'Change Icon' option and then paste in the icon that you want to use. Alternatively to make things easier for regular changes, you can also use an icon exchange program like IconPhile.

Hello Kitty fans will undoubtedly enjoy this collection of Hello Kitty Icons bringing the multi-million dollar Japanese brand to your desktop.

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Focus is a 50 stage platformer, which requires jumping, teleportation, lightening fast reactions, and pin-point accuracy.

With it's basic ball-shaped character and black background with brown platforms, Focus seems very average for the first couple of rooms, but then you are given your focus power. This pops a glowing blue ball around your character. You can aim with in or around the edge of the blue area, and when you let focus go, your character will teleport to that spot.

The further you teleport, the more momentum you have in that direction too, so you can use the focus power to launch yourself over un-jumpable gaps, and well at through walls and out of the way of approaching missiles! The focus power is introduced nicely over a few levels, and you soon feel totally at home using it. Unfortunately, at that point the difficulty starts to ramp up quite severely.

Later levels require incredibly quick reactions and problem solving to complete. Luckily there are unlimited lives, though some players are sure to get put off eventually. Homing missiles that you have to trick into destroying targets without getting hit yourself are one thing, but the speed you have to do this sometimes is insane! This is maybe not a surprise, as the developer, Jessie Venbrux is also the author of You Probably Won't Make It! Hard games is obviously his thing!

Focus is a great idea, but the difficulty level needs some tweaking to become a genuinely enjoyable experience!

Download Focus 0.1 in Softonic

Mozilla Weave is a Firefox extension that started off as a Mozilla Labs experiment and has now reached its first Beta version. It enables you to sync browser data across multiple computers and devices.

Once you install it in Firefox and create a user account, you're ready to go. Note that you can create an account in the Weave servers, but also use your own personal server if that feels safer for you.

Mozilla Weave lets you easily synchronize browser data between multiple instances of Firefox installed on different computers or mobile devices. You can choose which elements you want to sync (among bookmarks, history, tabs, passwords and user preferences) and also in which way they should be synced – that is, merging data between your local computer and the server, from your local computer to the server, or vice versa.

This tool is great not only to maintain all your bookmarks and other data updated between different instances of Firefox, but also to keep a backup copy in case something goes wrong with your browser.

On the downside, the extension's configuration options are not easy to tweak. For instance, if you want to change the syncing method, you need to log out and log in to the server again. You need to be aware of this, because otherwise you may overwrite the data server with an unwanted local copy.

Mozilla Weave is a useful Firefox extension that lets you sync bookmarks, passwords, tabs, user preferences and browsing history between different computers.

Download Mozilla Weave 1.0 Beta 1 in Softonic

Mind mapping is a useful way to organize your thoughts and ideas in a more logical and ordered way.

PersonalBrain is one of the better applications out there for this kind of task, allowing you to map your ideas very fluidly as you think. You can use PersonalBrain to create diagrams, networks or simply sketch out your thoughts. You start out with a 'Brain' (i.e. a thought), and then build it up into something more concrete. What makes PersonalBrain a bit better than many other similar apps is that you can even drag and drop files and web pages into the mind map to make it more useful and richer.

The functionality can be poor at times however. Because its based on Java, it can take while to startup and responsiveness can occasionally be slow. Surprisingly as well, PersonalBrain will only let you export your mind maps in HTML format, and it would have been nice to have a choice of other formats such as OPML, Powerpoint and RTF formats for more flexibility, such as that offered by EDraw Mindmap. It's also a little expensive to upgrade but this trial version should give you a good enough idea as to whether it's really worth it.

On the whole, PersonalBrain is a very flexible mind mapping program which lets you write down and connect your thoughts very easily.

Download PersonalBrain 5.5.1.9 in Softonic

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