The Download Blog

Along with an update to the infamous "porn mode" that turns off your browser's ability to record your browsing session, the new Firefox 20 includes usability and back-end changes.

Firefox 20 (download for Windows | Mac | Linux) updates now allow you to run a private browsing session in a new window, alongside a standard Firefox browsing window. On Firefox 20 for Android (download), the browser now lets you run private mode tabs next to standard session tabs.

Private browsing on Firefox is analogous to Internet Explorer's InPrivate or Chrome's Incognito. It's a feature that turns … Read more

Don't let its name fool you; Cyberlink PowerDVD may sound like a name that's stuck in the past, but it's a media player and library manager that goes beyond just standard disc playback. Instead, PowerDVD 13 aims to distinguish itself from the premium media player crowd with features like "TrueTheater" enhancements, presentable media browsing, and customizable playback tools. To wrap it all up, PowerDVD also aims to rope all your media devices into one experience.

Installation is the standard shindig: Cyberlink takes about 360MB of space and leaves a light footprint. And like any good … Read more

Chrome 27, making its way through the development pipeline, is helping to advance the fortunes of a new audio compression technology called Opus.

Opus is what's called a codec -- a technology to encode and decode streams of information, in this case audio. Technically, it's actually two codecs in one, an approach that lets it span a range of uses from Internet telephony on slow networks to streaming high-quality music on fast networks.

One of its chief virtues is low latency: there's not a long wait for audio to be encoded or decoded, something that's not … Read more

Don't let its archaic name fool you; Cyberlink PowerDVD may sound like a name that's rooted in history, but it's actually an innovative media player and library manager that goes beyond just standard disc playback. In fact, PowerDVD 13 aims to distinguish itself from the premium media player crowd with features like "TrueTheater" enhancements, presentable media browsing, and customizable playback tools. To wrap it all up, PowerDVD also aims to rope all your media devices into one connected experience.

The installation process is standard: Cyberlink takes about 360MB of space and leaves a light footprint. … Read more

Wasting no time after the death of Google Reader was announced, multiplatform RSS solution Feedly has already updated its mobile apps, not only with new features, but also with some new power under the hood.

With a new search-and-discovery engine running, finding feeds from around the Web is noticeably faster. The search bar even immediately tries to autocomplete what you type, to help you more quickly discover topics and sites. According to Feedly, the new search algorithm leverages millions of interactions from other users, which means the tool will even get better over time.

Now, as you're sifting through … Read more

A Facebook media event invitation the company released last week might be saying more than originally thought.

Last week, Facebook sent out an invite for an event it's hosting on Thursday. On the invitation, the company says, "Come See Our New Home on Android." Other than making clear that it the event will be Android related, the company provided no additional details.

However, the invitation's message might be coded to include the name of a new product the company has been working on, called Facebook Home, Google news site 9to5Google reported, citing people who claim to … Read more

I feel like I'm on bundle overload these days, what with some new software or game collection cropping up on an almost weekly basis.

That said, when I see a good one, I gotta share. And if you're an Android user, this is definitely a good one.

For the next week or so, the Humble Mobile Bundle offers six surprisingly good Android games for whatever price you want to pay. Well, sort of.

It works like this: There are six apps on the table. Four can be had for any amount: a penny, a dollar, whatever. If you … Read more

When someone can't take the hint and keeps calling or texting you, it might be time to disable their ability to do so. The Android contact app allows you to send callers directly to voice mail, which is fine in most cases; however, if you're still getting flooded with voice mails, or even texts, Current Caller ID can help.

The app's new blocking feature -- suggested by users to WhitePages -- will let you quickly send callers to voice mail without fumbling through the contacts app, or perform a pickup and hang up operation when they call. … Read more

Microsoft's next version of Internet Explorer might just support WebGL, a standard for accelerated 3D graphics on the Web that the company previously has attacked as a security risk.

A leaked version of the next version of Windows, code-named Blue, came with a version of IE11, and developer's scrutiny of the browser shows evidence of WebGL.

"It seems like WebGL interfaces are defined but not functional at this time," said Web developer and author Francois Remy in a blog post this week. That means that the IE11 build has some infrastructure in place to support WebGL, … Read more