The Download Blog

Leave a smaller PC footprint

Leave a smaller PC footprint

Meson Player (32bit, 64bit, Mac)

Meson Player is a tiny music player without a conventional graphical user interface (GUI). The lack of a GUI puts the bulk of the application control in hot keys rather than the usual mouse and click. Using your keyboard's number pad, you can quickly skip tracks, turn volume up or down, and save and open playlists. Meson Player can handle a variety of audio file formats as well as Internet Radio playlists. Meson Player also supports the multimedia keys on some keyboards for advanced functionality.

Barely consuming any system resources, the software leaves a … Read more

Accuracy, schmaccuracy: 'iSteve' props go hilariously wrong

Accuracy, schmaccuracy: 'iSteve' props go hilariously wrong

Comedy site Funny or Die beat out the competition in getting "iSteve," the first Steve Jobs biopic, out for viewing. Take that, Ashton Kutcher. In all that haste, Funny of Die may have cut a few corners as far as accuracy goes. That's left the film open for evisceration by Apple fans on high alert for anachronistic images.

The film is full of tripping Steve Jobs scenes, Bill Gates beating computer components with a hammer, and Steve Wozniak looking like he just wandered off the set of "Lost." It's also full of computer parts that just don't fit the time period. It's the sort of thing that will either make Apple fanboys giggle, or send them up in arms to the Internet to complain.… Read more

Apple issues Java, printer, iPhoto, and Aperture updates

Apple issues Java, printer, iPhoto, and Aperture updates

Apple has issued a few updates for OS X users, including a new version of its in-house Java runtime environment, updated printer drivers, and new versions of iPhoto and Aperture.

The updates improve reliability, security, and compatibility overall, but for iPhoto and Aperture users Apple has specifically addressed the following details:

Photos can now be deleted from My Photo Stream by dragging to the Trash Photos can now be exported from Photo Stream using the Export command in the File menu Raw images manually imported from My Photo Stream are now editable Fixes a bug that could cause manually rotated … Read more

Name your own price for a $399 Mac software bundle

Name your own price for a $399 Mac software bundle

Most of the Mac bundles I see hit you up for around $40 to $50 -- a pretty good deal if you're getting hundreds of dollars' worth of software, but a little steep if you're interested in only a few of the included items.

That's why I'm jazzed about this one. For the next seven days, StackSocial has the Name Your Own Price Mac Bundle 2.0, which gives you software valued at $399 and lets you set the price.

Well, kind of. The bundle consists of 10 programs. You can pay as little as $1 … Read more

Photoshop update to let people fix photo blur

Photoshop update to let people fix photo blur

Adobe Systems is building technology into Photoshop to take the blur out of photos.

The company demonstrated the upcoming Photoshop deblurring filter in a video today to promote its upcoming Adobe Max conference in May, where the company no doubt will announce the feature and others.

"Camera shake reduction is a tool that allows one to deblur an image that would have been otherwise lost," said Zorana Gee, senior Photoshop product manager, in the video. "It works really great for shots taken under low-light conditions or slow shutter speeds," she added, conditions where camera shake is … Read more

The Week on Download.com, April 10-16, 2013

Every week, we compile the best new reviews, products, and features from the Download.com software catalog and blog, package them up in a tidy little newsletter, and e-mail it out to all of our lovely subscribers.

If you are a registered CNET member, you can sign up for the newsletter yourself (it's listed as "CNET Download.com Software Dispatch" under "Software News and Reviews"), or check back every Tuesday to read our latest roundup.

Notable New Products

BitTorrent Surf brings the power of BitTorrent to Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox Mok Force is a … Read more

Apple adds site-by-site Java support to Safari for OS X 10.6

Apple adds site-by-site Java support to Safari for OS X 10.6

Apple has released an update to Safari for OS X 10.6 users which, along with the latest Java updates, gives Snow Leopard users the ability to enable Java on a site-by-site basis.

This news is in response to the development of the Java runtime that has moved it past official support for Snow Leopard. While the latest version of Java Apple developed (Java SE 6) is supported in Snow Leopard, support for this version of OS X ended when Apple passed the baton to Oracle to maintain Java.

With Java SE 7 requiring OS X 10.7 or later, … Read more

Turn your RSS feed into a "Star Wars" crawl

Turn your RSS feed into a

If Google's recent decision to pull the plug on the (incredibly useful and beloved) RSS tool Google Reader has convinced you that the search giant is now the Evil Empire, then join the Rebel Alliance with the RSS reader StarRSS, from user fotcorn at github. Simply enter in an RSS feed into the box on the landing page and a scrolling list of items will appear as familiar horns trumpet the start of that classic movie music.

Clicking on the items in your feed as they scroll up and become smaller and smaller isn't the easiest task in … Read more

Kensington brings USB docking stations to OS X

Kensington brings USB docking stations to OS X

Kensington has just announced driver software for OS X that allows Mac owners with USB 3.0-capable systems to make use of its latest docking stations.

USB 3.0 is the latest iteration of the USB protocol, which at 5Gbps throughput offers a substantial speed boost over USB 2.0, and gives it more options to host high-bandwidth devices, including video adapters for external displays. While video, networking, and audio over USB is nothing new, the greater bandwidth of USB 3.0 allows for more of these options to be lumped together into rather versatile docks such as Kensington's SD3500V docking station.… Read more

Intel releases Web-based app programming kit

Intel releases Web-based app programming kit

Intel has released its first version of Web-based programming tools to help developers make mobile apps for Android and iOS.

The free software, called Intel XDK, isn't brand new. It's a rebadged version of the AppMobi software that Intel acquired in February. XDK lets people create software that uses the so-called HTML5 foundation, a collection of standards designed to advance the Web beyond static documents toward dynamic applications, then convert those apps so they can be used on mobile devices.

Intel announced the XDK release at its Intel Developer Forum show in Beijing this week. The software is … Read more