The Download Blog

About a month ago, we revealed CNET TechTracker beta, a new, free application for Windows computers that helps you make certain your installed apps are up-to-date. After receiving feedback from an army of volunteer testers, CNET now introduces the first general release of CNET TechTracker 1.0.

Here's a crash course on how it works. You download CNET TechTracker to your PC, where it spends a few minutes scanning your hard drive for all your software. After that, every time a new update arrives, you'll see an alert message pop up from the TechTracker icon in the task tray. You can also hover the cursor over the icon to see how many updates await, or click the icon to list them by name.

The TechTracker app saves the version details on a personalized Web page where you can download the most recent update for your outdated software, and see at a glance which other programs you have installed. It is CNET's editorial policy not to review our own software, but we'd love for you to review us. Give CNET TechTracker 1.0 a spin. Then, tell us what you like and what you think could use work. The TechTracker team is listening.

I could use some updates.

(Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)

Back in the old days of CNET, we had a product I loved called CNET Catchup. It scanned your computer and told you which software on it had updates available. I'm happy to report that we've brought the function back, in a completely new product called TechTracker.

It's a free app. It will scan your PC (at regular intervals if you like) and tell you what you have that's old or out of date. It gives you links to updates as well as user reviews of the apps. Updates come to you from our Download.com site, so you know they're safe and spyware-free.

The Windows version is in public beta (get it here). A Mac version should be out soon.

This is not an impartial expert review. We don't review our own apps. This is a pure pitch. I like TechTracker and I'm proud of the team here that built it. So go get it and tell the folks who made it what you think.

(Credit: CNET)

For years, you've been begging for the return of CNET CatchUp, a Download.com program that helped track your software installations and informed you when new versions were available. It went the way of the dodo, but CNET has been working on a similar service and we'd like your feedback on it. Consider it CatchUp 2.0.

CNET TechTracker FAQs:

• Name: CNET TechTracker (download)

• What: Free beta service that starts with a small desktop app and culminates in a Web dashboard that, like CatchUp, reports which software versions you have on your hard drive
• Aim: Alert you to available product updates, help keep your software versions current
• Minimum requirements: Windows 2000+; Firefox 2.0+, IE +, Chrome, Safari; 512MB RAM+, broadband Internet (DSL or cable)

For all you dual Windows/Mac users, a Mac beta should be available to try in a few weeks.

Since this is a beta build, you may run into snags and instability. And, since TechTracker beta is a CNET product, it's our policy not to review it. But we hope you do. The folks at CNET TechTracker want your feedback, good or bad, and that's something you'll be able to provide directly from CNET TechTracker's Web dashboard (or from this form). Of course, you can tell us here, too, and we'll be happy to pass that along.

Try out CNET TechTracker beta. For extra reference, here are the beta release notes.

Those attending Microsoft's TechEd event will not only get to hear about Office 2010, they will also be among the first to get to try it out.

Microsoft said Monday that it will launch an invitation-only Technical Preview Program of the new Office in July, and said that those at this week's Microsoft conference in Los Angeles will be among the first to get to kick the tires on the new version of Microsoft's flagship software.

Microsoft first talked about the browser-based abilities of Office 2010 (then code-named Office 14) at a developer conference last October. Click image for full gallery.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Whereas Office 2007 introduced new file formats and a major overhaul of the user interface, Office 2010 is a more modest change to the desktop programs. However, in conjunction with the release, Microsoft is also releasing browser-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, known as Office Web Applications. It will also be the first version of Office to come in a 64-bit version, as well as the traditional 32-bit variety.

Microsoft had previously said that a test version would come sometime in the third quarter. Microsoft said it will scale the test version to users beyond those at TechEd, but did not give a time frame.

The final version of Office 2010 is due out next year.

To run the desktop versions of Office 2010, Microsoft said that users will need either Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista, or Windows 7. Hardware that is capable of running Office 2007 should also support Office 2010, Microsoft said.

In addition to announcing the timing of the Office technical preview, Microsoft is also using the first day of the TechEd event to announce more details on the next versions of SQL Server and Windows Server and to confirm that it will release Windows 7 in time to be on PCs this holiday season.

On Tuesday, TechSmith released Jing Pro, a paid premium version of its free screen capture and casting software. The new service, which runs $14.95 a year, upgrades videos to H.264 encoding, takes off the Jing watermark in the bottom corner of recorded clips, and gives users the option to upload directly to several popular video hosting sites including Facebook, YouTube, Viddler, and Vimeo.

Of the news, one of the biggest changes is the move to the MPEG-4 AVC video format. It's the go-to format for iPods and iPhones, as well as set-top boxes like the Apple TV and TiVo. Likewise, it's been adopted by YouTube, which makes a separate encode for each file for Flash players and hardware that run H.264 clips. This means that going forward your screencast may end up being able to be watched on a wider range of devices.

On the export front I'm a little surprised TechSmith is offering such a simple way to offload captured videos to third-party hosting sites. It's really nice, but will no doubt cut into potential revenue from people who might have paid the extra cash for the company's video hosting sister product, Screencast.com. This service has a higher cap on its file size (2GB up from most service's 1GB max), but limits how many people can watch your content to 2GB of streaming video.

In addition to the launch of Jing Pro, TechSmith put up a new support site called the Jing Help Center, which has a handful of how-to videos and support documents. This is available to both free and pro users.

Download Jing (via CNET's Download)

As performance reasserts its prominence and features become less of the driving force behind browsers, I find myself looking at the list of inactive extensions in Firefox with jaundiced eyes. It's been months since I've added a new extension, but the ones I still have I use regularly, and several are actually new to me for this year.

Cooliris, formerly known as PicLens, turns photos and videos into moving walls of imagery.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Part of the problem with add-ons is that they're such a personal, subjective thing. What do you need? Why do you need it? One of my favorites is a minor, tiny thing, but it saves me so much time that I have trouble when I use browsers without it. Dragdropupload gives you the ability to drag a file from your desktop into any text field in a Web page. Lightweight but extremely effective, if you e-mail a lot of attachments, this should quickly become a massive time saver.

I use it at work to drag images into form fields that then upload them to the CNET servers. Instead of having to navigate that obnoxious folder tree, I just drag the file and drop it into the appropriate field.

One of the problems with Dragdropupload is that sometimes Firefox updates break it, and it takes me a while to bring it back to life. There are two user-end solutions to solve that conundrum, but both are somewhat risky. Using either Nightly Tester Tools or MR Tech Toolkit, you can use the override compatibility feature to force Firefox to recognize outdated extensions. However, as I've noted before, this greatly increases the chance of having Firefox crash on you.

Nightly Tester Tools can revitalize dead extensions...for a price.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

I wouldn't recommend doing this unless you can't find the same feature replicated elsewhere. I used to force compatibility with AutoCopy, another tiny little extension that introduces Linux-style compatibility to Firefox. Since I do a lot of cutting and pasting, AutoCopy and its multiple clipboards and automatic functionality make it a must-have for me. The mileage you can get out of it may vary with use, of course.

I have one frivolous extension installed: Cooliris. For compatible Web sites such as Flickr, YouTube, and Amazon, it introduces a bit of a futuristic vibe to browsing the Web. Your display turns into a full-screen wall of images, smoothly zooming in and out. It makes me wish that we all had Minority Report-style interfaces to work from instead of these comparatively-clunky mice.

Session Manager offers in-depth tools for saving and restoring sessions.

(Credit: Session Manager)

The last new-to-me add-on that I still use is Session Manager. Besides resurrecting crashed browsing sessions, it also lets you save current ones and keep them for later. You can configure how the sessions are named, change the default saved-sessions' location, encrypt saved-session data, and configure how post data gets saved, even from encrypted Web sites. Since each session file created by Firefox includes text data, cookies, and history, as well as tabs, being able to recreate all that information effortlessly is incredibly helpful and shouldn't be underestimated.

If you've got an extension that you've discovered in the past year and can't imagine how you got by without it, tell me in the comments below.

Not everyone is rocking to the new iTunes 8 released Tuesday. An informal poll on ZDNet suggests that a problem with the latest edition of the Apple media player is affecting some, but not all, users of the software on Microsoft's Windows Vista. (You can download iTunes 8 for Windows from CNET Download.com.)

Users on an Apple forum reported seeing the so-called blue screen of death (BSOD) on their desktops running Windows Vista with iTunes 8 installed. The BSOD problem occurs shortly after connecting their iPods and iPhones.

A second, more subtle effect is that their CD/DVD drives "disappear."

ZDNet's Ed Bott offers a look at the upgrades or changes in iTunes 8.

Removing other USB devices, such as Webcams and printers, appears to resolve the problem, for the moment. Users on the forum speculate that there is an incompatibility between Apple and USB products from LogicTech and HP, as well as disc-burning software from Roxio.

We will update this post with further details, as they unfold.

Atmosphir is a software-based game building tool for PC and Mac users that lets users put together their own gaming levels. Like many consumer-facing game creators you're only limited by the tools that have been given to you. In this case the tools provided are split up into packages of "blocks" that are both interchangeable and feature simple gameplay devices like moving platforms, and various themed texture elements that let you build worlds with grass, dirt, and sand.

The builder actually reminders me a lot of Cubescape, a product I looked at back in May. In Atmosphir's case, it's simply a matter of stacking pixels together on top of one another in a 3D grid. The big difference is that you can jump into your creation and play test it. Depending on what game play goals you set up, it changes what's needed to successfully get through what you've created.

The game builder is entirely in 3D. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit: Rafe Needleman/CBS Interactive)

The only thing I'm concerned about with this product is that the demo did not make playing the game look like as much fun as building the levels. I'm willing to withhold judgment until I get my hands on it, but it seemed to be lacking a decent physics engine and the graphics looked akin to Super Mario 64--a console title that came out 12 years ago. That said, look at something like Line Rider; if you give people simple tools and a platform they're going to go nuts.

To aid in that discovery process users can submit their creations to a central pool where others can jump in and play their creations, with some of the best items rising to the top. Also neat is the option to grab someone else's level and pull it back in the editor to make tweaks.

The service is a TechCrunch50 finalist, and is currently open for sign-ups, with plans to release a public client later this year. I've embedded a video of it in action below.

Update: I got some hands-on time with this after the presentation. Judging from the time I played with it, it's fun but frustrating. Like I said, if you've played Super Mario 64 before you'll feel right at home. It borrows the same camera controls and kill screen, something you'll probably see a lot if you're playing a badly designed level.

What's interesting here is that the creators, the guys from Minor Studios, could have launched this a few weeks ago at the gamer-centric Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) but chose to do it here. When I asked creative director Dave Werner why he'd pass up the chance to show this in front of more than 58,000 gamers and industry analysts, he told me he thought he'd get more leverage by launching it at this show.

Also worth noting is LittleBigPlanet, a PlayStation 3 title that lets you build your own 2D platforming games and share them with others. It's launching next month (thanks MoRic123)

See also: Mytopia: Yet another casual-gaming start-up goes live

Postbox is a new cross platform e-mail client for Windows and Mac computers. It's an alternative to Microsoft Outlook, and manages to bring some of the benefits of Web e-mail to a desktop application.

Things like a conversation view, tagging, and search that indexes both mail and attachments are all features Gmail users have been enjoying for years. The problem is, those features and several others have not gone over to the desktop side of things without additional software plug-ins from third-party providers.

Postbox answers that by taking many of these single features sought after by other third-party developers and blending them into a standalone client. For example, if it sees an address it will pull up a quick map link complete with business information. When you're offline you still get this information.

As some of the session judges at the TechCrunch50 conference noted, some of the things this product does would be much better suited as an extension to the software e-mail client you're already using. I'd certainly love the photo browsing client and conversation view in my Outlook, but I definitely can't ditch it until this product gets rock solid Microsoft Exchange support with a built-in calendar (a feature the product does not have).

Postbox currently works with IMAP, POP, and SMTP protocols, letting you tie in your Web mail accounts. Unless your business is running off Google apps this probably won't be a good companion for anything besides your personal accounts. That said, compared with something like Apple's Mail application, it looks like a nice step up.

Update: Postbox will be available for download in "a few weeks" time. Only the sign-ups were opened up today. I've also thrown in another screenshot after the jump.

(Credit: Postbox, Inc. / CBS Interactive)