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Mircosoft took 5 whole years to develop their next operating system, Windows Vista, which was released in 2006, 5 years after their previous OS, Windows XP. In the early stages of development, Microsoft made some pretty bold promises, yet even with repeated delays, the final product failed to deliver on many of those promises. While Microsoft’s been busy delaying the release of its next OS, Apple has been chugging along just nicely. Since the first version of OS X was released back in 2001 (Cheetah), Apple has come a long way and released version 10.5, Leopard, last October.

For those who aren’t familiar with Apple’s Operating Systems, 10.5 marks the fifth update to the original OS X, meaning that in the time Microsoft took to release a single OS, Apple released 4 of them (from 2001 to 2006), and this fifth update definitely delivers. Granted, while Apple boasts that Leopard has more than 300 new features as compared to the previous iteration of OS X, Tiger, you definitely won’t see that many improvements immediately. However, you’ll “feel” the improvements made the more you use it because they’re hidden throughout the entire OS. For example Safari 3, Apple’s own internet browser, is included in Leopard which has several new enhancements, most importantly it’s been given a huge boost in terms of performance which many avid web surfers (like me) will appreciate. Other improvements have also been made to the browser that will take me forever to list here.

The Finder (ie OS X’s version of explorer for those who don’t know) has been given a huge facelift as well, giving a completely different look and feel. They’ve even included Coverflow in the Finder so you can scroll through your documents like you previously would with your albums in iTunes. By itself, Coverflow is nothing more than eye candy. Coupled with Quick Look however, it becomes a very powerful tool which can be used to quickly search for documents, especially when you’ve forgotten the name of the document. If you do remember the name however, all you have to do is hit Command+Space to open up Spotlight and search for the title of the file (Spotlight even searches WITHIN the file, meaning you instantly search through the contents of ALL your documents, including pdf, word documents, powerpoint slides and even the metadata of pictures or movies) and have the results instantly show up. And when I say “instantly”, I’m not exaggerating. If you search for a file and it doesn’t turn up in the results in at most 5 seconds, the file doesn’t exist on your hard drive. This feature has been around since Tiger, but I never bothered to use it then since it was quite buggy and sluggish, not only not instantly showing you the results, but even slowing down your Mac. It seems like Apple finally responded to everyone’s feedback and improved Spotlight in Leopard by leaps and bounds so that it really does work as advertised now. On the whole, the Finder’s new look will take some time to get used to, but it works just fine.

It would be impossible for me to provide a full review of Leopard here because it would take up at least a few thousand words if I were to really delve into the numerous improvements made. Where would I start? The new Front Row menu; Boot Camp; new enhancements to Photo Booth; Spaces (virtual desktops); Time Machine (backup utility), etc. What I would like to point out though is how Apple is trying it’s best to support older Macs with Leopard despite there being so many new features being added as can be seen from Engadget’s experiment. This unlike Windows Vista’s requirements, whose are so steep that even some brand new laptops being released have trouble supporting it. While not every single new feature will work in Leopard on older Macs (as Engadget’s test has shown), it beats having to buy a brand new computer just to run the latest OS.

All in all, Leopard still isn’t the perfect OS, there’re still points in time when you’d wish some small issue could be tweaked to your liking. However, as compared to Tiger, it really is a much better OS from my experience. It’s a lot more stable and snappy, unlike Tiger which would begin to feel sluggish after some time. Still, the US$129 price tag (PC Connection is selling it at a discount price of $109.95) might turn some people off for what seems like a pretty similar OS, but for those of you who can afford it, I’d dare say it’s well worth the price.

Click here to buy the latest Get the latest Mac OS X Leopard
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While Internet Explorer has been the dominant web browser for the past decade or so since it began bundling it with its Windows OS, we have seen quite a few new web browsers surface over the years. Opera, Safari, and most importantly Mozilla Firefox. By now practically every single casual web surfer is either using or has at least heard of it before. Since it was first released back in 2004, Firefox has slowly gained momentum in the browser wars and with the latest beta released just a few days ago, it seems like the next major release of Mozilla Firefox 3, is only going to increase this momentum.

Note first of all that the program I’m reviewing is the Mac version and there might be slight differences between this version and the Windows/Linux version which I might not know of. That being said, the Mac version of the Firefox 3 beta works like a dream. In the past I’ve always favoured Apple’s Safari over Firefox 2 because Firefox was basically a port of the Windows version, making it a very sluggish and irritating browser to use, especially when it takes like 5 to 10 seconds to open. However, despite only being a beta, Firefox 3 for the Mac runs a lot more smoothly in terms of performance. When you compare the speed at which it loads webpages with Firefox 2, there doesn’t seem to be much of a difference, which is a good thing. In my opinion, rendering a website can only occur so fast and Firefox 2 is probably as good as it’s gonna get.

Firefox 3 looks a lot better as well, but this probably only applies to the Mac version since Firefox 2 really looked pretty bad on the Mac. Now, Firefox feels a lot more like a program that belongs on a Mac instead of one being shoehorned onto the Mac. While it’s just an aesthetic feature, it’s surprising how big of an impact it makes.

When it comes to new features, Firefox 3 definitely doesn’t come up short. From the release note, it’s obvious that the development team hasn’t been lazing around since it released Firefox 2 back in 2006. It’s based on an updated rendering system that allows web applications like Gmail to run at “twice the speed”, which is a pretty true claim since the lag times I used to experience while using Firefox with Gmail in the past no longer exist.

A brand new download manager has also been introduced which has a few new features. For example it has a search bar at the bottom so that you can quickly search through your downloads if you have a long record of them in the download manager. It also displays when and where you downloaded the file from, making it much easier to manage your downloads. Most importantly, users can now resume downloads even after you restart the browser or reset your internet connection as long as the server you’re download from allows resumable downloads. This will hopefully save a lot of people some frustration if their internet connection gets dropped when their download reaches 99%.

One of the biggest problems that users have repeated complained about is Firefox’s memory usage problem as Firefox is notorious for memory leaks after long periods of usage, seriously slowing down the user’s computer even if he/she isn’t doing much web surfing. Just letting it sit in the background will cause your other applications to experiecne a significant slowdown. Thankfully, Firefox 3 is addressing these problems by making use of new technology to prevent such memory leaks in the future. From my experience with it thus far, the development team has done a pretty good job, since I’ve been using Firefox for the entire day now without having to restart it even once and neither has it crashed on me yet, unlike Firefox 2.

However, being in its beta stages, this software is obviously far from perfect. Most plugins and themes (understandably) don’t work with it yet and the in-built dictionary that was perfect in Firefox 2 now draws squiggly red lines under words like “doesn’t”, thinking it’s an incorrect word. The text editing window that I’m typing this post in right now in Wordpress is also slightly buggy, occasionally not showing a space on screen even after I tap the spacebar several times. Still, all these are understandable problems that one would expect from a beta version of any piece of software. Just take note of this if you currently heavily rely on your Firefox plugins because none of them will work with this beta version, but it’d still be fun to download and play around with in anticipation for the final version.

With Netscape down for the count, only Firefox has a chance at unseating Internet Explorer as the dominant web browser. With Microsoft recently releasing the beta version of Internet Explorer 8 as well, it seems like the browser wars are far from over. Yet, from what we’ve seen from the beta version, Mozilla Firefox 3 just might have a shot at stealing even more IE users away from that darn browser. In fact, the only reason why this is getting a 4/5 rating is because it’s the beta version, I can’t wait to get my hands on the final version when it’s ready.

Mozilla Firefox 3 Beta 4 can be downloaded here

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Downloads have never been this fast or easy. With the Internet Download Manager (IDM), users can download files at a maximum of 5 times their normal speed. Unlike other download accelerators out there, this one actually works and I’ve already used it for several month. It even works on some file-hosting websites, making it a very versatile and useful tool for those who treat downloading files to be a norm.

IDM was created by the Internet Download Manager Corporation, which is a subsidiary of Tonec Inc. It is a comprehensive download manager that allows users to not only speed up their downloads, but also to resume broken links and schedule downloads. It also has an error recovery system which allows users to resume downloads which might have been broken due to a sudden power outage, lost of internet connection, etc. How does this program work? To put it simply, it splits the same file up into smaller parts and then downloads each individual part simultaneously; it finally patches the pieces together to form the original file.

Unlike other download accelerators that make groundless claims, Internet Download Manager actually shows the user what it is doing by indicating how many parts the file is split into, and the amount of data already downloaded in those parts. The speed of the downloads is truely amazing, averaging at around 300-600 KB/s, as compared to the usual 150KB/s (if you’re lucky).

Another function that the IDM has to offer is the capability to download clips off hosting websites such as YouTube and Google Video using its FLV Grabber. This means that users no longer need to use other unreliable websites to download media from those sites. The video quality downloaded is also not too bad. As for the other types of videos downloaded off websites of the same function, they are a far cry as compared to the ones the IDM has to offer.

Personally, I’ve been using the IDM for all my downloads as far as possible (except for those websites that do not allow the usage of download managers). The good thing about IDM is that it’s a free program to try out for 30 days. Those interested should consider registering and for just a small fee, you’d be able to drastically improve your download speeds. IDM has also been voted by several websites including Download.Com, TopShareWare.Com and many others as one of their top choices, regardless of it being user-picked top 5 or the editor’s choice.

All in all, the Internet Download Manager is an excellent program that allows users to increase their download speeds by leaps and bounds. The only drawback is that it is not a free program. Regardless of that, for those people that are looking for a reliable download manager, IDM is the one for you.

For more information on the Internet Download Manager, visit http://www.internetdownloadmanager.com/

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One of the most reliable web browsers around the net, Mozilla Firefox has been relied on by many for safe web browsing and its ability to allow multiple downloads (unlike the Internet Explorer’s (IE) of just 2 parallel downloads). It has been trusted by many for years since its development. Although doubted by many during its initial launch, it has grown much into a household name for net browsers. Today, it has achieved much and is currently the world’s most used web browser, comparable to the IE.

One of the few reasons why Mozilla Firefox became so popular was because of its uniqueness in the web browser. For one, it allows users to customize their own version of the Firefox with various themes like Aero Fox, NASA Night Launch and much much more. As compared to the IE’s standard look, the Firefox is much more user-friendly and users could download various themes to constantly have a fresh look for the browser. It also provides thousands of add-ons to keep the web browser unique and users can customize them to make it their own personal web browser. It is also one of the first web browsers that allows tab browsing, in which only recently did IE also implement that feature. To the layman, it simply means to view multiple web pages without opening up more than one web browser windows, allowing it to be easy to keep track of what the users are actually viewing.

The security of the Firefox is also something that many rely on. Unlike the IE, which is virus-plagued, the Firefox has much less viruses to worry about and has a much better capability to hold back attacks from the cyberworld. Due to its constant security updates to prevent virus attacks, it is heavily updated by the latest virus protection technology, and hence, many people feel much safer using the Firefox, knowing well that they and their personal information are protected from unauthorized access.

Personally, I’ve been using the Firefox for several years now and it has proven its capability to me by protecting me against viruses and safeguarding my personal information. The ability that allows me to customize the very look of my browser continues to keep my browser fresh and not a boring old standard outlook of the IE. Ultimately, it is a reliable web browser. Although some websites, especially the official government and some education websites requires the use of the function of the IE to work properly, Firefox is currently trying to be adaptable and try to accommodate such websites to ensure that they are able to work in the Firefox.

All in all, Mozilla Firefox is a very reliable and trustworthy web browser that protects the people’s interest as well as keeping harmful viruses off the reach of our computers. For those who are considering Firefox, hesitate no more, for which it is one that would definitely live up to the expectations of many.

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ZoneAlarm, a name familiar to many. In its many years of service, ZoneAlarm has already protected many against malicious programs and hacking attempted on our computers. Saviour to many, it has defended bravely in the face of the ever-growing strength of hacking attempts. Protecting its clients is what ZoneAlarm does best.

Still wondering what ZoneAlarm is, it is actually a firewall which protects the user’s computer from invasion of malicious softwares and hacking attempts. Security levels can be set at a level suitable for the users themselves, from simple program access to the computer to assaults from programs to the network, ZoneAlarm is effective in preventing such programs from gaining access to your computers and networks.

To put it simple, ZoneAlarm protects the computer by putting it behind a firewall. Ever heard of the term “Prevention is better than cure”? Simply, ZoneAlarm prevents such issues from happening. For those who wants more from ZoneAlarm besides the standard firewall function, it also provides other services such as Anti-Viruses and Anti-Spyware detection programs. Hence, the ZoneAlarm security suite provides an all-rounded protection from malicious programs.

Even the most common programs would have to ask for permission in order to function. If permission isn’t granted, the programs would not run and would simply freeze in the boot-up scene. Allowing time for the user to consider whether to allow it or not. If any unknown programs want to gain access to the computer, the user has the choice to deny access first and go online to check the security of such programs. Then, if the program is found to be safe for usage, users could access the firewall and allow such programs to function.

However, there’s this tiny drawback. When the security level of the firewall is shifted up to maximum, issues like cookies and other tiny background programs also have to go through the system, making running programs take much longer as security alerts and asking of permission for access to the computer would make many pissed with the constant permission alerts and confirmation alerts.

ZoneAlarm is a very good substitute for the Windows Firewall. Personally, I never actually bothered about the Windows Firewall when i used ZoneAlarm. I just feel that there’s no need to have both on at the same time and the firewall that Windows provide is pretty vulnerable to attacks and doesn’t seem to have much freedom for the user to control the programs’ eligibility to have access to the computer/network. It also doesn’t show which programs are blocked and which are not. Moreover, Windows Firewall doesn’t seem to have the ability to allow programs to function properly behind the firewall but in the case of ZoneAlarm, it allows programs to work properly behind it as long as the individual details of the programs are set up properly to do so.

All in all, for those who are in desperate need for a firewall or a security system that is guaranteed to work, ZoneAlarm is the choice for you. Best of all, Zone Labs (the developers of ZoneAlarm) provides a free edition of the firewall for personal usage. So, ZoneAlarm is not only effective, but also pretty much a full-coverage firewall which takes care of almost all program access.

Download Free ZoneAlarm Security Software Trial Products

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