Software News

Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux became engaged in August last year and, for some reason, everybody expected them to tie the knot as soon as possible. Naturally, when this didn’t happen, people assumed it was because they were having problems. Nothing...

The team at PopCap Games and publisher Electronic Arts are delivering a new video developer diary for their Plants vs Zombies 2: It’s About Time tower defense game, designed to give players an insight into how the game was created.The developer says, "meet some of the team and find out all about Crazy Dave, his taco, Penny and...

The following tutorial will teach Ubuntu 12.10 and Ubuntu 13.04 users how to install the recently released LibreOffice 4.1 open source office suite on their operating system(s), replacing the old 4.0.x version. Dubbed "a landmark for interoperability"...

This week, the review department of Softpedia Games delivers long-form evaluations for: Civilization V – Brave New World, an expansion that redefines the turn-based strategy experience from Firaxis, Shadowrun Returns, the Harebrained Schemes title that...

Human activities are releasing tons of carbon dioxide into our planet's atmosphere. Scientists are hoping to rid the world of some of it by burying it deep underground. More precisely, they wish to inject it in basalt. They hope that basalt formations...

The Obama administration used to be in favor of protecting whistleblowers, but lately it seems that things have changed. Back after Obama’s election in 2008, his team added a promise to protect whistleblowers to the Change.gov site, but now that entire content has been wiped out. As the Sunlight Foundation noticed, the page...

There’s no shame in admitting you’re a workaholic (who isn't these days?), and admittance is usually the first step towards curing this so-called condition. Which is why if you think you spend way too much time in front of the computer, you might want to consider using this free utility called Awareness, created by the people...

As expected, the Russian authorities are not letting their American counterparts get away with threats when it comes to Edward Snowden’s extradition. Alexei Pushkov, chairman of State Duma’s foreign policy committee urged the members of the United States Congress to stop threatening Russia with sanctions. “I don’t think...

Sony has apparently confirmed the first details about its upcoming Gamescom 2013 press conference, as the event will be held one day before the convention kicks off, on August 20, at 7pm CET.Gamescom 2013 is rapidly approaching and both Sony and Microsoft are gearing up for another round of the next-gen console war, as both...

The development team at ZeniMax Online working on The Elder Scrolls Online is giving fans of the game a chance to take a look at another creature that they will face in the MMO, the scamp.In an official blog post they state, "Scamps are small, and they aren’t particularly intelligent, but they’re agile combatants who delight...

In its first full year under Tim Cook’s lead, Apple pulled a hat trick with the much-coveted Brand of The Year distinction, scoring the highest marks across three major product categories. According to findings from the 2013 Harris Poll EquiTrend (EQ) study, Apple took home Brand of the Year distinctions in three categories...

Google spent $1.31 billion (€985 million) on 16 acquisitions in the first six months of the year, most of it on Waze. In its financial filing, Google reveals it paid $966 million (€727 million) for the Israeli mapping startup Waze. This places the acquisition under the $1.1 billion (€827 million) price that was rumored at...

CCleaner has received another important update today and in addition to many other improvements, the new version also brings support for Microsoft’s first Windows 8 OS update. CCleaner 4.0.4 can now work with both Windows 8.1 Preview and Internet Explorer 11, so you can clean the operating system and boost the overall performance...

Video game developer Rare and publisher Microsoft are confirming that their titles Kinect Sports Rivals will be delayed to the spring of 2014 on the Xbox One home console in order to give the studio more time to increase the quality level of the title.Polygon has confirmation of the delay from the hardware maker and it seems...

A woman from Essex, England has had her debit card stolen during a shopping session at the grocery store. A man came up to her asking for directions and he managed to swipe the card from her handbag. She realized that the only way that she could find the culprit was to provide police with accurate details about his physical...

FLV Media Player is currently one of the easiest choices when it comes to a simple app capable of playing FLV files on a Windows device, so lots of users have already installed it. The application just got a new update, so make sure you launch the Store and download the new version as soon as possible. No release notes have...

The Mail app is one of the apps that got improved as part of the 8.1 update cycle, but it appears that some users are now experiencing issues with it. According to a post on Microsoft’s support forums, notifications are no longer available for the Mail app on Windows RT 8.1 and reinstalling doesn’t seem to help. “Ever since...

Teleglitch: Die More Edition, a game developed by Test3 Projects and published by Paradox Interactive, has been released on Steam for Linux.Teleglitch: Die More Edition is a roguelike top-down shooter that features pixelated graphics and procedurally generated...

Porpoises can't read, and I'm pretty sure they are clueless around a computer. I guess this was why the three marine mammals featured in the video above had to figure out some way to keep themselves entertained. The video shows the porpoises blowing bubble rings at one another. It looks to me like they are having the time...

iOS customers using Yahoo’s official Mail application have been crying for a sign-out button on the main screen. So Yahoo! delivered. In Yahoo! Mail 1.5.7 signing out is easier now. “We heard you. This has been added back to the main screen. Simply tap on your name in the sidebar to surface this option,” says the company. ...

Work on the famous Winamp multimedia player continues, so a new version of the app was officially released today for Windows users. Winamp 5.70 Build 3435 Beta is only a minor update that fixes a bug in build number 3434, so in case you’re already running the old version, make sure you get this one as soon as possible. “3434...

Microsoft announces that its Xbox Live service is down at the moment and says that it is working as fast as possible to identify the issue and fix it.On the official status page the company states, "We’ve got our team engaged and they are working hard to get everything back to normal as expediently as possible. You’re being...

Tom Bui, a developer working on the Steam digital distribution service at Valve, says that the company is interested in launching more titles in the future in order to make sure that it gives players plenty of chances to find experiences that are interesting to them. Indiestatik quotes him as saying that, “The primary problem...

The Apache OpenOffice, the original open source office productivity suite, designed for professional and consumer use, is now at version 4.0. After being adopted into the Apache Foundation and after picking a new name, the Apache OpenOffice, the project...

Sony has confirmed that its PlayStation 4 next-gen console can record 15 minutes of gameplay, as opposed to the Xbox One that can only store the last 5 minutes of footage. Recording and broadcasting gameplay footage, either through videos or live streams, has become a necessity for next-gen consoles like the PlayStation 4 and...

Today, mobile phone carrier AT&T has officially announced the upcoming availability of the 4G-capable Nokia Lumia 520 smartphone for its GoPhone users, featuring a price tag of $99.99 (€76). Packing a 4-inch IPS LCD WVGA display and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 operating system loaded on top, the handset provides users...

Japanese mobile phone maker Sony Mobile is preparing the release of an updated flavor of its Socialife application, and might make it available for download before the end of July, it seems. According to a recent post on XperiaBlog, the company has already confirmed plans to release the app update before the end of July, and...

By now, it's certain that Advanced Micro Devices will be skipping the Radeon HD 8000 graphics card series and jumping straight to Radeon HD 9000. That's not exactly correct either though, it turns out. Yes, AMD will skip the HD 8000 line, but it won't...

The development team at EA Sports says that it will continue to create college themed American football titles in the coming years and is working with the Collegiate Licensing Company in order to get access to player names and likenesses.Andrew Wilson, an executive vice president at the company, tells Polygon that, "Our relationship...

The final flavor of Linux Mint 15 KDE, has been launched and completes the collection of desktop environments for the famous distribution.According to the developers, this edition features all the improvements from the latest Linux Mint release on top of KDE...

As part of its new initiative to boost iPhone sales, Apple will release an updated version of the Apple Store application featuring special deals for customers.According to people who are familiar with the matter, Apple employees will be encouraged to pre-install the app on any new iPhone sold in its stores.The updated Apple...

As we are nearing the end of July, the only review we deliver this week is for Bit.Trip.Fate on the PC, an interesting experience for those who appreciate an experience that challenges their expectations. We also have the usual Weekend Reading pieces:...

This past week there has been an avalanche of news regarding tech giants that are trying to convince the American authorities to improve transparency around surveillance efforts, as well as to give them the chance to disclose more details about the data...

Documentary film “Blackfish” is set to open in New York and Los Angeles this weekend, and SeaWorld is doing its best to convince people not to go see it. As previously reported, the film tells the story of Tilikum, a captive orca whale that attacked and killed its trainer, Dawn Brancheau. It's intended to raise awareness...

The death of a woman at Six Flags over Texas on Friday is currently under investigation. As I told you, the woman was in the Texas Giant when she fell to her death.The ride is 14 stories high and a maximum of 24 tourists can get on it at any time. When it was debuted in 1990 it was built entirely out of wood. A million dollar...

“The Lone Ranger,” despite a huge budget, lots of promotion, and boasting two of the hottest leading men of the hour (Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer) was a resounding commercial flop for Disney. Depp, for one, doesn’t care that critics hated it. As I noted on a previous occasion as well, chances are good that it was critics’...

The beta version of Process Lasso has just received another update, this time bringing a couple of new options, as well as bug fixes for issues reported in the previous builds. Process Lasso 6.6.0.65 Beta comes with a log filter that allows you to quickly search or filter logged activities, but also with a new PLLogToCSV utility...

After conquering the video game space and performing well in movie form it seems that Halo is poised to once again launch an assault on the comic book space, with a new Escalation series set to launch on December 11.Frank O’Connor, a director at developer 343 Industries, tells Polygon that, "Yes, I can confirm that we are working...

There numerous methods to keep sensitive files protected from being accessed by third-party or unauthorized persons. Setting the “hidden” attribute or restricting access to certain areas of the disk may do the job, but only until a workaround is found (and...

The Tour continues with a rather weird stage, one which has two HC climbs near the start, designed to sap the strength of riders from the get-go, and two rather easier ones near the end. It’s hard to once more go up so many times, especially after...

Good news for Android users who listen to their favorite music via Winamp, as developers have just released a small update that fixes some of the issues reported in the past. First and foremost, developers have announced that they have fixed the “stutter” and “skipping” during music playback issues that were affecting some...

Yves Guillemot, the leader of publisher Ubisoft, says that pre-order levels for the Xbox One from Microsoft and PlayStation 4 from Sony are two times higher at the moment than those seen for the current generation of hardware.The CEO made the statement during an investor call after his company revealed its financial results...

A satanist group has made it their mission to turn the mother of Westboro Baptist Church gay and they believe that they have succeeded. Vice reports that The Satanic Temple have performed a ritual that turns the departed gay by having two men and two women kissing over the tombstone of the subject. The ceremony, which is called...

Microsoft has often promoted Internet Explorer as the best way to browse the web regardless of the platform you’re using, so the company has now started what it calls the Companion Web to show the benefits of a seamless experience across multiple devices....

Mary-Louise Parker, star of the hit Showtime series “Weeds” and recent feature films “RED 2” and “R.I.P.D.,” doesn’t plan on working as an actress for much longer. In a new interview cited by ABC News, the actress says celebrity bloggers have pretty much taken out all the fun in her line of work, because the focus rarely falls...

The National Collegiate Athletic Organization announces that it is terminating its collaboration with developer EA Sports for the NCAA Football video game series starting with 2014, apparently because of issues linked to ongoing and potential future litigation over trademarks.The organization says, "The NCAA has never licensed...

On Sunday, August 25, at a live ceremony held at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, the who’s who in the music industry will come together to celebrate a year in accomplishments, at the MTV Video Music Awards 2013. The nominees were announced just minutes ago. Considering that Justin Timberlake made his music comeback in 2013 after...

Streaming site FirstRow Sports will be blocked off by Internet providers from the United Kingdom after the High Court sent out an order. The FirstRow website has approximately a million visitors each day and offers streams to major sporting events, including English Soccer League. The Premier League’s legal team has been trying...

Top Smash is one of the most interesting games that arrived in the Store lately, as it allows Windows 8 adopters to play tennis using their webcams. The application is based on motion sensing technologies and works exclusively on x86 and x64 devices, so no Windows RT support is available for the time being. “Prepare for a...

Desura, a digital distribution platform for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS games, has been acquired by the developers of Second Life, Linden Lab.Desura has been around for quite some time, but they never managed to get enough traction with new titles. Still, this...

A new beta flavor of the Facebook application is now available for download for the owners of Android-based devices, namely version 3.5, with some appealing new features packed inside. Following the update, users will be able to save photos on their devices straight from the photo viewer, and will also enjoy a series of fixes...

The sixth beta release in the new Firefox 23.x branch has been made available for download by Mozilla for all available platforms. The binaries for Mozilla Firefox 23.0 Beta 6 can be downloaded and run without having to install anything. The details for...

A 45-year-old man from Caratinga, Brazil, died after a cow wandered on the roof of his house and it gave way under its weight, making the animal crash right atop on him as he was lying in the bed, The Telegraph reports. Joao Maria de Souza was with his wife in bed at home, when the cow escaped from a local farm and somehow made...