Norton 360 is moving to a fall release schedule in its next version.

Better firewall technology, smarter bandwidth monitoring, and Windows 8 compatibility are the hallmarks of the latest Norton betas, now available for download.

The Norton AntiVirus 2013 beta, Norton Internet Security 2013 beta, and Norton 360 v7 beta all include support for Windows 8, though the company has yet to reveal what the specific Windows 8 enhancements are. Savvy Symantec observers will note that Norton 360, usually a first-quarter release, has been moved to the company's fall schedule.

Norton has updated its firewall, too, so that it uses the suite's Insight analysis technology to detect and block suspicious Internet traffic coming from your computer that could be a hidden botnet.

Finally, Symantec has improved Norton's bandwidth monitoring, a growing necessity as Internet service providers expand and tighten data caps.

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Notice all of the empty space under the All Videos tab.

While Socialcam appears to be one of the better video-sharing apps on iPhone, I certainly can't say the same about its sibling on the Android platform. See, after taking some time to review Socialcam for Android, I realized that the app is wrought with problems and in dire need of some attention from its developers.

The first problem I encountered was that Socialcam on Android only offers you the option to log in using Facebook, and much of the time even that doesn't work. I tried logging in using two different accounts on two different devices and found this most basic of actions to be hit-or-miss, with the app force closing or freezing on several occasions. This was not a good start, to say the least.

Once I was finally able to get into Socialcam, the problems continued. The app failed to load any user videos, except for a single promo piece published by Socialcam staff, which means I wasn't able to browse other users' content or find anyone interesting to follow. In other words, I wasn't able to interact with the community at all. And from what I know, that is supposed to be a major part of the Socialcam experience.[Read more]

After you snap a pic, you have the option to set a time limit for how long a person can view it.

By now, we have all seen how it happens. Pictures from "stars," such as Kim Kardashian or Paris Hilton, are leaked on the Web, and all the gossip Web sites spread the pics like wildfire. People also probably remember the scandals that followed Brett Favre and Congressman Anthony Weiner when their pics were leaked and went viral. Even worse, many people out of the public eye will send risque pics to their significant others only to find the pics online when the relationship turns sour.

SnapChat (free) is an app that puts a time limit on pics sent so the person who receives the photo can only look at it for a short time. Once you snap a picture using the app, you can set a time limit, between 1 and 10 seconds, for how long the receiver will be able to see it before it "self destructs" and can't be viewed again. When a person receives the pic on the other end, he or she needs to touch and hold a button to see the picture while a timer counts down before it self destructs.

Of course, the obvious problem with this -- or, should I say, the obvious problem with the app (there are so many problems with this, where do I begin?) -- is the receiver could just as easily take a screens... [Read more]

Apple has launched an update to its iOS platform.

The company's iOS 5.1.1 update comes with bug fixes for AirPlay video playback and the "Unable to purchase" error message popping up after users buy something from their device. In addition, Apple fixed a bug that prevented the new iPad from switching between 2G and 3G networks.

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Apple's iOS 5.1.1 update comes just a couple of months after the company revealed iOS 5.1. That update delivered a host of new bug fixes, a few interface tweaks, and even a hint that ... [Read more]

Convert cassettes into MP3s

As far as I'm concerned, we have a global musical crisis on our hands.

The cassette tape was the dominant music format through most of my childhood. The first read-along books I had as a kid were on cassette tape. The first time I ever bought music with my own money, it was on a cassette tape (which, by the way, I'm proud to say was Run DMC's "Raising Hell"). The first time my band ever released a demo, it was a demo tape.

For independent musicians of the '80s and '90s, cassette tapes offered the first affordable medium for both recording and distributing music. I still have a case full of tapes made by the garage bands I loved as a teenager. I'm afraid to throw them away because I'm certain there's no way I can find them again.

Because some of these tapes are from bands I actually played in, a combination of ego and sentimentality compels me to rescue them from analog obscurity.

Unfortunately, the process for converting a cassette tape to MP3 is painful enough to have kept this project at bay for years. Much like digitizing LPs, doing the process right involves several careful steps and a surplus of time.

Now, we had an old tutorial on this floating around CNET for years that involved some discontinued, PC-only software and a tedious method of stopping and encoding between each song. It was a process that could break your spirit and eat up an enti... [Read more]

Angry Birds is officially a financial powerhouse.

The franchise's creator, Rovio, today announced that it generated $106.3 million in revenue last year. And thanks to a profit margin of about 64 percent, the company was able to post net income of $67.6 million.

Although much of the financial success Rovio enjoyed last year came by way of its popular Angry Birds games, the company also sells a host of consumer products, including stuffed toys and school supplies. Rovio also generated advertising revenue to supplement its operation.

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But it's the sheer po... [Read more]

Adobe Systems today began selling Creative Suite 6, its mammoth but expensive collection of software for designers, artists, photographers, videographers, publishers, and others in the "content creation" business.

The software is available in the $2,599 Master Collection, the smaller $1,899 Design and Web Premium or Production Premium collections, or the yet-smaller $1,299 Design Standard collection. About three quarters of Adobe's unit shipments today are in these collections, but individual packages are available, too, such as Photoshop CS6 for $699 in its standard version or Illustrator CS6 for $599.

With CS6, Adobe tried to mix in performance improvements such as a cache-related speedup to After Effects for video effects, interface improvements such as Premiere Pro's simplified layout for video editing, splashy new features such as Photoshop's content-aware move tool and ... [Read more]