Beset by delays since it was first announced in 2009, the digital comics reader and store LongBox is finally here. It's a comprehensive attempt to bring some of that iTunes mojo to comics. This first look video showcases a bit of what was covered in Monday's hands-on, what the program can do, and what still needs work.

The LongBox public beta, for Windows and Mac, showcases a massive amount of potential, but it's definitely a rough work in progress. It faces massive challenges beyond getting the software to function correctly. Unlike music and MP3s, there's currently no single defining file format for comics. The "gray-market" CBR and CBZ are little more than image archive containers and not used by any comics publisher to distribute their comics digitally.

LongBox CEO Rantz Hoseley isn't worried about this, though. LongBox's greatest strength, he said, is that LongBox is a comprehensive platform. It's "comprehensive in terms of production tools and support provided to publishers and creators. Comprehensive in terms of devices and systems. Comprehensive in terms of how users purchase and use content, that we do not dictate how and where customers enjoy the content." He added this applies to archiving and re-downloading as well as content access, which implies that those features will be coming to LongBox.

There's also the issue of adoption. Except for the rise of graphic novels, comics publishers in America have been dependent on the direct market niche comic book stores. Will readers flock to digital versions of them? And will those readers jump from stores to digital, or will LongBox bring in new readership? Hoseley seemed confident in LongBox's ability to fuel growth.

"To the comic industry's credit, while they have historically been very resistant to digital, they've come around in a faster manner than music, film or traditional print. They've realized fairly quickly that consumers want to own the content, and that digital ownership doesn't equal 'piracy.' They've also realized that consumers want their content in different ways."

Retailers, he said, are worried about getting left behind after years of support for a niche market. "The discussions are much less on the adversarial side, and much more on the "let's figure out how to work together" direction." He said he's having ongoing discussions with several comic book store owners as to how to proceed, but that nothing's been finalized yet. If something concrete and long-lasting develops that supports both LongBox and brick-and-mortar retailers, it would be highly unusual and possibly unprecedented in the digital sphere. However, it's just as possible that the initiative could fail.

There's a lot of potential with LongBox, and users seem curious. Hoseley says that the private beta had about 2,000 participants, and that the company's servers notched that many downloads in the first hour alone of the public beta. That, combined with the public interest in tablets and tablet and mobile device versions of LongBox, could make the program transformative. With major pieces still in play and the program not even fully baked, though, it's still too soon to tell what impact, if any, LongBox will have.

PayPal has come full circle. What started as a PalmPilot app that let users wirelessly exchange money has evolved into an iPhone app that lets users wirelessly exchange money.

However, whereas Palm users relied on IR "beaming" to shoot funds back and forth, iPhone owners can simply "bump" their phones: The new PayPal 2.0 incorporates the same accelerometer-driven activator as the popular Bump app.

In other words, money can change hands just by knocking them together. What's the point of that? Well, say you owe your buddy $35.17--half of last night's bar tab, for instance. Instead of finding an ATM, taking out cash, and hoping your pal can make change, just "bump" the exact amount to him via PayPal. In about five seconds, the transaction is done.

Of course, PayPal for iPhone suffers from the same limitation as PayPal for PalmPilot: Not everyone owns a compatible device. It's all well and good to have the app on your iPhone, but if the other people in your life don't, well, go bump yourself.

Thankfully, bumping is only one piece of the PayPal 2.0 equation. The updated app also offers a Split Check feature for dividing and reimbursing a restaurant tab among up to 20 people. Its Collect Money feature lets you round up funds for, say, group dues or a gift for the soccer coach.

You can also withdraw money from your PayPal account, send money requests, and set payment reminders--if you use PayPal to pay bills. The app's overhauled interface makes navigation much easier than before.

Bottom line: If you're already a PayPal user, the new app is worth a look--and a bump.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

One of the great features of Android is that it offers its users choice. Whether you're downloading apps from outside of the Android Market, swapping out the user experience with a new desktop replacement, or simply choosing a different phone-dialing application, you'll appreciate the platform's flexibility.

Though I might consider the standard Android client to be a better-than-average browser, there are alternatives that add features to improve the mobile experience. Just last week, Opera announced its Mini 5 beta Web browser for Android. With it, and the Dolphin Browser, now I have two fantastic apps fighting for my attention.

I should point out that by downloading any Web client for Android, you're not required to remove the preloaded browser. Like on a PC, you are free to have more than one. As I do with Firefox and Chrome on my desktop, I like to use both Dolphin and Mini 5 for various reasons.

One of the big selling points in Mini 5 (hit the link for our First Look video) is that it compresses data on Opera's servers before it's sent off to you, which results in pages that load considerably faster. This is especially handy for people with slower or touchy data connections. I bounce between T-Mobile's 3G and EDGE connection throughout most of my day, so Opera helps make the transition less noticeable.

When you load the browser, you're presented with nine quick bookmarks called Speed Dials. As I typically don't have too many bookmarks, the ability to store nine pages covers my bases. Opera Link lets me sync my bookmarks and Speed Dial pages to and from my desktop, although I've yet to use the browser on my PC. Other features include pinch zooming, tabs, a handy navigation bar, and download manager.

Released last year, Dolphin Browser also gives users a better mobile Web experience than the standard client. With support for multitouch zooming, sharing links through social-networking services, plus fantastic RSS functionality, and a clean interface, I tend to use Dolphin as my preferred browser.

Though Dolphin also offers tabbed browsing, I like Opera Mini 5's design--if only for the smaller footprint. If you're a fan of Google bookmarks, it's possible to synchronize them from the browser and cloud. I really enjoy how Dolphin automatically detects whether or not a site has an RSS feed and offers it up to me. As I stated above, I don't bookmark too many sites, but I can't seem to get enough RSS feeds to sites.

If you value space and memory on your phone, you'll be happy to learn that Dolphin lets you store the cache to your memory card. Furthermore, it's a breeze to wipe the cache completely upon exiting the application.

One feature that Dolphin offers that I've yet to really take advantage of is the use of gestures. There are a handful of preset gestures for common tasks such as closing tabs and adding a bookmark. It's also possible to create your own should you not like the current setup.

Both Opera Minia 5 and Dolphin Browser are free applications available in the Android Market. It's not that one option is better, but some days one of the browsers fits my needs better than the other. I recommend downloading them and trying them out. I'm sure you'll encounter other hidden gems.

Which browsers are you using with your Android handset? Leave a comment below and share your favorites.

Download Dolphin for Android
Download Opera Mini for Android

Originally posted at Android Atlas

Dear CNET Download.com readers,

Today, reviews on CNET Download.com are changing in a small but significant way. Since we began reviewing software nearly eight years ago, we have reviewed only the trial version of any software title that was also available for purchase.

For all software reviews going forward, we will evaluate and rate software based on its full version rather than just its trial version, judging an application's effectiveness as a complete piece of software. However, we will continue to highlight and discuss the limitations of a piece of software's trial version. You can read more about our evaluation criteria here.

Simultaneously, we will cease to publish software reviews on reviews.cnet.com, our sister site. If you're looking for a new software review, you'll now only find it on download.cnet.com.

We hope that these changes makes evaluating the software that you download and purchase easier than ever. We would love to hear your feedback, so send us an e-mail or leave a comment.

Best,
Lindsey Turrentine
Executive Editor, CNET Reviews and Download.com

For those who doubted that Microsoft was serious in its effort to re-engage with the Web, it's time to put the skepticism aside.

At its Mix conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday, Microsoft gave programmers, Web developers, and the world at large a taste of things to come with its Web browser. Specifically, Microsoft released what it's calling the Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview, a prototype that's designed to show off the company's effort to improve how the browser deals with the Web as it exists today and, just as important, to add support for new Web technologies that are coming right now.

The new software is only a framework, raw enough that it's still missing a "back" button. But with "a few" updated preview versions set to arrive at eight-week intervals, the project will develop into a beta, a release candidate, and eventually the full-fledged product IE9, said Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of Internet Explorer and the executive who'll describe the project at Mix.

Coming in the new version is support for new Web standards including plug-in-free video; better performance with graphics, text, and JavaSript by taking advantage of modern computing hardware; and a new effort at gathering and responding to feedback from those using the prototype software, Hachamovitch said.

IE9 is months from release, but already it holds the potential to alter the browser market. Not only could it reinvigorate competition with a host of new rivals, it could help usher in the cloud computing era that some of those rivals are eager to embrace. In that era, the Web transforms from a foundation for static documents and Web sites into a foundation for interactive programs.

IE6, released in 2001 when Microsoft had won the browser wars of the 1990s, still is widely used today. It's loathed among Web developers who want to use more modern Web technologies, and despite the release of IE8 a year ago, Microsoft is still saddled with a reputation as a company behind the browser curve. Mozilla's Firefox now accounts for nearly a quarter of usage, Google's Chrome has burst onto the scene and now is in third place, while Internet Explorer continues to gradually lose its share of usage.

With IE9, though, Microsoft is trying to rebuild the browser for the Web that's to come through new standards such as HTML5 and CSS3, updates to Hypertext Markup Language for describing Web pages and Cascading Style Sheets for formatting.

The software caught the attention of Microsoft's biggest browser rival. "IE9 looks great, very glad to see it. Congrats to the IE team!" said Mike Shaver, vice president of engineering at Firefox backer Mozilla, in a tweet.

New Web standards

"We saw that HTML5 will enable a new class of applications. Those applications are going to stress the browser runtime in ways today's Web sites don't," Hachamovitch said in an interview. "We realized very quickly that doing HTML5 right was much more about designing all our browser subsystems around what the new apps will need than it was about a particular feature checklist. It's understanding where the apps are going to go and building the platform that will get them there."

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With IE8, Microsoft put a priority on complying with existing standards, a dramatic turnaround from an earlier attitude that resentful Web developers saw as "Standard? IE is the standard." With IE9 Microsoft is moving its standards religion into the future.

The company signaled its heightened interest in Web standards through new engagement in developing HTML5 and SVG, the Scalable Vector Graphics standard that the company shunned for years despite its possibilities for better rendering of graphics such as logos. IE9, those standards arriving as an actual product.

IE9 has "HTML5 through and through," Hachamovitch said, as well as support for CSS3 and for showing SVG 1.1 imagery inline. Hachamovitch's demo shows H.264-encoded HTML5 video, and he said that graphics such as maps are vastly more sophisticated with SVG support.

When Microsoft showed IE9 technology in November, it didn't shy away from IE's poor showing on the Acid3 test of compliance with various standards and technologies. IE8 scores 20 out of 100, the November IE technology reached 32, but the IE9 Platform Preview makes it up to 55. Microsoft also dings the test as imperfect, adding in a blog post, "A key part of our approach to Web standards is the development of an industry standard test suite. Today, Microsoft has submitted over 100 additional tests of HTML5, CSS3, DOM [Document Object Model, the structure of a Web page], and SVG, to the W3C," the World Wide Web Consortium that oversees HTML and various other Web standards.

New JavaScript Engine

Another headline element for IE9 is a new JavaScript engine. When it comes to these engines for running Web-based programs, Chrome has V8, Opera 10.5 has Carakan, Safari has Nitro, and Firefox has the new JaegerMonkey.

Now Internet Explorer has its own new name for a JavaScript Engine: Chakra. On Microsoft's test on the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark, IE9 Platform Preview is a tad faster than Firefox (using the older TraceMonkey engine) and a tad slower than Safari, Chrome, and Opera.

The finer points of exactly where IE shows up in the rankings are less important than the comparison to IE8 and earlier versions, which by comparison crawl through JavaScript.

One big change in the JavaScript engine that Hachamovitch is proud of is its multicore support. As soon as a Web page is loaded, Chakra assigns a processing core to the task of compiling JavaScript in the background into fast code written in the native language of the computer's processor.

Hachamovitch distinguishes this from the just-in-time compilation approach of other browsers, which he criticizes as a difficult balance of optimizing code well without slowing down the arrival of Web pages.

There are other efforts to make JavaScript a richer programming foundation, including the Web Workers standard to let JavaScript perform background processing tasks. Microsoft, though, wants to improve the Web as much as possible without requiring new programming approaches.

With the Chakra approach, "developers don't have to change their markup. The Web page didn't have to change. Essentially, dual- and quad-core machines get put to good use," Hachamovitch said.

Microsoft already showed off IE9's use of Direct2D and DirectWrite, interfaces in Windows Vista and Windows 7 that can accelerate graphics and text. At Mix, Hachamovitch's demonstration shows the technology works to speed up SVG graphics as well.

Feedback time

The IE9 Platform Preview itself is a change, too. Previously, Microsoft delivered a more finished product to the world. Now it's trying to get feedback at an earlier stage of development. And it's explicitly seeking comment on a wide range of elements:

"The main technologies to call out here broadly are HTML5, CSS3, DOM, and SVG," Hachamovitch said in a blog post. "The IE9 test drive site has more specifics and samples. At this time, we're looking for developer feedback on our implementation of HTML5's parsing rules, Selection APIs, XHTML support, and inline SVG. Within CSS3, we're looking for developer feedback on IE9's support for Selectors, Namespaces, Colors, Values, Backgrounds and Borders, and Fonts. Within DOM, we're looking for developer feedback on IE9's support for Core, Events, Style, and Range."

Alphabet soup, to be sure. But when it comes to building a modern Web, those letters all reflect important standards. Microsoft's embrace is all the more significant given that, with its Windows and Office businesses, has the most to lose from the migration of applications from the PC to the cloud.

Originally posted at Deep Tech

The last time I needed an exercise in frustration, I tried using the Finder to locate files that were taking up the most space on my disk. While the program is great for navigating the filesystem and locating items, when getting information on files or folders, or setting the Finder to automatically calculate file sizes, the "Calculating size..." process can sometimes pause for several minutes, and sometimes for tens of minutes. After the sizes are eventually calculated, the system will only list them and not really give you a good feel of which are using the most space. The utility Grand Perspective does a good job at tackling this limitation.

Grand Perspective is an open-source project (available at SourceForge and at CNET Downloads) that offers an alternative way of representing file sizes on disk rather than through lists of numbers as is done in the Finder. It does this by representing files visually as groups of rectangles with sizes directly proportional to the respective files' sizes on disk.

The program starts at a specified root folder, and shows all files from that folder in a rectangular grid, grouped together and colored by common folder structures so they can be easily followed. This method of displaying the hard drive's contents is rather intuitive, and can easily let you locate the files and folders that are using up most of your drive space.

When the program launches, initially there are no windows displayed. You will need to choose "Scan Folder" from the "File" menu (also available with the Command-S hot key) and selecting a target folder. The program will then scan all files and subfolders, and display them as rectangles in a grid pattern. Larger files are shown by larger rectangles, and files in the same folder are grouped together in the same color.

Once the scan is complete, you can select individual files, and then use the toolbar to rescan, reveal the file, open the file, or immediately delete the file. To avoid errors, the option for deleting files is disabled until you specifically enable it in the Grand Perspective preferences. Beyond some customization there is not much more to the program than that. You can save scans, and the image output from scans, as well as load previously saved scans.

By default, the program will scan all accessible files, so you will be limited to scanning the files for which you have read access. This means that files not available to you without authenticating (such as other users' home directories) will not be scanned. Unfortunately there is no way to authenticate an administrative account to enable read access for scanning all files, but hopefully that feature will make its way to the program in a future release.

To limit the files found, the program supports filters, which are available in the "Grand Perspective" menu. In this section of the program you can set up test routines that will be applied to each file scanned, and used to include or omit it from the scan if it matches the conditions of the test. To run a filtered scan, choose "Filtered Scan" from the "File" menu instead of the standard "Scan Folder" option. I have found this to work quite well, though there are a few interface bugs with the filter setup window (sometimes buttons will become inactive).

The filtering options are very extensive, and you can customize your own test conditions and filter setups to match practically any file type and attribute in the system. By default the program uses a built-in filter that excludes hard linked files, but this can be changed in the preferences.

The program is quick at scanning, and instantaneously calculates file sizes (unlike the Finder's exceptionally slow file size calculation process). While scanning is fast, the overall time taken for building the visual grid will depend on the number of files included in the scan (not file size), so if you scan the root file system it may take a minute or two instead of instantly showing the results.

In the most recent release, version 1.3.1, the program's main new feature is drop-scanning that lets you drag any folder to the Grand Perspective icon (either in the Dock or Finder), and have it immediately scan and display the visual size representation of that folder's contents.

While this feature is convenient, there is still one useful aspect that is lacking--the capability to batch-scan folders. If you drag several selected folders to the Grand Perspective icon, the program will only scan the first one alphabetically. If you need to quickly size up multiple folders, you will have to sequentially drag them to the program. Despite this, the program is still just as useful as it has always been.

There are a few other file managing utilities out there, some of which also provide graphical drive representations. DaisyDisk and WhatSize both offer graphical file size representations, but are shareware and provide limited functions until you purchase a license.

Overall, Grand Perspective does not pretend to be anything it is not. It provides one function and does that function quite well, which makes it a convenient utility to have in any troubleshooting arsenal. The best part is that it's free!

---

Questions? Comments? Post them below or e-mail us!
Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums.

Originally posted at MacFixIt

Well, that was fast. Just last week we speculated that Opera Software would release the final versions of their latest beta Web browsers in time for the CTIA cell phone conference in late March. Instead, Opera released them  a week earlier than we predicted.  Tuesday morning, Opera turned its Mini 5 beta 2 and Mobile 10 beta into the company's latest stable versions of its mobile Web browsers.

For those who have been following along, the newly finalized Opera Mobile 10 and Opera Mini 5 hew close to the beta versions. They don't receive any new features, though there are some fixed bugs and the app now supports more than 100 languages. 

If you're new to browsing with Opera software, Opera Mini's proxy browser works on phones running Java, including BlackBerry. However, Opera Mini 5 remains in beta for Android and Windows Mobile phones. The company's standalone Web browser, Opera Mobile, works on Symbian Series 60 phones and Windows Mobile phones.

The change from yesterday's stable Opera Mini 4.2 to today's Opera Mini 5 is dramatic, and centers on a cleaner, updated interface governed by Opera's speed dial thumbnails, faster browsing speeds, and more advanced features such as support for tabbed browsing and a password manager (see our initial hands-on look for more detail). Opera Mobile 10 looks nearly identical to the earlier Opera Mobile 9.6. Since it already had tabs and a password manager, the interface and performance changes are its claim to fame. While some features, like the bookmark-syncing Opera Link, were temporarily unavailable during the first beta rounds, but now they're back in the final version.

Stay tuned for a video update of Opera Mini 5 and Opera Mobile 10. In the meantime, here's an oven-fresh hands-on look at Opera Mini 5 beta for Android, which is nearly identical to the Mini and Mobile versions being released today.

You can download the latest Opera browser for your phone by visiting m.opera.com.  As usual, tell us what you think of the app in the comments.

Overall, we're fans of the improved interface and functionality, which  makes Opera our go-to mobile browser on many phones. However,  it sees competition from Skyfire's mobile Web browser for Symbian and Windows phones as well as  browsers like Xscope and Dolphin browser for Android. Although Firefox Mobile only works on  Nokia's Maemo platform at the moment, it's also under development for Windows Mobile.

Opera has won this round, but we don't see competition over mobile browsers letting up anytime soon.

Related:

Opera Mini now on Windows Mobile. Yeah, you read that right
Opera Mini browser for iPhone?
Opera Mini and Mobile betas bestowed with sync