Stalwart freeware Windows utility Process Explorer adds several advanced features in its most recent update. Version 12 expands on the must-have set of tools that previous versions have provided, making the lightweight tool even more useful.

If you've ever tried tracking down a process in Windows Task Manager, even in the latest version that's shipped with Windows 7, you know it's like looking for brevity in a shaggy dog joke. Process Explorer, which started out as an independent program but has been maintained by Microsoft for years now, makes the job a lot easier. It displays running processes in an intuitive tree format that includes not only process names and memory used, but also program icons and other data, such as description, image, and processor time.

It also can identify the process for a given application window or look up a process name in Google--a handy way to spot spyware or learn just what IGFXSRVC.EXE does. The latest version of Process Explorer, more than three years in the making, introduces several new features. You can now drill down into the multiple svchost processes and see what each one is controlling via mouse-over tooltip, learn which Internet Explorer 8 process controls which tab, and a new .NET assembly information tab under Properties for assistance in .NET troubleshooting.

Additional older features include detailed information on performance, DLLs, threads, handles, TCP/IP connections, security settings, and environments. It's still not the prettiest program around, but it doesn't need to be. It just needs to work and make the encyclopedic volume of information it provides easy to find, if not easy to understand. Without a doubt, Process Explorer is one of the best Task Manager replacements we've seen.

The big news this week was Apple's special event to announce the coming release of iPhone OS 4.0. Among the more than 100 new features in the updated operating system, Apple announced some big changes that both iPhone users and app developers will appreciate. According to Apple, the OS upgrade will be available to iPad users this fall.

Perhaps the biggest announcement of all was the addition of multitasking. This long-awaited feature will let you run multiple apps at a time so you can, for example, run Pandora to listen to music, while you play your favorite game or work on another project (currently you can only listen to music stored on your iPhone while using another app). As I mentioned in an earlier post, this has been a big user requested feature though I haven't really had a need for it up until now.

Some of the other more prominent changes include a new folder system for apps, and iAd, Apple's new advertising system for third party developers. The new folder system will be great for putting similar apps together (e.g. a racing games folder or a folder of apps related to your work) and make it much easier to open the apps you want to use quickly.

The new advertising system, iAd, lets developers make in-app ads that don't force you to leave the app your using. With the new system, Apple has given developers more options to include expanded ad content in apps which means they will be able to release more free, ad-supported content. Though ads can sometimes be an annoyance, it's nice to see that Apple is trying to make it as convenient as possible for both users and developers.

This week's apps are both games, with a fun mobile version of a classic TV game show and a game where you slowly build your own kingdom.

Press Your luck ($2.99) is an iPhone game that's based on the popular game show "Press Your Luck from the 1980s. The app does a great job of recreating the format of the original TV version, with three contestants who battle to answer four trivia questions in order to add to their spin count for when they face The Big Wall at the end of the round. Each correctly answered question gets you 3 more spins at the Big Wall. Once it's your turn to spin, you'll have the option to spin or pass, which you will choose based on how much money you've won so far and how much you want to risk getting a Whammy, a cartoon character that takes all your money and prizes.

For the uninitiated, Press Your Luck (and everything I've written about it so far) will probably sound like silly nonsense, and frankly, it probably is. The game also requires you to wait while the other contestants answer, which can get a bit frustrating. But if you're like me and enjoyed this game show, Press Your Luck for iPhone is true to the original with funny Whammy animations, contestants that actually say "No Whammies, no Whammies, stop!" and multiplayer options so you can pass your iPhone back and forth between friends. You also get a staggering amount of customization for your character's outfits which only adds to the fun. Overall, Press Your Luck will probably appeal more to those who have seen the show, but people who like trivia with a mix of cash and prizes will appreciate the attention to detail in this game.

We Rule (Free) is a real-time kingdom simulation game where you'll need to earn money to expand your kingdom. Earning money in We Rule requires that you grow crops and build factories and shops that will bring in a steady income over time. The touch screen interface is fairly intuitive for choosing what type of objects you want to build, but lacks descriptions of buildings making it difficult to predict how much income you will gain by placing a specific type of building. Part of the fun is finding out which building will net you the most cash. You also can invite your friends to play We Rule and trade resources to earn money and help each other build.

While the game is oddly both addictive and fun, you'll need to commit quite a bit of time to expand to the higher levels of the game. Crops require a very specific amount of time to be ready for harvest, with growing times that can be as little as 45 seconds to big money crops that can go well beyond 12 hours. What ends up happening (from personal experience, I'm ashamed to admit) is you'll need either to set an alarm, use the limited push notification features, or remember what time of day to harvest your crops before the land spoils. You also have the option to purchase extra "Mojo" from within the game, a magical solution you usually earn small amounts of by gaining levels, that makes your crops grow immediately resulting in more cash. Overall, if you like games like Farmville (popular Facebook game) or are looking for a time waster that sucks you right in, We Rule is a good option on the iPhone.

What's your favorite iPhone app? Are you happy to hear about multitasking for the iPhone? Are you a fan of Press Your Luck? Is We Rule nothing more than a colossal waste of time (I think it might be, but I can't stop playing!)? Let me know in the comments!

Hulu who? If you've been waiting to watch your favorite shows on your iPhone, wait no more: the new MobiTV app streams both live and on-demand television content.

What kind of content? Oh, let's see, there's "Caprica," "Castle," "The Colbert Report," "Community," "Cougar Town," and "CSI"--and that's just the shows starting with "C." Needless to say, the on-demand selection is impressive.

As for live channels, MobiTV offers ABC, CNBC, The Disney Channel, ESPN, and MSNBC, among others.

The interface seems a little busy at first, but ultimately you can find everything you need by tapping either the Live Channels or On Demand button. And once you start streaming a show, one tap toggles between full-screen viewing and the menu overlay. After just a couple minutes of tinkering, I'd mastered the interface.

I tested MobiTV on both Wi-Fi and 3G networks. Video played just about flawlessly over Wi-Fi, and when the 3G coverage was at five bars, I noticed only an occasional stutter and slight degradation of video quality. In both cases, shows were very watchable.

When I dropped down to EDGE, however, images turned grainy and the playback halted from time to time. Verdict: not good.

Your mileage may vary, of course, but I'd say that as long as you've got a decent Wi-Fi or 3G connection, you should enjoy pretty fluid close-to-full-screen video.

At what cost? The MobiTV app is free, and there's enough free content inside for you to take a solid test drive before making a subscription decision. The freebies include the ABC News Now channel, some stand-up comedy shows, news clips from Fox and NBC, and even a few cartoon gems like "Mr. Magoo" and "Rocky & Bullwinkle."

MobiTV's in-app subscription options: $9.99 for one month, $24.99 for three months, and $44.99 for six months. That may seem a little steep, but consider what you typically pay for just one month of cable. And all three plans are good for unlimited viewing.

Indeed, the only really bad news here is that MobiTV isn't compatible with the iPod Touch--or the iPad. According to a company rep, support for the latter is in the works, but he couldn't say when it would be available.

Even so, if you like TV and you own an iPhone, you're likely to love MobiTV.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

Google's Chrome browser draws heavily on the WebKit browser engine project led chiefly by Apple, but now WebKit is adopting one Chrome idea: separation between some computing processes.

Apple programmer Anders Carlsson announced the move, an interface called WebKit2, in a WebKit mailing list posting Thursday. "WebKit2 is designed from the ground up to support a split process model, where the web content (JavaScript, HTML, layout, etc) lives in a separate process. This model is similar to what Google Chrome offers, with the major difference being that we have built the process split model directly into the framework, allowing other clients to use it," Carlsson said.

Process separation in general can increase memory requirements, but it offers major advantages: a problem in one area doesn't necessarily crash the whole program, and it's easier to spread work across multiple cores of modern processors.

WebKit2 is an interface designed to be "non-blocking," according to a WebKit2 summary description. You can translate that as meaning it's designed for parallel programming challenges, where the execution of one computing process doesn't block another waiting for the first to release its claim on some resource.

Taking advantage of multiple cores is a major challenge facing the computing industry today now that simply increasing chip clock frequencies was halted by overheating problems. There's no indication about when it'll arrive for mainstream users of Safari, but this sort of significant internal change is generally of the type that would merit a new major version number.

Apple's WebKit2 move caused some indigestion for those it took by surprise.

"Can someone please point to the bug report and the forum where this development was discussed by the greater WebKit community?" asked Adam Treat in a follow-up message. Other browser "ports" also are based on the open-source WebKit software, including the KDE project's Konqueror browser from which WebKit itself stemmed, so others' projects could be affected by Apple's move.

"The time for that discussion is now. The forum is here," responded Apple's Darin Adler. But after Treat protested that the discussion was taking place after Apple announced it's about to start adding the WebKit2 updates, Apple's Maciej Stachowiak took a more conciliatory tone.

"We picked the name 'WebKit2' in the hopes of picking something really bland. Apparently that backfired, because it seems to make this project seem like a bigger deal than it is. Basically, you can think of this as a new port-specific API [application programming interface]. But we're trying to put some general mechanisms in this API, so other ports can use it if they choose. We are also welcoming input from the whole WebKit community on the design, architecture and direction of this work. It is at a very early stage, barely enough that you can build a trivial demo browser on top of it. We decided that our proof of concept was far enough along at that point that we should make the code public for community review and input.

"Nothing about the way existing ports work will go away, either immediately or in the foreseeable future. There will not even be any extra maintenance burden for anyone. WebCore will remain much as it is, there is imply a new WebKit layer on top now available. In fact, Apple's port for Mac OS X will continue to be maintained and will still be available as a system API."

Multiprocess designs are spreading throughout the browser industry. Firefox is splitting processes up through a project called Electrolysis, and one element of that called out-of-process plug-ins (OOPP) is growing nearer. Moving plug-ins such as Adobe Systems' Flash Player to a separate process can reduce the severity of crashes by isolating the problem.

The first version of Mozilla's browser with out-of-process plug-ins, Firefox 3.6.4 (code-named Lorentz) is now available in beta form, Firefox release manager Christian Legnitto announced in a mailing list posting.

"This beta offers uninterrupted browsing for Windows and Linux users when a problem causes a crash in any Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime or Microsoft Silverlight plug-in instance. If a plug-in crashes or freezes when using Firefox Lorentz, it will not affect the rest of Firefox," Legnitto said.

Work to support the feature on Mac OS X also is under way, but that will be for a later version of Firefox.

Mozilla said earlier in the week it hopes to release Firefox 3.6.4 on May 4.

Via Dion Almaer.

Originally posted at Deep Tech

Adobe will release its latest security updates for Reader and Acrobat on Tuesday via a new update system it has been testing the past six months, the company said on Thursday.

The Adobe updates will coincide with April's Patch Tuesday during which Microsoft will fix 25 vulnerabilities, including two for which exploit code has been released in the wild.

On Tuesday, Adobe will activate its updater technology for all users of Adobe Reader and Acrobat and use it to deliver the updates to resolve critical security issues, details of which were not disclosed in its security advisory.

The updates affect Adobe Reader 9.3.1 for Windows, Mac, and Unix, Acrobat 9.3.1 for Windows and Mac, and Reader 8.2.1 and Acrobat 8.2.1 for Windows and Mac.

The company has been testing the updater technology with a sample of customers since October 13. Users can set the system to automatically update, meaning the software will be downloaded and installed after it is available from Adobe, or semi-automatically so that the update is downloaded automatically but the user chooses when to install it.

Microsoft and Mozilla alert users when there are updates for Windows and Firefox, while Google's Chrome browser updates automatically without any notification. Many computer users either don't know when software updates are available or delay installing them, putting their systems at risk of attack even when vendors have patched the vulnerabilities. Relieving users of the responsibility for updating their systems will mean computers will be better protected from malware and other attacks, experts say.

Eventually, Adobe may include a way for users to switch the setting to auto-update from a prompt so that future updates happen automatically behind the scenes, an Adobe spokeswoman said.

"During our quarterly update on January 12, 2010, and then again for an out-of-cycle update on February 16, 2010, we exercised the new updater with our beta testers," Steve Gottwals, an Adobe product manager, wrote in the Adobe Reader Blog. "This allowed us to test a variety of network configurations encountered on the Internet in order to ensure a robust update experience. That beta process has been a successful one, and we've incorporated several positive changes to the end-user experience and system operation. Now, we're ready for the next phase of deployment."

Separately, the company is offering a workaround for an issue that could allow attackers to spread malware to computers via embedded executables in PDF files.

Updated at 12:10 p.m. PDT with Microsoft Patch Tuesday details.

Originally posted at InSecurity Complex