One of the biggest new additions to Microsoft Office 2010 (review) is the ability to use Web apps to access your work anywhere. Though they're not as feature-rich as their counterparts in the desktop version, we think many will find them useful for edits, changes, and even sketching out ideas while away from the office.

Microsoft made Web versions of the most used apps in the office suite including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote. All offer enough basic features to work on the go, and you can always transfer a document back to your desktop for further tweaks when you return to the office.

A little over a month ago, Cerulean Studios issued forth a beta of the next version of its Trillian multinetwork chat app for desktops and mobile phones. On Tuesday, Trillian 4.2 for Windows (download) assumed the role of Stable IM Client with some minor updates from the previous version.

Among some of the changes to hit version 4.2 (up from version 4.1) are easier retweeting from the buddy window and simultaneous sign-in for Windows Live chat (meaning you can sign in at multiple locations without getting kicked off anywhere else). The history portion of the conversation window (timeline, to be specific) also got a few more smarts, letting you organize file and photo transfers--unfortunately we're not fans of what feels like a cluttered interface.

Trillian had already included a lookup for popular terms typed into the chat window. Version 4.2 similarly pops up a preview of the destination site  when Trillian detects someone has sent you a URL. While we tend to turn off the definitions lookup, this URL-preview feature is especially useful for getting the feel for Web sites whose identity has been hidden with a link-shortener; for instance "http://bit.ly/a2yU" rather than www.cnettv.com. The URL lookup hasn't been without flaws in our tests, however, which you can read about more in our first impressions.

During its promotion from beta to 4,2 final, Trillian for Windows has also received close to 100 bugfixes and OAuth support for Twitter.

While Trillian certainly has the technical features to recommend it--hooks into Facebook and Twitter, automatic link-shortening, file transfers--we've also maintained the same set of gripes since the Astra overhaul was first under way, particularly when it comes to the intangible quality of look and feel that keep us from choosing Trillian full-time. Your preferences aren't ours, so if you're looking for a multinetwork IM app, try it out for yourself.

Trillian IM comes in free and pro versions. Cerulean Studios is currently offering an upgrade to the pro features (like more advanced video support, tech support, further skin personalization, and Web IM) on sale for $15.

Vlingo's voice search app has long had a strong presence on BlackBerry and iPhone. Now it's laying claim to Android phones, too.

While many smartphones have some measure of voice commands baked in, Vlingo's premium offering ($9.99) adds the capability to launch apps, update your Twitter status, and send e-mail and text messages when you bark orders at it. (We'd love to see voice commands for playing music and taking photo and video, too.)

Vlingo will also dial your contacts, plumb Google Maps, and search Google or Yahoo. We should mention that there is a short learning curve in picking up the right voice triggers to get Vlingo to search and perform tasks.

One of the more compelling reasons for frequent drivers to purchase Vlingo is the app's capability to read you text messages and e-mails through SafeReader, a feature that the company introduced in March at CTIA. However, if your phone already comes with visual voice mail, SafeReader may be icing on the Vlingo cake for some, but not reason enough to purchase the app.

More importantly, while Vlingo has much to offer in theory, its software missed a number of our commands from both the app interface and from the widget. Sometimes it recorded voice, then stopped without acting. Other times it launched a Google search when it should have opened an Android app.

While Vlingo may pick up on the timbre or cadence of some voices more efficiently than others, we did expect a higher number of accurate results, especially when we spoke slowly, deliberately, and directly into the microphone.

In light of the errors we encountered in our tests, we'd prefer to see Vlingo adopt a freemium price structure for Android the way it did for other mobile platforms so that users could match their voice to Vlingo's sensitivity before committing to a purchase.

Originally posted at Android Atlas

Just shy of a year after releasing the first rough developer's build of its Chrome browser for the Mac, Google announced stable versions of Chrome for Mac and Linux, and upgraded the stable release of the browser to version 5. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, Chrome v5.0.375.55 includes support for extensions and themes, improved bookmark management and synchronization, browser preferences syncing, and the most recent stable updates to Chrome's trailblazing JavaScript engine, V8.

The browser also offers several HTML5-based features, including geolocation APIs, App Cache, Web sockets, and attachment drag-and-drop in Gmail. Although Adobe's Flash player was integrated into the development versions of Chrome 5, it has been touch-and-go in the beta versions and has not yet made it to the stable release of Chrome 5. The developer's version is now on version 6.

Unlike previous stable versions of the browser, this is the first one that feels like it can stand on equal footing with Firefox. Although there are some anecdotal complaints about Chrome rendering Web pages improperly, these are the vast exception to the rule. The extension gallery has also now been around long enough to give it some depth, and offers more than 4,500 ways to tweak your browser experience. As with Firefox, overloading extensions will decrease browser stability in general.

In JavaScript-only benchmark tests from SunSpider, Chrome 5 performed about the same on a Mac as on a PC. On a Windows 7 x64 running on an Intel Core 2 Duo T6570 at 2.10 GHz, with 6GB of RAM, Chrome took an average of 413.13 milliseconds over three runs to complete the test. On a Mac running OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard on an Intel Core 2 Duo at 1.83 GHz, with 1GB RAM, the browser averaged 521.67 over three runs. Since Chrome landed on the browser scene in September 2008, its speed at page rendering has been its biggest selling point. It's now arguable that Chrome is the fastest browser out there, with increasingly tough competition from Opera, and Firefox's nightly builds on the horizon, but there's no doubt that it continues to be the driving force in accelerating browser page-load times.

The Mac version will only work on Intel-based Macs running OS X 10.5 Leopard or later. Somewhat annoyingly, Google will automatically upgrade Mac beta users to the stable version. Since there's no Chrome Channel Changer for Mac, you'll have to download the beta installer again to use that version. However, Mac users do finally get a full-screen mode, which had been previously unavailable in the beta.

There were also multiple security fixes introduced in Chrome 5, including two high-level repairs. One corrected possible URL bar spoofing from unload event handlers, and the other addressed incorrect JavaScript execution in extensions.

For users who've been playing around with the dev and beta versions of Chrome, these changes aren't new. The developer's channel was even elevated to version 6 last week, although not much was new in it. But with Chrome finally on stable footing that allows it to compete on all three major platforms, users shouldn't be surprised to see heightened efforts from Google to expand Chrome's user base.

Let's face it: the pixel-doubled version of the current Facebook app, well, bites. I'm sure the company will give us an iPad-optimized version at some point, but until then (and possibly even after then), I'm sticking with Sobees.

Sobees for Facebook turns your Facebook content into an attractive, neatly organized, newspaper-style page. Though it lacks many of the real Facebook app's capabilities (like chat and access to your in-box), for the moment it's my favorite way to share and browse updates on my iPad.

The "front page" consists of five handy sections: Breaking News (the most recent status update, presented headline-style), Latest Status Updates, Latest Links, Latest Hot Images, and Latest Video. You can scroll your way through most of these sections, though Sobees lacks a "more" option when you hit the bottom of any of them--a minor gripe.

The app also offers one-tap access to People (i.e. your Facebook friends), Photos, Events (a terrific browsable calendar), and Profile. This last one is a bit disappointing, as it shows only your wall--you don't get access to any of the other stuff (like Info and Notes) found on Facebook proper.

On the plus side, a recent update made it possible to write on friends' walls and read/post photo comments. Without those rudimentary features, Sobees might be a little harder to recommend. Here's hoping the next update brings more goodies, like chat and and in-box support.

By the way, if the whole "newspaper format" thing sounds familiar, that's because Sobees takes a page (pun intended) from Early Edition--which, as you may recall, turns your favorite RSS feeds into a lovely virtual newspaper.

Bottom line: If you're a Facebook fan who's not loving the pixel-doubled Facebook app, do yourself a favor and try Sobees. It's Facebook made pretty--and it's free!

Originally posted at iPad Atlas

Justin Bieber is everywhere. And if you're like so many others over the age of 15, you've seen enough. Luckily, a new Firefox add-on lets you remove all mentions of Bieber from the Web in one fell swoop.

The tool, dubbed Shaved Bieber, evaluates any page a person is browsing and censors all mentions of the teen idol. It works on every site, from Twitter to Google to Wikipedia. People can even go to his personal home page and watch as every mention of Bieber is blocked out.

Shaved Bieber is available in two versions: an add-on, which does all the Bieber removal itself, or a bookmarklet, which requires a person to click on it before it hides mentions of the pop star. The tool also censors photos labeld "Bieber" or "Justin Bieber," so users don't even have to look at him.

The anti-Bieber tool was developed by Greg Leuch, a developer for Free Art and Technology Lab. The organization is "dedicated to enriching the public domain through the research and development of creative technologies and media," the site claims.

Well, the lab certainly accomplished its goal this time around.

(Via Telegraph)

Originally posted at The Digital Home

There are plenty of free PDF readers available for download including the ubiquitous Adobe Reader from the company that created PDFs in 1993. But Nitro PDF, which publishes the $99.99 Nitro Professional PDF creation tool, is now offering a free PDF reader. Features include include the ability to write comments that can be read by any other PDF reader. Users can also enter text in a static PDF document and insert a graphic, such as a scanned signature. The reader can also be used to create PDFs, though it lacks many of the advanced features available in the professional version.

To explain how the products works, I spoke with the company's chief product officer, Lonn Lorenz.

Listen now: Download today's podcast
Subscribe now: iTunes (audio) | RSS (audio)

Originally posted at For the Record Podcast