Ditching that premium cable subscription and bulky television in favor of accessing video content on the PC isn't for everyone, but software solutions like ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre are aiming to make that option more attractive. The multimedia program developer updated its all-in-one media player today, bringing it to version 5 with plenty of new features designed to appeal to early adopters. And what is the hot video feature of the moment? If you guessed 3D, you're right on the money.

One of the main focuses of ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 5 is to incorporate plenty of new 3D functionality. First off, you get support for Blu-ray 3D, which is supposed to offer the most realistic 3D experience for home viewing. You can also play back native stereo 3D, which includes 3D-DVDs, YouTube 3D files, and 3D videos that are encoded in Left/Right, Up/Down, Anaglyph, and so on. In addition, the app offers something called Sim3D, which uses ArcSoft's in-house technology to simulate 3D viewing for 2D photo slideshows and DVD movies. The technology provides 3D depth restoration as well as adjustable depth perception, and it lets you switch between 2D and 3D in real time. Perhaps most importantly, the software is compatible with various types of glasses, so you won't have to worry about purchasing a new pair just to work with the program.

Although not as up-and-coming as 3D, high-definition video viewing is perhaps even more important to most viewers, and TotalMedia Theatre 5 doesn't ignore this point. The software also has a feature called SimHD. which upscales standard-def DVDs and video files into "near HD quality." I saw a demo of this and can attest that the program does an admirable job increasing the quality of videos. It accomplishes this by balancing overexposed and underexposed areas, reducing image noise, and smoothing out jumpy playback.

Of course, any media player these days has to have an online and social aspect. In addition to playing back videos from your own library, TotalMedia Theatre can play back content from YouTube and other online and networked sources. You can share these videos with your friends via Facebook as well.

There's also a mobile feature of sorts, although it's not cloud-based viewing, which may be a shame to some. Rather, the software offers an app called TotalMedia Remote for Android. It lets you control video playback from the comfort of your couch--an essential feature for any program trying to help you replace your TV with your PC.

ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 5 doesn't come cheap: a license will set you back about $100. But you don't have to commit to it without trying it out first. The software is available for a 15-day trial period. You can find it exclusively on Download.com until 9 a.m. tomorrow.

For people who love to read but don't have a lot of extra cash to spend on books, nothing beats the public library. Love ya, Ben Franklin!

In recent years, many libraries have started offering e-books that you can check out for a few weeks, just like the real thing. Unfortunately, despite the plethora of e-book readers in the App Store, you couldn't read these DRM-protected library titles on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad.

Now you can. Bluefire Reader now supports not only ePub and PDF formats, but also the Adobe DRM used by most libraries. I just checked out Dennis Lehane's "Shutter Island" and Junot Diaz's "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," both free of charge, both without getting in the car and driving to the library.

However, I had to jump through some hoops to make it happen, and the end result wasn't always perfect. Indeed, if you're expecting this process to have Kindle-like simplicity, don't.

For starters, you need a library card and/or an online account with your local library. When I signed into mine, the "ebook" section listed only NetLibrary (which has a pretty weak selection) as a download source. However, I remembered previously downloading audiobooks via OverDrive--a service that also carries e-books.

Sure enough, when I clicked through, I was able to browse and download from OverDrive's much larger e-book selection. (It's where I scored the two aforementioned titles.) Your mileage may vary, but I suspect that's where most libraries will lead you.

OverDrive offers e-books in ePub and PDF formats. Whenever possible, choose the former; reading PDFs on an iPhone or iPod is not pleasant because you're looking at, well, PDFs, not formatted e-book files. You can't adjust the font size or much of anything else. ePubs afford a much, much better reading experience.

Alas, format notwithstanding, the book you want may not be available for checkout. As with print editions in a real library, there are a limited number of licenses to go around. (Likewise, most books "expire" after three weeks, meaning they're no longer readable unless you check them out again.)

I was able to place a hold on popular titles like "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and "The Help," but without knowing when they would become available.

Before you can read any downloaded book, you'll need to install Adobe Digital Editions (available free for Windows and Mac OS). With that step done, you can download your library book--which you'll need to open at least once in Digital Editions before you can transfer it to Bluefire Reader.

To do that, you'll use iTunes' "sideloading" feature. Check out Bluefire's help page for complete instructions.

Whew! Like I said, all this is enough to make one long for the simplicity of a Kindle. But once you learn the ropes, it's actually pretty quick and easy. And, hey, isn't it worth a little effort to score e-books for free?

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

Chrome was the application with the most number of high-severity vulnerabilities that impacted end users this year, followed by Safari, Microsoft Office, Adobe Reader and Acrobat, and Firefox, according to a list to be released today.

Chrome had 76 reported serious vulnerabilities, Safari had 60, Office had 57, Acrobat and Reader had 54, and Firefox had 51, according to Bit9's annual "Dirty Dozen" list.

The fact that Chrome is at the top of the list does not necessarily mean it is less secure than other applications, said Harry Sverdlove, chief technology officer at Bit9.

"Chrome is the youngest of the browsers out there and is going through the most changes," he said. "It doesn't mean it's a risky browser."

Rounding out the list were: Sun Java Development Kit (36 reported holes), Adobe Shockwave Player (35), Microsoft Internet Explorer (32), RealNetworks RealPlayer (14), Apple Webkit (9), Adobe Flash Player (8), while Apple QuickTime and Opera were tied in last place with 6 vulnerabilities each.

Apple appears on the list three times, "which dispels the myth that Apple is safer" than Windows, Sverdlove said. "They are as vulnerable, if not more so, as Microsoft Windows."

The applications were pulled from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology's official vulnerability database. They all had a severity rating of high.

The method of just focusing on the number of reported vulnerabilities is not without controversy. As Mozilla pointed out two years ago, the Bit9 study ignores issues like how quickly the bugs are fixed, and it punishes companies like Google and Mozilla that publicly disclose all vulnerabilities while other companies disclose only publicly discovered holes and not those found internally. It also fails to recognize that some companies lump multiple vulnerabilities into one report in the vulnerability database. In addition, there have been concerns about the quality and presentation of data in the vulnerability databases themselves, as mentioned by Google earlier this year.

Updated at 10:15 a.m. PT with information on complaints about studies based solely on numbers of reported vulnerabilities.

Originally posted at InSecurity Complex