If you've been disgruntled by a dearth of widgets in Google Reader for Android, today's news might pacify you.

Google issued three new features and support for Russian translation today in its Reader app. Two of them are widgets. You can now mark a previous item as read, a feature first found on the mobile-optimized version of Reader online.

As for the widgets, one will display the number of unread items on your home screen and take you there when you select it. The other widget is a larger-size news ticker you can selectively filter. It, too, will open your story or stream when you tap it. 

Although Reader is compatible on phones Android 1.6 and higher, widget activity works only on Android 2.2 Froyo and up.

Originally posted at Android Atlas

Rdio, from the makers of Skype (Windows/Mac/iPhone), is a subscription-based music service offering more than 5 million songs as well as added social components that let you connect with friends to share and discover new music. Today, the service announced an updated version of its iPhone app that features an entirely redesigned interface and new options for song recommendations, popular music charts, and new releases. It also offers improved search tools and better syncing controls than previous versions.

Get started by downloading the free app, then sign up at the Rdio Web site for a 30-day free trial. As part of the Rdio community, you can share music with other members, add friends, and follow their music choices to find new music. You'll also be able to create unlimited playlists and share your playlists.

Even though Rdio streams songs to you initially, what's great about the app is you can sync your favorite songs to your device so you can listen to them even without a connection. Unsynced songs also remain in your collection, but you'll need to be online to listen.

With a redesigned and intuitive new interface along with useful features for searching and discovering music, Rdio might make its way onto more people's iPhones. And at $4.99 a month for unlimited songs, the service offers a deal on par with competition from the likes of Slacker. If you love music--and don't want to pay for it piece by piece--Rdio is a great subscription-based alternative.

Microsoft says the release candidate for Internet Explorer 9 has been downloaded more than 2 million times since its release late last week.

Microsoft first released the software to the public last Thursday, after a five-month beta run with a total download count that topped 25 million. Later this month the company will offer an upgrade through the Windows Update software to those beta users who have not yet updated to the release candidate.

Included in this new version of the browser software are some 2,000 changes made since the last beta. The build also includes two new security and privacy features: tracking protection, and ActiveX filtering, alongside performance and UI enhancements, which you can read more about here.

Originally posted at News - Microsoft

Microsoft has brought its first piece of software to Apple's Mac App Store.

The digital software storefront, which launched just last month, is now home to Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Connector software. This is the application that lets Mac users sync up their iTunes and iPhoto libraries with Windows Phone 7 devices. It's also the way Mac users will be able to update the system software on their phones when Microsoft pushes out its first big update next month.

Microsoft first offered up the software in beta in October, and continues to offer it up as a standalone download on its own site.

This is Microsoft's first piece of software on the Mac App Store, and is unlikely to be the last. Microsoft currently sells digital copies of Office for Mac through direct download, but does it through its own storefront. Thus far, the company has kept mum about plans to bring Office to the new platform, short of saying the idea had been under consideration.

(via Cult of Mac)

Originally posted at News - Microsoft

A new free tool from the makers of Norton attempts to quantify the real-time state of cybersecurity. It makes its debut today alongside the latest version of Symantec's all-in-one consumer security suite, Norton 360.

The Norton CyberCrime Index lies somewhere between a weather report and the United States' threat level advisory system, and Norton 360 version 5 launches with a direct link to it.

The CyberCrime Index uses a statistical model based on information from Symantec's Global Intelligence Network, ID Analytics, and DataLossDB. At the top level, the CyberCrime Index takes this data and creates a number evaluating the relative risk of the threats of the day. However, it also provides a more in-depth look at active threats, threat trends, and provides advice on what kinds of behaviors are being most heavily targeted that day.

Symantec has had the statistical model and algorithm it uses in the CyberCrime Index vouched for by the University of Texas at San Antonio.

The service is set to go live this morning, so check back here later today for a hands-on update.

Symantec isn't forcing the index on any of its users, though the new version of Norton 360 does include a direct link to the service. Version 5 of Norton 360 includes the real-time threat map that debuted in Norton's 2011 consumer suites, along with all the features that were introduced in Norton's 2011 consumer suites last fall. These include updates to Norton's Insight engine, which instantly checks a file's origins and how long it's existed to determine how safe it is. The new version of System Insight also profiles your programs to determine if any of them are slowing down system performance, and automatically alerts users when a program is eating up too many resources.

Now included in Norton 360 is the Norton Bootable Recovery Tool, which will clean heavily infected systems enough to get Norton 360 installed, and can create a rescue tool on disc or USB so that your computer can be resuscitated. The backup features in Norton 360 have been improved, too, adding in automatic file encryption to the backup process. Lastly, Norton Safe Web's social-media scanner has been imported from Norton Internet Security 2011. Currently, it still only supports Facebook, though that's a good start: it will check your Facebook wall and news feeds from within Norton.

Norton 360 version 5 (review) comes with a 30-day trial and can be used on up to three computers. A one-year license with 2GB of online storage retails for $79.99. Bumping that up to 25GB of storage costs $99.99.