When Apple introduced the iPhone and iOS, it pushed for the adoption of HTML5 as an alternative to and replacement for Adobe Flash, stating that the plug-in is clunky, lacking in features, and not advancing. Since then, Adobe has buckled down and implemented a number of enhancements in Flash and its latest releases have brought massive speed and feature improvements. Today, Adobe has furthered this effort with the release of Flash Player 11 and AIR 3.0. You can also grab the updates manually from CNET Download.com: Flash Player 11 for Windows | Mac; and AIR 3 for Windows | Mac.

With these latest releases Adobe is bringing highly accelerated graphics support to the platform. According to Adobe, the new Stage3D technology in the new Flash Player brings combined 2D and 3D acceleration that is up to 1,000 times faster than the previous Flash and AIR iterations. While currently Stage3D is supported only for personal computers, it should make its way to mobile devices in future Flash re... [Read more]

Adobe's CSS shaders technology permits Web pages--including text, graphics, animation, and video--to be placed on curved 3D surfaces such as this flip book.

Now that the Web-standards bug has bitten Adobe Systems, the company is starting to produce some very interesting new technology.

The newest example, revealed at the Adobe Max show this week, are CSS shaders.

This newly proposed standard, developed in cooperation with CSS pioneers Opera and Apple, brings a common 3D graphics ability to the Cascading Style Sheets technology for controlling Web page formatting.

Shaders are small programs run by computers' graphics chips for games and other graphics-intensive applications. Shaders come in two varieties: vertex shaders, which control the geometry of the vertices used to construct the 3D surface meshes, and fragment shaders, which control pixel colors. CSS shaders employ both ideas.

Building shaders into CSS enables eye-catching, dynamic effects. Adobe demonstrated a few. With vertex shaders, it created Web page elements that curve like pages or ripple like flags. Because the shaders operate on HTML content, that means shader-controlled surfaces can contain ordinary elem... [Read more]

This article was originally posted June 6, 2011, and updated on October 4, 2011.

Just as many predicted, Apple gave a brief look at iOS 5 today at the Apple event (full event and iPhone 4S coverage here) this morning in Cupertino, Calif. Tim Cook opened the event, but he turned to Scott Forstall, Apple's senior vice president of iPhone software, to show off many of the new features in iOS 5 of a promised 200 new features for the iPhone 4 (and 4S), iPhone 3GS, iPad, and iPod Touch.

In today's event, we saw a recap of features originally debuted at WWDC including the new notification system, Twitter integration, and Reminders, but also some new features added to the list with Find My Friends, Cards, and Siri, a voice-controlled assistant that will only be available to iPhone 4S users. iOS 5 and the two new Apple apps will officially become available over the air starting on October 12.

Find My Friends Among the new features announced, Find My Friends lets you view your friends' and family's locations in real time on a map when they agree to share location info with you. You'll be able to set a time limit... [Read more]

When a security suite vendor tells you that they've "overhauled" their programs, often the changes are somewhere between a new coat of paint and an oil change.

In rebranding its products under the name Webroot SecureAnywhere, Webroot has also rewritten its software from the ground up. Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus (download), Webroot SecureAnywhere Essentials (download) and Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete (download) come with the tiniest, fastest installers in the security suite scene, new cloud-based protection, and free mobile apps as part of an effort to protect users across multiple machines and devices. Android (download) and iOS (download) versions are available as well.

The main interface for the new Webroot SecureAnywhere.

It's hard to understate how impressive the new Webroot installer is. It's so miniscule that you measure its size in kilobytes, not mega... [Read more]

After several years of minor changes that were touted as big improvements, Avira today released a new version with some serious heft behind it that the publisher hopes will position the free antivirus for future growth. Avira Free Antivirus 12, available exclusively today from CNET Download.com, along with the paid upgrades Avira Antivirus Premium 12 and Avira Internet Security 12, bring a new interface, tighter security engines, and an impressively zippy installation process to the suites.

Avira 12 renews commitment to security

The new installation is much improved and is among the fastest out there. The company says that it developed the two-click installation as part of its "less is more" strategy, where it offers the same level of protection as before without the hassle. Of course, that's a tacit acknowledgement of prior problems.

Anyway, the new install is the simplest of the major free security suites. The two-click process will auto-detect competing security components and remove them, so be warned if you think you're going to be more secure by running two overlapping AVs. Avira won't let you. Another click will take you past the Ask.com... [Read more]

(Credit: Google)

Researchers say they have uncovered vulnerabilities in a "popular" component of Android that is used by antivirus and other apps that could be exploited to do things like disable the apps.

A malicious app could be created to turn off the antivirus so an attacker could infect the phone with malware and in some cases the same weakness could be used to compromise the antivirus app itself, said Riley Hassell, founder of Privateer Labs, in a recent briefing.

Privateer co-founder Shane Macaulay uncovered the vulnerabilities but had not found any attacks exploiting them in the wild. Hassell declined to reveal details about the vulnerabilities.

"We're working with top (antivirus) vendors to come up with a solution," Hassell said. "There's a way for them to...accomplish the same task without them having to utilize this component."

Google representatives did not respond to e-mails seeking comment.

Hassell and Macaulay are scheduled to present their findings, including a potential workaround, at the Hack in the Box Security Conference in Malaysia next week.

Unlike Apple, which vets iPhone applications before they are available for download from the Apps Store, Google does not do security checks on the apps but provid... [Read more]

Apple's event today was largely a disappointment to most people, mainly because there was no iPhone 5 in the lineup (Read all of our coverage of the Apple event here). As was rumored, Apple instead released the iPhone 4S, adding a dual-core A5 processor, an 8-megapixel camera, an advanced voice command AI known as Siri, and several other new options in iOS 5, coming October 12. Apple also announced upgraded iPod Nanos and a refreshed line of iPod Touches. Still, the news of the day seems to be that there was no iPhone 5.

What did we really expect? The iPhone 4S has a ton of new features and hardware advancements, but it doesn't sport a new look. Is that the most important feature in a new phone? To be fair, the iPhone 4S doesn't have 4G speeds (but did receive a boost to download and upload speeds), and the screen size is exactly the same as it was for the iPhone 4. But we have to wonder, if Apple had tacked the name iPhone 5 on to the iPhone 4S, would the reaction have been different? There's no way to tell, but we're guessing it would have (with the same caveats about 4G and screen size).

Whatever you were expecting today, at least you know you'll still get your weekly dose of Mac downloads from CNET Downloads. This week we have the latest update for VirtualBox, the virtualization software ... [Read more]