Norton Tablet Security

(Credit: Symantec)

While some app makers are taking a unified approach to Android, Norton has decided to split its security apps into a phone version and a tablet version.

Norton Tablet Security debuted today as Symantec also released a minor update to Norton Mobile Security, its smartphone version.

Norton Tablet Security is an updated version of Symantec's Android app, Norton Mobile Security. The Tablet Security version comes with an interface optimized for Android tablets. This means that instead of presenting its features in a narrow column, its interface is in a widescreen format.

Like its smartphone counterpart, Tablet Security offers anti-malware for scanning apps; Web protection, which uses Norton's Safe Web technology for protecting against malicious and fraudulent sites loaded in the default Android browser; and Web-based anti-theft measures, which allows users to protect their device after it's been lost.

Norton Mobile Security, now with Scream

(Credit: Symantec)

The anti-theft options involve logging into a Web site, from which you can then lock the device, add a custom "devic... [Read more]

(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

Hours after launching the hotly anticipated Gmail for iPhone app (and for all iOS devices), Google pulled the broken app from the Apple App store and apologized on Twitter.

"The iOS app we launched today contained a bug with notifications," the tweet reads. "We have pulled the app to fix the problem. Sorry we messed up."

Google later followed up with an official statement:

Update: 11/2/11: Earlier today we launched a new Gmail app for iOS. Unfortunately, it contained a bug which broke notifications and caused users to see an error message when first opening the app. We've removed the app while we correct the problem, and we're working to bring you a new version soon. Everyone who's already installed the app can continue to use it.

This is what greeted me when I launched the Gmail app on my iPhone 4.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

We witnessed the broken notifications first-hand on multiple iPhones when loading the Gmail app for the first time after a reboot (see right).

iPhone users also complained vociferously on social networks like Twitter and Google+ (here's one example of dozen... [Read more]

Although the product suffered in performance, we definitely did like Total Protection 2012's interface.

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

For a high-end suite, McAfee Total Protection 2012 (download) isn't a bad program. It's just not a particularly good program, and it misses being great by several miles.

We liked its interface, a continuation with only minor adjustments from its 2010 overhaul. The feature set is generally competitive, too, although this update really only brings it into line with the middle range of competitors. It doesn't really push the envelope as to what a high-end suite can do for its customers.

Its biggest problems lie in its performance, and for a security suite that can be the kiss of death. This kind of program has deep hooks into your Windows computer by necessity. Where competitors fight tooth and nail for fast scans and as small an impact as possible on startup and shutdown times, McAfee blunders ahead. Worse yet, it received terrible ratings in the past year from three independent labs on its ability to keep you safe.

For more details on McAfee Total Protection 2012, where it went wrong and what it did right, check out our full review.

[Read more]

Google's iOS GMail app provides access to almost everything the Web service can do. But the UI needs some refinement

(Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)

At Google, the bungling of the iOS GMail app launch goes deeper than the bugs the first, short-lived version of the app threw off when it was fired up. The app is unfortunately a typical product from Google's Mail group: It has most of the useful features you want, but it's missing the one or two you need. And it's designed for engineers. With fingers the size of pipettes.

Its competition is the e-mail app built into every iOS device. That app is by necessity general; it works on almost every e-mail back-end there is. It lacks access to several GMail features. But it's fun, fluid, and pretty.

Google's GMail app is a big step up from the Apple app in key areas: It's easier to label and star incoming messages and to attach pictures to messages you're composing. And it has the de facto "pull down to refresh" behavior that pretty much every app except Apple's own e-mail app now has (seriously, Apple).

Related stories

• Looks like Google borked its first iPhone Gmail app
[Read more]

Opera Mini 6.5 on the iPad.

(Credit: Opera Software)

Two new features arrived today in Opera Mini and Opera Mobile for most operating systems besides Android, which already had received the upgrade.

Opera Mini 6.5 for iOS, BlackBerry, Symbian S60, and Java-enabled phones, and Opera Mobile 11.5 for Symbian received improvements to bookmarking and data-use notification, coming just after the company announced significant growth in the use of its mobile browsers.

The minor update brings a data saver notification and simpler way to add bookmarks and speed dial shortcuts to the browser. The data saver in Opera Mini is one of those nonessential features that draws your attention to a key function of Opera Mini: namely, how much bandwidth the browser's Turbo mode has saved you. Turbo is really a compression agent that runs whatever Web site you're visiting through Opera's servers and squeezes it down to a size that makes it easier to resolve for people with slow phones or on slow connections.

The commonplace "star" in the address field of most browser location bars has now been added to Opera Mini and Opera Mobile. This means that bookmarking or adding a site to speed dial is dramatically simple... [Read more]

If you plan on running multiple operating systems on your Mac, one route you can take besides a direct installation like Windows in Boot Camp is to use a virtual machine, which installs the OS within OS X so it and its applications will run alongside your OS X applications.

There are several virtualization options for OS X, including VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop, both of which offer robust solutions for running multiple operating systems that integrate the guest operating system well with the Mac OS. Recently, Parallels released an update to its latest version of Parallels Desktop that, in addition to a round of bug fixes, includes new options for installing and managing operating systems.

In Parallels Desktop 7, the new Wizard interface for setting up virtual machines has a Convenience Store feature for purchasing copies of Windows, in addition to direct links for downloading and installing other popular operating systems such as Ubuntu, Chrome, and Fedora, and even installing OS X Lion using its Recovery HD partition.

With the latest version of Parallels, you can directly select the Lion installer application from the Mac App Store to install Lion in a virtual machine (click for larger view).

[Read more]