Apple released Safari 5.1.2 (Mac or Windows) to users today, adding some fixes and stability improvements to its official Web browser.

A must-download for any Safari user, the update includes various improvements to stability, addresses issues that caused hangs and excessive memory usage, and will now allow PDFs to display within Web content.

The update also addresses an issue that would cause Web sites to flash white while browsing.

The full list of feature enhancements and fixes is not yet available at Apple's Web site at the time of this writing, but we'll update the Safari listing at Download.com when we receive more details.

Microsoft released its fourth "platform preview" of Internet Explorer 10 today, adding a collection of new features to what's shaping up to be a surprisingly feisty browser.

The new version supports a number of new features detailed in a blog post by Rob Mauceri, program manager of the IE group. Among the features are support for JavaScript typed arrays, which lets Web apps handle raw data such as files better, and HTML5 video features such as the ability to link to a specific time in a video and to add captions.

"These foundational capabilities are what developers building native applications depend on: working with binary data and files, controlling selection and hit testing in application UI, and providing accessible video content with captioning," Mauceri said.

But in case there's any doubt about who's the boss at Microsoft--the IE team or the Windows team--there's one telling data point that shows it's the latter. The fourth IE10 platform preview, like the impressive third, is available only in a developer's build of Windows 8. That means any developer who wants to test a Web technology with IE10 will, to at least a small degree, become a Windows 8 dev... [Read more]

With today's jump to version 6.0, Google Maps for Android is taking its powers indoors.

Instead of just dropping you off at the front door of your destination, the improved app is now helping you find your way around the inside of the building. Once you've stepped into a building with coverage, just zoom in to see a detailed floor plan, and as usual, the "blue dot" icon will indicate where you are. You can swipe around just as you would with an outdoor location, and even check out different floors using the numbered selector on the right. Otherwise, whenever you move to a different floor, the floor plan will update automatically.

Mall of America in Minneapolis before and after

Related stories

• CSR reaches beyond GPS to improve navigation
• BMW finds your parking spot (video)

For now, the technology only covers select airports, transit stations, and big-box retailers in the U.S. and Japan, but we're sure the list will grow rather quickly. Google is even inviting business owners to manually add floor plans to its map database at maps.google.com/floorplans. For a full... [Read more]

Smartphone-app makers have a new way to classify age-specific ratings for their software using an already-popular program, but some of the biggest players in the mobile-app business are not on board with its launch.

Wireless-industry trade group CTIA and the Entertainment Software Rating Board today formally announced a system that lets developers assign a rating to their game, letting users and parents get an idea of its content before download or purchase.

Under the free program, developers designate what types of content are in the software. That information is turned into an age-specific rating assigned by the ESRB, which the developer can then note when sending its software to a participating storefront. The ratings then show up to let buyers know what's in a title before hitting the buy button.

Among participants in the new program are carriers such as AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile USA, U.S. Cellular, and Verizon Wireless. The only noncarrier in on the launch is Microsoft, which is already using ESRB ratings for games on its Windows Phone 7 Marketplace that were ported over from other platforms.

Notably missing are Google and Apple, whose mobile operating systems collectively are used by the majority of U.S. smartphones by market share, ... [Read more]

Sodasynth, a music-looping app, is built using Google's Native Client and available through the Chrome Web Store.

Native Client has taken only baby steps in its first three years of existence, but Google evidently is hoping its browser-boosting technology will take larger strides soon.

The company has sent out invitations to a Native Client event on the evening of December 8 at Google's Mountain View, Calif., offices, where "we plan to share some news about Native Client," show some demos, and share some wine.

Native Client, aka NaCl, lets Web-based software run natively on x86 processors--and therefore run more quickly than traditional Web apps. That's what Office and Photoshop do, too, of course, but NaCl comes with security protections designed to let people safely run software they just downloaded over the Web, not just trusted software they install themselves.

NaCl now is built into Google's Chrome browser. But because other browser makers range from uninterested to disapproving, NaCl doesn't show many signs of extending any farther at present. Its future therefore hinges on how well Google can generate programmer interest and excitement that will bring others on board... [Read more]

Angle, a Google graphics project for Windows computers, has passed an important certification milestone that could improve some browsers' graphics.

Google launched Angle in March 2010 as a way to help the fortunes of WebGL, the nascent 3D graphics technology for browsers. And yesterday, Google programmer Vangelis Kokkevis announced Angle has been certified to pass the OpenGL 2.0 certification test suite.

WebGL provides a low-level graphics interface that mirrors the OpenGL standard used on Mac OS X, Linux, iOS, and Android, but that's still a second-class citizen on many Windows machines. Windows comes with Microsoft's rival standard called Direct3D, and it's Angle's job to translate OpenGL commands into Direct3D.

"Angle is a necessary step in our continued efforts to push the web platform forward. Without Angle, it would be impossible to reliably run WebGL on many Windows computers, so we couldn't enable great applications like MapsGL," Kokkevis said. MapsGL is an optional WebGL-based interface to Google Maps that provides 3D buildings and other features not ordinarily present in the online mapping tool.

Angle is used in both Chrome and Firefox to bring WebGL to Windows machi... [Read more]

VMware Fusion is a virtualization program that lets you run Windows applications on any Intel-based Mac--and quickly switch back and forth between Windows and Mac apps. This app's Unity feature alone makes it worth trying VMware Fusion's 30-day trial. With Unity, Windows apps appear right alongside Mac apps as windows in your Mac OS, as well as in the Dock and Expose. This latest version of VMWare Fusion fixes bugs while running Mac OS X in virtualization.

Also this week, we have the latest version of Pixelmator, the full-featured image editor without the hefty price tag of big-name software. This latest release is primarily a maintenance release, but the recent update to 2.0 added a laundry list of new and useful features, making it much better than previous versions.

Our game this week is X-Plane, a popular flight simulator that lets you fly from one end of the country to another. While the full version of this game offers amazing features such as autogenerated scenery and downloadable planes and helicopters (or just about any flying machine), this demo limits you to only 60 minutes of gameplay. In other words, only those who are serious about flight simulators should take on the large download.

Don't forget to check out ou... [Read more]