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The Mozilla Foundation is enhancing the tablet version of its Firefox browser. It's leveraging Android Honeycomb but retaining familiar visual elements of Firefox such as the signature big back button and distinctive tab shape, according to a blog post by Ian Barlow, who works on Mozilla's mobile us...

Linux users are blessed with a collection of file encryption tools. But chances are, whatever application you use for that task lacks the efficiency, speed and functionality of TrueCrypt. TrueCrypt does what any file encryption application is supposed to: It locks down access to your data so no one ...

There may be life yet for the seemingly defunct HP TouchPad. The company has discontinued its development of all webOS devices, leading retailers to drastically mark down prices on the TouchPads they have in stock. Some buyers have been able to score one for as little as $100 -- that's $400 off the ...

Sure, we all know that making regular file backups is an essential survival task for frustration-free computing. But backing up data and backing up computer systemfiles are not entirely the same things. Doing one without the other is like having an uninterrupted power supply that's not connected. Fo...

If you had the option to pick your own price for a computer game that only runs on your Linux rig, would you pay to play? Not if you are a typical Linux gamer. At least, that's the popular perception of fans of free and open source software. Linux is available freely. So why pay for a game -- or any...

Android device users spend more time on their apps than on the mobile Web, and the top 10 apps account for 43 percent of that time, according to Nielsen. When the top 50 Android apps are considered, they account for 61 percent of the time Android device users spend on apps. That means the rest of th...

I started out looking for a handy disk partitioning tool to repair a colleague's ailing computer. I ended up finding a toolbox full of very handy repair and system maintenance apps. As a bonus, I got all of this packed into a nifty specialized Linux distro called "PartedMagic" that boots into RAM fr...

The initial response to Google's surprise announcement on Monday that it had inked a deal to acquire Motorola Mobility for US$12.5 billion was that it was a move largely to protect itself from the increasing patent attacks against Android. That could be why all five major manufacturers of Android de...

If you use Linux instead of Microsoft Windows, its free availability may well be a deciding factor. But the fact that virus and malware contamination are less likely to take down your Linux computers is no doubt an essential influencing factor as well. But does using a more popular Linux distro like...

PiTiVi is a GTK-based film editor that shows promise but lacks enough refinement to be much more than a "lite" version of other film packages. Its interface is simple enough to use as it was designed, with both newbie and seasoned film fanciers in mind. PiTiVi was created in 2004 by a team of studen...

The number of attacks on Android devices has been rising over the past few months. The malware has exotic names such as "Zitmo," "DroidDreamLight," "Hong Tou Tou," "DroidKungFu," "YZHCSMS," "Geinimi" and "Plankton." In January 2010, Google removed more than 50 fake banking apps from the Android mark...

Jokosher is an audio editing application that gets the job done without an overly stuffed toolset. It lags behind other professional-strength audio editing packages available on the Linux platform. But what it lacks will not be missed by audiophile tinkerers and musicians who want to handle their ow...

To say Android's popular among consumers is like saying Godzilla's a lizard. It's a question of degree. More than 500,000 new Android devices were being activated daily, and the number was growing at 4.4 percent week over week, Google's Andy Rubin tweeted in late June. comScore's figures show that f...

Members of the cloud computing industry this week announced the Open Cloud Initiative, a non-profit organization to advocate open standards in cloud computing, at the OSCON 2011 open source convention in Portland, Ore. The organization maintains a set of Open Cloud Principles, adherence to which wil...

Eqonomize is a personal accounting package that is fast becoming my app of choice for all things financial. It is packed with features and is simple to learn. Plus, its KDE interface makes it an ideal solution to handle my small household economy. Keeping track of personal and business finances is o...