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Of Facebook's 800 million active users, more than 350 million of them currently access Facebook through mobile devices, according to the company. October saw Facebook's updated Messenger app, labeled 1.5, rolling out to iOS, Android and BlackBerry with updated features, including the ability to see ...

Cheese is a nifty little application that makes it easy to use your computer's built-in -- or plugged-in -- webcam to take photos and videos. Given today's penchant for populating social media with photo journals, Cheese can be one of your must-have Linux tools. This handy webcam app brings to your ...

Anyone who's gone through the painful task of buying a new smartphone knows that the process of re-installing apps and getting the phone configured just-so is a major job. While the Android Market does keep a list of your apps in its library, automatic syncing is hit-or-miss. You can manually send e...

A vulnerability in a logging tool that HTC has installed on some of its Android devices poses a serious security problem for users. The devices at risk are the Evo 3D, Evo 4G and Thunderbolt. The vulnerability allows hackers to collect a great deal of information about the device and its user -- inf...

Burning optical platters can be frustrating and time-consuming. Show me a computer user who doesn't have a trash bin filled with spent CDs and DVDs, and I will show you a user who doesn't burn discs. Linux users have several good CD/DVD burning apps available -- and a pile of not-so-good choices. Th...

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...

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...

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...

When it comes to image viewers, one app is not always hands-down better than others. It is rare to find an image viewing tool that has every feature stockpiled on your wish list. So having a collection of go-to viewing tools to meet a variety of graphics needs is a better strategy. That said, the Ge...

The Linux OS makes listening to your music collection quick and simple. For instance, Xine, MPlayer and Amarok let you track and play your musical selections with a point and a click. In fact, we have reviewed these and other audio players in this space. Not so easy to manage, however, is labeling y...

If all you do with PDF files is view them, you have very little need for an application the likes of PDF Shuffler. But if you find yourself in desperate need of a tool to let you slice and dice one or more PDF files, then this little app may well be one of the best computing tools you will use on yo...

Operating a small business or home office is always fraught with tasks based on creating and maintaining office documents. Often, entrepreneurs are stuck using different apps to handle each phase of record-keeping and pricing business proposals for each customer. Why stretch those tasks over multipl...

Somehow, some way, the year 2010 may have finally been the year of the Linux desktop -- but no one noticed. Maybe no one needed to. In 2010, smartphones got hot, and Android OS smartphones collectively overtook the iPhone in units sold. At the same time, Android tablets gained traction as popular al...

One of my biggest concerns when I adopted the Linux OS over Microsoft Windows was Linux's ability to supply me with a robust presentation program. I did lots of lecturing and instructional seminars. Those activities required a product that closely mimicked Microsoft PowerPoint quality. The resulting...

Desktop and laptop computers are great tools for organizing our worlds of things and ideas. The FOSS world of Linux applications offers perhaps more choices for cataloging and categorizing our collections than any other platform. This week's Linux Picks focuses on applications to help you track your...

Mind map tools offer users a system to graphically think through complex ideas in a somewhat controlled space on the computer screen. This type of software makes it easy to link related ideas with lines, branches and multiple colors in much the same way you would "think" about a topic with a scratch...

The advantages of open source software really become evident when it comes to using design applications. This category of software is one that not everyone needs -- that is, unless you need software to help you create illustrations for Web design or print publication projects. The Linux OS has a bev...

It used to be that only hard-core film buffs carried video recording equipment on vacations. Unless your job required working with film, film editing software was not on most computer users' must-have list of tools. Maybe that is why until recently, few really useful film editing apps existed for th...

Do you ever marvel at those step-by-step how-to product demos of software apps that end-users post on places like YouTube? It is often easy to spot these demo videos shot with cellphone cams or PC eye cams placed over the user's shoulder. But two cool Linux apps give you a the ability to record dire...

Canonical has released version 10.10 of the Ubuntu Linux operating system, code-named "Maverick Meerkat." This will be supported for 18 months on desktops, notebooks, netbooks and servers. It's available in 37 languages. With Ubuntu 10.10, Canonical has begun focusing on consumers and mobile devices...