Month: March 2015

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Windows 10 will not only mark a renewed attempt by Microsoft to regain share in the operating system market, but it will also see the introduction of its new browser codenamed Project Spartan that the company hopes will be taken seriously.

Currently only available in the latest build of Windows 10 (10049), Project Spartan will replace Internet Explorer (IE) for most users, with Microsoft previously confirming the death of its browser. IE will live on for a while as legacy support but it’s clear Microsoft’s efforts are centered around Spartan. Both are still available in the Technical Preview of Windows 10.

Microsoft also wants to provide a consistent experience across all devices running Windows 10, whether on a phone, tablet, or computer. With Project Spartan, the company is focusing on several key areas that it hopes will stem its browser decline.

Simplicity

Project Spartan has been redesigned with the aim of cutting the clutter from Internet Explorer. Its interface has been stripped back to include the bare minimum. It also includes a new “reading mode”, which simplifies web pages to make them easier to read when your internet connection is poor. You can also save these web pages to consume in the future through the “reading list” feature.

Speed

Built on a new rendering engine, Project Spartan is designed to provide a much fastest browsing experience. In a blog post, Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore explained that: “Project Spartan’s new rendering engine is built around the idea that the Web “just works,” while being fast, more secure and more reliable.”

Personalization

By integrating Cortana, the idea is for the virtual assistant to be able to respond with faster and better results based on information that you have already provided. Instead of being a generic browsing experience, Project Spartan wants to provide a personalized and customized way for you to navigate the web.

Usability

As Microsoft is now building Windows 10 from the same core no matter the device, it is aiming to provide a consistent Project Spartan experience, whether you’re scrolling with your finger on a phone, using a pen on a tablet, or using a keyboard and mouse with your desktop PC.

Collaboration

With the ability to make notes on web pages, as well as highlight different sections and share these thoughts with friends, Project Spartan is designed to be a more collaborative browser. This feature seems particularly useful for users who are browsing on tablets that support pens (ie Microsoft’s Surface tablets), but whether it will widely adopted cross-device seems doubtful.

Want to try Project Spartan yourself? Download the latest build of Windows 10 to get access to the new browser.

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Follow me on Twitter: @karenmccandless

For last seven days I have been trying out Fitivity (Android|iOS), and it has been a great week. The bodyweight focused exercise programs is far more closely matched with my interests and usual workouts than my previous trials – which may explain why I found it so successful.

If you are unaware of bodyweight training as a concept it is quite simple, you use your body’s natural (in my case considerable) bulk… to provide the resistance for training. Some common examples of these are push-ups, crunches, and planking, but these are just a tiny selection of the exercises that can be included in a routine.

For me this was perfect because – bar one or two exercises – I knew all of the exercises listed (at least in the Home Bodyweight Program that I selected). With most of the routines being fairly simple circuits of five or six repeating exercises, each with a fixed duration. This meant all I had to do was look down to remind myself of the exercises and the timing, and away I went.

You may remember that my last physical training tool was Daily Yoga (Android|iOS), and I think it is only fair that I revisit a point I made there. One of my big problems with this app was that I didn’t know the positions, a fact that made it difficult for to follow each stage of a routine. However, the spoken explanation that ran throughout meant a lot was done to accommodate the less experienced.

By comparison Fitivity’s app comes up short. When I didn’t know a specific exercise I had to tap on it to bring up an explanation – not a hard process thanks to the easy to navigate menus – but enough to break the flow of the routine. This is a real issue as the point of the training is to maintain a high heart rate for short periods, tough if you are constantly stopping. This never proved an issue for me, but I can imagine it would for newcomers.

Even knowing the exercises proved to be problematic, however. While timings for each exercise were listed, there was no in-app timer. My only method of actually measuring time (at least where I exercise) is on my phone. This led to an odd situation for me of having to write out exercises and timings on a sheet of paper and then timing them from a stopwatch app.

For me, the best thing about the Fitivity is that the routines are good. The app features quick hitting exercises that never get boring and most of which can be done with ease at home. I say “most” because I did find a few issues with certain exercise. The first issue was space, with exercises like the Walking Lunge having me across my apartment before I’d even taken two steps (I am 193cm). The other problem I hit was the term “to exhaustion” for the Knee Push Ups exercise because my knees began to hurt long before I reached exhaustion.

Fitivity sets a good routine, with a good interface and explanations of exercise. As someone who knows most of the routines, it would be near perfect with the simple inclusion of an in-app timer.

I am out of the office for the next two weeks, so my diary is about to take a short hiatus, but I will be back on the 16th with how Noom Coach (Android|iOS) has helped me out. And who knows, I may even keep on with my Fitivity training while I am away.

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Follow me on Twitter: @DoFuss

It is Friday the 27th of March, and we are back with another Five Apps to Try This Weekend.

This week we have Makeup Genius (Android|iOS), the app from L’Oreal that lets you apply make-up digitally to try out their products. It’s a funny little thing, but underlying the process is some impressive facial recognition tech.

We have two options for photo buffs this week. First up we have Enlight, the incredibly versatile photo editing tool that allows you to edit and touch up your photos with dozens of options. We also have Layout from Instagram, the app that lets you easily create collages – although as this is only available on iOS, Android users my want to give Photo Grid a try… So, I guess we technically have 3 photo apps this week.

Finally we have two very different games for you. Cities: Skylines is a city management sim that invites you to build your very own metropolis, while Battlefield Hardline is a first person shooter that asks you blow a city up as you fight crime on the streets of Miami.

That’s it for this week, do let us know if you enjoyed our recommendations in the comments. We will be back next week with another five apps, and it you want to be sure you never miss an episode just subscribe.

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Follow me on Twitter: @DoFuss

Which is the best antivirus program for Windows in 2015? We’ve analyzed the results of four independent comparisons to bring you the winners.

For many people, the PC is still the place where we keep our most important files and what we use for a large part of our work and leisure activities. Protecting your PC is the equivalent of protecting the value of your digital identity.

A good antivirus is the cornerstone of security in Windows. While the industry may be in crisis, especially as Windows has improved its own security defenses, most of us still need an antivirus program.

To save you time and effort, we’ve analyzed the result of the most prestigious independent benchmarks. The results, together with our interpretation, will help you choose the best antivirus for 2015.

Which comparisons did we use?

AV-Comparatives

This Austrian company has been carrying out a monthly analysis of the best antivirus programs on the market since 1999. Its comparison involves testing infecting websites. For this comparison, we used data from August to December 2014. We also used the results of the performance test, which measures the time it takes a PC to carry out various operations such as copying archives or opening a PDF.

AV-Test

In its German lab, the team from AV-Test analyzes many antiviruses each day. Its security test uses a proprietary program, which verifies if malware has been blocked, and how this is done. We’ve used data from December 2014 here. AV-Test also analyzes performance, measuring how long it takes to perform 13 common actions, such as downloading archives, installing programs, or opening Office.

Dennis Technology Labs

Dennis’s antivirus labs uses its own methodology to analyze the best antivirus software. The test not only measures how many threats are detected, but also how many false positives show up. The test’s score indicates the accuracy of each antivirus scan. The most recent results from the period October to December 2014 give scores for the ten most important antivirus programs.

Virus Bulletin (VB100)

Since 1989, VB has been one of the leading authorities on antivirus programs and malware analysis. Its VB100 test subjects antivirus software to the most rigorous of tests, which takes into account false positives and failed attempts. For the comparison, we’ve taken data from its Reactive and Proactive (RAP) test, which measures the percentage of previously unknown viruses that have been successfully blocked.

Protection: which program best detects malware?

How effective are antivirus programs at detecting newly emerging malware? The average of the four benchmarks was used to produce global protection scores for each of the antivirus programs analyzed.

Below are the results of the 26 antivirus programs that have been analyzed, ordered according to their average score. Only six antivirus programs – Avast, AVG, Bitdefender, ESET, Kaspersky, and Microsoft – feature in all the benchmarks.

Protection score from 0 to 100. A higher score is better

The antivirus programs that scored best in the protection category were Norton, Panda, and Trend Micro. Bringing up the rear was Microsoft, with its Windows Defender program scoring a mediocre 70. It’s worth noting that Norton isn’t involved in either the AV-Comparatives or the VB tests.

Antivirus programs ordered by protection score. A higher score is better

Performance: which ones least impact your PC’s performance?

Does antivirus software affect the performance of your PC? To find out, we converted performance scores from AV-Comparatives and AV-TEST into percentages and took an average.

In the table below, you can see the results of the 26 antivirus programs we analyzed. Only Solo G-Data, Norton, and ZoneAlarm are missing from AV-Comparatives’ performance test.

Antivirus programs ranked by performance scores. A higher score is better

Norton took first place again, followed by Kaspersky and Bitdefender. Microsoft achieved a mid-table position, while Vipra and Lavasoft brought up the rear.

Global scores and comparison winners

In this year’s benchmarks, we decided to only use protection and performance data (an approach we also took in our browser comparison). The same weighting applies to both: 50%.

The result is shown below on a scale of 0 to 10 (the green bars), together with the number of protection and performance tests that each program featured in (represented by the orange lines).

As it wouldn’t be fair for an antivirus to win if it only appeared in two tests compared to others that feature in six, we’ve applied a correction factor where we add or subtract points accordingly.

This means that the only antivirus programs that were penalized were those that only featured in three tests: G-Data, Sophos, and Norton. This significantly altered the final result.

Final scores after adding the correction factor according to how many tests programs feature in

Bitdefender wins, followed by Kaspersky and Avira

There was a clear winner: Bitdefender, followed by Kaspersky and Avira, two solid antivirus programs. The presence of Qihoo isn’t particularly surprising: the company’s 360 Total Security program is one of the most popular antivirus suites at the moment.

Avast, AVG, and Panda were all mid table, while Microsoft showed itself to be an acceptable solution in terms of performance, but it comes up short when faced with a large percentage of malware.

Gold for Bitdefender, silver for Kaspersky and bronze for Avira. All three are outstanding antivirus

How do the top 10 antivirus  programs rank compared to last year? You can take a look for yourself in the table below.

The rise of Bitdefender has been spectacular. Kaspersky and Avira have cemented their positions, while Qihoo maintains its spot in the first division. AVG and ESET lost ground, while Avast lost its top spot and slid down the table, accompanied by Lavasoft, Panda, and BullGuard.

In the current climate of antivirus crisis, the programs that emerged as winners were those that focused on performance: today’s user doesn’t want to sacrifice speed for security, especially when it’s not always effective.

Which antivirus program would you recommend for 2015?

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