News - Softonic English

Facebook to hold event about ‘a new look for News Feed’ on March 7th

The social networking giant, Facebook, will be holding a press event on March 7th in Menlo Park, California to announce a new look for its News Feed. The event will start at 10AM, Pacific Time.

There is little else known about what will be announced but it’s surprising for Facebook to update the News Feed, which hasn’t seen any dramatic changes in a while. In the last Facebook event, the company revealed its Graph Search product, which has slowly rolled out to users. It would be safe to assume that the News Feed will probably integrate with Graph Search, showing more relevant information, influenced by your searches.

We’ll be there at the event to give you live coverage so stay tuned!

Official PlayStation 4 interface photos released

Sony has released official high definition imaged of the PlayStation 4 interface. You can see how it will look on tablets and smartphones as well as your TV screen.

The screenshots show how much more social the new PlayStation will be, with the new profile, friends activity, video and screenshot sharing options, game streaming and more.

The new interface bears a striking resemblance to the Windows 8/Xbox interface. This highlights how out of date the old PlayStation interface had got, and how much better Microsoft have been with updating their interface experience with this generation of console.

Sony also released an image of PlayStation 4 logos, which you can see below the break.

Continue reading “Official PlayStation 4 interface photos released”

MWC 2013: Opera to release new browser for Android

Opera is set to release a new version of Opera Mobile for Android, simply called Opera. This will be a completely redesigned browser from the Norwegian company that focuses on a modern interface and performance.

The new Opera bears a striking resemblance the current Google Chrome browser for Android. There is an address bar at the top with a button to access tabs as well as other Opera features. Tabs show up as cards with thumbnails for each site, making it easy to locate specific tabs. Tabs flow with a slick animation, something Chrome users will be familiar with.

There’s also an all new “Discover” tab where users can find news content. You can customize categories of news for a personalized feed.

“Speed Dial” makes a return, giving users quick access to their most visited sites. You can create folders of bookmarks to treat them more like web applications.

In terms of performance, the new Opera will also include bandwidth optimizations like its desktop and Opera Mini browsers. This is great for those who want to conserve bandwidth while browsing the web on the go. This feature is called “Off-Road” mode and will give information about how much data you’ve saved with it enabled. Opera recently purchased the mobile browser company, Skyfire, so video compression should be right around the corner.

There’s no word yet if the new browser will make its way onto iOS but it would be safe to assume it would, as Opera just embraced WebKit.

Check out the pictures below to see how the new Opera looks. Continue reading “MWC 2013: Opera to release new browser for Android”

Snapchat video for Android makes its way to a stable release

A few weeks ago, Snapchat introduced a video recording feature in beta for Android users. iOS users have been enjoying this feature for months and now its finally included in the stable release of Snapchat for Android.

Videos will work exactly like pictures and text messages sent using Snapchat. Video will self-destruct after a certain amount of time up to 10 seconds.

Along with video recording, version 2.0 of Snapchat brings an improved notification system that is more informative and customizable.

So why did it take so long to port video recording over to Android? Daniel Smith, the founder of Snapchat, explains.

The Android phones that many of us use were never designed with Snapchat in mind, and that can be tough when developing a hardware-based application. The video feeds and playback behavior can differ greatly – often with no guarantees or warnings.

If you have Snapchat already installed on your phone you’ll receive an update from the Google Play store. If you haven’t downloaded Snapchat for Android yet, you can do so here.

Source: Snapchat

Plants vs. Zombies free on iOS for a limited time

One of the most popular mobile games, Plants vs. Zombies, is free to download for a limited time for the iPhone and iPad. Without notice, PopCap decided to make the zombie strategy game free for iOS users. While the game is quite old, it’s still very fun and offers tons of replay value.

The app usually costs $2.99 so there’s big savings to be had. There’s no indication from PopCap when the free promotion will end so act fast before the deal’s gone. There’s also no indication whether or not the same deal will find its way into the Google Play store.

There are two versions of Plants vs. Zombies: one for the iPhone and a “HD” version for the iPad. You can download Plants vs. Zombies for iPhone and iPad here.

Apple releases iTunes 11.0.2

You can now download an update for iTunes 11, which improves the speed of syncing big playlists, and adds a Composers view to your media library.

iTunes 11.0.2 also fixes a problem some people had with purchases not appearing in their library. If you want to view your library by Composer, click Songs, then right click, and you’ll have the option of adding the Composer filter.

iTunes 11 was a welcome refresh for Apple’s media player, with a much cleaner interface and more modern design in general. Some people still believe it’s too resource heavy, but it’s hard to find a better, more complete application for your media library.

Download iTunes for Windows or OS X.

Ubuntu for Phones developer preview launching February 21st, will include tablet version [video]

This Thursday Canonical will release its first developer preview of its Ubuntu for Phone operating system. Canonical has also confirmed that it will be launching a tablet optimized version of Ubuntu the same day.

The developer preview will work on a limited selection of phones, which includes the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, Nexus 7, and Nexus 10. With this release Canonical hopes to attract developers to its platform to create enough applications for its October 2013 software launch (hardware will launch in Q1 of 2014).

With a tablet optimized version of Ubuntu, Canonical is setting the stage for a complete Ubuntu ecosystem from the TV to tablets. Interface elements of Ubuntu for phones will make its way onto the tablet version as well, but will feature powerful multitasking and a tablet optimized experience. Ubuntu for tablets will be able to run two applications simultaneously by swiping in from the right. This looks strikingly familiar to Windows 8’s “Split View” implementation that allows Modern UI apps to be run in a side bar. Continue reading “Ubuntu for Phones developer preview launching February 21st, will include tablet version “

Mozilla releases Nightly build of Firefox for Windows 8

The first Firefox for Windows 8 Nightly Build is now available for testing. Mozilla has released this unfinished version of their popular browser optimized for tablets. It looks surprisingly similar to Internet Explorer, but doesn’t have any unique touch gestures for navigation yet.

The new Firefox for Windows 8 is part of the Firefox Nightly builds channel, and is downloaded automatically as part of the latest update. If you have Windows 8, once installed a Modern UI Firefox tile should appear on your desktop. To run it, you have to have Firefox Nightly set as your default browser.

It’s still pretty basic, so really only suitable for testing or if you’re curious to see the future of the browser. Firefox Sync does work, so you’ll get your bookmarks and passwords.

Now Firefox for Windows 8 is in the Nightly Builds cycle, we can expect it to migrate to the Aurora channel in about six weeks, and be possibly ready for general release in or June.

MEGA releases Firefox add-on

Cloud storage service MEGA has released a Firefox add-on, which is supposed to improve download speeds, as well as removing any limits for file sizes. It also allows for multiple file downloading.

When launched, MEGA only worked properly in Chrome, and this extension fixes the service for Firefox. All the limitations of using MEGA in Firefox are removed with the add on. It also runs in the background, so doesn’t take up any space on the Firefox interface or get in the way at all.

Download the Mega Firefox Extension here.

Final version of Origin for Mac released

Just weeks after releasing the Alpha version of games platform Origin for Mac, EA has released the final version. The Alpha version of Origin for Mac was limited to the UK and North America but the full version is a worldwide release.

At the moment there are 48 games to download including The Sims 3 (plus expansion packs), Harry Potter and Star Wars with the new SimCity expected to launch next month. There is no sign of FIFA 13 for Mac yet however and no word from EA on whether it will be released.

EA Origin for Mac will prove competition for Steam for Mac although the latter has already had a few years head start and has many more games to choose from.

You can download Origin for Mac here.