Recent Beta Program Updates

I have been busy learning new stuffs in and out during my holidays, so i couldn't fulfill my promise as stated in my announcement area. Nevertheless, i felt it's time i pull myself away from all this learning and started posting something here.



Today i'll not be introducing software or promotions to you, but i'll instead, give you a brief update on some of the interesting beta programs i keep tabs on throughout my holiday periods:

1. Avast! Antivirus v5

This popular antivirus has just came out of beta on the 20th of January. The new v5 has a revamped interface design, more user-centric charts and options plus several new features and scan engine updates. It is incredibly light on PC resources as well. Not bad for a free antivirus, i must say!


2. Trend Titanium

Remember my previous post about Trend Micro Security Beta? Well, this is essentially a renamed version of the previous Trend Micro Security Beta program. Trend Titanium is released as renamed, recolored and optimized feature. Having said that, it still keeps its virtue of operating from the cloud, so it is extremely light on resources. The beta program is still going on at Trend Micro Beta Portal and will proceed all the way into March 2010.

3. Mozilla Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate (RC)

Firefox is pretty much the trendsetter in terms of add-on features and security standards for browsers, but in v3.6, due to release in the coming weeks, Firefox developers are more focused on performance and speed improvements. Personal testing revealed that v3.6 is indeed, more responsive and produces minimal crashes for a beta program, but then it's speed significantly trails behind those of Google Chromes and the latest Opera v10.5.


4. Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Beta

Although the current Adobe Flash Player 10 works just fine with no reported vulnerabilities, the fact is that it is still slow...incredibly slow on graphic rendering. Imagine Youtube's hi-def videos going sluggish on your PC, or the Flash games on Facebook maxing out your CPU cycle, making your PC as slow as a snail! The latest beta version of Adobe Flash Player 10.1 bring GPU acceleration technology to your PC, or in other words, Adobe Flash Player now utilizes your PC's graphic cards in order to render high-definition flash videos and games, therefore reduce CPU stress! Bad news is, there are only some processors in the market that supports this new tech...


5. BitComet 2010 Beta

 BitComet's high times are over; people nowadays would rather recommend uTorrent or Vuze to manage downloads, but then to hardcore fans, BitComet serves them just fine. The new BitComet emphasizes on GUI improvements and  bug fixes, plus some minor network tweaks to improve overall experience.