Bitchen... no... really... bitchen. 

Back in February 2010, I wrote a post for MacStories about Lunettes, a codename of a new interface for VideoLAN’s popular media player VLC. Back then, I used to spend a good portion of my days fiddling with media players and skins for VLC, which I used to access a well-organized media library on my MacBook Pro and various external hard drives. Lunettes was promising, and it proved that VLC could have an interface design more suitable for the needs of the Mac community. I didn’t know, however, that work on the next major version of VLC, VLC 2.0, had already begun in 2008 with the first concepts and technical drafts, with Lunettes being the complete rewrite of the application that stemmed from that original vision that eventually led to VLC version 2.0, released today.

Available for Mac, Windows, and Linux machines, VLC 2.0 is a major update that brings several new optimizations on the technical side, new features, and a brand-new Mac interface that we’ve already covered here on MacStories. It can be downloaded for free from VideoLAN’s website.

Often regarded as “the media player that can open almost anything”, VLC has indeed become many’s de-facto choice over the years when it comes to dealing with a variety of video file formats, or audio files that other media players such as iTunes won’t open. 

Read the entire article and then download it (it's free folks... as in...free...) 

Well okay then... if you need it, The Norton now has it.

Symantec Software has released version 6.0 of its all-in-one security, backup and system maintenance tool. Norton 360 offers the same security engine as Norton Internet Security 2012, but also includes backup and system tuneup tools as well.

Version 6.0 adds support for Windows 8, a number of features added in Norton 2012, including Identity Safe and Norton Management, plus improved navigation for backups and automatic error recovery.

Read the entire review...

Well, I hope this iteration is better than the last one. 

The main change is that the links in the pull-down menu are now consistent across various pages, and there are more of them.

This should help Google drive home the point that when users are using various Google products, they are using Google at large, a point made also made by Google’s new consolidated privacy policy, as well as the increased integration of Google+ into other products (like the new Google Earth, for example).

“Two months ago, we announced our plans to roll out a new design for the Google bar,” says technical lead Eddie Kessler. “Our goal was to create a beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google. Based on your feedback, we realized there were some elements of the new bar that we could improve, and with that in mind, we’re introducing an updated version that we believe will provide a better experience.” 

Read the entire article....

I just downloaded it and gave it a shot. Not bad...

I'm writing these words as I often do, using Microsoft Word. But I'm doing so on an iPad 2, not on a Mac. And I'm running Word for Windows on that iPad, thanks to the new OnLive Desktop client for the iPad.

OnLive made its mark with a streaming service that allows almost anyone with broadband access--whether they're on a Mac, PC or other platform--to play a wide array of PC games. OnLive's servers do all the heavy processing--3D rendering and such--then stream the resulting video to client apps via a broadband link.

If you can stream an interactive, high intensity PC game over the internet, why not stream productivity apps, too? That's exactly what OnLive Desktop does.

Read the entire article...