downloads

People unwrapping new smartphones with Google's Android and Apple's iOS as part of the Christmas holiday once again led to record activations and app downloads this year, says mobile analytics firm Flurry.

In a report issued today, Flurry says that the number of Android and iOS devices activated on Christmas Day jumped 353 percent over the number of activations from the first 20 days of December, and 140 percent from the same day last year.

All told, the firm says activations from both platforms came in at more than 6.8 million devices, up from the 1.5 … Read more

Last year, we introduced our Top 10 Downloads of the Year lists, presenting the most popular Windows and Mac software on Download.com.

In 2011, we've taken the honors up the proverbial notch with the Top 11 Downloads of 2011, featuring the 11 most popular software apps each for the Windows and Mac platforms, along with the 11 most popular programs in each of the 11 most popular categories in Windows and in Mac.

Security Software is unsurprisingly the most downloaded software by Windows users; Mac users, perhaps also predictably, elevate the MP3 & Audio software category to the … Read more

Your Kindle Fire can do more than just play games. No, really, it can. One of its many functions is the capability to stream or download music from your Amazon Cloud Drive, and I'm here to show you exactly how to do that.

First, your PC If you have an Amazon account, then you already own five gigabytes of free space on its Cloud Drive. If you're having trouble accessing your Cloud Drive, go here to get things started.

Next, on your PC, go to the Amazon MP3 page and click the Cloud Player banner in the upper-right corner.

Sign in with your Amazon account and click "Upload your music" from the upper-left corner and then click "Download Now" to download the MP3 Uploader. Once downloaded, open the Uploader and follow the default instructions to install it.… Read more

While Amazon Appstore may not exactly qualify as an "app," it is nonetheless, a valuable download. It's an altogether different marketplace from the official Android Market, so it offers different picks, recommendations, and reviews. The home page opens up to Top Paid apps and Top Free apps, so it's easy to see what's hot. Otherwise, you can search by keyword or browse through categories with ease.

What's more, Amazon Appstore gives users one paid app every day, free of charge. So, if you have an Amazon.com account and an Android-powered device, this one … Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week people wrote in with questions on using Disk Utility from a prior version of OS X, whether or not to repair a broken G5 or upgrade, how to recover a missing Downloads folder on the Dock, and the necessity of the Lion recovery partition. We continually answer e-mail questions, and though we present answers here, we welcome alternative approaches and views from readers and encourage you to post your suggestions in the comments.

NOTE: The "contact us" box on the MacFixIt … Read more

Someone in the home of French President Nicholas Sarkozy, a strong proponent of anti-piracy legislation, has been using BitTorrent to download pirated versions of music and movies, according to a French blog.

An associate of the Nikopik Web site found IP addresses allocated to the Elysee Palace, Sarkozy's residence, on YouHaveDownloaded.com, a Russian-based site that tracks public downloads from BitTorrent.

It appears that copies of movies including "The Tower Heist," "Change-Up," and "Arthur Christmas," as well as the "The Beach Boys Greatest Hits" album were among six downloads linked to … Read more

Application stores have exclusively been virtual places for you to download new programs to your mobile devices and computers. But now, at least one has gone brick-and-mortar.

A new company, Openspace, has opened its first store, providing customers a place to visit, tell staff (called "App Gurus") what they're looking for in a mobile application, and then get assistance in downloading the right programs to their devices.

"If your iPhone has a problem, you take it to Apple. If your Android tablet has a problem, you take it to Verizon, AT&T, or Best Buy,&… Read more

Apple's Mac App Store is officially a success.

The company announced today that the store, which is available to Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Lion users, has reached 100 million application downloads. Given that success, Apple is calling the service the "fastest growing PC software store in the world."

Apple launched the Mac App Store in January as a free download for Snow Leopard users. The marketplace, like Apple's mobile App Store, allows users to sift through both free and paid programs and download them to their devices. Apple shares 70 percent of the revenue … Read more

Download Community,

I just wanted to send out a quick follow-up to my post on Wednesday.

(By the way, yes I now I have my own account, so I can post here myself. I wanted to get that last one up quickly since it was already late in coming, and Cat already had an account, so I went with it. Sad, but true. Oh, and because you all know who Cat is, but may have no clue who I am, I'm the General Manager of Download.com).

Clearly we had a big breakdown this past week and I sincerely … Read more