client

Pidgin Portable is a fully portable version of Pidgin, the unified chat app formerly known as GAIM. It handles multiple instant messaging accounts in one simple interface, including not only the big names like AOL, Yahoo, MSN, and ICQ but also less common networks such as Jabber, SILC, XMPP, and MXit. Like the standard installed version, Pidgin Portable is freeware, but its portability means you can take your IM account settings and buddy lists with you on a USB drive. It handles many plug-ins, including encryption tools.

Since PortableApps converted Pidgin, we were confident that the portable version would download … Read more

Startup Unity Technologies released version 3.5 of its video game engine that now includes support for Google's Native Client browser-boosting software.

Unity's software is a cross-platform tool that lets game programmers reach a wide range of devices--everything from iPhones to Windows to browsers. Cross-platform tools are only worth it if they reach a broad number of platforms, though, so it's important to expand, and the company has been working on Unity 3.5 for months.

Native Client is Google software built into Chrome that lets programmers run lightly modified C or C++ software directly in the … Read more

Sparrow is an attempt to get away from supercomplex, feature-packed e-mail clients in favor of a simpler e-mail experience. The interface is elegant while remaining very straightforward: the left side of the interface shows where e-mails are from, and the right side displays the message and any photos or other media commonly sent through e-mail. Setup only requires that you add accounts; then you can get started right away.

Though the interface is sparse compared with many big-name e-mail clients, you still get plenty of the common actions and options you'd expect from a basic e-mail app in Sparrow. … Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Google's new technology to secure the Web and make browsers significantly more powerful got its first public demo tonight at the company's headquarters south of San Francisco after three years under wraps.

Calling it Native Client, Google says that integrating technology into Chrome is essential for the future of Web browsers.

To show that Native Client is road-ready, the company used its event to announce several new Chrome-only versions of games known for their rich and processor-intensive graphics, available immediately. It also revealed that the browser currently has more than 200 million users worldwide.

The … Read more

Native Client has taken only baby steps in its first three years of existence, but Google evidently is hoping its browser-boosting technology will take larger strides soon.

The company has sent out invitations to a Native Client event on the evening of December 8 at Google's Mountain View, Calif., offices, where "we plan to share some news about Native Client," show some demos, and share some wine.

Native Client, aka NaCl, lets Web-based software run natively on x86 processors--and therefore run more quickly than traditional Web apps. That's what Office and Photoshop do, too, of course, … Read more

According to a report at The Next Web, Apple's iOS devices, including iPhones and iPads, account for at least 39 percent of the photo traffic on Twitter. Photo search engine Skylines has constructed a breakdown of the various platforms and clients that post photos to Twitter, showing that despite iOS 5's relatively young lifespan it is already the seventh-largest Twitter client.

Combining the 5 percent of photos that come directly from iOS 5 with statistics from Twitter for iPhone at 21 percent, and Instagram (an iPhone-only photo sharing app) at 13 percent, the 39 percent figure is reached. … Read more

A small piece of the next-generation Google Chrome guts called Native Client arrives in Chrome stable about a month after it landed on the beta channel, as new audio technology also gains a footing. Google Chrome 14 stable for Windows (download), Mac (download), and Linux (download), also makes a spate of security fixes for all platforms, and some useful changes to the Mac version.

Chrome 14 is the first version of the browser to support Native Client (NaCl), an open-source technology that allows C and C++ code to be securely run in the browser. It basically lets software run within … Read more

One of the most popular and customizable third-party clients in the multiservice chat category for Mac continues to impress. It supports multiple services, including AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Facebook, Windows Live, and Google Chat. Part of what made the original Adium so attractive was the multitude of IM service options, and that still forms the core appeal of this client. The interface is smooth and lean, fitting in well with the Mac OS. The client supports tabbed browsing, encrypted messaging, and you can transfer files to your buddies, though it can be hit or miss depending on what service you're … Read more

One of the biggest changes in how Chrome works has begun to make its way into the beta build of the browser, as Google Chrome 14 beta (download for Windows | Mac | Linux) now comes with the first beta release of Native Client. This is a major breakthrough in development terms, indicating that the NaCl project is moving ahead more or less on schedule. However, full NaCl support is still a long way off.

You're not likely to see any of Native Client, as it's a major reworking of how the code that powers Chrome functions. Basically, it changes … Read more