2001

ThinkGeek boasts that the HAL 9000 life-size replica is the "most movie-accurate HAL 9000 replica ever created." Let's hope it's only movie-accurate enough to be entertaining and not deadly.

If you're a fan of HAL 9000 and want to bring a little bit of that relentless robotic terror into your home, you can plunk down $500 for a sentient computer of your own (minus the actual sentience.) This HAL 9000 is better-behaved than the real thing. You still get the menacing red LED eye, but he won't try to kill you.… Read more

It's easier than you might guess to customize your PC's icons with IconPackager. As the name suggests, IconPackager packages icons together so you can replace them all at once instead of the usual way, one by one. It's shareware that you can try for free for 30 days. The trial version only comes with a few icon packages, but more are available to registered users.

IconPackager's unique interface combines some of the look of the Appearance and Personalization tool in Windows with browser-like touches such as tabs. IconPackager sorts its main features by function into tabs … Read more

The AoA Video Downloader is an application for downloading videos from the Internet from Web sites that are supported by the application. It's a great way to keep your favorite videos in video or audio format on your computer to view whenever you want without going online.

This application is very simple, both in appearance and instructions. All you need to do is enter a URL and click the Download Now button. Common video-viewing Web sites like YouTube, Google, and Dailymotion are among the many places you can use this application. Unfortunately, this application did not work for us. … Read more

The bottom line: The new owners of Lavasoft have revamped Ad-Aware to the point where it has almost nothing in common with its predecessors besides function. It's a good reboot, but it's not out of the woods yet.

Review: While the name Ad-Aware remains the same as it has for the past 13 years, everything from the user interface to the code powering Ad-Aware 10 is entirely new.

More so than any recent version of Ad-Aware, the suite is usable, lightweight, and worthy of your attention.

Installation The installation is straightforward, although it still does opt you in … Read more

The bottom line: The new owners of Lavasoft have revamped Ad-Aware to the point where it has almost nothing in common with its predecessors besides function. It's a good reboot, but it's not out of the woods yet.

Review: While the name Ad-Aware remains the same as it has for the past 13 years, everything from the user interface to the code powering Ad-Aware 10 is entirely new.

More so than any recent version of Ad-Aware, the suite is usable, lightweight, and worthy of your attention.

Installation The installation is straightforward, although it still does opt you in … Read more

The bottom line: The new owners of Lavasoft have revamped Ad-Aware to the point where it has almost nothing in common with its predecessors besides function. It's a good reboot, but it's not out of the woods yet.

Review: While the name Ad-Aware remains the same as it has for the past 13 years, everything from the user interface to the code powering Ad-Aware 10 is entirely new.

More so than any recent version of Ad-Aware, the suite is usable, lightweight, and worthy of your attention.

Installation The installation is straightforward, although it still does opt you in … Read more

Everyone's talking to the iPhone 4S' personal assistant Siri and posting their favorite exchanges. From witty banter to borderline insults, Siri has us fascinated.

Musician Jonathan Mann, for example, managed to sing a hilarious duet with Siri, which is posted below. Mann uses some of the most popular questions people have been asking Siri, like "will you marry me?" and "what is the meaning of life?"

You'll have to watch the video to see Siri's snarky answers. … Read more

Editor's note: We used Cover It Live to cover CEO Mark Zuckerberg's opening address at the company's F8 developers conference today in San Francisco. So if you missed the live blog, you can still replay it in the embedded component at the bottom of this post. Replaying the event will give you all the live updates along with commentary from our readers and CNET reporters. You can also read our edited transcript below, or a summary story on the company's key announcements, including a revamped profile page it calls Timeline and changes in Open Graph that … Read more

The bottom line: One of the first applications built to find and remove malware and spyware, Ad-Aware's reputation has been well-justified. The latest version adroitly addresses some user concerns, yet performance-based annoyances remain.

Review:

Editors' note: Portions of this review are based on CNET's review for Ad-Aware 9.5 Free.

Ad-Aware 9.5 Pro Internet Security continues the development progress that publisher Lavasoft began in the previous version. No longer content with offering only malware protection, Ad-Aware now includes antivirus protections licensed from Sunbelt, the makers of Vipre, as well as interesting in-house improvements.

Lavasoft first started changing … Read more