accelerator

Play high-quality videos on YouTube and other sites with SpeedBit Video Accelerator

Web browsers and bandwidth feel the pinch as online video formats get better and better (and bigger and bigger, too). SpeedBit's Free Video Accelerator for YouTube is designed to work with your Web browser to improve how it downloads and plays online video, especially high-quality formats streamed over broadband connections. It buffers and smooths audio and video playback and reduces or eliminates freezing, crashing, dropouts, and distortion. It's freeware, though a premium upgrade adds HD playback, iTunes acceleration, and automatic setup.

SpeedBit's setup wizard lets you choose between installing the freeware and the shareware version, which includes … Read more

Microsoft explains how Windows 8 smokes Windows 7

Microsoft spelled out acceleration improvements in Windows 8, in a blog post Monday. Needless to say, Microsoft says the overall experience is a lot snappier.

The latest Building Windows 8 entry, penned by Rob Copeland, the group program manager at Microsoft's graphics team, is titled Hardware accelerating everything: Windows 8 graphics.

Some context is first provided at the top in order to illustrate how Window 8 "builds on the well-established foundations of DirectX graphics" in Windows 7.

In Windows 7, we expanded the capabilities of DirectX to provide a common hardware-accelerated graphics platform for a broader range … Read more

Accelerate your download speed with this CNET exclusive offer on Download Accelerator Plus Premium 10

The act of downloading files online has been around for so many years that even I forget sometimes that there are apps out there to help me download faster. Even though our internet connections are so much faster these days, you know they can always be a little faster. For bigger files and updates, especially with MMORPGs, I often have to leave them on all-night, so the download is completed by the time I wake up.

I am sure you all have your own type of files you like to download online (hopefully nothing you aren't supposed to be … Read more

Boost your downloads

Just as in previous versions, Download Accelerator Plus 10 (free) boosts your download speeds by breaking files into smaller pieces, connecting to and downloading from multiple sources simultaneously, and even seeking out faster mirrors. What's different with this newest version, though, is the more streamlined engine that now offers features in the form of "add-ons." This means you can supplement your boosted download speeds (200 to 400 percent faster in many cases) with only the additional features that you want.

One of the most useful add-ons that you can enable in version 10 is DAPsters. If you … Read more

To prevent unintended acceleration, NHTSA proposes new standard

If you press the brake, the car should always stop--even if you're also pressing the gas pedal at the same time. That's the way the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration sees it, and it is proposing new regulations that would require brake-throttle override systems in all new vehicles.

In 2009, Toyota vehicles were recalled after a fatal crash involving a Lexus ES350. All occupants of the Lexus were killed when the driver, a 19-year veteran of the California Highway Patrol, was unable to stop the vehicle when the brake was pressed because the gas pedal became stuck … Read more

Faster graphics for older PCs in Chrome 18

Google Chrome 18 brings two methods of improved graphics support to both newer and older computers. Released today, Google Chrome 18 stable for Windows (download), Mac (download), Linux (download), and Chrome Frame improves both WebGL and Canvas2D.

To help along WebGL in Chrome on older Windows and Mac computers, it now gets a boost from a software rasterizer called SwiftShader, licensed from TransGaming. SwiftShader only works when Chrome's baked-in graphics processor acceleration doesn't run, and in the blog post announcing the update, Google said that it sought out this third-party solution so that "more users will have … Read more

Opera Mini 7 stretches to Android

Opera ports its WebGL hardware acceleration from Opera Mobile to the Android version of Opera Mini 7, which first debuted last month at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

Opera Mini 7 for Android (download) improves the lightweight browser's compressed browsing feature called Turbo with hardware acceleration, and expands the Speed Dial landing page beyond nine Web sites.

It does not include the new home screen that is coming to Opera Mini 7 for feature phones, which will bring interactive social-networking to people who have those lower-powered phones.

Phillip Gronvold, Opera's product manager for mobile, told CNET before … Read more

How sweepstakes, contests can drive app downloads, usage

People love prizes. And that's the core belief animating a start up called SherLabs.

Through a product called TapFame, the company offers game developers the ability to drop an instant sweepstakes or leaderboard contest into their apps, which presumably would drive interest and downloads.

It's a unique take on the issue of app discovery, which I've written a lot about -- and which continues to be an issue for the middle and lower tiers of developers. Developers want their apps to be noticed, but the market is so crowded, it's hard to stand out without spending … Read more

More hardware acceleration in Chrome beta, dev gets latest JS

The newly-minted Chrome 18 beta expands the scope of hardware acceleration in the browser to older computers, but it's still not available to all. Meanwhile, Chrome 19 dev goes bleeding edge with JavaScript.

Released today, Google Chrome 18 beta for Windows, Mac, and Chrome Frame improves 2D Canvas support and introduces a software rasterizer. The new features are not yet available on Chrome 18 beta for Linux.

Basically, this means that games and animations based in the HTML5 Canvas tag ought to run faster and appear smoother. Google noted in its blog post announcing the changes that this was … Read more