Windows: After a few betas and release candidates, our favorite torrent client has finally made it. uTorrent 2.0 is now available for download with the same speed, ease of use and simple interface we’ve grown to love. The new version also features support for UDP tracker and a completely overhauled setup menu, among other new features.

iPhone: Want a Kindle but can’t afford one? Then try Stanza. It’s ebook reader and library for your iPhone, offering commercial titles, which can be bought through bookstores in the app, and free titles from providers like the Gutenberg project. This is a really good application. It’s well organized, easy to use and makes reading on the iPhone as comfortable as possible on such a small screen.

Mac: Imagine if you could access your iTunes collection from any Mac, anywhere in the world. MyTunesRSS allows you to do exactly this by accessing your iTunes folder over a local network or the internet. Initial setup involves setting up a server using the IP address of the computer that contains your music. Once connected, the user interface is like a stripped down version of iTunes showing you your tracks and categories.

I was surprised to learn that the new version of Firefox is 15% faster than the previous version. When I say surprised I actually mean I didn’t believe a word of it. I decided to challenge this figure by putting Firefox 3.5 and Firefox 3.6 up against each other in a series of three benchmarking tests. I also included comparisons with the latest versions of Chrome, Opera and Internet Explorer. In the name of transparency, I’ve decided to explain the benchmarking process for each of the three tests I applied. Why not try it for yourself and see which of your web browsers runs the best?

Test One:  Peacekeeper Browser Benchmark

Peacekeeper is a free service that puts your browser through its paces in a series of thorough tests. It checks performance in the following areas: rendering, social networking, complex graphics, data, Document Object Model operations, and text parsing. Each test takes about five minutes and simple involves hitting a button on the Peacekeeper site in the browser you want to test. To make a fair test you should ensure that you just have one tab or window open, and disable or uninstall any extensions you have running.

Peacemaker gives each browser an overall performance score, and you can view a more detailed breakdown of how that score was arrived at by clicking the ‘Details’ link on the graph. Here’s the graph generated by the browser tests I performed:

Test Two: SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark

The second test I performed was the same one run by Computerworld in its tests on Firefox 3.5 and 3.6. The SunSpider JavaScript benchmark is a utility that tests the speed of a browser by running a series of JavaScripts and measuring the speed at which the software process them. It breaks the results down into a series of different categories based on the scripts it ran. These results are a little harder to interpret than the Peacekeeper test, but you can look at the total time and use this as your benchmark for comparing the browsers. Here are the overall times (fastest first) for the browsers I tested:

• Chrome 4.0 - 649.4ms

• Firefox 3.6 - 1415ms

• Firefox 3.5 - 1700ms

• Opera 10.10 - 3051ms

• Internet Explorer 8 - 6346.2ms

Test Three: The Acid 3 Test

The third and final test is much quicker and simpler than the previous two. The Acid 3 Test is used to measure a browser’s compliance with web standards, particularly relating to the Document Object Model and JavaScript. To pass the test a browser needs to attain a score of 100/100 and the final image it displays must match the reference image.

Of the five browsers we tested, only Google Chrome and Opera attained the maximum 100 out of 100. Firefox 3.6 (94) and Firefox 3.5 (93) both almost made the grade. Microsoft should hang its head in shame though, because IE8 only scored a measely 20 out of 100, meaning it falls way short of standards compliance.

Analyzing the results

Our benchmarking supports Computerworld’s claim that Firefox 3.6 is much faster than version 3.5. In fact, according to the SunSpider test we ran, the newer release comes out 17% quicker than the previous version. It’s still not as speedy as Chrome though, which was more than twice as fast as Firefox, and way ahead of Opera and IE.

What’s more, the Mozilla browser performs very well against its competitors in the Peacekeeper benchmark. Again, it’s only Chrome that pips the latest version of Firefox. And again, Internet Explorer is left floundering in final place, this time in a test than examines the overall capabilities of the browser.

So, my advice based on these results is to upgrade to Firefox 3.6 if you haven’t already done so. Better still, install Chrome and use that to browse the web instead. Having said this, ut’s definitely worth running the benchmark tests on your own browsers because the results can vary considerably depending on your setup, the amount of extensions that you have installed, the OS you’re using, etc.

Last night I was reviewing messages in my Gmail account, trying to get them all sorted out and reach the much-coveted inbox zero. I needed Gmail to display only my unread emails so that I could process them one by one, when I realized Gmail didn’t have that option anywhere. Sure you can select all unread messages, but that’s of little use if they’re all scattered over a dozen pages. So I started searching for a solution, and only a few minutes after I found Gmail Advanced Search.

The advanced search options in Gmail let you use special words or symbols – called operators - to filter the messages displayed on your web browsers. It’s a quicker, more accurate way to find certain messages. You can filter you inbox to display only unread emails, only starred emails or only emails that came from a specific sender. What’s more, you can combine different operators and create super-refined filters like “messages from Peter with the word ‘dinner’ in the subject”.

These are some of the most useful operators you can use in Gmail:

• from: - displays messages received from a certain sender: from:peter
• to: - displays messages sent to a specific recipient: to:john 
• subject: - displays messages with certain words in the subject: subject:bbq
• label: - displays messages filed under specific labels: label:work
• in:(inbox, trash, spam) - displays all messages stored in any of those locations: in:trash
• is:(starred, unread) - displays messages you’ve starred or haven’t read yet: is:unread
• filename: - displays messages with a specific attachment: filename:softonic.pdf

I guess it was Nintendo who invented ice levels in platformers, and since then it’s become a video game standard. Whatever you’re playing, you can bet at some point you’ll be asked to continue what you have been doing for the last few hours, but on slippery surfaces. I’m not a fan, possibly with the exception of the snowy levels in Mario 64.

I Hate Ice Levels is an ode to everything we dislike about these staple levels. It’s unbelievably tricky - I got cramps in my fingers after ten minutes playing! It’s meant to be a satire of ice levels, and as such it works well. It’s also a tough challenge for anyone who thinks they’ve got skills when it comes to platforming. Play it here - requires Flash.

Update: Sorry, there aren’t any codes left. Thanks to all who entered!

We love Battlefield Heroes, the free to play online shooter. It’s unusual in that it’s not serious, with its cartoony style, and the fact you can buy upgrades for your avatar: Costumes, experience upgrades special moves and even gestures (in game emoticons).

The  latest addition to Battlefield Heroes is the Vampire vs Werewolves pack, which for about $10 gets you a new outfit, special moves and more.

Electronic Arts have given OnSoftware 15 Nicolai Vampire packs and 15 Grims Varg Werewolf packs to pass on to our readers. So if you’re a fan of Battlefield Heroes and want to get one of these hellish upgrades for the game, leave a comment including your email address in the ‘email’ field below, telling us which pack you’d prefer. It’s first come first served so be quick!

Once 3D took hold of gaming, one of the early Nineties most popular types of game, the
point-and-click adventure, started to disappear. In some ways, that’s hardly surprising. The games were generally dialog driven stories with puzzles in them, and just the occasional action point - all of these things can be found in newer adventure games, which usually have much more action in them.

Nevertheless, the relaxed, quirky point and clicks were never forgotten, and the rise of downloadable and indie games on all platforms has seen a resurgence. And that’s fantastic: point-and-click is the ideal choice for the casual gamer who wants a deeper experience. They don’t require dexterity or learning complicated controls - if you can use a computer at all you can play these adventures. Currently, there’s a great mix of updated classics and new games available to play, and here are a few ways to get started.

Machinarium: One of last year’s prettiest games, the puzzle element is pushed to the fore in Machinarium, but even when it gets hard it’s cute enough to keep you motivated. There are demos available for Windows and Mac.

LucasArts Adventure Pack: This collection of four classic games from the early Nineties may look outdated, but they are fantastic. There are two Indiana Jones titles, plus LOOM and The Dig - The Indiana Jones adventures have held up especially well, with excellent writing, puzzles and humor. Windows only.

Zombie Cow Studios: This is a two man team, who’ve created two excellent adventures - Ben There, Dan That and sequel Time Gentlemen, please! They are full of jokes, definitely not for children or the easily startled, and the stories are excellently off the wall. The first game is free, too so check it out!

Broken Sword/Beneath a Steel Sky: Touchscreens are ideal for point-and-click games, which is good news for iPhone users. Two of the greatest ever adventures, from Revolution Software, have been remastered and updated with a brilliant control scheme. Both are gripping stories, and Broken Sword looks especially fantastic. You can still play the original Beneath a Steel Sky on your Windows PC.

Telltale Games: This team have brought back both the Sam & Max and Monkey Island franchises in 3D to great success in episodic content, and continued with new series featuring Strong Bad and Wallace and Grommit. These are all excellent adventures, and they bring high production values back to point-and-click games - great if you can’t stand lo-fi retro graphics!

Windows: With the All-in-One Sidebar extension you can access a bunch of tools and features in Firefox in a much easier, more comfortable way. This add-on displays your bookmarks, downloads, history, add-on updates and more on a handy, customizable sidebar. All the information you’re interested in, just a glance away!

iPhone: Tumblr is a great micro blogging service, where you can share all sorts of media, from text to quotes and audio and video. Now you can blog from your iPhone with this great Tumblr app. Pretty much everything you can do on the website you can do with this app, including adding text, video, photos and audio.

Mac: If you’re both a Firefox user and a soccer fan, then this plug-in combines the best of both worlds into a great little plug-in. Footiefox allows you to keep up with the latest results and scorelines without changing a page or even leaving your desktop. Once installed, the plug-in sits discreetly at the bottom of Firefox in the status bar. You can configure it to follow the games of your choice so you’ll always know the score.

I have to say I started using bookmarklets only a few months ago, but since then they’ve saved me a lot of time and certainly hundreds of clicks. Now, what exactly is a bookmarklet? In plain English, it could be defined as a small application stored as a bookmark on your web browser. When clicked, a bookmarklet can perform a variety of actions, usually involving the website you’re currently visiting and the service the bookmarklet is linked to.

There are literally dozens of bookmarklets available on the Web. Most online tools, web apps and social networks nowadays include a bookmarklet to make them easier and faster to use. I’ve created a list with the most popular and useful bookmarklets I’ve come across, but feel free to add more in comments!

• Convert any web page to PDF with PDFmyURL

• Make web pages more comfortable to read

• Share videos, links and music on Facebook

• Shorten URLs for easier sharing with bit.ly or tr.im

• Add anything you see online to your Amazon Wishlist

• Share interesting links more easily on Delicious

• Make microblogging simpler with Posterous or Tumblr

• Create a printer-friendly version of any web page

• Send any web content to your Kindle in one click

• Locate an address on Google Maps right away

It’s amazing how quickly Super Bowl Sunday seems to come around. This weekend sees the Colts take on the Saints in a game which could be one of the most exciting ever given the offensive nature of both teams. Super Bowl night is always special, but to make it even more enjoyable, why not grab a hold of some football apps for your iPhone? Here are some choices that will help make this Super Bowl Sunday the best ever, regardless of what happens in the match. Note that many of these apps are only available on the US App Store.

Experience the magic with Madden NFL 10

EA’s John Madden series is one of the longest running in the history of sports games. For seven dollars you can experience the thrills and spills of an NFL season on your iPhone. With great graphics and real teams, players and stadiums, this is the most realistic football game you’ll find. The in-depth gameplay includes almost 300 different plays, and an Action Time Control slo-mo mode to help you perfect the.

Get closer to the action with NFL 2010

Although it lacks the ability to trade players like you can do in Madden, Gameloft’s NFL 2010 is an altogether more polished game. The 3D graphics are slicker than those in Madden, and the fact that there are three difficulty levels means that it’s a lot tougher. It’s also pretty addictive, so make sure you keep NFL 2010 well away from you during the game, or you’ll end up missing the whole thing!

Order food with the Pizza Hut app

Pizza is a key ingredient in the recipe for a good Super Bowl Sunday. Don’t even think about getting up out of your chair to get one though. Just install the Pizza Hut app on your iPhone and you’ll be able to order food from your local Pizza Hut without even speaking to anyone! Choosing what to order is as simple as spinning a wheel and tapping the item you want.

Get some virtual booze down you with iBeer

Drinking beer on Super Bowl night is great fun. However, drinking a virtual beer from your iPhone will make you look cooler. So, grab hold of iBeer, tilt back your phone and watch as the succulent amber nectar froths and disappears slowly just like a real beer. There are five drinks to choose from, and you can refill your glass as many times as you like - all for just 99 cents. How many bars offer a promotion like that?

Learn your trivia with Super Bowl Winners

Now it’s time to bone up on your Super Bowl trivia. Install Super Bowl Winners, and you’ll have an at-a-glance reference to the outcome of every final, since Super Bowl I in 1967. Besides listing the winners, the app arms you with enough stats and data to be impressing your buddies all night with your “knowledge” of this great competition.

Scope out the teams with Pro Football Indianapolis/New Orleans Fan

The Colts and Saints versions of Pro Football’s series of fan apps for iPhone are perfect for brushing up on your knowledge of the finalists. They do cost two dollars a piece, but they provide so much information that they’re worth downloading even if you don’t support either team. You get all the latest news, player profiles, stadium plans, standings, plus detailed team histories.

Follow the action with Pro Football Live

Once all the hype is over and the game has started, you can follow all the action with Pro Football Live. The free app will provide live coverage of Super Bowl XLIV, offering end-zone to end-zone updates and impressive game time visuals. It’s packed with social networking elements too, so you can interact with other fans.

Listen live with ESPN Radio

Of course, you’ll almost certainly be watching the game on TV, but what happens if you need to go to the toilet or dash out for more popcorn? Well, just make sure you’ve got the ESPN Radio app installed and you won’t miss a second of the action. The station will be offering live commentary of the Colts v Saints, and the only costs three dollars then it’s yours forever.

Make some noise with Air Horn

The atmosphere is sure to be exciting in Miami come 7pm E.S.T. You can bring a taste of this excitement into to your home by installing Air Horn. Press down the horn and it will release a sound from your iPhone that’s just like the real thing. It’s guaranteed to provide endless amusement during the course of the game. Either that, or it will annoy the hell out of your buddies.

Make your point with 3D Foam Finger

If you forgot to buy the most crucial Super Bowl accessory of them all - the foam finger - then stop fretting because, naturally, there’s an app for that too. 3D Foam Finger places a giant hand on your screen which you can wave around to show your support. You can even change the color! It does cost 99 cents, but I guess you can’t put a price on fun.

This week’s timewaster is casual gaming at it’s best: simple, addictive and relaxing. Gluey is essentially Bejewelled, but with liquid blobs. Click any gluey blob with two or more eyes to make it disappear, and the blobs around it will roll and join together if they’re of the same color.

Start playing, and before you know it you’ll have lost an afternoon! The colorful graphics are well animated and the music suits the relaxed pace of the game perfectly - although eventually you might want to turn that off. Play Gluey from your browser, and install Flash if you don’t already have it!

Bored of your blog? All tweeted out? This week I’ve been having a second look at Tumblr, which sits somewhere between those two. When I first played with it over a year ago I wasn’t very excited. I don’t know what’s exactly happened since then, but Tumblr looks great now!

You’re not limited to 140 characters, but like Twitter the social aspects are central and built into Tumblr. Posts are split by category - text, photo, quote, link, chat, audio and video - and sharing any of these things is a breeze. The site gives you a Dashboard, which shows you a news stream of posts by you and the people you follow, like Twitter, but as it supports rich media, your Tumblr dashboard will be full of audio, video and images.

Go to the website to set up your account with an email address, and then off you go. The site looks good and is very usable, but even simpler is the Firefox add-on Tumblr Post. If you want to share something, simply drag it to the little icon in the status bar, and it will post on your Tumbleblog automatically! Until computers achieve sentience, I’m not sure blogging could be easier!

When away from your computer, that’s no excuse as there are Android and iPhone apps that allow you to blog just as easily on the move. The free iPhone app Tumblr is especially well designed, allowing you to record audio, photos and video on your phone and upload them, as well as use all the other Tumblr features.

While I love Twitter for keeping up with news, Tumblr seems much more fun. It doesn’t have the huge user base of Twitter but I’m sure it will grow as more people try it, as it’s so easy to get into. Come on, join in: Facebook and Twitter are so last decade!

iPhone: Guitar Hero and Rock Band are two of the most innovative console games of the last ten years. Now you can enjoy the wonders of virtual instruments on the go, by installing Rock Band on your iPhone. The Lite version lets you choose from four different instruments - bass, guitar, drums, and vocals - and all of them are excellently presented. From the animations above the game board to the vibrant neon colors, the graphics are almost worthy of a console - and the sound is superb too.

Windows:  Chrome users worldwide, rejoice! The latest stable version of Google’s web browser is already here. Google Chrome 4.0.249.78 includes a bunch of new features, such as enhanced developer tools, support for HTML5, performance improvements, full Acid3 pas and above all, support for extensions and bookmark syncing.

Mac: Mac fans have been able to try Google Chrome for themselves for quite some time now but this is the first unofficial portable version available that you can take anywhere. However, since it is still a beta version, Google Chrome Portable may be prone to bugs and instability but it’s enough to give you a good idea as to what the finished product will look and feel like. Note, it only works on Intel Macs.

A year ago I was still pretty skeptical about touchscreens. I felt that total reliance on a touchscreens was a mistake, and that devices needed some physical controls, like d-pads, keyboards or keypads.

Having decided to get an iPhone regardless of these fears, and watching the development of apps over the last year, I have changed my mind. While I still can’t touch-text under tables like I used to, I can now tap out emails pretty quickly using the virtual keyboard. I think a physical keyboard is more natural to use, but I have been surprised how quickly I’ve got comfortable to life without one. The gains from touchscreens certainly outweigh the losses: Navigating around a device with a touchscreen is easier and faster - browsing is fantastic. A smartphone without a touchscreen would be a nightmare!

I own a Nintendo DS and a PSP, and never thought the iPhone could compete in game quality. There are areas where that’s still true - driving games on the iPhone are only ever surprisingly good considering they’re on an iPhone. They don’t stand up to systems with more controls - the accelerometer is too imprecise and sensitive (see Real Racing). But when games are developed especially for the touchscreen, they can be fantastic. Space Invaders Infinity Gene is perfect, while Beneath a Steel Sky and Broken Sword show that touchscreens are the best system for point and click adventures.

All in all, touchscreens are a great way to interact with computers - there is plenty of space for them in my life, although that doesn’t mean my joypads and laptop keyboards will be going anywhere soon. Is it a bad idea to say that on the eve of another Apple launch?

Though they were already included in a developer build a few weeks ago, it wasn’t until today that Google made it official: Chrome now supports extensions! Thanks to this long-awaited feature, Chrome users can now expand the capabilities of their browser with small plug-ins that add diverse functionality to the program.

You can find and download Chrome extensions in a special online gallery that organizes them by popularity, date and rating. Right now there are about 1,800 extensions available, many of which are exact copies of Firefox’s popular add-ons – which undoubtedly helps a lot in browser switching. Every extension has its own page, featuring a description, some screenshots, user reviews and links to the developer’s site and the documentation, if any.

Installing a Chrome extension is really easy. Simply browse the gallery to find the extension you’re interested in, click the big blue Install button, accept the confirmation message and you’re done. Unlike Firefox, you don’t even need to restart the browser.

If you want to check your installed extensions, open Chrome’s configuration menu (the wrench icon) and select Extensions. The browser will open a new tab with the list of installed extensions, as well as links to disable and uninstall them, and direct access to the extension’s options – if available.

Finally, if you’re a developer and would like to publish a Chrome extension, you can do so from the gallery itself. Click the Publish your extensions link on the left side of the gallery interface and fill in all the details. The extension will be immediately be ready for download.

Windows: Download managers may not be as necessary as they were in the modem era, but they’re undoubtedly a handy tool for download addicts. FlashGet proves to be one of the best download managers out there, with great features such as support for Torrent an eMule files, scheduled downloads, and clipboard and web browser monitoring, among others.

iPhone: If you’re a Photoshop addict then why not try out the new iPhone version of the app, Photoshop.com Mobile. It’s by no means a fully-featured editing suite, but what it does do is to allow you to quickly and easily tweak photos on the move, through an excellent interface based around touch gestures. This latest update adds support for video playback.

Mac: kJams (formerly known as kTunes) can Rip, Mix, Play and Burn CD+G format discs in a very easy to use iTunes style interface. kJams allows you to create playlists, sort tracks by name, artist, album etc and much more. If you’ve already ripped some MP3+G files, kJams allows you to import them along with standard formats such as QuickTime, KAR, MIDI and Vorbis.