Posted 11/18/09 at 05:30:12 PM by David Murphy

It's a pretty slick deal of Amazon to open up its Kindle library to devices beyond those of the company's handheld book readers.  But just because the Kindle software has gone multi-platform doesn't mean that it's a sure winner.  No, it's the ease-of-use and almost iTunes-like functionality of this simple e-book reader that makes it a great piece of software for your desktop or laptop PC. 

You can't do very much with Kindle for PC aside from read books purchased through Amazon's extensive library--which, in itself, makes sense.  You wouldn't really want another piece of software to read PDFs, right?  Joking aside, the one thing this software does, it does well.  Grabbing new book titles from Amazon is as easy as logging into the Web site, hitting download, and waiting for the book to quickly refresh itself in your Kindle for PC home screen. Your collection of digital novels appears as the front covers of each title, and you can sort this list by the order in which you downloaded the e-books, their names, or the author's name.

Read on for more details!

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Posted 05/12/09 at 06:00:00 PM by David Murphy

One of the most rewarding parts of doing these weekly freeware roundups for Maximum PC is the sheer wealth of software that I get to play with each month -- applications that I not only use myself, but ones that I feel compelled to tell you about as well. But coming in a close second are the responses that you, the readers, leave in these posts. For as much as I scour the Internet to find awesome new programs for you to check out, you too have become my eyes and ears for the latest in amazing free software.

You might guess where this one's going. I'm looking toward the pool of Maximum PC users this week and highlighting programs that you, yourselves, have recommended in the various comments you've posted to these articles. For a number of you have left links and comments featuring compelling alternatives or hidden gems that relate to the programs I've posted. Although I'm featuring your best answers this week, don't let that stop you from joining the discussion! If a certain freeware application has really caught your eye, jump in the thread and say something! Or hit me up on Twitter and let me know when you've found something great!

After the jump: The Maximum PC commenters get their day in Freeware Court!

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Posted 02/27/09 at 03:13:08 PM by Mark Edward Soper

Ouch! It's been a bad week for Adobe Acrobat and Reader users, DailyTech's Jason Mick reports. Some visitors to eweek.com viewed PDF-based ads that attempted to redirect readers to malicious websites and then tried to download Bloodhound.Exploit.213. This vulnerability affects only Acrobat and Reader 8.12 and earlier and was patched back in November with version 8.13, but not everyone's gotten around to updating their Adobe products yet. eWeek's pulled the offending ads, and Adobe was already offering a fix - and that's the good news.

The bad news? There's an even more serious flaw on the loose that targets all versions of Acrobat and Reader, including version 9.0. There are no updates yet (the update for version 9 is expected by March 11, but version 7 and 8 users must wait a bit longer). So, what can you do in the meantime? Lots of MaximumPC readers recommend the free Foxit Reader, but if you must use Adobe, join us after the jump for workarounds that can protect you in the meantime.

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Posted 07/02/08 at 02:24:49 PM by Mark Edward Soper

Adobe makes the wait for Reader 9 a short one, rolling out the companion to its heavily upgraded Acrobat 9 family just days after releasing Acrobat 9. Reader 9 supports all of the new multimedia features in Acrobat 9, including embedded Flash videos, and like Acrobat 9, loads much faster than its predecessor. Download it here.

Planning to try Acrobat 9 and Reader 9? Happy with third-party PDF readers? Give us your thoughts after the break.

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