Posted 09/09/09 at 04:15:26 PM by Paul Lilly

Sherwood today announced another set-top box the company hopes will vie for a place in your home theater. Towards that end, the new 700W R904-N NetBoxx AV receiver serves as both a 7.1-channel AV receiver and an internet media portal for streaming online content.

The 700W box measures just 17 x 10 x 2.5 inches and includes three HDMI 1.3 inputs, a Toslink input, two coaxial audio inputs, and support for Dolby Volume, Dolby TruHD, and DTS-HD Master high-res audio formats.

Once connected, you'll have access to Internet content from CinemaNow, YouTube, various TV channels, SHOUTcast audio "Internet radio" stations, and the ability to stream personal media and content from Hulu, Netflix, CBS, CNN, ESPN, Rhapsody, and Amazon Video On Demand, Sherwood says. You'll also find a USB port in the mix.

Sounds groovy, but it's anything but cheap. Slated for release later this month, the NetBoxx carries an MSRP of $650.

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Posted 07/03/09 at 05:19:54 PM by Paul Lilly

Many of our readers were taken off-guard when we rated Norton Internet Security 2009 a 9/Kickass in last year's antivirus roundup, and we even admit to being surprised at Norton's transformation from a resource-heavy sloth to a lean and competent antimalware package. We hope the trend continues, and we'll have a chance to see if it does now that Symatec has released beta versions of its upcoming 2010 releases to the public.

The new version features a new protection model codenamed Quorum and will put a heavier focus on reputation-based malware detection. While it won't replace existing signature-based detection for known threats, Norton says the reputation model can detect zero-day malware that's never been seen before.

"Our new approach changes the rules by both enhancing traditional security techniques to make them more aggressvie and by making it dramatically more difficult for attackers to evade detection by simply changing their malware," said Rowan Trollope, Symantec senior vice president, Consumer Business Unit.

Other features include an overhaul to parental control and spam filtering, more detailed information provided by Norton Insight, which identifies known good programs for faster scanning, and a new feature called Autopsy, which is designed to help the user understand what just happened when Norton automatically removes an infection.

Norton Internet Security 2010 Beta
Norton Antivirus 2010 Beta

Had a chance to try either one of these out? Hit the jump and let us know about it!

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Posted 06/10/09 at 09:00:44 AM by Paul Lilly

Oopsy-daisy! According to complaints on McAfee's message board, a mandatory service pack for the company's antivirus VSE 8.7 software has left some machines unbootable. The update, which was issued on May 27 and later pulled on June 2, was intended to squash minor security bugs, but also inadvertently flagged some Windows system files as malware.

"McAfee removed Patch 1 for McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.7i from its download servers out of precaution after a potential issue with the update was discovered," McAfee said in a statement. "A very small number of customers reported trouble with the patch on a limited number of computers."

McAfee went on to say that it's working on identifying the cause of the false positives and, once resolved, will repost the mandatory update.

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Posted 04/29/09 at 08:41:58 AM by Paul Lilly

After nearly three years of development, Panda Security today released the public beta of its Panda Cloud Antivirus, which the company claims is the first free cloud-based antivirus thin-client. By taking AV duties to the cloud and combining it with local detection technologies, Panda says it can do a better job at protecting your PC than a traditional virus scanner.

"Thanks to Panda Security's Collective Intelligence malware and goodware online database, Panda Cloud Antivirus detects more malware than traditional signature-based solutions which take longer to detect the most recent, and therefore most dangerous, variants," Pedro Bustamanta, Panda Senior Research Advisor, wrote in a blog entry.

The local portion of the program takes up roughly 50MB of hard drive space while consuming about 17MB of RAM, according to a Cnet report. By the time Panda Cloud Antivirus exits the beta stage, Bustamante hopes to have the RAM consumption down to 12MB.

One potential downside to relying on the cloud for antivirus protection is that your PC would be left vulnerable without an internet connection. But not to worry, says Bustamante, who clarified that a local cache copy of Collective Intelligence is kept on the PC for just such scenarios.

Panda Cloud Virus Download (Beta)

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Posted 06/25/08 at 02:20:17 PM by Mark Edward Soper

 Running Windows Vista SP1? Here's a fix that cleans up stability issues involving POP email clients, third-party antivirus and antispyware clients, User Accounts, large programs that won't run if the system's been on for a long time, Apple QuickTime preview, and AV stuttering. Download it - today!

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