May 29 - 5:20pm EDT   TRI-EDRE has released the first public beta of Space-In-Time. The program is used to monitor a computer's disk data in order to understand which folders and files are taking up the most space. Space-In-Time records the space usage for each folder, while keeping a log of file values and totals. [full story]

May 29 - 5:05pm EDT   PlayFirst plans to release three new games later this year, Passport to Perfume, Gemini Lost, and Avenue Flo. Beta versions of Passport to Perfume and Gemini Lost have already been released, and the Avenue Flo beta will be released in June. [full story]

October 27 - 5:55pm EDT   As Apple prepares v2.2 of the iPhone operating system, a new screenshot indicates that the company is inserting a rating dialogue before users can delete an application from their device. Greek language site iPhone Hellas reports that attempting to delete an application directly from the device yields a popup window, offering the familiar five-star system, as well as a "No Thanks" button for users who are not interested in supplying feedback about the app. [full story]

September 12 - 12:20pm EDT   A blog entry by Mary-Jo Foley posted on Thursday suggests Microsoft will not make the Beta version of its Windows 7 operating system available to testers at either its October Professional Developers Conference or November’s Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, as expected by many in the industry. While the software giant is likely to unveil new information about the new operating system that is to be Vista’s successor, the actual Beta 1 versions aren’t likely to be released until the middle of December, Foley claims, citing industry sources familiar with the schedule who do not want to be named. [full story]

July 23 - 1:05pm EDT   Apple is preparing to offer a beta-testing program for iPhone applications in its App Store, according to an app developer. The beta program will allow developers to distribute beta versions of their iPhone Apps to registered iPhones for testing, according to TechCrunch. Currently, there is no easy way to put apps on an iPhone other than distribution on Apple's iPhone App Store. Developers have to put any fixes out for all to use. "The big problem here is that the only way to install software on an iPhone or iPod touch is with the App Store. There are also no provisions for beta testing," one developer on the Twitterific team said. "The only way to test a fix is to ... [full story]

July 16 - 4:15pm EDT   Sun Microsystems recently unveiled OpenOffice 3.0b2, a new beta preview release of the next major version of its business productivity suite, adding a number of optimizations, features, and fixes. The new version introduces new regional grammar and numeric standards for Indian customers, as well as refined behaviour of editing filtered rows. Sun also introduced 'y axis' error bars, allowing users to define a range of error for estimated figures. [full story]

June 28 - 2:25pm EDT   Security software developer PC Tools has just released a beta of iAntiVirus, its first security software for the Mac. The company says iAntiVirus uses less memory and system resources than similar security applications because it ignores Windows viruses and only removes malware intended for the Mac. “Let’s face it, malware is (now) a business,” said Michael Greene, PC Tools Vice President of Product Strategy. He says rapid growth in Mac market share has made the platform a profitable target for organized identity theft. [full story]

June 25 - 9:20am EDT   Independent software developer app4mac has announced its latest beta version of Sequence. Touted as 'a simple way to capture and save an image or movie of your screen', the desktop utillity allows users to capture images or movies directly from their Mac's display, and then save them as files, email them, or post them directly onto the web. Making full use of modern multi-threaded code and a 64-bit compression system, it can capture DVD, audio or multimedia material and enables the simultaneous capture of webcam images and screen data. Sequence also offers extensive audio recording options, such as integration with a Mac's built-in mic or external sound device or recording ... [full story]

June 16 - 12:40pm EDT   Mesa Dynamics has posted a beta of Amnesty Hypercube, which is designed to “free” Google Gadgets and other web widgets from the confines of a web browser to the desktop. Not to be confused with Dashboard widgets, web widgets are tiny applications -- often snippets of HTML code -- designed to be inserted in blogs or other web pages. Amnesty Hypercube allows these widgets to be launched from within Dashboard or from the desktop. [full story]

May 19 - 9:50pm EDT   Eternal Storms Software on Monday unveiled a public beta for Flickery, a new Flickr image client for the Mac that allows Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard users to browse, view, upload, manage, and comment on photos. Flickery features a minimalist interface, which can show several photos, or just a one-up approach in either full-window or full-screen. Eternal Storms Software is running a public beta of the software from now until June 30th, and is currently free to try. [full story]

May 6 - 1:00am EDT   VMware today unveiled VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta 1, a free beta preview of the next major update to its OS virtualization software, which introduces many new features, including true multi-display support for virtual machines. In addition to using multiple displays, the beta also introduces experimental support for DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 2, allowing users to run complex 3D software in a virtualized environment. When it ships, VMware Fusion 2.0 will be a free upgrade for all existing v1.x users, while new users can purchase Fusion for $80. [full story]

April 25 - 4:50pm EDT   Apple's newly released SDK build could potentially support background processes to allow for a richer user experience, and allow intricate applications to run properly. The Unofficial Apple Weblog reveals that the SDK supports the UIApplication delegate class, which includes methods that apply to gaining and resigning "active" status. While not officially confirmed in any documentation, the revelation could indicate support for background tasks. [full story]

April 17 - 9:55pm EDT   ModMyiFone.com forum members have discovered a new utility for jailbroken iPhones which allows for handwriting recognition using a small grey area. The beta software can recognize both Latin and Chinese characters at the moment, transcribing finger motions into editable text on a yellow notepad-style document. User poetic_folly notes that installing HWPen requires the user to add iphonecake.com/src/all as the installer source. [full story]

April 14 - 7:00pm EDT   iPhone developers testing the latest v1.2.0 beta firmware have found that future implementations of the iPhone OS allows users to press and hold their finger over an image in Safari to save it to their Photo Album. According to Gizmodo, the method works with all new versions of the v1.2.0 beta, and is ideal for saving friends photos from Facebook or a similar service, allowing the photo to serve as a background or other interface element. [full story]

April 9 - 2:15pm EDT   Parallels Server Beta 3 has been released, adding an integrated toolset that includes Parallels Tools, Parallels Image Tool and Parallels Transporter (a P2V and V2V migration tool) to the hypervisor solution for server virtualization. Parallels Server includes support for Intel Virtualization Technology (Intel VT-x) hardware acceleration technologies, 32- and 64-bit platform and guest OS support, and 4-way guest SMP and multi-core CPU support. The new release also adds open APIs and SDK for extensible management, allowing third party tools vendors to add support for Parallels Server. Also new is a command line interface (CLI), and scripting (including Python) allowing ... [full story]