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The Simpsons have become ingrained in our culture since they first premiered on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987 (we're showing our age here), so it seems fitting that they move to the 21st century by appearing in an iOS game. Sadly, though, for such a funny and entertaining television show, The Simpsons Tapped Out is one of the more boring iOS game apps we've tested.

When we started The Simpsons Tapped Out, we had to wait about five minutes for 28 updates to download. But once it started, we were greeted with a short scene of Homer … Read more

A year is a long time in the life of the average PC. If it's been a while since your computer was brand-spanking-new, you may have noticed that it takes longer to start up, or your programs and files take longer to load. You can reclaim some of your computer's original performance with the help of EaseUS CleanGenius. This toolkit cleans and tweaks your system, deleting junk files and unneeded registry entries on demand or on schedule. It can make a big difference on older and slower systems, but even newer computers can benefit from regular maintenance with … Read more

We're not sure we fit into Snapchat's target demographic, because we just didn't get it. It's a social app, which means it works best when you have lots of friends who also use it. The premise is fairly simple: take a picture, scribble a quick message on it, and send it to a friend. But you also have to set a timer for how long your friend can view the picture, which is where it lost us.

Before you start, you have to create a Snapchat account by entering your e-mail address and a password. After … Read more

iWeb 09 is Apple's Web site design and publishing tool. With it you can lay out your Web site without knowing HTML or CSS, apply preconfigured themes, and publish the result through FTP to a Web hosting company. There's a lot of functionality built into iWeb 09, making Web design possible for those who are not technical.

The iWeb 09 interface is designed to guide you step-by-step through each part of the design process. Start by choosing a theme from a list of supplied templates, then design page by page by replacing placeholder content with your chosen content. … Read more

A useful tool for the multitasker, Virtual Desktop Assistant lets you create multiple virtual desktops on one computer, and can help busy people stay organized.

Virtual Desktop Assistant has an intuitive layout that makes it easy to get started. It sits in the taskbar for quick access and displays the numbers 0 through 3 on the bottom-right corner of the user's window. Zero represents the default system desktop and 1 through 3 represent virtual desktops that can be navigated to simply by pressing the Alt key and the number that represents the virtual desktop you want to switch to.… Read more

Mouse clickers are tools that click your mouse buttons automatically at preset intervals. Free Mouse Auto Clicker is a simple, no-nonsense utility that single-clicks or double-clicks your right or left mouse button at intervals ranging from hours to fractions of a second. It also starts and stops hotkeys. It runs unobtrusively, with a System Tray icon you can click to call it up.

Free Mouse Auto Clicker's user interface is very basic, with all its controls right in the layout. Don't get us wrong: Plain and simple is a fine combination in software utilities, especially those that are … Read more

Seagate announced today a new version of the Backup Plus portable drive designed especially for Macs.

The new Backup Plus family was first introduced back in June, initially available for Windows. The drive offers USB 3.0 and comes with the HFS+ file system out of the box.

The Backup Plus family replaces Seagate's GoFlex family but still offers a flexible design thanks to the Universal Storage Module (USM) standard, which basically allows you to use any type of connection standard (USB, FireWire, eSATA, or even Thunderbolt) just by swapping out the adapter part of the drive. The drive … Read more

The ideal tool for a student in high school or college, Zotero is a unique freeware research tool with plug-ins for both Microsoft Word and Open Office. At the most basic level of use, Zotero is a place to store and manage all bibliographic references such as magazine articles and books. It can be used with a number of browsers, or used as a standalone application to store and retrieve research information. It can also be used on either Macs or PCs.

Zotero has a layout much like Windows Explorer. At install, it creates a My Library file where the … Read more

Windows users are familiar with a number of utilities for setting system preferences, but Mac users have not had as many options. GeekTool is a solid attempt to remedy that situation by bringing an alternate way to handle many Mac system settings. The app installs quickly and opens to a simple interface allowing you to create "geeklets," which accomplish specific tasks. You drag the geeklet icon to your desktop, which then opens a dialog allowing you to customize the behavior of the geeklet. Options in the dialog vary depending on the type of geeklet you are creating.

To … Read more