''Is there a word for someone who blocks themselves from accessing everything work-related, leaving them only with Twitter?'' That's the question I asked shortly after blocking myself from everything Ars in an attempt to test out SelfControl, a simplistic (if not strict) distraction-blocking app for the Mac. Created by ...

Coming off a quarter in which higher product support sales drove surprisingly strong profits, Oracle tacked on an acquisition Mar. 23 that could broaden the market for those contracts. Oracle built up its presence in the pharmaceutical industry by acquiring...

After various problems, the replacement for Microsoft Expression Media 2 Service Pack 2 has finally arrived. The build number is 2.0.2096.0 but it will be a while before this version of SP2 trickles out via Microsoft Update and the Mac AutoUpdate. Thankfully, the new SP2 is also available on the Microsoft Download Center for ...

The developers behind the GNOME project announced the official release of version 2.26 on Tuesday. It includes several useful enhancements, new programs, and improved configuration utilities. GNOME is an open source desktop environment for the Linux platform. It provides a cohesive desktop user interface and an assortment of ...

Browser vendors often make strong claims about their responsiveness to vulnerability reports and their ability to preemptively prevent exploits. Security is becoming one of the most significant fronts in the new round of browser wars, but it's also arguably one of the hardest aspects of software to measure or quantify. A ...

The awkwardly-named 10 Balls 7 Cups provides a virtual skee ball experience on the iPhone. Like its real-world counterpart, you try to amass points by rolling balls up an inclined platform and bouncing them into a series of cups. Cups that are smaller and harder to reach offer higher point scores than the ones that are larger ...

GNOME Do is an open source launcher utility for the Linux desktop that offers a minimalistic, task-oriented, and keyboard-friendly approach to application launching and task management. The latest version, 0.8.1, was released on Friday. GNOME Do was originally modeled after Quicksilver, a similar program for Mac OS X. It runs ...

This may seem like somewhat of a stretch, but I'm going to go ahead with the analogy anyway: GarageBand is the multi-function printer in the third-floor office that is iLife '09. With the addition of yet another feature, the '09 iteration of Apple's music-making app has become the ugly, multi-purpose mess that is today's ...

Chillingo's Zen Bound made a minor splash when it hit the App Store a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't until this weekend that I had the chance to really sit down and get a sense of what all the buzz what about. Let's just say it's not really what you expect from an iPhone game. Zen Bound offers an immersive experience where ...

Despite Google's dominance of the Web, its many apps are susceptible to occasional bouts of downtime just like its competitors. In what is either a move to keep its users informed or to simply steal traffic from Down for everyone or just me, Google has quietly introduced an Apps Status site. Featuring a list of Google's core ...