Many people are happy to stick with the default browser set up when they fire up their computer for the first time, which means Internet Explorer if you’re a Windows user and Safari if you’re on an Apple Mac. Both browsers have improved massively in recent years, but part of that improvement is down to the growth in rival browsers like Google’s open-source alternative.

Chrome is no longer the young upstart it once was, and its pioneering spirit is often forgotten in the mists of time. It was Chrome’s sleek tab-driven interface with minimal real estate that was adopted by Firefox and the recent IE9. Chrome was the first to provide a resource-friendly browser that loaded quickly and didn’t suck the life out of your system, although again the competition has now caught up – and in some cases – surpassed its achievements.

Oh, Chrome was also the first to adopt a rapid release cycle, so if you’re fed up with a new browser number appearing in the About menu every few months, you can thank Google for that too.

Chrome may no longer look like the dazzling young starlet, but it more than holds its own against the competition. It’s still quick to load, quick to perform and easy to use. It bundles the Flash plug-in so you don’t have to download it separately and the browser sync function makes it easy to back up and sync your settings across multiple computers.

While the competition has definitely caught up, Chrome has enough going for it to keep existing users happy supporting the browser that has led to so many improvements in the way we view and access the web.

Chrome 19 is now stable.

What's new in Chrome 19? The biggest change is the addition of synchronized tabs when you login to your browser. As an example, say you were seeking directions to a restaurant but forgot to print the details before leaving the office. Fire up Google on your mobile device and the opened tabs should appear as you left them in the office. The tab browsing history is also synchronized between computers.

Other v19 enhancements include a Chromium v8 core, fixes some incognito window-related errors, fixes some 3D issues with NVIDIA GPUs and more.

Many people are happy to stick with the default browser set up when they fire up their computer for the first time, which means Internet Explorer if you’re a Windows user and Safari if you’re on an Apple Mac. Both browsers have improved massively in recent years, but part of that improvement is down to the growth in rival browsers like Google’s open-source alternative.

Chrome is no longer the young upstart it once was, and its pioneering spirit is often forgotten in the mists of time. It was Chrome’s sleek tab-driven interface with minimal real estate that was adopted by Firefox and the recent IE9. Chrome was the first to provide a resource-friendly browser that loaded quickly and didn’t suck the life out of your system, although again the competition has now caught up – and in some cases – surpassed its achievements.

Oh, Chrome was also the first to adopt a rapid release cycle, so if you’re fed up with a new browser number appearing in the About menu every few months, you can thank Google for that too.

Chrome may no longer look like the dazzling young starlet, but it more than holds its own against the competition. It’s still quick to load, quick to perform and easy to use. It bundles the Flash plug-in so you don’t have to download it separately and the browser sync function makes it easy to back up and sync your settings across multiple computers.

While the competition has definitely caught up, Chrome has enough going for it to keep existing users happy supporting the browser that has led to so many improvements in the way we view and access the web.

Chrome 19 is now stable.

What's new in Chrome 19? The biggest change is the addition of synchronized tabs when you login to your browser. As an example, say you were seeking directions to a restaurant but forgot to print the details before leaving the office. Fire up Google on your mobile device and the opened tabs should appear as you left them in the office. The tab browsing history is also synchronized between computers.

Other v19 enhancements include a Chromium v8 core, fixes some incognito window-related errors, fixes some 3D issues with NVIDIA GPUs and more.

Being put off by the cost of backup software can no longer be your excuse for not backing up your data thanks to the arrival of this immensely powerful backup tool. There is a strong focus on security in this particular utility, and support for advanced AES encryption greatly reduces the risk of your private data from being accessed by anyone that it shouldn’t be seen by.

The program can be installed in a number of ways that mean it is flexible enough to adapt to the way you want it to work. For example, you can choose to install it as a regular program that will be called upon whenever it is needed, or you may want to install it as an autostarting application for everyone or just the current user. The final option is to install it as a service and you can then indicate which user account – such as the administrator account – should be used to run it.

It’s amazing what you can get for nothing – this is a great backup tool that includes all of the advanced features you would expect to find in a commercial product. Scheduling is an important feature of any backup tool as it ensures that backups are kept up to date – and of course you have the option of creating incremental or differential backups – and Cobian Backup 11 includes more options that average in this particular area.

Remote management means that it is possible to take control of your backups from another computer, or use one machine to manage the backups for all of your home computers. The process of choosing which files should be included in a backup is amazingly flexible, and you can use options such as name and location, but also size, file attributes and much more to ensure that precisely what you need is included in a backup. The ability to create multiple backup task, each of which can be run on a different schedule means that Cobian Backup 11 can adapt to suit whatever type of data you have to work with and the different needs that arise from them.

It must get harder refreshing Acronis True Image each year. The 2011 version of the program was the most fully featured yet, offering a full gamut of backup tools covering files and settings as well as entire partitions and hard disks. As a result, the 2012 version doesn’t add anything radically new to the mix, but the functionality it does add is still potentially useful.

The headline new feature is support for data synchronisation across multiple computers. As people find themselves working on two or more devices, accessing the latest version of your documents and other files is increasingly critical. Acronis True Image 2012 allows you to set up multiple folders across network drives and other Windows computers to keep them in sync, with an added option of using your Acronis Online Backup account as an intermediary.

Speaking of which, Acronis Online Backup is more fully integrated into True Image 2012, although beware: you’ll get 250GB drive space for 30 days, after which you’ll be expected to purchase a subscription to continue using the service. Decline this and not only are all your backups deleted, but you won’t be able to use any online backup features provided. We’re disappointed, seeing as offering 5GB or even just 2GB free space would be in keeping with other online backup services.

Version 2012 also adds an e-book filter to the file-based backup, ensuring your electronic books can also be easily backed up and restored. Under the hood improvements include better integration into Windows 7 when the program’s icon is pinned to the Taskbar, plus support for large (over 2TB) hard drives even on OSes that don’t natively support them – specifically Windows XP 32-bit. Acronis 2012 also works better with NAS drives, regardless of the file system.

All of this is wrapped up in the same user-friendly, wizard-driven interface that graced the 2011 release. It all adds up to a powerful backup solution that’s in real danger of running out of places to go next.

This is Acronis True Image 2012 "Update 2", with a host of few features and fixes:

Scheduler Smart Start. Smart start of the scheduler service when it is required has been added.
Archives Scanning Management. Now it is possible to manage auto scanning of tib files during the program start.
Disk Cloning. The disk cloning process has been improved.
Improved Hardware Support in Linux. A Linux kernel has been updated for better hardware support in Linux bootable media and other Linux components
Minor Improvements. Lots of bug fixes and minor changes since the previews build, build 6154.

If a friend or colleague asks you to recommend an office suite, our first thought is often Microsoft Office. However, we forget that this suite can costs many hundreds of pounds, which makes it cost prohibitive for an individual or small business. Besides, everyone just assumes that they automatically require ‘Office compatibility’, but even Microsoft do not help themselves here. The Office 2007 suite produces documents, by default, that wasn’t compatible with older versions of Office, still widely used across many corporations. The Mac Office couldn’t open Office 2007 documents until recently, either.

However, there are many free Office alternatives and few are better than OpenOffice. This will write and open most of the Office formats and is cross-platform, too. If you get used to OpenOffice at work, on your PC, move across to the same version on your Mac and the user-interface is fairly similar. The Mac and Windows versions of Microsoft Office are very different beasts, with completely different user-interfaces, making it hard to become experts across both suites.

OpenOffice ships with a document writer, a spreadsheet, a presentation maker and many other modules. Everything you need to run your business. OpenOffice also saves your documents in the open document format (ODF) meaning that they can be opened within other free office suites, such as Lotus Symphony.

OpenOffice 3.4.0 is the first version to ship from the Apache Foundation. See the detailed 3.4.0 release notes for more information.

Image editors are ten-a-penny nowadays, so anything which wants attention from a divided audience needs to offer something quite special. GIMP (or the GNU Image Manipulation Program) is one of the most powerful free image editors available, and is frequently described as being a free alternative to the likes of Photoshop.

This is a highly versatile tool which can be used as a basic drawing program, but can also be employed to edit digital photographs to a professional level. Despite being free of charge, opting to use GIMP does not mean having to compromise on features. Layers, masks, channels, filters and special effects, in addition to the usual range of editing tools, are all on hand to make image editing as easy as possible.

Powerful tools such as the correction mode which allows for the correction of barrel distortion and perspective problems are usually only found in expensive packages, but are included here for anyone to try out. Whether you are an amateur digital photographer, or a professional graphic artist, GIMP has something to offer you.

Anyone who has tried the program in the past will be pleased to see that GIMP is now a single file installation - there is no longer any need to install special libraries in advance. The program interface may take a little getting used to for some, featuring various floating panels rather than a single program window, but after this shallow learning curve, the program becomes joy to use.

GIMP 2.8 is a huge upgrade with a ton of new features. For instance, you now get a single window mode, multi-dock windows, enhanced exporting, layer groups and much more. See the 2.8 Release Notes for more info.