Todays Antivirus reviews

Best Free Antivirus:

So - the latest in the seek for a good AV, no - there will never be one that is always perfect.

Here is my list, slightly skewed by CNETs reviews (click links to see reviews):

1. Avast 5
2. MS Security Essentials
3. AVG Free
4. Avira Antivir
5. Panda Cloud Antivirus

Sorry, you wont see any mention of Norton or his scottish cousin McAffee here, this review is for fast efficient products, and whats more all of them are free and I was not specifically looking for free, it just happened as a "bi-product"!!!

1. I tried the latest Avast the other day and it has been pretty good at keeping a problem customer clean for the last month, I am not impressed by its overhead, but its worlds above Norton type products. So far I can't 100% vouch for it as I do not have a wide client base using it.

2. Microsoft's new Security Essentials came out last year, at first its engine was not very efficient, but with recent updates I would put it at 99.9%, performance is great, their active scanner has very low overhead, probably the lowest of all. I have a very wide client base that has been using this for over 6 months, and so far only 1 has been infected.

3. Cant say I have been happy with recent versions of AVG, they seem to be getting more and more bulky in the resource area. However they still

3. Cant say I have been happy with recent versions of AVG, they seem to be getting more and more bulky in the resource area. However they still have a good knack for detection. I have been using AVG widely since 7.5, but last years version caused me to look elseware (pun- yes) for faster software.

4. Avira - I cant say I know much about her, other than lots of discussion read here and there that its a great product, CNET reviews it to do moderately well.

5. Panda Cloud Antivirus unfortunately was a disappointment in the detection department, but I think as more users get onboard and development progresses it has the potential to far surpass all these other products. Its resource usage is the lowest I have seen, and its pure simplicity is wonderful: "I detect viruses" - what else do you want it to do - "I constantly nag you and slow down your computer"?

New found speed for Android phones

While many Android phones are coming out with blazing 1ghz processors, there are still many more that are quite a bit slower, like the 528mhz Hero. Well there may be relief in sight as several new JIT (Just In Time) compilers are being released that speed up the Android Virtual Machine aka Dalvik -

- YES, Android uses a virtual machine (as do many other phone OSes), this is what allows Android to easily integrate with several different hardware manufacturers and still efficiently run its applications. Some may say - "the iPhone has control over the hardware, while Android is running wild, how does it stay efficiently stable?" Well this virtual machine is what does the trick.



This is similar to modern computing platforms (ie Windows, linux), you can install virtualization software which creates a kind of buffer layer between your applications and the hardware, allowing efficient control of resources along with "plug-n-play" usability - your guest OS or application no longer has to worry about drivers that run efficiently with your hardware, the virtualization software handles this in the background.



What does this mean for Android phones?? - well, it means they will run applications faster and use less battery - yeah!!! The JIT compiler allows the OS to kind of cache program code as it is processed, and speed it up when it is called in the future, this is a poor one liner explanation, so read more here if you like. There are now several JIT compilers in development for Android, shortly we should see stable releases of this new software. Here is a nice short article on one of the new JIT compilers.

In case you didnt know, Android is Google's mobile operating system that is found on a number of phones such as the Hero, Nexus One, Moment, Droid and many others; while it is not yet at the level of the iPhone OS, it is fast approaching, and often times considered the biggest competitor to the iPhone market. Android OS is currently on version 2.1, you can read more about it here.

CDMA iPhone to hit Verizon

Ohhhhh boy oh boy oh boy, wet my pants - its coming to Verizon - well, slow down there, *RUMOR* has it that Apple's manufacturer is working on a CDMA design (the protocol used by Verizon among others), *RUMOR* has it production may begin as early as September, this means Verizon users may expect phones by 1st half 2011 - again - these are all RUMORS, to date nobody creditable has confirmed even the production of such a phone.

I have heard some Verizon sales guys touting about how they will soon have Apple under their hat - ignore any such claims, we may also have men on Mars, but not this year!!

Good evidence that Apple is taking note of the Android market enfringement that was unleashed earlier this year - if you are a verizon customer, google may be coming to your neighborhood sooner than apple - dont settle for "Android clones", get a genuine Nexus One made by Google.

Privacy.net sues microsoft, Cisco, Comcast, and TRUST

Privacy.net sues microsoft, Cisco, Comcast, and TRUSTe - what a whammy! Why? - Well these bigshots have slung their weight at the wrong guy, they placed the owner of privacy.net on several spam blacklists, and will not remove him, even though this person does not, and never has hosted any sort of bulk emailing, mailing list, or commercial mailing systems. The accused are accused of eavesdropping on digital communications and placing this person's/company's networks on several blacklists, and all refuse to remove him.

Spam blacklisting is a big deal, I fight it on a weekly basis, while nearly all of my customers use blacklists to block spam, a great deal of them have also been placed on these same blacklists, usually removal is easy, sometimes, impossible. Just a couple of weeks ago a customer using gmail was unable to send mail to another user on RoadRunner internet, RR completely denies any blocking, although all mail is simply dropped without return or delivery - it's companies like this that think some users are just too small to matter that truelly deserve these lawsuits.