McAfee's developers are serious about the "Plus" in McAfee AntiVirus Plus 2013. In addition to basic antivirus functionality, it offers firewall protection, vulnerability scanning, system cleanup, and more. However, the core antivirus technology doesn't score as well as many in independent tests and our own tests.

In Windows 8, it's still true that Internet Explorer 10, leads a double life. You can run it as a new-style full screen app or you can run it in the traditional Windows desktop view. Underneath, however, both of these as well as the Windows 7 edition use the same rendering engine. Currenty, the Windows 7 version is dubbed a "preview," and it's available for download.

Microsoft's Windows 8 is a bold innovation, melding the worlds of tablets and PCs. Its excellent touch input, an app store, and better performance are compelling, but the changes will be too drastic for some and as a completely new product, a few rough edges remain.

After a somewhat fitful initial release, Firefox 16 (actually 16.0.1) is now the prevailing version of Mozilla's independent, open-source browser. You might say that the update only adds new features for developers, but those in turn can mean new Web capabilities for ordinary browser users.

Trend Micro packs antivirus, phishing protection, and spam filtering into their entry-level antivirus. The Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security suite expands on these features with parental control, data protection, and system tuneup. There are no weak components to drag this suite down.

Apple's latest iOS 6 isn't as game-changing as previous versions, but it adds numerous features, such as a new Passbook app, a revamped Maps app, and new accessibility options that make it a must-have download if you own a compatible device. But some features aren't available on all devices either due to hardware limitations or because they're specific to iPhones or iPod touches.

Yesterday, Microsoft made the final version of Windows 8 available to developers through MSDN and TechNet. We were able to get our hands on Microsoft's newest operating system, which has been called a big gamble for the future of Windows. It definitely has a touch-oriented interface and feature set, which some users might love but others might hate.

At first glance, Mountain Lion looks like an identical twin of its predecessor, OS X Lion. Upgraders from Lion will face an almost flat learning curve, because almost every feature they've learned to use works in almost exactly the same way as before. But Mountain Lion unobtrusively slots in dozens of new features that enhance sharing, messaging, cloud-based synchronization, security, Web browsing, instant notifications and accessibility.

Microsoft today announced the next generation of its Office suite: Microsoft Office 2013, the desktop version, and Office 365, a subscription-based version of the same product that comes with more frequent updates and tight integration with SkyDrive, Microsoft's cloud service for document storage.

BitDefender Total Security 2013 provides a solid alternative to other better-known security products out there. It definitely had its work cut out to try to better those other products and the Romanian software company seemed to have been successful on most counts. It runs smoothly and has some really unique and neat features to help set it apart from the rest.