• Spore, The Year's Most Anticipated PC Game

  
  From the team headed by Will Wright, creators of The Sims, comes Maxis's next wild burst of imagination, Spore. It's a game, it's a toy, and it's the most intriguing computer gaming experience to come along in years.

• Spore Executive Producer Discloses Game Details

  
  PC World talks with Lucy Bradshaw, Spore's executive producer, about this year's hottest game, which goes on sale September 7.
• 15 Must-Have Firefox Add-Ons
• 12 Unnecessary Vista Features You Can Disable Right Now
• Early Security Issues Tarnish Google's Chrome
• Researcher: Chrome's Isolated Tabs Make It Memory 'Pig'
• 10 Open Source Companies to Watch
• Google App Engine: Getting Data Out Ain't Simple. Yet.
• Do VMware SDK License Limits Go Too Far?
• Should IT Form a Union?

Software Reviews

• Google Chrome Web Browser Despite some beta issues, Google's streamlined and speedy browser offers strong integrated search and an intriguing alternative to Firefox and Internet Explorer.
• Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 Photo Editing Software With its attractive new image-editing features and its expansion into online photo sharing, Photoshop Elements 7 is a worthy upgrade.
• Slacker Portable Internet Radio Player Slacker's portable music player and Web service let you take your favorite music with you and discover similar artists, too.
• Apple MobileMe Syncing Service Apple's updated syncing service is a disappointment for PC users.
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 A great update offers several must-have features without cluttering up an already clean interface.

Software News

• Bugs & Fixes: Messy App Store Update Tracking Sometimes, a situation is so fouled up that there is no polite way to describe it. Such is the situation with the tracking of...
• Cocoa Studio Coming to Denver in October Pragmatic Studio has announced plans to hold a Cocoa Studio training course in Denver, Colo. on October 28 - 30, 2008...
• Sharpener Pro 3.0 Released for Photoshop, Aperture Nik Software has announced the release of Sharpener Pro 3,0, a new version of their photographic plug-in software designed to...
• Savant Home Automation Systems Get IPhone App Savant Systems on Friday announced a downloadable application for the iPhone and iPod touch that will enable users to control...
• Aether Game Debuts, From Gish Creator Chronic Logic's Gish is one of the weirder games we've played; it's a side-scrolling action game with attention paid to...

Software Playing in PCW Video

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  Golf Simulation: Take Real Golf Swings at Tokyo Bar A new bar in Tokyo lets golfers swing clubs at real balls after work in a software simulation area.
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  Filtering Web Porn: Competition Puts Software to the Test A shootout competition between competing web filtering software packages.
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  Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Launch Preview New server OS emphasizes security, virtualization, Web productivity and business intelligence changes.

Software Slideshows

• Spore, The Year's Most Anticipated PC Game From the team headed by Will Wright, creators of The Sims, comes Maxis's next wild burst of imagination, Spore. It's a game, it's a toy, and it's the most intriguing computer gaming experience to come along in years.
• 10 Amazing Google Earth Add-Ons Maps from centuries past, paths of satellites whizzing by, global warming brought to life: User-created Google Earth mashups present a dizzying array of information in a new and imaginative graphical form.
• Web Photo Fixers: The Slide Show! They may not equal their desktop siblings, but today's Web-based image editors may surprise you. Here, we take a close look at six of these free services.
• Must See! Microsoft's Photosynth Makes Photos a 3D Experience Newly live Web site provides users with 20GB of free storage, making it easy to create and share amazing 3D walkthroughs of your favorite places.
• 20 Years of Madden When John Madden Football debuted in 1988, the Soviet Union hadn't collapsed, the NFL hadn't launched its European league, and some current devotees of Fall Madden-ness were still in diapers. The series has since developed into the biggest franchise in digital gaming, hosting some of the most critically acclaimed but also controversial incremental installments in simulated NFL history. And we have all 20 covers.

Software How-Tos

• 12 Unnecessary Vista Features You Can Disable Right Now Tired of Vista's bloat? Reclaim your PC's performance by turning off a dozen wasteful features.
• Burn Your Photo's Edges Use your image editor to simulate a traditional darkroom effect that emphasizes your subject.
• How I Upgraded My Laptop's Hard Drive and Almost Lost My Mind In which a simple hardware upgrade allows me to channel my inner Laurel and Hardy.
• Smart Fixes for Your Printing, E-Mail, and Audio Hassles Save on costly printer ink, handle leftover Registry junk, and defeat a common Outlook annoyance. Plus: two cool volume-control tools.
• 20 Tech Habits to Improve Your Life A few new habits can make the difference between staying on task, finding what you need, and getting things done--or having a tech meltdown.