1Password 3 beta now open to all

Encumbered by passwords? Want to help out some classy Mac developers in their quest to kill bugs dead? Eager to try unreleased software? If you missed out when Agile Web Solutions was offering a private beta of 1Password 3 to customers on Snow Leopard, there's good news! 1Password 3 is now available as a public beta for one and all.

Feel special? Yes, that means you. You should! 1Password 3's new features include 1PasswordAnywhere, which allows you to open a 1Password Agile Keychain as a folder with a password-protected Web interface on any operating system. Software Licenses now have their own category, complete with icons and a new vault-like appearance. You can even add and edit existing items in your Agile Keychain from the browser, but only on Mac OS X computers that have 1Password 3 installed and the Agile Keychain selected.

There's also a separate dashboard for iPhone and iPod Touch syncing that will allow you to sync just the passwords you want to 1Password Touch. 1Password 3 also features touch gestures inspired by those in Apple Mail; a brand new UI; metadata tags to better organize items; the ability to create, edit and remove fields for Login and Wallet items; and 64-bit support for Snow Leopard. First, it requires that you're running at least Mac OS X Leopard 10.5. Second, since it's a beta, you really should backup your 1Password Keychain just in case this beta spawns the dread lord Cthulhu and your passwords are dragged into an inky black abyss. (We are assured that this is a very remote possibility, but you can never be too careful.) Finally, it'd be nice if you had an account at Agile Web Solutions' support forums to tell the developers about bugs you've found or learn about bugs that have been discovered by fellow beta testers. Before you give this software a try, you need to be aware of a few things. It's all part of being a good beta tester. If you've purchased 1Password 2 before then, fear not! The beta of 1Password 3 is free for everyone, but the full version will cost $40 with the same 100% money back guarantee as 1Password 2. If you've bought 1Password 2 after February 1, you'll get an upgrade for free.

You can upgrade a single user today for the limited time price of $20 or upgrade a family license for $30.

Quicksilver beta 57 released, not dead yet

Fans of the launcher-and-do-everything utility Quicksilver have been concerned for a while that it had might have transformed into a Norwegian Blue parrot. Although Jitkoff has since released Quicksilver as open source, the fact that he's being paid to work on similar software, combined with widespread Quicksilver problems after the release of Snow Leopard, led many to believe that Quicksilver's days were numbered. (And if they are, there will probably be a trigger to count them.) A maintenance release on November 6 brought basic compatibility with Mac OS X 10.6, but many plugins remained broken, and the process of getting much of the functionality working wasn't easy. The primary developer, Nicholas Jitkoff, is now a Google employee and the author of the far less featureful Google Quick Search Box.

It seemed questionable whether any more upgrades were in the pipeline, so we Quicksilver addicts can be heartened by Monday's release of 1.0 beta 57. (The last official "stable" version was 1.0 beta 54 in December, 2007, and 1.0 beta 57 upgrades from beta 56a7. Obscure versioning being, of course, part of Quicksilver's charm.) The update doesn't bring new features, but that's not a problem to the Quicksilver community, 95 percent of whom (myself included) can't figure out how to use all of the functionality that's already there. It's not much, but it's reassuring to know that we're in the "I'm not dead yet" routine rather than the parrot sketch. Instead, the change log highlights a dozen things which "don't crash anymore," and several behind-the-scenes tweaks and upgrades. One oddity: you may have missed this upgrade, as it doesn't seem to have been released through regular channels. So either I'm running the latest version of an open-source project, or my MacBook (and around 400,000 other people's) is about to self-destruct in a hotkey-triggered fireball. I found it on MacUpdate, but there's no mention of it on Blacktree's web site, Wikipedia (that's a first), or in the automatic update mechanism.

Readers with more sense than I have may want to wait a while before installing. And despite its problems, it still has lovely plumage. Quicksilver is free software; users of older versions of Mac OS X can download relevant versions directly at the Blacktree site.

Microsoft launches new version of MSN

Microsoft plans to start rolling out a redesigned MSN.com on Wednesday in the U.S., the first major update for the page in more than 10 years. That's a sharp departure from the previous design, which featured around 40 links on just the top third of the page. Frequent visitors to the site will immediately notice one major change: The new page has only half the number of links as the old one. The site has also dropped the trademark blue background for a simpler white page.

Users also said that they sometimes had a hard time finding what they were looking for, they were dissatisfied with search results prior to the launch of Bing, and they said the site had an outdated look and feel. The new design aims to address user feedback and complaints, said Erik Jorgenson, corporate vice president for MSN. Customers said they want a single site that is easy to use, he said. "What they don't like is too much clutter," he said. Microsoft called Wednesday's launch a preview of the redesign, meaning it will appear for some people immediately but will become widely available in the new year. The site is now divided into just a handful of sections, many of which are fed information that may be personally relevant to the specific user. Those who don't immediately get the new site can visit preview.msn.com to see it. For instance, a box in the lower right corner of the home page includes three tabs: Windows Live, Facebook and Twitter.

A box in the lower left corner of the page displays local weather, headlines and events. The Facebook tab shows a list of friends' recent updates to Facebook and lets the user update their Facebook status from the MSN page. Clicking on the local link launches a new page, MSN Local Edition. It also displays more detailed weather information and a local map where users can view traffic data. That page uses Bing search to draw in local news and information.

The site draws on users' IP addresses to deliver local information to them. That page won't launch Wednesday, but in the future people who have Silverlight installed may begin seeing the page. Microsoft will also be testing out a version of the home page that uses Silverlight. In the Silverlight version, clicking on the Twitter link, for example, pops up a box where users can view updates as well as trending topics. Yahoo, Microsoft's biggest portal competitor, also recently redesigned its home page, but with different results. Around 50 percent of MSN.com users already have Silverlight, Jorgenson said.

The Yahoo page still includes a long list of links to other pages and otherwise mainly features a list of links to news stories. MSN will also still offer MyMSN, a customizable page, but Microsoft has found that not many people use it. "A large majority of users aren't willing to put time into customizing and personalizing," Jorgenson said. Yahoo users can build themselves a customized page to include instant messaging, stock quotes, e-mail, weather, calendar and other tools. The new design represents a change in thinking at MSN. "We've moved away from the days of being an Internet directory of everything to everyone," he said. As many as 100 million people in the U.S. visit MSN.com each month, Microsoft said.

Instead, MSN wants to deliver useful content across areas that it believes users find most important, Jorgenson said.

Apple opens up iTunes LP and Extras to developers

Looking to author your own interactive extras for the iTunes store? Apple introduced iTunes LP and Extras in September, giving listeners and viewers more of the experience they are used to with CDs and DVDs. People who opt for an iTunes LP get their music with all kinds of bells and whistles, including album art and lyrics; with Extras, movies come with DVD-like add ons such as deleted scenes and interviews. Well, à la the App Store, Apple has now opened up iTunes LP and iTunes Extras for independent musicians, bands, and other developers.

Initially, these interactive goodies were available only on albums and films from the major labels and studios. Now the company has made good on its promise and provided access and tools to everyone. There were even some unfounded rumors that Apple was charging outrageous LP production fees that would prevent smaller outfits from getting in on the fun. In 2010, the developer submission process will be electronic and automated. But if you're hardy enough, you can wade through an extensive library of templates, specifications, and best practices.

But for now it remains, as Apple calls, it "manual and limited." If that doesn't scare you off, you should also be aware that you need an iTunes contract; and as with the App Store, you'll have to endure an approval process. The good news for any competent Web developer is that the user interface and navigation for LP and Extras are based on standard HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Hopefully this new openness will result in more and more content on the iTunes Store including the kinds of goodies we've begun to enjoy with today's limited selection of LP and Extras titles. Apple has also released TuneKit SDK, which provides a Javascript framework to make the job easier.

Five Reasons Windows XP Has About a Year to Live

For all the stories about enterprises holding off on Windows 7 deployments, Windows XP's dominance in the enterprise is at the beginning of the end, says one industry analyst. Windows 7 Bible: Your Complete Guide to the Next Version of Windows Indeed, Windows XP still powers almost 80 percent of commercial PCs, according to a survey of 665 IT decision-makers that was part of the Forrester report entitled "Windows 7 Commercial Adoption Outlook." Nevertheless, many factors point to XP's demise. This will not happen overnight, writes Forrester analyst Benjamin Gray in a new research report, but there are enough reasons for IT managers to "shake the status quo, and finally end Windows XP's corporate reign." XP, now an eight-year-old OS, "has delivered the compatibility, security, and reliability that firms had hoped for and to this day remains the desktop standard for most businesses and government agencies," Gray writes. Two-thirds (66 percent) of the 655 surveyed IT decision-makers from North American and European enterprises and SMBs are planning to migrate to Windows 7 eventually, although most don't have firm plans yet.

Forrester also urges that companies should prepare for employee requests for Windows 7 as it becomes more popular with consumers. Additionally, the research shows that 51 percent of respondents plan to have Windows 7 as the primary OS on their PCs within 12 months. Here are five other key factors that Forrester believes will loosen Windows XP's grip on the enterprise and make way for Windows 7. Businesses Are Supporting Old Infrastructure Forrester's Gray writes that because of the recession, IT managers needed to lower costs by extending the life of existing desktops and laptops. For global companies that support thousands of apps, compatibility testing can take up to 18 months. Many also held off on hardware upgrades because they wanted them to coincide with a Windows 7 deployment. So if they've been testing in anticipation of Windows 7's release, full deployments will conclude by the end of 2010. Windows XP Support Is Waning Since April of this year, Windows XP SP2 has been in the extended support stage, which means support is no longer free and only includes security updates and patches.

All support for Windows XP SP2 and SP3 will end in April 2014. Windows XP Availability Will Get Pinched The ability to buy Windows XP machines will change after Windows 7 becomes generally available this week, Gray writes. Next July, XP SP3 will enter extended support as well. With the release of Windows 7's first service pack, scheduled to be a year or so after its initial release, OEM licenses bundled with every PC will no longer have downgrade rights to XP. This means that to deploy Windows XP on a new PC, companies will have to purchase volume license copies of Windows along with the new PCs or use existing, unused Windows volume licenses. Some features that Forrester recommends IT departments prepare for include: DirectAccess, which lets remote workers connect to corporate networks without the use of a VPN; BranchCache, which speeds up access to networks in remote offices that are away from corporate headquarters; BitLocker To Go, an extension of the BitLocker hard-drive encryption feature introduced in Vista that will now protect removable devices like external hard drives and USB thumb drives; AppLocker, which aims to protect users from running unauthorized software; and federated search, which promises to simplify access to data across local and remote networks. Business Reasons Encourage Upgrade to Windows 7 Forrester has found that the enterprise features in Windows 7 will help companies improve networking and security and ultimately cut costs.

Improved Client Virtualization Can Accelerate Deployment Plans Windows 7 ships with Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode, which provide the ability to run apps not yet compatible with Windows 7 in an XP-compatible virtual machine. Shane O'Neill is a senior writer at CIO.com. Moreover, customers with software assurance agreements can use MDOP (Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack), a subscription-based suite of apps that includes virtualization technologies allowing IT pros to deploy and manage virtual images, "thus removing the last barriers to deploy Windows 7," writes Gray. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/smoneill. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter at twitter.com/CIOonline.