Leap is a pretty ingenuous little app that lets you find any file on your Mac, even if you're not sure where it is. Whereas Mac's Spotlight is purely based on search, Leap also incorporates tags, places, file types and more. Items can be flagged, hidden, zoomed in on and you can edit their information.

Long running city-building strategy series Anno has made a big leap for its next release. Previous games were set between the 15th and 18th centuries, but Anno 2070, as the title suggests, plants the game firmly in the future, to tell a cautionary tale about global warming.

The hefty 1GB demo, released this weekend, lets you play two missions from the main campaign. It will probably please fans of the game, because while the setting is new, the controls and mechanisms will be familiar. I don't think Anno 2070 does a good job of introducing itself to newcomers, since it can be a bit confusing at first. However, the improved graphics, alongside some online capabilities make it an interesting prospect.

Are you an Anno fan? Pleased about the futuristic setting, or did you enjoy the historical nature of the previous games?

Anno 2070 is released on November 17, and you can download the demo here right now.

FIFA 12 comes out this Friday, so it’s time to start thinking about which soccer game you’ll be investing in this season. That means only one thing - it's time for our annual post comparing FIFA with Pro Evolution Soccer!

Since PES 2012 isn’t released until October 14 in some places, the temptation will be to splash out on EA’s title this week and not bother with Pro Evo, or just to stick it on your holiday gift list. But what if EA has tweaked the excellent FIFA 11 too much and ruined it? What if PES 2012 makes the leap and recaptures the magic of those enchanting previous generation versions?

My advice is to go and download the demo versions of both FIFA 12 and PES 2012 before you make any purchasing decisions. Give each a few hours workout and draw your own conclusions. That’s what I did, and here’s my verdict:

Gameplay

Pro Evolution Soccer 2012

Pro Evo has been accused of losing its way in recent versions - a pal of mine now calls it “No Evo”! It’s fair to say that PES has struggled to make the jump to the next generation of consoles, while FIFA positively embraced the new possibilities.

PES 2012, however, as with the previous version, sees the magic of the glory days (I’m talking Pro Evo 3 through to 7) slowly returning. PES 2012 is fast, fluid and fun to play. The game engine gives you a real sense of freedom: there are always plenty of options when attacking, passes can be weighted to perfection, and shooting is a joy to behold.

Pro Evo 2012 adds a new off-the-ball control system, which allows you to unlock even more new attacking opportunities. A run down the wing is now a journey into a world of possibilities, as you can take control of any other attacker, drifting into space to receive a pass or pulling a defender out of position to create space for the player on the ball. Granted, controlling players off the ball (done using the second analog stick) is disorientating at first, but you’ll soon start to love it.

Microsoft's two biggest sources of revenue are Windows and Office. After several months of beta testing, the release of Office 365 therefore marks a significant change in the way Microsoft is attempting to do business. The company has been effectively forced into this situation by Google Docs which is completely free to use and offers a competitive alternative to buying Office. However, the one advantage Microsoft have is that not only is Office a more powerful and complete package than Google Docs, but millions of people and businesses trust it and use the desktop version of it everyday.

In theory then, Office 365 sounds like a win-win situation. For the first time, users no longer need Office installed on their computer - they can access the entire suite online for a small monthly fee with all the functionality as if it were installed on their computer. Individual users get to use the Office suite for a modest monthly fee (up to $6) without having to pay the hefty price for the full package while companies no longer need a tech department to maintain and administer Office onsite. Microsoft meanwhile get a steady revenue stream every month and perhaps most importantly, guaranteed income from lucrative updates to Office which users will be obliged to pay for to continue using the service.

Sounds too good to be true? Let's take a look:

When you sign-up for Office 365, you have to create a domain name for yourself which isn't too painful. This domain (yourname@yourorganisation.onmicrosoft.com) will be used for all of your Office 365 activities:

When you log-in, you're presented with the main dashboard. Office 365 will then attempt to setup with Outlook Online, Lync Online and Sharepoint Online. This can take a few minutes:

If you ever had a penpal as a child, you probably remember the excitement that comes with getting a letter in the mail from halfway across the world. The stamps look unique and the postmark is totally different to what you're used to.

Postcrossing lets you recapture those fun childhood memories, or even experience them for the first time ever. This innovative website lets users exchange postcards with other users from around the world. The name of the game is simple -- for every postcard you send, you'll receive one in return. The idea behind the concept is to share some of your culture and information about your hometown both on the face of the postcard and through the note you write. In return you'll get to learn more about another culture when you receive a postcard of your own.

Once you start receiving postcards, you can go to your Postcrossing profile online and record the location where it was sent from, as well as upload an image of the card into your own gallery. Postcrossing will log how far each postcard traveled in kilometers on your profile for other users to see as well.

Obviously, Postcrossing requires a mild leap of faith. You're giving your address away to people from other countries who you don't know personally. It is acceptable to use a PO Box number though, if that makes you more comfortable.

If you're a diehard postcard collector, you're definitely going to want to give Postcrossing a try!

We were convinced we had a hit!

At last week's World Mobile Congress, our OnSoftware France colleague, Alexandre Carlier, caught up with Rovio's head of marketing, Ville Heijari, to ask him all about their hit phenomenon, Angry Birds.

How did you come up with the idea for Angry birds?

In 2009, we were looking into developing something for the iPhone. We were seeing that the iPhone was getting a good market share and apps were selling more and more all the time. Everybody was talking about the ‘hockey stick’ -  that just around the corner the market would really explode. Samsung said here on Sunday that their smartphone sales grew 60% in 2010. So when we released the game in December 2009, we got in at precisely the right moment. In early 2009 we were looking at how to make the best possible smartphone game for as large an audience as possible. Our designer, Jakko Iisalo, came up with the one concept that had angry birds in it and the game was then polished over the year; it took about 8 months from start to finish. The original concept always had the birds in it. We were looking at what was out there in the market, what people were playing, what feels natural, what feels good and so on. We came up with the parameters that it has to be ‘physics based’, have really good direct touchscreen controls that feel nice and then, most importantly, to differentiate from the competition and have really unique characters. Those were the main ingredients that we put together.

How did you manage the launch of the game?

It took us three months to get featured in a major iTunes store, in the UK in February 2010. But before that really it was just word of mouth. As there are relatively few downloads in Finland, we were in the charts there and being number one generates interest. From there came Sweden and Denmark, so small local markets, but then we were number one in several countries and they (Apple) started to take notice and then we got featured in the UK. From there the game started getting some media in the English speaking press, so the leap to the US wasn't that big or difficult.

How did the cost of developing the game compare to your revenues?

We don't have all our figures from last year yet, but on iOS alone we've sold over 20 million downloads. The game cost around €100,000 to make and with all the updates and improvements since its release, I'd say it has cost many times that. It's a big investment to get moving and keep the ball rolling.

With all the new users we are getting, however, it's definitely worth that investment. There are over 20 million Android users too, and by the end of last year that was generating a million euro in ad revenue per month. We are now looking at investing in growth, to branch out to into merchandising and entertainment and to do other things with the brand.

Google never stops working on improving its search engine. After launching Google Instant a couple of months ago, they've now taken a leap to image-based search results with the Google Instant Previews - a snapshot of each website listed in the results of your query.

Instant Previews has been implemented in a way that it doesn't disturb the standard Google search procedure. Just use Google as you normally would, and if you want to see previews for your search results, click the magnifying glass icon next to any of them. Google will display a graphic preview for the selected result, highlighting relevant content - such as your search keywords - if they appear on the website.

From that moment on, hovering your mouse over any other result will also display a snapshot of the website, so that you can scroll down the page and browse search results as if you were flipping through a magazine. Instant Previews are also keyboard navigable: just press the right key to activate them and the down key to check previews for all your results.

The demos of both Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 and FIFA 11 are both released today. This means we get to fight all over again over which is the best soccer sim on the planet. Last year's match-up proved to be a bit of a non-event given that the improvements made to FIFA 10 pushed it so clearly ahead of the floundering PES 2010.

Thankfully, console football's biggest rivalry has just got interesting again. The new version of Pro Evolution Soccer is a marked improvement over the last attempt. EA has a few tricks of its own though, and FIFA 11 is more polished than it’s ever been. Here are my thoughts so far, having played both demos.

Gameplay

Pro Evolution Soccer 2011

I’d have to say that the gameplay refinements are much more noticeable in the leap from PES 2010 to PES 2011 than they are between FIFAs 10 and 11. This is almost certainly because Pro Evolution had way more to fix, of course.Pro Evo 2011 feels almost like an entirely new game, when compared with the last version. The sluggishness, over-automation, and general lack of control that blighted the last version have been more or less eradicated by the overhauled game engine in PES 2011.

Passing has been tweaked to allow you to measure balls more precisely. A power meter now appears when passing that lets you move the ball around with pinpoint accuracy, rather than the old way where the ball seemed to get magnetized to the nearest player’s foot.

PES 2011 now gives you more control over your defense. Gone is the horrible AI whereby defenders would all automatically hone in on an attacker (even the ones you weren’t controlling). The intelligent new system now allows you to decide exactly when to bring the defense up, when to apply pressure and when to hang back.

Pulling off tricks is now a much finer art in Pro Evolution 2011. There are lots of new flicks, tricks and special moves to try out. The best thing is, you can assign these yourself to certain button combos, so you’ve got your favorite ones ready at any time.

The gameplay in Pro Evo could still be better. For example, the AI of the computer opponent is still frustratingly predictable. This means that it becomes very easy to beat once you’ve played a few games.

FIFA 11

The new gameplay features in FIFA are more subtle than they are in Pro Evo, but they really help to add polish and class to the game.

Perhaps the two biggest innovations are Personality+ and 360-degree jostling. Personality+ is a system whereby players move and behave as they do in real life. This means, for example, that the ball will stick to Lionel Messi’s foot like glue, Wayne Rooney will run around like a chicken after loose balls, and Didier Drogba will score lots and lots of goals.

The new 360-degree jostling makes defending more realistic. A player is now able to hold off an opposing player by backing into him and swivelling around to try to gain space to move away with the ball or pick out a pass.

Handballs can be switched on in FIFA 11, adding a new element of excitement to the game. It seems that you can’t handle the ball on purpose, but occasionally a defender will automatically stick out his hand to stop a shot or a pass. This can be frustrating at times, but, of course, it could sometimes save your skin.Another interesting innovation in FIFA 11 is the ability to control the goalkeeper, which adds a new dimension into the gameplay. In general, keeper AI has been improved to make them more fallible and to give them characteristics of their real life equivalents.

One of the changes we didn’t like is the new penalty kick system, which is based around a power-bar. This feels very clunky and unresponsive and spoils what was a perfectly good system before.

Windows: If you need an image viewer, look no futher than XnView. This powerful, awesome photo viewer can display more than 400 different formats, in several modes: thumbnails, full screen and even slideshow. It's as easy to use as Windows Explorer, and includes handy extra tools such as an image converter and a screen capturer.

Mac: Adobe is acclaimed worldwide for its impressive software tools, many of which have become true industry standards in different fields. This is also the case with video production and Adobe Premiere Pro CS5. The all-new Adobe Premiere CS5 takes another leap forward in its development and provides the professional video creators and producers with all the tools they need for their daily work.

iPhone: GT Racing: Motor Academy is Gameloft's attempt to fill the hole left by Gran Turismo's absence on the iPhone. This racing game is much more of a simulation than you normally find on the iPhone, but does it do the job? This free version of GT Racing: Motor Academy gives you a taste, with three cars and one track to race round, the incredible Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway.

Our man in Hannover has been drooling all over the new super-speed USB 3.0 technology at CeBit 2009. The demonstration of the new standard in the USB Implementers Forum at the tech show revealed speeds that were a massive leap forward from the current USB 2.0 format. While USB 1.0 only was able to transmit at 12 Mbps, USB 2.0, at 480 Mbps was a significant improvement when it came out. However, USB 3.0 Superspeed will signify a quantum leap: The new standard should be able to transmit data from one device to another at a lightning fast 4.8 Gbps.

The system we saw at CeBit is based around a simulation of FGPAs, and reaches a top data transfer speed of 155Mbytes/s. According to the USB Implementers Forum, the first chips supporting super-speed USB 3.0 will be available from autumn of this year. The cables and switches will be backwards-compatible, so you'll be able to plug a USB 2.0 cable into a version 3.0 socket.

My grandma believed until the day she died that the moon landing was completely faked saying it was absolute "codswallop". Whether you believe Armstrong really did make one giant leap for mankind in 1969, the moon did and still does retain a fascination and mystique that fascinates cultures far and wide.

One of the most important aspects of the moon, and its effect on the Earth is of course, is its gravitational pull. The moon controls the rise and fall of the ocean's tides, plus according to who you believe, can also affect your own moods and emotions. The film Teenwolf even suggested it could turn you into a wolf on full-moon. If you want to follow the moon's orbit daily (or are a teenager worried that you may be turning into a wolf), then MoonMenu does all the hard work for you based on your current timezone and location on the Earth - excellent for those that are on the move. It also includes a whole host of other information such as when the next full moon is, the next quarter moon and when it will rise. If you need more in depth information about the moon's solar path and patterns, then Dr.Regener Sun-Moon-Calendar goes into more detail with some nice graphics to boot.

If you believe that, in combination with other planets, the moon has a bearing on your destiny, then you'll need something that takes into account the orbits of all the other planets. In which case, AstroMart generates your own personal astrological chart depending on where the moon, and other planets are in their orbits. If on the other hand you lean more towards the Chinese Lunar Calendar, which is totally different, then Chinese Calendrics will calculate the right astrological charts for you.

Of course maybe you don't you're not interested if the moon is full, quarter or even a lump of cheese but you do like the look of it. If so, Actual Moon 3D allows you to appreciate it in all it's splendour when your PC goes into screensaver mode with real-time stats on it's orbit based on your location.

Imagine if you could watch your TV, or the saved contents of your SkyPlus, Tivo or HD hard drive anywhere in the world and even on your phone. That's exactly what SlingPlayer offers, meaning you'll never be far away from your favourite programs. For anyone who lives abroad, or is going to be away from home this Christmas, this player is an absolute dream. Elegant, simple to use and offering superb image and sound quality, it's a giant leap forward in broadcasting.

However, you will need to make sure that you have a Slingbox. A Slingbox is basically a slim device that sells for around $130 in the US (and approximately 200 pounds in the UK) that attaches to your digital TV's hard drive. It assigns an IP address to it thus allowing anyone with an internet connection to access it at any time (as long as it is switched on of course). The user simply has to download SlingPlayer which takes you through a very simple setup process. First, you are shown a series of simultaneous video images running in parallel and you have to choose which one appears to be the best quality on your screen. This optimises the image quality for your connection. Then you simply need to enter the ID of your Slingbox plus a password. Simply click "Watch" and within seconds, depending on your connection, you'll be watching your TV as if you were in your lounge!

The program features a big chunky remote control too which allows you to control your TV hard drive as if you were at home. This includes access to your saved and recorded programs and even pay per view programming. The only downside is that only one user at a time may be connected to the Slingbox at one time and I suspect this may be due to broadcasting restrictions. Even if you don't buy one yourself, it's worth making a friend in another country who has one, and then you can share your TV with them and vice versa. Even in full screen mode though, image and sound quality are excellent with virtually no blips in reproduction or streaming.

Note that, the download featured here is for the US player but if your Slingbox is in the UK, or another country, you'll have to download the appropriate player for that Slingbox from the developer download page.

Google have taken one more big leap in the Web 2.0 revolution with the Beta release of Google Gears - a browser plugin that will let people run Web applications whether or not they're connected to the Internet. Google hopes that the plugin will become the standard browser add-on that people will need to use applications on and offline. Google Engineering Director Linus Upson told ZDNet that the release was prompted by a need to liberate developers saying:

One of the reasons we're doing Gears is that developers here at Google have really pushed the envelope on what can be done in the browser so engineers are hitting barriers harder and faster.

The software is based on 3 components - a local Web server, SQLite for offline storage and browser extensions that allows JavaScript to run in parallel. The first application to benefit from Google Gears is Google Reader although more Google apps will follow soon. Once the plugin is installed, users can read RSS content offline and synchronise with it the next time they are online via a green download button.

The Google Gears plugin has already received official endorsement from Firefox developers Mozilla, Opera Software and Adobe Systems. After testing the plug-in with Google Reader, I'm definitely impressed with this plugin. Testing it in Firefox, installation was quick and both sychronisation and offline retrieval took just a matter of seconds. Google have also made it very easy for those with a little Javascript knowledge to enable their own webpages to work offline with Google Gears with this handy tutorial. This open policy, plus the simplicity of the plugin, could mean this rapidly becomes an essential browser add-on for users everywhere. It just depends if the big software giants embrace it but with Adobe already on board, the future looks bright for Google Gears.

Adobe has decided to pull the plug on FreeHand MX, their vectorial application aimed at designers. You’ll still be able to download and use the program but version 11.0.2 will be the last release. As John Nack, developer at Adobe, reveals on his blog, the company will "continue to sell FreeHand MX, and will offer technical and customer support" yet strongly encourage users to make the leap to Adobe Illustrator CS3 by offering an update for $199.

The decision comes as no surprise considering that FreeHand MX hadn’t been updated for four years. Adobe is pushing users to use their new Creative Suite 3, which has seen a reshuffle in applications. It appears that there wasn’t much room for FreeHand MX anymore, with Illustrator CS3 covering most of the creative design and page production needs of users. Adobe has already set up a number of guides to help users easily migrate from FreeHand MX to Illustrator. Rest in peace, FreeHand.

Following hot on the heels of Abobe’s Apollo announcement last week, Zimbra has launched Alpha testing of its new Zimbra Desktop e-mail application that works both online and offline. The open source application has been developed using Ajax meaning it works on Windows, Mac and Linux and could prove a powerful competitor to Microsoft Exchange and Outlook.

Zimbra are hailing Zimbra Desktop as ‘the next generation leap forward for Web 2.0 applications’. It means that when you are out of your home or office without an internet connection, you can continue working with your e-mail as normal. This includes writing emails, adding new appointments and editing documents. When you re-connect, the changes will be automatically synchronised with Zimbra’s servers. It also plans to offer integrated instant messaging in the final version.

In addition, Zimbra promise a variety of aesthetic improvements to e-mailing such as better overall usability in the form of conversation views and tags with faster searches adept at dealing with huge e-mail volumes. One other cool feature of Zimbra Desktop is the ability to change the skin of the client to that of a company brand. So for example, the interface can be customised to feature company logos and colours.

For business users who are constantly on the move, Zimbra could prove a killer app. Although Outlook features online Webmail, its integration into desktop Outlook is poor and particularly bad in Firefox which offers far fewer options. If Zimbra can successfully integrate this application across multiple platforms, it may well be onto one of Web 2.0's big success stories.

This first release is the Alpha version with a Beta scheduled for this summer which will also work with POP servers. The final release is due at the end of this year.