Firefox is a really flexible and customizable browser, but over the course of a day it can really start to eat up memory, and slow your PC down. Unfortunately there is no silver bullet for this problem, but here are four ways you can help keep Firefox's memory use in check:

Memory Restart: This little add-on simply lets you set a maximum memory threshold, and allows you to choose either to be warned when it is reached, or to automatically restart Firefox. Memory Restart is a simple solution, and a good way to keep down the memory usage that creeps up over your day.

Memory Fox: This add-on monitors Firefox's memory usage, and when activated it will cut it. This management of Firefox memory use seems to work in the short term, although we found that over time it would creep back up again. Like Memory Restart, it's not perfect, but does help.

Check your Add-Ons: Mozilla has a page that names and shames the add-ons that are the biggest memory hogs. Niamh wrote about it a while back, and suggested some alternatives to the worst offenders. Check out her post here. Disabling add-ons is a common suggested solution to keeping memory usage down, but as many people point out on Firefox support forums, Firefox without add-ons just isn't the same.

Take a deep breath: And change your browser. Both Chrome and Opera are improving their range of extensions. While they aren't as customizable as Firefox, they are more efficient and will lighten the load on your processor. The Firefox memory problem has certainly been noticed, so lets hope something is done about it by Firefox 6, due in September.

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:

You can now make video calls using Skype for Android, thanks to an update to the app today. Skype 2.0 allows you to video chat with other Skype users through an attractive user interface.

Unfortunately, the new video calling feature will only be supported on the Google Nexus S, HTC Desire, Sony Ericsson Xperia neo and Xperia pro devices.

Other changes in Skype 2.0 for Android include the ability to send SMS messages and some user experience improvements, designed to make the app easier to use.

Check out our review of Skype for Android to read more about the app.

This week saw Microsoft release its Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 2. The preview allows you to check out IE 10, which will come with Windows 8, expected next year.

It's important to note that a platform preview is not the same as a Beta release. Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 2 allows you to test out some of the new technical implementations in the browser, but it is a long way from a fully functional, user friendly browser (insert sarcastic comment about Internet Explorer here).

What you can do with Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 2 is check out a range of tests designed to show off upcoming capabilities. There are speed demos, HTML5 demos, graphics demos and browser demos. The app opens on Microsoft's Test Drive page, which allows you to easily play around with all the demos, and also features a user guide. You will notice there's no address bar - you can actually browser wherever you want on the web, but to navigate you have to click CTRL+O which opens a window so you can enter a URL.

Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 2 is free to download, and requires Windows 7.

Lazy mobile internet users will be rejoicing today after Opera added auto-complete and auto-suggest features to its Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers.

The new versions of Opera’s mobile apps now display suggestions as you type into the built-in search field in the browser. Opera Mini and Mobile will now intelligently complete web addresses as you type, learning which sites you visit and using this information so you don't have to type the whole address.

Auto-suggest has existed as a feature in many other mobile browsers for some time, including Firefox Mobile and Dolphin Browser HD. But it’s nice to see Opera finally add this useful feature to its popular apps.

Opera Mobile 11.1 is now available to download for Android and Symbian. You can download Opera Mini 6.1 for Java, Android, Symbian and BlackBerry devices. For details of the differences between Opera Mobile and Opera Mini, see the post we wrote on this a while back.

For a potentially game changing project, it almost crept under the radar but Google today launched Google+ which may rival social networking giant Facebook. A bit late to jump on that band wagon you might say? Many said the same about Google entering the browser wars with Google Chrome and look at the huge success that has had.

However, Google's first attempt at social networking was Google Buzz and that didn't work out quite so well. Undeterred, since then Google have put social networking at their top of their agenda with chief and co-founder Larry Page sending out a memo earlier this year that future bonuses will be linked to the success of Google's social networking success. So will Google+ succeed where Buzz badly failed? Here's what you can expect to see:

Codenamed "Emerald Sea", the development of Google+ has understandably been kept very low key after the ill-fated Google Buzz not only failed to get off the ground but eventually had to settle with the US Federal Trade Commission for breaking privacy laws. Instead, Google have simply opted to announce the release of Google+ on their blog. Gmail users might have also noticed when they logged-on today, a new Contact organizing feature - it's all part of the engine driving Google+ known as Circles.

Electronic Art's Downloader has been rebranded, and is now called Origin. Currently the app works the same as it did before - allowing you to purchase and play EA games on your PC. But the rebranding seems to involve just a little bit more...

The popular PC FPS game Crysis 2 has been removed from Steam, and can now only be purchased through Origin (but if you already have it on Steam, it will still work!). This means PC gamers are pretty much going to have to use both Steam and Origin, if downloading games is your thing. Battlefield 3 will probably be the first game to really bring PC gamers into Origin, due later this year.

EA are also rolling out the service for mobile gaming - iOS first, with Android coming later. Now when playing EA games you'll be able to sign in to Origin and interact with your friends on the service. That means iOS gamers will need an Origin account if they like Game Center-style community features.

I can totally understand why EA are making Origin their gaming platform, but by removing Steam support and not supporting Game Center, gamers are being forced to sign up to yet another service. Will this really improve user experience with EA games?

Gmail, Reader, Calendar, Search, YouTube, Trends, Translate… Google offers so many services it’s difficult to remember them all – which means you may be missing something when searching for information on a particular subject. Well, not anymore! Google has now integrated all of its web services into one single page under a very poetic name:  What do you love?

In wdyl.com you’ll be able to perform a Google search in Google products about anything you’re interested in. So say that, like me, you’re crazy about muffins; just type “muffins” into the field and you’ll get the results of a search about muffins in Google Images, YouTube, News, Trends and other Google utilities, and also a bunch of shortcuts to create muffin-related entries in Google Alerts, Google Calendar and more.

What do you love? is not really a useful search tool in itself, but it helps you get a quick glimpse of a particular subject online, in various formats: documents, videos, images and more. It can also deliver quite funny results, depending on the search  terms you use and the way Google tries to link them to its multiple web services. In any case, well worth a try!

Opera 11.50 for Windows and Mac has now been released and although there's nothing outstandingly new in it, there's a few nice improvements and tweaks that make it faster than ever.

Opera 11.50 keeps the general design and functionality of the much lauded Opera 11.10, but adds convenient improved features to Speed Dial and adds Visual Tabs, Password Syncing across devices and a faster rendering engine.

The most notable improvement has been to Speed Dial which instead of simply giving easy access to your favorite sites, now allows you to embed your Speed Dial with dynamic information - in other words, web apps within Opera.

You can add new Speed Dial components, simply by searching and adding them within Opera:

Android Market for the web has been updated today with a new User Reviews feature designed to make it easier to see what people think about a particular app.

The new system shows you how many people have given the application a given number of stars. This feature helps to give you a feel for the general consensus about an Android app, and brings the Market in line with the iTunes App Store and the Amazon App Store, both of which already feature this way of viewing ratings.

To access the new feature, simply visit the Android Market and select the app you wish to view. The new rating system appears above the user comments.

Recently, the popular microblogging site Tumblr drastically changed the interface of the dashboard. Arguably the most important aspect of a user's Tumblr experience, the dashboard is where you can view posts published from other blogs you follow. It also used to be the main way to view your messages, see how many followers you had and more. Technically it still is, but things have changed!

Here are some of the features Tumblr's new dashboard is sporting, as well as helpful hints about where to find old favorites.

Where'd the blog stats go?

At last: your very own computer, sitting on the desk, all shiny and new. The only thing missing is... knowing how to use it!

If the first thing you think about after switching the computer on is asking your kids for help, we’d like to lend you a hand. With this series of posts,  starting today, we’ll teach you how to use the internet like a pro: send an email, book flights online, print a photo and much more!

Welcome to Computer 101! Let’s start right away...

Switching the computer on

This may seem stupid, but the first thing you need to know about your computer is precisely how to turn it on. If you have a desktop computer, you’ll need to plug it in. But if your computer is a laptop, you can either plug it or use the battery. Obviously, if you choose the second option, the computer will eventually run out of battery and you’ll need to charge it again – just like a mobile phone.

Once you’ve pressed the button, note you’ll have to wait a certain time (anywhere between a few seconds and a couple of minutes, depending on how powerful your system is). The computer needs this time to load the programs and get everything ready for you.

Microsoft has updated its SkyDrive online storage solution as it prepares to take on Apple’s new iCloud service in the battle for the cloud.

The improvements to SkyDrive, announced on the Windows Blog, seem to be largely aimed at ramping up performance of the site and making it easier to work with. The redesigned service is based around HTML5, which improves the way video and slide shows are handled on SkyDrive.

Other changes to SkyDrive include SkyDrive groups, a new feature that lets you create groups in order to share files and photos with a select group of people. Ads have been removed from SkyDrive to aid user experience (either that or Microsoft is having trouble selling the space!), and Word and Excel files can now be opened on the desktop directly from SkyDrive.

Here’s a video from Omar Shahine, Group Program Manager, SkyDrive, that explains more about these and other interesting new changes to Microsoft’s cloud service.

Just three months after the release of Firefox 4, the newest version of Mozilla’s flagship browser is here. Firefox 5 doesn’t change in terms of appearance when compared with the previous version – it basically features the same interface design and program menus. But don't let yourself be fooled by this apparent lack of new features. The best is yet to come!

Firefox 5 provides a better user experience thanks to improved loading times when rendering web pages, a lighter RAM memory footprint and a generally faster response to user actions. After testing it for a while, I can say Firefox 5 is noticeably faster than the previous version – which wasn’t really that hard, actually. We heard lots of complaints about Firefox 4’s slow speed right after its long-awaited release.

Besides this major improvement, Firefox 5 also features a few other under the hood enhancements: better support for HTML 5, support for CSS animations, optimized JavaScript performance and an improved spell checking utility.

If you want to take a look at Firefox 5 and try it for yourself, check out our review and download a copy right away. Then don’t forget to leave us a comment and tell us what you think!

Hungry Sumo is a great Flash game. You have to turn all the Sumos on the screen into friendly Sumos, and you do this by bumping into enemies until they are so small they transform. Your Sumos float around at random, and lose weight every time they bump into an enemy sumo, so you have to feed them by hovering over them with your mouse.

However, If a sumo bumps another while feeding, it will immediately be transformed into an enemy! Hungry Sumo sounds a lot more complicated than it really is, but once you get it, it's really hard to stop playing! The graphics are cool, and the music is excellent too.

Play Hungry Sumo here!