Parallels has released the latest version of its virtual environment software. Current users can upgrade now and new users can purchase the full version on September 6th. You can download a trial however already and try it out for yourself. Note that you have to request a trial license key using the "Get Trial" button on the lower left side of the start-up dialog when you install the trial.

Parallels will also be releasing apps for iPhone and Android that allow you to control the virtual environment from your mobile device.

Parallels claims that version 7 streamlines switching between OS X and Windows so that it feels like a much more natural experience, blurring the line between the two operating systems. Paralells CEO Birger Steen said of version 7:

As Macs have become more popular than ever, a growing number of Mac users, including enterprises, find they need to run critical Windows programs on their Macs," he said. "Parallels Desktop 7 lets you run popular apps like Windows Internet Explorer, Access, OneNote, Quicken and more, even the most demanding graphical programs, without rebooting and without compromise on speed and usability.

Parallels also claims that it's 6o percent faster than version 6 with Windows sleep and resume now taking seconds. Other improvements include faster copying of files and a security protection feature to stop potential Window's viruses from damaging files you want to use in OS X.

Users who have already purchased Parallels 6 after August 1st will be able to upgrade to version 7 for free. All other users will be charged $59.95 to upgrade. New users can buy a Standard version ($89.95) or Student Version ($59.95). There will also be a special "Switch to Mac" edition for $119.95 which will include a USB cable to transfer files and a 2 hour beginners guide for switching to Mac.

Download Parallels Desktop 7.

Google has finally launched its +1 Chrome extension, that allows you to +1 any page you visit on the web and see how many +1s the page has. It still doesn't let you share a page straight to your Google+ stream - a feature lots of users seem to be desperate for, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.

So far, so good... but what's that I spy on the extension's Chrome Web Store page? Oh, it's a message from Google warning that

"In addition to the practices described in the Google +1 Button Privacy Policy, by installing this extension, all of the pages and URLs you visit  will be sent to Google in order to retrieve +1 information."

Yes, that's right: every page you visit in Chrome gets sent to Google, whether you +1 it or not.

To be fair to Google, the company has obviously learned from previous privacy fumbles. Not only is the above warning displayed fairly clearly on the extension page in the Web Store, Google has also produced a clear guide to what this actually means, entitled 'How the +1 button respects your privacy'.

Google insists that while yes, data is collected "to maintain and debug internal systems", said data "isn't organized by individual profiles, usernames, or URLs" and that any info collected is deleted after "about two weeks". As with other extensions, the +1 button does not run while you're in Incognito mode.

I don't get too worried about privacy topics like this. I'm happy to use my real identity online and I trust Google when it says it's not really interested in what I'm personally doing. If you don't feel so sure, I recommend that you avoid the +1 extension, and stick to Incognito browsing.

If you're still interested, you can get the Google +1 button Chrome extension here. You can download Chrome here for Mac and here for Windows.

The popular microblogging service Tumblr recently announced version 2.0 of its official Android app. This update comes with a completely new interface look as well as a handful of useful features to make posting content on the go even easier.One of the biggest issues with most mobile versions of Tumblr has now finally been addressed in this new version of the official app. Users can finally manage multiple blogs all in one app. In addition, Tumblr has added the ability to access your blogs' drafts and queues folders, as well as respond to messages, all features that were visibly missing from previous versions. Users can also find people to follow now directly from their phone's address book.

If you're new to Tumblr, you can also opt to sign up for Tumblr directly from the app. This is a definite plus for people who don't want to deal with signing up online from their phone's browser.

Tumblr 2.0 for Android is available on the Android Market now. The latest version for iPhone and iPod users can be found here.

One of the major advantages of Google+ over Facebook is that you can select who does and does not see your status updates courtesy of Circles. Facebook has responded by making it much easier to do exactly the same. Although it was possible previously, it involved messing around with settings, wasn't as customisable and wasn't as conveniently located.

Now you can access everything from your status update box:

Now when you write a status update, you can select exactly which friends see it and even specify certain people you want to hide it from:

The only thing missing is the ability to create custom groups of contacts that you regularly want to share things with - in other words 'Facebook Circles' à la Google+.

This change follows on just days after Facebook's decision to allow users to approve photos of them before they are tagged. It's good to see that Facebook is finally taking privacy more seriously. It's just a shame that it's taken the arrival of a major competitor in the form of Google+ to make it do so.

Microsoft has unveiled a few interesting details about the future File Explorer in Windows 8. The most outstanding new feature is, undoubtedly, the addition of the ribbon interface.

Explorer in Windows 3.1

Explorer in Windows 8

The decision to apply a ribbon to the Windows default file manager hasn’t been taken lightly. As explained on its blog, Microsoft has done a lot of research about the most commonly used commands in Explorer, and the way users access them. After studying the results of this analysis, ribbon was clearly the best choice for the new interface in Explorer, for several reasons: it lets you display the most important commands in prominent locations while also exposing loads of other minor tools, organizes commands conveniently in handy groups and it follows the design line opened by Office and Microsoft Paint, making it easier for people to get used to the new interface.

EA has today released a free version of Tetris for Android. The ad-supported free version will allow players to play the classic brick-dropping game in Marathon mode, where you must build as many lines as you can without getting too high.

It’s worth noting that aside from ads, the free version of Tetris also utilizes requests access to certain permissions within the Android OS that the full version doesn’t. This includes those that can directly call phone numbers and for monitoring GPS location. There's not necessarily anything sinister about this but it's worth checking the Permissions tab on the Tetris Free Android Market page to see what the game can access in your system.

Check out our full review of Tetris Free to find out more.

One of the most promising iOS puzzle games to date has been released today: Sprinkle is a universal iOS app, released today that approaches amazing in a slightly different way. A puzzle app, Sprinkle uses water as the main tool. From a fire engine you use a water cannon to solve environmental puzzles and try to put out fires before you run out of water.

The liquid in Srprinkle looks fantastic. Water pools, slides, and drains with astounding accuracy. While this could have been a one-trick app, the puzzles in Sprinkle are just as addictive to watch and solve.

It’s a different kind of puzzle experience because the water moves so realistically. This makes the puzzles feel slightly different every time, and you have to put more effort into finding the solution.

Sprinkle is a great example of an innovative puzzle game, and it’s excellent physics show there is still plenty of potential to be unlocked in iOS development.

Check out our review of Sprinkle for iOS.

If you’ve downloaded the PES 2012 demo on your PC and don’t have a control pad then you might be wondering how the heck you play the game. For some reason, it looks as if Konami has neglected to include a guide to the keyboard controls in the PES 2012 demo.

Don’t worry, it is possible to control this year’s Pro Evolution Soccer offering with your keyboard (though it’s much easier with a pad, obviously). Here’s a short run-down of the buttons you need to bash in order to play this great new soccer game:

“Intelligent” and “good looking” aren’t the first two words that spring to mind when you think about soccer players. However, these adjectives are two that resonated with me while playing PES 2012.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 is the first of the two big console and PC soccer titles to strut its stuff this season, following the release of the PES 2012 demo today. It remains to be seen whether FIFA 12 will win the battle in the hearts of soccer gaming fans again this year, but if this demo is anything to go by EA has to step up its game if this early PES 2012 demo is anything to go by.

The changes in PES 2012 are mainly based around tweaks to the game AI. These are designed to make an intelligent soccer experience, and for the most part it works.

It seems the tweaks favor attacking soccer rather than defending, making for more goal mouth action and higher-scoring matches. Improved attacking runs (dummy, diagonal and overlapping) by the AI give you more options when you’re going forward with the ball.

Here's another improvement to Twitter: as of Monday, the popular micro-blogging service has begun rolling out image galleries on user profile pages. Much like the image strip users can personalize on their Facebook profile, Twitter users can now display four images at a time on their main profile, immediately underneath their user stats.

In addition to the small display on your main profile page, Twitter also provides each user with an actual photo gallery. Just click the "view all" link from a user's main page to access it. This gallery displays the 100 most recently tweeted images from as early back as January 1, 2010. These images can be displayed as either a page of thumbnails or as larger previews.

You can upload images directly from Twitter's photo-uploading tool or a supported third party photo-sharing service. Currently yfrog, TwitPic and Instagram are all options users can choose from. Some apps like Instagram even allow users to add special effects to their images, making photo-sharing an even richer experience for Twitter users.

Interestingly enough, it doesn't seem as though there is any procedure in place yet to moderate image content, meaning virtually any type of photographic content can be uploaded to users' profile pages. This could include imagery that might be seen as obscene or otherwise offensive. It will be interesting to see if Twitter decides to place restrictions on photographic content in the future and how it will be implemented. For now though, it seems users can upload what they like, and even try their hand at customizing the images that display in the photo strip on their profile page, much like Facebook users have already been doing to personalize their own pages.

We played a section of Need For Speed The Run at this year’s Gamescom, and got to see whether it will electrify the franchise like last year’s Hot Pursuit. The long running series got a necessary boost with Burnout developers Criterion making a fantastic over-the-top racing game that had everyone drooling with its speed, gameplay and fantastic graphics.

Need for Speed: The Run is essentially a race across America, from San Francisco to New York,  against a huge number of opponents, and the police. The desert race we played actually looked much like Hot Pursuit, and the boost charged by dangerous behavior also makes The Run feel very similar. This is a Need for Speed game, so obviously the emphasis is on fast, good looking arcade racing, and it is certainly that.

However, what we saw of Need for Speed: The Run didn’t really impress. It didn’t feel quite as visceral as Hot Pursuit, and while the opponents were quite aggressive, the game did seem pretty easy. Unless we see some major improvements or innovations, unfortunately it looks like Need for Speed may have slipped back into lazy sequels. There’s still plenty more to be seen from the game, with a wide variety of environments  promised, so lets hope the next time we see it it will impress more. Need for Speed: The Run is scheduled for a November 15th release.

People who jokingly claim you could use Facebook as your sole means of entertainment really aren't that far off the mark. Now you can rent movies on the social networking platform via Miramax's new eXperience app.

Currently in a beta version, Facebook users in the US now have the option to rent any of 20 movie titles available through the app, while users in Turkey and the UK have 10 movies to choose from. France and Germany are both expected to have access to the app in the near future.

Users simply install the app, browse the available movie selections and pick which one they'd like to watch. If you want more information about a title, you can read a synopsis and even play a short clip. If you decide you'd like to watch the movie, it costs 30 Facebook credits to purchase, or $3 in real-world money. Users then have 30 days to watch the movie before it has to be "returned". Note that once you've started to watch the movie, you must complete it within 48 hours.

While this is a neat addition to Facebook's growing wealth of apps, one has to wonder if it'll really catch on and become truly popular. Users can already rent thousands of movies on iTunes for about the same cost. Then there's also apps like Queued for Netflix, Hulu Desktop and HBO GO to contend with. Still, although 20 titles isn't very impressive, there's no denying how easy it is to install apps on Facebook. For many users who are less comfortable with the idea of installing software on their PC, this might just be the movie rental app they were waiting for.

Even with the previous announcement that Nokia was going to focus on Windows Phone, it's nice to see the company didn't forget its existing Symbian users.

The new update, Symbian Anna, is available on Nokia N8, Nokia E7, Nokia C7, and Nokia C6-01. The update brings a lot of good changes to the phones including:

The delivery schedule of the new update has not been released, but will depend on the market that users are in.

Here at Gamescom, we've been lucky enough to see a preview build of 2K Games' role-playing shooter Borderlands 2, scheduled for release next year. The original was a surprising success, appearing at a difficult time for new titles, and it looks like the sequel will build on that success.

Tomorrow sees soccer history being made, as the first match of this season’s FA Cup tournament will become the first game broadcast live on Facebook.

The match, between Ascot United and Wembley FC, would normally attract a crowd of around 90 supporters -  yup, just 90! However, tomorrow’s fixture will be accessible to Facebook’s massive 700 million-strong user base.

The 90-minute live stream will be accessible via a Facebook application created by Budweiser, sponsors of the long-running English cup tournament. Head to the Budweiser UK Facebook Fan Page tomorrow at 7.30pm BST to watch the FA Cup match live (only if you’re over the legal drinking age!).