Editors' note: After the program launch, the PDF conversion feature properly started functioning. Additional comments below have been added. Nuance brings its crisp interface to a new free PDF reader, and it's got a decent feature set that should appeal to everyday PDF users. Exclusive today on CNET Download.com for its first day of release, Nuance PDF Reader 6.0 is a strong entry to the growing field of zero-cost Adobe Reader alternatives such as Foxit Reader. Nuance's new free PDF reader uses a clean interface. Nuance comes with two toolbars. Ad-Aware gets an antivirus cousin. The one at the top of the program is loaded with big icons, but it avoids clutter by hiding most of the secondary tools behind drop-down arrows. The toolbar at the bottom contains PDF-relevant details, such page number, zoom percentage, and viewing format. It's bigger than in most competitors, though, and it looks good on larger screens. It's a bit distracting to have to look down from the center of the screen, and it'd be great if one of the PDF reader-makers could just redesign the entire concept. If you like clean, simple installations, you'll appreciate that the version of Nuance I installed lacked any annoying opt-out windows. Editing is limited in the free version to highlighting, underlining, and crossing out, and although you can view comments which may have been made, you can't add any of your own. Frustratingly, the free online PDF conversion service that Nuance comes with wasn't working when I tested the program. If it does become functional and performs well, it could be a killer end-run around the lack of more editing features. Users could convert a PDF to Microsoft Word, for example, edit the PDF in Word, and then use a free PDF creator such as doPDF or NitroPDF to "print" the Word doc back into PDF format. It's inelegant, but a much better solution than paying a hundred dollars for a conversion program you're only going to use once. Nuance's PDF conversion Web site. There are two other minor problems that stand out. First off, the lack of tabbed viewing means that each open PDF lives in its own window, so its harder to do document conversion than in opponents such as Foxit, which does support tabs. Secondly, Nuance uses more RAM when running than competitor Foxit Reader, 26 MB of RAM with two PDFs open for Foxit compared to 46 MB with two PDFs open for Nuance. That's still far more nimble than Adobe Reader, but for users on older, less powerful machines that could be a concern. G ������ on this page. These problems aren't deal-killers, though, and generally using Nuance was a hassle-free experience. Updated at 3:10 p.m. On February 18 pst, 2010: The PDF conversion feature is now working. Pyramid Bloxx ��� ������������� here. ����� -����������� �� ������������ Nissan Bluebird. Clicking the Convert PDF button on the toolbar will take you to Nuance's conversion Web site, where users can decide on four output formats, multiple language translation options, and image quality settings. The converter can return a file in Microsoft Office 2007's DOCX and XLSX formats, Rich Text Format, or WordPerfect, and it can translate the PDF into English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Dutch, or Hungarian. The output document quality in DOCX was high generally, with few errors. Several additional blank pages were added in places that they didn't exist in the source PDF, and there were occasional, minor alignment issues. The RTF output quality was much worse, with significant alignment problems on every page. I didn't test the XLSX or WordPerfect formats. If you're looking for high-end, high-quality conversion, this program isn't for you. But users who are looking for more than satisfactory conversion on the fly should find Nuance's free PDF conversion properly acceptable, not to mention giving Nuance a tool that most other free PDF readers lack.
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A graphic from 'Privacy on the Go' illustrates advice for building privacy into mobile apps. California's legal professional general issued long-promised guidelines on mobile privacy today. ������� ��� ������ 2015 ������� �������. The "Privacy on the Go (PDF)" report address the varied interests in smartphone and mobile app development, including software developers, carriers, ad networks, and operating system makers. We are now offering this set of privacy practice recommendations to assist software developers, and others, in considering privacy early in the development process," Attorney General Kamala Harris wrote in an introduction to the guidelines. Sarah Downey, online privacy analyst at online privacy firm Abine, agreed that it's important to get the various mobile interests focused on privacy early. Apps in previous years wouldn't even have privacy policies," she said, and noted that this could force a major change in how mobile interests do business. California is way ahead of the rest of the country when it comes to privacy," Downey said. The guidelines appear to address both common-sense and forward-thinking recommendations, as well as a range of general and specific guidance. For application developers, for example, the document suggests avoiding "surprises" such as "collecting personally identifiable data from users that are not needed for an app's basic functionality," such as the user's contact list. It appears a bit sad that the lawyer general has to say that somebody's address book must be kept private, but I guess that's the world we reside in these days," said Kent Lawson, CEO of the desktop and mobile VPN iphone app Private WiFi. Star Apps: Brandon Jay McLaren. Another example from the guidelines: ad networks are advised to "avoid delivering advertisings outside the context of the app," such as by modifying browser settings or inserting icons on your home screen. Downey said that it was unusual for the guidelines to be as specific as these are, but that it was a good step in a pro-privacy direction. It mentioned using non-persistent identifiers, to ensure that you don't have a single tracker leading back to you," she cited as an example of how the guidelines advised parties to put privacy first. However, she was quick to note that the guidelines are merely that also, and not law. MN1-1 here. Lawson agreed. "Disclosure statements are like conditions and conditions, it means so little [in terms of enforcement]. At least something is being done," he concluded. |
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