Computer and internet briefs

Jan 15, 2012, 3:06 GMT

Test: Optimal virus protection costs money

Berlin (dpa) - Those who want optimal virus protection must be willing to pay money for it. The German magazine Computer Bild tested five pay anti-virus programs and three free programs. And the winner - with a ranking of 2.16 on the 1-to-5, best-to-worst scale - was the Kaspersky Internet Suite 2012 (60 euro, 78 dollars) for detecting all viruses with a minimal system encumbrance and simple operating. Second place went to G Data's Internetsecurity 2012, which costs 45 euros and received a 2.58 ranking and was found by the testers to slightly slow down the computer.

The AVG Anti-Virus 2012 Free recognised 91 per cent of the viruses and ranked fifth - grade 3.28 - overall and was the best free program. The testers found that the AVG software only slightly slowed the computer but users must live with self-advertisements within the program.

A big difference between the free and non-free programs is the update policies of the manufacturers. While free software only checks once a day for new information about viruses, the pay programs are constantly in contact with the manufacturers' servers and offer real-time protection. In addition, the pay programs often have extra functions such as child protection, spam filters or firewalls.

Reader's Digest now selling ebooks

Berlin (dpa) - The Reader's Digest publishing house has opened an online shop for ebooks. With ebooks available in the EPUB and PDF formats, the main focus of the offering is on novels and advice books. For a majority of the ebooks there are digital reading samples. Libri, Beam, Thalia, Libreka and Kobo are some providers who offer ebooks in EPUB format while Amazon uses the MOBI format.

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