Best new releases of the month [Nov. ’14]

The software world has seen some big-name new releases during the month of November in lots of different spheres. The arrival of the latest version of Android has occasioned the release of updates to many essential apps in its ecosystem (particularly for everything related to first-party apps), while desktop operating systems have received important new additions in the development sphere, including the release of a free version of Visual Studio, a new IDE from Adobe, or an alternative Firefox client with features focused on web design.

CCleaner 5.0 (Windows)

This is not a new release per se, but rather an update to a must-have software for desktop PCs. The new CCleaner version 5.0 for Windows brings a complete facelift to the interface, making it much more attractive and lending greater protagonism to its ‘secondary’ features, not to mention a huge improvement to its performance and management of browser extensions. Unmissable on both PC and in its Android version.

Facebook Groups (Android)

A new app in the Facebook family aims to separate your Facebook group management and interactions into an external app from the official client. In Facebook Groups you can customize your notifications for each of your groups individually, especially useful if you only check a few of them regularly.

Visual Studio Community 2013 (Windows)

Microsoft has made available a full version of its integrated development environment for free to all users. It covers programming in C++, Python, HTML5, JavaScript and Microsoft’s proprietary languages, C#, Visual Basic, and F# for .NET platforms. Till now, the only free option in the Visual Studio family was the Express edition, which had many limitations compared to the paid versions. Visual Studio Community offers all the features of the Professional version, such as access to the community’s extensions catalogue with which you can enormously broaden the suite’s functionalities.

Firefox Developer Edition (Windows/Mac)

To celebrate 10 years since the official launch of the first public version of the Firefox browser, Mozilla has launched a new version that replaces one of its beta update channels, offering all new features coming to the official client long before their release on the stable channel. It also provides users with several exclusive tools focused on web development.

Android Lollipop

Is there anybody out there who hasn’t already heard about the new version of Android? The arrival of version 5.0 of Google’s mobile operating system has brought with it updates to most of the first-party apps in the company’s offering, such that the past few weeks have seen the release of new versions of Gmail, Google Maps, Google Calendar, and Google Keep, among others. All have seen their appearances adapted to the new standards while incorporating new features in the process.

Brackets (Windows/Mac)

It’s been a very eventful month in the world of development. Adobe has published the first public version of Brackets, its open source web development environment for HTML, JavaScript, CS, whose greatest appeal lies in its ability to bring web designers and programmers closer as it can, among other things, directly import PSD designs from Photoshop to automatically extract formats and styles.

Z Launcher (Android)

This peculiar launcher from Nokia had already been available for the past several months in beta form, but has recently launched its first stable version. Its marks of distinction include an intelligent display that shows on your desktop the apps and shortcuts you use most frequently at different times of day based on the usage statistics compiled by the app. Also, its search interface lets you draw the starting letter of the program you’re looking for directly on the screen.