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| Buyers' Guide to Music & Video Gadgets
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Bounty Hunter 1 Site: www.vd-productions.com Price: Free Platform: Windows (all) The action game Bounty Hunter is a fun freeware game in which you advance through various levels, fighting evil space machines as you strive to win the Devil Skull. Enemies increase and grow more cunning as you advance, making the game addictive. If you wish, you can replay levels, earning more money at each level.
Escape the Museum 1 Site: www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/3039/escape-the-museum/index.html Licence: One hour game-play free; then $US7 Platform: Windows 2000/XP/Vista In Escape the Museum, an earthquake has trapped Susan in the museum; your goal is to help her to find her daughter, so they can escape. The graphics are excellent, and you'll enjoy hours of fascinating gameplay. As you solve puzzles, unlock the secrets of artifacts and play mini-games, you'll get closer to your goal.
Sins of a Solar Empire demo Site: www.sinsofasolarempire.com/downloads.aspx Licence: Demo; full $U45 Platform: Windows XP/Vista Sins of a Solar Empire is a strategy sci-fi game, set in the far future, with stunning 3D graphics and a music score. The game's galaxy is menaced by aliens and powerful starships roam across it. Three factions battle for control of the galaxy. In the demo you receive four tutorials and 90 minutes of game time.
Doggie Dash Site: www.trygames.com/game/aff=trygames/vid=2a4305fed6523d299d0e11dfcfc84987 Licence: 60-minute trial, then $AU27 Platform: Windows 2000/XP/Vista Doggie Dash is a cute game in which pet groomers Walter and Scarlett get their pet grooming business going. The graphics are excellent – there's lots going on, so you won't get bored. With two game modes and 50 levels, plus upgrade items you can buy if you wish, this game will keep you entertained indefinitely.
Sudoku Epic 4.33 Site: www.kristanix.com/sudokuepic Licence: 10-use trial, then $US20 Platform: Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista Sudoku Epic lets you create Sudoku puzzles, in any style you please, choosing the level of difficulty that you prefer. There's also an assistant which will help you out if you get stuck – you even enter puzzles from newspapers or magazines, and the assistant will help you to solve them.
RocketBowl Site: www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/211/rocketbowl/index.html Licence: 60-minute trial, then $US20 Platform: Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP RocketBowl is a fun bowling game with curved lanes and fast balls. The graphics are excellent, and the full program includes seven courses. This game is fun for all ages, and will keep you entertained. This trial version lets you play for an hour.
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Dropclock 1.01 Site: scr.sc/products/dropclock Licence: Trial, then $US15 Platform: Windows XP/Vista Dropclock is a completely unique screensaver that's great fun to watch, and it's sure to be a talking point in your office. The effect is hypnotic, as big numerals drop into water and out of sight. This is a large download, and the screensaver is graphics-intensive, so check the developer's site for requirements before you download.
Sharp World Clock 2.13 Site: www.programming.de Licence: 15-day trial, then $US29 Platform: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista, Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0 Sharp World Clock is a great utility if you have friends or colleagues all over the world. You can have an unlimited number of clocks and timers, making it easy to set tasks and have them completed on time – for any time zone. Clocks can be analogue or digital, and there's a time zone converter for arranging conferences.
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Zabidoo 1.1 Site: www.zabidoo.com Price: Free Platform: Windows XP/Vista Zabidoo calls itself a Web navigator; it categorises Web sites, so that you can shop and browse more quickly. Unlike most search engines, Zabidoo has a team of editors to find the best Web sites. Search and email are available at a single click. Although better suited to those new to the online world, experienced Web surfers will find it fun.
Safari 3.1 Site: www.apple.com/safari Price: Free Platform: Windows XP/Vista The Safari Web browser, which is popular on the Mac, is out in its latest Windows version with improved speed. It now claims to be three times faster than Firefox and five times faster than Opera; you'll have to test these claims yourself. The program's best features are its security and the easy built-in RSS feed reader.
Flock Browser 1.1 Site: www.flock.com Price: Free Platform: Windows 2000/XP/Vista This is the latest version of Flock. This browser now makes it even easier to keep up with your friends online, with the Friends Activity sidebar. Flock now integrates with Gmail and Yahoo Mail, and lets you know when you've got messages. The Picasa photo sharing service has also now been integrated with Flock. If you haven't tried Flock, try it - it's fast and friendly.
Feed Editor Site: www.extralabs.net/feed-editor.htm Licence: 30-day trial, then $US20 Platform: Windows (all) If you're a blogger or podcaster, and work with RSS feeds, Feed Editor is a valuable tool. You can create RSS feeds with Feed Editor, and then upload them directly to your site with FTP. The program offers a WYSIWG interface, so there's no need to get entangled with code.
Pidgin 2.4.1 Site: www.pidgin.im/download Price: Free Platform: Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP Pidgin is an Instant Messaging client, and since it's compatible with most IM networks, including ICQ, Yahoo and MSN Messenger, you can chat with your friends simultaneously, no matter which network they're using. The program supports all the features of the various networks, such as file transfer, and adds some unique features of its own.
POP Peeper 3.2 Site:Â www.poppeeper.com Price: Free Platform: Windows (all) No matter how many email addresses you have on various services, POP Peeper manages them all. It runs in your Windows taskbar and lets you know when you have new email messages. It works with POP3 and IMAP, as well as with Web-based email from Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo. Not only can you read your email from the program itself, but you can also send email messages. Pop Peeper can even run from a USB drive.
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Open Contacts 5.1.1.566 Site: www.fonlow.com/opencontacts Price: Free Platform: Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista If you need a powerful contact management system, freeware Open Contacts may meet your needs. The program's most useful feature is the option to add unlimited data fields, making it an excellent small business tool for multiple users across a network. You can import your contact information from Microsoft Outlook.
TextAloud 2.274 Site: www.nextup.com/TextAloud/download.html Licence: 20-day trial, then $US30 Platform: Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista TextAloud converts any text into spoken word audio. You can convert any text on your system – email, Microsoft Word, PDF and HTML files, so you can listen to your data when you're at your desk, or on the go. Although the program is ideal for people who are visually impaired, it's useful for anyone who wants to take data with them as spoken audio.
Budget for Windows 4.2.2 Site: www.snowmintcs.com/products/budgetwin/index.php Licence: Trial, then $US30 Platform: Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista, Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0; Mac Budget uses the envelope paradigm to help you to manage your money and get out of debt. The program lets you allocate your pay to different areas, and then enters the amounts into those areas automatically, so you always know that you're keeping to your budget. It even handles variable pays.
Jarte 3.2 Site: www.jarte.com/download.html Price: Free Platform: Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista Jarte is a tiny, powerful word processing application that creates documents which are compatible with Microsoft Word. Its interface is easy and intuitive, and its tab feature means that you can open as many documents as you please into the program window. Jarte integrates with free WordWeb, so you have a handy dictionary and thesaurus too.
VLC Media Player Portable 0.8.6f Site: portableapps.com/news/2008-04-03_-_vlc_media_player_portable_0.8.6f Price: Free Platform: Windows (all) You can now take the popular VLC Media Player with you, as a portable application. Load your media files, and you're ready to play your audio and video files whenever you choose. You can even use the application to stream media across a network. Load VLC Media Player Portable onto your USB drive, and you'll never be without player for any kind of media file you encounter.
My Movies 2.44 Site: www.mymovies.dk/downloads.aspx Price: Free Platform: Windows MCE/Vista Home Premium/Vista Ultimate My Movies manages your movies and indexes them automatically, downloading data from the My Movies site, so you can look up information about any movie in your collection, as well as its stars. If you want to restrict viewing of any movies, you can require that a PIN number is entered before a movie is viewed.
ArtRage 2.5.2 Site: www.ambientdesign.com/artragedown.html Price: Free Platform: Windows 2000/XP/Vista ArtRage is a sophisticated drawing program with superb realistic drawing and painting tools to encourage creativity. The tools work just as they do in the real world; you can smudge pencils and smear paint. ArtRage is a must for students, and business users will find the program useful too. The commercial Full Edition offers additional tools, and the ability to create layers.
Stickies 6.0c Site: www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies/download.html Price: Free Platform: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista Stickies is a sticky notes program that's both simple and useful. The notes you create stay on your screen, acting just like real sticky notes. You can create alarms and choose colours for your notes, and attach them to files and folders so they only show when a specific document is on your screen.
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Network Magic 4.6.7324 Site: www.networkmagic.com Licence: Seven-day trial, then $US30 Platform: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista Network Magic makes setting up a home wireless network a breeze. You can set up your secure network in moments, adding a computer or a device like a printer to the network with a click. The Wireless Connection Manager keeps you connected to your favourite wireless connection; you can designate your home or work network as the favourite connection.
HomeNet Manager Site: www.homenetmanager.com Licence: 30-day trial, then $US40 Platform: Windows 2000/XP/Vista As the name suggests, HomeNet Manager is your complete home wireless networking manager. The program automatically detects and installs all wireless computers, Internet routers, printers and other devices. All computers can share your Internet connection, and your security is ensured with secure WEP or WPA keys. Your wireless network is monitored, repaired and maintained automatically.
AirSnare 1.5 Site: home.comcast.net/~jay.deboer/airsnare/download.html Price: Free Platform: Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server AirSnare helps you to monitor your wireless network for intrusions. To use this program, you need an 802.11b (wireless) network card. Once installed, you select your adapter from the list of installed adapters in AirSnare, and then identify all the computers on your home network. Once all the computers are identified, AirSnare is set to monitor your network.
WirelessKeyView Site: www.nirsoft.net/utils/wireless_key.html Price: Free Platform: Windows XP/2003 Server/Vista WirelessKeyView is a simple utility which recovers all the wireless network keys (WEP/WPA) which are stored on your computer by the Wireless Zero Configuration service of Windows XP and by the WLAN AutoConfig service in Windows Vista. It displays the keys in a list, so you can save the keys to a text or other file, or copy them to the clipboard. It's a must-have if you've searched for a wireless key without knowing where to look.
RogueScanner 2.2 Site: www.paglo.com/opensource/roguescanner Price: Free Platform: Windows XP/2003 Server RogueScanner is a wireless network security tool. It identifies all wireless devices on your home network – computers, printers, and Web cameras, so that you know exactly what they are and how they're communicating. It shows you the IP address, the MAC address, the device vendor, the model and much more.
WIFI Signal Strength 1 Site: faltronsoft.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26&Itemid=35 Price: Free Platform: Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server WIFI Signal Strength is a small program, but it's very useful in monitoring your wireless connections. It just shows you the SSID and signal strength of your wireless network, updating itself every five seconds. Drag it to a corner of your screen, to assess your connection's quality.
Hotspot Shield 1.01 Site: anchorfree.com/downloads/hotspot-shield/ Price: Free Platform: Windows 2000/XP/Vista Hotspot Shield keeps your data secure when you're accessing public wi-fi hotspots, as well as at home and at work. Essentially the program creates a virtual private network (VPN) between your computer and the wireless router. Therefore all the information you receive and send through the router is not only kept anonymous, but also encrypted, so that no one can butt in and spy on you and steal passwords, credit card data and other information you need to keep secure.
Easy WiFi Radar 1 Site: www.makayama.com/easywifiradar.html Price: Free Platform: Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server Easy WiFi Radar makes it easy to find wireless hotspots when you're on the go. You can connect to open wireless access points at a click any time you're within range. Easy WiFi Radar automates your entire connection, so you can just start the program and read your email or connect to the Web. The animated radar screen shows your connections graphically.
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Mozilla Sunbird 0.8 Site: www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/index.html Price: Free Platform: Mac Mozilla Sunbird is a cross-platform calendar application, built upon Mozilla Toolkit, providing you with full-featured and easy to use calendar application that you can use around the world. Cocoa Cookies 0.9 Site: ditchnet.org/cocoacookies/dist/Cocoa_Cookies.dmg.zip Licence: Freeware Platform: Mac OS X 10.4 Cocoa Cookies is a free Cocoa-based utility for Mac OS X Tiger that allows you to search (with regex) and delete (with undo) HTTP cookies stored in the shared Cocoa cookie storage used by Safari, Dashboard, NetNewsWire, Sherlock, Shiira, and others.
Zipeg 2.1 Site: www.pure-mac.com/downloads/zipegdl.html Licence: Freeware Platform: Mac OS X 10.4 Zipeg is free Macintosh file utility for Mac OS X that allows you to open and explore content of zip, rar and other types of archives quickly and easily, preview files and images before you extract them. Then you can unzip or drag and drop the files you really want. Mojo 2.5.3 Site: www.pure-mac.com/p2p.html#mojo Licence: Freeware; full version $US11 Platform: Mac OS X 10.5 Mojo is music sharing done right. With just two clicks, you are ready to browse, select, and download music from other Mojo users. Plus, subscribe to the playlists of other users, and Mojo will update those playlists anytime they are online. Finally, all downloaded songs will automatically be added to your iTunes library.
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Descent II 1.12.43 Site: www.pure-mac.com/downloads/d2xxldl.html Licence: Demo Platform: System 7.1 If you thought Descent went to the edge of 360 degree 3D power-blasting sensory insanity, then prepare yourself. You're about to plunge over the edge, and into the depths of Descent II. Suddenly warped into the outer reaches of the Zeta Aquilae System, your new mission sends you into the black depths of treacherous alien mines. LEGO Star Wars 1.0 Rev A Site: www.pure-mac.com/downloads/legostarwarsdl.html Licence: Demo Platform: Mac OS X 10.3.8 For the first time ever, one of the world's most successful film series meets one of the world's favourite toys in an epic new video game. Play the whole story of Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith - three movies in one game!
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WorldClock Deluxe 4.5.2 Site: www.pure-mac.com/downloads/worldclockdeluxedl.html Licence: Shareware, $US16 Platform: Mac OS 10.2 With World Clock Deluxe you can display up to 24 clocks in the Control Strip; show seconds, weekday, date, local time offset and assign labels and colours to clocks; display Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), Internet Time and time zones; keep clocks arranged by city or time zone abbreviation, longitude and label; rotate clocks to minimise the module's width in the Control Strip; edit cities and time zones and add custom cities and time zones; calculate date and time conversions.
Something Fishy: 3D Desktop Aquarium 1.5 Site: www.pure-mac.com/downloads/somethingfishydl.html Licence: Shareware, $13 Platform: Mac OS X 10.3 So what happens is, the screen fills with water and the fish start swimming around. Sounds simple, but it wasn't simple to make. The effect though, is well worth the effort. Watch it and see!
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Mac OS X Wireless Driver 3.1 Site: www.download.com/Mac-OS-X-Wireless-Driver/3000-2291_4-10259478.html Licence: Trial, then $US15 Platform: Mac OS X 10.2 The Macintosh wireless driver from OrangeWare allows Mac OS X users, version 10.2 and newer, to use most 802.11a/b/g desktop and laptop cards with an Apple Airport access point, as well as any PC-orientated access point. In fact, it is the only Mac driver to allow Macs to connect to 802.11a networks. This is a trial driver with 10 minutes of evaluation time; at the end of the 10-minute evaluation time you will be provided a means to purchase the full version. WiFind1.4.2 Site: www.tastyapps.com Price: $US8 Platform: Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5 (Leopard) WiFind shows you if wireless networks are locked or unlocked and their signal strength - right in the airport menu. It's a tiny lightweight plugin for OS X that makes connecting to reliable wireless networks quicker and easier. Whether you're at home, the office or at your favorite cafe - WiFind will help you locate a signal and start browsing! iStumbler r98 Site: www.istumbler.net/downloads/istumbler-98.tgz Licence: Freeware Platform: Mac OS X 10.3.9 iStumbler is the leading wireless discovery tool for Mac OS X, providing plugins for finding AirPort networks, Bluetooth devices and Bonjour services with your Mac. AirStatz 1.2.1 Site: thinkertons.com/downloads/airstatz.dmg Licence: Freeware Platform: Mac OS X 10.4 AirStatz combines an easy at-a-glance visual tool for evaluating your Airport connection with optional in-depth technical information. AirStatz's display responds much more rapidly than Apple's menu-bar widget, making it far easier to optimise your connection or locate interference sources. AirStatz also has drawers displaying detailed technical information about your current wireless connection and all available wireless networks.
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Safari Extender 1.6.6 Site: www.batista.org/extender.html Licence: Shareware, $US10 Platform: Mac OS X 10.4 or higher - Not compatible with Leopard Safari Extender adds functionality to Safari in the form of a contextual menu item. With Safari Extender you can do things Safari never allowed you to do before, such as Save a complete Set of Tabs, Load a Set of Tabs, Cut and Paste a Tab, even paste it to a different window! You can easily get back to your optimal setup by loading a Tab Set. Or you can re-arrange your Tabs by making a Tab be the first one, or make it the last one. You can also compose an email with the current Web address in your browser.
Flock Browser 1.1 Site: www.flock.com Licence: Free Platform: Mac OS X 10.4 This is the latest version of Flock. This browser now makes it even easier to keep up with your friends online, with the Friends Activity sidebar. Flock now integrates with Gmail and Yahoo Mail, and lets you know when you've got messages. The Picasa photo sharing service has also now been integrated with Flock. If you haven't tried Flock, try it - it's fast and friendly.
Feeder 1.5.3 Site: reinventedsoftware.com/feeder Licence: 15-day trial, then $US30 Platform: Mac OS X 10.4 Feeder is an application for creating, editing and publishing RSS feeds on Mac OS X. Whether it's a news feed for your site or a podcast, Feeder makes it simple.
Adium X 1.2.4 Site:Â www.adiumx.com Licence: Freeware Platform: Mac OS X 10.4 Adium is a free instant messaging application for Mac OS X. With Adium, you can connect to any number of messaging accounts on any combination of supported messaging services and then chat with other people using those services.
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Mail Checker Site: http://www.scue.co.uk/widgets/mailchecker/# Licence: Freeware Platform: Mac OS X 10.4 This is a very simple dashboard widget that displays the number of unread messages in your Gmail or Yahoo! mail account. As you can see it takes the form of a British postage stamp. The stamp will turn red when you have mail waiting - the number will also increase to display the number of unread messages. Clicking on the stamp will open your mail inbox in your default Web browser. If you have more than one account then just add more copies of the widget to your dashboard.
Skim 1.1.2 Site: www.pure-mac.com/downloads/skimdl.html Licence: Freeware Platform: Mac OS X 10.4 Skim is a PDF reader and note-taker for OS X. It is designed to help you read and annotate scientific papers in PDF, but is also great for viewing any PDF file.
Smultron 3.4 Site: smultron.sourceforge.net Licence: Freeware Platform: Mac OS X 10.5 Smultron is an open-source text editor written in Cocoa for Mac OS X Panther with many of the features that you might need. It features easy selection of the opened documents, line numbers, support for syntax colouring for many different languages, support for text encodings, code snippets, a toolbar, a status bar, HTML preview, multi-document find and replace with regular expressions, possibility to show invisible characters, authenticated saves, command-line utility, .Mac synchronisation of preferences and many more features.
Max 0.8 Site: sbooth.org/Max/#download Licence: Freeware Platform: Mac OS X 10.4 Max is an application for creating high-quality audio files in various formats, from compact discs or files. Once the audio is extracted, Max can generate audio in over 20 compressed and uncompressed formats including mp3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, AAC, Apple Lossless, Monkey's Audio, Speex, AIFF, and WAVE. If you would like to convert your audio from one format to another, Max can read and write audio files in over 20 compressed and uncompressed formats.
MovieGate 2.66 Site: www.pure-mac.com/downloads/moviegatedl.html Licence: Freeware Platform: Mac OS X 10.4.6 Turns various types of video files into an image suitable for burning to a DVD.
GIMP.app 2.4rc3 Site: www.gimp.org/macintosh Licence: Freeware Platform: Mac OS X 10.4 The GIMP is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.
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