Take one of these 27 downloads out for a spin
May is coming to a close, and as June beckons there are still countless software releases to keep track of. If you’ve had trouble keeping up with everything, this handy roundup is here to bring you up to speed.
This past week saw the release of WikidPad 2.1_01, a wiki-style text editor that can be used to capture thoughts and ideas -- stored locally or exported as an HTML file to upload to the web. If you need to store reminders of things you need to do and appointments you need to attend, PNotes 9.0.107 is a great sticky note tool that may be able to help you out. There’s also PNotes Portable 9 for anyone who likes the idea of running the same program from a USB drive. If pictures are more important to you than words, Juicebox 1.0.2 can be used to create a stunning gallery to show off your digital photos -- all in HTML5 glory.
Get Serif PagePlus 11 for free while you still can
Serif is a name long associated with powerful yet easy-to-use software, and these are both terms that applyto PagePlus 11. This is an extremely powerful desktop publishing application capable of producing professional looking newsletters, brochures and other documents using a series of design tools.
If you have been put off using DTP software in the past because you have found that it is either too complicated for day-to-day use, or too simplistic for quick projects, this could be the program you have been looking for and you can get a copy for yourself without having to part with any money. Serif PagePlus 11 originally sold for $99.99.
Google Search gets big iOS makeover
Google is the go-to search engine for most people, so the existence of a dedicated mobile app should come as no surprise. There has been a tool available for iOS for some time but the release of Google Search 2.0 sees the introduction of a completely redesigned app that not only boasts a new interface and new features, at least if you have an iPhone, but also easier access to other Google searches such as Gmail, Docs and Calendar.
As before, it is possible to conduct searches by typing, using your voice or taking a photo with your camera and using Google Goggles. There have been improvements made to the speed of autocomplete suggestions so you should find that results are available faster than ever and you can take advantage of a preview pane that slides in from the side to view individual page results. Switching between search results and pages takes nothing more than a swipe, and this gesture can also be used to switch search modes, such as moving between a standard search and an image search.
Symantec releases free iAntivirus for the Mac
While there are still Mac users who will proclaim that their systems are immune to viruses and malware, recent high-profile virus infections show that this is simply not the case. Even for anyone still convinced that their computer is immune to viruses, if a Mac is on the same network as a PC, it can easily be used to pass a virus to a Windows-based machine. This is just one of the reasons that Mac virus protection is much more important than many people believe, and Symantec’s newly released iAntivirus is a free tool that could help to bolster security.
If you have used any of Symantec’s security software for Windows, taking a look at the antivirus tool that has been released for OS X is going to come as a little bit of a shock. Minimal is a word that best describes not only the app’s interface, but also its feature set. Rather than on-going background protection against viruses and other forms of malware, all that is on offer here is on-demand scanning -- although you do have the choice of performing a scan of your entire system, your Home folder or other locations.
Create HTML 5 photo galleries with Juicebox
Looking for an impressive way to show off your digital photos? Juicebox may be just what the doctor ordered. This free Adobe AIR app can be used on Macs as well as PCs running Windows or Linux and whatever platform you use to create your gallery, you can be sure that it’ll look great on both desktop and mobile platforms. The app has been designed specifically with online photo galleries in mind, and despite the fact that stunning HTML5 galleries can be created, you do not need to know a single line of coding.
One of the problems that faces anyone looking to create an online gallery is finding a way to ensure that your photo slideshows look good on a number of different devices and platforms, particularly taking into account mobile devices with smaller screens. This is not a problem with Juicebox -- you can simply choose a design and layout that you would like to use and it will be automatically scaled to suit different screen sizes. From an end-user’s point of view, navigation is made wonderfully easy thanks to support for not only mouse and keyboard controls, but also touch screen navigation.
Do you use Gmail and want to know more about your contacts? Try Rapportive
We all now communicate with people through so many channels that it is often difficult to put names to faces. You may know someone on Twitter and Facebook but when you receive an email from them you do not necessary make a connection between the two. This is where Rapportive can help, by providing you with extended information about the contacts you receive emails from in your Gmail inbox.
Rapportive is available as a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox and Safari and appears as a right-hand side panel whenever you look at individual emails. The extension pulls in information from social networks such as Twitter, LinkedIn and more to provide you with a more detailed profile of your contacts, and by connecting the service with your social networking accounts you can build up even more detailed information.
Protect your accounts with Sticky Password
The ever-present need for security means that every account that you have online, and probably on your computer as well, needs to be protected with a username and password. If you have taken the wise step of ensuring that all of your passwords are different, this will undoubtedly mean that you have an incredible number of passwords to remember.
Sticky Password is a free tool that can store all of your passwords in a secure database and save you having to remember them by automatically filling in login information for you. Sticky Password 6.0 has just been released and there’s a lot to look forward.
PSNotes 9 adds spell checking, improves text-to-speech
Sticky notes apps are nowhere near as prevalent as they used to be, but that’s not to say that they aren’t still incredibly useful. There are fully featured PIMs such as Outlook that have somewhat taken over the role of such programs, but when you try out PNotes, you’ll understand once again just how great a simple, dedicated utility can be. The program is available in portable and installable desktop varieties and both offer the same great set of feature and the latest release, version 9, includes some great improvements and new features.
Just because a note is a quick , it doesn't need to be misspelled, and the latest release of the app includes an all-important spell checking feature. While there is support for English by default, it is possible to install others that you want to use. PNotes is the type of app that you are likely to find that you end up using a great deal and if you start to create a lot of notes you will undoubtedly make use of the grouping option to keep related notes together. Another new feature of the app makes it possible to define the default skin and coloring for groups.
Security dominates mid-May's 27 software downloads
Halfway through May and the software release schedule shows no sign of abating, and beta releases stand out over the past week. Some of the biggest releases come from security experts Norton, which updated 2013 public betas. Norton AntiVirus 2013 v20.0.0.106 beta, Norton Internet Security 2013 v20.0.0.106 beta and Norton 360 2013 v20.0.0.106 beta provide an early look at what to expect from the upcoming security line, and all of these tools are free during the beta testing period.
But Norton is far from the only name in the security world, and ESET Smart Security 6 Beta (32-bit) includes not only antivirus protection but a firewall and interesting anti-theft features for laptop users; there’s also a 64-bit version of the program available -- ESET Smart Security 6 Beta (64-bit).
FeedDemon 4.1 drops Google Reader sharing features
It’s a strange day when some of the biggest news about the latest release of an application is a feature's removal, but this is the case with the latest version of FeedDemon. Some months ago, Google announced plans to make changes to its Reader service and this has ultimately led to FeedDemon removing the sharing features that relied on this particular service, but Google+ mostly been picks up the slack. The most recent version of FeedDemon also has a number of other changes and additions that are worth mentioning.
The program has long featured a recommendation engine that can point you in the direction of stories, articles and feed that you might well find interesting, and this has been improved to ensure greater relevance. When you use the built in browser to view web pages, a new Ctrl+0 keyboard shortcut is available that can be used to revert to a 100 percent zoom level. If you have the Pro version of the program – as opposed to the free Lite version – you also have a new newspaper style Photo Strip view to make use of.
Flipboard 1.9 for iOS lets you listen while you look
iOS app Flipboard has already earned itself something of a name as a great way to aggregate multiple social networks and news media into a single, more easily managed stream. The latest version of the iPhone and iPad app sees the introduction of support for audio as well as the more usual text and image based content. Audio content can be scanned through just as you would the rest of your feeds, but it can also be played in the background while you continue with your browsing.
There is support for SoundCloud, NPR (National Public Radio) and PRI (Public Radio International), which gives you the opportunity to listen to a wide variety of podcasts, radio broadcasts and more. By connecting Flipboard with SoundCloud you can listen to sounds that have been created or shared by your friends. There is a whole new audio category for you to explore and this interesting change in direction for the social networking tool.
Secure your connections with HTTPS Everywhere
When browsing the Internet you may well have noticed that some of sites you visit are secure, while others are not. While HTTPS is most often used for secure shopping and banking web sites, there is no reason that connections to other pages should not be encrypted to help improve privacy and security. If this is something that has concerned you, HTTPS Everywhere could be just what you have been looking for.
This free browser extension can be used to ensure that a secure connection is used whenever available. There are a huge number of websites that offer support for encrypted HTTPS connections, and yet will default to sending visitors to the regular, unencrypted HTTP version of the sites. HTTPS Everywhere uses a series of specially written rules to redirect your browser, provided you are using Chrome or Firefox, to the secure version.
SyncBackSE 6.1 is chock full of bug fixes
SyncBackSE is a solid, reliable backup tool that has fared well in tests and compares very well to expensive alternatives. Version 6.1 of the software has just been released, and besides the addition of a Russian translation and new email options, there are a host of updates and fixes to explore. There are very few new features in the latest release, but the ability to view FTP and email communication messages has been added.
On the problem fixes front, an issue that saw file and folder filtering check boxes unnecessary checked has been addressed. If you found that backups included unnecessary operations such as the creation and subsequent deletion of empty directories, you should find that this is no longer a problem, and when you view the application history you will now find that the list starts with the newest events rather than the oldest.
Chrome 19 arrives with tab syncing -- get it now!
Google just pumped out another stable release of its web browser as Chrome 19 sees the light of day. It seems as though new browser releases are becoming an almost daily occurrence these days, so what can you expect from Google’s latest offering? Well the big new feature to be found in this release is tab syncing -- and this is as self-explanatory and awesome as it sounds.
In many regards Chrome is playing catch-up with Firefox here, as Mozilla’s web browser has featured the ability synchronize tabs for some time now. Chrome 19 takes very much the same approach so that whenever you are signed into your Google account any tabs you have open are automatically synced to the cloud. When you switch computers you can then access any tabs you had open on another machine by accessing the Other devices menu of the new tab page.
Don't miss one of the week's exciting 25 software downloads
The second week of May has passed, and it was as busy as ever in the world of software. If you haven’t kept your finger on the pulse, we have put together this roundup to bring you back up to speed.
Windows users looking to bring one of the features of OS X to their PCs will be interested in TweakNow DriveShortcut 1.0.0, which can be used to automatically create desktop shortcuts whenever removable media is inserted. If you’re looking to clean up your hard drive, the release of GeekUninstaller 1.0.0.2 is very timely, while EASEUS Todo Backup Free 4.5 has been updated with support for Windows 8 -- if you want to protect your valuable files. In a similar vein is Acronis True Image Home 2012 (Update 2) v15.0.7119, which has been enhanced with a number of tweaks and new features.