Mike Williams

Acronis True Image 2017 adds Facebook backup

Acronis True Image 2017 has shipped with some welcome additions and enhancements. Incremental Facebook backup automatically archives your Facebook photos, videos, contacts, comments, and likes.

Expanded mobile support now allows wirelessly backing up iOS and Android devices to your desktop.

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OpenOffice gets an unofficial iPad port

He’s already ported OpenOffice to Android, and now Akikazu Yoshikawa has announced the release of Office 700, "the world’s first port of OpenOffice for iOS".

The package includes all the key functions: text editing, spreadsheets, presentation, drawing and just about everything apart from databases.

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How to instantly fill web forms with dummy data

Filling web forms is dull. It’s bad enough when you have to fill a page of boxes just to sign up for something. It’s much worse if you’re testing a website and have to do it over, and over, and over again.

Fake Data is a very simple Chrome extension which can automatically fill those annoying text boxes with dummy data.

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My Family Tree 6 improves GEDCOM support, date handling

The free genealogy tool My Family Tree has hit version 6.0 with a host of small but welcome enhancements. Smarter GEDCOM handling includes a new import log to help diagnose any problems, and options to choose who to export when you’re saving a file.

Dates may now be input and displayed in multiple calendar formats: Gregorian, Julian, Hebrew, French Republican, lunar Hijri (Islamic), and solar Hijiri (Persian).

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Restore access to your PC with Trend Micro Ransomware Screen Unlocker

With so much attention focused on the file encrypting-type ransomware it's easy to forget the simpler variety, which pops up when your PC boots and won’t allow access to your system until you pay up.

Even these basic infections can sometimes be tricky to remove, but Trend Micro offers a couple of tools which may be able to help.

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ImBatch 5 adds multithreading for 400% speed increase

High Motion Software has updated its powerhouse image processor ImBatch with multithreading support for even greater performance. The new feature is only available in the $29.95 licensed edition, but is it worth the money? We took a look.

We used a test set of 345 PNG images, 918 megapixels in total, and set up only two processing tasks: just a "Sharpen" and a "Save as JPG".

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Stress-test your PC with HeavyLoad

Jam Software’s quick and easy PC stress-tester HeavyLoad has just been updated to version 3.4, its first release in more than two years. The package is as easy to use as ever, maxing out your CPU, allocating RAM and drive space and stressing your GPU with a click.

This release is mostly about compatibility, in particular improving results with the latest OpenGL drivers and handling individual cores in Windows 10.

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Watch and analyze chess games with Kvetka

If you’re looking to improve your chess skills then watching the best players at work will usually teach you a lot. There are plenty of chess sites to help you do just that, but they mostly offer only a very basic view of the game with few tools or options.

Kvetka is a free Windows package which can display games from chess.com, chessbase.com, chessgames.com, chessok.com and many other sites, as well as opening PGN, FEN and other formats, and importing games from the clipboard.

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IObit Uninstaller 6 adds Edge support

IObit has shipped IObit Uninstaller 6 with new support for removing Microsoft Edge plug-ins and extensions.

That’s the only significant new feature in this release, although IObit also says it now removes more programs and browser plug-ins, does a better job of uninstalling Windows Apps and troublesome Windows updates, and has enhanced real-time monitoring to help you strip out everything else.

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Corel PaintShop Pro X9 adds project templates, interactive gradients

Corel has shipped Corel PaintShop Pro X9, the latest edition of its veteran image editor. New features include Project Templates, prebuilt desktop publishing-type layouts to help you create greetings cards, brochures, photo collages and more.

An Interactive Gradient Fill tool allows fine-tuning a gradient by dragging across the image and watching a live preview.

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Audio editor Wavosaur gets first update since 2013

Windows audio editor Wavosaur (and 64-bit edition) has just been updated to version 1.2, its first release for almost three years. One handy new feature is real-time spectrum analysis. Click Tools > Spectrum Analysis, Display > Autorefresh and you can watch your waveforms update as the music plays.

A new Keyboard Shortcuts editor allows any of the program’s 46 hotkeys to be replaced.

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Wmail is a cross-platform desktop client for Gmail

Wmail is an open-source Chromium-based Gmail client for Windows, OS X and Linux. The program supports both Gmail and Google Inbox accounts, and you can add and manage as many as you need.

You could do this with a browser, of course, but Wmail gives you much improved support for drag and drop and keyboard shortcuts, as well as providing native desktop notifications when a new message arrives.

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Encrypt and secure your DNS traffic with Simple DNSCrypt

Protecting your web traffic can be very easy: use HTTPS where you can, maybe install HTTPS everywhere to enforce that, use a VPN for an extra layer of security. Meanwhile DNS gets so little attention that many people don’t even realize there’s an issue, even though DNS eavesdropping and spoofing are very real security concerns.

DNSCrypt is an open-source technology from the OpenDNS team which encrypts your DNS traffic, making it much more difficult for others to snoop on your activities or hijack your browsing with man-in-the-middle attacks.

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DisplayFusion 8.0 improves Anniversary Update compatibility, unveils new Triggers function

Binary Fortress Software has released DisplayFusion 8.0, a major update of its multi-monitor management tool for Windows. Available in both free and Pro versions, version 8.0 focuses on fixing numerous bugs for the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, but does introduce some new features.

Chief among these is a new Triggers feature, which replaces the previous Windows Location feature, promising to be more robust and flexible. There are also updates to the program’s wallpaper tools as well as changes and other bug fixes.

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Organize cmd, PowerShell and bash sessions with ConEmu

Managing your Windows command prompts has been getting more complicated recently. A regular command window here; PowerShell there; maybe another, only elevated; update to Windows 10 Anniversary Edition and you could get bash, too.

Fortunately the open-source console emulator ConEmu can make life easier and save you time, whether you’re a console expert or only head to the command line when it’s really, really necessary.

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