XtraFinder 0.5 gives OS X Snow Leopard or Lion more roar
It may not be the sexiest feature in OS X, but there’s little doubt of the importance of Finder to your day-to-day computing. Each iteration of OS X comes and goes, tweaks and refines Finder that little bit more, and yet along come developers who take the Apple ethos that little bit further and find tweaks to make things just work.
Most of these Finder add-ons or plug-ins don’t come free, but if you’re prepared to miss out on some higher end features like tabbed Finder windows, then you can give Finder a welcome shot in the arm for no cost at all with the help of XtraFinder 0.5.
Image Tuner 3.1 batch edits photos fast and for free
There they sit: a large group of photos you need to process for one reason or another. Perhaps you simply want to rename them to something more descriptive than the choice made by your digital camera. Perhaps they need resizing to share with someone else. Whatever the reason, wading through that little lot by hand is going to take you some time.
Thankfully, there’s a free tool that can do all the hard work for you. Image Tuner 3.1 is a small, perfectly formed tool designed to simplify the process of batch-editing a large group of photos. And the icing on the cake is the fact it’s free.
CyberLink revs PhotoDirector 10, PowerDVD 12 and MediaShow 6 for AMD A-Series APUs
Taipei, Taiwan-based CyberLink has issued updates for its flagship media viewing and editing products, including CyberLink PowerDirector 10 Deluxe, CyberLink PowerDVD 12 Pro and CyberLink MediaShow 6 Ultra.
The updates are all designed to take full advantage of the new second-generation AMD A-Series APUs (Accelerated Processing Units) recently launched by AMD. APUs integrate graphics and CPU chips on to a single die for performance gains and are currently available on new notebooks, with desktop chips due later this year.
Now available -- CCleaner 3.19 and Defraggler 2.10
Piriform Ltd has updated two of its flagship free products for Windows users with the release of CCleaner 3.19 and Defraggler 2.10. CCleaner 3.19, an all-purpose cleaning tool, adds an option for skipping the User Account Control warning in Vista and Windows 7, plus includes new and improved application cleaning options.
Defraggler 2.10 promises to improve defrag speeds by up to 30 per cent, and includes a revamped scheduler and various other optimizations.
Panic offers high-calorie Coda 2 for Mac, and low-cal Diet Coda for iPad
Oregon developer Panic has released a brand new version of its Mac web-coding tool, Coda 2, plus launched a streamlined iPad version, appropriately titled Diet Coda. Diet Coda is designed as a companion tool to Coda for use on the move.
Coda 2 launches with over 100 new features -- many of which are based on user requests, adds 64-bit compatibility and provides a completely refreshed user interface. It’s billed as a one-stop shop for web developers, incorporating editor, terminal, CSS and files management within a single application.
LastPass Wallet secures your iPad and iPhone information
LastPass.com, developer of the LastPass family of password-storage products, has released a new free app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. LastPass Wallet is designed to give iOS users a taster of the LastPass feature set by providing a tool for viewing, creating and managing secure notes, one of the service’s lesser known features.
The app provides templates for users to quickly create notes for sensitive personal information often found in the user’s wallet or purse, such as credit card details, passport number and wireless passwords.
Auslogic BoostSpeed 5.3 and Disk Defrag 3.4.3 are big upgrades
Australian software developer Auslogics has released major updates for two of its Windows performance tools. Auslogics BoostSpeed 5.3.0.0 is the company’s flagship tool, an all-in-one performance manager, whileAuslogics Disk Defrag 3.4.3.0 - whose functionality is included in BoostSpeed -- provides a free (for personal use) hard drive optimization tool.
The latest build includes numerous feature additions, performance improvements and bug fixes, plus introduces “partial” compatibility with Windows 8, with full compatibility promised for version 5.4.
Get autotext and autocorrect in any app
Anyone who’s tapped into Microsoft Word’s autotext and autocorrect features will know how useful they can be, but what happens when you need that kind of automation in another program? The answer lies with a free-for-personal-use tool called PhraseExpress 8.0151.
This clever and powerful text replacement tool, also available as a portable build, gives you Autotext and Autocorrect functionality – plus a heck of a lot more – across your entire desktop, letting you speed up the way you enter and manipulate text in any program you have installed on your computer, not just Microsoft Word.
Emergency Kit 2 boosts speed by 450%
Austrian anti-malware vendor Emsisoft has announced the release of version 2 beta of its free portable malware removal and repair kit.Emsisoft Emergency Kit 2.0.0.4 Beta provides a selection of free tools for detecting and removing malware from an infected PC, including two scanning tools (one GUI, one command-line), a manual investigation and removal tool, plus BlitzBank, which can delete files, drivers and Registry entries at boot time to thwart malware protection.
Version 2 incorporates the scan engine from Emsisoft Anti-Malware 6, plus promises a 450-percent speed improvement on the previous build as well as direct disk access for better rootkit detection and removal.
Affixa makes webmail work with your desktop apps
One of the major drawbacks of switching to a web-based email provider like Gmail or Yahoo is that your desktop hasn’t cottoned on to your new way of working. Sure, you can access your email via your web browser, effectively liberating you from a single email program on a single PC, but it seems your desktop hasn’t caught up with progress.
You’ll know what we mean: click an email link on a webpage, or attempt to attach a file to an email directly from another program and you’ll either open an unwanted relic from the past like Outlook, or get some error message. Before throwing your PC out of the window, however, discover how a free software program called Affixa can soothe your furrowed brow.
Acronis True Image Home 2012 Update 2 adds scheduling and archive management
Acronis has released Update 2 for its complete backup tool for Windows PCs, Acronis True Image Home 2012. Initially a drive-imaging tool, True Image has evolved into an all-encompassing backup tool covering files and settings, data synchronization and online backup in addition to its partition and drive-imaging capabilities.
Update 2 introduces several new features, including Scheduler Smart Start and Archives Scanning Management, plus fixes a number of bugs present in earlier builds.
Apache releases big OpenOffice upgrade -- get it now!
The Apache Software Foundation announced the release of Apache OpenOffice 3.4, the first new build of OpenOffice since it was handed to the ASF by Oracle after development stalled when many contributors defected across to The Document Foundation’s LibreOffice, which is also based on OpenOffice.
Version 3.4’s major features can be found under the hood -- vastly improved startup times, improved OLEObject handling, better chart rendering and support for scalable vector graphics are the most notable changes in this new release. Also implemented is ODF 1.2 encryption, while the suite is now licensed under the Apache License 2 engine.
Plex Server 0.9.6.1 supports DLNA, eliminates need for app
If you’re looking for a gorgeous, easy-to-use solution to the problem of sharing and streaming media from your PC or Mac, then Plex will appeal. And with the release of Plex Server 0.9.6.1, it adds another major string to its bow: support for DLNA.
That’s right, from this current release, Plex Server can stream video, photos and music to a host of DLNA-certified devices, from games consoles and media streamers like the WD TV Live to other computers and mobile devices running DNLA media software.
EaseUS ToDo Backup 4.5 Free supports Windows 8
Chengdu, China software developer EaseUS has updated its Windows all-in-one backup tool, EaseUS ToDo Backup 4.5 Free. The software, which is free for personal use only (paid-for editions are also available), combines both data and image-based backup within a single application.
Version 4.5 introduces a revamped backup management interface, designed to simplify the task of editing and deleting backups. It also adds support for Windows 8 Consumer Preview as well as interconverting backup tasks with plans (and vice versa).
WinOptimizer Free 1.0 packs in 20 tools
Ashampoo GmbH has launched a free, cut-down version of its Windows optimizing and tuning suite. Ashampoo WinOptimizer Free 1.0.0 contains a subset of the functionality found in Ashampoo’s paid-for WinOptimizer 9, providing 20 separate tools for cleaning, optimizing, tuning and securing Windows machines.
Ashampoo WinOptimizer Free also provides a one-click optimizer, scheduling functions for automatic maintenance and performance optimisations and a scan tool for recommending tweaks.
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