Hot on the heels of its first stable release, The Document Foundation has announced the immediate availability of LibreOffice Portable. As the name suggests, it's a repackaged version of The Document Foundation's free open-source application that is designed to run directly from USB -- or even cloud -- drives, allowing the end user to run the program on any Windows-compatible computer, including Macs and Linux running WINE.

LibreOffice is an offshoot of the OpenOffice project, brought into being by The Document Foundation because of concerns of the project's future as an open-source program having come under the ownership of Oracle following its purchase of Sun Microsystems. It contains a free word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentations tool and drawing application.

Continue reading →

Let's be honest: watching TV on your computer can be a painful experience. If you have a TV tuner you still need access to an aerial point, and if you opt to watch over the Internet you can find yourself having to move between multiple websites when looking for something to watch.

The solution is obvious: watch internet television through Windows Media Center -- after all, it's perfect for live TV, so why not catch-up TV too? Some services -- like Sky Player in the UK -- are even available through WMC, but what if yours isn't covered?

Continue reading →

Skype has announced a final release for version 5 of its Mac client, bringing it in line with Windows. Skype for Mac 5.0 was originally released as a public beta last November, and immediately brought an outcry from enraged Mac users unhappy with the redesigned interface, which had been tweaked to bring it into line with the Windows version.

As a result, Skype has made a number of tweaks to this final version that aim to address the criticisms. It also brought back full-screen video chat and made it easier to view and hide the chat options when in a conversation. However, the final release also means that group video chat -- which was previously free in the beta version -- is now a premium feature, with a day pass costing $4.99, and a monthly subscription costing $8.99. A 7-day trial is included within the latest release.

Continue reading →

The value of a remote access tool is difficult to appreciate until you try one for the first time. Using the right software, it is possible to sit at home and work with your computer in the office as if you sat in front of it. This can be achieved with desktop software such as LogMeIn, but there is also a version available for iOS in the form of LogMeIn Ignition. It may sound adventurous to consider accessing your desktop PC or Mac from your iPhone or iPad, but that is precisely what the app enables you to do.

All you need to do to get started is to install the desktop software on your computer and the app on your iOS device. You can then create a LogMeIn account which you can then use to control which computers are able to gain remote access. For the purposes of security, no computer will be granted access without the correct password, and IP address filtering can be used to increase protection further. An on-screen message is displayed on your Mac or PC whenever a remote session is started so you can terminate any unauthorised sessions that may be started.

Continue reading →

It's taken quite some time, and no less than 10 Release Candidate builds, but all the preparations are about to pay off -- the final release of OpenOffice.org 3.3 officially released today, and it's packed with handy new features that, taken together, make the suite significantly more comfortable to use.

All the major apps now come with a new Find toolbar, for example, allowing you to quickly search a document's text. Charts may be enhanced with drawing objects. In a click or two you can insert anything from lines, rectangles or text for simple captions, say, up to cubes, symbols, blocks, even flowcharts. The Calc spreadsheet now supports 1,048,576 rows, up from 65,536.

Continue reading →

Piriform Software has released a brand new version of its popular cleaning tool for Windows. CCleaner Network Edition is aimed at corporations wishing to use CCleaner's capabilities across an entire network. It's designed to be managed from a single central location, allowing IT managers to set up one cleaning profile that's implemented consistently across all workstations running CCleaner. Prices start from $250 for 10 computers, although Piriform is currently offering a 20 percent discount during the program's launch period.

Hot on the heels of the Network Edition's release, Piriform has also updated the standalone edition of CCleaner, which is free for personal and non-commercial use. CCleaner 3.03 adds support for three minor browsers -- including Chrome Plus -- alongside its existing support for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari and Opera.

Continue reading →

Apple is as much about its looks as its substance, which begs the question: why that drab, grey start-up screen with the darker grey Apple logo superimposed over it? Hardly inspiring stuff when you boot your Mac first thing in the morning.

Thankfully, there's a free tool out there that can help you transform this dull and uninspiring backdrop into something more colorful and personal. BootXChanger runs on Intel Macs sporting Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or later, and is simplicity itself to use.

Continue reading →

In a move that signals the company's keenness to take full advantage of the increasing popularity of the Mac format, Microsoft has announced the availability of 30-day trial versions of Office for Mac 2011. The trial version of the office suite is for the Home & Business edition, which means that it includes Outlook and gives users the opportunity to try out all of the components of Office.

The release of a trial version of the office suite is likely to please PC users who have recently made the move to OS X, as it enables them to work with familiar software. It also enables Mac users who have previously avoided Microsoft software to take the suite for a test drive without having to part with any cash.

Continue reading →

The Document Foundation has released its first stable build of LibreOffice. Version 3.3 arrives ahead of schedule thanks largely to the growth in developers who have contributed to LibreOffice since its first appearance in September 2010. The number has mushroomed from under 20 to over 100, allowing LibreOffice to exceed the "aggressive" targets set by its founders when this offshoot from OpenOffice was first announced.

LibreOffice 3.3 introduces 10 new features to the program, many of which are exclusive to LibreOffice. Examples include the ability to import SVG graphics directly into the Draw application and edit them interactively. Title pages are now easier to create in Writer thanks to a new dialogue box, while a new Navigator view helps simplify the navigation of large documents. There are a number of new import filters too, including support for Microsoft Works and Lotus Word Pro, while the Corel WordPerfect filter has also been improved. There are also a number of extensions bundled across the suite, such as the Presenter View in Impress.

Continue reading →

The consumer video editing market is a competitive place, packed with impressive-looking apps, each vying for your attention. And yet, Roxio's new Video Lab HD, originally a component of Roxio Creator 2011, still manages to stand out from the crowd, thanks to a lengthy feature list.

The core 32-track video editor, for instance, can import your footage, then apply various corrections, and add professional video or transition effects. It works with standard, High Definition and even 3D footage, being able to import clips directly from many 3D cameras. You don't have one? No problem, the program can also convert your 2D movies or images into 3D.

Continue reading →

Anyone who's performed the same mindless task more than a dozen times will know the benefits of finding some tool to do the job for you. After all, why take five minutes to perform a set of repetitive commands when you might be able to press a single button, sit back and watch the task whizz by? In this feature we've dug out 11 free tools that are designed to do the hard work for Windows users, so you don't have to.

The tools in question cover a variety of different repetitive tasks: convert and edit a group of images, add AutoText to any application, rename a large group of files quickly, or create powerful scripts that automate processes and tasks across multiple programs and even Windows itself. There's a tool here for everyone, so sit back, press a button, and let your computer take the strain -- after all, that was one of the reasons you bought it in the first place.

Continue reading →

Nitro PDF Software has released version 1.4 of their PDF Reader, a small but worthwhile update that contains a number of useful time-saving features. Top of the list is the new intelligent hyperlink recognition, a simple but welcome addition that should help you to bypass a common PDF annoyance.

You've seen it many times: your PDF document includes a URL, but it's in plain text, and therefore clicking it has precisely no effect at all, which is irritating. Nitro PDF Reader actually scans the document ahead of time and converts plain text web addresses into active links, though, so there's no need to manually open a browser window and paste the address -- you can simply click the URL to open a site, as the author intended.

Continue reading →

VideoLan.org has released a minor update to its video playback tool,VLC Media Player. VLC 1.1.6 is a minor release that contains a few minor new features, plus consists mainly of bug fixes and security improvements.

VLC Media Player is both cross-platform and open-source, and is capable of playing a wide variety of video and audio formats without the need for additional codecs or downloads. It can also be used for playing back DVD movies -- a capability that first made it popular with Windows XP users (XP has no built-in capabilities for playing DVDs). Version 1.1.6 comes two months after version 1.1.5 was released last year -- over 58 million downloads of the last version have been recorded by VideoLan.org.

Continue reading →

The web is chock-a-block with video: YouTube, streaming video, downloadable movies -- the list is endless. Unfortunately, most of it is tied to the Internet: you have to be online to access it and watch it through your web browser, which isn't always the most convenient way of doing things.

Grappler promises to change all that for Mac users. This shareware tool is unbelievably simple to use: once installed, you have two choices: if you know the URL, enter it to visit the web site directly, then click on the video -- Grappler will detect it and start downloading. If you don't have a web site in mind, enter your search terms to reveal a list of possible matches, then scroll through the results that Grappler finds on the web. You can view a video direct from within Grappler, visit the parent website it's taken from and -- most importantly -- download it to your Mac for viewing offline.

Continue reading →

LastPass 1.72 now supports the Opera web browser in addition to Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari. Premium account holders can also now download LastPass to their Windows 7 phone in addition to other mobile platforms. Other premium-only new features include support for fingerprint and smart card authentication devices.

LastPass 1.72 has also been tweaked in other areas, most notably in terms of improving both its stability and performance in Internet Explorer 9. It also handles multiple Google logins where just a password is required better, and can also save usernames by default on banking websites where passwords are split over multiple pages.

Continue reading →