Quickly organize unsorted images with PhotoSift
Creating digital images is easy. Organizing them into appropriate folders takes rather more effort, though, which is probably why many people just let them pile up in the Pictures folder. But there could be a better way.
PhotoSift is small and simple tool which uses a keyboard-based workflow to sort your images. It’s basic, but can be effective, and in the right situation it’s extremely fast.
Avast 2014 update offers stability improvements and bug fixes
Security firm Avast Software, celebrating 25 years in the business this year, has released a second update to its avast! 2014 range of products. Avast Free Antivirus 2014, Internet Security 2014 and Premier 2014 all get updated to build number 9.0.2013.
The new build, although a minor one, contains a number of important stability and bug fixes, making it a must-have update for all existing Avast users.
Free Audio Video Pack handles all your audio/video conversion needs
Pazera Software has announced the release of Free Audio Video Pack 2.0, a renamed update of its Pazera Video Converters Suite.
As you’ll guess from the name, the package provides tools to handle audio and video and conversions between all the main formats (AVI, MPG, MP4, MP3, WAV, FLAC, AAC, MOV, WebM, WMV, WMA, OGG, WebM, FLV, OGV, 3GP). As a bonus, there’s also a program to extract audio tracks from CD images based on the CUE sheets.
Adobe Digital Editions promises better DRM security, improved layout support
Adobe has released Adobe Digital Editions 3.0 on Windows and Mac, a major new version of its eBook manager. The tool, which helps users browse, organize and read both free and purchased eBooks in EPUB, PDF, and PDF/A formats, offers more secure DRM, improved PDF search tools and enhanced display of certain book types.
The headline new feature is the new DRM Scheme, which Adobe says has been "hardened and made more secure" to prevent unauthorized viewing of files protected by Digital Rights Management.
Secure cloud storage provider MEGA launches MEGAsync desktop tool for Windows
New Zealand-based MEGA has launched MEGAsync 1.0 FINAL for Windows, the first stable release in a planned trio of desktop tools (Mac and Linux versions are promised soon) giving MEGA account holders access to their cloud-based files via their computers. It follows the launch of the mobile MEGA app for Android and iOS.
MEGA -- which includes Kim Dotcom among its founders -- offers robust, secure cloud storage using 2048-bit RSA encryption. It also offers a generous free 50GB of storage space, with paid-for plans offering up to 4TB secure storage with extended bandwidth (up to 8TB/month).
Generate relaxing, natural soundscapes with Atmosphere Lite
If you’re working on the PC and would like a little background noise then you could launch your media player, stream something from the web, maybe just turn on the TV. These options could be a little distracting, though, making it more difficult to concentrate on your main tasks.
Atmosphere Lite takes a more effective approach. Much like Sound Valley, which we reviewed last November, it works by generating custom nature-based ambient soundscapes, like a forest stream, a woodland campfire, the ocean’s edge and more. You get the background noise you need, but it doesn’t demand your attention: it’s relaxing, more than distracting.
Convert images to HDR, EXR, TIFF and more with Imagenator
Imagenator is a portable, open-source tool for converting digital images between various formats: BMP, EXR, GIF, HDR, ICO, J2K, JP2, JPG, PBM/ PGM/ PPM (both RAW and ASCII), PFN, PNG, TGA, TIF, WAP, XPM.
The program supports a range of format-specific options. Export to ICO, say, and you can select an icon resolution from 16×16 to 256×256; JPEGs have Quality and Subsampling options; EXRs give you control over image compression (you can choose lossy, lossless, or none at all), and more.
Create, convert, rotate, secure, crop and generally tweak your PDFs with PDFFill Tools
Most PC users need to work with PDF files, if only occasionally, and there are plenty of free tools around to help. Typically they’ll concentrate on a single function, though; just looking at their names tells you all you need to know about PDF to JPEG Expert and CHM to PDF, for instance.
PDFFill Tools is a little more ambitious, fortunately, cramming 15 functions into a single small and entirely free program. There are tools to create PDFs from images, PostScript files or direct from your scanner, and then you can add watermarks (text or image), headers or footers, merge or split the files, encrypt/ decrypt them, rotate the documents, crop them and more.
StereoPhoto Maker: create, view and work with 3D images
3D is everywhere -- at the movies, on TV, games consoles -- but finding PC applications with significant support for 3D images can still be something of a challenge.
If you need to work with 3D pictures, then, the simplest approach is to grab a specialist tool like StereoPhoto Maker. It’s free, compact and portable, and comes packed with options to help you view, create and process 3D files.
VLC for iOS gets a new look, Google Drive/Dropbox streaming
VideoLAN’s popular media player VLC for iOS has been upgraded to 2.2 with a revamped iOS 7-style interface, along with new multi-touch gestures for easier navigation.
Google Drive integration and Dropbox streaming should make it much easier to access your media. And if that’s not enough, the new build also adds support for HTTP Live Streaming, m3u streams and https playback.
Recuva now recovers data from unmounted drives, ISO-formatted optical discs
Piriform has released Recuva 1.5 and Recuva Portable 1.5, new versions of its freeware data recovery tool for Windows PCs.
Version 1.5’s headline feature is its newly acquired ability to recover data from unmounted drives, while it also adds support for the ISO9660 file system as well as Junction Point recovery.
Google Chrome Canary introduces Google Now desktop notifications -- kind of
Google has released a brand new version of its experimental Chrome browser with the arrival of Google Chrome Canary 34. The main new highlight in this release is supported for Google Now cards.
Google Now is Google’s card-based service that delivers useful information throughout the day -- it’s available as part of the Google Search app for Android and iOS, and is now being rolled out on the desktop too.
Speed up your PC (and extend its life) with SoftPerfect RAM Disk
These days, our PCs are shipping with ever increasing amounts of RAM. The idea is that more RAM helps boost performance, but the fact is that if you have 8GB or more of RAM then it’s likely there will be numerous times when that memory isn’t being utilized to the full.
One way to make maximum mileage from systems with larger amounts of memory is with a RAM disk, and the free-for-personal-use SoftPerfect RAM Disk handles the job perfectly.
Create quality video slideshows with IMGDissolver
Video slideshows can be a great way to share a set of photos, and tools like EXESlide make it very easy. Drag, drop, add a soundtrack, export the results, and that’s it: finished.
If you need a little more control over the finished slideshow, though, you might prefer the open source Java-based IMGDissolver. It’s not as straightforward as some of the competition, but the program’s powerful features and extreme configurability mean it could still be worth a look.
EaseUS To Do Backup adds a backup and recovery option for Android devices
EaseUS software has released EaseUS Todo Backup Free 6.5 and EaseUS Todo Backup Workstation 6.5. The new release debuts one major new feature: the ability to back up and restore Android devices to the user’s PC.
Todo Backup combines file- and image-based backup and recovery with disk cloning and -- for paid-for users only -- snapshotting tools.
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