Items Tagged with free software
Miss Download
#119 / 2011-03-01 17:00:00 / 2:49 min.
Cheryl Poirier picks her top ten Mac downloads of 2010 from among the numerous products she looked at in a full calendar year's worth of shows. She finishes the countdown with numbers one through five of the best Mac software of 2010.
Miss Download
#118 / 2011-02-22 17:00:00 / 4:00 min.
Cheryl Poirier picks her top ten Mac downloads of 2010 from among the numerous products she looked at in a full calendar year's worth of shows. She begins the countdown with numbers 10 through six of her faves for 2010. Tune in next week to see her top five Mac downloads for the year.
Miss Download
#117 / 2011-02-15 17:00:00 / 2:34 min.
Cheryl Poirier picks her top ten PC downloads of 2010 from among the numerous products she looked at in a full calendar year's worth of shows. She finishes off her countdown with numbers one through five of her faves for 2010. Check out last episode for numbers six through 10.
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#74 / 2010-12-23 12:00:00 / 4:48 min.
Your netbook is lean and mean. It's designed to be light and compact, perfect for keeping you connected when you're on the go. So, today we'll look at five must-have applications that deserve a place on every netbook. Apps like Rocketdock, Skype and Dropbox.
Miss Download
#108 / 2010-11-23 17:00:00 / 2:23 min.
While it may not be entirely historically accurate, Turkey Attack helps while away the spare minutes between now and Thanskgiving. If you're looking to blast a few turkeys with a period-accurate(ish) gun, if you're looking to cut a swath through a bunch of murderous fowl, Cheryl has the game for you. Don't fool yourself: a turkey would eat you and everyone you care about given half a chance.
Miss Download
#105 / 2010-11-02 17:00:00 / 2:19 min.
If you're sitting at your desk but you'd rather be at the game... or watching the game... or really, anywhere but your desk,
mini SportsTicker
is the perfect Yahoo! Widget for your sports itch. Get updates across different sports and leagues, up to the minute scores, recent results, see when your favorite team plays next and more with this handy desktop sports ticker widget. Handy for keeping up with the sports nut water cooler talk if nothing else.
Miss Download
#100 / 2010-09-28 17:00:00 / 4:00 min.
Cheryl Poirier rediscovers the joys of Google Earth. As a virtual tourist, she travels from the CN Tower and Rogers Centre in downtown Toronto to the base of the Grand Canyon. 3D models in Google Earth make it possible to go from a bird's eye view to a view from the ground while the timeline tool lets you see how a place looks at morning, noon and night.
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#62 / 2010-09-23 18:16:02 / 3:50 min.
Making the switch to Linux, even part-time, can feel like a bit of a shock to the system. Doc helps to ease the transition by rounding up his 10 favorite Linux apps that are free for the download. This week, we look at one through five and in next week's show, Doc rounds it out with numbers six through 10.
Miss Download
#99 / 2010-09-21 17:00:00 / 2:28 min.
Spyware. It sounds nasty... and it is. Spyware grabs your information and at its best, creates a marketing profile that is then sold to advertisers. At its worst, it can capture login and password information from your online accounts and this information is sold. See a pattern developing? It's all about the money. Spybot Search and Destroy helps to keep your computer free of this online threat. Fair to say, no computer should be without it.
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#60 / 2010-09-09 12:00:00 / 4:10 min.
With digital cameras, it's easy to take lots and lots of photos. Snapping a photo is just the first step though. You need a way to tweak them, resize them, organize and edit them. For most amateur shutterbugs, Adobe Photoshop is overkill. This week, Doc looks at four, free photo-related programs that give you a full photo suite.
Miss Download
#96 / 2010-08-31 17:00:00 / 4:00 min.
Partitioning your hard drive may sound like an exercise in geekery, but it's actually very simple and there are some really practical reasons you might want to partition a drive. First and foremost, you can create multiple virtual hard drives to store and organize your files or even to hold multiple operating systems on the same computer. For example, you could run Windows 7 and Ubuntu side by side on the same physical machine. Best of all, it's a
free partiton creator and manager
.
Miss Download
#92 / 2010-08-03 17:00:00 / 2:11 min.
PDFs are the easiest way to ensure that your documents will look the same on any computer or device. In fact, they're the only way to guarantee that your resume, cover letter, desktop publishing or school project won't have any weird font issues, page breaks or misaligned pictures. Miss Download finds Free PDF Converter to, as the name suggests, convert all your documents, web pages and more into PDF.
On Deck
#73 / 2010-07-30 17:00:00 / 4:20 min.
Andy Walker previews new Lab Rats episodes and unveils the new butterscotch.com top 100 software feature on butterscotch and Tucows. This is the place to find the top of the top downloads from the Tucows, butterscotch and mobile.butterscotch libraries. You can also hit the butterscotch.com top 100 freeware software list.
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#53 / 2010-07-22 12:00:00 / 4:02 min.
Digital cameras make it easy to take lots and lots of photos. Then you have the task of getting all those photos organized. This week, Doc takes a look at three of the top free photo organizing programs. They're all good, they're all free and they're all available for download from Tucows.com.
Going Mobile
#19 / 2010-07-12 12:00:00 / 3:40 min.
Being a student is stressful enough without battling your gadgets at every turn. Doc Callahan highlights four of his favorite free Android apps for students. If you have an Android phone there are a number of free applications that can help you study, keep notes and much more.
Pimp my PC
#38 / 2010-07-01 17:00:00 / 5:18 min.
Turn your humdrum daily computing into an Etch-a-Sketch-esque work of art that Mom will be proud to put up on the fridge. That'll make up for the years of disappointment and all the grey hairs now gracing her head. And when are you going to give her grandchildren already?
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#49 / 2010-06-24 12:00:00 / 3:14 min.
Everyone has things they need to keep track of. Ideas, notes, appointments, and all kinds of personal information. Because we're all different each of us might prefer a different type of software for tracking these things. This week, Doc takes a look at three, free task managers that are all a bit different in how they approach handling your data.
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#48 / 2010-06-17 12:00:00 / 4:43 min.
Most of us install programs to try them out. If we like them, we keep them, pay for them if we need to and go on our way. If we don't like a program, however, we need to uninstall to free up space and avoid Windows system clutter. Windows has a built-in
uninstaller
but there are some free ones that do a better job. Check 'em out.
OpenOffice.org 101 - Beginning Studies
#10 / 2010-06-04 09:00:00 / 1:26 min.
We hope that you've enjoyed this 10-part series on OpenOffice.org, Beginning Studies. We've tried to give you a rundown of Writer, Calc, Impress and the other programs included in this
free office suite
. Now that you're armed with all of those handy programs and you know the basics ofhow to use OpenOffice.org
you're ready tocreate professional documents
, spreadsheets, artwork and more. Not only do you now have some greatproductivity software
, it didn't even cost you a dime!
OpenOffice.org 101 - Beginning Studies
#9 / 2010-06-03 09:00:00 / 2:12 min.
OpenOffice.org
is not only an awesomefree software suite
, it's also got some of the best online communities around. One of the benefits to that is having a wide range of templates available for all of the different OpenOffice.org programs. You can go to the OpenOffice.org website to search for a template that meets your needs and grab it for future use free of charge. We'll show you where to go andhow to download templates
for OpenOffice.org in this episode.
OpenOffice.org 101 - Beginning Studies
#8 / 2010-06-02 09:00:00 / 1:16 min.
Another program included with
OpenOffice.org
is Math, which is great if you want tocreate math formulas
. The formulas that you create can be used in Writer, Calc and the other OpenOffice.org programs. We'll show you how to get started using Math in this episode.
Miss Download
#83 / 2010-06-01 17:00:00 / 3:32 min.
Tired of trolling the web for health related information, Miss Download went on the hunt for a tool that would drop the info right into her lap. She found it in iVillage Health Toolbar. This handy toolbar brings a ton of health related information right to the top of your browser. It does much more than just bring health info to the forefront.
OpenOffice.org 101 - Beginning Studies
#7 / 2010-06-01 09:00:00 / 2:00 min.
Databases can be used for so many things. You can maintain employee records, accounts and all kinds of other information. Not only is it good for businesses, you can also
create a database
at home to record recipes, grocery lists and more. As a full-featuredoffice suite
,OpenOffice.org
comes with a powerful database appropriately called Base. We'll showyou how to use base
in this tutorial!
OpenOffice.org 101 - Beginning Studies
#6 / 2010-05-31 09:00:00 / 2:16 min.
If you want to
create your own artwork
on your computer then you'll need adrawing program
. One such option isDraw
which is included withOpenOffice.org
. You can make your own art, make slides to use with Impress and more. We'll show you how to get started with draw in this episode.
OpenOffice.org 101 - Beginning Studies
#5 / 2010-05-28 09:00:00 / 2:50 min.
You might be familiar with
presentation programs
such as Microsoft PowerPoint. Well withOpenOffice.org
being the full-featuredoffice suite
that it is, it's got a presentation program of its own called Impress. As with all of the other programs included in this suite, Impress is free and comes loaded with all of the features that you'd find in a paid-for product. In this episode we'll show you how tocreate presentations using Impress
.
OpenOffice.org 101 - Beginning Studies
#4 / 2010-05-27 09:00:00 / 2:11 min.
Having a
spreadsheet program
can be extremely handy, which is why it is a staple part of any office suite.OpenOffice.org
is no exception, as it offers Calc for spreadsheet purposes. In this episode, we'll show youhow to use Calc to create spreadsheets
.
OpenOffice.org 101 - Beginning Studies
#3 / 2010-05-26 09:00:00 / 2:04 min.
An important part of any office suite is the word processor. Writer is the word processor in OpenOffice.org and it's full of features and is compatible with Microsoft Word documents. Here we'll walk you through some of the basics and what you need to know to get started
creating documents
using Writer in OpenOffice.org
.
Miss Download
#82 / 2010-05-25 17:00:00 / 5:44 min.
If you're creating your own comic book, making a typographic logo for your business or if you simply have a Geocities-era Web page, meet Font Magic. This
free Windows software
goes way beyond simple typography to let youcreate 3D fonts
and titles all your own.
OpenOffice.org 101 - Beginning Studies
#2 / 2010-05-25 09:00:00 / 2:32 min.
If you want to get started using OpenOffice.org the first thing you'll need to do is download and install it. Since OpenOffice.org is a completely
free software package
, it's only a couple of clicks away. In this episode we'll walk you through theinstallation process
so that you canget started using OpenOffice.org
.
Miss Download
#81 / 2010-05-18 17:00:00 / 3:21 min.
If you're training for a marathon, like our own Miss Download, you'll probably want to track your running pace in addition to your run times and distance travelled. Pace Calculator 2 is free software that, with a little data from you, gives an accurate measurement of your running pace.
How to use Skype
#10 / 2010-05-07 09:00:00 / 1:50 min.
There are many more options to Skype beyond the basics that we have already covered. We'll go over some of the more
advanced settings in Skype
here and show you how to do things likechange notifications, allow call forwarding and voicemail, and set up hot-keys
. You'll be a Skype pro in no time!
How to use Skype
#9 / 2010-05-06 09:00:00 / 1:38 min.
Just in case you don't want to get bombarded with calls or messages, Skype gives you the option to
change your privacy settings
. These allow you to toggle whether people need to be contacts in order to call you or to send messages or video. We'll show you how to do all that and more in this tutorial!
How to use Skype
#8 / 2010-05-05 09:00:00 / 1:16 min.
Just like many other phones,
Skype allows you to change the ring tones for individual contacts
, so that each has a unique tone. You can also change any of the sound effects that Skype uses. We'll show youhow to modify all of those audio settings
in this episode!
Miss Download
#79 / 2010-05-04 17:00:00 / 4:00 min.
Cheryl Poirier, AKA Miss Download, takes a look at QBrew;
free software for home beer brewing
. If you're an old hand at making your own beer at home, you'll feel right at home here. You can manage your ownfull-grain brewing recipes
, get specific gravity measures, an International Bitterness Unit maximum and minimum based on how much hops you use and create your own brewing notes. It's also perfect for anyone looking to move beyond beer brewing from kits.
How to use Skype
#7 / 2010-05-04 09:00:00 / 1:28 min.
If you tend to make a lot of calls, you probably appreciate phones with built-in call logs. You'll also be grateful that
Skype has a call log
that lets you see who you called, who called you, and also toview past text conversations
. We'll show you how to view the log as well ashow to make group contacts
so that you can call multiple contacts simultaneously!
How to use Skype
#6 / 2010-05-03 09:00:00 / 1:48 min.
If you want to
find a person or business that uses Skype
, an easy way is by using the built-in directory. This directory contains the details of all people and businesses that use Skype. For businesses, you can evenread reviews or leave your own comments
. We'll show you how in this episode!
How to use Skype
#5 / 2010-04-30 09:00:00 / 2:46 min.
While Skype is free to users who just want to communicate with fellow Skype users, it can also be used to contact regular phones as well. But to
use Skype to call someone who doesn't have Skype
, you'll need Skype credits. We'll show youhow to buy and use Skype credits
as well as how to set up a number people can call you on from standard phones!
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#41 / 2010-04-29 12:00:00 / 3:16 min.
In
Windows Vista, Microsoft
introduced the "sidebar". It's a handy place to put things that make your life a little easier. With the release of Windows 7, there are even more "gadgets" to put in yourWindows Sidebar
. I've picked 10 of my favorite gadgets. We'll look at five this week and the remaining five next week. So, let's get to it!
How to use Skype
#4 / 2010-04-29 09:00:00 / 2:14 min.
Skype has many more features other than just being used to
make calls online for free
. You can alsouse Skype to make a video call, send instant messages or files
, or even share screens. We'll walk you through it in this tutorial.
How to use Skype
#3 / 2010-04-28 09:00:00 / 1:54 min.
There are many things that you can do to your
Skype account
to make it stand out.Personalizing your profile
might even make it easier for potential contacts to identify you. Here we'll go through some of the things that you can do tomake your profile unique
.
Miss Download
#78 / 2010-04-27 17:00:00 / 2:49 min.
If you like to use (or even misuse) words then you'll love WordWeb. It's a small but helpful program that can give you the
definitions of words or act as a spell-checker
. It also connects to Wikipedia, Wiktionary and WordWeb Online for more information on highlighted words. Here Miss Download shows youhow to use WordWeb
and how it can help everyone with proper pronunciation.
How to use Skype
#2 / 2010-04-27 09:00:00 / 1:28 min.
Now that you've got Skype installed, you'll want to add contacts so that you can start
making and receiving calls
. It's easy to do, and we'll show you how to get yourSkype contact list
growing right here.
How to use Skype
#1 / 2010-04-26 09:00:00 / 1:07 min.
If you want a quick and easy way to contact people outside your city, state or country, you can't get much better than Skype. Here, we'll show you where to get it and
how to install
it!
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#40 / 2010-04-22 12:00:00 / 4:33 min.
Today is
Earth Day
, a day when we celebrate this place we all call home. Computers have a positive impact on our lives, but they also have a negative impact on the Earth. By simply doing a few little things, we call all help reduce the impact of computers on our environment. So, this week I'm looking at some sweet software to help each of us do our part!
Miss Download
#77 / 2010-04-20 17:00:00 / 4:00 min.
Cheryl Poirier, AKA Miss Download, reveals her unhealthy love affair with sticky notes. On her mirror, on her front door, on the fridge and even on her computer screen. Sacrilege! She discovers the cold turkey cure for her sticky note jones in Evernote. A
free online service
that helps her keep everything organized... including jotted notes.
Tutorials
#663 / 2010-04-19 09:30:00 / 1:25 min.
There are so many instant messaging services around that it can be difficult connecting with everyone. Difficult, that is, unless you have a client that ties them together. A client like Palringo.
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#39 / 2010-04-15 12:00:00 / 4:04 min.
The Windows clipboard can be a handy tool. You can copy text from one place and paste it in another. The only problem with it is that it can only hold one thing at a time. That can be pretty limiting if you're copying and pasting a lot of stuff. So, this week Doc looks at three free clipboard expanders to
expand the capacity of your Windows clipboard
!
Miss Download
#74 / 2010-03-30 17:00:00 / 4:00 min.
Miss Download has had enough of waiting for her photo attachments to send to friends and family. She's had enough of email size restrictions and enough of not being able to share her photos quickly and easily. Enter
Zoomfoot Send Photo
. Thisfree software
makes it quick and easy to upload files, folders and photos up to 4GB.
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#29 / 2010-02-04 12:00:00 / 4:20 min.
Sure, you could drop several hundred bucks on Adobe's flagship, Photoshop. If your
photo editing
needs are a little lighter though, consider one of theseawesome free Windows image converters and editors
.Convert an image from one format to another with free software
, add some photo effects andcrop and resize photos with free software
.
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#27 / 2010-01-21 12:00:00 / 3:00 min.
The Android Market is loaded with cool applications. Many are free, and that includes games. The quality of the
free, Android games
is quite impressive so this week I'm going to look a five cool ones you can get for free.
Nexus One - the Google Phone video tutorial
#6 / 2010-01-20 09:01:00 / 3:47 min.
In this installment of our
in-depth look at the Nexus One Google Phone
, we delve into the Android Market to take a look at the over 15,000Android apps
. We pick ourtop 10 Android apps
and showhow to install apps on Android phones
.
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#26 / 2010-01-14 12:00:00 / 3:40 min.
Your BlackBerry is a powerful productivity tool. However, it's also a pretty sweet entertainment device. With these
four free streaming radio and music apps for BlackBerry
, you can listen to your favorite radio stations, bands and albums wherever you may roam.
Miss Download
#62 / 2010-01-05 17:00:00 / 3:45 min.
Tired of drinking from the fire hose, Miss Download learns how to
manage social media mayhem
using thefree software
TweetDeck. With thisAdobe Air
app, social media turns from being an overwhelming waterfall to a manageable stream.
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#25 / 2009-12-31 12:00:00 / 4:06 min.
Michael Callahan, AKA Doctor File Finder runs down his
top ten apps and services for 2010
. He's been doing this for a long time, having evaluated over a quarter of a million pieces of software! When Doctor File Finder picks his list ofbest software of 2009
, it pays to listen up. The man knows of whence he speaks.
Create Your Own Web Site 101
#10 / 2009-12-11 09:00:00 / 3:36 min.
You've got your domain. You've got your host. You've also spent time creating your site. Now your site is online so you'll want to give it a final check to make sure everything looks good. Go through your site as a visitor and note anything that's out of place or just plain broken. Does the navigation work? Are your images slowing down page load? Got any typos? If not, you're online and all is right with the world (wide web)
Create Your Own Web Site 101
#9 / 2009-12-10 09:00:00 / 3:42 min.
If you opted to
create your own web site
using thefree web site design software
covered in part seven of our Web Site 101 series, you'll need to get those web pages and associated files to your site host's servers.File transfer protocol (FTP)
is the answer. Simply enter your login info and server address (provided by your host) and send all your files!
Create Your Own Web Site 101
#7 / 2009-12-08 09:00:00 / 3:06 min.
You can download software and create your Website right on your PC. When you're ready you can upload it to your host. Or, you can use a service that is online and gives you the tools to create your page right on the Web. We'll look at both methods in this part of our Web Site 101 video tutorial series.
Create Your Own Web Site 101
#6 / 2009-12-07 09:00:00 / 3:54 min.
Images can really add to the impact of your Website. You can include pictures of products, family, friends, gadgets or just about anything else you want. When using images on a Website, however, you want to follow certain guidelines so as not to get stuck with a
slow web page load
for your visitors.
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#23 / 2009-12-03 12:00:00 / 4:10 min.
The Internet is a great place to find things, get information, do research, and more. It's also a jungle out there with creepy-crawlies around every corner. With
viruses, spyware, malware, keyloggers, worms
and other such malware, having a computer without a robust security safety net in place is like hopping out of your car in a bad part of town waving $20 bills. This week Doc takes a look at three,free security related products
that can protect you and test you level of protection.
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#22 / 2009-11-26 12:00:00 / 3:41 min.
Thanksgiving is a time for family to get together and, as the name of the holiday suggests, give thanks. However, with a few days off work and friends and family filling the living room, it can be nice to take a break. Whip out your trusty iPhone and grab any one (or all) of these fun games. They're great for keeping the kids entertained while dinner's being prepared and the football game is on.
Miss Download
#57 / 2009-11-24 17:00:00 / 2:59 min.
Miss Download takes a look at TempoPerfect Computer Metronome; software that's perfect for the musically gifted but tempo challenged. This software helps keep time when practicing or playing your instrument of choice. And its
free software
. You can change the tempo, measure and much more. Try doing that with your analog metronome!
Tutorials
#487 / 2009-11-17 09:31:00 / 2:26 min.
Open Source
is a philosophy for developing and distributing software. The Open Source concept encourages public participation in software projects. With Open Source, not only is the program available, but so is the "source code" it was generated from. In this way, forward thinking developers can see the thought process of other developers and work together to make it better. This makes for better and lower cost software.
Miss Download
#53 / 2009-10-27 17:00:00 / 3:29 min.
Flickr Uploadr is free software that makes it easier than ever to get photos from your PC to the web in just a few simple steps. Uploading pics of her various Halloween costume experiments, Cheryl Poirier shows off this
free download
that makesonline photo sharing
simple.
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#17 / 2009-10-15 12:00:00 / 3:56 min.
Capturing the screen, or a portion of it, can be a function that's very handy. You can use
screen capture programs
to save the screen to a file for later reference. You can use them to snag an error message before it disappears or you can use them to grab pictures from the Internet. This week Doc Callahan takes a look at threefree screen capture programs
that make it easy to save your screen.
Mr. Mobile
#40 / 2009-10-14 17:00:00 / 5:40 min.
You darned kids with your hippin' and your hoppin' and your groovin' and your movin'. Back in our day, we'd have been happy with a Moog and a funny haircut, perhaps hidden by a hat that was funnier still. Jay Goldman, AKA Mr. Mobile, shows off
GrooveMaker Hip-Hop, an iPhone app
that lets add loops and samples to create music on your favorite smartphone.
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#16 / 2009-10-08 12:00:00 / 3:45 min.
You're probably aware that a number of programs automatically load each time you start Windows. Many of these load because you want them to, but some have been slipped into your startup group by the programs that installed them. If you have too many items loading it can slow down startup and rob you of valuable RAM. In fact, being selective in which programs start with Windows is one of the first things you should do to
speed up a slow PC
.
Miss Download
#50 / 2009-10-06 17:00:00 / 2:33 min.
Miss Download shows her support for the breast cancer research cause by doffing her shirt and doing her 50th show in her bra. Pink, of course, as pink is the color associated with breast cancer awareness. She shows Miss Download viewers an easy way to get involved in the fight to raise awareness of and hopefully see a cure for breast cancer in our lifetime. The Pink Ribbon Toolbar is free software that allows you to contribute just by web searching, Facebooking, shopping and generally using the Internet as you would otherwise.
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#15 / 2009-10-01 12:00:00 / 4:25 min.
When you wander around the Internet and visit sites you can begin to accumulate a lot of
bookmarks
. This week Doc Callahan takes a look at threefree bookmark programs
that make it easy toback up and manage your bookmarks
. Each one takes a different approach and they're all free!
Miss Download
#49 / 2009-09-29 17:00:00 / 4:00 min.
What do you do if the urge to play piano overtakes you in the airport? At work, while having coffee or just about anywhere else your laptop is but your piano isn't? If you're Cheryl Poirier, you bust out TinyPiano and do a rousing rendition of a Jason Mraz tune.
Tutorials
#415 / 2009-09-28 09:31:00 / 2:43 min.
Once you've created a brand new
virtual machine
with VirtualBox it's not cast in stone. You can utilize thesettings of VirtualBox
to tweak your virtual machines. Add RAM, add disk space, share more folders, and lots more.
Tutorials
#413 / 2009-09-25 09:31:00 / 3:02 min.
If you'd like to give
virtualization
a try you can do it with VirtualBox for free. It's easy tocreate virtual machines
and get a feel for how they work. Virtual box is available for Mac, Windows, Linux, and more.
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#14 / 2009-09-24 17:00:00 / 3:15 min.
Every operating system comes with a simple calculator. However, for students, engineers, mathematicians and others, a simple calculator won't do. This week, Doc takes a look at three
free scientific calculators for Windows
with with advanced equation options and even graphing capabilities.
Mr. Mobile
#37 / 2009-09-23 17:00:00 / 3:14 min.
The refrain "there's an app for that" is an Apple iPhone slogan. While Apple's App Store coined the phrase, it's equally true on many other smartphone platforms too. While the Palm Pre App Catalog is still in its infancy, there are some great apps to download... and right now, all apps in the store are free. Jay Goldman demos the
Palm Pre App Catalog
and discusses some of his favoritefree Palm Pre apps
.
Tutorials
#402 / 2009-09-18 09:30:00 / 2:20 min.
Growl has been notifying Mac users of new mail, instant messages, completed downloads and much more for quite some time. It's now available for Windows but it was born and continues to shine on the Mac.
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#12 / 2009-09-03 12:00:00 / 3:06 min.
You have appointments to keep, places to be, kids to pick up and so much more. A calendar is crucial to keeping track of all these things. So, in this weeks
The Sweet Stuff: Software
Doc Callahan takes a look atfour, free calendar programs for Windows
users.
Miss Download
#45 / 2009-09-01 17:00:00 / 3:04 min.
If you've ever felt like Big Brother was watching you while you made your way online, you're not alone... and you're not just paranoid. It's amazing the amount of data web sites can get when you connect. Oh, hi Bill Smith in Walla Walla Washington! haven't seen you since 09:43hrs on 08/25/2009. How are your wife and kids? Miss Download demonstrates how to
cover your online tracks
by using afree proxy service
calledHotSpot Shield
.
Tutorials
#367 / 2009-08-25 09:31:00 / 2:26 min.
Children are naturally curious. They explore their world and everything in it. When they're on your computer they may want to fiddle with or adjust your settings. That can be frustrating or dangerous.
SteadyState will help keep your family safe and your settings secure
.
Miss Download
#42 / 2009-08-11 17:00:00 / 3:42 min.
Ahh, LEGO. Long the domain of kids and geeky kids at heart. It's so binary: little nubbly things on one side, nubbly thing receptacles on the other. On or off. 1 or 0. Perhaps that's why Miss Download loves it so. With our favorite download to date, Cheryl Poirer showcases
LEGO Digital Designer
. This software lets you play withdigital LEGO
and best of all, it'sfree software
. You can even dofreestyle LEGO building
on the PC and order thephysical LEGO bricks
along with instructions to recreate yourvirtual LEGO masterpiece
in the real world.
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#10 / 2009-08-06 12:00:00 / 4:10 min.
This week on
The Sweet Stuff: Software
, Michael "Doctor File Finder" Callahan takes a look at a few of the options you have available forrunning Windows or Linux on your Mac
. If you'd prefer not to installWindows on your Mac
withBoot Camp
, this segment of The Sweet Stuff is for you. Doc takes a look at VirtualBox, VMware Fusion, and Parallels Desktop for Mac.
Miss Download
#41 / 2009-08-04 17:00:00 / 5:27 min.
The perfect table plan keeps Aunt Mabel away from Grandma Philips... since that nasty incident over the heirloom punchbowl. It sits single friends with other single friends so there's the potential for a wedding day hook-up, cousins with cousins... hopefully without the chance of a wedding day hook-up as that would just be weird. In short, the perfect table plan takes myriad factors into account to come up with the best possible seating arrangement for a wedding or other special occasion. Enter Miss Download with PerfectTablePlan. It's way easier the the old pen and paper approach to creating a seating plan.
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#9 / 2009-07-30 12:00:00 / 3:58 min.
There are times when all you need to do is jot a quick note, a reminder or a phone number. For times like these, a full word processor would be overkill. What you need is the
software equivalent of a Post-it Note
. For just such occasions, here are thetop five free note taking programs for Windows
. Doc Callahan delivers.
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#8 / 2009-07-23 12:00:00 / 2:42 min.
This week, Doc Callahan looks at four,
free reminder programs
that will ensure younever miss an important date
. Whether you're working hard or playing a game on your PC, you'll never miss another appointment, birthday, meeting, class, or assignment. These reminder programs offer a variety of features, but all of them arefree Windows software
!
Getting to Know Windows Live and Spaces
#10 / 2009-07-17 09:00:00 / 2:00 min.
Windows Live offers most of its services through a easy to use
Web interface
. You can even send messages to your friends via IM. You can installWindows Live Messenger
on your PC and chat with all of your friends and family for free.
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#7 / 2009-07-16 12:00:00 / 4:40 min.
Today it seems we have a
password, PIN, or passcode
to access just about everything. From banking to shopping we need to remember an ever increasing number of these things to get through our day. So, today we're going to look atfive free password managers
that make it easy tochoose secure passwords
and just as easy toremember all those passwords
. And they're allfree Windows downloads
to boot.
Miss Download
#38 / 2009-07-14 17:00:00 / 3:05 min.
On the hunt for a utility that will make her computer a little bit more environmentally friendly, Cheryl Poirier, AKA Miss Download found the Green Toolbar and PC Utility. This little toolbar is rides along with your favorite browser, is fairly unobtrusive and helps you to set up the most
earth-friendly power and printer settings
possible. It also offers fun links to green news, helpfulearth-friendly tips
.
Web Watch
#8 / 2009-07-10 12:00:00 / 3:10 min.
The
cloud computing
concept puts all of your data, your applications, in short everything you'd typically have on your home or office computer, on remote storage. Web applications are a huge part of the cloud computing concept: anywhere you can get an Internet connection, you can have access to your apps. Adobe Air lets you interact with your web apps outside of your web browser. Stacy Reed runs down her top picks for thefive best Adobe Air applications
.
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#6 / 2009-07-09 12:00:00 / 4:31 min.
This week Michael "Doctor File Finder" Callahan takes a look a four
free anti-spyware programs
. On the Internet todayspyware
is much more of a threat than are viruses and worms. You can protect yourself fromspyware
and Doc shows you how to do it for free.
Mr. Mobile
#25 / 2009-07-02 17:00:00 / 3:40 min.
It's called "instant messaging," not "sometime in the not so distant future messaging" for a reason. The whole point of IM is to let you ping friends, family and co-workers with a quick question, a quick answer... or perhaps a witty bon mot, when an email is not required and a phone call might be too intrusive. IM seems tailor-made for the BlackBerry. Wherever you are, you can still be online on your favorite IM service and friends, family and co-workers can reach you with a quick question, a quick answer... or that witty bon mot.
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#5 / 2009-07-02 12:00:00 / 3:56 min.
In this week's
The Sweet Stuff: Software
, Doc Callahan wages his ownbrowser war
and takes a look atfive free Web browsers
. Sometimes the lowlyWeb browser
is taken for granted, but for most of us, the the browser is the program we interact with most on our computers.
Miss Download
#35 / 2009-06-23 17:00:00 / 3:06 min.
Many Mac users are already familiar with Growl. This software gives you notifications for things that happen on your PC. When a friend comes online, a new email is received, a file download finishes or the now-playing song changes in iTunes, Growl will tell you. You can also choose where Growl pops up to notify you, unlike a lot of the other notification pop-ups (or "digital toast") we have to deal with. The Windows version doesn't have quite the polish of the Mac version, but it's a good start.
A Beginner's Guide to Ubuntu
#10 / 2009-06-19 09:00:00 / 2:07 min.
One of the reasons that
Ubuntu
and other Linux distributions are so secure and safe is because problems are found and fixed so quickly. If there's asecurity flaw
it's discovered and patched before anyone really has time to take advantage of it. That's a benefit of being lean and mean. With frequent updates you cankeep your software and your system running smoothly
.
The Sweet Stuff: Software
#3 / 2009-06-18 12:00:00 / 3:44 min.
When you venture out into the Internet it's important that you keep yourself safe. In addition to firewall to block threats that might target you. This we'll look at
anti-virus and anti-spyware software
, you want a goodfirewall to block threats that might target you. This we'll look at five free firewall programs
that can help keep your PC protected.
Miss Download
#34 / 2009-06-16 17:00:00 / 2:30 min.
Cheryl Poirier, AKA Miss Download, somehow managed to obliterate
Microsoft Office
from her home PC only to discover theopen source equivalent to Office, OpenOffice.org
. Not a moment too soon either; she had an important spreadsheet due in two days' time!
A Beginner's Guide to Ubuntu
#7 / 2009-06-16 09:00:00 / 2:33 min.
We've looked at the fact that
Ubuntu
comes with tools for the Internet already installed. We've also looked at the fact that it has Evolution Mail, a full-featured email client, for handling all your mail. Ahh, butUbuntu
has lots of good, generalsoftware you can use for other things as well.
A Beginner's Guide to Ubuntu
#6 / 2009-06-15 09:00:00 / 1:51 min.
If you're thinking about trying out email
, fear not!
Ubuntu
you may be worried that you won't have a good program for doingEvolution Mail
comes withUbuntu
and it's full-featured and free software.
Understanding Internet Explorer 8
#11 / 2009-05-15 09:00:00 / 18:04 min.
The latest version of
Internet Explorer
,Internet Explorer 8
, is being hailed as a must-have download for Windows users. It featuresprivate browsing
, a new and very handy feature called Web Slices and much, much more. Michael "Doc" Callahan gives the guided tour in this 10-part series.
Beginner's Guide to Adium
#11 / 2009-04-24 09:00:00 / 21:13 min.
With so many
instant messaging services
out there, how do you keep track of all your friends and associates across all the IM services on your Mac? WithAdium
you can connect to all your instant messaging friends, regardless of their preferred IM. Add friends from ICQ, Windows Live (MSN), AIM, Google Talk and many more. Michael "Doc" Callahan shows us how to keep track and provides some valuable power-user tips along the way.
Getting to know Google Chrome
#11 / 2009-03-13 09:00:00 / 19:22 min.
Google's
Chrome web browser
is a light, lean and altogether smart piece of software. Far from a me-too browser though,Google Chrome
takes a fundamentally different approach to some aspects of the web. From creating application shortcuts to web software services like Google Docs and Gmail to allowing for a private browsing session inIncognito mode
, we'll show you what's up in this 10-part tutorial series.
Firefox 101
#11 / 2008-12-19 09:00:00 / 17:23 min.
Our ten-part series on the Firefox browser gets in-depth, up close and personal with Mozilla's browser. This browser is available on Windows and Mac platforms as well as Linux and has gained significant market share in the past couple of years. It's time to figure out what the fuss is about!
Syncing notes in the cloud with Evernote
Evernote
makes it easy totake web clips, create notes, save pictures and much more in the cloud
. With Evernote, your data is available anywhere you can find an Internet connection... even on yourBlackBerry, iPhone or other smartphone
. Creating clips and notes is easy andEvernote
makes it easy tosave and access notes online
.
Easy FTP with FileZilla
FTP or File Transfer Protocol
is a quick and, once you understand the basics, easy way totransfer files to your web site host
,share large files
between co-workers and much more.FileZilla
is an excellent and (perhaps best of all)free FTP client available for Mac, PC and Linux.
How to use Skype
If you've got friends or family living outside of the country, you know that long distance bills can quickly pile up with the calls. Fortunately there are many ways to
communicate online for free
, such as Skype.Skype allows you to make phone calls for free over your computer
. Skype is also a free download and in this series we'll tell you where to get it and how to use it.
Dealing with Spyware
Michael "Doctor File Finder" Callahan runs through
the do's and don't of spyware
. In short, doavoid spyware
anddon't get infected with spyware
. Obviously there's a lot more to it than that... Doc gives us somebest practices for avoiding spyware, malware and other junkware
, explainshow to get rid of spyware
and where on the Internet to avoid to not get yourcomputer infected with spyware
in the first place.
Beginner's Guide to email with Thunderbird
In this
10 part video tutorial on setting up and using Thunderbird as your email client
, Michael "Doctor File Finder" Callahan runs us through the basics of getting started withMozilla's email client
. We look athow to add email accounts to Thunderbird
, includinghow to add a Gmail account to Thunderbird
, dealing withemail privacy
,managing spam in Thunderbird
and much more.
Create Your Own Web Site 101
Hello world! So you want to
We've even got some coupons for you to
create your own basic web site
? You need tounderstand the basics of getting your site online
. Michael "Doctor File Finder" Callahan leads us through the steps required toget your first website online
includingtips on basic HTML
,best FTP clients
to use, choosing a domain registrar and web host and much more. Follow along and you'll have your first site online in not time.We've even got some coupons for you to
save money on domain registry and web hosting
.
App of the day
Weibo iPhone
Sina Weibo, an informal mini-blog product, is a new expression to Web2.0.
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