Category Archives: freeware tip

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More or less two years ago, at the very beginning stage of this blog, we wrote a post about Foxit Reader, a freeware software which allows you to read pdf files without using Acrobat reader or other proprietary programs. Today, in our Freeware Page, we have written a simple but effective post about the new features contained in Foxit Reader 2.3, the new updated version of this wonderful software. First of all it is necessary to focus on the new features contained in the Tools menu which allow you to typewrite, draw or commenting your pdf files even if they are locked by their authors. Using Foxit Reader you can actually personalize your pdf documents adding notes and -de facto- improving their value for your own goals. Please, do not forgive to save an extra copy of your original pdf files if you do not want to delete all the comments/drawings you have added. Moreover, the new version of Foxit Reader includes also a player to watch or listen the multimedia elements coming with pdf files. Last but not least, in my experience Foxit Reader 2.3 contains more features and it is simpler to use than its Ubuntu competitor PDF Editor. A freeware to try!

CDBurnerXP: how to burn your CD/DVD/HD-DVD or Blu-Ray just using a freeware!

How to publish and share nice pdf documents, newsletters or magazines using Scribd.com and Issuu.com

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More than one year ago we wrote a short post about creating pdf files using Openoffice (also in its portable version), now, in our Freeware Page, we would like to talk about two interesting Web 2.0 websites which allow you to publish and share your documents. On one hand, Scribd.com is an interesting website you can use to upload and share files in the following formats: Microsoft Word (doc, docx), Microsoft Powerpoint (ppt, pptx, pps), Microsoft Excel (xls, xlsx), PDF (pdf, ps), Open Office Documents (odt, odp, sxw, sxi, etc.), Images (jpg, png, gif, tiff) and Text Documents (txt, rtf). On the other hand, Issuu.com is very intuitive to use but very effective. Using Issuu you can upload a pdf files transforming it into a “cool magazine format”. In few words, you can modify, with just a click, your pdf file in a browsable magazine, with active links and notes. Moreover you can also insert your “brand new” magazine as a htlm widget directly in your blog or website. Recommended!

“Remember the milk”: the best on-line Task Manager for Calendar, Gmail, Iphone…

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This week in our Freeware Page we have posted some short instructions about installing “Remember the milk” in Google Calendar. It is important to say that “Remember the Milk” can also be installed on Gmail, Iphone/Ipod Touch, Twitter and there is also a “Milk Sync” version for Windows Mobile. In my opinion, the best feature is represented by the integrated to-do list for Google Calendar. Anyway, “Remember the Milk”, is easy to manage and very simple to use and share with your team. Moreover, this particular task manager contains many interesting and useful features; just for example you can add an active link to a web-page directly in your to-do note. If you prefer, you can also organize your tasks in a -tag cloud- style. Last but not least, it is possible to receive reminders via email, SMS, and instant messenger (AIM, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Skype and Yahoo! are supported). As you can imagine, “Remember the Milk” portability is very wide and it has 100% passed all our tests; in few words: we have not found any bugs! Recommended!

FLAC: our favourite multiplatform (Linux, Windows, MAC OS X) Free Lossless Audio Codec!

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It is true! MP3 format is the most common format we normally use in our everyday applications but MP3 is a lossy compression algorithm and it is not comparable with the quality of uncompressed audio formats as Monkey’s Audio, ALAC, WMA. This week, in our Freeware page, we posted a brief review about some particular features of FLAC: a multiplatform (Linux, Windows, MAC OS X) Free Lossless Audio Codec. Nowadays, FLAC is well and constantly supported by many music player producer. We compared FLAC and MP3 formats using the “Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major – Allegro” by Bach and the results were very interesting. For common listeners (as us) the audio quality was, more or less, the same but when we asked to a couple of friends (authentic music “hooligans”) to describe the difference between the two music files (FLAC and MP3) they spent more than 15 minutes of their (and our) time talking about “tones”, “pizzicato” and something else that I really do not remember at the moment! After the listening, when we compared the file extensions, we discovered that the FLAC file was five times bigger than the MP3 (25.6MB vs 5.1MB)… To conclude, we really think that FLAC represents a fantastic (and the best) lossless format for home stereo systems. On the other side, if you are not a music purist, MP3 could be the best choice for listening music on portable audio devices.

FEBE and CLEO the best solution to save (and reinstall) your Firefox settings: extensions, themes and bookmarks!

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Today, in our Freeware Page (traditionally in English) we have added an effective post (in Spanish) about FEBE and CLEO: two fantastic Firefox extensions which allow you to backup all your personal Firefox settings. FEBE is a multiplatform add-on (Linux, Windows, and OS X) easy to install and to manage. In fact, the “FEBE Options” is a complete menu where it is possible to choose: what to save, where (destination folders) and frequency of the backups. Personally, I do suggest to change the default options and not to backup your usernames, passwords and cookies using FEBE. In fact, the backup file, a .xpi, could be stolen and easily reinstalled on a third part computer. Last but not least I want to underline the key role of CLEO which allows FEBE to create the installable .xpi file with all your settings. Recommended!

How to create free tutorials and presentations: the multiplatform Wink

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This week in our Freeware Page we have posted a brief but complete tutorial about Wink: the best free “tutorial and Presentation creation software” for Windows. We installed Wink with just few clicks and after a reboot (recommended) we were ready to try its features. Wink is easy to use, includes audio features and it is possible to add notes directly to every single frame. Anyway Winks has many output formats as Macromedia Flash, EXE, PDF, PostScript and HTML so you can decide if you prefer to create a video, a standalone .exe for pc users, a printable manual or a webpage. Moreover, Wink allows you to choose your best ratio between performance and video quality. Unfortunately its Linux version runs only with x86 computers and we have to wait next release to completely enjoy Wink’s features. Recommended!

Sage = how Firefox let you to easily read all the web feeds you prefer!

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This week, in our Freeware Page, we have posted a brief review about one of the most interesting Firefox add-on we have found in the Mozilla website: Sage. This particular add-on allows you to easily read and manage all your favorite web feeds directly using Firefox. Sage contains also a feed discover who allows you to find RSS simply typing a keyword, moreover it is possible to import and export your web feeds through the OPML format. The graphics is very enjoyable and complete and after few minutes you forget the RSS reader you have used till now. Something to try!