Category Archives: windows

Mixturtle: an interesting online mp3 searcher

Today, in our Linux Page (in Spanish), we have added a brief review about MixTurtle an on-line music portal we have recently discovered surfing the web. MixTurtle is very easy to use: you have only to type your favourite artists (or songs) in the search tab and in less than a second it will bring interesting results to you. During our tests we were also able to find some “rare” (for our experience) mp3 files. Moreover, with a simple registration (email, username and password) you will 100% enjoy all the feature offered by MixTurtle. In fact, after the registration you can “virtually” capture all the music files you want linking them to your account. in this way, when you prefer you can listen to your favourite music with just few clicks. Something to try!

Symbaloo: a new interesting web portal to improve your time efficiency in internet!

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This week in our Freeware Page we posted a review about Symbaloo: a new interactive web portal which allows you to directly manage many everyday tasks directly on the web. As soon as you register yourself on Symbaloo you are able to freely modify your personalized Symbaloo, adding new features or deleting the default ones. Symbaloo is an interactive grid with 60 different squares (each of them hosts a different feature) and a central rectangle where some of your features can directly be visualized. Symbaloo is very flexible and allows you to deeply personalized itself. During our test we did not find any bugs and we were able to insert the 95% of the the features we planned to create there. Moreover, clicking on the plus (+) button on the upper left corner you can create a Symbaloo news page or share a new Symbaloo public page with your friends. Just to know, Symbaloo is available in The Netherlands, Spain, France, the UK and the US in beta. To sum up, it is possible to affirm that at the end of a three days test we do think that Symbaloo can really contribute to reduce time wasted on routine internet tasks. Something to try!

How to install OpenDNS on Ubuntu (or XP, Vista and Leopard) for your peace of mind!

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I strongly believe that all you know OpenDNS yet. But for the few who still do not know this powerful free online tool we have posted a brief review in our Freeware Page. OpenDNS is very easy to configure and could be very useful to bypass all the restrictions that some ISP apply in certain countries. In Ubuntu 8.04, for example you have just to substitute your ISP default DNS with OpenDNS servers (208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220) in System – Administration – Network or to read the instruction contained on the proper OpenDNS page if you prefer to use the Terminal. For Windows and Apple users, we recommend to follow the official guide for XP, Vista and OSX. Moreover, if you decide to open a free account with OpenDNS, you will able to deeply examine or better manage all your network web traffic in just few clicks. Recommended!

Cleepr: the web portal to rapidly find music videos in You Tube!

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Today, in our Linux Page (in Spanish) we have added a short post about Cleepr, an interesting web portal which allows you to easily find, in YouTube, all the music videos you are looking for. Cleepr is very simple to use and, graphically, very clean. During our tests we occasionally found some delay (one or two seconds) when we decide to download other files while we were watching the videos. Using Cleepr we were able to find immediately all the music videos we were looking for, without wasting time to select them between other amatorial videos contained in YouTube. Funny and enjoyable!

Just a simple Flock icon with the transparent background.

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Some days ago, after the update from Firefox 3.0 to the 3.0.1 version I completely lost my favorite browser. I have not already solved the problem so I installed Flock but I was not able to find a Flock icon with a transparent background to insert on the AWN dock. So I decided to create a 48×48 icon using a common Flock icon with a white background. For this purpose I used KIconEdit (version 3.5.9 – Ubuntu version) and in just five minutes I solved my problem. The result is not perfect but acceptable so I would like to share it with all you. I hope it would be useful to someone. Enjoy it!

Ex Falso: the best audio file metadata editor for Linux!

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Today, in our Linux Page (in Spanish) we posted some brief notes about Ex Falso: a very useful software which allows you to manage your mp3 collections with just few clicks. When saving my CDs on my hard disk, I convert them into mp3 files and then I change their metadata order (or simply I add some more information) using Ex Falso. This software is very simple to install (in Ubuntu, for example, you can add it directly from the “Add/Remove” function contained in the Application menu) and very easy to use. Ex Falso is graphically divided in three main areas: Folders, Songs and a menu area where you directly decide what and how to change your metadatas. After few tests you will able to rapidly use Ex Falso and (we hope) enjoy all its features. Strongly recommended for all that people who have big mp3 collections!

XBMC: the best multiplatform, open source media-player on the web.

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Today, in our Linux Page (in Spanish) we added a brief post about XBMC, the best open source (GPL), free entertainment hub you can find on internet. XBMC is really easy to install (for Linux users, especially in Ubuntu) and its features are very intuitive and simple to configure. Moreover the graphics themes are very attractive and it is able to manage many multimedia formats, “playlists, audio visualizations, slideshow and weather forecast functions”. It is also possible to add many interesting third-party plugins that you can find through a simple google query (XBMC plugin). Last, but not least, XBMC is a multiplatform software, in fact the download page contains four different versions for Windows, XBox, Linux and MAC OSX. When we compared XBMC to the Windows Media Center we did not notice any loss in this open-source media center and, honestly, we were positively impressed by all the XBMC featured we tested. Recommended!

Pictomio: the most advanced photo and video manager for Windows

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This week, in our Freeware Page we have posted a brief review about Pictomio a very good program for “3D accelerated browsing of your photo and video”. Pictomio is more advanced than many similar software and its graphic appearance is very attractive. Pictomio has a full range of commands which allow you to easily organize and manage your photographs collections in at just few clicks. I spent, more or less, one hour to understand all (I suppose) the different features supported by this freeware and, at the end, I can say that my experience has been more than positive. What negatively surprised me is that Pictomio does not allow you to upload your images and videos to ftp servers or websites like Flickr .com. To sum up, Pictomio is something you have certainly to try because in the future with more social features it could become a benchmark for photo and video manager category. Interesting!

How to freely annotate, typewrite and draw your pdf files: Foxit Reader 2.3!

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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!

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This week, in our Freeware Page, we have posted a review about CDBurnerXP which, in our opinion is the best freeware in its category and contains more effective features than some -commercial- competitors. CDBurnerXP is a powerful freeware which allows you to burn CD, DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray in a very intuitive mode and faster than using other proprietary software as, for example, Roxio CD Creator. During our tests CDBurnerXP was very stable and easy to use. Using CDBurnerXP we were able to create backup copies of our DVDs in just few minutes. Another interesting features is the possibility to burn or create ISO and to convert bin/nrg formats to a more usable ISO version. Last but not least CDBurnerXP works on Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server and Vista. Highly recommended!!!