Pidgin is an instant messaging client that works on multiple protocols. It is available as a free download with no limitations. It works with Linux, BSD, MacOSX as well as Windows. It is compatible with Zephyr, Gadu Gadu, IRC, Yahoo, MSN Messenger, ICQ and AIM. If you have a friend who uses Yahoo Messenger, one who uses AIM and another who uses an IRC channel you can chat with them all at the same time.
But Pidgin (formerly Gaim) is also about unique, exclusive features. One such feature is Buddy Pounces. When a buddy signs on, goes away or returns, you are notified via a message sound or program. There are also plugins like text replacement, buddy ticker, extended message notification and iconofy.
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March 2nd, 2008
The River Media Center is available at a price of $39.98 but is free to try with a 30 day trial limitation. It requires Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista. With this single program you can integrate your music, photos and video.
This program allows you to connect your PC to the home entertainment hardware and control it with a remote. Watch TV and at the same time load music onto your iPod. All your media files can be managed with just one software – River Media Center. This software also allows you to copy music to a portable digital audio player.
In addition you have the ability to move digital camera photos into MC’s powerful image library. You can easily made a music CD for use in your car. Alternatively you can record your favorite shows to watch them later on TV.
With an attractive interface and an extensive feature set, this is probably the best media browser there is. You can select from six program skins during installation. If you want the program to occupy less space choose a small interface rather than a large one.
You can burn, rip and play CD’s and do so much more with this great program. Worth the $39.98 it costs.
March 1st, 2008
WinStars 2.0 is free to try and will cost you $9.00 to buy it. It requires Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, DirectX 9.0c drivers. If you are into stargazing with a telescope you are about to discover a whole new way of looking at the universe. The latest 3D technology is used to create a realistic portrayal of the objects in our solar system.
You can move from planet to planet or follow a space probe on its journey. You can also observe a celestial event from another part of the world. Jet Propulsion Laboratories DE 404 planetary theories are used to give you an exact representation of displayed events.
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February 24th, 2008
MediaMonkey Standard is available as a free download with a file size of 4.83 MB. It requires Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP. If you use the iPod or are a serious collector of music, then this is a software you must own. It is useful for catologing CD’s as well as different kinds of audio files. With an intelligent tag editor, you can look up Album Art and track information through Freedb and the web.
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February 23rd, 2008
Comodo Firewall Pro 3 is available from download.com as a free download with no limitations. It requires Windows XP or Vista. If you need to secure your system from Trojans and malware as well as external hacker attacks, this might be just what you need. The interface is simple and user friendly. The single click interface offers complete protection from attack. Connect securely to the internet with Comodo Firewall Pro.
In the latest version there is a new user interface and an addition to the firewall engine for external threat protection. There are many significant changes in the new version. It does not take up so much of your system resources anymore.
If you are an advanced user, there are many options and a lot of information, but beginners will still find this software extremely usable. The new user interface is the other noticeable feature of this software. There is no blue color scheme – there is a white color scheme instead. Between the various options there is more empty space now.
The terminology has been made more intuitive. There are some new tabs – Summary, Firewall, Defense+ and Miscellaneous. The Host Intrusion Prevention System is a new addition that protects against unknown threats. The Comodo programs automatically learns about your computer’s behaviour. This program is a great offering and handles your firewall needs for free. Worth the download.
February 21st, 2008
Quicknote is one Notepad replacement that works at the concept of a lightweight text editor. The interface is unusual and there are some unique features in this app. The package is not highly polished though. In the right corner, a small control panel controls the gross functions which determine how the program behaves.
Mouse-over labels are useful so that you do not have to keep guessing what the feature does. Some tools of this app, like the calculator can be accessed elsewhere. Some functions are unique. A good example of this is a function that allows you to send drawing or text to another computer, if you have the IP address or computer name.
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February 17th, 2008
Photoscape is a feature rich image editor, that surprisingly, is free. The flipside of this is that it leaks memory and consumes a fair amount of it as well. For people who edit at home and are just discovering DSLR cameras, this is an ideal software. If you aren’t yet ready to spend moolah on GIMP or Photoshop, then try this baby out.
Not only is it good for RAW conversion, it also handles JPG to PNG and all popular image formats. You can also create animated GIF’s with the help of it. There are prebuilt templates to create webcomics, fumetti and photo collages. There is also contrast editing, light/shadow and red-eye removal standard capability in this software.
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February 16th, 2008
Dark Room 0.8b is available on download.com as a free download. It requires Windows XP, Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0. It has no limitations in the free version. If you are into studying and writing papers this is the software to do it on.
Studying and writing are not easy to do. It requires a great deal of focus. Often while writing papers there is a lot of distraction. Often you start surfing the web, checking mail and generally find ways to get distracted.
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February 10th, 2008
If you have a wallet that is not too heavy and you want to use a word processor, consider AbiWord. This word processor is available as a free download with no limitations. It requires Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP. Although it is not too feature rich, it has all the features you would normally require in a word processor.
The interface will be familiar to users of other word processors. It has a spell checker, interactive rulers and tabs, find and replace, unlimited undo/redo, paragraph alignment, character formatting and the other features that are necessary to prepare a professional document. MS Word 97 as well as Rich Text Format are supported. In addition Newspaper style columns, widow/orphan control, superscript/subscript are supported.
The AbiWord wordprocessor can be learnt quick because of the similarity between it and other word processors. There is no grammar check in it however. The spell check works for many foriegn languages in addition to English. There is a proprietary format that this program saves files in, in addition to MS word. If you want a word processing program completely free, then this one is probably the best one on the market.
February 7th, 2008
The Oxford Dictionary of English, Second Edition is now available as a 20mb download. It is free to try and will cost you $59 to purchase. The free trial is only for 10 days. The system requirements are Windows NT/2000/XP.
This software has been produced by iFinger which has been creating interactive products which can be had as direct downloads. Some of the worlds most famous publishing houses have been collaborated with by iFinger for it’s software.
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February 3rd, 2008
Weather Watcher is a free software with no limitations. It requires Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista. If you want to keep on top of the weather, then this is the way to do it. Weather watcher offers forecasts hourly with detail. Alerts for severe weather and weather maps for cities all over the world are on offer.
The current temperature is displayed. You can choose the information you want to display in the system tray. Weather data can be converted. If you want the weather map on your desktop, you can do it with this app. Log and export weather data as you like. Skins allow full customization of the interface.
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February 2nd, 2008
AOL Active Security Monitor 2.0.0.18 is available as a free download without any limtations. It requires Windows 2000 or XP. If you suspect that your computer is infected by malware like spyware, viruses, network intrusions or such other threats to your data then you should consider AOL Active Security Monitor.
This free tool for diagnosis keeps tabs on your computer and lets you know the health of your PC and home network as well. You do not need to be an AOL member. It evaluates how safe your computer is and gives you a security score. This is done by an analysis of the status of your AV software, Wireless security, Firewall and browser. If it finds a vulnerability, you are given quick fixes and recommendations for safety. ‘
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February 1st, 2008
RSI-Shield is available free for a 60 day trial and costs $37.74 to buy. It requires Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server. If you work on the computer for a long time, this program might be for you. It gives you respite from repetitive strain injury and does this by affording you micro, medium and rest breaks. Featured in this software are break reinforcement, intelligent break system, animated exercises, statistic and macro technology. The other features are auto mouse click, multi user and non disciplined user modes and a non intrusive counter.
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January 27th, 2008
Adobe Illustrator CS is the design software to have if you are into artistic design. This software is available free for a 30 day trial. If you want to buy it, it will set you back by $599. It requires Windows XP or Vista to run on.
Whatever medium you have in mind, you can create sophisticated vector artwork with this software. With great new color controls and drawing tools that are industry standard there is no limit to the artistic freedom that this software offers. If you have other Adobe apps, this one can be well integrated with them.
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January 25th, 2008
ZoneAlarm Firewall is a free download available from http://www.download.com. It has no limitations. It requires Windows 2000/XP/Vista. In todays world, DSL and cable connections to the internet are prone to hacker interest. To handle this situation you need a reliable firewall. This is exactly what ZoneAlarm Firewall is – a free utility that is extremely good at protecting your computer from hackers.
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January 20th, 2008
LogMeIn Free is a great download available from http://www.download.com. It is available free with no limitations. It requires Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista.
Now you can access files remotely, free! LogMeIn is secure and user friendly. This solution works with a remote control and your home and work PC are yours wherever you may be as long as you have an internet connection handy. Even though LogMeIn is web based, it offers layers of security – 256 bit SSL encryption, RSA SecureID and dual authentication.
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January 20th, 2008
BigOven 1.8.977 is available from vendor LakeFront Software (http://www.lakefrontsoftware.com). It is free to try for 30 days and if you want to buy it, it will set you back by $29.95. It requires Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista.
If you want a new world of recipes to be unvieled and also you want to organize and share these recipes, BigOven is the right software for you. With just a single click you can access more than 160,000 recipes online. You can choose and import recipes easily, put them on a shopping list through “drag” and “drop” functions and print a grocery list in just a matter of seconds.
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January 16th, 2008
Here is another great free software with no limitations. The latest version of Trillian requires Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista to run on. It supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger and IRC. It is skinnable and fully featured. Many standard features like file transfers, chat rooms, group chats and audio chat are supported. In addition it supports numerous other features.
This latest release is a maintainence release. It is meant to resolve a bug that on Yahoo Messenger. Trillian has been called the king of chat clients and the latest version is out to prove just that. The interface is completely redone. There is tabbed chatting, a new feature for instant lookup as well as enhanced messaging.
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January 13th, 2008
If you like free software and are into image editing, you might like to try GIMPshop 2.2.8. It requires Windows 98/2000/XP and is available as a free download without any limitations.
This software is a redone GNU Image Manipulation program which is open source and free. It has been created in a manner that Adobe Photoshop users will find familiar and comfortable.
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January 12th, 2008
Nobody likes that time of the year, when you have to pay taxes. Hard work round the year is followed by heavy taxation and complicated paperwork around it. Now there is a way to lessen a part of the pain of taxation. The way is a new taxation software called H&R Block TaxCut Basic.
This software is free with a paid upgrade on offer. It requires Windows 2000/XP/Vista. With this software preparing federal tax returns free is a snap. This software takes you through tax returns in a simplified manner. You can import last years tax data from TaxCut, Microsoft Money, TurboTax and Quicken. You can file your returns online and get refunds as quick as in one or two weeks with this software.
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January 8th, 2008
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