Download HomeGuard Activity Monitor 1.6.7 Free

Download HomeGuard Activity Monitor 1.6.7 Free

HomeGuard Activity Monitor is a powerful computer monitoring program that can be configured to protect children of all ages.

Letting a child use an an internet-connected computer can be nerve wracking. There are certain parts of the internet that aren't appropriate for children. HomeGuard Activity Monitor helps elevate some of those fears with powerful parental controls.

Out of the box, HomeGuard Activity Monitor is massively impressive. It comes with hundreds of blacklisted sites and words, meaning there's no need to create your own blacklist. Alternatively, you can add sites to a white list to be allowed. HomeGuard Activity Monitor keeps an impressively-detailed log of everything that has been done on the computer, including logging keystrokes. Blacklisted websites are blocked automatically and won't load. HomeGuard doesn't warn the user that a site has been blocked.

Security is something that HomeGuard Activity Monitor excels at. During installation, you will be required to enter a master password to even access the application. Once installed, HomeGuard Activity Monitor runs quietly in the background. Users will never know that they are being monitored unless specified. The administrator with access to HomeGuard Activity Monitor can also allow certain users to avoid monitoring all together.

HomeGuard Activity Monitor is packed with features. The features covered in this review barely scratch the surface. Every aspect of computer use can be monitored and controlled. There are even options to control and monitor hardware like USB drives and printers.

Overall, HomeGuard Activity Monitor provides parents an extraordinary amount of control over their child's computer use, much more so than simple web browsers like Weblock for Kids.

Pros

• Email notifications
• Great control over every monitoring service
• Email, chat, and hardware monitoring
• Effective keywoard and site blocking
• Keylogger

Cons

• Trial only; no free version

Download HomeGuard Activity Monitor 1.6.7

Continue lendo

Download Juicebox Builder Lite 1.0.2 Free

Download Juicebox Builder Lite 1.0.2 Free

Juicebox Builder Lite is a program designed to make professional-looking image galleries for use on the web.

Juicebox Builder Lite is a very simple application. Import your photos either from a local drive or from Flickr. Flickr integration is what makes Juicebox Builder Lite unique, as it can create dynamic Flickr galleries. What this means is that you can search by tags, username, or both to generate a gallery that shows all photos that meet that criteria.

When you're done making your gallery, you can save the project to your computer to modify later. Juicebox Builder Lite also creates an embeddable code for you to paste the gallery into a website. It yields professional results with a beautiful gallery.

Unfortunately, only the pro version of Juicebox will allow users to autoplay a slide show. The pro version also allows the user to theme the gallery to make them unique.

Overall, Juicebox Builder Lite is a great program to manage galleries and to export them to HTML for use on websites. The lite version is basic, however, so power users should look into getting the pro version.

Pros

• Beautiful HTML photo galleries
• Flickr integration
• Dynamic photo galleries

Cons

• No autoplay
• Not many customization options in Lite version

Download Juicebox Builder Lite 1.0.2

Continue lendo

Download sMedio TrueLink+ Metro App Free

Download sMedio TrueLink+ Metro App Free

The sMedio TrueLink+ Metro app lets you enjoy your multimedia content within the Windows 8 interface.

Big multimedia viewers need an app that'll give them easy access to all the content on their PC's hard drive. sMedio TrueLink+ aims to let you do just that, all with convenient integration into Windows 8.

Watch videos, listen to music, and browse digital image files all from within the Windows 8 interface with sMedio TrueLink+. The app gives you nice looking thumbnail previews of videos and digital images so you have a good idea of what you'll be viewing when you click on one. Organization is entirely dependent on how you've arranged your own multimedia collections though, of course.

The nice thing about sMedio TrueLink+ is that you can also browse and play your multimedia content on HomeNetwork Devices.

Unfortunately, browsing from one type of media to another could use a bit of improvement to make it more intuitive.

sMedio TrueLink+ is a convenient way to watch multimedia files from within the Windows 8 interface.

Review last updated: 02/07/12

Pros

• Watch videos
• Listen to music files
• Browse digital image files
• Includes thumbnail previews

Cons

• Navigating between different types of content can be tricky

Download sMedio TrueLink+ Metro App

Continue lendo

Download SterJo Task Manager 2.3 Free

Download SterJo Task Manager 2.3 Free

SterJo Task Manager is a free replacement task manager for your Windows PC.

While the default Windows task manager is enough for most consumers, those looking for more features and controls will want to look to third party task managers to monitor their PCs. SterJo Task Manager is such a replacement and offers some very useful features that aren't included in the default Windows task manager.

All of the core features of a good task manager can be found within SterJo Task Manager. Users can get information about specific applications or processes, view Windows' services and kill programs. Where SterJo Task Manager differentiates itself is with the ability to show detailed network connection information, which allows users to pinpoint what ports and IP addresses are being accessed by each program.

SterJo Task Manager even gives users the option to pause, resume, or stop specific tasks. This makes it a powerful tool for troubleshooting suspicious activity on your PC.

Overall, SterJo Task Manager is a great tool for auditing a PC. While it's powerful, however, competitors like Task Manager DeLuxe offer more features.

Pros

• Info about processes, services, and drivers
• Shows detailed network connections
• Quick performance

Cons

• No performance information
• Can't change process priorities

Download SterJo Task Manager 2.3

Continue lendo

Download Yahoo! Messenger 11.5.0.228 Free

Download Yahoo! Messenger 11.5.0.228 Free

Yahoo! Messenger 11 allows you to chat to your Yahoo! and Facebook friends via instant messaging.

To bring Yahoo! Messenger up to date, Facebook chat has been integrated into the latest version, along with social games like Mafia Wars. You can now use video chat in full-screen mode, and the 'Always On' feature means you'll stay connected whether on mobile, at home or at work.

You can of course update your Facebook status from Yahoo! Messenger, and also on Yahoo! What hasn't changed from the previous version is the amount of bloat in the app. Some people may appreciate the shared videos, social games (as shown in the video here), radio stations, emoticons, search bar and so on. However, all this stuff adds a lot of weight to the Yahoo! Messenger, and it feels unsophisticated today. The video call quality in Yahoo! Messenger is pretty good, however, and in fact if it stuck to being a chat app, we would recommend it more highly!

The amplification of social aspects in Yahoo! Messenger isn't a revolution. If you love all the bells and whistles, you'll love this app, but many people will find it annoying and intrusive.

Recent changes

• Tabbed IMs
  
• Improved Spam Management
  
• New Social Games
  
• Easy Access to Recent Contacts
  
• Smart Archiving
  
• Snap and Share
  
• Quick Access to All Emoticons
  
• Now in Romanian too

Notes

The download link points to a launcher that will help you download the actual file. Total download size is about 22.13 MB, depending on the options you choose during installation

Review last updated: 17/09/12

Pros

• Amazing video quality!
• Highly customizable
• Great privacy settings

Cons

• Animated backgrounds are ad-ridden
• Long installation process
• Too much bloat

Download Yahoo! Messenger 11.5.0.228

Continue lendo

Download StarForge 0.100 Very Early Alpha Free

Download StarForge 0.100 Very Early Alpha Free

StarForge is an action/adventure game that gives players complete control over the game's environment in order to prepare for an alien invasion.

StarForge blends elements from both Minecraft and the Halo franchises. Just like Minecraft, StarForge has fully manipulable environments. Players can carve tunnels, build platforms and set up weapons to protect their base. StarForge borrows elements from the Halo franchise with its first person shooter aesthetic, as well as having vehicles in the game that resemble those in Halo. Players can even fly into space, opening up a whole new mechanic to the game.

Players will spend a majority of their time preparing for the alien onslaught. Prepare your base by building up walls, putting up spotlights, and placing weapons for the best defense. From the very beginning, all weapons and structures are available to you to build up your base. While Minecraft has Creepers, StarForge has face-eating flying aliens.

Performance and graphics largely depend on your machine. This early alpha of the game requires a decently powerful computer to render its lush environments and to support its rag doll physics. The graphics in StarForge are stunningly beautiful, but players will find that they can also look crunchy at times.

Overall, StarForge is a very promising game with an already-huge fan base. The developers have the right idea and should be able to improve performance and game play in future versions.

Notes

The developer's website requires users to create an account before gaining access to download the game.

Pros

• Fun game play
• Fully manipulable environments
• Intense shooting action
• Requires defense strategies

Cons

• Requires powerful computer
• Inconsistent graphics
• No multiplayer or co-op yet

Download StarForge 0.100 Very Early Alpha

Continue lendo

Download Dictionary.NET 4.9.4535 Free

Download Dictionary.NET 4.9.4535 Free

We all need to check the meaning of a word or a sentence in a foreign language from time-to-time. And for those quick translations, Dictionary.NET is a great tool.

Dictionary.NET makes use of the technology behind Google Translator to offer you instant translations between more than 50 different languages, in all possible combinations. The program is meant to detect the languages automatically, though I have to say this feature didn't work that well for me.

Dictionary.NET doesn't require installation, and runs unnoticed in the background. You can open it with a keyboard shortcut, a mouse combination or from the program's icon on the System Tray, and then enter whatever word or sentence you want to translate. Another option ? probably easier ? is selecting a given word or sentence and then using the predefined keyboard shortcut or mouse combination to bring Dictionary.NET up with the translation already loaded.

That said, you should bear in mind that Dictionary.NET is still an automatic translator that doesn't produce perfect results. As long as you don't need professional translations, Dictionary.NET works perfectly fine for quick dictionary look-ups.

Need to quickly translate a specific word or sentence? Dictionary.NET can do the work for you.

Recent changes

• Add: translation version of the dictionary by adding synonyms Show ( Synonyms ) (4535)

Pros

• Support for many languages, in any combination
• Can be opened automatically with keyboard or mouse shortcuts
• Translate text by selecting it with your mouse

Cons

• No perfect results (as with any automatic translator)
• Automatic language detection doesn't work properly

Download Dictionary.NET 4.9.4535

Continue lendo

Download Match'A'Shape Free

Download Match'A'Shape Free

Match'A'Shape is a simple puzzle game that challenges players to get their puzzles to match the given picture.

Match'A'Shape is nothing new. It is basically the game where a picture on a grid of squares needs to be moved around to form the original picture. The game's simplicity continues to its controls and graphics. Blocks are different colors and clicking in the center where four squares meet rotates them clockwise.

Unfortunately, there's no way to rotate counterclockwise, so you will be clicking quite a lot. Match'A'Shape keeps track of how many clicks and how long it takes you to solve each puzzle. Do it quickly enough and in as few steps as possible to score 3 out of 3 on a level. New levels unlock after each successful level.

One of the biggest problems with Match'A'Shape is how buggy it is. Match'A'Shape consistently crashed during gameplay, especially after finishing a level. Luckily our game continued where we left off. Match'A'Shape really needs to work on stability.

Overall, Match'A'Shape is a decently fun, free game but its stability problems and repetitive gameplay make it tough to recommend.

Pros

• Simple, addictive game play
• Intuitive controls

Cons

• Crashes constantly
• Gameplay can get repetitive

Download Match'A'Shape

Continue lendo

Download Exportizer Pro 5.17 Free

Download Exportizer Pro 5.17 Free

Exportizer Pro is a professional tool that gives you the ability to view and edit databases with the ability to copy open tables to clipboards or export them to file.

It works via BDE or ADO (ODBC) with DB, DBF, TXT, CSV and some other file types. It supports text, CSV, HTML, XML, XLS and RTF destination formats. You've also got the option to export via the program interface or via the command line.

There are also possibilities to specify the number of database records to be copied into one line - thus, if you specify 3 and database record count is 24, then the database will be copied into 8 lines. There are also several useful functions for data manipulating and bookmarking.

For those that work regularly with tables and formulas and find that Windows clipboard is not sufficient, Exportizer is a quality professional solution.

Recent changes

• Improvements in data source selection dialog
  
• Minor changes in command line builder

Pros

• Enhances the normal properties of clipboards
• Allows you many database customization options
• Suitable for professional needs

Cons

• Can be slow to cut and paste sometimes

Download Exportizer Pro 5.17

Continue lendo

Download Glary Utilities Portable 2.46.0.1518 Free

Download Glary Utilities Portable 2.46.0.1518 Free

After testing the desktop version of Glary Utilities a while ago, I was pleased to see that the developers of this great PC toolkit have now released a portable edition.

With Glary Utilities Portable you can now take all the program's tools anywhere with you, and use them to optimize, repair, tweak and improve any computer without leaving any usage traces on the host computer. Glary Utilities Portable doesn't require installation and can be run directly from any USB device.

Now, don't let yourself be fooled by the "portable" tag of this program. Glary Utilities Portable is by no means a stripped-down version of the desktop program. It does include all the system utilities you need for all sorts of PC maintenance tasks, and they're all neatly organized into several categories so you can easily find what you're looking for: disk cleaner, startup manager, tracks eraser, duplicate file finder and many more.

All the tools included in Glary Utilities Portable are generally very easy to use, so don't be afraid of trying them out. Also, in the case where any of them make important changes to the system ? such as the Registry Cleaner ? Glary Utilities Portable creates a backup copy first. The only weird thing is that the appearance of these tools is completely different from Glary Utilities Portable's main interface, but that's no big deal.

Glary Utilities Portable is a light yet powerful maintenance toolkit that you can take anywhere to repair, clean, optimize and improve any computer.

Pros

• Easy to use
• No installation required, can be run from a USB drive
• Impressive selection of maintenance tools

Cons

• Minor design discrepancies

Download Glary Utilities Portable 2.46.0.1518

Continue lendo

Download LG PC Suite 4.3.41 Free

Download LG PC Suite 4.3.41 Free

LG PC Suite software is a one-stop shop for managing everything on your LG mobile phone.

There are third party software developers like Moborobo developing programs to manage Android phones but its nice to see phone manufacturers building apps specific for their own phones. The LG PC Suite makes it easy to manage data on your LG phone by offering USB and Bluetooth connectivity, called Air Sync. While Bluetooth gives you the flexibility to go wireless, USB will be faster for transferring data.

Users of the LG PC Suite will have to create an account with LG for syncing with their servers to keep your basic data safe. The LG PC Suite has the ability to back up your contacts, calendar, notes, photos, music and more, making it a very capable back up system for LG phones.

Another nice and unique feature that the LG PC Suite provides is the ability to control your LG phone on the computer. The screen is mirrored on the PC, making it easier to interact with the device without actually being on the phone.

Overall, the LG PC Suite is a great piece of software from LG. It's a shame it only developed the software for its own phone as it would have been nice to use it with other phones, especially Android smartphones.

Pros

• USB or Bluetooth sync
• Phone interface mirroring
• Great multimedia manager

Cons

• Only works with LG Android phones
• Have to have phone connected before launch

Download LG PC Suite 4.3.41

Continue lendo

Download The Walking Dead Free

Download The Walking Dead Free

The Walking Dead from TellTale Games is an epic point and click action-adventure game that stays faithful to The Walking Dead canon while providing new storylines.

This episodic game has only seen the release of the first episode, "A New Day," but it's easy to see that the rest of the episodes will be excellent. You start off as Lee Everett, a convicted felon. You will soon find out what crime he's committed and you will decide the fate of his character.

The Walking Dead focuses around dialog choices. Players are given a limited amount of time to choose between several dialogs, similar to Mass Effect's dialog system, except Mass Effect doesn't have a time limit. By introducing a time limit, players feel a sense of urgency. The Walking Dead allows you to portray Lee as a misunderstood man or a hardened criminal.

The story is engrossing, bolstered by great voice acting and character models. While the graphics in The Walking Dead aren't the most advanced, its cell shaded art style brings the comic book characters to life with vivid colors and hard brush strokes.

Since there are so many choices a player can make in The Walking Dead, your friends playing the same game will most likely have different stories than you. This gives The Walking Dead some stellar replay value.

TellTale Games has done right by The Walking Dead franchise with an engrossing storyline that bleeds into the comic book story. This game is terrific value and is a must have for fans of the comic or show.

Pros

• Compelling story
• Dialog choices really matter
• Tons of replay value
• Great graphics
• Gamepad support

Cons

• Some frustrating controls
• Some rare, unrealistic character reactions

Download The Walking Dead

Continue lendo

Download O&O DiskImage 7 Professional Edition Free

Download O&O DiskImage 7 Professional Edition Free

O&O DiskImage is a professional tool that helps you back up sensitive data by creating an image of your hard drive.

Making security backups of your computer is a slightly complex process, which is precisely why lots of people fail to do it properly. O&O DiskImage will take a virtual snapshot of your system and all the information on it. You can then use this snapshot to restore your data in case disaster ever strikes. Obviously, it's a good idea to store this file separately from your computer!

Disk imaging isn't complicated, but looks a little intimidating. O&O DiskImage makes the task as easy as possible by providing a start page that lists the basic tasks you might want to carry out, ample help files, and an info panel, with basic information on the task in hand. Even still, you'll probably have to refer to the help files the first few times you use the program.

Happily, O&O DiskImage has improved several of the features that weren't up to scratch the last time, most notably the encryption options for your image files. It is now possible to choose between three different modes, so you can relax in the knowledge that your data is safe.

O&O DiskImage allows you to carry out three basic tasks - imaging, incremental imaging and cloning. The differences between these options are well explained in the O&O DiskImage help files. When imaging, there are three modes - used sector, forensic and direct forensic - while the program will alert you if you haven't chosen the right mode for the job. Finally, O&O DiskImage allows you to burn the resulting .OMG files to disc so they are easily accessible to restore your system ¡f disaster strikes.

Don't be intimidated - O&O DiskImage is an imaging program worth getting to grips with.

Pros

• Can schedule jobs
• Generates reports
• Choose from various imaging profiles

Cons

• Looks intimidating for inexperienced users

Download O&O DiskImage 7 Professional Edition

Continue lendo

Download FontViewOK 2.71 Free

Download FontViewOK 2.71 Free

FontViewOK makes font browsing a lot easier by providing you with a list that displays all the fonts currently installed on your system.

You can customize the text used by FontViewOK to list the fonts, as well as tweak size and color, and add format options such as bold and italics. The '2X' button divides the program?s interface into two windows, which is very convenient to compare two similar fonts.

FontViewOK also includes a print preview for the selected font, and a tool to select a specific folder where you may be storing extra fonts ? besides the default system folder. On the downside, the program lacks certain advanced options like the possibility to mark fonts as favorites, and installing or removing fonts.

Simple, quick and easy-to-use, FontViewOK is a handy font viewer that makes font browsing much easier.

Recent changes

• New language in FontViewOK: Portuguese
  
• General optimization in FontViewOK
  

Review last updated: 14/06/12

Pros

• No installation required
• Double pane to compare fonts
• Print preview

Cons

• No Favorite fonts function
• No tool to install or uninstall fonts

Download FontViewOK 2.71

Continue lendo

Download JaBack 9.15 Free

Download JaBack 9.15 Free

Backups are increasingly important in an age of huge hard drives and large amounts of data that if lost, could be disastrous.

The best thing to do is automate backups so that you don't have to worry about them anymore. JaBack allows you to make automated backups of your important data, files and folders and save them immediately in ZIP format. The advantage of this is that you don't need any special software to unzip backups - you can simply use WinZip or WinRAR. Alternatively, the program supports the backing up of files to a remote location via FTP or options to Email it to your mail server. You can schedule backups so you don't need to worry about remembering to backup your more important data.

The danger of this however is that if the backup fails, you may not be made aware of the problem. Fortunately, the program e-mails you if this happens so you don't have to worry about bad or half done backups. You can change the date and time of filenames for archiving plus also copy files and directories using wildcards on schedule. This is useful if you need to specify a specific date for a backup that has to be performed on the same date or day every week or month.

JaBack is a fairly decent backup solution although there's no option to backup anything online and backing up can be a little slow to begin with. However, the fact that backups can be opened with a simple unarchiver make it very attractive for those looking for flexibility.

Scheduled backups and compressed output files that can be opened in any ZIP application make JaBack is a solid backup solution.

Recent changes

• Bug fixes

Pros

• Schedules backups easily
• Backups files to ZIP format

Cons

• Slow at compressing final backup file

Download JaBack 9.15

Continue lendo

Download Resonance Free

Download Resonance Free

Five years in the making, Resonance is a retro-styled adventure game that starts with catastrophic attacks all over the globe.

What's going on? Resonance's story picks up sixty hours earlier, as you follow four different people who get mixed up in the mysterious death of a particle physicist.

Despite its 16-bit era graphics, Resonance is very detailed and subtle. It's clear a lot of love has gone into the pixels. There is a lot of voice acting too, which is impressive for an indie game. The story is gripping from the outset, and it has to be, as the game itself is a classic point and click adventure, with all the good and bad that brings.

Puzzles in Resonance are a challenge, and although you can get help, you'll get an award if you never ask for it. At first this feels frustrating, but the puzzles do make sense, and solving them is rewarding. This demo is surprisingly long, and tough. Resonance certainly got me interested in playing the full game when its released.

So with Resonance, we have a lovingly created point and click adventure. It's got a fascinating story, and it looks and sounds fantastic. This is an unusually challenging game by modern standards, and while this makes it a rewarding experience, some people will certainly be put off.

Check back for a full review soon!

Review last updated: 18/06/12

Pros

• Looks amazing
• Great story
• Challenging

Cons

• Some controls are a bit clunky

Download Resonance

Continue lendo

Download The Journey Down: Chapter One HD Free

Download The Journey Down: Chapter One HD Free

The Journey Down: Chapter One is a graphic adventure game created with Adventure Game Studio and inspired by the classic Monkey Island game.

The Journey Down: Chapter One is an episodic, retro-style point and click adventure game. There's also a retro version of the game where the graphics are pixelated, but this is the high quality HD version which features the same storyline but obviously has much better graphics and the added bonus of voice acting.

The controls are very simple. Click where you want your character to go and then click on items in the environment to interact with them. The Journey Down: Chapter One features the quirky writing and humor that makes these types of adventure games great.

While the script may not appeal to everyone, the art is undeniably beautiful. Cities look lived-in and the cartoony shadowing found in many of The Journey Down: Chapter One's levels really make the environments pop.

Overall, The Journey Down: Chapter One is a great adventure game with challenging puzzles and witty dialog. Fans of this retro version will want to check out the HD remake, complete with voice acting.

Review last updated: 29/06/12

Pros

• Superb HD graphics
• Voice overs for characters
• Quirky writing
• Interesting story
• Great soundtrack

Cons

• Gameplay can be slow

Download The Journey Down: Chapter One HD

Continue lendo

Download Klok 2.4 Free

Download Klok 2.4 Free

Klok is designed for anyone that needs to manage their time, projects and earnings as they work. It's aimed especially at freelance workers, so if you turn up to work at 9am, sit around then go home at 6pm and get paid regardless, there is no reason to use Klok!

Klok utilizes Adobe Air, so can be used on Mac or Windows. This also means Klok is a little heavy on RAM usage, but it's not too bad. To start a project, simply click Add, give it a name, and then drag it into the weekly timetable.
From there you can resize it to the correct number of hours, and add more details about the work, including how much you will be paid for doing it.

Klok can color code projects, to make the weekly planner easier to read. When you start a project, click 'start working', and Klok will time your work.
Klock also features automatically made weekly and monthly time sheets, that can be dragged into Excel without conversion, which is useful.
Klok is still in a Beta testing phase, so is likely to have some bugs to iron out, but at the moment, it's a useful time keeper.

Recent changes

• Fixed delete bug on Time Entries tab
  
• Added Google Docs Integration for saving timesheets (Full version only)
  
• Fixed missing menu on OSX on Timesheet Window
  
• Added ability to save Google Account settings (Encrypted)
  
• Added "quick comment" icon to the working on area for current timer item
  
• 
  

Review last updated: 22/06/12

Pros

• Attractive interface.
• Color coded, drag and drop calendar.
• Automatic time sheets.

Cons

• Resizing window is awkward.
• Some functions not fully implemented yet.

Download Klok 2.4

Continue lendo