iGADGETS

Ares Galaxy 2.1.1.3035-100% P2P filesharing and nothing more

May 24th, 2013

Windows Free (Windows): Softonic

Bittorrent and Gnutella might be hogging the headlines of the peer to peer (P2P) world, but close behind comes Ares, a successful P2P application that boasts of having its own decentralized network and a simple, quick access interface. Ares spun-off from Gnutella in 2002, and since then has been building a strong and dedicated community of users.

Installing Ares only takes a few minutes and the interface is simple enough that anybody will feel comfortable with it. The new version has a very sleek and dark interface, not unlike that of WMP 11. When you start Ares, it lets you auto scan your PC to find files you might like to share on the network. Beginners will be relieved to know that there is no complex configuration process involved. Once Ares is installed, all you need to do is select the search tab and type the name of the file you want to download. Once it appears, double click on it to begin downloading. You’ll be able to check its progress in the transfer tab. The recent update adds bittorrent support, opening Ares up to loads of new content.

If you enjoy exchanging words with other users, click on the chat tab and connect to one of the thousands of channels available. You can pick up tips on how to use Ares better, ask which files other users recommend or just chit chat about your life in general. You can even insert emoticons into your conversation and keep a list of your favorite chat channels.

Of all the P2P programs, Ares probably features the widest preview screen. You can set it to fit to screen or adjust it to your preference. This is a great way of making sure you’re downloading the right movie or to get a sneak peak at your downloads.

Unlike WinMX or FileNavigator, the two other spin-off Gnutella projects, Ares did not drop into obscurity and unites a flourishing community of users. However, the same old problems usually seem to arise. According to many Ares users the application suffers from constant connectivity troubles making it difficult to properly search for a file or to successfully complete downloads. Others will worry that Ares is a much smaller network than the globally used Gnutella and does not offer quite as much download sources.

Ares is an ambitious project, and the fact that it still remains standing while eDonkey has fallen at the hands of the RIAA, is characteristic of its reliability. Thanks to a strong community of users, a simple interface, a great preview page and multichat service, Ares remains a P2P application of choice for anybody interested into sharing files over the internet.

Download Ares Galaxy 2.1.1.3035 in Softonic

May 24th, 2013

Niamh Lynch

Browsing videos on YouTube is great fun, but what happens when you find one you’d like to view offline, keep or transfer? Although you can embed or link to videos you like, YouTube doesn’t actually give you any option to download them. Don’t worry, because some of Firefox’s great add-ons (plugins that you can use to extend your browser) can do the job for you, all without even having to open a second program. Let’s take a quick look at some of the best.

YouTube Video Downloader does exactly what it says on the tin. The ‘keep’ icon, located in the status bar, opens the video details in a new tab, prompts you to chose a format (FLV, 3GP or MP4), name the video and download it. That’s it! Easy, right?

Another discreet option is Easy YouTube Video Downloader – it simply adds a button underneath the information displayed to the right of YouTube videos. Like its predecessor, it supports FLV, 3GP and MP4, but without the new tab is possibly even simpler to use.

Softonic.com”>NetVideoHunter takes a different approach, opening a window containing a list of the videos you have been viewing. The main selling point is that it ‘collects’ videos as you browse them. At the end of your session, it presents you with a list of the videos you have just seen, allowing you to pick the ones you want to download. It also has the added advantage of being able to download from video sharing sites apart from YouTube, such as Dailymotion and Google Video, and includes a player, so you can view videos even after you have closed the original page.

If you are looking for a little excitement, try YouTube Downloader. This experimental add-on is so thrilling that you have to check a box to say that you understand the risks – although when I tested it, it didn’t seem too wild. Youtube Downloader lets you download videos and music, and not just from YouTube. Like NetVideoHunter, it presents you with a list of possible downloads, and then lets you select the ones you want. It also has a search function which will automatically search for the video title on Google.

If discretion’s not your thing, maybe the Ant.com Toolbar is what you are looking for. Although it does install a toolbar on your browser, it’s only to accommodate the extra options it includes – a search tool, download manager, video player, download explorer and a ranking function. It is also more customizable than some of its competitors, allowing you to toggle a small number of options.

Whether you’re a dedicated video downloader or just someone who browses occasionally, you’ll find an add-on to suit. Read the reviews, make your decision and start downloading videos from YouTube today!

May 24th, 2013

Phones Latest software reviews (Phones): Softonic

Pool is one of those games that you think you’re going to be really good at until you step up to the table and realize that it’s actually much tougher than it looks. Vegas Pool Sharks gives you the chance to hone your skills in the hustlers’ playground that is Las Vegas. You’ll get a chance to fleece money from some of the most canny players in the casino. Alternatively you might lose your house.

The game sees you compete against four different computer opponents who vary in their level of skill. I would’ve liked to have seen a few more characters just to add a bit more variety, but there are three different game modes to help you mix things up a bit.

Vegas Pool Sharks boasts some surprisingly accurate ball physics making it a fairly realistic pool simulation for a mobile device. The 3D views are great and you can zoom in and out or tilt the angle of your cue fairly smoothly. Thanks to some helpful aiming hints it should be quite easy for you to get to grips with the game.

Although it lacks the all-important two player mode, Vegas Pool Sharks is a fairly accurate pool simulation that will keep you amused for some time.

Download Vegas Pool Sharks 1.06 (BB) in Softonic

May 24th, 2013

Nicholas Mead

Gmail Add On One Firefox plugin I’ve come to rely on is Gmail Manager Add-On for Firefox. This free plugin allows you to monitor as many Gmail accounts as you want in the Firefox status bar. It never worked perfectly – sometimes new mail wouldn’t register properly for example – but now unfortunately it seems to have stopped working completely.

The inbox counts don’t work at all and clicking on an account simply takes you to the Gmail login page instead of your inbox. According to one blogger, this is due to a security update in Firefox 3 which blocks the plugin and may have affected other Gmail plugins as well.

The only answer is to downgrade to Firefox 2 but that’s not exactly ideal. If like me, you’re lamenting the loss of a trusty Gmail add-on, here are some functioning alternatives to try.

Gmail Notifier Designed by Google, Gmail Notifier is all you need if you just need to check one account. It displays an icon in your system tray to let you know if you have unread Gmail messages, and shows you their subjects, senders and snippets, all without your having to open a web browser. A Mac version is also available. Note that it doesn’t work if you’ve got the Google Toolbar This is worth installing for several reasons of which one of them is the Gmail checker. It isn’t very sophisticated however. An open envelope notifies you when you’ve received new mail and clicking on the drop down arrow next to it reveals all the subject headings of mail in your inbox. Clicking on any one of them, or the envelope itself, takes you to your inbox. Shame their is no inbox count reading or customizable sounds for when new mail arrives though.

Gmail Notifr A Mac only extension which sits in your Menu bar and supports multiple accounts. Gmail Notfr displays in digits how many e-mails you have waiting for you. It conveniently supports Growl alerts and doesn’t install any daemon background processes unlike Google’s Gmail Notifier. However, you can’t define how frequently you want it to check for mail (so it might be a bit slow at notifying you of new mail).

Gmail+Growl This works with Gmail Notifier and as the name suggests, is a very simple plugin for Mac users that uses Growl alerts to notify you of new Gmail. Unfortunately, it only supports single accounts but the great thing about using Growl is that you can customize the alerts.

GmailAssistant A third party Windows only application which supports multiple accounts. If you want a Gmail checker that’s completely independent of your browser on Windows, then this is a good choice although the configuration is very limited. You can’t define the frequency you want it to check for new mail or save your preferences for each account.

May 24th, 2013

Phones Latest software reviews (Phones): Softonic

First up, if you were expecting Space Balls to be based on the classic Mel Brooks movie of the same name, I’m afraid this one isn’t. Don’t go away just yet though, because you’ll still be able to have fun.

The aim of Space Balls is to defend your little planet from relentless hoards of colored balls that try to encircle you. To do this you need to fire your own colored balls at them from a rotatable cannon. If you can make a line of four or more balls of the same color then these balls will disappear and set the whole pack of invaders back a bit.

Space Balls is one of those games that are very simple to control yet can become impossibly difficult to master. You do get help, in the form of a meter that shows you which color ball is next to be fired, but after a while the action becomes so fast that it’s impossible to keep up. This is even the case on the easiest of the three difficulty settings.

As for the graphics in Space Balls, they’re bright and well drawn with a real 3D look to the balls. I was a bit disappointed with the irritating music, but luckily you can turn this off.

You might find Space Balls gets a bit repetitive after a few levels, but it’s still a great time-waster to play on the bus.

Download Space Balls 1.0 in Softonic

May 24th, 2013

Niamh Lynch

Softonic“>Firefox holds a special place in my heart. I’ve used it for years, blissfully happy since day one. I’ve told all my friends about it, lobbied for it among the IE crowd, and sneakily installed it on any computer I was left alone with for more than 5 minutes. So, why, oh why, has Firefox turned against me?!

A few days ago I noticed that funny things were happening on my computer. Gmail displayed the dreaded ’still working’ message and Facebook photos went crazy. I checked my Internet connection, logged out and logged in. I even restarted my computer, the fail-safe to solution to everything! Nothing worked and, for the first time ever, I had a sneaking suspicion that my beloved Firefox was at fault. It was time to find out what you can do when Firefox 3.5 goes bad…

Clear your history

Not a revolutionary idea, but once it was mentioned, I realized I hadn’t done it (or checked the settings) since upgrading to 3.5. Go to Tools > Clear Recent History and choose ‘Everything’ from the drop down menu.

Erase the cache

When you clear the history, make sure you’re including the cache: in the ‘Clear Recent History’ option, click on ‘Details’ and make sure ‘Cache’ is marked.

Update to the latest version

Make sure you have updated Firefox 3.5 to 3.5.1. Technically this patch was security related, but it also included a fix for “an issue that was making Firefox take a long time to load on some Windows systems“. (more…)

May 24th, 2013

Giveaway of the Day project team

Apex VCD Ripper converts VCD to any video you like. Extremely fast conversion speed and friendly user interface let you convert VCD Video with ease. The powerful features and unbeatable price make Apex VCD Ripper an affordable and powerful video conversion solution on personal computer.

Key Features of Apex VCD Ripper:

Supports converting VCD video from dat, mpeg, mpg file to AVI, Divx, Xvid, MPEG, MOV, WMV, RM, RMVB etc. PC video
Supports converting VCD video from dat, mpeg, mpg file to Apple iPod, Sony PSP, Cell Phone 3GP, Microsoft Xbox, Pocket PC, Portable Media Player ect. Mobile video
Supports converting VCD video from dat, mpeg, mpg file to Flash SWF, Youtube FLV, Flash FLV ect. Web video
Supports converting VCD video from dat, mpeg, mpg file to MP3, WMA, WAV, MP2 Audio
Supports converting VCD video from dat, mpeg, mpg file to Gif Animation and GIF, BMP, EPS, JPG, PCX, PSD, PDF, TIFF, WMF, EMF, PNG, J2K IMAGE

May 23rd, 2013

Nicholas Mead

sweetfm2 logo Fancy a $29 iTunes/Last.fm Mac app absolutely free? Well you can have exactly that with SweetFM which the developer has decided to make completely free and open source. If you regularly use iTunes and LastFM then you’re going to love it. The tiny app allows you to combine the best of both applications under one controller and much more. It used to sell for almost $29 but right now it’s completely free and open source.

SweetFM switches seamlessly between Last.fm and iTunes. If you get bored of listening to either application at any point, you can just switch in a click. You can configure hotkeys to control most tasks and even use your Apple Remote – useful for parties or just kicking back and relaxing.

sweetfm screenshot But there’s more to it than that. SweetFM extends Last.fm functionality with things such as tag-station shuffle. Just enter an artist name with some Amazon.com when playing major artists.

One other thing worth bearing in mind about SweetFM is that if you want to export tracks to iTunes, it will automatically check for duplicates although this obviously relies on your music being tagged correctly. There’s lots more to SweetFM than this too including CSS skin design support, Skype moods integration and handy Growl notifications.

There’s little to fault with SweetFM and considering it’s now completely open source and free, the time has never been better to try this sweet app.

May 23rd, 2013

admin

Mark Jaquith has just announced that WordPress is named “Coltrane” for famed jazz Saxophonist, John Coltrane, a favorite of sax playing, WordPress founder, Matt Mullenweg.

There are a lot of new features and improvements, including the new interface. For examples, screenshots, video, and information on the new WordPress 2.7 version, see WordPress 2.7 Release News and Links, Countdown to WordPress 2.7 and WordPress 2.7 Hits WordPress.com Thursday, December 4, 2008.

WordPress.com has been running WordPress 2.7 for a week across almost 5 million blogs and the response has been incredibly positive. Old users are finding the learning curve almost non-existent and new users are embracing it.

The hard work done by all of the development team, especially by Jane Wells who lead the conversion to the new interface, deserves some serious rounds of applause.

For those concerned about upgrading to WordPress, and how often those updates occur, take a step down memory lane with Justin Tadlock in “Be Thankful WordPress Gets Updated.” He takes you through the various versions and why we should be so thankful for the most current versions, considering the path it took to get here.

Upgrade WordPress Now!
Unlike previous versions where it’s a good idea to wait, I recommend upgrading to WordPress 2.7 now. It is very stable and has been well tested on WordPress.com. It also includes the latest security updates. Once installed, it will notify you for automatic upgrades, making the upgrade process incredibly easy.

If you are using one of the Release Candidates, the upgrade announcement should be on your blog. Follow the extended upgrade instructions. In the past, it was highly recommended that you turn off all WordPress Plugins before upgrading. WordPress 2.7 will automatically put WordPress in “maintenance mode” so this step is no longer necessary.

May 23rd, 2013

Jon Riggall

With the recent release of Firefox 3.5, there’s never been a better time for Internet Explorer users to give it a go. In case you think for a moment that browsing is much the same on Firefox – hold on a minute!

Aside from being faster, lighter and more stable, what makes Firefox really different is add-ons. You can easily customize Firefox to work how you want it to, and it’s not hard. Click an add-on download link, restart Firefox (it will remember all your open tabs), and you’re done. To get started, here’s 5 add-ons I think are really cool, and should convince you of Firefox’s all-round awesomeness!

1 – Juice. I include this as it’s flashy, great looking and can really change your browsing. Basically, if you read something you want more inmore info about, just highlight it, and drag it into the Juice sidebar – it will search DownThemAll! This basically allows you to download whatever is on a web page. You can choose what type of files you’re looking for, like MP3s or images, and’DownThemAll’ in one click. It can save you lots of time scrolling through long pages looking for files.

3 – Open IT Online. This neat add-on allows you to open most documents, spreadsheets and presentations using online applications. when downloading a Word file, an extra option will appear under ‘Open With’, allowing you to see the document in your browser, saving you the hassle of waiting for another application to open. It’s unobtrusive, and makes document viewing hassle free.

4 – UrlbarExt is a bit nerdy, but I like it, and use it every day. It adds a bunch of tools to the address bar, like a tiny URL maker, an add address to clipboard button and much more. It really makes use of a piece of browser space that was underused.

5 – The add-on I use most? TwitterFox. Everything I want from Twitter, without having to open up a page, it’s fantastic. You get a tiny icon at the bottom of Firefox, and clicking it activates a pop up display showing you your Twitter feed. It feels ideally suited to Twitter, and I can’t imagine a browser without it anymore.

So there you have it. If you load up an add-on you don’t like, it’s simple to deactivate it – just go to add-ons in the Tools menu, and you can deactivate or uninstall anything you like. No doubt everyone will have their own favorites, so you can go and check out the Firefox add-on site here.

Ares Galaxy 2.1.1.3035-100% P2P filesharing and nothing more

Download from YouTube: the best add-ons for Firefox

Vegas Pool Sharks 1.06 (BB) – Hustle your way to pool superstardom

5 alternatives to Firefox Gmail Manager plugin

Space Balls 1.0 – Save your planet from colored balls!