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Need to talk with a friend but don't want to waste precious time on Facebook? This nifty app can alert you when they sign on. Facebook Online Notifications works well overall, but you may find it to be a drain on your battery.

In our tests, it seemed like the app was only able to tell if someone was online if they had their chat on. While most Facebook users leave it on by default, you'll still have some who have it turned off, so you could miss some of your circle when they get on the site. … Read more

There are quite a few clock apps in the iPad App Store, and the reason is simple enough. The iPad makes a perfect desktop or mantle top clock. It's compact, pretty, and can keep accurate time for hours (or longer when plugged into a dock). On the mantle, in a dock, your iPad can make a nice addition to the décor of your living room. So there are quite a few apps that attempt to capitalize on that, including FaceClock with Calendar.

The app, itself, is quite attractive. Like most iPad clocks, the back is black and … Read more

The iPhone alarm is one of the most used in the world -- waking up millions of people every day, probably with the same blaring horn. However, it is not very customizable and lacks a lot of the tools and charm you'd expect from an Apple product. It's all function and very little design. That's why an app like Alarm Clock: The Alarm App is so enticing. It allows you to customize a number of settings, add an alarm to your phone that goes beyond the basics, and even lets you change from a blaring horn to … Read more

Users who want to easily search for information may not want a separate browser window open to a search engine. PopSearch for Mac allows access to a favorite search engine using a keystroke.

Available as a free application, PopSearch for Mac installs easily as an extension to a web browser, such as Safari. There do not appear to be any user instructions or technical support available. Users unfamiliar with installing and setting up extensions may have some difficultly figuring out how to configure the program, but this is easy with some trial and error. There is no menu for the … Read more

Home brewing is a fun hobby that can take a bad turn in a heartbeat. Having a guide can save you cash and effort by making sure you don't accidentally brew up a disaster. Thankfully, Brewtarget can provide all the info you need to start home brewing your beer, successfully. It's even dynamic enough to let you experiment with different flavors without creating a monster.

The program comes packed with dozens of different recipes for all sorts of dark and light beers. You can arrange them by color, ingredients or style. Each category has helpful information, from what … Read more

With awareness of Internet security at an all-time high, keeping track of the unique passwords needed for logins can be difficult. LastPass for Safari for Mac allows a user to sign in with one password and save those multiple logins for use when needed.

Available as a free plugin for Safari, the program's basic features do not require any payment to use. The program installs quickly into Safari without any user interaction needed. The only indication that the plugin is running is a small icon next to the URL bar in the Web browser. Users can access its settings … Read more

In addition to unveiling its contract-free data plan, T-Mobile announced a number of devices that will be available on its 4G LTE network, including the Sonic 2.0 mobile hotspot.

Available now for $149.99, the Sonic 2.0 is the carrier's first LTE hot spot and it can connect up to eight devices.

The device is manufactured by ZTE and features a 1.77-inch color screen (which displays information such as signal strength, battery level, and number of connected devices), a microSD card slot that is expandable up to 32GB, and it works with both Windows 8 and … Read more

Are your MP3s LAME? Don't Bonk us if we say we hope so. FAAC is, we're happy to take the FLAC. Weak puns, maybe, but great tunes; if you encode your digital music files in a high-fidelity format such as FLAC. It's simple: the best way to get the best sound from your portable tunes is to start out with higher quality files, ideally using a low-loss or lossless format. Hanso Converter offers high-quality ripping and converting into FLAC, FAAC, AAC, Bonk, MP4/M4A, Ogg Vorbis, each of which yields better sound quality than the basic MP3 … Read more

Video Downloader Super Lite promises to allow you to download videos from the Internet through a proprietary browser on your iPhone. This alone is a very powerful tool for those who want to take training videos, Webinars, or even music videos on the go from your favorite Web sites. There are, however, a number of limitations, and the performance of the app was variable depending on the video being downloaded and the speed of our connection.

Upon initial installation, you can immediately start browsing. The app uses a very simple Web interface with a banner ad placed below the address … Read more