3.20

Cefipx for Mac 3.20 Review

Users who want to work with their library of audio files but don't want to use iTunes have few well-known options. Cefipx for Mac allows users to manage their audio library and devices in a well-designed application, albeit with limited functions.

Available as a free trial version with a 50-song transfer limit, the full application requires payment of $16.95 to unlock. The native installer worked well and the program setup completed quickly and without any bugs. It was unclear if technical support was available. There were no tutorials and it did not appear that any instructions existed. Fortunately, … Read more

Scan and store business cards on your tablet with ScanBizCards Lite

No matter what technology we develop, business cards are still a standard in networking circles. They are the first thing you see when you meet someone. But increasingly our lives are managed by the electronic devices we carry, and business cards get lost so easily. So an app like ScanBizCards Lite is perfect to quickly take a photo, scan the contents of the business card and store it for later on your iPad or iPhone.

To start, the app asks if you'd like to register to share your scans with a universal account between devices and your desktop. This … Read more

Clean up your hard drive with AllDup Portable

Duplicate files can take up a lot of valuable space on your hard drive, but it's not easy to find and get rid of them without a specialized tool. AllDup Portable is exactly that kind of tool, and it can be kept on a USB drive for on-the-go use. The program is packed with features, doing a thorough job of locating duplicate files and giving plenty of options for dealing with them.

The program opens with a screen where you can select which drives you want to scan for duplicates. There are plenty of options for customizing the search, … Read more

Take your screenshots to the next level with CrossGL SnapDraw

The built-in Windows screen capture tool is pretty basic, and for that reason there is a plethora of programs that let users customize the way they take screenshots and what they do with the resulting images. CrossGL SnapDraw is one of the more comprehensive options we've seen. Casual users of screen capture tools will likely find the program to be a little much, but users who need options to annotate and edit their screenshots will appreciate the program's many features.

The first thing that CrossGL SnapDraw wanted us to do was configure the keyboard shortcut that we wanted … Read more

Disk watcher

Windows' built-in system tools are geared toward casual users and often lack the power or features needed to keep up with the latest hardware. Developers have stepped into the breach with tools such as Hard Disk Sentinel, a free utility for monitoring and analyzing the performance of terabyte-capacity hard-disk drives (HDDs) as well as the latest and fastest solid-state drives (SSDs). With a number of monitoring and reporting options, it can alert you to trouble with your critical storage components before failure becomes an option.

Hard Disk Sentinel's compact interface is a busy affair, packed tight with colorful status … Read more

PDF to images

PDFArea PDF to Image Converter converts PDF files to images. You can save the converted images in most common image formats, such as JPEG, PNG, BMP, and GIF. You can also adjust the image quality and resolution and save for print or posting online. The program supports conversion of single PDFs, but it will also convert whole folders of files. You can select page ranges, which is a good function to have if you want to convert just a few pages of a long PDF or don't want to convert the title page or appendix.

PDFArea PDF to Image … Read more

Spiff for TIFFs

The Tagged Image File Format is a common graphics file extension in what was once called "desktop publishing." Creating and managing TIFFs usually calls for a powerful graphics editor such as those offered by Adobe, which owns the TIFF technology and other popular graphics technologies, including the Portable Document Format. However, such complex packages come with steep learning curves and breathtaking price tags. Fortunately, the need for simple tools to convert various file formats to and from PDFs is spawning a new class of PDF tools. One of them is PDFArea's TIF to PDF Converter, a standalone … Read more

Web site downloader

PageNest Free Edition offers users an opportunity to download entire Web sites to their computer. While the navigation of this program is occasionally confusing, the results are great.

The program's interface is tangled and confusing, but ultimately not impossible to manage. Its very plain layout leads to some confusion, especially when attempting to download a site. However, if people are willing to experiment with the options, they will soon understand this program's quirks. In addition, there is a comprehensive Help file available to walk users through most options. Once we learned how the program was to function, we … Read more