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Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware Sometimes you want to open a file saved on your desktop, but you don't want to minimize all of the applications you're currently running just to get to it. DesktopOnTop can help. While Windows lets you add a 'desktop' toolbar to the taskbar that will let you launch items saved on your desktop, DeskTopOnTop goes one step further and actually shows you a visual representation of your desktop. If you just want a list, you can right-click on the DesktopOnTop icon in the system tray and get a start-menu lookalike with a list of programs and files on your desktop. But a left click brings up a picture of your desktop. Sort of. The first thing you'll probably notice is that the wallpaper doesn't match yours. If this bothers you, you can either change your desktop wallpaper to match DesktopOnTop (which nobody really expects you to do), or you can select a solid color that looks good with your desktop an adjust the program's transparency level. DesktopOnTop is highly customizable and light weight. It uses about 8MB of RAM. [via Freeware Genius] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
 Filed under: Security, Utilities, Windows, Freeware USB Image Tool is a utility for creating an exact image of pretty much anything you plug into your USB port. This isn't the same thing as copying and pasting all the files on a flash drive to a new directory or zip file. Instead, every chunk of data on your flash drive is saved in a single file that you can then burn to a disc, upload to an offsite storage location, or just save on your hard drive. If you keep work documents, portable applications, or other important data on a flash drive, it's a good idea to back it up occasionally. USB Image Tool makes the process about as simple as can be. You plug in a drive, hit backup, and choose a location to store the image. You can also select a compressed file format if you want to save a little bit of space, but it takes longer to create a compressed image. [via gHacks] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
 Filed under: Security, Utilities, Windows, Shareware There are plenty of Windows applications out there that will let you synchronize files across multiple folders. But there are a few things that set Allway Sync apart. First up, you can install Allway Sync on a flash drive to carry with you and use on multiple PCs. Second, Allway Sync is free for personal use and you're only required to pay for a license if you're a heavy user of if you feel like it. No one will ever make you pay, but the software is totally worth buying. The latest version also adds support for synchronizing files with an FTP server or Amazon S3 storage. This makes Allway Sync a great little tool for backing up your files to offsite storage. The only problem is that there's no built-in scheduler. You have to initiate each sync job manually. If you're lazy and prefer automated backups, you might be better off with a utility like Jungle Disk. But the advantage of performing manual backups is that Allway Sync provides detailed information about each new, changed, or questionable file. [via Ed Bott]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
 Filed under: Windows, Linux, Office, Open Source The K Desktop Environment, or KDE, is best known as a user interface and software suite for Linux. But for the past few months a team of developers has been hard at work porting KDE applications to Windows. When we looked at the KDE on Windows project earlier this year, it was still in the early stages and there honestly weren't many applications worth running. Now that's all changed. The problem today isn't that there isn't any software you want to run, the problem is that the applications are still pretty buggy. A few weeks ago, the developers of KOffice, an open source suit of office applications released KOffice 2.0 Alpha for Windows, Mac, and Linux. In order to install the Windows version, you need to download and run the KDE on Windows installer utility and then select the KDE applications you want to install. To install KOffice, select the package labeled KOffice-msvc. Once it's installed you should be able to access KOffice applications like KWord and KSpread from your Windows Start Menu. While we were able to get KWord up and running, it did crash periodically. KSpread and several other applications were non-starters. We kept getting error messages telling us that files or components were not found, which is a shame because the whole point of using the KDE on Windows installer utility is to automatically download and install any dependencies necessary to run the software you select. The Kate and KWrite text editors seem to work pretty smoothly. But applications take a long time to start and are prone to closing unexpectedly. We wouldn't recommend replacing Microsoft Office or OpenOffice.org with KOffice on Windows just yet. But KOffice 2.0 is still in Alpha, and the KDE on Windows project is still in the early stages. Perhaps one day this little office suite could konquer the world. [via Slashdot] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
 Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware We've gone through a ton of 'simple' file recovery apps at Download Squad, and not all of them perform as advertised. Some take a painfully long time to scan only to report few - if any - recoverable files, dashing our hopes of retrieving that funny lolcat we deleted by accident. Undelete Plus, however, is a champion at what it does. It quickly completes its scan for potential targets, displays them in a detailed list that includes likelihood to be recovered, size, date created, and path, and even gives you a second pane with totals grouped by file type. We tried the recovery on formats that typically gives these programs fits - images and video - and Undelete Plus recovered each one without issue. Granted, there are going to be times when it can't - no recovery app is perfect - but we were certainly impressed in our testing. If you've accidentally wiped something important from your PC, do yourself a favor and download it. We guarantee that it will increase the likelihood that your spouse won't make you sleep on the couch because you trashed their favorite pic or song by 70%. [ via WinAddons ] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
 Filed under: Internet, Windows Mobile, Social Software, Mobile Minute Are you scared to leave the house because you're worried that someone might poke you, turn you into a zombie or ask you to compare your taste in books while you're out and you'll miss it? FriendMobilizer is a Facebook application for Windows Mobile that gives you access to some of the most frequently used portions of Facebook when you're away from a computer. You can use the app to: - Receive and respond to notifications and inbox messages
- Browse photo albums
- Write on walls
- Update your status
FriendMobilizer is free but it won't work on all Windows Mobile devices. You need to have Windows Mobile 6 or higher and you need to install the program to your device's main memory, not to a storage card. You also need to provide a phone number to register, which rules out classice PDA-style devices. [via the::unwired] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
 Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware If you're like us, your hard drive is anything but tidy. That's because us power users can't be bothered to keep things organized - there are just too many awesome things out there to download, extract, and forget about because half of them turn out to be garbage. FlexTK for Windows helps make short work of cleaning up after yourself, offering a full complement of file management tools in one handy package. Folder sync, duplicate file search, temp file cleanup, storage utilization, search, and an advanced organization module are all included. Navigation is handled beautifully in an explorer-like manner, tweaked by the addition of breadcrumbs and a 'bookmarks' pane that allows you to quickly link your favorite locations. Continue reading FlexTK Makes File Management Easy Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
 Filed under: Fun, E-mail  Imagine receiving an email and as soon as you've read it, the message burst into flames leaving no trace of its existence. Wouldn't you like that same type of power? Well now you can, minus the whole burst into flame thing with Privnote.
Simply type in your message on the website and Privnote note will generate a link that you can send to your operative. The link can only be used once, so if your contact wasn't able to retrieve the message you've got some security issues. But all is not loss since Privnote will display the IP address of the person that clicked the link.... traceroute anyone? We doubt that you would actually want to send company sensitive information this way but we got to admit the whole 'self destructing' message thing is pretty neat. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
 Filed under: Audio, Web services, Social Software, web 2.0  We've covered several apps that integrate with the social music platform Last.FM, and we've expressed our worries about what might happen to the site when it was bought by CBS. As it happens, though, Last.FM has only gotten better lately. And now that they've released a shiny new version of their public API, we're hoping for more development on the downloadable app front. Here's the skinny on the new API features: there's now read/write authentication for desktop, web and mobile apps, which, besides being essential for any service that logs your music listening, sets the stage for -- dare we hope? -- a killer Last.fm app for iPhone. The API will also allow apps to access search functions and make playlists, which means easier access to Last.FM's growing library of free streaming tracks. Scrobble on, amigos. [via ReadWriteWeb] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
 Filed under: Internet, News  As you might guess from the name of our blog, we download a LOT of software, and it's a little scary to contemplate how much bandwidth we collectively use every day. So, trying to imagine a time when we felt like a dial-up connection would suit our needs is pretty difficult. But that's exactly how 62% of U.S. dialup users feel, according to a new study from the Pew Internet and American Life project. The economy isn't doing so hot these days, so you'd think that the additional cost of a high-speed connection would be the deciding factor for these folks, but it turns out that only a third of them cited cost as their reason for sticking with dial-up. 19% gave the mystifying answer that nothing -- not even a huge decrease in the cost -- would make them give up their dial-up. The study posited that they just don't spend enough time online to need it. [via Slashdot] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
 Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Freeware, Browsers Hot on the heels of Opera 9.5, the Opera team has released version 9.5.1 of their desktop web browser. The new version includes some recommended security and stability updates. But there are also some other handy changes. Here are a few highlights: - Fine-tuned the new default skin
- Saved images no longer recorded in the file transfer window
- Fixed an issue that could be used to display arbitrary code
- Fixed a stability issue with Yahoo! Mail
- 64 bit Linux package now available
Overall you won't notice a ton of changes to the interface. But if you're currently using Opera 9.5, we'd recommend updating for the security enhancements alone. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
 Filed under: Design, Internet, Features, Linux, Open Source  Maybe you've taken some time and fooled around a bit with Quanta Plus and Bluefish and decided that they weren't for you. Maybe you just looked at the features, and the GUIs and thought, 'I'd rather pluck my nose hairs out than use those.' That's okay. We're not about to pass judgment on your taste in HTML editors, or your strange penchant for self-inflicted pain. And while we may never use the tweezers in your house, we will gladly point you in the direction of alternative HTML editors. This week we'll take a look at Screem and Amaya in brief. These two editors are frequently found in distribution repositories (and are also, of course, available as source code). Both of these editors have a very different take on what their users hope to accomplish with them. We hope at least a few have earned your badges of dorkdom, and are presently happily pondering the irony of applications that do the same thing to reach different ends. Whether you like the idea of handcoding growing the hair on your chest (as opposed to your nostrils), the moral highground of browsing and coding with standards compliance, we've got you covered. Next week, we'll take a closer look at our final two editors, suggested by our noble readers at the beginning of the series. Continue reading Flipping the Linux switch: Linux web tools, Pt.4 - HTML editors for every mood Permalink | Email this | Comments
 Filed under: Social Software, web 2.0  Planning a vacation always starts with one thing... where to go. You could always ask a friend or a family member for their suggestions but then you would be only limited to where they've been. Tripwolf hopes to change that with there social travel website.
There are different ways you can use the site, if you already have an idea of where you would like to go enter it in the search box and Tripwolf will display the location along with places of interest, photos, videos and reviews by members of the site. But the strongest feature of the site are the Trip Gurus. The trip gurus are self-proclaimed experts in their chosen areas of travel. Simply ask them a question and most will respond back with helpful suggestions. So if you're thinking of planing a trip you might want to see what Tripwolf has to offer. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
 Filed under: Blogging, Beta, web 2.0  Maintaining your online presence can be such a giant pain in the ass nowadays since your followers are looking for constant updates on three hundred different web sites. It's especially annoying to try and publicize your new blog post manually after you've spent precious minutes of your morning typing and re-typing it. Thankfully, the folks at switchAbit have been gracious enough to develop a web app for us that handles cross-site posting for us. What's not to love about an app that makes it appear as though you're doing much more work than you actually are? Continue reading Switchabit Multitasks Your Blogging For You Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
 Filed under: Internet, Social Software  Once upon a time, letting people know what you were up to online was simple. You'd just point your friends toward your blog, LiveJournal page, or MySpace where you posted all of your latest musing on life. But if you're an active netizen, odds are your social activity is spread out across a half dozen or more sites, ranging from YouTube to del.icio.us. Swurl is a new service that helps bring all of your status updates, bookmarks, watched videos and other activity together. If Swurl sounds a bit like FriendFeed, it kind of is. Both services let you gather all of your social networking activity in one place. But Swurl is a lot prettier and more customizable. You can think of it almost as a meta-blog. If you have a blog on Blogger or WordPress, you can configure Swurl to display all of your latest posts in blog-like format. But it will also show your Twitter and Facebook status updates and other activity in chronological order. Or you can hit the search box to search all of your sites. Anyone can comment on an item that shows up on your Swurl page just by hovering their mouse near the bottom of an update. And you can use Swurl as something of a start page by hitting the Friends tab to see what your contacts have been up to. There's also a nifty timeline view that shows your updates plotted out on a calendar. Swurl was developed by Ryan Sit, the same guy who brought us Listpic, an awesome interface for browsing online classified sites. | Permalink | Email this | Comments
 Filed under: Fun, Games, Internet  Launching stuff is cool, and doing so in a flash game online is even cooler. VivaLaGames brings us a new Time Waster with ' HedgeHog Launch'. The premise is simple, you go through a series of days and launch HedgeHogs with a nice launcher gear, much like you would water balloons. Except these aren't balloons, these are dangerous little beasts called HedgeHogs. it's not quite Sonic, but we think it's way more fun. The name of the game is to only get distance, but to grab money in the air while your HedgeHog flies. The controls are quite easy, and you can play in fullscreen mode too. Just don't do it at work, because we can't be held responsible for having 'HedgeHog Screwoff' on your permanent record. But that would be pretty schweet though. You can dig in and tweak your thrusts left or right, and as you go through the days, your skills will get better and the stakes will get higher. Collect money, buy better rockets, some stylish goggles, and even a parachute to get better scores. The music is addictive too. So launch your hog and share your scores in the comments. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
 Filed under: Blogging, Social Software  Mirco-blogging is a great way to let people know what you're up to that very instant. But what if you could let your followers know where your post originated from. That may have been the very thing running through the minds of the people behind byNotes.
On the surface byNotes operates like any other micro-blogging site but in addition to sending messages you can also specify where in the world you are via Google Maps. Now we know what you're thinking, stalker tool right? Post a message of 'I'm at this really nice cafe posted at 123 Anystreet, Anytown' could lead to a lot of unwanted attention. Thankfully byNotes has put into place restriction levels so that based on the access level you have established, people can either know the exact location, a general location like the country or some where in between. The only downside to this service is that you must be in front of a computer to use it as byNotes doesn't appear to have a mobile version available. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
 Filed under: Adobe, Beta  Download Squad originally told you about the Adobe Flash beta in May, and yesterday Adobe announced further updates to 'Astro.' So what do you have to look forward to? From a viewer's standpoint, there are several new features of interest. Tops among them: advanced 3d effects - that's right, Flash now supports shaders. Web gamers rejoice, because this no doubt means a whole new era of addictive browser-based gaming. Sound APIs have been refined as well, which should provide a boost not only for games, but also for streaming media applications. Also along these lines, Flash 10 support dynamic bitrate adjustments. Translation: it'll adapt to crappy network conditions automatically so that your video doesn't get all choppy. Continue reading Adobe Updates Flash 10 Beta - Now Slightly Less Inefficient! Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
 Filed under: Web services, web 2.0 You've got enough to worry about with your new Web 2.0 startup without having to come up with a clever name - never mind a matching domain name that's actually available.
Well, why not take advantage of Dot-o-mator, a crafty little web app that reaches deep into its dictionary and outputs a list of possible domains that would make Dr. Seuss proud. Of course, coming up with a combination is only half the battle. You've got to somehow find one that hasn't been snatched up by some underhanded domain prospector. Dot-o-mator makes that easy, too, giving you one-click access to a multi-name availability check. It's a great brainstorming tool, and can be a huge help in the struggle to brand your new web venture. We like it for the possibility of setting up private Gmail service on a domain like 'skablab.com.' Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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