Adobe Acrobat 7.0: A Feature-Packed Acrobat Upgrade - 3/3/2005 Adobe Acrobat junkies rejoice, the 7.0 upgrade comes jammed with features you're sure to love. Occasional dabblers or the uninitiated, on the other hand, may fare better with earlier, less confusing versions.
SpamPal: The Free, Open Source Anti-Spam Alternative - 3/1/2005 While some would say there is no such thing as a free lunch, if by "lunch" they mean canned spam, they're wrong. A free application called SpamPal will toss your junk mail in the can quietly, efficiently, and accurately. Oh, and did we mention it's free?
Audio Xtract Pro and Rhapsody: Streaming Music for Keeps - 2/23/2005 In the post-Napster (the free one at least) world, the costs of accumulating a substantial music collection on your hard drive have increased dramatically. The subscription-based Rhapsody music service and Audio Xtract Pro offer contrasting approaches to building your MP3 library ... affordably and legally.
TopStyle Pro: The 'HomeSite' of the 21st Century? - 2/18/2005 Of the many ways to create and edit Web pages these days, arguably the most useful is the HTML/CSS combination editor, a leading-edge tool that helps to save valuable time in the editing process. If you like developer Nick Bradbury's original (and highly popular) HTML authoring tool HomeSite, you'll love his new (X)HTML/CSS editor, TopStyle Pro.
Desktop Search Round-up: Search Engine Power for Your PC - 2/14/2005 Google recently pioneered the strategy of bringing Web search engine technology to your desktop for faster and more powerful searches, but the preeminent search engine now has quite a bit of company in the field. Discover how the latest desktop search tools from the major search engine heavyweights stack up against each other.
Yahoo! Toolbar for Firefox - 2/10/2005 Enable quick Yahoo! Web searches and prevent pop-ups with the first browser toolbar released for Mozilla Firefox.
Watson: Meta Search for the Desktop - 2/7/2005 Intellext's Watson searches other application indices to point users to information they didn't know existed.
WebDrive: A Webmaster's Best Friend? - 2/1/2005 Uploading and downloading files is a common task for a webmaster. Normally the process is accomplished using a program like an FTP or telnet client, but WebDrive offers a more efficient solution. This handy little tool can seamlessly integrate FTP, SFTP, or WebDAV servers into the Windows desktop by mapping them to network drive letters.
Search Engine Toolbar Round-up: One-Click Web Searching and Much More - 1/26/2005 Most of the major Web search engines now offer toolbars that become part of your browser, letting you conduct quick Web searches at any time and from any site. Today we compare three of the most popular search toolbars currently available.
Search Engine Toolbar Round-up: One-Click Web Searching and Much More - 1/26/2005 Most of the major Web search engines now offer toolbars that become part of your browser, letting you conduct quick Web searches at any time and from any site. Today we compare three of the most popular search toolbars currently available.
Synchronize It! In Synch in No Time Flat - 1/20/2005 Synchronize It! is a handy little tool for efficiently and painlessly keeping folders or entire drives in synch with other drives. The client also includes Compare It!, a file compare and merge utility for synching individual files.
McAfee Internet Security Suite 2005: Upping the Ante for Security Suites - 1/14/2005 The 2005 edition of McAfee's all-in-one Internet security suite features a solid collection of security components, each of which sports a variety of improvements and enhancements over previous releases, but the immediate question for most users remains whether the sum of the parts is really greater than the individual components themselves.
Desktop Search Round-up: MSN Toolbar Suite - 1/9/2005 Google recently pioneered the strategy of bringing Web search engine technology to your desktop for faster and more powerful searches, but the preeminent search engine now has quite a bit of company in the field. Discover how the latest desktop search tools from the major search engine heavyweights stack up against each other.
Desktop Search Round-up: Ask Jeeves Desktop Search - 1/9/2005 Google recently pioneered the strategy of bringing Web search engine technology to your desktop for faster and more powerful searches, but the preeminent search engine now has quite a bit of company in the field. Discover how the latest desktop search tools from the major search engine heavyweights stack up against each other.
F-Secure Internet Security 2005: New Competition for Norton and McAfee - 1/5/2005 F-Secure's new Internet suite presents an enticing collection of security components, including firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware, spam filtering, and parental control capabilities, but how does it fare against the hugely popular competition?
SPAMFighter: You're Not Alone in the Fight Against Spam - 12/21/2004 Tired of sifting through endless heaps of claims for work-at-home schemes that really do work, custodians of Nigerian millionaires in duress, and, of course, the ever-intriguing enlargement of body parts? While no spam blocker is 100 percent foolproof, some are much better than others. How does the community-based SPAMFighter stack up against the competition?
Real Alternative: Better Than the Real Thing? - 12/15/2004 Looking for a low-maintenance, ad-free multimedia player, one that simply plays what you ask it to play and then leaves you alone? Alternatives to the behemoth RealPlayer and Windows Media Player clients abound, but one 'Real Alternative' stands out from the competition.
Photoshop CS: It's a Big Deal - 12/9/2004 If you didn't think it would be possible to add even more features to Photoshop, think again. A plethora of useful new features and enhancements for both graphics professionals and power users alike means if there was ever a time to shell out $600 for a graphics editor, this may be it.
Vote for the Best Small Business Products of the Year - 12/8/2004 Technology alone won't make a small business successful. However, the right combination of hardware, software, and services can sure help. Cast your vote in the SmallBusinessComputing Excellence in Technology Awards and help us recognize those products that make a difference.
Netscape's New Prototype Nods to IE, Firefox - 12/1/2004 Netscape's new beta release of its venerable browser offers a rich selection of IE and Firefox features as well as support for both browsers' rendering engines.
WinAce: Whether to Zip or ACE - 11/29/2004 Whether you want to ZIP, ACE, or even RAR your files, WinAce is up to the task, while also being able to handle all of your file management needs.
Search Engine Toolbar Round-up: One-Click Web Searching and Much More - 11/27/2004 Most of the major Web search engines now offer toolbars that become part of your browser, letting you conduct quick Web searches at any time and from any site. Today we compare three of the most popular search toolbars currently available.
KeePass: Keeping Your Passwords Safe and Secure ... and Easily Accessible - 11/22/2004 How many passwords do you keep track of on a regular basis? Network logon, email, online banking and shopping, regular Web browsing ... the list seemingly never ends. How can you possibly remember all of them? No problem, this nifty little open-source "password safe" will handle the memory-intensive labor for you.
WebSite-Watcher: Save Yourself Time with Automated Site Monitoring - 11/15/2004 Wouldn't it be nice to see what the competition is up to without having to take time out of your daily routine to check a dozen Web pages for updates that might offer clues as to your competitors' evolving business strategies? That's the premise behind WebSite-Watcher, a nifty application that periodically visits selected sites and notifies you when anything has changed.
Mozilla Firefox 1.0: Microsoft Alternative Comes of Age - 11/9/2004 If you're looking to explore the internet without being tied to IE or if you yearn for a new "Outlook" on e-mail, the officially released Mozilla Firefox and pre-release Mozilla Thunderbird serve as solid alternatives with some intriguing extras. And the price is right — both are available for free.
Google Desktop Search: Lightning-Quick Searches for Your PC - 11/4/2004 With its new Desktop Search utility, Google is hoping to improve the process of text-based searching on your computer the way it did on the World Wide Web. It passes with flying colors in this area, returning accurate results in fractions of a second, but does providing nearly instantaneous access to your PC's information come at a cost?
Kerio Personal Firewall: Premium Security That Delivers Strength and Simplicity - 10/27/2004 To better protect yourself against threats like rogue applications downloading and running on your PC, you need to be running a software firewall. Though such products from companies like Symantec, McAfee, and Zone Labs are certainly better known, Kerio Personal Firewall distinguishes itself in the category by managing to be simple enough for a novice to operate while still providing many of the advanced features that typically appeal to more tech-savvy users.
Desktop Armor: Waging War Against Malware and More - 10/24/2004 Desktop Armor is a toned-down, business-oriented version of Geek Superhero that offers all the same features as its comic-inspired counterpart. The $25 client protects your computer from a wide variety of nefarious and annoying activities that can stealthily infiltrate your computer, including adware and spyware components, programs that secretly install and automatically run when Windows starts, and poorly trained apps that leave unwanted detritus littered across your desktop.
Anfy Java and Anfy Flash: Enticing Visual Effects for Your Web Site - 10/21/2004 Adding visual interest to your Web site can increase your site's return traffic, but if all you add is blinking text you're likely to do just the opposite and drive visitors away. Anfy Team's Java applications and flash creation site let you create complex and compelling effects without doing any programming, and without spending any money.
Excellence in Technology Awards: Make Your Nominations - 10/20/2004 What hardware was hot, what software sizzled, and which services reigned supreme? Break away from your balance sheet and nominate your favorites in the Small Business Computing 2005 Excellence in Technology Awards.
ListGarden RSS Feed Generator: Create RSS Files Simply and Quickly - 10/18/2004 RSS is one of the hottest technologies on the Web today. Most blogging and content management systems have RSS file creation capability built in, but if you're not using one of those programs, it can be a bit tedious. Enter the ListGarden RSS Feed Generator.
Portable RoboForm: The Convenience of Password Management Anywhere You Go - 10/12/2004 RoboForm is a useful tool for automating the often tedious processes of filling out Web forms, storing and entering logon credentials for sites, and creating new passwords. The newly released Portable RoboForm (RoboForm2Go) does an efficient job of taking these capabilities and making them mobile, allowing you to utilize the convenience of RoboForm on nearly any computer.
Java 5: Unleash the Tiger on Your Next Project - 10/3/2004 Sun has let loose the Tiger. The next version of the Java platform has been released as Java 5 with many enhancements and performance optimizations. But what exactly happened to versions 3 and 4?
Maxthon: IE on Steroids - 9/29/2004 If you've tried browsers like Opera and Netscape but for some reason keep coming back to Internet Explorer, no doubt you still miss some of the features these alternatives provide. Fire up the IE-based Maxthon and you'll be able to enjoy a multi-window interface as well as a compelling list of extras that can make your online experience more productive and enjoyable. Oh, and did we mention it's free?
Alcohol 120%: 240 Proof Proves Intoxicating - 9/22/2004 Do you ever worry that your precious game disks will get scratched, or even worse, lost? And even with all that RAM and a multi-Gig CPU, why do you still have to continually wait for your DVD drive to deliver data? A speedy alternative to the CD/DVD drive bottleneck, Alcohol Software's Alcohol 120% might make your head spin once you get used to moving your CDs and DVDs to your hard drive.
WinGate 6.0: Your Gateway to Internet Connectivity for the Entire LAN - 9/20/2004 More than just a means for connecting the computers on your LAN to the Internet, WinGate offers maximum protection from Internet-based threats and a wide range of services for effectively operating in today's net-centric environments.
Zoom Player: A Player for Every Type of Media File? - 9/8/2004 Can you play multimedia files on your computer? Of course you can, but which of the multitude of file formats can you actually use? Zoom Player from Inmatrix claims to support the widest variety of multimedia formats, including the most recent formats, while also giving you ultimate control over your viewing and listening environment.
Bloomba: Putting an End to the Frantic Search for E-mail - 9/2/2004 Whether you're chronically disorganized or merely overwhelmed by the massive size of your inbox, Bloomba makes it easy to find that electronic message in a haystack.
Gaim and Trillian: Making Multi-Protocol Instant Messaging Possible - 8/31/2004 For those that cannot imagine life without a real-time link to friends and co-workers and for whom one instant messaging client is simply not enough, you're in luck. Several vendors have stepped up to the plate with products that can handle chatter from multiple IM services at the same time. Today we'll take a look at two, Gaim and Trillian, to give a sense of what's possible.
