TBB's Software Recommendations & Reviews

Software Recommendation: Caffeine

Thomas B. Boling — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 05:04:34 +0000

As all of us Mac users know, sometimes when you’re watching a movie, or simply walking away for a little bit, Your Mac screen dims to save energy. Although saving energy is a good thing, dimming of the screen can sometimes be annoying, especially when you don’t want it to.

Of course if it’s that annoying to deal with, you can always disable energy saving all together…But I wouldn’t recommend that. Now get this, what if there were an application that can turn off screen dimming according to your own manual time set durations.

Well, no need to wonder “What if”, because such an application does exist. The application needed to accomplish this is called Caffeine. Caffeine is very small in download and installation size, and is very simple to use for any type of Mac user.

When you open up Caffeine, it gives you a set of options to manually choose from. Such options that you can select are: Automatically start Caffeine at login, Activate Caffeine at launch, a default duration of: Indefinitely, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours and 5 hours.

Once you set Caffeine’s options to your liking, a coffee cup will appear on the top right hand corner of your menu bar. From there, you can do a simple left mouse click over the icon, and it will set itself to the options you have chosen. If you selected Indefinitely, it will not dim the screen at all, if you selected 5 minutes then the screen will not dim for 5 minutes, so on and so on…

If you want to know if the application is working correctly, just make sure the coffee cup icon is outlined in dark black, and not greyed out…It’s as simple as that. Everything about Caffeine is fast, efficient and simple. Like many say…It’s the small thing’s in life that count the most.

Check out Caffeine now, Its completely free, and it’s definitely a good tool to keep around when you need it.

System Requirements:

Mac OS X 10.6 or later

License Info:

Freeware

Screenshot of Caffeine:

For more on this product, such as information and download, please visit the official website below.

Caffeine Official Website

January 6, 2011: The day that Mac OS X will have a built in App Store

Thomas B. Boling — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 20:28:46 +0000

Don’t forget to check for software updates on your Mac, come January 6, 2011. Apple will be integrating the Mac App Store into Snow Leopard, offering you thousands of apps that can be easily accessed and downloaded to your machine. The Mac App Store is just like the ones featured for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. When you download an application from the app store, the application will fly out of the store application, and install directly from your dock.

Just like any other app store Apple offers, it will feature information about the application, along with screenshots, customer reviews, developer information, and if updates are available for the product. For more information about the upcoming Mac App Store, visit the official website below.

Click here to see more information about the Mac App Store.

Software Recommendation: Comodo Internet Security Premium

Thomas B. Boling — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 00:36:24 +0000

Comodo Internet Security Premium is a multi-layered protection suite, that will put the paranoid at ease. Comodo includes a lot of features that are included in most paid products. It uses the most sophisticated technologies, and provides the most accurate detection around. Comodo is the first of its kind to offer all the bells and whistles that a user requires, at absolutely no cost to you.

Comodo is always improving their protection engine, adding new features, and listening to what users want. The detection rate is accurate and detects hardly any false positives.

For being a free product, Comodo Internet Security Premium offers an over-abundance of features.

To see what is offered in this protection suite, read below.

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What you get:

Antivirus: An Antivirus package that will track down and destroy any existing threats hiding in your PC (Uses cloud based scanning technologies to detect and eliminate viruses, worms and Trojan horses). Includes Database updating, Real Time Scanning, Manual Scanning, scheduled Scanning and Exclusions (Custom)

Anti-Spyware: This feature will detect & remove any spyware threats targeting your PC.

Anti-Rootkit: Scans, detects & removes rootkits that exist on your computer.

Bot Protection: This feature prevents malicious software that can bring your PC to a slowdown.

Defense+: Protects critical system files and blocks malware before it has a chance to install onto your system (Advanced host intrusion prevention system)

Auto Sandbox Technology: Auto Sandbox Technology offers the capability of running unknown files in an isolated environment where they can cause no damage to your system.

Firewall: The Firewall will constantly protect your system from inbound and outbound internet attacks (Uses an enterprise class packet filtering firewall). Firewall quickly learns the rules that you set for certain software, and adjusts its alerts accordingly to fit your needs.

Anti-Malware: Kills malicious processes before they have a chance to do harm to your system.

Game Mode: Suppresses all operations that can interfere with a user’s gaming experience. Through this feature you can suppress alerts, virus database updates or scheduled scans.

Secure Wireless Internet Connectivity: A feature called TrustConnect that makes surfing the web safe from any public Wi-Fi location (10 GB per month)

Comodo Secure DNS Service (optional): Comodo Secure DNS Service replaces your existing Recursive DNS Servers and resolves all your DNS requests exclusively through Comodo’s proprietary Directory Services Platform. This feature enables a more reliable, faster, smarter and safer environment when being connected to a network.

Snapshot & Restore: In any case that a user experiences any problems, Comodo Internet Security Premium has a Snapshot & Restore feature that can revert back to a previous working state.

In application categories:

Summary: This window includes information such as: Antivirus status, Defense+ status, and Firewall status. Each category offers critical information such as threats that have been detected, virus database info, unrecognized files observed, applications currently running in a sandbox environment, how many intrusions that have been detected, how many inbound and outbound connections that are active, Traffic, etc.

Antivirus: Run a Scan, Update Virus Database, Quarantined Items, View Antivirus Events, Submit Files, Scheduled Scans, Scan Profiles, Scanner Settings.

Firewall: View Firewall Events, Define a New Trusted Application, Define a New Blocked Application, Network Security Policy, View Active Connections, Stealth Ports Wizard, Firewall Behavior Settings.
Defense+: View Defense+ Events, Trusted Files, Unrecognized Files, Computer Security Policy, View Active Process List, Run a Program in the Sandbox, Defense+ Settings.

More: Preferences, Manage My Configurations, Diagnostics, Check for Updates, Browse Support Forums, Help, About.

Memory Usage:

Memory Usage tends to fluctuate between 5 to 35 MB while running idle, 35 MB and up while doing background tasks and scanning for viruses. The memory usage has improved drastically compared to previous versions of the suite. Comodo Internet Security is not a resource hog, and will not slow down your system. Comodo Internet Security consists of two running processes (cfp.exe and cmdagent.exe)

Updating:

Comodo Internet Security is designed to automatically check for updates several times a day. Updates can either be downloaded to your system manually or automatically from Comodo’s update servers.

Best for:

Both Business and Home Users

As new versions are released, extra features and interface changes might be added.

IMPORTANT: Be very careful when installing the Comodo Secure DNS service, it can turn your networked devices to the point of being inoperable. For first time users, or for people who want to avoid troubleshooting, I recommend not using this feature. This is especially common when using a networked printer. You can Opt-In or Opt-Out of Secure DNS service when installing Comodo Internet Security Premium.

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I have used a lot of protection packages, such as AVG, Avast, Microsoft Security Essentials, Panda Cloud Antivirus, Norton, Trend Micro, Etc.. Nothing really compares to what is being offered here…Comodo Internet Security Premium is definitely the way to go.

System Requirements:

Windows XP Service Pack 2 or above, Windows Vista, Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit environments), 128 MB RAM, 210 MB hard disk space.

License:

Freeware

Screenshots of Comodo Internet Security Premium:

For more on this product, such as information and download, please visit the official website below.

Comodo Internet Security Premium Official Website

Software Recommendation: Synergy +

Thomas B. Boling — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 00:37:12 +0000

Have you ever wanted to use just one keyboard, and one mouse between multiple computers, that contain different operating systems? Well, you’re in luck, a program called Synergy + gives you these capabilities. Check out the features below, to find out what it can do.

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Features:

Simply redirect the mouse and keyboard, between multiple screens.
Merge the clipboards of all systems into one, allowing the user to cut and paste between systems.
Synchronizes screen savers
You can lock screens (Only one screen requires a password to unlock them all)

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Synergy + is an open source application and released under the GNU Public License (GPL). It’s not a KVM or a VNC tool, but achieves similar results.

Synergy + is quite nice. Give it a try, especially if this is a capability you wish to utilize.

System Requirements:

Operating system: Mac, Linux, Windows 2000 and above (32-bit or 64-bit environments)

Ethernet connection

License Info:

GPL – Free

For more on this product, such as information and download, please visit the official website below.

Synergy + Official Website

Software Recommendation: Nitro PDF Reader

Thomas B. Boling — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 19:16:51 +0000

Look what has been brought to the table, that’s right, it is Nitro PDF Reader…The best free PDF reader known to man. Forget Adobe reader and all the other free alternatives. This is the one and only PDF program to get. Look at the features this nice program gives you, then you can see what I mean.

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Features:

User Interface:

Nitro PDF Reader introduces a familiar look and feel, in which is simple, and easily accessed. Nitro PDF Reader utilizes the newly designed Microsoft Office 2010 ribbon interface. The PDF Reader features Task and tool grouping, Icons associated with easy to read text labels, and tabs for easy tasks. Nitro PDF reader is well designed, and easy to navigate through the set of built in features.

Quick access toolbar (QAT):

Through the Quick access toolbar (QAT), you can create an easily accessed group of shortcuts that you use most.

Display Panes:

A wide variety of panes are included with Nitro PDF Reader. The various panes that are included are: Pages, Bookmarks, Comments, Output, Signatures, and Attachments. You have the option to hide or show the variety of panes available. The variety of panes in the program, are intended for easy navigation, when dealing with documents, forms, etc…

Application Help:

Like most programs, Nitro PDF Reader has its own built in Help section. Help can be useful if you’re new to the software.

PDF Properties:

When opening a PDF file with different properties than others, such as security restrictions, digital certificates, or form fields, Nitro PDF Reader will notify you automatically. If you don’t want to be notified about its properties, this option can be easily turned off in Preferences.

File types (PDF creation):

Nitro PDF Reader can handle 300+ file formats, when creating PDF files.

Drag and drop creation:

You can practically drag and drop almost any file, when creating a PDF (Desktop icon, Picture, Etc.)

Create from file (PDF Creation):

Nitro PDF Reader has a built in feature, to create a PDF from any file, with a set of complete customizable options.

Print Dialog (PDF Creation):

When Nitro PDF Reader is installed, it adds a Nitro PDF Creator option, to your list of available printers. If an application can print, you can simply select the Nitro PDF Creator from the printer list, to create a PDF.

Predefined Profiles:

Create a PDF from preset profiles, Predefined Profiles include: Web-Ready (lightweight), Office-Ready (versatile), Print-Ready (higher quality).

Customizing PDF Creation:

Completely take control, and customize the way you create your PDF files. You can specify document information, font embedding, page size, orientation, quality, password security, and initial view settings.

Create PDF files quickly:

Use the most recently applied settings, and bypass the customizable options.

Convert to text:

Convert PDF to text, along with customizable features (Retain: Headers and footers, paragraphs, line width, etc.)

Take Snapshots:

Regardless of content, you can take a snapshot of any image, text, etc…, or anything within your PDF file. This can be copied to your clipboard for reuse of content.

Extract Images:

Extracting images enables you to save any image file from a PDF, separately. This can be done without modifying the original PDF file. When saving individual image files, the following formats are supported: BMP, JPG, PNG, and TIF. Separate options can be applied, while saving images from a PDF.

Adding Notes:

Nitro PDF Reader gives you the capability of posting virtual sticky notes, within any PDF document you wish to create.

Markup Text:

Highlight, underline, strike-out, or add comments to your PDF files.

Type Text Tool:

With the type text tool, you can add text anywhere within your PDF document. You can adjust the size, font type, color, even move or expand the text you’re dealing with.

Read Comments:

You can see a list of all mark-ups, comments, annotations, and revisions within a document, using the comments pane. You can sort by type, page, author, date, color and subject. Comment threads can either be expanded or collapsed as well.

Reply in your PDF:

You can reply to any comment or annotation in your documents – notes, highlights, stamps, drawings, measurements and more…

Edit & revise feedback:

You can correct, edit, revise, or delete any comments, within your PDF document.

View from any source:

You can view all comments and annotations from other PDF readers, such as Adobe Reader, etc…

Fill in and save forms:

You can open up a form using Nitro PDF Reader, and fill them out by typing in the appropriate fields within the document. Such forms include (Company forms, taxes, W4, etc.). You can either fill out forms from an existing document, or from a scanned form that were never properly setup in the first place.

Signatures:

You can create and add a signature to your PDF document, and retain its transparency. This can be useful, when typing out forms that require a signature. You can password protect your signature, so nobody else can use it, as well as viewing and managing a multiple of signatures that you can use in various forms.

Security:

As Nitro PDF Reader offers a lot of useful options and tools, it also includes a nice set of security features as well. You can restrict internet access for PDF Files that require internet connectivity to share or obtain information. With the Nitro PDF Reader, you can completely disable all internet communication from your PDF Files, or you have the option to specify a list of trusted sites, allowing the user to operate at a level that is secure. Another great security feature that Nitro PDF Reader offers is the capability to disable JavaScript, disabling JavaScript can prevent unauthorized activity and malicious attacks.

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Nitro PDF Reader is the leader of PDF Viewers. It is feature rich, and includes more than any free PDF viewer available, including Adobe themselves. You can not only view, but you can create, edit, fill out forms, add comments, add sticky notes and more.

Nitro PDF Reader also ensures its users with security features, to keep everyone safe and at ease when dealing with their PDF documents.

Everything about this program has been done right, and it is an excellent piece of software that deserves to be in the spot light for its obvious set of features.

If you truly are looking for a nice, simple, feature rich, secure PDF program, then look no further, because its starring right at you……it’s called Nitro PDF Reader……Download now, you won’t regret it…trust me.

System Requirements:

Operating System: Windows XP with Service Pack 3, Windows Vista with Service Pack 2, Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit environments), Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Service Pack 1, 2008 RC2 (32-bit or 64-bit environments) RAM (Memory): 1 GB system memory Hard Drive Space: 300MB CPU: Intel Pentium 4 or above Resolution: Minimum of 1024×768 screen resolution Additional Requirements: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or above, Office suite for 300+ file type conversion, Internet connection for online features.

License Info:

Freeware

Screenshots of Nitro PDF Reader:

Click images to enlarge

For more on this product, such as information and download, please visit the official website below.

Nitro PDF Reader Official Website

Check this out: Peacekeeper (A browser benchmarking site)

Thomas B. Boling — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 01:09:36 +0000

The creators of the famous benchmarking software (3DMark, PCMark), Futuremark introduces its new flavor of benchmarking tool, called Peacekeeper. What is Peacekeeper you ask…Well, Peacekeeper is a beautifully designed website that tests the performance of your Internet browser, and lets you compare your scores with other browsers that have been tested on the site. This is a perfect tool for the curious, and benchmarking geeks alike. So what exactly does it test? Take a look below, I will give you a brief description of what it does.

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What does Peacekeeper test?

Peacekeeper only tests the Javascript functionality within your browser. It will not test other functions, such as Security, W3C Conformity, Flash, or other features. Your final test score is not influenced by the latency or your internet connection speed.

When running Peacekeeper in your browser, it will test the following categories.

Rendering
Social networking
Complex graphics
Data
DOM operations
Text parsing

The overall test will roughly take 5 to 10 minutes, and will run directly through the browser being tested. When the test is complete, you will be scored. Once you have been scored through Peacekeeper, you can then compare your results with other browsers (Higher scores are the best performing browsers, according to benchmark testing).

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As browsers become more important, and in high demand of functionality and features, people want to know what they are dealing with, and which browser is more fitting for them. Peacekeeper is a perfect tool for people wanting the benchmark results about today’s modern browsers. If you’re curious about the performance of your browser, or a benchmarking geek….then give Peacekeeper a try….it is a really nice tool.

System Requirements:

Internet Browser with Java Plugin installed.

Service:

Free to use

To test your browser, click on the official website below

Peacekeeper Official Website

iPad Game Recommendation: BrainShake

Thomas B. Boling — Mon, 24 May 2010 03:06:47 +0000

Have you ever played the popular Bop-It or Simon Says games? If you answered yes, then BrainShake is definitely a game to get for your iPad. As the game is being played, BrainShake will blurt out a set of commands for you to do (Shake, Switch, Twist, Squeeze, Push and Pull), when it does this….you must do what it tells you. If you fail to follow one of the commands, or simply take too much time….it’s game over for you. So, make sure you’re fast and effective, when following the commands of BrainShake.

BrainShake is lots of fun, and can entertain for hours. This is a must have download for your iPad. Download now, and have fun.

Compatibility:

iPad with iPhone OS 3.2 or later (Wi-Fi or 3G Models)

License Info:

$2.99 via App Store (Prices are subject to change, upon the developers own discretion)

Screenshots of BrainShake:

Click images to enlarge

Above screenshot images are from the BrainShake App Store page.

For more information on this product, please visit the official website below.

BrainShake Official Website

Software Recommendation: Speccy

Thomas B. Boling — Sat, 08 May 2010 01:05:34 +0000

From the creators of the popular CCleaner program, Piriform introduces their System Information tool, called Speccy. Speccy is a nice powerhouse application, that gives you detailed information about your computer system, all for free. Speccy is a small program, takes up very little system resources, has a nice interface, and features some nice information about the internals of your computer system.

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Speccy offers a basic description of the following categories:

Summary: A brief overview of system information.
Operating System: Basic Operating System information.

Speccy offers a detailed description of the following categories.

CPU: Core Info, Processor, Stepping, Threads, Revision, Core Speeds, Temperature Readings for each core, and more…
RAM: Frequency, RAM Manufacturer, Channels, CAS Latency, and more….
Motherboard: Motherboard Manufacturer, Model, Version, BIOS Info, and more…
Graphics: Monitor information, GPU Information, Resolutions, Voltage, BIOS, Shaders, and more..
Hard Drives: Manufacturer Info, Form Factor, Capacity, Temperature Readings, and more…
Optical Drives: Media Type, Name, and more…
Audio: Sound Card Info, Playback Devices, Recording Devices
Peripherals: Information on all system peripherals
Network: Connected Through, IP Address, Adapter Type, and more…

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Speccy may not offer as much system information as popular paid programs, such as Lavalys Everest or SiSoft Sandra, but it certainly contains enough system information to satisfy the needs of its users. Speccy is definitely a nice program that offers a clean interface, as well as a nice set of category information. If you absolutely don’t want to fork out the big bucks for Lavalys Everest or SiSoft Sandra, then this program will definitely be perfect for you.

Currently runs on:

Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server, Windows Vista, Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit environments)

License Info:

Freeware

Screenshots of Speccy:

Click images to enlarge

For more on this product, such as information and download, please visit the official website below.

Speccy Official Website

Software Recommendation: PureRa

Thomas B. Boling — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 22:43:54 +0000

PureRa is a free system purification tool, that removes useless files from your computer system. PureRa picks up, and removes junk that other cleaning programs seem to miss. This tool is a perfect companion to use in combination with other system cleaners. The program itself is small in size, does not require an installation to work, and it effectively cleans out those pesky junk files that aren’t needed.

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PureRa scans and removes:
*.sqm, FNTCACHE.DAT, Temp Files, Recycle Bin, Software Distribution Logs, Windows Update Installation Files, WMI Logs, Config.msi, IconCache.db, Thumbnail Caches, Etc.

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For being a small, lightweight program, it is a very effective approach to cleaning your system out. Download PureRa now, and find out for yourself on how well it does.

Advice: Run this program after using another system cleaner.

Currently runs on:

Windows XP, Windows Vista (without UAC), Windows 7 (without UAC) – (32-bit or 64-bit environments)

License info:

Freeware

Screenshots of PureRa:

Click images to enlarge

For more on this product, such as information and download, please visit the official website below.

PureRa Official Website

COMING SOON! Recommendations & Reviews for the Apple iPad.

Thomas B. Boling — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:50:29 +0000

Get ready folks, the time will soon come. Apple iPad Recommendations & Reviews will be featured at this site. Check frequently for updates.