There are lots of free image recovery software titles out there. I couldn’t figure out how companies could still be charging for their products when the free ones are great. Lexar was one of those companies still selling, but for now (I don’t know if it is permanent), they are offering their product for free if you purchase one of their memory cards. However, the link is open to all:
Product Highlights
- Recovers photo, video, and audio files from any brand or type of memory card, using any card reader
- Recovers popular file formats, including JPEG, TIFF, RAW, MP4, AVI, and more
- Redesigned interface and simple recovery process
- Live online chat link to Lexar support engineers
- Includes card reformatting, secure deletion, and overall card health check features
- Works with PC or Mac
From Download Squad:
What could be better than a program that will convert audio, video, and image files from and to just about any format you can think of? How about one that does it all batch-style with minimal clicking? FormatFactory doesn’t care what files you want to swap in what order, just feed it your sources and watch it go to work. Unlike a lot of similar apps, this one doesn’t limit you to only video or audio, or even to one file at a time.Dump in as much as you want of whatever you want, and FormatFactory will do all the heavy lifting. It even supports the iPhone and PSP, and 3GP as well - making it a great way to cram multiformat goodness onto your favorite portable player.
This posting is from almost a month ago, and I finally got around to trying it last night. It’s great! It converted a video for me in just a few seconds. I also tried a WAV to MP3 converstion and it only took a few seconds as well.
None of the download links on the site itself worked, so I did a search for the program and found it easily.
The latest issue of Windows Secrets newsletter had some information about driver update software. Several paid products were mentioned, but RadarSync has a free version. I’ve tried it and it seems to work well enough. There isn’t much to say about it other than it determines what hardware you have, the current driver version, and it then checks to see if there are updated drivers. I ran it on my desktop and laptop, and it did find drivers that were not the most current.
PC Magazine has some tips for Windows XP:
We’re acutely aware of the fact that many of you are reluctant to make the move to Windows Vista . We understand—really. Why leave the comfort of your tried-but-true Windows XP ? So, whether you’re a die-hard XP user, or you’re just biding your time ’til Windows 7 arrives, we’re here to help. We’ve dug up our favorite Windows XP tips, tricks, and hacks just for you.
Ed Bott mentioned that Laplink is celebrating their 25th anniversary. Yesterday they were giving away PCmover for free. However, their servers couldn’t handle the traffic as word got around, so they’ve extended it through today. Visit the Laplink web site to register and download the software. I don’t know when or if I’ll use it, but I’ve grabbed my copy!
In an article about extending battery life, Dennis O’Reilly mentions the RightMark CPU Clock utility he uses. Not only does it show information about your CPU, but it also lets you control several different power settings.
RightMark CPU Clock Utility (RMClock) is a small GUI application designed for real-time CPU frequency, throttling and load level monitoring and on-the-fly adjustment of the CPU performance level on supported CPU models via processor’s power management model-specific registers (MSRs). In automatic management mode it continuously monitors the CPU usage level and dynamically adjusts the CPU frequency, throttle and/or voltage level as needed, realizing the “Performance on Demand” concept.
I downloaded the RAR package, extracted it and ran the program (it appears that there is nothing to install). If you like to see the basic information about your CPU and other hardware, along with those power settings I mentioned, then check it out.
PC Magazine has a huge collection of tips:
Crafted by our analysts and editors and tested in PC Labs, our vast list of tips starts with the fundamentals of computing and then moves on to multimedia, mobility, business, and online solutions for maximizing your digital life.
I’ve linked to various Windows Secrets newsletter items in the past. It is an excellent newsletter and I highly recommend it. The issue I received today has a link to nine freeware apps that have been regularly centred out/chosen in “best of” lists.
The “best freeware” lists published by Web sites and magazines frequently trumpet dozens of programs, but the results reflect the subjective opinions of just one or two testers.
To find the best of the best, I compared roundups of “great” freeware conducted recently by four reputable publications to find the programs that were endorsed by at least three of the reviews.
Out of the lists he looked at, only 9 programs were on 3 of the lists, and only 1 was on all 4. It’s a good read with links to each of the 9 programs.
A couple of months ago Download Squad highlighted the program FontEXPRO:
Are you constantly struggling to remember the difference between Arial, Times New Roman and Palatino Linotype? Sure, you could just keep changing fonts from the drop-down menus in your word processor, or you could use FontEXPRO to preview all the fonts stored on your computer and choose the right one for the job.
The FontEXPRO site explains it this way:
Browse a folder full of truetype fonts and view previews of them. You can enter your own text and decide which font is best for your project etc.
Features
* A preview of a folder full of fonts - select a folder and visualize each folder. Ideal for finding the perfect font for your own project
* A preview of your text in each of the browsed fonts
* A search facility to find that font
* An alphabetically sorted list
* Manage your fonts
A couple of months ago Kim Komando mentioned a program called GreenPrint which helps you eliminate those pages with 2 lines on the bottom which waste paper:
Our patent-pending print preview, GreenView, displays all pages and highlights wasteful pages in red. With a click you can: print only what you want, remove images or text, create a PDF file.
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