Aug 21

CamStudio 2.5 – Free Screencast Recorder

Posted in: Features, Freeware, Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on September 11, 2007 by CyberNet.

CamStudio 2.5 Beta CamStudio is one of the best free screencast recorders available, and it just got a little bit better. The developer recently released CamStudio 2.5 Beta 1 and it includes several new features that users are surely going to love. I think my favorite things are being able to select a specific window to record and highlighting the mouse clicks:

  • Record region by window
  • Have CamStudio highlight left/right mouse clicks
  • Multi-language support for Recorder, SWF Producer, and Player
  • Record for a preset amount of time
  • Add a timestamp, caption, or watermark to the video
  • You can redirect a video viewer to another URL once the video has finished playing

Vista is not completely supported yet, but a workaround is available. I just tried it in Vista and didn’t have to use the workaround. Maybe it has something to do with me having Vista’s new Compatibility Pack installed?

While this is a pretty cool program there is still a small part of me that is partial to Jing. That’s the free screencast software TechSmith recently released, and it’s extremely easy to use yet offers all the features most people would need. If using any software seems like too much of a chore then checkout what the web-based Screencast.com has to offer.

CamStudio 2.5 Beta 1 Announcement & Download

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Aug 20

PhraseExpress 5 Beta – Text Predictions

Posted in: Features, Freeware, Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili, videos

This article was written on December 13, 2007 by CyberNet.

PhraseExpress is one of our favorite freeware applications because of the sheer power it harnesses. They’re stepping up their game with the new PhraseExpress 5 that is slated for release sometime next month, but in the meantime they have a Beta version that you can kick around.

Version 5 introduces several new features, and two of them are particularly great. The first one is an automatic text prediction tool that will learn phrases that you commonly type. That’s right, if it sees you repeating the same phrases over and over it will automatically start suggesting them in a small popup as you’re typing.

The other cool feature is a more advanced clipboard that retains several of your recently copied text snippets. By default the Windows clipboard is only able to store the last item that you copied, but with PhraseExpress 5 you can access several text items that you’ve previously copied. To retrieve them you’ll simply use the Shift+Ctrl+V keyboard shortcut.

I’m sure you want to see all of this in action, and there’s no better way than with a video demonstration:

PhraseExpress is free for personal use, but the Beta version will expire on January 31, 2008. They expect the final release to be completed before then, so this is just a way to ensure people upgrade to the latest version.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Aug 17

Resize the Vista Sidebar

Posted in: Features, Freeware, Newly Released, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili, Windows Vista

This article was written on August 17, 2007 by CyberNet.

Vista Sidebar ResizerLately I’ve been becoming more acquainted with the Windows Vista Sidebar. I’ve never been a big fan of these sidebars in the past, but after browsing through the gallery I’ve found some great gadgets that bring a lot of information to my desktop.

One thing that Microsoft did, however, is put gadgets on multiple "pages" once a user has filled up the sidebar. You would then use the left and right arrows at the top of the sidebar to shuffle through the multiple pages of gadgets.

Back in June Ashley reviewed a free application called the Windows Sidebar Styler. It’s a nifty little application that gives users the ability to style the sidebar with different skins. Yesterday a new version was launched, and one of the big new features is a sidebar resizer. Instead of gadgets overflowing onto multiple pages, they will then show up in multiple columns.

Resizing the sidebar is about as natural as it gets. You just grab the edge and drag it to the width that you want it. What I’ve noticed though is that enabling this completely disables the "page" feature for the sidebar. This could become a problem if you have, for example, 4 pages worth of gadgets, but your sidebar is only wide enough to display two of those pages. The rest of the gadgets that aren’t displayed will never be visible to you.

Some of you might be wondering why you would want a wide sidebar in Vista since it would just take up more room. The sidebar doesn’t actually have to be on top of all the other windows, and instead can just appear as part of the desktop. Sure you could drag the gadgets off from the sidebar onto the desktop, but the sidebar makes it nice and easy for you to keep them organized.

Note: You’ll find the option to enable a resizable sidebar by pressing the "More" button:

Vista Resiable Sidebar

Download the New Windows Sidebar Styler

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Aug 17

360Desktop is a New Kind of Virtual Desktop

Posted in: Freeware, Google, Newly Released, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on July 09, 2008 by CyberNet.

Virtual desktops are one of those things that have been around for ages, and they have been an integral part of the Linux operating system for a long time. It wasn’t until Apple released Mac OS X Leopard last year that a virtual desktop system, which Apple calls Spaces, shipped with an operating system other than a Linux distribution.

Just because Windows doesn’t include a virtual desktop manager doesn’t mean that you can’t get them. In fact there are several third-party applications that will get the job done, and most of them are free. There’s one free program for Windows called 360Desktop that puts a new spin on virtual desktops.

What it essentially does is extend your desktop so that it is ultra-wide, and it will feel like you have three or four different monitors attached to each other. You can pan across your desktop moving icons and windows around as you so wish. In the end you’ll have a 360 degree desktop that can wrap around from one end to another:

360desktop-4.jpg
(Click to Enlarge)

Here are some of the things that I like about the program:

  • The navigation window shown in the upper-right corner of the screenshot makes it easy to move around the desktop. Normally the desktop preview portion is minimized so that it doesn’t get in your way while you’re working, but it can be activated by clicking the red 360Desktop icon on the scrollbar.
  • It shows little program icons on the desktop preview indicating where you’re running applications are located.
  • Clicking an application on the Taskbar will take you to where it’s located on the 360Desktop.

With all of that being said there are still some things that need to be worked on. For example, there are only a handful of panoramic backgrounds currently available, but it will support custom photos soon. 360Desktop is still in the early stages, and I suspect that it will get better over time.

My question to you is whether a program like this is something you’d prefer to use over a real virtual desktop application. Do you like having your virtual desktops separated into different blocks, or is it nicer when it’s one seamless desktop like 360Desktop offers?

Get 360Desktop [via Lifehacker]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Aug 16

Auto Lock a Computer with a USB Drive

Posted in: Freeware, security, Software, Today's Chili, usb drive, Windows

This article was written on May 28, 2010 by CyberNet.

predator auto lock.png

arrow Windows Windows only arrow
Most people carry a USB drive around for storing files on-the-go, but that’s not all they are good for. A free (for non-commercial use) program called Predator will actually let you use a USB drive as a key for your computer. Basically, when you remove the drive the computer will lock itself, and it will be unlocked the next time you insert the drive.

How it works is simple:

  1. You insert the USB drive
  2. You run PREDATOR (autostart with Windows is possible)
  3. You do your work
  4. When you’re away from your PC, you simply remove the USB drive – once it is removed, the keyboard and mouse are disabled and the screen darkens
  5. When you return back to your PC, you put the USB flash drive in place – keyboard and mouse are immediately released, and the display is restored.

There are some things you might naturally be concerned about, such as what happens if you lend out your drive to someone and they copy everything on it? Well, you can set up the app to require a password in order to unlock your computer, but that may not be necessary. Predator will update your key from time-to-time so that any copies are invalidated. If you’re worried about losing your USB drive you can always designate a secondary drive, that uses its own key, that can be used in an emergency.

The free version of Predator is only for personal, non-commercial use. If you do buy the app you’ll also get some advanced features such as Twitter or SMS notifications in the event that someone tries to “break into” your computer. For most home users I’m guessing the logging options really aren’t necessary.

Predator Homepage (Windows only; Free for non-commercial use)

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Aug 16

Firefox 3 Mac Theme for Windows

Posted in: Firefox 3, Freeware, Mac, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on June 20, 2008 by CyberNet.

firefox 3 mac theme.jpg

The other day we showed how you could get the Firefox 3 Vista theme on XP, or vice versa. Well, there is a theme out there for those of you who want to grab the Firefox 3 theme for Mac as well, and it works pleasantly well on Windows. The checkboxes, scrollbars, and buttons all take on a native Mac appearance.

I’m not sure if many of you will want to use the Mac theme on Windows because it doesn’t exactly fit in very well. Although it’s possible that you’re using a theme or mod (like this one) to make Windows look like a Mac, and this Firefox theme would help complete the look you’re shooting for. I suspect that this theme will work on Linux as well, and I’m sure someone will confirm this in the comments. ;)

This theme is still experimental, which means you’ll need to login to the Mozilla site before being able to install it. If you don’t have a login you can use a generic one that I’ve created over at Mozilla:

  • Username: firefox@cybernetnews.com
  • Password: cybernetnews

Note: If someone decides to be funny and change the password just let us know. Since we have full control over the email address we can change the password back at anytime.

Get the Firefox 3 Mac theme for Windows

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Aug 14

Cover Flow for Firefox Bookmarks

Posted in: Firefox Extensions, Freeware, Newly Released, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on March 07, 2008 by CyberNet.

firefox coverflow bookmarks
(Click to Enlarge)

Apple has really been successful with their Cover Flow representation of album covers, and with their latest Leopard operating system they even added a Cover Flow view for browsing files. This has to leave you wondering why you’re not able to browse your bookmarks in a similar fashion?

Well, thanks to this new Firefox extension (install it here) you can. As you visit websites that you’ve saved as bookmarks the extension will create a small JPG snapshot (about 30KB in size) that will be used when you open up your Bookmark Manager. In the Bookmark Manager you’ll see a Cover Flow-like interface for flipping through your bookmarks.

If you click on the View menu you can switch between the Details view (the one that looks like Cover Flow) or a regular Thumbnails view. The Thumbnails view tiles all of the websites on one page which might be a little more user friendly if you’re going through hundreds of bookmarks.

There is also a Create Previews option located under the File menu if you want to have the extension go through all of your bookmarks and grab previews for them. It’s all done in the background so you can go about doing your business in Firefox while it works, but it will likely take awhile if you have hundreds of bookmarks.

I estimate that each preview image is around 30KB in size, and about 30 previews will take up about 1MB of space. All of the JPG files are stored in your Firefox profile in a folder called bookmarkpreviews that will be deleted if you uninstall the extension.

Bookmark Previews Firefox Extension
Kudos to “Trip” for the tip!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Aug 09

Free and Simple Screenshot Utility with a Plugin System

Posted in: Freeware, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on June 01, 2011 by CyberNet.

Free screenshot tool

arrow Windows Windows only arrow
There are so many free screenshot utilities out there that it can be overwhelming trying to find the one that fits your needs, which is why we try to cover many of them. Cropper is one that we can’t leave out because it keeps things simple, but lets you extend the functionality with a variety of plugins that have already been created.

For starters I would grab Cropper and take a look at the controls on the products homepage. Some of the keyboard shortcuts are really nice, such as being able to use the arrow keys to nudge the area selector by one pixel. This is a screenshot utility that keyboard junkies will surely love.

Once you’ve got the controls under your belt you can move on to downloading plugins that extend the functionality of Cropper:

  • AnimatedGif – Captures to an animated GIF image.
  • AviFormat – Captures to an AVI movie.
  • CountdownPng – Gives you a countdown before taking the shot to allow you to set it up.
  • SendToEmail – Creates an email message using the default email program, and attaches the image to the message.
  • SendToFlickr – Sends captures to one’s Flickr account.
  • SendToOneNote – Sends captures to a page in OneNote.
  • SendToS3 – Sends captures to one’s Amazon S3 account.
  • SendToTwitPic – Sends captures to TwitPic, and also sends a Tweet.
  • TFSWorkItem – Creates a Team Foundation Server work item with the captures image as an attachment.
  • Imgur – Sends captures to ImgUr, a free image hosting service.
  • ImageShack – Sends captures to ImageShack, a free image hosting service.
  • Paint.NET – sends captures to the Paint.NET application for immediate editing.
  • SendToPicasa – sends a capture to Google’s Picasa photo sharing service.
  • SendToFacebook – uploads a screen capture to Facebook.

On my system Cropper uses very little resources (under 3MB of memory), but unfortunately there isn’t a portable version which would be the cherry on top for me.

Cropper Homepage (Windows only; Freeware)
Cropper Plugins Homepage

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Aug 08

Greasemonkey for Firefox 3

Posted in: Firefox 3, Firefox Extensions, Freeware, Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on June 05, 2008 by CyberNet.

greasemonkey firefox 3-1.png

Greasemonkey is one of the extensions that I know many of you are waiting to get upgraded before making the jump to Firefox 3. If that’s the only extension you’re holding out for then I’ve got good news for you… there’s a pre-release version of Greasemonkey that was assembled a few weeks ago (May 19, 2008), and it’s completely compatible with Firefox 3. You can install the latest Greasemonkey 0.8 RC here.

The new version includes some enhancements and, as you can see in the screenshot above, a hip new icon. The release of Greasemonkey 0.8 RC was originally announced in this forum, but after looking around a little bit I noticed that there was an even newer version available. So I recommend directly downloading this latest release if you’re using Firefox 3.

The main developer, Aaron, hasn’t been heard from in a little while. He’s the one that has control over what gets posted to the official Add-ons site, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed that the new Greasemonkey will be stumbling on to there any day now. In the mean time you can use the Release Candidate.

Greasemonkey for Firefox 3 Download (Release Candidate)
Thanks Max for the tip!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Aug 06

Snarl Brings Growl-Like Notifications to Windows

Posted in: Freeware, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on July 29, 2008 by CyberNet.

snarl-1.pngarrow Windows Windows only arrow
One of the things that I think all operating systems lack is a universal way for applications to display notifications. Yes, there are those pesky popup balloons on Windows, but using that to display notifications for things like new emails or messages is flat out wrong.

I’m not sure why all of the operating systems aren’t coming equipped with notification systems yet, but third-party developers are starting to take it upon themselves to create easy-to-use universal notification systems. Growl on Mac OS X started this whole idea, and it looks like something similar is making its way over to the Windows side. It’s called Snarl.

What’s nice about programs like this is that they provide a central location to enable and disable notifications for all applications that use the system. Right now Snarl ships with several different types of system notifications, and extensions can also be downloaded to add additional functionality. These extensions add compatibility for programs like Firefox, Pidgin, Songbird, Thunderbird, and more.

Unfortunately there aren’t a lot of supported programs at this point, but that’s because they partly rely on developers to take it upon themselves to add support for Snarl. There’s a developers section on the site dedicated just for that purpose, and hopefully in the future extensions for popular apps like Outlook will be available.

Snarl Homepage [via Lifehacker]

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