BlueStacks store brings Android apps to PCs. PC users cringed at the news that the Windows 8 app store has just 2,000 apps ready to go, but fear not: The free AMD AppZone store is today bringing 500,000 Android apps to PCs. Software developer BlueStacks and partner AMD are touting the AMD AppZone store as the biggest collection of PC-compatible Android apps, which range from games and news to productivity tools and antivirus software.
About 50 of the apps are free to download. BlueStacks last year put out their Android x86 app player and attracted investment from AMD. The two took BlueStacks’ original player, which was designed for Intel PCs, and expanded its use to AMD-powered PCs. AMD produces accelerated processing units for PC and gaming console manufacturers. Competing aggressively with Intel, today AMD also announced its new Trinity APU, which ships Oct. 2. “App stores and apps represent a multi-billion dollar opportunity,” Sharma said. For now, apps can be controlled using mouses and keyboards. Store Your Logins in Norton Identity Safe. Users of Symantec's Norton line of security products have long had access to its password management tools.
But you no longer need to be a paying Norton user to get access to Norton Identity Safe, a standalone product that makes password management a (relatively) easy task. Once you install Norton Identity Safe, you'll need to set up an online Norton account, or link Identity Safe to your existing account. You'll also need to set a master password for access to your Vault, which stores all of your login information. That's it: setup is simple. And then you're good to go: You simply surf the Web as you normally would. Norton's Identity Safe installs as a toolbar on your browser, and it works in the background, capturing your passwords as you go. Identity Safe also captures personal details that you can use to fill in forms, and saves these profiles as Identity Cards, so you can speed up the process next time you need to enter the info. —Liane Cassavoy. Swear Off Time-Wasting Websites With Cold Turkey Free Edition. Cats would be far more remorseful if they only knew how many hours of productivity are lost on funny cat pictures across the world every day.
Then again, the same could be said about random YouTube videos, aimless Wikipedia crawling, and the numerous other forms of online procrastination keeping us away from doing boring (or scary), yet essential, work. The trouble is that pulling the plug is often not an option: Many of us need the Internet for work. One interesting solution is censoring your own Internet usage, blocking out distracting websites while still being able to use the Web for work. This is what open-source utility Cold Turkey Free Edition offers, at no cost and with no ads. Free browser add-ons such as WasteNoTime for Chrome and LeechBlock for Firefox offer easy ways to block distracting websites, but they are also easy to disable. Cold Turkey, modeled after Mac utility SelfControl, takes blocking much more seriously. TunnelBear description, Internet Tools Downloads List By 30 Day Change. One of the great ironies of the Internet is that it is meant to connect everyone together and break down barriers, but at the same time media companies erect location-based barriers around their properties.
This practice is known as geo-blocking. For example, web services like Hulu, Pandora, Google Voice, and Google Music are not available outside of the United States, while BBC iPlayer and Grooveshark are blocked to anyone outside of the UK. Then there's all the music uploaded to YouTube, which is blocked in various parts of Europe, depending on the strength of the music industry lobbyists. To some people however, these constant attempts by the media industry to segregate users according to geographic location seems unfair The way around this issue is to use a VPN (which stands for Virtual Private Network) program, such as TunnelBear TunnelBear is one of the exceptions. What's even better is that paid customers can use TunnelBear on the iPad and iPhone. —Mark O'Neill. Remote Utilities Free Edition description, Internet Tools Downloads List By 30 Day Change | PCWorld.
Some office IT utilities make the transition to home use without skipping a beat. A staple of home PCs since the era of modems and MS-DOS, remote desktop control programs allow a user to take direct control over a system without being physically present. Given the mission-critical nature they often fill in a workplace, and the length of time they've been around, it's not a surprise that many of these suites are robust, stable, and capable of performing just about any computer task you care to conjure. Remote Utilities has been a player in this market for years, with their first release in 2004 of Remote Office Manager. Since then the feature list has grown considerably, but the biggest change came with the release of 5.2; the current version is now free for personal use. That's quite a perk, given the $30 cover charge for entry otherwise.
Every remote access package has its forte, and Remote Utilities picked a good area in which to excel: speed. The biggest problem is OS support. Dictionary.com Extension description, Browsers & Clients Downloads List By 30 Day Change. Dictionary.com Extension is for everyone who isn't blessed with a memory like the Oxford English Dictionary. If definitions don't instantly and effortlessly spring to mind and you need an authoritative reference source to look up a word without a lot of extra clicking, check out this free and useful Google Chrome browser extension. It makes the whole word definition search a breeze without having to go to the Dictionary.com site itself.
When you install the Dictionary.com extension, a small box will appear in the top bar of your Google Chrome browser. This is your Dictionary.com search box and it is the first way you can use the extension. Simply type the word you don't know into the box and your definition will appear, as if by magic. The second way you can use this Chrome extension is to highlight a word on any webpage and then click on the small box in the top bar. Dictionary.com extension for Google Chrome works as advertised. —Mark O'Neill. Storme - the iOS App – make yourself unforgettable. GO Contact Sync description, E-Mail Downloads List By 30 Day Change.
In the matter of contact managers, I used to like to keep business and leisure separate. I used Google Contacts to manage friends and family, while Microsoft Outlook was strictly for business. But when the walls between those two worlds began to crumble, I was left with an unruly mess...until I found GO Contact Sync.
This free utility syncs contacts between Microsoft Outlook and Google Mail, and does so neatly, easily, and quickly. Downloading and installing GO Contact Sync is a snap, as is setting up and using the program, thanks to its basic but neatly organized interface. You simply need to enter your Google account information and decide whether to sync deletions between your two accounts. You also decide how to handle duplicates, determining whether Google's data should prevail over Microsoft's or vice versa.
If you prefer, you can set the sync to run Outlook to Google only, Google to Outlook only, or both ways. Within a matter of minutes, GO Contact Sync had done its work. FreeFileSync description, Backup Downloads List By 30 Day Change | PCWorld. As hard drives start to get bigger, it becomes more and more convenient to become digital packrats, stuffing files left, right and center into folders and assuming that they will be safe forever. But some of those files may be important, so what if your hard drive suddenly fails and you can't access those important files anymore? It can and will happen. So that's where backup and synchronization techniques come into play and one app that could help you out in this area is FreeFileSync (free).
Obviously you need another hard drive or server to back up to. When I installed it, the thing I immediately liked about it was it offered to give me a portable version. There are two big (and only) options in FreeFileSync, "Compare" and "Synchronize. " One of the other features I liked, being an automation fan (and a lazy computer user) was the batch job feature.
Sometimes you don't need bells and whistles to get the job done. FreeFileSync is basic, it's simple, and it gets the job done. Family Tree Builder description, Genealogy Downloads List By 30 Day Change. Genealogy software Family Tree Builder is a helpful research tool for people who find it a daunting task to figure out the best way to link together all the information they collect about relatives through letters, old documents or photographs.
Like most family tree software, Family Tree Builder can import GEDCOM files with no problems, and it also offers to import Family Tree Legends, Family Tree Maker, Personal Ancestry File (PAF), and Legacy Family Tree files. I was unable, however, to import Family Tree Maker files (version 2012 failed; older versions only imported a partial database), so I would recommend sticking with GEDCOM. You also may use Family Tree Builder to start from scratch, which the smooth, well thought-out UI makes easy and intuitive. Either way, growing a family tree with Family Tree Builder is very similar to that of Family Tree Maker 2012 ($40). Nobody said tracing your family was going to be cheap or easy, but Family Tree Builder tries to make it so. —Clare Brandt. GO Contact Sync description, E-Mail Downloads List By 30 Day Change.
In the matter of contact managers, I used to like to keep business and leisure separate. I used Google Contacts to manage friends and family, while Microsoft Outlook was strictly for business. But when the walls between those two worlds began to crumble, I was left with an unruly mess...until I found GO Contact Sync. This free utility syncs contacts between Microsoft Outlook and Google Mail, and does so neatly, easily, and quickly.
Downloading and installing GO Contact Sync is a snap, as is setting up and using the program, thanks to its basic but neatly organized interface. You simply need to enter your Google account information and decide whether to sync deletions between your two accounts. Within a matter of minutes, GO Contact Sync had done its work. You can set GO Contact Sync to run automatically at certain intervals, which means you never have to decide between using Outlook and Google again. —Liane Cassavoy. WinPatrol description, Security Downloads List By 30 Day Change. The latest version of WinPatrol, a free security utility that serves as a virtual guard dog for your Windows PC, helps make the Web feel a whole lot safer than the scary place it can often seem.
The 2012 version offers new ways to protect you from malware that's particularly tricky, but unfortunately, one of its key new features is only available in the $30 Plus version. The two new headline-grabbing features in WinPatrol 2012 came about, in large part, in response to both the Stuxnet and Flame malware, and the way they concealed their presence on infected systems. To that end, WinPatrol 2012 now offers Uninstall Detection, which alerts users when programs are being removed from their PC.
This can be particularly useful when a virus or other type of malware attempts to remove a security application surreptitiously, though this key tool is only available to users who pay for WinPatrol's Plus version. These new features add to WinPatrol's already comprehensive list of features. BlueScreenView (portable version) description, Utilities Downloads List By 30 Day Change | PCWorld. Microsoft's Windows OS has come a long way, but it's still not perfect. Just as anyone who's experienced the infamous Blue Screen of Death recently.
When Windows crashes in this fashion—screeching to a halt, often when you're smack dab in the middle of an important piece of work—searching for a cause is often a frustrating, unfulfilling experience. But the notorious "blue screen of death" doesn't have to leave you scratching your head if you fire up the portable version of the handy utility BlueScreen View.
It scans Microsoft's minidump files, it's free, and it doesn't require installation. These files, which are automatically created when Windows crashes, are typically saved in your computer's C: drive; BlueScreenView knows exactly where to look for them. BlueScreenView presents you with a list of dump files, which are labeled with the time of the crash, making them easy to identify. BlueScreenView isn't going to fix your PC's problems, but it isn't supposed to. —Liane Cassavoy. RapidStart description, Utilities Downloads List By 30 Day Change | PCWorld. Boot-optimizer RapidStart is slick and user friendly. However, aside from presenting you with statistics about how long it takes you to boot, it does little that you can't do yourself using the Windows system configuration tool and the services control panel. Of course, using those tools requires a fair amount of Windows knowledge so RapidStart has merit for some users. The first thing RapidStart does is reboot your system and time the various programs and services that are loading at boot time.
It then gives you the option to implement the program's recommendations (don't run, delayed run) manually using the aforementioned Windows tools, implement them using RapidStart's own item-by-item wizard, or have RapidStart implement them for you automatically. The last option, which is what non-techies will most likely want, requires purchase of the program for $20. My favorite RapidStart feature is the history of your boot times displayed in a nice timeline graph. --Jon L. DriveImage XML description, Backup Downloads List By 30 Day Change | PCWorld. DriveImage XML isn't the only free drive imaging software on the market anymore and there are slicker solutions now available from Easeus and others, but for quick and simple imaging it fits the bill perfectly. It also has a much lighter footprint on your system than the competition. The DriveImage XML interface isn't particularly pretty, but it's logical and easy to use. Where the program stumbles is in the operational error-checking.
Most programs will suggest removable media for the image destination, but DriveImage XML defaults to the Windows documents folder. DriveImage XML also copies one drive to another and features both volume locking and volume shadow copy imaging. Once you're used to its minor drawbacks, DriveImage XML works well and is reliable. —Jon L. Software® - PCmover Overview. PCmover is the ONLY software that automatically moves or restores all selected files, folders, settings, user profiles, and even programs from an old PC to a new one, or old operating system to a new one.
And because most transferred applications are installed ready-to-use on the new PC, there’s usually no need find old CDs, previously downloaded programs, serial number or license codes. Find out which version is right for you below. 1If your old (source) PC is connected to a typical business network, then you may be a domain user. To determine if your PC is joined to a domain, view the properties of your PC. 2PCmover Windows Upgrade Assistant will NOT undo the upgrade of your operating system. 3Only $46 per license.
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