Nov 22
Yes, we’re moving. Sort of. The PC Plus website has been completely redesigned from the ground up, and the gorgeous new look will be with you very soon. Unfortunately the process of movement does mean that we’ll lose the comments that you’ve made on our articles, so if you’ve written anything you’re proud of it’s time to go in and copy-and-paste it away.
We’ll launch the new look within the next few days, so be quick!
Nov 18
Each issue we’re going to be hunting down the best digital media applications available on the internet so you don’t have to. This could be anything from image manipulation to video editing, from audio compression to media management and everything in between. You name it, we’re likely to cover it. Best of all, everything you’ll find on this page will be freeware. So no nagging popups, no time restrictions and no feature limitations. Just strictly no holds barred functionality! Read on to find out what we’ve been digging during the last month.
Winamp NEW
Having been around for almost as long as Windows itself, Winamp is possibly the most well-established third-party music player around. It’s feature-rich and incredibly customisable, with a strong community to keep it fresh and current. iTunes-style functions such as playlist synching are here, along with internet radio and streaming. Album art is handled well too and the graphic equalizer gives a great deal of control over the sound of your music; it serves as a prime example of how Winamp gives users the power to listen to their music in their own way.
Website
Download from here
PixBuilder Studio
Professional quality functions in a freeware package? That’s not something you hear everyday. But it is what the developer of this particular package is touting. There’s advanced colour management with the like of brightness/contrast adjustment, colour balance and levels manipulation to backup the boasts. And that’s in addition to the colour curves feature.
Website
Download from here
Bad Peggy
JPEGs are often easily corrupted when trasferring them from an old backup or downloading them from the internet. Sometimes there’s data truncation, at other times unusual blemishes appear in random places. All this can be incredibly annoying, sure. But it can be fixed. All you need to do is install this great app and run your dodgy images files through it.
Download from here
SMRecorder NEW
If more things were as simple to use as this little screen-capture gem, then every PC user would have a lot more spare time. Easily record video and audio from your computer or webcam with complete control (if you want it) over the settings. Use the other free tools available at Video2Down’s website to convert and playback your recordings.
Website
Download from here
Simple yet controllable screen capture with SMRecorder
WinGrooves NEW
Grooveshark is a great way to listen to music when you’re at work, home, college or anywhere there’s a computer. But it can be lacking as a media player, due to the fact that it runs within a web browser. WinGrooves is a way of using GrooveShark in a standalone environment, adding the ability to use hotkeys to control your music playback. It’s a good start, and hopefully it can be developed into a more feature-rich player.
Website
Photofly
Gone are the days when creating 3D models of objects required time and money, but mostly a lot of time. With the help of the brainboxes at Autodesk you can use Photofly to convert still images into 3D models. It uses a process called photogrammetry, a method of 3D modelling that stitches together regular 2D images together to create 3D point clouds .
Website
Download from here
PanoramaPlus Starter Edition
Everybody likes to create panoramas. They can be so easy to make, but look so good. All you need is a good camera and a simple utility like this that stitches the photo together and you have some really swish-looking images that can be the result of both horizontal and vertical stitching. Oh, did we mentioned it was also free?
Website
Download from here
Free Studio A real suite of applications this one. By downloading and installing the one executable you pretty much have access to all of DVDVideoSoft’s utilities under the one roof. Massively useful if you’re looking to convert video to, well, pretty much anything. All the major mobile handset manufacturers are covered, not to mention audio CDs and DVDs.
Website
Download from here
Exact Audio Copy NEW
If you find the ubiquitous MP3 format to be both a blessing and a curse, then try EAC. MP3 is a great way of compressing music for most poeple, but it has certain caveats that make it unattractive – sound quality, silences at the start and end of tracks and awkward file naming, to name but a few. EAC is able to rip CDs in a variety of compressed and uncompressed formats, including MP3 (for which you will need to download the LAME encoder – see below), FLAC and WAV, and gives you control to get rid of the silences that can ruin album playback.
To enocde MP3s, download the LAME encoder here, and unzip the LAME.exe file into your Exact Audio Copy installation folder BEFORE running EAC for the first time.
Website
Download from here
XnConvert NEW
Even the most basic user of a PC will most likely want to do some photo processing. Fortunately, a program like XnConvert can take the sting out of improving your pictures, allowing you to process multiple photos at the same time. A neat, intuitive user-interface makes the program seem safe and easy to use, and it has a wealth of processing options from basic resizing to effects and filters.
Website
Download from here
Batch process your photos and resize, brighten, add effects and filters or simply change the file type
All these great tools are part of issue 316 of PC Plus, on the shelves on 7th December 2011. Subscribe today to the paper edition and you can get it up to a week early! Subscribe to PC Plus.
Why not save some money and get PC Plus on your smartphone, laptop or tablet? Buy the PC Plus digital edition for a bargain price, or save the most and subscribe to PC Plus through Zinio.
Has the moment passed? Don’t panic. You can pickup a copy of issue 316 through our back issues service. Buy PC Plus paper back issues or, if you’re digitally inclined, buy single issues on Zinio.
Nov 18
Each issue we’re going to be hunting down the best online-themed applications available on the internet so you don’t have to. This could be anything from download managers to web browsers, from instant messengers to media streaming and everything in between. You name it, we’re likely to cover it. Best of all, everything you’ll find on this page will be freeware. So no nagging popups, no time restrictions and no feature limitations. Just strictly no holds barred functionality! Read on to find out what we’ve been digging during the last month.
TeamSpeak
The ever-present in mid-game communication just had an overhaul to make it even more indispensable. The third incarnation of TeamSpeak sees the introduction of a friends and foes list where you can track users and play custom sound effects when they come online. That’s not all, there’s also improved voice quality and latency, Logitech G keyboard support, increased security and privacy and much more.
Website
Download from here
WebCookiesSniffer
The majority of cookies exist to make your life on the Internet much easier. Unfortunately, like with anything these days, there’s a minority out there used for more spurious purposes like tracking. use this to view information about cookies currently active on your system. You’ll need to install the freeware WinPcap Capture Driver or Microsoft’s Network Monitor Driver to capture the cookies in real-time.
Website
Download from here (32-bit edition)
Download from here (64-bit edition)
Moo0 ConnectionWatcher NEW
Monitor all the inbound and outbound connections on your PC to work out where all your bandwidth is being used, and who/what your PC is communicating with. You can identify potential threats and persistent bandwidth hogs, allowing you to regain control over your connections.
Website
Download from here
See detailed info on your PC’s network connections
iSpy NEW
iSpy is the Swiss army knife of web-based camera management. It’s potential applications are too numerous to list here but it has uses ranging from security monitoring and UFO spotting (being triggered to record on even the slightest sound or movement) to face and number plate recognition. Alerts can be sent via SMS to your mobile phone, and there are many remote access functions.
Website
Download from here
Clicks And Whistles NEW
Internet Relay Chat comes with many benefits, which Clicks And Whistles exploits more than many IRC clients. It has many levels of customisation, including Connection Scripts and text colour attribution. You can have keywords flag up too, so you never miss an opportunity to discuss something that others are talking about.
Website
Download from here
A clean, neat interface and great depth of features make this IRC client well worth using
Simple IP Config
These days the modern PC user will rarely need to come into contact with complex network settings. Windows has improved to such an extent it’s pretty much plug and play. But what if you’re creating your own custom network? It’s then that you’ll need to configure IP addresses, DNS servers or default gateways, which is made all the more easier with this utility.
Website
Download from here
Maryfi
When Microsoft ditched its Virtual Wi-Fi project it made the source code available, and it’s this source code that’s part of Maryfi’s engine room. With it you can create a software router with the ability to share single-serve Wi-Fi, the likes of which are found at airports, hotels and their ilk. It’s really easy to share any type of internet connection on the host computer.
Website
Download from here
Neembuu Uploader
One of the most infuriating things when transferring a large file from your computer to a server online is if your browser crashers. Avoid this painful experience by using this app, which features automatic download URL generation, (and deletion URLs if the filehost supports it) login support for filehosts where you have accounts, upload histories.
Website
Download from here
Dropboxifier NEW
Designed to work with DropBox, (follow the link in the page below if you don’t already use it) this is a powerful mod that will allow multiple clients PCs to read and write the same shared data simultaneously. Invaluable when you need several machines to access up-to-date data at once.
Website
Download from here
AWatcher NEW
This program is specifically designed to monitor prices and stock availability on Amazon.com (as well as a number of other localised Amazon sites) enabling users to keep up with the latest deals. It can be setup to alert you when a particular product falls within a specified price range. It’s ability to save and display a products price history turns it into a useful research tool, allowing speculative buyers to find a rough average price for a general type of product.
Website
Download from here
All these great tools are part of issue 316 of PC Plus, on the shelves on 7th December 2011. Subscribe today to the paper edition and you can get it up to a week early! Subscribe to PC Plus.
Why not save some money and get PC Plus on your smartphone, laptop or tablet? Buy the PC Plus digital edition for a bargain price, or save the most and subscribe to PC Plus through Zinio.
Has the moment passed? Don’t panic. You can pickup a copy of issue 316 through our back issues service. Buy PC Plus paper back issues or, if you’re digitally inclined, buy single issues on Zinio.
