Software Update

"What's the best fax application for Mac OS X?"

If you need a fax application to send the occasional fax with your Mac, I wouldn't use an application at all. For the very occasional use, I recommend free fax site FaxZero. It allows you to upload a file to fax and choose a recipient for your fax without spending any money. If you need to receive faxes or want to send many faxes every month, there are some other suggestions I would make instead.

When your computer crashes and you lose your Outlook Express data file, there's a good chance panic sets in and you're wondering how you're ever going to recover all those important emails. The Outlook Express .DBX file is volatile under the best of conditions, so having the data file missing is a frightening prospect. In many cases, you can still get your Outlook Express email back, but the solution won't be a free one.

If you've got one of those Ion USB Turntables, you've probably recorded a few albums using either Audacity or ez Vinyl Converter. While both of these software solutions will work for recording your music collection and converting it to CD or MP3, they are both incredibly frustrating. There's a more automated way to record albums from your Ion Turntable, but you'll need to download some additional software to make it work.

The software upgrade recommended for getting more from your Ion Turntable: Download Spin It Again. The software fixes pops and clicks from old records automatically. It records the full side of an album and divides it into individual tracks. Spin It Again also looks up album information, adds your tracks to iTunes, and handles CD burning all from one convenient location. Using Spin It Again you no longer have to sit and mark a new track the way ez Vinyl Converter works, and the number of clicks required to make an album makes conversion a snap.

Download Spin It Again and start getting better MP3 recordings from your old vinyl records and cassettes.

AceReader Pro by StepWare, Inc.

AceReader Pro is a genuinely awesome application! If you want to improve reading comprehension and read faster for any reason, you should download this app right now. The drills and training, coupled with the Online Reader feature dramatically improve your reading and comprehension with just a few minutes of time invested each day. The payoff is you get those minutes back in the form of less time spent reading later. I have personally used AceReader Pro to boost my reading speed by an additional 100wpm and seen my comprehension go up too. [Windows XP/Vista Mac OS X $49.95]

PayWindow by ZPAY Payroll Systems, Inc.

I don't have a payroll to process, so I'm taking the people's word for this one. I did take a look at the app and it seems to do everything I'd need if I had any payroll to process (and it's less confusing to my mind than QuickBooks). Manage pay periods, salaried and hourly workers, contract employees, and commissioned sales people for payrolls ranging from the simple to the complex. Cut checks for payroll, pay 941 payroll taxes, and generate 1099-MISC and W2 statements at tax time. Built-in backup means you won't lose your payroll data (as long as you use it). [Windows XP/Vista $69.95]

Paint Shop Pro by Corel Corporation

Paint Shop Pro kind of fell off my radar when it went from being developed by JASC to being part of the software acquiring Corel Corporation. It's always been a solid independent contender against the Adobe Photoshop empire, with the advantage of also supporting Photoshop plug-ins. From the image editing basics, to custom masking and image enhancements, there is very little you can't accomplish using Paint Shop Pro. The interface is fairly intuitive, eliminating some of the poking around to figure out how stuff works I have found in many of the free image editing solutions. If you're into High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography, PSP is among the easiest tools I've seen for building HDR images. One of the strongest features of the X2 Ultimate version is it's background removal, which allows you to creatively replace the background on almost any image. [Windows XP/Vista $79.00 or $99.00]

TuneUp Utilities 2009 by TuneUp Distribution GmbH

TuneUp is one of those Swiss Army Knife software apps, with many features under one roof. Its Disk Doctor performs error checking and repair on your drives. A file viewer allows you to take quick inventory of your hard drive. Many Windows tweaks are exposed for convenient configuration. Start-up application management effectively speeds up boot time, so you spend less time waiting for your computer to load. Tweaking the Windows logon and start screens is a standard feature. And most importantly, TuneUp includes software to recover deleted files and also software designed to permanently delete files beyond recovery. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I could spend all day listing the features in TuneUp, or you could simply download it and try it out for yourself. The registered license is good for up to 3 computers. [Windows XP/Vista $49.95]

WinZip by WinZip International, LLC.

With great free zip utilities like 7-zip it's hard to get excited about a file compression utility that costs money, but WinZip went way beyond just doing file compression years ago. If you download WinZip Pro, there are a ton of automation features that make it a handy solution for file management. Being able to run a scheduled zip job on your files and then automatically upload those files to an FTP site for backup is among the handiest of the WinZip features. Built-in DVD burning allows you to put your zip files on DVD. If you want to quickly dump your photos from SD card to a Netbook, WinZip also helps with some routine image processing tasks, without creating a massive footprint the way an image editor would. I'm still a big fan of WinRAR, but WinZip certainly has it's place too. [Windows XP/Vista $29.95 or $49.95]

Defender of the Crown is a game full of cunning and strength as you contest for the crown against 5 Lords. Build your own army full of knights and archers. Raid and pillage, save princesses, and lay siege with catapults and Greek Fire! If your play your cards right, you can win the British Crown!
Play Defender of the Crown Now

The animals for the Bobland Bay Zoo have arrived, but the zoo hasn't been built yet! Bob and the Can Do crew need your help to get the zoo built. Earn stickers by completing certain tasks and use those stickers to make your own scenes in the bonus sticker book mode. Fun and educational for children!

Play Bob the Builder: Can Do Zoo Now

The Wizard's Pen will take you on a magic adventure to find the missing Wizard. The only clue you have to his whereabouts is his workbook. But the pages are all blank! You must use the Wizard's magic pen to uncover the images on each page. Find the hidden objects, unlock secret games and earn potions on your mystical journey to find the Wizard.

Play The Wizard's Pen Now

Get your overalls on and head back to the farm for the new Farm Frenzy: Pizza Party. You start on a small farm growing grass and feeding chickens, but soon you'll be buying new buildings, upgrading your vehicles and even fending off those crazy bears! All for the manufacturing of pizza that soon, the world will enjoy.

Play Farm Frenzy: Pizza Party Now

Jojo Cruz was the hottest name in fashion 20 years ago. Now, with her daughter Rosalind, she's out to prove to the world that she still has what it takes. Join Jojo as she puts on fashion shows in the hottest cities in the world. You will be mixing and matching tops, bottoms, shoes and gowns into stylish outfits to help Jojo keep her nickname, Mistress of Mix.

Play Jojo's Fashion Show Now

Think you can play with the Superstars of Poker? Poker Superstars 2 has a 'first of its kind' AI system that has learned to win by playing millions of simulated tournaments. You're going to need to bring your best game to beat the 15 best players, each with interactive photos. Upload your own photo and join the ranks of the Superstars.

Play Superstars of Poker II Now

Take charge of 8 busy airports in this cute time management game. Land the planes, load them up with passengers or cargo, keep them in good repair and buy upgrades to keep everything running smoothly and on time. Pack your bags for a challenging and fun trip in the skies.

Play Airport Mania Now

When Mortimer Beckett discovers a time portal in his Uncle Jerome's house, he sets out to help. Then he learns that the Time Bomb that Jerome built to close the portal is scattered across eight different eras! Help Mortimer as he travels through time to find the scattered pieces of the Time Bomb, put it back together and close the portal before it's too late!

Play Mortimer Beckett and the Time Paradox Now

DivX Pro 7 provides everything you need for a true HD experience. Utilizing the latest and greatest video technology based on H.264, the new standard for HD digital video, DivX Pro 7 lets you create HD video and play MKV videos with AAC audio. You can also play your DivX files (.divx, .avi) on DivX Certified devices.

DivX Converter now supports the new DivX Plus HD profile so you can easily convert your HD video to H.264 (.mkv) with AAC audio. Convert your digital videos to the DivX format for playback on your computer in one easy step. You can even merge multiple videos into one DivX file and add external subtitles. Then use DivX Web Player to easily embed DivX videos onto your website or blog.

Download DivX Pro 7. [Windows XP/Vista (32-bit)/$19.99]

Mindful is an event reminder, password manager, random password generator, calender and countdown timer. Just about anything you may need to remember can be stored in this Windows program.

The event reminder keeps track of one time events as well as reoccurring events and is configured to recognize more than 70 American and Canadian holidays. If you tell Mindful when your friends and family were born, it can tell you which birthday is coming up. You can even have it remind you what gift you got them last year and what address to send cards and gifts to.

The password manager securely stores all of your login information for online accounts and for password-protected applications. The random password generator lets you build complex passwords that are difficult for outsiders to guess. The combination of these two keeps you from having the same password for multiple sites and lets you log on with just a few clicks, quickly, easily, and securely.

Whether for keeping track of business meetings, kid's activities, or for ID security, Mindful has what you need.

Download Mindful. [Windows 98/2000/XP/Vista/$12.99]

Wendy's Wellness is a time management game by Sugar Games that puts you in charge of your own chain of wellness centers. You play as Wendy, who, with the help of her uncle, starts her own chain of wellness centers in a bustling city. You must be quick to serve, or at least appease, a variety of customers and their different needs to get the best tips. Further along in the game you can hire assistants and better equipment that lets you serve customers faster and more efficiently.

Fun for any age group, Wendy's Wellness has 10 centers, 50 levels, and mini games to help you make extra money.

Download Wendy's Wellness. [Windows 98/2000/2003/XP/Vista/Mac OS X 10.3 or better/$19.95]

Holly 2 - Magic Land, the sequel to Holly - A Christmas Tale, is a "Hidden Objects" game that takes you on a magical journey through the Land of Childhood.

When Holly discovers that her young daughter has disappeared, Holly finds herself on another adventure with the help of her friend the garden elf. Help Holly find her daughter in this fairy tale land by going through the 49 levels and finding over 3,500 objects. There are also mini games and puzzles and a cast of charming characters to meet along the way. The game also features dozens of hand drawn scenes.

Holly 2 - Magic Land has a free one hour trial before you decide to buy and download the entire game. [$19.95]

Matrox's PowerDesk for Mac is a desktop management software for Graphics eXpansion Modules (GXMs) offering time-saving features that eliminate the need to manually position applications on a multi-monitor configuration.

You can easily move an active window from one display to the next and resize it to fit the entire display. By quickly cycling through and re-sizing windows, desktop space can be organized so you can focus on the task at hand. The Matrox GXM Control Panel allows you to edit your display modes, adjust the image quality of your displays, and view information for your GXM product.

Download PowerDesk for Mac. [Mac OS X]

DeskLook for Microsoft's Outlook connects directly with your Outlook, reads tasks and appointments you have in the calendar, counts unread messages in selected folders and shows everything on an interactive desktop.

DeskLook reads and displays data from Outlook according to settings you have for Outlook Today. There you have options to set how many days in the future you want to have displayed in the Calendar section, choose what kind of tasks to display and how you want them sorted and select folders to display in the Messages section.

You can personalize your desktop by choosing between two data views, central view and side bar view. You can even customize the size and components of the side bar style, but sadly, not the central one. Both views are available in three different colors: exciting blue, green and brown, and you can adjust the transparency as well. Fun!

So if you are one of the 12 people who actually use Outlook, get excited! This is probably pretty awesome for you!

Download DeskLook. [Windows XP/Vista/Microsoft Outlook XP/2003/2007 $24.90]

Alawar Entertainment introduces Natalie Brooks: The Treasures of the Lost Kingdom, the second in a soon to be series of games featuring teenage detective Natalie Brooks.

After the success of the first game, Natalie Brooks: Secrets of Treasure House, Alawar has improved upon it and has made the plot more thrilling, the gameplay more exciting and the puzzles more challenging. In addition, the quest is nearly twice as long as the first, with 7 chapters of gameplay and includes several mini-games. You have an unlimited amount of game time to help Natalie save her grandfather, a renowned archaeologist, from kidnappers holding him ransom for an ancient treasure map. Find the map, solve the mystery of a terrible curse and unmask the truth behind a legendary ghost train!

The game comes with complete customer support and free upgrades to new versions.

Download Natalie Brooks: The Treasures of the Lost Kingdom. [$19.95]

The Mac version of City of Heroes is now in Open Beta. Nevermind that PC users have had 4 years of this glorious fun and that the 13th issue has just been released for PC, we're glad the Mac guys have finally joined.

Even though they are a bit behind, they do, however get some neat free-be's:

-Mission Teleporter Power - Players can save time and get right into the action by teleporting directly to their active mission.

-Exclusive Valkyrie Costume set - Costume pieces include two varieties of wings, a cape, a skirt/kilt, pants, boots, shoulders, chest, gloves, belts, and helmet with multiple details.

Join the City of Heroes open Beta. The full version of City of Heroes for Mac, is scheduled to come out January 2009. [Mac OS X 10.5.3 Leopard or higher $19.99]

The Sonos Controller for iPhone is a free application that turns your iPhone or iPod touch into a full-fledged Sonos Controller. Sonos ZonePlayers allow you to listen to any song on your personal music collection on your computer, anywhere in your house wirelessly over your WiFi. The Sonos Controller then lets you control the music in each room from anywhere in the house. You can have all the rooms playing the same song or have them each play a different song. Plus, you can control the volume level for each room. The possibilities are endless. And with your iPhone always with you, you take the party as well.

Don't want to turn on your computer? The Sonos Controller gives you instant acess to internet radio stations plus more than 15,000 local and international stations from the internet on your phone. Now you can listen to your favorite station from back home, or catch the latest Russell Brand show on the BBC.

And don't worry about this little application becoming obsolete in a month. The iPhone App Store will automatically notify you when software updates are available. It just keeps getting better and better.

Sonos can play music stored on up to 16 PCs, Macs, NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices on your home network, supporting the most popular audio formats.

Download the Sonos Controller Application. [iPhone/iPhone 3G/iPod touch $Free!]

Folder Lock, by NewSoftwares.net, is a fast data encryption and password protection software for Windows. It can simultaneously encrypt, lock and password protect your files, folders, drives, USB drives and even CD/DVD-RW.

Whether you want to keep hidden that novel you swear you're going to finish one day, or protect all of your passwords that you have to keep somewhere due to lack of your own memory, you can keep it all safe with military level encryption. With additional features like hack monitoring, stealth mode, data shredding, auto protection, portable USB autoplay feature and virtual keyboard, Folder Lock can enhance data security of your files beyond anything ever achieved. If your computer has multiple users, you can hide things from them too. Each locker can represent a different user with different passwords for each.

Download Folder Lock [Windows 2000/Vista/XP $39.95]

Snagit is a pretty awesome tool that lets you capture anything on your computer screen from the entire window, to just a small picture, then lets you edit and share it easily.

New to version 9.1:

-A mini tool bar that keeps your most used editing features right up front.
-You can see a live preview of editing options before you commit to them.
-You can capture as much as you like before editing. The captures stay open and visible in the capture tray.
-Snagit automatically stores all of your captures for you so there's no worry. You can also label them to make them even easier to find.

Snagit 9.1 is available to download for a free trial or you can go ahead and buy it.

[Windows 2000/XP/Vista $49.95]

WinRAR is a compression tool with many additional integrated functions to help organize compressed archives. By consistently creating smaller archives, WinRAR saves disc space, transmission costs, and valuable working time.

WinRAR supports all popular compression formats, including RAR, ZIP, CAB, ARJ, LZH, ACE, TAR, GZip, UUE, ISO, BZIP2, Z and 7-Zip.

New to version 3.80 are added support for ZIP archives containing Unicode files names in UTF-8 format, as well as Unicode support for RAR and ZIP archive names. There is added decompression support for WinZip AES encrypted ZIP archives. "Ask before overwrite" and "Skip existing files" update modes are now available in the archiving dialog.

[Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP/Vista $29]

WinRAR 3.80

WinJPG, by T Studio, is excellent for anyone who likes to take pictures and wants them to look their best without having to spend hours going through them one by one adjusting here, sharpening there.

Most of us aren't professional photographers, so sometimes the lighting isn't great, things come out blurry, or the color is washed out. WinJPG fixes all of these problems without you having to open up some program to do it. WinJPG allows you to easily apply the necessary corrections to any number of images. It uses "sophisticated algorithms" (read: Magic) to improve the color balance, sharpness, can scale images down, and even watermark them with the time and date when they were taken.

WinJPG is available to download for a free 30 day trail before you buy it! [Windows 95/98/2000/XP/Vista $49.95]

Reg Organizer, by Chem Table Software, is an extensive and very helpful set of registry tools for effective system registry management. This software lets you view, edit and safely clean the registry. It allows to preview the registry files you want to import, including the ability to preview files directly from Windows Explorer. Includes registry cleaner, which will safely compact, repair and optimize the registry.

Version 4.22 performs various operations related to deleting, moving and editing data in the registry and the file system faster than ever before. The interface of the program has been optimized and is simpler to use. Reg Organizer no longer shows items that are inactive, and it is easier to examine lists of data due to simplified presentation of the information. In addition, the export and import of registry data has been enhanced and now features support for all kinds of reg file formats (binary, ANSI and Unicode).

Reg Organizer is now available for download. [Windows 2000/NT/XP/2003 and Vista $39.95]

Emurasoft, Inc. has just released EmEditor Professional Version 8, a full-featured text editor for Windows Vista/XP/2000/Server 2008/Server 2003.

Unlike other text editors that are cluttered with useless features, EmEditor starts out with a basic core feature set that you can build upon by adding the features you desire as plug-ins. Some new features available include the Large File Controller, Vertical Selection Editing, Binary Editing and Grab Text. EmEditor automatically includes some basic plug-ins, such as: Search, Snippits, Web Preview, Word Complete, and Word Count. Using only the basic plug-ins, without any of the additional plug-ins, EmEditor performs efficiently, as a small program that opens files up to 248 GB with only a little memory. Also, EmEditor allows you to create powerful macros that can do anything you want within EmEditor. And, as a Unicode application, EmEditor supports Unicode, even outside of the Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP). With its powerful plug-ins and features, EmEditor increases productivity.

EmEditor Professional Version 8 may be ordered online. [Windows Vista/XP/2000 $39.99]

Bartels Media GmbH has recently announced the launch of PhraseExpress v6, the newest version of the speed typing software that now lets you auto text in all Windows programs, including the internet and instant messenger programs.

The autotext function automatically lengthens shortcuts like ASAP to their original meaning, "as soon as possible." Unless of course you don't want it to. PhraseExpress analyzes and learns your writing patterns and offers phrase and sentence completion, thus allowing an individualized product instead of annoying one size fits all dictionaries that only try to complete single words and gets them wrong anyway. To speed up the learning process, PhraseExpress can scan your Outlook emails to instantly adapt to your writing style. It's almost scary. Almost.

New and specific to version 6:

Support for text formatted phrases including bitmaps (RTF and HTML which is great for rich email signatures)

PhraseExpress now runs directly from USB memory devices without the need of any program installation.

Autotexts can be restricted to certain programs.

SmartSearch allows searching for any highlighted text from any program in Wikipedia, Google Maps, Ebay, Youtube, etc.

PhraseExpress v6 is perfect for those of you who are constantly instant messaging, or replying to a lot of emails that require the same phrases. PhraseExpress is free to download for personal use and available to buy for commercial use. [Windows 2000/XP/Vista $49.95]