Recently I was preparing to take a business trip over a weekend for a conference, and figured it would be a nice opportunity to watch a couple of DVD’s that the rest of the family didn’t have any interest in seeing yet again – Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Ran’ and The Marx Brothers’ ‘Night at the Opera’. My assumption was that I would use the Mac program Handbrake, which has done very nicely getting video from our DVDs to our kids’ iPods for long trips.

At the same time I had the opportunity to look at WinX DVD Ripper Free Edition, and I figured: what better way than to test the two free utilities side by side. I will comment on that comparison in a bit, but wanted to focus on a more recent opportunity to try out WinX DVD Ripper Platinum, based on a version supplied to me for free by the publisher. Continue Reading

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One of my first favorite ‘free’ Internet programs was Claria’s “Gator”. What I naively found out later is, so far as I’m concerned, Gator essentially invented the Spyware industry.

It originally allowed you to store passwords to all your websites so that rather than remember them, you could allow it to fill them in automatically. However, over time they started pushing pop-up ads onto your computer and started overwriting Google search results. Eventually people found out about the adware but the product itself actually worked until Gator was shut down in 2006. In came RoboForm which has nothing to do with adware and instead offers a great password keeper program. I’ve been using it ever since and love it. Here’s why. Continue Reading

Users have been able to use Evernote, but only via the mobile interface. Evernote has released a beta version for Android smartphones.

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I know rollouts can be challenging. I mean, just look at how nervous AT&T was prior to the much-delayed MMS launch yesterday. Well, it looks like Evernote’s rollout of the 3.5 Beta desktop client for Windows has been causing the company, and some of their most hardcore users, some grief.

Turns out my timing was “perfect”. The Fujitsu P1630 came yesterday and I set out to put my “must-have” applications on it. Firefox- check. Skype- check. Dragon- Check. TimesReader- check. Evernote- UH OH! Continue Reading

I have long been a fan of Adobe’s photo editing (Photoshop) and video editing (Premiere) software.  I have been fortunate, here at Gear Diary, to be able to review several incarnations of these fantastic programs.  Now, adobe has announced the release of the Photoshop/Premiere Elements Bundle 8.

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A beta of Evernote’s Windows application version 3.5 is now available to the public. It is a huge update and the first for the Windows application in quite some time.

The new version offers an interface quite similar to the Mac desktop. It will display thumbnails and three different formats for viewing notebooks. Best of all it is fully compatible with Windows 7 and [offers even better support for] supports inking if you have a Tablet PC. (Wow, good timing seeing as my Fujitsu P1630 is almost here!). In fact, the inked notes are fully searchable.

It is available HERE.

A screenshot, details and further instructions for installing the Beta follow… Continue Reading

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It is always nice when you see an application you have used in Beta reaches a Version 1 release. Such is the case with Postbox.

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After much deliberation between getting a subscription to Pandora or to Slacker Radio I opted for Pandora. In the end, Pandora just felt like a better fit.

Among the things I like about Pandora is the desktop app they offer. It is small, unobtrusive and works well. AND, it just got pumped to version 2.0.

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Getting ready to upgrade to Snow Leopard and wondering if which of your installed applications will work?

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