5.3

Download and manage Flash videos with Flash Player Pro

The typical media player can't handle Flash videos, so a variety of specialized players have sprung up for this purpose. Flash Player Pro is one such program, promising to both manage your library of Flash videos and allow you to download new ones. We tried out the trial version of the program, which is limited to 15 days of use and has a few other limitations. It worked well enough, but strange error messages caused us to waste time troubleshooting problems that didn't actually exist.

The program's interface is dated and not particularly attractive, but it's … Read more

Easiest file-sharing utility we've used on the Mac

CloudApp is designed to let you share files and links with others. Once it's installed, you can drag any file over the CloudApp icon and it then returns a link to the file you can send to others through IM or e-mail (or any other manner, for that matter). CloudApp installs quickly. To use CloudApp you need to set up an account, but it's free to do so (it does require an e-mail address).

CloudApp works smoothly and easily. Simply dragging a file or defining a hot key to move a file to the cloud is a simple … Read more

How to enable FaceTime over 3G with iOS 6

iOS 6 is here and with it is the capability to make FaceTime calls over a 3G (or 4G) connection. Finally! Up until now, iOS users were limited to using FaceTime over a Wi-Fi connection. No more.

FaceTime over 3G does have a couple of limitations. First, you'll need to be running iOS 6 on an iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, or the new iPad (third generation). Second, your carrier has to allow for FaceTime to be used over its network. So far, only AT&T has announced any type of restriction or requirement for FaceTime to work using … Read more

Back-test stocks and funds with EzBacktest

Backtesting can be applied to any historical data, but it's particularly useful in finance. Backtesting can use historical data to predict how a particular strategy might have fared under certain conditions so analysts can learn from the mistakes of the past. EzBacktest is a free financial tool that can verify and back-test virtually any stocks or funds, individually or in combination. You can compare your results to major stock indexes, change your allocation scheme, and run the data again. EzBacktest lets you load up on risk or reduce your position at will, and its graphical displays make the data … Read more

Trusted Power Search

Trusted Power Search by Moose-Tech Software is a free Web search tool that promises faster, more efficient searches. The application is able to deliver on this by limiting the number of sites that it searches to a predetermined list that is defined by the user.

The application presents a simple, easy-to-understand toolbar interface. There is a Help tab to guide the user in how to use the application. You can set your preferences as to which sites you want to use, Google, Microsoft Internet Explorer, or Yahoo, and how many searches are displayed. There is also a parent-friendly Safety mode … Read more

With Sigil, what you get is what you need in a WYSIWYG e-book editor

WYSIWYG stands for "what you see is what you get," and it's been a computer term since it made the jump from TV catchphrase in the 1970s. A WYSIWYG editor lets you edit e-books in something as close as possible to their final form, which greatly improves not only editing accuracy but also the appearance and presentation of the text. It's critical for readability in both traditional and electronic publishing formats. We looked at Sigil, a free, open-source, multiplatform e-book editor that is designed to edit ePub documents such as e-books. Sigil offers full Unicode support … Read more

New Energy Star spec excludes many large TVs

Tomorrow the latest iteration of the Energy Star program for TVs goes into effect. As a result of the new version 5.3 requirements a number of the largest 2011 TVs, particularly plasmas, will actually lose Energy Star certification.

The reason those TVs no longer qualify is because Energy Star made its requirements more strict this time around compared to the earlier version, designated 4.2, which has been in effect since April 30, 2010. According to Energy Star:

Televisions that meet the new ENERGY STAR Version 5.3 requirements are on average more than 40 percent more energy efficient than conventional models. Larger sets must meet even more stringent levels to qualify as ENERGY STAR. A 60-inch TV will be on average 60 percent more efficient than a conventional model.

In addition to increasing the stringency of the requirements for all screen sizes, the new version incorporates a "hard cap" of 108 watts regardless of screen size. That cap effectively disqualifies most plasma TVs larger than 50 inches, and many other large-screen DLP and non-LED LCD-based sets.… Read more

QNX powers the BlackBerry Colt

Apple releases a tool to automatically create recovery disks for Mac OS X Lion, researchers at the Black Hat hackers conference say that you should change all of your passwords if your laptop gets stolen, and the BlackBerry Colt will be the first QNX-powered smartphone from Research in Motion in early 2012.

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

QNX-powered BlackBerry Colt in Q1 of 2012 Apple Lion Recovery Disk Assistant Barnes and Noble Nook e-book deal Skype 5.3 on Mac Lion and HD video Stolen laptop: change ALL of your passwords Man starts waiting in line for iPhone 5 … Read more

Copious codecs

Competition in the media player market is fierce, and any program that wants to be taken seriously had better do something to stand out from the crowd. MPCStar is a basic media player that, unlike much of the competition, can play videos in a huge variety of formats. It's not perfect, but it did a good job for most of the videos we played with it.

The program's interface is plain and fairly run-of-the-mill as far as media players go. We liked it that MPCStar makes it easy to create playlists by simply selecting multiple videos and dragging … Read more