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Getting pictures from a digital camera to a PC should be a snap, but too often it isn't. Smart Photo Import is an easy-to-use tool that greatly simplifies the process of importing and sorting digital images from a camera or other device to a computer. It automatically organizes image files into folders for easy archiving, neatly avoiding one of the biggest problems with digital photography: immense catch-all folders packed with thousands of images, and usually all jumbled up, too.

This neat little tool has a Windows-style installer and opens with a clean, basic interface that resembles a bare-bones media … Read more

It doesn't matter if you are a Mac or PC user; the iPhone and iPod Touch behave similarly when plugged into a computer using the USB sync cable that Apple provides. They both cause iTunes to launch for syncing media and they initiate photo and video syncing by recognizing both devices as a digital camera. This week's tip is is about disabling the digital camera notification in Windows and Mac OS X.

Steps for Windows Vista and Windows 7

1. Connect your iPhone or iPod touch to your computer. 2. Open the Windows Control Panel. 3. Choose Hardware … Read more

We can all be thankful Facebook doesn't let you export your friends' e-mail addresses and telephone numbers. The export prohibition doesn't extend to other information about your friends, however. A new free service puts this data in a .csv file you can import to your Outlook and Gmail contacts. Unfortunately, the results leave much to be desired.

Export Friends to .csv wasn't developed by Facebook, but rather by J?rn Arild Anden?s. You can choose to export up to 11 different categories of information about your friends, including Facebook ID, name (full, first, and last), profile … Read more

We're not talking about Albert Einstein, the legendary theoretical physicist; we're talking about Einstein Audio Components, a Germany-based high-end audio manufacturer.

Its advanced audio equipment designs use vacuum tubes. Its latest stereo preamplifier, The Tube MKII, uses a total of (gulp) 19 tubes. That's a lot of tubes! Most tube preamps only use four, five, or six tubes. However, here's the cool part about the new Einstein preamp: only 10 of the 19 tubes operate at any given time. Eight are used all the time, and two are selected for whichever audio source happens to be … Read more

This handy toolbox simplifies importing orders from your e-commerce Web site for manipulating with your business' Sage accounting software. However, a bug in the automatic scheduler means you'll have to rely on manual data pulls.

Sage Order Importer complements your existing Sage 50 or Sage Line 50 accounting software by serving as a bridge from your e-commerce Web site to your in-office accounting package. It streamlines orders and inventories onto a single platform, freeing business owners from having to shoehorn data into multiple apps. The Sage set-up wizard makes configuring data sources a simple matter. The two-paned interface has … Read more

In the midst of your drudgery, working away at your PC, you need to take a break every now and then for a laugh. Or simply prod your pals or family members to laugh. And this nifty little app is just the thing to get the giggles going. But the required format for the graphics may prove a stumbling block for most users.

EyeRoller launches a bland square window onto your desktop, and the white window includes some text. Right-clicking the window opens a menu for loading or downloading a face. Once a face is loaded, its eyes roll with … Read more

AZImage is a basic image converter that lets users quickly resize and convert images. The program's ease of use and a few cool extra features make this a good choice for conversion jobs of all sizes.

The program's interface is fairly intuitive and attractive, with three tabs that represent the steps in the conversion process. In the first, users select the images they want to convert; images can be selected individually, or users can select entire folds of images for batch conversions. In the next tab, users select the format, size, and destination for the new images. The … Read more

A couple of weeks ago, I described how to sync contacts between Outlook, Gmail, and your iPhone. The program missing from this contacts mega-merge was Thunderbird (download for Windows | Mac), and for good reason. Mozilla's free e-mail program is not particularly contact-friendly.

The first time I attempted to use Mozilla Thunderbird's import function to bring my Gmail contacts into the client e-mail application, I was seriously disappointed with the results. Most of the contact information was squished into a single nondescript field for each record. The few fields that did make the conversion were incomplete. The entire process was pretty worthless, overall.

Then I found the free Zindus add-on for Thunderbird. The program brings a subset of contact fields from Google and Zimbra into Mozilla's free e-mail program. For Google, the fields imported include the contact's name, primary and secondary e-mail addresses, phone numbers, IM names, company, title, and notes. (I didn't test the program with Zimbra.)

After you download and install Zindus, a "Zindus" option is added to Thunderbird's Tools menu. Clicking it opens the Zindus Configuration Settings dialog box where you're presented with a handful of contact-sync options, including a Sync Now button.

… Read more