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Record and manage audio files, but you need an external account to do so

SoundCloud is meant to allow people who work with audio files a lot to manage their workloads and their libraries. The idea is to use SoundCloud to listen to sound files from others and to share your own. To do so, you need to set up a SoundCloud account. SoundCloud installs easily on Mac OS X 10.6 or later.

The SoundCloud interface is similar to iTunes: there's a list of folders and playlists on the left, a middle pane that lists music files, and a panel on the right with more information about a selected file. There's … Read more

News feeds from around the Web in one place

iReader is a Mac OS X utility to display news, both online and stored for offline reading if you so wish. iReader installs quickly and there are several keyboard customizations available if you want to make your reading controls a little different than the default.

When launched, iReader opens a dialog with three sections, which can be resized or hidden if you wish to have more screen real estate for other panes. The left side is your list of subscriptions, and clicking on one opens the feed headlines in the middle pane. The larger right pane shows the actual content … Read more

Weather reports made fun with Swackett

Swackett is a weather app. Sounds exciting, huh? But surprisingly, Swackett does a great job at relaying what other sites don't really make clear, which is what the weather really will be like. Instead of complex weather data and a radar image, Swackett produces a condensed version with pictographs and a simple layout that gives you the weather forecast at a glance.

Swackett's simple interface gives you a picture of what the weather will be like using a simple image (for a hot day you see two cartoon figures dressed with hats and light clothes, holding suntan lotion … Read more

Projecting your financial situation, one expense at a time

Cashculator Free is a personal finance calculator and collection of utilities for helping you determine your future financial decisions. Cashculator Free is not just a set of spreadsheets, but a set of tools that help guide you through several important financial calculations. The app installs easily and when launched gives you a mini-tutorial on getting started.

Cashculator Free starts with simple financial analysis tools such as budgeting and determining cash flow. From there, you can do what-if scenarios. The free version of Cashculator allows you to save two scenarios and work forward only three months. To see more future planning … Read more

Make your iDevice act like a webcam for your PC

EpocCam is an iOS app for converting your iDevice's camera into a high-definition PC webcam. There's a free version and also an upgrade to the HD version for $4.99. To use EpocCam you need to download an app on your iDevice, as well as a driver for Windows or Mac OS X on your computer (laptop or desktop). We installed the Windows drivers from the publisher's Web site, then downloaded the iOS app on our iPhone. Both installations went easily, although we did go to the publisher's Web site to watch the how-to videos first (… Read more

Look up landmarks and attractions anywhere in the world

World Explorer is an app that lets you enter any of the 350,000 locations in the app's database and see images and descriptions of that location. Working with the Mac's geolocation capabilities, you can also see what's near you. The app installs quickly.

The World Explorer interface presents you with a dialog box to enter a location, then three panes underneath show images, an illustrated description, and ratings of the feature or nearby features. Lookups are fast, and we ended up discovering lots of things around us that we hadn't seen before, as well as … Read more

Simple note taking utility for the Mac

If you've used the Notes app on an iPhone you know how easy it can be to scribble quick notes to yourself about any odd thing, from shopping lists to reminders. Quick Note moves that quick note-taking capability to the Mac. Quick Note is a simple download and runs in the background for fast access.

The Quick Note interface is simple. It opens a lined note page where you can type notes to yourself, and it has a master note list so you can look up existing notes by title, or create new ones as needed. Editing notes is … Read more

Collages of photos made easy

With the popularity of scrapbooking and creating collages of images on social networking sites, CollageIt for Mac is a handy utility that helps you create collages on the Mac. Instead of uploading a bunch of separate images, you can create a larger image with multiple smaller images laid out in a specific order. CollageIt for Mac installs quickly.

The CollageIt for Mac interface is simple, presenting you with four basic collage layouts (mosaic, grid, center, and pile, each with multiple possible templates) in the left pane, and a display of created (and editable) collages on the right. To create a … Read more

Free high-quality wallpaper images with Wallpapers HD Lite

Wallpapers HD Lite is a wallpaper app that offers thousands of high-resolution images for the Mac. The app is a quick download. When launched, a dialog opens with two panes: to the right are a few thumbnails of available wallpaper images, and to the left is a thumbnail preview and two big buttons for rating an image and downloading the selected image in the preview pane. A drop-down selection list in the top right lets you see specific categories of images, or you can choose three collections of recently downloaded images, popular images, or random images.

The free version, Wallpapers … Read more

Basketball arcade game application

Basketball Mania from Mouse Games is an Android app that's fairly easy to get the hang of and very fun to play. Even if you never go near a real court, you could easily become addicted to this game.

Basketball Mania's vibrant but simple interface enhances the gaming experience. By simply clicking Play, you are transferred to the skins screen. In the beginning there is only one screen or environment to choose from, but you'll be able to earn tickets as you make shots and use them to buy new skins. Gameplay is easy to pick up, … Read more