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An equal-opportunity player

Providing one-stop shopping for all your video and audio management desires, open-source and cross-platform Miro deserves much of the praise that's been heaped upon it. The latest major point to version 4 introduces strong support for importing iTunes libraries and Android device syncing, in effect attempting to become iTunes for Android. Somewhat remarkably, it does a good job at this challenging task.

The concept behind Miro is brilliant, yet simple: create a jukebox video and audio player that can subscribe to and download podcasts while managing your locally saved media. On the face of it, this might sound like … Read more

Free movie database app

Duck Software's Organizer series of personal database applications share a common core that is then optimized for a specific use, such as keeping track of your movie collection. That's the job of Film Tracker v5.0, a free movie database. It can help you keep track of your far-flung video collection with more than 19 customizable data fields. Like all such databases, you must enter the information bit by bit, but Film Tracker's efficient entry form makes that job easy, and it can also import and export data in CSV files.

Like its stablemates, Film Tracker shares … Read more

Better notes mean better grades

Notability might be the best note-taking application we've seen for the iPad, with tons of useful features that are easily accessed through the app's intuitive interface. Perfect for students or really anyone who needs to gather and organize information, Notability lets you use your onscreen keyboard (or a compatible Bluetooth keyboard) to keep track of information by grouping your notes into categories by subject.

You can start a new note by tapping on the Compose button, or open an existing note from the start screen. You have the option to open notes from Dropbox, or from your iDisk … Read more

Music collection database

It's hard enough to keep up with a digital music collection spanning thousands of tunes over gigabytes of disk space, but what do you do if you have LP records, cassette tapes, Edison wax cylinders, and other musical media? Duck Software's Album Tracker can help music lovers get a handle on their ever-expanding libraries. It's a highly customizable music database that lets you organize your music by genre as well as title, artist, and other typical categories. It's not a music or media player and doesn't try to reorganize or convert your library; it simply … Read more

How to organize apps on the BlackBerry PlayBook

The PlayBook comes with some preset app drawers to help organize apps. While the drawers make for a great way to categorize apps, arranging the apps to fit your liking is something you will probably want to do. This simple guide will walk you through rearranging and organizing apps on your PlayBook, as well as show you how to place apps of your choosing in the Favorites drawer.

Free library system

Duck Software's Organizer series of home database programs build on a flexible core optimized for various specific uses. Book Tracker - Collector Edition is for home librarians, bibliophiles, book collectors, or anyone who has a lot of printed material to manage. Of course, books don't write themselves, and they won't find their own way into your database, either; you have to enter or, if you're lucky, import the data. You don't need to enter everything at once, though, and once it's done, updates are easy.

Book Tracker shares the Organizer family's efficient interface, … Read more

Good scheduler with bubbly personality

Efficient Lady's Organizer Free is a free program that manages your contacts, appointments, schedules, and other important parts of your personal life like birthdays and holidays. It includes a Calendar, Notes, Diary, and other features common to personal organizers, as well as some less common ones like password protection and a password generator. It has the same basic interface as virtually identical editions, with the exception of a pink-hued interface and the liberal application of hearts and bubbles to the program's skin. While it's not for everyone, plenty of ladies (and gentlemen) will find it a refreshing … Read more

For men and other disorganized types

Efficient Man's Organizer Free Portable breaks down this way: it's an efficient personal organizer designed for men that's totally portable and totally free. Portability is a key asset in a personal manager since a tool that's chained to your desktop obviously can't keep up with you when you're not at your desk. Efficient Man's Organizer is compact enough to run from a wide range of storage media and portable devices, yet it still offers a full set of features.

We extracted the compressed download of Efficient Man's Organizer and saved it to … Read more

Crappy calendar

We always like to try new calendar applications, because periodically we come across some really innovative programs. Occasionally, though, we come across programs like Kalendra. It's innovative, all right, but not necessarily in a good way. As the kids would say, this program is a hot mess.

Kalendra's interface is fairly similar to other programs of this type, at least as far as the layout is concerned. But it has a cluttered, amateurish feel to it. We set about trying to explore its features and were duly unimpressed. Kalendra allegedly functions as an e-mail client, but we had … Read more

Waste Management CEO places energy bets

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif.-- Waste Management wants your waste for more reasons that you might think.

The company, which hauls garbage from 22 million customers, is in the midst of a strategy to invest in technology start-ups in an effort to get electricity, chemicals, or liquid fuels from municipal solid waste. Already, the company generates two to three times more energy than the entire solar industry.

"We took the venture capital route. We make lots of small investments because you don't know what technology will ultimately will win. We need to spread out bets," Waste Management CEO … Read more