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Although technically one of the first GPS manufacturers to market a mapping app for portables with its Garmin Mobile 10 software for PDAs and Palm, Garmin has been notably absent from the smartphone navigation app marketplace as of late (discounting the aging and ridiculously overpriced Garmin Mobile for Blackberry). Today, Garmin jumps back into the fray, challenging apps from TomTom, Magellan, and Navigon with not one, but four of its own GPS-centric apps, including the new StreetPilot navigation app for iPhone and three new GPS apps for Android devices.

The StreetPilot name hearkens back to the original Garmin StreetPilot GPS … Read more

Google Chrome is gaining popularity and acceptance as an alternative to Firefox and Internet Explorer, and not just among Web surfers; Web developers like Chrome's speed and flexibility as well as its open-source components. Firebug Lite for Google Chrome is a free extension that adds the functionality of the popular Firebug Web development tool to the Chrome interface. Firebug Lite lets you inspect and modify HTML in real time, analyze network performance and activity, and debug JavaScript with what is claimed to be the most advanced debugger available in a browser.

Installing Firebug Lite for Google Chrome was as … Read more

For heavy-duty image editing, a program like Photoshop is a must, but many users don't need anything that big and complex. Digital Photo Finalizer Lite Edition provides a simple suite of editing tools. It's not going to replace a full-featured photo editor, but, as the name suggests, it's a good choice for putting the finishing touches on your photos.

The first thing to be aware of is that you'll be forced to use a free 30-day trial version of the Pro Edition of the software, which will likely get you used to using tools that the … Read more

Linkman Lite from Outertech is a free tool for collecting, centralizing, and managing bookmarks from 10 different browsers. It integrates with Firefox and Internet Explorer as well as the interesting Maxthon. But it's capable of much more, such as the ability to organize and sort bookmarks by keywords, comments, folders, paths, and other filters; synchronize bookmarks and links between two programs or two separate computers; automatically check and update links and delete duplicates; and import and export saved files. You can also color-code bookmarks, protect your bookmark files with a password, set hot keys, save all the links on … Read more

Although many people keep valuables or sensitive information in a safe or locked filing cabinet, people aren't always so careful with what's on their computers. CryptoExpert Lite makes it easy to create the electronic equivalent of a safe, giving users a secure place to store sensitive documents of all sorts.

The program's interface is fairly intuitive and easy to navigate. It's split into three panes that let users navigate to drives, folders, and individual files. To create a new encrypted drive image file, simply click New, and the program opens a wizard that walks you through … Read more

Any time you have multiple versions of a file--be it a presentation, source code, contract, novel, image, or other document--the potential for confusion arises. For a quick and easy way to compare files or folders, try SwiftCompare Light. This simple program allows users to easily identify different versions of files and sync the contents of folders. With many potential uses, this is a handy program to have around.

SwiftCompare Light has a plain but extremely intuitive interface. Users first choose whether they want to compare files or folders, and then navigate to the particular files or folders they want to … Read more

Believe it or not, we manage to make it through a whole podcast without barely mentioning the iPhone! Sure, it comes up just for a second, but we spend the majority of the time discussing desserts that begin with the letter "H". If anyone at Google is listening, we're down to "Honeycake" or "Hamantash" for the next Android update beyond the forthcoming "Gingerbread" release.

Speaking of Android, we spend time in this episode talking about how Froyo looks on the HTC Evo 4G. Kent thinks it looks great, but no one … Read more

T-Mobile announced the availability of the LG dLite Wednesday, making it the third LG handset in T-Mobile's stable (the other two are the Sentio and the GS-170).

The dLite is quite the attention-grabber, with programmable light effects, courtesy of color LEDs along its side and an interesting dot matrix display on the front. It has a 2.8-inch internal display, support for T-Mobile's 3G network, e-mail, and visual voicemail. It's available in bubblegum pink and electric blue for $50 after a mail-in rebate.

Gone are the days when completing a crossword puzzle meant hunkering over a folded newspaper or a puzzle book. You can still do crosswords that way, of course, but like everything else, they've also gone electronic. Across Lite is an easy-to-use crossword application that supports puzzles from some of the U.S.'s top newspapers, including The New York Times and Washington Post. The program retains a lot of the pen-and-paper experience of doing a crossword while offering a convenient electronic format.

If you've ever done a crossword before, and if you have even the most basic computer … Read more