Software

WindowBlinds version 8 brings a couple new features that include a brand new interface, better support for Windows 8, and SkinStudio, a theme designer that lets users create their own customizations.

There are four main aspects of your windows that you can modify: style, color, texture, and background. Styles are preset schemes to make your windows look new. Version 8 includes a couple new styles (including Win8, which mimics the flat style of Modern UI). Each style contains a substyle that'll modify a graphic or tailor your windows and taskbars to be more in line with your current version … Read more

Time to assess the last of the four activity trackers I've been living with for over two months, the BodyMedia Fit.

If you're serious about tracking every calorie burned as accurately as possible, this makes the other trackers look like toys. But it's also the least comfortable to wear, and monthly subscription fees may also put some off.

BodyMedia sells two versions of the Fit. The "Core" version for $120 lacks Bluetooth and so can't talk directly to apps on your iPhone or Android device. The "Link" version sells for $150 and … Read more

A couple weeks back I suggested that Kingsoft Office Free 2013 might just be the best Microsoft Office alternative you can get, especially if you need only the core elements: word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations.

Kingsoft offers a Pro version, of course, one that includes more goodies. A one-year license normally sells for $29.95, but today only, Giveaway of the Day has Kingsoft Office Professional 2013 (Win) absolutely free.

Let me note right here that this version has just a few key benefits over its free counterpart: a Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) editor, support for macros in the … Read more

Leawo's Tunes Cleaner searches your iTunes library for duplicates, missing album art and song tags, and other issues, and automatically fixes it all without requiring an iTunes Store account. With a few clicks, it can tidy up the largest iTunes library, but it also works with folders outside of iTunes, though it doesn't work as a general music library cleaner: You must have iTunes 10 or better installed. Leawo Tunes Cleaner does work with Windows 8, though, as well as XP, Vista, and Windows 7; both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. It's not free, but the unregistered version … Read more

Any Skype user can now send a video message to friends and family who are offline.

Rolled out in February as a beta preview, Video Messaging launched on Monday to all Skype users. Those of you on Skype can record a video message to share with folks who aren't available. The message then pops up for your recipients after they log into Skype.

Built directly into the Skype software, Video Messaging is accessible via Skype for Windows desktop, Skype for Windows 8, Skype for Mac, Skype for iPhone, Skype for iPad, Skype for Android, and Skype for BlackBerry.

There'… Read more

You know what my iPad doesn't have? A DVD player. So how am I supposed to watch all the great movies in my DVD collection? I'm talking "The Rock," "The Shawshank Redemption," "The Incredibles," "The Matrix," and so on. (It's true: I have awesome taste in movies.)

No doubt Apple, Amazon, and Google would love for me to buy their digital versions of all my platter-based movies, but I already bought them once. Do I really have to spend $10 to $15 to buy them again?

Not today. Movie-discovery … Read more

Fit Radio takes one of the more popular features of other radio curation services and builds an entire app around it. The result is a stripped-down music discovery and radio app that works perfectly for those who are heading to the gym and don't already have their own playlists.

The purpose of Fit Radio is to create and curate playlists of songs that are perfect for anyone going to the gym or working out at home. It combines a number of features in terms of DJ-supported playlists and custom songs to give you a choice among dozens of possible … Read more

Gif Magic capitalizes on the surge of interest in GIF animations in recent months, allowing you to make the short animations on your phone in just a few seconds. While the app has certain limitations, the resulting GIFs are spot on, providing the kind of short bursts of animation that go over great on social networks.

The core function of Gif Magic is to convert still photos or video into animated GIFs. You can either record a new video, which will then be converted instantly to a GIF, or you can choose a video or still images in your photo … Read more

iCarousel offers a quick, intuitive image search tool for your iPhone that takes only moments to set up and that works instantly for any search. The interface is designed to resemble the carousel-style sliders in iOS, but ironically loads and moves faster than most of the apps Apple integrates this feature into. The result is a fun-to-use app that has a number of instantly accessible uses.

iCarousel is a relatively feature-bare app. When it opens, select your search term and hit the button to populate a carousel of images. It takes only a second or so for the carousel to … Read more