1.4.3

Do you have any photos or videos on your smartphone you'd like to hide from the general public? Pandora offers to put them into a password-protected box so no one can see them but you. It works exactly as advertised, but it's nowhere near as dynamic as other lockbox apps.

Though it has a name like the music-streaming app and a logo like Dropbox, it's confusingly neither. That means it can cleverly hide in your app menu without raising the eyebrow of someone looking through your phone. When you first use the app, it drops you right … Read more

In a pinch and need a data connection on your tablet or laptop? You can use Open Garden to sneak a connection from your smartphone without needing to tether. Setup is easy, but the connection has enough hiccups and jumps to sometimes be more frustrating than it's worth.

Before you can use Open Garden, you have to download another program for your desktop. Once you set up the network, your gadgets will connect automatically whenever they're nearby. It can even work through NFC if your phone has it. However, owners of modern phones can have a more reliable … Read more

Sending and receiving text messages can be problematic and costly when your destination is the Philippines. Chikka Text Messenger solves this dilemma for you by providing a communication hub via online servers.

The application loads quite quickly and the account setup is simple as well. If you possess a Globe, Smart, or Sun mobile phone you may simply enter your phone number and password. All other phone providers must set up an account with a valid e-mail address. Chikka Text Messenger is free for the user who installs it. However, there is a nominal fee for the phone responding to … Read more

Small Street for Mac is a town-building and management game. A free download for Mac OS X, there are in-game purchases of extras and money that help expand the game and the play. Small Street for Mac is available from the App Store and download sites and installs easily.

The goal of Small Street for Mac is to create a town of apartments and houses for citizens, and shops and restaurants for them to work in and buy from. Instead of starting small and building to a large city or nation like some building games, Small Street for Mac stays … Read more

Sizerox is an app for Mac OS X that lets you resize, crop, watermark, and perform other manipulation of digital images. It's not available through the App Store, but it is from several Web sites. The demo version (which superimposes gray squares over your images, rendering them essentially useless) can be upgraded to the full version for $14.95.

The Sizerox interface is clean and easy to use. Most of the interface windows show details about the source and destination pictures, while additional dialogs let you select preferences. Fully supporting drag-and-drop, Sizerox lets you select one or more images … Read more

Even if you use a payroll company to pay your employees, in many cases you're still legally obligated to keep your own payroll records. We've encountered several programs that let users do that with varying levels of success. Personal Payroll Manager, we're sorry to say, is among the worst. While it technically does keep track of your payroll records, it's difficult to use and lacks important features.

We had trouble getting Personal Payroll Manager to open at first; it requires Microsoft Access, and when we tried to launch Personal Payroll Manager, we had to manually select … Read more

There's a reason that flashcards have remained such a popular educational tool: they work. L.A. Flash Cards is an easy-to-use program that takes all of the useful simplicity of physical flashcards and adds helpful features like audio to make your flashcards extra effective. Whether you're learning a foreign language or trying to memorize a set of words or facts for another purpose, L.A. Flash Cards can do things a set of handwritten index cards never could.

The program's interface isn't the most intuitive thing we've ever seen, but it didn't take us … Read more

A home theater isn't really a home theater unless it has speakers, preferably of the 5.1-channel surround variety. Of course, you can't just plug them directly into your TV; you need a receiver to act as the hub and amplify the audio.

Receivers can cost a small fortune, but here's your chance to score a killer deal: Newegg has the Yamaha RX-V367 5.1-channel digital home theater receiver for $149.99 shipped. That's after applying coupon code EMCKFJH22 at checkout. (Note: you must be a Newegg newsletter subscriber to use the code.)

The RX-V367 is … Read more

Where's free, ad-supported app aggregates widgets powered by various online services to supply localized information ranging from weather and news to a theater lookup, traffic reports, and gas prices near you. There's a search bar powered by Yellow Pages.com that supports text and voice, and the ability to flag businesses as favorites. Where also integrates a social aspect in the form of a localized Twitterstream and the Where "wall." Though we could do without these last two features, it's easy to ignore them and concentrate on quickly finding what you're seeking nearby.