Yearly Archives: 2012

PearlMountain Image Converter: Batch Photo Editing & Conversion Tool For Windows

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Most free image editing tools are made for a specific purpose. For instance, you will have to use one tool to convert the image format, another to correct its colors, while a third will be required to add a watermark to the image. Having so many tools installed on your system not only creates unnecessary clutter, but also reduces the efficiency when you have to open this many programs every time you want to perform a simple editing operations on an image. PearlMountain Image Converter is an easy-to-use image editing & converting tool with an eye-candy GUI, which allows you to export an image in different formats, resize, crop and watermark it, rename it according to pre-specified criteria, perform color corrections, and apply borders. All of these functions can be performed at once in a batch operation, eliminating the time wasted in performing each function one by one. Read on to find out more about PearlMountain Image Converter. Read More

View The Location Of Any Smartphone Or Internet-Enabled Phone With Space-time For iPhone

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Find My Friends by Apple (reviewed here) is a pretty decent app for always knowing the current location of your contacts. Apart from that, there are many other similar apps available in the App Store that perform essentially the same task. So, why should another location-tracking app be covered by us? Simply owing to the fact that Space-time is different from all the apps of its genre. First of all, Space-time will not eat up your battery unnecessarily, as it does not run in the background, but comes into action only when you have to request a friend’s location. Another advantage this app holds over similar apps is the fact that your friends won’t be stalked indefinitely after they allow access to their location just once. Space-time sends its location requests via SMS, and you will have to send a new SMS through the app each time you want to know where your friend is. Read More

SMS Flash: View Received SMS As Toast Notifications, Reply via Proximity Sensor Gestures [Android]

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As a regular GO SMS Pro user, what I personally like about the popular Android messaging app is its ability to display pop-ups for received text messages anywhere in the OS. However, said feature of the app doesn’t always work, specifically with games and other full-screen apps, which eventuates in me missing out on important text messages at times. New to the Google Play Store, SMS Flash is an Android app that resolves said issue. Once the app is installed and activated, it displays each new received message via a customizable toast notification (a tile overlay containing text that appears for a short period of time). Whether you’re playing a game, watching a movie or working with any full-screen app, SMS Flash ensures that you have your latest texts right before your eyes so that you do not have to leave the current screen. As the app’s name suggests, each SMS appears for a short time, after which it automatically disappears from the screen, and this is where the most interesting facet of SMS Flash comes into play. The app utilizes your device’s proximity sensor to provide you with ample control over the flash duration, appearance, and most importantly, the way in which you can respond to the received texts by interacting with the proximity sensor. Read More

Accelerometer Mouse: Control PC Mouse Movements Using An Android Device’s Motion Sensor

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There’s no shortage of Android apps in the Google Play Store that let you use your device as a mouse, keyboard or trackpad for your computer. However, most of the available solutions require you to drag your finger over the device’s screen to control the mouse cursor. New to the market, Accelerometer Mouse (currently in beta) is yet another Android app that lets you take control of your computer’s mouse movements over WiFi, but to achieve said purpose, it uses your Android device's accelerometer. That is, mouse movements are controlled by tilting your Android device to various angles. The app works in combination with a Java-based desktop server that reads the mobile device’s movements transmitted over a common WiFi network, and translates them into real-time mouse movements on your computer’s screen. The mobile client’s is extremely easy to use, with a UI that incorporates the looks of a regular PC mouse, complete with left, right and scroll buttons. Read More

Spyrix Free Keylogger Monitors & Captures Screenshots Of All Activities On A PC

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Whether spying on someone is good or bad, is probably a relative concept. For instance, while it may be immoral spying on someone for stealing their identity, it can certainly be helpful to keep an eye on your kids’ computer activities, as all the explicit and violent content available on the internet can easily manipulate their fresh minds. If you were looking for an application that could help you monitor your children’s computer usage, then look no further than Spyrix Free Keylogger. This small tool is designed to log every activity, such as keystrokes, passwords, websites visited, emails, chats etc, at regular intervals. It automatically captures screenshots of all the activities, like applications used, under its installation directory for the visual evidence of any malicious activity. This tool is also quite useful for monitoring employees' computer usage patterns, as there’s nothing worse than having them wasting their time surfing YouTube. Read More

MyEmotions Adds A List Of Graphic Emoticons To Facebook Chat [Chrome]

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Facebook chat has evolved over time. At first it was simple text chat with a few emoticons and now Facebook has integrated video and group chat. Although the chat feature has come a long way, many people still prefer to use the simple text chat. A while back, if you were using Facebook chat, chances were that you’d only discover the emoticons it supports if you typed in the smiley face symbol. With a little more investigation, you would likely discover that some of the most common emoticons are graphically supported. Facebook then introduced a small smiley button in the chat field that lets you see 21 common shortcuts. The thing is, it supports more than 21 emoticons.  If you love using emoticons to express your mood while you chat, then you will love MyEmotions for Chrome. This extension lets you quickly insert emoticons with a single click, enriching your chatting experience on Facebook. With it, you will no longer have to remember all those different emoticon codes, you can quickly view all the emoticons that Facebook supports, select one from the list, and it will be added to your chat field. Read More

Reddit Sync: ICS-Themed Reddit Browser With Offline Viewing [Android]

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Previously reviewed BaconReader by OneLouder Apps might be one of the most complete and comprehensive third-party Reddit clients for Android, but there are quite a few other candidates consistently vying for the top spot. One such app is Reddit Sync that has been around for quite a while now, improving considerably with each update. For instance, in its current version, the app is perhaps the only Reddit browser to have a good Holo UI. Other than pleasing aesthetics, the app provides most of what other clients have to offer - up/down voting and commenting on posts, managing your favorite subreddits, previewing posts, inline comments and images, and viewing images (in full-screen) and other content natively, as well as via an external browser. Additionally, the app lets you select the color of its theme, toggle between day and night reading modes, access your Reddit inbox, post custom links, images & texts and specify the number of subreddit pages that you wish to sync to your device for offline access. Read More

ShowOrHide: View Hidden Files Without Using Terminal Command [Mac]

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We’ve covered quite a few tips in the past that required access to hidden files on your Mac. Additionally, hidden files aren’t just used for tweaking; every app you install creates a folder on your hard drive, which is saved in the Library folder, hidden by default. While you should just hope that no app requires you to ever go digging after these files, viewing hidden files on Mac isn’t a big deal, and can easily be done via a Terminal command. However, for those that don’t want to go there, there is ShowOrHide - a free Mac app that does nothing more that toggling the visibility of your hidden files. Read More

Secure Bookmarks: Add A Password-Protected Bookmarks List To Chrome

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Want to save your bookmarks in a private and secure way, so other people using the same computer cannot access them? It's quite possible to have content in your bookmarks that you would want to keep hidden from prying eyes. Secure Bookmarks is a Chrome extension that adds a password-protected bookmarks list to Chrome, so you can occasionally create bookmarks without having them displayed out in the open. The extension allows you to store such favorites in a separate list that is encrypted and saved on your hard drive. After installing the extension, you can save content with a click, and retrieve it later by entering your password within a tiny pop-up. Read More

FAR: Find & Replace A Portion Of Similar Filenames Or Completely Rename Multiple Files At Once

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If you’re an avid AddictiveTips reader, you might have noticed that we have covered numerous Find & Replace utilities in the past. These programs easily let you rename multiple files on your computer at once. Well, today we will take a closer look into another such application, named as FAR – Find And Replace. This open source tool, written in Java, is designed to allow replacing either a recurring part of a group of file names with text of your choice or batch-rename files entirely. In case you have any fear of damaging your files during the replacement process, it also lets you create automatic backups to a safe location. More after the break. Read More

SyncDifferent Lets You Sync Files Between As Many Folders As You Want [Mac]

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Just yesterday, we shared a tip on how to sync a folder between two Macs using a cloud service, Dropbox. The same method is applicable for syncing any number of folders on the same system as well, but if you prefer an app that does this for you, then SyncDifferent is what you need. We’ve covered apps similar to this one before, but most of them were restricted to syncing only two folders. With SyncDifferent, however, you can sync files between as many folders as you want. The app lets you sync data from the source to the destination folder and vice-versa, and similarly, lets you sync any new files that are added to either one of the folders. Read More

Warnygo: Create & View Alerts For Emergency Situations In Your Area [WP7]

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There are many apps in the Marketplace, but only a fraction of them are meant for social welfare, which is what makes Warnygo for Windows Phone 7 a rare entry. The app allows you to help others, providing an opportunity to form a community in which everyone can contribute by reporting emergencies in their vicinity. The app is not just for emergency situations, though. You can use it for staying up to date with other incidents as well, such as a celebrity visiting your city, or a gig taking place nearby. More after the break. Read More

HashMyFiles: Calculate Checksum Values & Save Resulting List As HTML, XML Or TXT

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Internet has made file sharing tenfold easier. We can easily share files via various services available on the internet. But with this, file integrity has become a serious issue. Every other day, we hear the news of some hacker group compromising a major company's confidential data. Sometimes, they don’t use their own computers to perform these malicious activities, but instead employ backdoors to enter the systems of unsuspecting, unguarded internet users and gain access to their systems. Checking the integrity of files is very important if you don’t want your computer to get infected with viruses and malware. Sometimes, hackers modify the contents of a downloadable zip, which can even grant them complete remote access to your system. To fight this, developers usually provide a hash value along with the download link, which works as a proof for originality of the file. The integrity of the downloaded file is checked by generating a hash value of your own, and comparing with the one provided by the developer. The hash values can be calculated and compared using a number of tools available on internet. HashMyFiles is one such portable utility that allows you to quickly calculate checksum values of one or multiple files located on your hard drive and save the resulting list as HTML, XML or text. More on HashMyFiles after the jump. Read More

X-Proxy: One-Click Way To Fake Your IP Address & Access Blocked Web Content

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While surfing the internet, your IP address is your unique identifier, which can reveal sensitive information about you, including geographical location. This is how Geo-restricted websites determine our actual location and deny access in some countries. Nowadays, VPNs are used to avoid getting blocked in certain regions. For example, you are at times unable to view some YouTube videos because of them not being made available in your region by the uploader. Using a VPN application, you can bypass this barrier and view unavailable content, and/or visit blocked domains. Moreover, you are also prone to attacks by hackers and malicious codes, if they know your real IP address, and find any gaps in your computer's security. We've covered some very useful applications that allow you to browse the internet without revealing your real IP. Today, we have another application, called X-Proxy, that lets you surf anonymously, access blocked content and prevent attacks from hackers. Keep reading to find out about X-Proxy. Read More

Maxthon Skyfile Brings 6GB Of Free Cloud Storage To PC, Android & iOS

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Google’s very own cloud storage service, Google Drive, is finally alive and kicking, but it’s not, by any means, the only good online data sharing and syncing solution available to users. The competition among some of the reputed cloud storage services and brand new entrants was getting fierce by the day, and now Maxthon – the team behind Maxthon Web Browser for Windows and Android – has unleashed its own cloud storage service by the name of Skyfile. Currently available for web, Windows, Android and jailbroken iPhone, iPad & iPod touch, Skyfile brings an initial offer of 6GB of free cloud storage space to anyone who registers for a new account. The desktop client lets you keep selective Skyfile folders in sync with your PC at all times while the Android & iOS clients allow remote access to all your Skyfile cloud content. However, more than any other aspect, it’s the advanced and secure file sharing features of Skyfile that deserve to be commended. More after the break. Read More

Weather Sky: Android Live Wallpaper That Depicts Weather & Time Of Day

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As stated in our huge compilation of some of the best Android Live Wallpapers, GO Weather is arguably one of the most comprehensive and easy-on-the eyes weather apps to have arrived in the Google Play Store to date. The aspect that catches the eye out of the entire package is its LWP, which displays weather info, along with a graphic to depict it, and the time of day on your homescreen. If, however, you've already tried GO Weather and want a change of scenery on your home scenery on your homescreen, then you must try Weather Sky – a free standalone and fully customizable Android Live Wallpaper that beautifies your screen by displaying the current time and animated graphics to depict weather from virtually all major cities in the world. The app fetches all its weather-related info from the WorldWeatherOnline web service. Read More

Save A History Of YouTube Videos Viewed On Any Webpage [Chrome]

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After watching several entertaining videos on YouTube, you might want to revisit a previously watched one. There are a couple of ways to do this; you can either search your browser history, or you can search YouTube’s own history, which requires that you're logged in. In the absence of the latter case, searching the browser history can be a difficult and time consuming task. Video History For YouTube makes life easier by keeping a track of your YouTube activity. Not only does it work on YouTube's own website, but also records embedded videos from other blogs/websites and saves them in a list for later viewing. Moreover, it notifies you when there are new items from your Subscribed channels. Also, the Popular Videos category lets you view videos by This Week, This Month and All Time options. Read More

ProcessAlive Automatically Restarts User-Defined Programs When They Crash

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Applications like parental control programs, P2P clients, antivirus software and scheduled backup tools, all require to be continuously running in order to work properly. However, with hundreds of things that can go wrong within an operating system, some of these tools can also act abnormally and can easily crash. And the result is an important application crashing or going into Not Responding status, has caused some serious problem and even system hang. We have covered some very useful applications that enable you to choose particular processes for automatic restart upon a crash. These include Restarter, a portable application for Windows that sits quietly in the system tray and lets you easily restart explorer.exe, aero services and kill non-responding tasks whenever required.  We also reviewed Application Monitor, another free tool that monitors specified applications and restarts them, should they crash. If you didn't find these tools of any use or were looking for an alternative solution, then you give ProcessAlive a shot. What it does is, it automatically re-launches crashed programs and is particularly useful for processes that need to constantly run in the background. More details about ProcessAlive past the break. Read More

[Giveaway] Turn Your Portraits Into Facial Animations With LiveFace For iPhone

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If you are an iPhone user, then you probably would have  come across many apps that let you create animations with relative ease. Usually, you have to perform a few steps before the animation is actually created, and then it mostly has a few shortcomings or flaws. LiveFace for iOS  is a fun app that lets you bring your portraits to life, literally. It lets you easily create animations from face shots, allowing you to export the results as GIF, MP4, SWF or JPG files. You can animate faces in photos in several different ways with no more than a few taps, making your friends wink or appear extatic regardless of what mood they were in when the photo was shot. Read More