Stories by: Steve Horton

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    Day Clipboard Utility 07/09/2009 13:30:00

    Day Clipboard Utility will then save said image or text file in its own folder. This whole process can be automated, or you can approve each piece of text or image as it comes in to the clipboard.
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    Create cartoons with Anime Studio Debut 04/08/2009 00:42:00

    Anime Studio Debut is an off-shoot of Smith Micro's 2D art program, Manga Studio. It uses a "bone" interface as its core. You use a tool to add bones to the structure of a drawing. You can then animate these bones, and you can adjust their strength to behave more like real bones. Anime Studio Debut (US$50, 30-day free trial) can also animate based on edges of drawings and in many other ways. It includes a straightforward timeline system that allows you to intuit when and how animation happens easily.
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    Video player's DVD-copying feature may run afoul of MPAA 18/07/2009 05:16:00

    The latest release of the VLC media player is a huge hit, racking up nearly 8.6 million downloads since the 1.0 release last week, according to the makers of the software VideoLAN. But some observers - including movie studio lawyers - may feel the new software is just a little too good. In researching a review of the software, I was surprised to learn that it easily allowed me to copy encrypted DVDs directly onto my hard drive. That's something that has landed firms such as RealNetworks in court.
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    IPodRobot iPod Video Converter 10/07/2009 16:25:00

    When you plug an iPod or iPhone into a computer that has iTunes, you're able to synch the PC's playlist on to the device - but you can't go the other way. You can't copy what's already on the device to the PC.
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    Open-source media player VLC hits the big time 10/07/2009 07:00:00

    For several years, the free, third-party media player of choice for many video connoisseurs was the open-source VLC media player. It worked on multiple operating systems, it worked on a bare install of Windows without any special codecs, and it was light and fast. All that is still true. Now, VLC finally hits an important milestone: version 1.0.0 (given the James Bond-referencing nickname of Goldeneye), and with this version comes a pile of useful new features.
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    Back up your iPod to your PC 07/07/2009 04:13:00

    CopyTrans ($20) helps you sidestep one of iTunes's most galling built-in limitations. This useful app allows you to backup an entire iPod or iPhone's library, then either place it in a specific folder of your choice, or import the tracks and playlists directly into iTunes. This is handy when you have a hard drive crash and all your tracks are stuck on your iPod with no way to get them off. Or, you'd just like to transfer your music to your PC without any hassle.
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    Sync your iPod to your PC with iPodRobot 07/07/2009 01:19:00

    IPodRobot is a utility that's designed to get around one of Apple's most annoying limitations. When you plug an iPod or iPhone into a computer that has iTunes, you're able to sync the PC's playlist onto the device--but you can't go the other way. You can't copy what's already on the device to the PC.
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    Manage Twitter on your desktop with Spaz or TweetDeck 03/07/2009 08:30:00

    Twitter is all the rage. It was name-checked on Conan's second Tonight Show broadcast and was even extended into a comedy bit.
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    Safe Calculator 18/06/2009 13:35:00

    Safe Calculator is a neat little utility that pretends to be the basic Windows calculator when you launch it. In actuality, it's a safe that can take a single file and encrypt it, disappearing it into the application itself.
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    SkiniTunes 27/05/2009 16:40:00

    SkiniTunes consists of two different iterations: the Mini Player, which is a small rectangular app that has standard media player controls on it, and the Skini Player, which is an extremely small horizontal bar that sits at the top of the screen. SkiniTunes can switch back and forth between the two players in the middle of a track, but can't minimise completely.
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    EasyGPS helps your PC and GPS device plan trips together 16/05/2009 00:50:00

    Ah, trip planning. If you'd like to set your itinerary of points of interest, landmarks, and destinations on your PC rather than struggling with a GPS's touchscreen, then EasyGPS is a nice, free solution. It works with numerous models of Eagle, Garmin, Magellan and Lowrance GPS receivers. It doesn't work with TomTom, nor does it work with the GPS receivers embedded in many popular mobile phones.
 
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