Gizmo's Tech Support Alert Goes Wiki

Ian "Gizmo" Richards, the author of the really well respected Gizmo's Tech Support Alert newsletter has gone and made all of the stuff on there available online. Better still is the fact that his The Best-ever Freeware Utilities List is now available to the public and can even be modified and added to by the site users. It's a kind of Wikipedia for freeware and it's available to all users and not just subscribers.

There is now only one freeware list, because his original "46 Best-ever Freeware" list and "Extended list" have been combined into one big list of 120+ software categories, which is indexed by broad software class for easier searching and drilling down into. You can still casually browse that long, single page if you want though!

Better still, you can read users comments and suggestions in addition to the reviews and you can access the site forums where you can seek help on freeware installation problems or ask about a freeware program you are seeking.

Back issues of the newsletter, a veritable mine of information of PC and Windows support topics, can also be viewed on the site and, since the site is now wiki-based, users can submit their own articles and lists. I've been a subscriber to the newsletter for several years now and it's an invaluable source of tips, reviews, help, etc.

If "best freeware" lists is something you're interested in, then also have a look at this article by Scott Dunn over at Windows Secrets…

Nine must-have freeware apps rise to the top

Read More

Google Adds More Power To It's Translator

Google have recently added translation capabilities for 10 new languages to Google Translate, bringing the total to 23 languages. The newly featured languages include Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hindi, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian and Swedish. In addition, you can now translate text and web pages as well as perform cross-language searches between any two of the supported languages, including non-Roman languages like Arabic, Chinese, Greek, Hindi, Japanese and Russian.

Even more useful for some is the new Detect Language option that helps you automatically identify the language of the text you're trying to translate. Keep in mind that the longer the text, the more accurate it will be so try it out with as much text as you can.

Also of note to developers and site designers who have embedded the Google Translate My Page gadget in your website to give it global reach, then these new languages will automatically be available to your visitors. Developers can also take advantage of these new languages in the AJAX language API.

Still no Scottish Gaelic though - sigh!

Read More

flauntR - A Different Kind Of Image Editor

flauntR is a new, still in alpha development, web-based image editor. I know, I can hear you saying "what, another one?" but it's a bit different from the rest of them and does offer some added value to the image editor arena. flauntR is organized around several modules or applications that allow you to do different things to an image.


stylR provides a variety of options to have loads of fun with your photographs. With an abundance of frames, overlays, textures, etc, it helps in adding that extra edge to a photograph. For example, add an occasion based frame, a material based texture or add your image to a magazine cover mock-up and more.

editR is a comprehensive image editing package, which covers a variety of effects that could be applied on an image like sepia tone, grayscale, specialised effects like nightvision, infrared and also, basic options like crop, resize, straighten, rotate and colour manipulation.

textR allows the addition of customized text and a range of basic and novel shapes to the image. Both the text and the shapes can be modified in size, shape and colour as required.

picasR makes images resemble classical paintings in colour tone and feel. The essence of age old paintings is introduced into your images to create that vintage aura.

profilR lets you create the perfect profile picture or avatar for your social networking site. The image is adjusted as per the profile picture dimensions required for over 30 social networking sites and communities.

mobilR lets the you create the perfect wallpaper for your mobile phone or device. With support for over 200 phone models, it can create wallpapers as per the exact dimension of your mobile screen.

You can import images from your hard disk, a web site as well as from Flickr, Bebo, Facebook and Picasa Web Albums. One you've edited an image it can be saved to your flauntR storage, back to the source service or downloaded. The flauntR slideshow option lets you view the photos in your albums and services and you can choose the transitions with which you view these photos. You can also save a slideshow or share/embed it in another online service or blog, etc.

flauntR is still a growing application and new things are being added to it so it may well be worth adding to your arsenal of online image editing services along with the likes of Photoshop Express, Aviary, FotoFlexer, Splashup and Picnik.

Related Posts: Photoshop Express - A First Look!, FotoFlexer, Improve Your Images, More Online Image And Photo Editors, Image Resizing Grows Up (or Down), Online Image Editing With Wiredness, Phixr: Another Online Image Editor, PikiFx, Online Image Editors

Read More