Internet Download Manager

Are you tired of connection disconnects when downloading files? Slow download speed? We introduce you to Internet Download Manager, the perfect to resume and take full advantage of your internet connection by boosting your download up to four times.

If you´re used to downloading large files such as games and movies, Internet Download Manager will become an essential tool since it enables you to manage your downloads by categories as well as boosting their speed, resuming them, providing additional like automatic shutdown.

Quick and easy installation program will make necessary settings for you, and check your connection at the end to ensure trouble free installation of Internet Download Manager. When you click on a download link in a browser, IDM will take over the download and accelerate it. You don’t need to do anything special, just browse the Internet as you usually do. IDM will catch your downloads and accelerate them. IDM supports HTTP, FTP, HTTPS and MMS protocols.

Its Antivirus checking makes your downloads free from viruses and Trojans. IDM can automatically run a scanner on download completion, like AdAware, Avast, Spybot, AVG Anti-Virus, McAfee, SpywareBlaster, CCleaner and others to protect users from harmful downloaded files.

Internet Download Manager can record and download FLV videos from popular sites like YouTube, MySpaceTV, and Google Video. The best way of downloading webpage embedded videos from the Internet is here. After installing IDM, “Download This Video” button pops up whenever you are watching a video anywhere in the Internet.

Internet Download Manager interface lets you choose the order, buttons, and columns to appear on the main IDM window. There are several different skins for the toolbar with different button styles. All skins can be downloaded from IDM home site. Also users can design their own skins. Internet Download Manager can be used to organize downloads automatically using defined download categories.

Internet Download Manager features advanced browser integration with most popular web browsers including Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Maxthon, Avant Browser, AOL and Opera. When enabled, the feature can be used to catch any download from any application. None other download managers have this feature.

However, there a small issue with one-click-hosters such as Megaupload, RapidShare among others, requiring specific set up for some of them. For RapidShare for instance, you´ll have to enable the “Direct download” option on your premium account settings. For Megaupload it´s a bit more complicated and it´s a shame it´s not simpler since the use of such one-click-hosters is notoriously increasing.

All in all, Internet Download Manager is currently considered one of the best download managers. It features all the basic tools of a download manager as well as a handful of additional features.
Despite some shortcomings, its features are more than enough to start using Internet Download Manager as your default download manager. Give it a try, and you´ll notice an incredible boost in your download speed.

The best email clients to manage your emails

When it comes to choosing an email client, you need to take into account several different things, above all functionality, security and accessibility. Although the vast majority of users now tend to use webmail accounts, desktop email clients are still a practical alternative for when you need to manage several accounts at once, plus they also offer the possibility of creating emails that have professional multimedia layouts.

We’re going to focus our analysis on the five most popular clients: Eudora, Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird, Pando  and Incredimail.

Eudora

Eudora is one of the most popular e-mail clients both for Windows and Mac.

Eudora is one of the most traditional email clients for the Windows platform. It features support for multiple mail accounts, powerful filters, customized text layouts, drag and drop support, IMAP support, and options for automating processes. It also has a wide range of plug-ins available, which can seriously enhance the usefulness of the program.

The application’s interface is simple and accessible. The only negative for this email client could be the strong resemblance it bears to Outlook.

Outlook Express

Perhaps the most well-known email client in the world, Outlook Express is freely distributed along with the Internet Explorer web browser.

Among the features in version 6 are the administration of multiple accounts and identities, its HTML compatibility, the address book and the directory services. It also allows you to synchronize accounts without the need for a connection. Its interface is very accessible and it’s easy to find the latest version in practically any language on the official web site.

Without a doubt the biggest flaw is the program’s poor security. It is still highly vulnerable to worms and other types of threat that circulate in emails.

Mozilla Thunderbird

Mozilla Thunderbird is the new email client from Mozilla, and is perhaps Outlook’s most serious competitor.

It has an extremely simple and intuitive interface that presents an easy and practical application in which everything is designed to work with and complement Firefox, the Mozilla web browser.

Although it may not offer as many bells and whistles as some other clients, it has some interesting features, such as support for themes, powerful mail filters, and the ability to use plug-ins to add new functionality.

Mozilla Thunderbird also has some flaws which, although they don’t occur too frequently and normally have a solution, can cause headaches at times. Following a crash, for example, email accounts may disappear, along with some messages. Plus, over very slow connections, it may not be possible to download large attachments.

Pando

How many times have you wished you could send large files via email? Well, Pando  lets you do just that. Using this client, you can send files of up to 1 GB in size.

Thanks to its attractive and simple interface, resembling that of a P2P file-sharing program and complete with a Wizard and permanent online support, you can send enormous files easily.
Pando  also comes with its very own multimedia player.

However, since it is primarily designed for sending large files, Pando  has hardly any of the extra features that you’d expect to find in a regular email client.

IncrediMail

Incredimail has turned managing email accounts into an artistic experience thanks to the graphical characteristics of its interface. And, best of all, it does so without sacrificing functionality.

When writing messages you can choose from a large number of effects, including animations, backgrounds, electronic greetings cards, sounds, special fonts, and even animated text. For these features the program comes with two extra applications: Incredimal Gallery and Letter Creator. This second program lets you turn a regular old email into a letter designed in the program’s own word processor.

Incredimail also includes all the features common to most email clients, such as multiple account handling and an address book. Plus, it has some very original new mail alerts.

The downside to this client is without a doubt its vulnerability to harmful software. According to some more advanced users, this app has some security holes within its multimedia features.

As you can see from this analysis, there aren’t any really huge differences between the most popular email clients, apart from perhaps in the particular case of Pando  . As such it’s difficult to rate one over the others unless it’s in terms of each individual’s expectations.

For example, if you’re looking for a practical and secure email environment, you’d maybe be better off with Thunderbird. However, if you want to be able to create customized messages that include different types of text, graphics and multimedia content, Incredimail could well be the best choice for you.

The future is HTML5

These new implementations of the “same-old” HTML code now called HTML5. In this version, new features are introduced to help Web application authors, new elements are introduced based on research into prevailing authoring practices, and special attention has been given to defining clear conformance criteria for user agents in an effort to improve interoperability.

Even though it´s still in development stage, there are already a few websites such as YouTube already that include HTML5 elements forcing web browsers to incorporate this new language, that is the of the latest beta of Firefox, Opera and Safari.

As for this new language, the usage of HTML5 allows websites to add new elements or change the language structure removing or replacing unnecessary and confusing tags. This allows the users to browse websites and even save time to search engines. Some of the most important changes are:

• SECTION – A part or chapter in a book, a section in a chapter, or essentially anything that has its own heading in HTML 4
• ARTICLE – An independent entry in a blog, magazine, compendium, and so forth
• ASIDE – The aside element represents a note, a tip, a sidebar, a pullquote, a parenthetical remark, or something that’s just outside the main flow of the narrative.
• COMMAND – In HTML 5, a menu contains command elements, each of which causes an immediate action
• CANVAS – Canvas element is part of HTML5 and allows for dynamic scriptable rendering of bitmap images.
• HEADER – The page header shown on the page; not the same as the head element
• VIDEO / AUDIO – Allows you to view audio – video content without any need to install multimedia plugins for the playback.
• FOOTER – The page footer where the fine print goes; the signature in an e-mail message
• NAV – A collection of links to other pages

Apart from adding and modifying structures, this new language also removes specific tags.

• The following HTML elements are those that end up in the list of active formatting elements: a, b, big, code, em, font, i, nobr, s, small, strike, strong, tt, and u.
• Frame, frameset and noframes tags are not supported in HTML 5 because it had a negative affect to the usability of a web page.
• Acronym is not included because it has created lots of confusion. Authors are to use abbr for abbreviations.
• The applet tag has been removed, and the object tag is now the standard.
• The isindex has been removed.
• dir tags have been replaced for another element such as ul lists.

To sum up, we conclude that this new web-semantic application language, to compensate for all the useless tags from previous HTML versions. Even though it´s still in development stage, there are already a few websites that include their own HTML5 elements, forcing web browsers to incorporate this new language. We´ll how HTML continues to evolve and which changes it may bring to web site design.

Picasa is an application that enables us to organize all our pictures and photos in one place. You can also turn photos into movies, collages, slideshows and more . For this reason we introduce you to Picasa, the easiest easy way to find, edit, and share your photos.

Picasa

Thanks to the boom of digital cameras, a large amount of images and photos can be stored in your Mac, requiring a tool to manage and easily access them. Currently, Picasa may be the most used application to do it due to its wide range of features, web support and of course, its simplicity.

When running Picasa for the time, we can notice that most of its features are automated since a search box is provided to look for image files such as JPG, GIF, TIF, PSD, PNG, BMP, RAW, GIF and PNG, as well as video formats MPG, AVI, ASF, WMV and MOV.

All the content found will be organized by the so-called “Library View”, where albums and folders are added so we can modify them to our liking, specifying which images or folders should be displayed. Another interesting feature is managing labels, enabling users to group and organize images according to their own personal taste.

Among the multiple possibilities Picasa delivers for managing digital photographs, it´s important to highlight the possibility of importing image from several devices including digital cameras. We can also create slideshow presentations from a group of selected images, record a Picasa CD/DVD gift and make backups. Moreover, this program has a photo editor of its own and a video player, though they have basic functions and lack advanced user features.

Another feature worth mentioning is Picasa´s own album manager called “Web Albums”, enabling users to upload their favorite photos and videos. In case you are a blog administrator within this website, you can also add photos to Blogger straight from the program. As for name tags, we can include “geotags” (geographical tags) letting you match your photos to a specific location using Google Earth.

Picasa features a wide range of configuration options for advanced users familiarized with photos managing and in-depth functions.

In short, for those used to organizing images and photos, Picasa delivers an amazing alternative combining functionality, simplicity and web integration.

One the Opera´s main feature is its customization. Each user can set it up to suit their needs. For instance, you can set a specific number of websites to add as homepage as well as choosing among several search engines. Let´s see how to add browser windows and search engines to Opera in a few steps.

One of its most interesting and original features of Opera is to set several websites as homepage. One of them is Speed Dial, a websites’ graphic menu that enables users to customize it either by adding or removing websites to the links grid.

Opera allows users to increase the number of websites in their Speed Dial homepage, since Opera uses by default a 3×3 grid for the SpeeD Dial.

Follow these instructions to add more websites to the grid:

1)    To modify the main grid, we must modify a configuration file called speeddial.ini. The latter´s path changes according to the version of the Opera and the operative system you´re using. Use Windows search function to find it.

2)    Next, close Opera and open the file speeddial.ini con  with any text file -such as notepad or WordPad- and add the following lines:

3)    Save the file and open Opera again, you´ll notice the change at once.

By doing this, we can modify the number of rows and columns just by modifying the numeric values set in the lines “Rows” and “Columns” in speeddial.ini.

Add search engines to Opera

Every web browser includes a default search engine. In this way, the user doesn’t´ have to enter the search engine website (ex. www.Google.com). Opera includes some of the most popular search engines, but you can still add others. Follow these instructions to add search engines.

1)    Once you choose the search engine, right click inside the search box and choose the option “Create Search”.

2)    Next, complete “name” and “keyword” text fields.

3)    Now, click on a tab and then right click on it and choose the “customize” option.

4)    Another window will now open. Choose the “Buttons” tab and once inside choose the “Search” option. The search engine you added will be listed there.

5)    With the left mouse click drag the search engine outside the window and place it anywhere you where. Once you´ve followed these steps, you´ll have additional search engines on your list.

Opera is an application that can be fully customized, giving the user the possibility to adjust its options and features to the utmost. If you properly followed the above-mentioned steps, you won´t have any issues increasing websites to the grid or adding more search engines.

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Are you looking for new ways of surfing the internet? There are many web browsers, some of them deliver stability, others provide overall speed and there is Google Chrome, which offers stability, speed and more.

Who has never heard of Google? This internet giant began as a search engine allowing users to search the internet to find anything they wanted, and without a doubt it´s the most popular and fast search engine on the planet up to date.

Google kept developing software for internet users, and now they bring us Chrome, a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier. With its revolutionary Chrome tries to improve what´s been done up to now by Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer and it´s set to be one of the leaders in the field. On the performance side Google has implemented their own JavaScript rendering engine, called V8 that is reported to be 100 times faster than other browsers around.

Unlike the other browsers each new tab you open runs individually of the others. That way if a page or web application crashes it doesn’t affect the other tabs. You just close the offending tab and continue browsing.

Chrome comes with a default dynamic home page. As you use it, the program remembers the sites that you visit most often. The top nine of those appear in snapshots on your home page, along with your most commonly used search engines and bookmarks.

No longer do you search from one box and enter URL’s in another. You use the Omni box for everything including running a search on Yahoo, Live.com or any other search engine. Just start typing Yahoo.com and then hit your tab key and you will see what I mean. Rather than those cluttered up menus, Google Chrome has merely 2 controlling options for all your needs. Namely “control the current page” where it has numerous sub choices in them and “customize and control Google Chrome” tool which acts similar to “choices” in other web browsers. This feature makes Google Chrome really neat in its look and clutter-free.

Chrome continues fixing bugs and errors, so problems are bound to crop up over the coming months. If like most people you rely heavily on Web browsing, you run a risk by putting your online life into the hands of an unproven product. Chrome’s History functions are less versatile than the powerhouse ones built by Firefox. Chrome offers only a simple screen showing your day-by-day history. The ability to sort everything by date, site, or most visited appear to have joined the distaff and spindle on the ash heap.

To sum up, we have to say that Chrome is better than other browsers such as Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, though it may take some take for Google to fix all the bugs and errors we encountered with Chrome. Still, it´s an amazing web browsers. Calling the design of Chrome’s interface streamlined is an understatement. The program barely looks like a program, and the vast majority of your screen space is devoted to the site you’re visiting–with no buttons or logos hogging space. So there you go, give Chrome a try, as in all Google products and services, this web browser won´t disappoint you.

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A very common thing nowadays is to store a large amount of photos in our drives. Due to the boom of digital cameras, scanners and the possibility to download images from the internet, managing and storing these types of files has become a tedious task, but Picasa is here to do the job.

Upload albums to the web with Picasa

That is the main reason why some application were developed to keep your photos organized so can manage and manipulate them easily, but there´s more. We introduce you Picasa, an application that apart from store and managing your photos, you can also upload them to the internet so you can share them with your friends. We´ll now explain the whole process.

The first thing to do upon running the application is to register. Now, go to the menu bar located on the lower portion of the screen, select “Web Album” and follow the steps in order to complete your registration.

Once we are through with the registration process, we´ll be able to start creating our albums.

Before we begin, take into account that the albums you´ll upload can be created manually, meaning that you can choose photos from different folders, or else choose a folder including images and set it as album.

We´ll begin by explaining how to create an album choosing photos from different folders. First, click on the photos or images you want to add to an album and once images are selected to the menu found on the lower left portion of the screen.

The selected image it will be displayed in the selection box and by clicking on “hold selected items” the photo will be stored. Select another image and repeat the process as many as we want to create an album.

When we are done with the photo selection –all the photos we want to upload to the album- we´ll see that the new album is together with all the other folders. Now, right-click on that album and choose “Upload to Web Albums” and a new window will appear. Next, we´ll give the album a name as well as settings up several configurations and options. When it´s done, click on accept and the album will be automatically uploaded. When the album finished uploading, click on “View online” and it will take us to the website where our album is stored.

All that remains is explaining how to set an entire folder an as album. This is simpler since all we need to do is to click on the folder and then press the “Album web” icon.

A new window will be displaying enabling us to set the album´s name and we´ll repeat the previous process. As we can see, all albums are uploaded and organized in the website so we can share them with our friends.

Those were the steps you must follow in order to upload your photos organized into albums. Though Picasa may seem difficult to use at the beginning due to its great deal of features, in the long run you´ll realize it´s quite simple and you´ll get the hang of it in no time. Following the above-mentioned steps you will be able to upload your favorite photos quickly and easily.

Tags: Picasa image Web photo

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