Browser - Opera Next 15
Website: www.opera.com
Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/or
Mac OS X
File size: 24.4MB
Opera has always used its own rendering
engine to display web pages, but this new beta version – which can be installed
alongside the latest stable release of the browser – uses the same engine as
Google Chrome. While that's a huge change, it's not the only difference in this
edition.
Browser
Opera Next 15
The interface has been completely
overhauled, so it blends in better with whatever operating system Opera is
running on. The search and address bars have been combined, as in Chrome, and
the Speed Dial page has had a makeover. It now lets you organize your shortcuts
into folders, so it's easy to keep things tidy, and offers a search box that
lets you find a shortcut without having to bunt through numerous folders.
Opera Mail has been removed and turned into
a separate program, which makes sense, and the browser introduces two new
features: Discover and Stash. Discover lets you view news and entertainment
stories from around the world, or from a particular country, and customize the
top stories based on your interests. Stash lets you capture a page with a
single click and build up a collection of pages for easy viewing. You can
search for words across all the pages, and zoom in and out using the resizable
page-view tool.
Opera’s Turbo Mode, which can load websites
speedily on slower connections, has been renamed Opera Off-Road (which is more
accurate) and added support for SPDY, a Google-designed networking protocol
that’s designed to reduce page-loading times.
Image editor - Easy Photo Effects
Website: easyphotoeffects.com
Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7/8
File size: 391KB
Easy
Photo Effects v1.1
As its name suggests, Easy Photo Effects is
a very simple photo-editing tool. Just open an image, apply an effect, and
either save the results or undo the changes. One-click effects on offer include
Black & White, Brightness, Night Vision, Tilt Shift, Resize and Borders,
with each effect offering several settings to play around with. Nature, for
example, lets you add, snow, rain or fog to an image. The software provides a
quick way to enhance your photos and turn even the dullest pictures into
something interesting.
Game - Save
the Date
Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7/8, Mac
OS X, or Linux
File size: 17MB
Game
Save the Date
Save the Date is an amusing dating-simulation
game with a twist (which we won’t reveal). |t’s very easy to play - you just
make a selection of choices that affect how the story unfolds. Each game is
very short, but you’ll want to keep coming back to try alternative options and
uncover the different endings. The music is great, too.
Office suite - Kingsoft Office Suite Free 2013
Website: www.ksosoft.com
Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7/8
File size: 42.7MB
Kingsoft
Office Suite Free 2013
Kingsoft’s suite is a great free
alternative to Microsoft Office, which includes a word processor, spreadsheet
and presentation tool. The programs are all fully compatible with Microsoft’s
software, and can open and save files in the latest formats, and write PDFs.
The suite has a Ribbon-style interface, with all the tools you need to create
and edit documents.
Email - Opera
Mail
Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7/8 or
Mac OS X
File size: 11.5MB
Opera
Mail Tutorial
Originally part of the Opera web browser,
Opera Mail is now available as a standalone email program. It works with any
POP or IMAP account, as well as all the main webmail services, including Gmail,
Yahoo and Outlook.com. Messages are sorted automatically and can be pinned and
labeled, and they can be viewed in a preview pane or opened in separate tabs.
Competition - Movie Edit Pro 2013
Movie
Edit Pro
Available to buy now priced $90.64, MAGIX
Movie Edit Pro 2013 creates professional-looking films without the need for
expert knowledge. Storyboard mode provides only the most essential tools you
need to edit videos, but you can switch at any time to a more advanced view
with the full set of editing options. Wizards for video editing, audio dubbing
and image optimization help make editing easy and fun. To enter, email your
address to [email protected]m
with ‘edit pro’ in the subject line.
Search tool - Bing desktop
Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7/8
File size: 8.8MB
Bing
desktop
Microsoft's Desktop tool lets you search
the web with Bing and view the daily homepage photos without needing to go to
the site. It’s just been updated and the new version introduces an optional
built-in search function that lets you look up anything on a web page, or in a
Word doc or a PDF, simply by highlighting it and clicking the Bing icon that
appears. Results are displayed in a pop-up window, where you can make your
selection. The application also shows the weather, news and trending topics, as
well as Facebook notifications.
Make sure you untick any unwanted options
during installation.
System update - IObit Driver Booster
Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7/8
File size: 4.9MB
Driver
Booster Beta 1.0
Making sure you always have the newest
versions of drivers installed can prevent system conflicts and hardware
problems, and also boost gaming performance. lObit Driver Booster scans your
system looking for outdated drivers. It tells you if a found driver is Old,
Very Old or Ancient, and usefully lets you update it with a single click. You
can choose which drivers to update or just hit the Update All button and leave
the program to handle everything.
Driver Booster lets you schedule scans, and
you can easily roll back updates should a problem occur with a newly installed
driver. It’s still in beta, but seems very stable.
Back-up tool - EaseUS Todo Backup 6
Website: www.todo-backup.com
Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7/8
File size: 99.1MB
EaseUS
Todo Backup Free 6.0
EaseUS Todo Backup 6 lets you back up files
and folders, as well as entire hard drives, partitions, and GPT (GUID Partition
Table) disks. The program is much better than Windows’ built-in back-up tool,
and can copy all files or just those that have changed since the last time you
performed a back-up. The latest version lets you recover individual files from
backed-up partitions, without having to recover the entire partition. It also
lets you migrate a physical drive to a virtual machine, which is particularly
useful for power users.
Make sure you decline all the bundled
extras during installation.
Reader recommends
Unlocker (www.emptyloop.com/unlocker) is a
handy little program that lets you delete, move and rename files that are
otherwise locked. It seems you can install the new version over the old one,
just be sure to choose the Advanced method of installation so you can untick
installation of the Delta Toolbar.
Madeline, Web User Forums.
Password manager - Dashlane 2
Website: www.dashlane.com
Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7/8 or
Mac OS X
File size: 688KB (installer)
Dashlane
2
Dashlane securely stores all your passwords
and offers handy apps for iOS and Android The new version has an improved
interface and support for Google’s two-factor authentication tool to provide an
extra layer of security. There’s also a new Security Dashboard that gives a
percentage score for your password strength and offers to replace any that are
weak or have been reused.
Game - Esc
Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7/8,
Mac OS X, or Linux File size: 10.9MB
In this fun game, the Esc key is under
attack from the rest of the keyboard. The aim of the game is to protect Esc for
as long as you can. You can move it using the arrow keys, and smash each
attacker by pressing the corresponding button on your keyboard.
