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Have you ever wanted to know just how much bandwidth you are using, complete with daily reports, projected usage, as well as statistical reports?

If so, NetMeter is for you. NetMeter is everything it says it is–a small and free utility that monitors and meters all of the packets (data flowing in and out of your computer) going in and out of your computer. The nice little window that pops out of your taskbar (you can easily remove it or show it whenever you want) shows a nice and completely customizable graph of various types of packets (downloaded, uploaded, totals–you choose what you want to show on the graphs). In my tests, NetMeter preformed very well in all departments– from the minimalistic interface, unobtrusiveness, and accuracy of the information shown, to the easy customizability of the graphs, elements, etc.

I especially love the "Totals" feature that NetMeter provides— which aggregates the total Download and/or Upload usage categorized in days, weeks, months, ever since install, etc. Of course, you can reset the statistics or export them to a .CSV (coma separated values) file for importing at some other time (e.g., fresh install of OS).

NetMeter [overview and download]

Here are some screenshots that I have taken of NetMeter in action:

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PDF Converter does exactly what it says it does—converts PDF files into RTF (Rich Text) documents, HTML, Plain Text, Image(s), and even SWF (Adobe Flash) files! Although I was skeptical at first when I read what PDF Converter could do, after I installed it and converted a few graphic intensive PDF documents into HTML, RTF, and SWF, I was shocked by how accurately the software had carried out the conversion. Now I cannot live without it. Just imagine—I can convert all those research paper sources quickly into a format that I can use easier than Adobe’s proprietary PDF format—perfect for bookmarking my progress in a PDF file (something that Adobe Reader does not allow),  or making excerpting from a PDF easier, and preserving the format almost perfectly each time.

All in all, PDF Converter is a great, lightweight program that does exactly what it says with amazing output quality—I definitely recommend it!

Since MediaVigor is running a brief promotion, PDF Converter is free today only (3/2/2009). That means you have to head over to the Giveaway of the Day site and grab your copy while it is still free.

[PDF Converter] Free today only.

So what do you think? Do you like this software/use it? What other software do you recommend? Let us know in the comments!

Download of the Day, News Flash Converter, Download of the Day, News Flash

Photology is a truly unique photo searching app that let’s you sort effortlessly through all of your photos in a most unconventional manner. For example, you can search for pictures by how blurry they are, what lighting conditions they are in, what type of object(s) they contain (flowers, people, water snow, etc.), text, date, groups, or a combination of any of the previous. Photology also allows me to categorize photos into groups, delete photos, and edit my photos with the nifty photo editor to make quick adjustments (rotation, color adjustment, red eye reduction, cropping).

In my testing of Photology, I found this original app to be snappy and quick when searching—surprising given that it was searching thousands of photos and looking for various features (content, color, brightness, etc. as defined in my search filters). Although it took awhile (10 minutes) initially to index all 10,000 of my photos, I could immediately begin to search, rearrange, group, and edit my photos during the indexing process.

All in all, Photology is a great app that makes searching your entire photo collection a quick and simple affair, while providing powerful although a bit unorthodox search filters through an easy to use and simplistic interface.

[Photology] Overview and Download

TINKER WITH THE ONLINE DEMO TO GET A FEEL OF PHOTOLOGY

What do you think? What other tools have you used before to search your photos? Tell the world in the comments!

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Download of the Day, Uncategorized Download of the Day, Learning, News Flash

Shape Collage is a free but powerful photo collage maker that works anywhere Java does (that is, it works with Windows, Mac, and Linux computers). In my testings, Shape Collage proved to be an efficient collage maker that produces beautiful collages made from the pictures that I selected.

Playing around and creating collages with Shape Collage is absolutely fun!

Here’s some of Shape Collage’s features that I really enjoy:

1. The ability to type text and turn your pictures into a collage:
   
2. The ability to draw any shape you like and turn it into a photo collage:
   
3. The simple and clean interface that makes creating a collage just the way you want it as simple as a few mouse clicks.

So what are you waiting for? Jump in!

[Shape Collage] Overview and Download

So what do you think? How is this useful to use? What other tools have you used? Tell the world in the comments!

Did You Know?, Download of the Day, POWER USER, Windows Customization Download of the Day, Multimedia, POWER USER

Moba Photo is a portable, streamlined, and free program for Windows that makes assembling and creating your very own web picture gallery as simple as 1, 2, 3. And that’s only part of the story—Moba Photo can also batch resize, rename, and edit your photos! And all of this functionality is provided in a tiny, 1.67 MB standalone .exe application.

Another attractive thing about Moba Photo is that it does all of the aforementioned tasks through a streamlined and easy to use interface. The glassy buttons and step by step procedures make using Moba Photo easy even if you know absolutely nothing about computers.

For an example of a quick photo gallery I made using Moba Photo, click HERE.

So here’s a quick screenshot tour of Moba Photo and what it can do:

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PocketXpdf is a free, open source and lightweight PDF reader for those of you who own a Windows Mobile device. Although this cool app has only been tested on Windows Mobile 2003 and 2005, I am sure that it can probably run on later or older versions. In my testing, PocketXpdf rendered complex graphics, etc. flawlessly on a Windows Mobile 2005 device. It has the basic functions that you would expect from any PDF reader—the ability to zoom in and out, flip through pages, and even adds a feature that Adobe Reader doesn’t include—the ability to save bookmarks! The only limitations of this terrific program is not really of the program itself but of the physical limitations of the device itself—small screen size, limited memory capacity, etc.

To help with viewing PDF documents as well as for helping to cut the potential memory/resource overhead, PocketXpdf includes a handy feature that allows users to show only the text from a PDF document and be able to just read the text. This is a killer feature! With it, I was able to read many things that would otherwise have been difficult.

[PocketXpdf] overview and download

So what do you think? How is this program useful to you? How is it not? Are there any other programs like this that you know of? Tell the world in the comments!

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Google Earth, a cool application that you can use to take a virtual tour of the Earth, has just updated to version 5—that is, beta 5. This new version of Google Earth adds a cool underwater exploration mode that makes exploring the ocean possible. Google Earth 5 also adds a “Historical Imagery” feature that allows you to backwards and forwards in time and see how the landscape looked like at that time.

Another fun feature that Google Earth 5 has added is the “Explore Mars” feature. Although this is really more for fun than of any value, being able to explore Mars, Earth, and the skies is cool.

 Google Earth 5 beta                             [via]

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Have you ever wished you could just access someone’s computer when they need help with something, instead of going through all the “I don’t have a window like that!” or “There isn’t an option like that!” rituals. With AMMY Admin, all your tech support woes are over.

So what is AMMY Admin anyway? To be brief, AMMY is a free, standalone program that allows you to take control of anybody’s computer as long as that person has internet access. When you “take over” someone’s computer, you can virtually access the keyboard, screen, mouse, and everything else of the computer you’re remotely using. The bottom line: You can control another person’s computer just as if it were your own.

AMMY Admin is a free, 144KB standalone executable program that runs wherever Windows does.

Note: Don’t download the AMMY Router.exe file. This is only for advanced users and you won’t need it for any practical purposes.

[AMMY Admin] overview and download

So what do you think? How do you like or dislike this program? What other programs have you used in the past? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

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Have you ever wanted to add comments, annotations, stamps, diagrams, text, and more right into a PDF document without having to buy the expensive Adobe Acrobat PDF suite? Here commeth PDF-XChange PDF Editor, which is a great, lightweight but speedy PDF viewer as well. In my thorough testing of PDF-XChange, I found the product to offer a cluster of features that other free editors out there just cannot match. PDF-XChange simply has the most features, the best performance, and, very importantly to me at least, no nag screens.

Oh, and did I mention that PDF-XChange is also portable? That means that you can download the ~10MB folder and run it right from your computer, Jump Drive or other portable medium without having to fret about installation. This is one sweet app!

So now is time for my complete review of this excellent free product, complete with screenshots, sample PDF files, etc. I’ll start out with the PROS:

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Download of the Day, POWER USER Download of the Day, PDF, Portable, POWER USER