Welcome again to another 15-Minute Review! Today’s application is AVS Audio CD Grabber by Online Media Technologies—An audio CD-ripper in a wizard-style format
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 28, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Hello all and welcome back to 15-Minute Reviews! Today’s application is Icon Constructor by IconConstructor.com—an application to assist you make .ico file for Windows.
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 27, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Unfortunately I do not have the available time to perform my review today. My 15MR will resume tomorrow. Sorry for the inconvienience!
Thanks! BladedThoth (Andrew)
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 26, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Just to let everyone know who comes straight to my site first that tomorrow, Monday February 26th’s 15-Minute Review may be delayed or by some chance not able to be done at all. I will be leaving here shortly and will not be back until later tomorrow. I would like to appologize to all of my regular readers.
Thanks to all my readers!
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 25, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Hello all! Sorry for the unusual delay; It seems my host had some emergency power issues last night.
So without further delay; Here’s today’s review of Tray Commander by Ardamax Software—an application used to increasing productivity by giving easier access to your most commonly-used applications the way you want it.
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 25, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Hello all and welcome to another episode of 15-Minute Review! Today’s application is Nautilus 3D Screensaver by 3Planesoft—a nice underwater screensaver featuring the fictional Nautilus submarine.
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 24, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
As since I know a lot of you do watch my RSS feed, I wanted to let you know that even though it is not directly linked from my website yet, my forums are up and running. Rather than implement a comment system, I prefer a more open discussion model such as a forum layout than a comment system.
I welcome constructive discussions on my reviews, suggestions, as well as feel free to jabber about whatever on the Riff Raff forum.
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 24, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Hello all and welcome to today’s 15-Minute Review. Today’s application of review is AVS Audio Editor by Online Media Technology—An audio file editor with a hefty set of filters already in place.
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 23, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Hello all and welcome to another 15-Minute Review! Today’s application is Zortam Mp3 Media Studio Pro by Zortam Corporation—Today’s application is an all-in-one MP3 application to help you with many MP3-related tasks.
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 22, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Just for you who visit my site, today’s review is delayed. The reason is that Giveaway of the Day appears to be down.
If the outage runs too long, I may not be able to review this until this evening unfortunately as since I do not have any MP3s at work to test it with, and my work day will be swamped to top it off.
If you want to see the features of this application as posted by the author, go to the author’s website or read on here.
_EDIT: Giveaway of the Day is back up. Review coming shortly.
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 22, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Hello all and welcome again to another 15-Minute Review! Today’s target today is AltDesk by Gladiators Software . While I am reviewing this application, keep in mind that this version I am reviewing is 1.6 and the current release is 1.7. With Giveaway of the Day’s install, you can not upgrade 1.7 either. ( I know it states in the ToS(Terms of Service) that upgrades aren’t allowed; I had to try since this is already dated software.)
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 21, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Hello and welcome to another episode of 15-Minute Review! Today’s application is Hard Drive Inspector by Altrix Software—This application is a SMART drivw monitor
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 20, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Hello all and welcome to another episode of 15-Minute Review. Today’s application is StarPort Professional by Rocket Division Software—This application has a large assortment of features aimed towards network DVD backup and viewing.
I am reviewing this application as an quick review because to set this application up properly and test it, beyond the 15 minutes I would do it. I will be fully reviewing the RAM disk and the virtual DVD setups.
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 19, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Hello and welcome to another episode of 15-Minute Reviews! Today’s application is Smart Type Assistant by Blazingtools Software—it is an application for clipboard spellchecking, on-the-fly text insertion and autocorrection and much more.
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 18, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Hello all and welcome to another episode of 15-Minute Reviews! Today’s target is Space Flight 3D Screensaver—a screensaver featuring futuristic flight throughout various scenes.
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 17, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Hello all and welcome to another 15MR! Today’s application is xStarter published by xStarter Solutions—an advanced scheduler, macro application and much more.
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 16, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Hello all and welcome today’s 15-Minute Review. Today’s application is Elecard DVD Player—a DVD player for playing back DVDs on your hard drive and in your DVD drive.
As Giveaway of the Day states:
“Elecard DVD Player allows you to play DVDs or media files from a directory of files copied from a DVD. The exclusive feature of the player is the ability to playback DVD folders and backup DVD contents (if Elecard DVD ripper plugin is installed).
Elecard DVD Player provides high resolution and full quality playback of MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 SP/ASP and AVC/H.264 (if Elecard AVC PlugIn for DVD Player is installed) optimized for the most efficient CPU usage. The built-in MS DirectShow® decoders enable Elecard DVD Player to play a number of common multimedia formats, such as AVI, WAV, MP3, MOV etc.
Very stylish and intuitive interface, set of useful features, and competitive price make Elecard DVD Player a decent addition to your ‘must have’ list of applications.
Attention! CSS playback is not supported. CSS stands for ‘Content Scrambling System’. It is the data scrambling method used to garble the content of a DVD disc. If you are watching licensed DVDs, you don’t need deCSS feature.“
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 15, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Hello all and welcome to a Valentine’s Day special! Actually, Giveaway of the Day didn’t do anything specific for the holiday, so oh well. Happy Valentine’s day to all of you.
Today’s application is TweakRAM—A system memory-optimization application. As Giveaway of the Day states:
“TweakRAM is a handy memory optimizer tool that will keep your computer running faster and efficiently. It increases your system performance by making more memory available for your applications and the operating system.
TweakRAM defragments your computer’s memory, increasing the efficiency of your CPU and Motherboard caches, recovers memory leaks from poorly behaved applications, flushes unused libraries temporarily out to disk and so on. By all this optimization tricks your favorite applications and games will run faster and efficiently even on old computers.
Using this RAM optimizer utility your computer will achieve superior performance. There is no need to buy additional expensive memory for your computer. TweakRAM will defragment system memory for faster access time. TweakRAM doesn’t modify your system in any way and your system will be even more stable with TweakRAM installed.
No matter how much physical memory you have, TweakRAM will help keep your computer running faster and efficiently.”
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 14, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Hello all and welcome to another 15-Minute Review! Today’s application is Premium Booster—an application for optimizing your system in a little different way than other packages.
As Giveaway of the Day states:
“Premium Booster is a powerful optimization toolkit with a set of unique features. It will scan your PC for problems and repair found issues which may be hindering your Windows performance.
Your Windows may not be happy from all the garbage that various programs leave in your system. You may be irritated by error messages which appear as a result of incorrect data in registry and your Windows may operate slower than ever before. You can ignore these errors, but such inactivity may lead to a system failure one day. The task of Premium Booster is to take care of your system and make sure such day never comes. Thats why it will diagnose your system and fix found problems keeping your Windows alive and enhancing its speed. Premium Booster will also protect you from malware programs which can be dangerous for your PC.
Premium Booster will rejuvinate your Windows increasing its performance, so that you’ll quickly notice the results. The program is both easy and safe to use and doesn’t require any specific skills to achieve good results.
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 13, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Hello all and welcome to today’s 15-Minute Review! Today’s toy will be VisiFly—an application to quickly convert from video format to Flash Video or Flash.
As Giveaway of the Day states (First paragraph:)
“VisiFly is an easy-to-use program to convert your video files into streaming Adobe(Macromedia) Flash files step by step. VisiFly is great for displaying your videos on websites, CDs, for creating flash tutorials and presentations. It converts almost any video format (avi, wmv, mpeg, mp4, mov and many others) to Flash (swf, flv).”
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 12, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Hello and welcome to another edition of 15-Minute Review! Today’s guinea pig is SWF Printer Pro—a printer driver to allow you to create Flash presentations of anything that can be printed, and also an affordable PDF maker as well.
As Giveaway of the Day states:
“SWF Printer PRO converts documents (DOC, XLS, HTML etc) into both standalone flash movie (.swf) presentation with navigation and/or PDF document format with security options support.”
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 11, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Hello all and welcome to another episode of 15MR! Today’s toy is Solar System 3D Screensaver—a screensaver which rotates between the planets in 3D. Today’s review should be a quick one.
As Giveaway of the Day states:
“Have you ever dreamed of getting a chance to see the rings of Saturn and the Asteroid Belt? This screensaver is an outstanding 3D model of the solar system. Every planet is there along with its satellites and even a small info graph with basic facts. All the proportions and trajectories are right. It is not only its sheer beauty but also the significant educational value that make Solar System 3D Screensaver an absolute must-have.”
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 10, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Hello all again! Today’s application is PPT to Video Scout—an application to convert PPT files to video files. As since I do not use PowerPoint at all, I found a target PowerPoint file; Here
As Giveaway of the Day states:
“PPT To Video Scout converts PowerPoint presentation into MPEG, VideoCD, AVI video with sound.
Different compression methods (for example: DivX, MP3) can be applied using installed codecs on your computer. You can run conversion wizard from PowerPoint by using “Convert to AVI” command in File menu or run standalone wizard. NTSC, PAL, custom conversion modes are supported.”
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 09, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Hello all and welcome to another edition of 15MR! Today’s target application is AVS Ringtone Maker—an application for creating ringtones for your cell phone. Just to let you know, because of Giveaway of the Day having a short downtime, my review may be a little short today.
As Giveaway of the Day states:
“Take a part of a song, a soundtrack from a movie and make it a ringtone, record your friends or kids voices for a realtone. Then transfer sounds to your phone via Bluetooth, Infrared or USB.
AVS RingTone Maker is the best way to add individuality to your cell!
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 08, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Hey all! For those of you who come directly to my site every day, I wanted to let you know that Giveaway of the Day appears to be having issues with their DB connection. I did see what the application was (AVS Ringtone Maker I believe) so I will start stomping around their website for more information. I am a little pinched for time, especially if they stay down for a while, so the review may have to be a brief one today.
Thanks everyone for your patience!
Edit: It appears that on the AVS website, that there are 10 little mini-applications built into one for the stated $29.95. If AVS is selling JUST the ringtone maker for $29.95 to us when the whole kit is the same price, I am a little leery. As well, I was going to attempt to do my review based on the program there; However, there are limitations built-in the would effect my review and I do not want to do that. Hopefully Giveaway of the Day goes back up soon.
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 08, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Welcome all to another episode of 15MR! Today’s subject is Direct MP3 Joiner—an application with essentially one quick purpose; combining MP3s into one file. This will come in use for myself if works as advertised; I have all my comedy CDs archived on my drives but when I play them I want to hear them as one block, and not jumbled by shuffle. We’ll see how it turns out.
As Giveaway of the Day states:
“Direct MP3 Joiner is an easy and fast audio tool to combine, merge or join MP3 files. With Direct MP3 Joiner you can join multiple music MP3 files to one larger MP3 file in a second. You can fast merge, combine and join MP3 audio files without recompressing and without reducing quality.
MP3 Joiner works with audio files directly and the joined MP3 song will appear in a second after start. With MP3 Merger you can join your chapters in the one big audiobook or combine non-stop audio CD from many separate music tracks.
Direct MP3 Joiner has incredible feature that allows you to insert silence between your audio MP3 tracks that will be merged.
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 07, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Happy trails to you! Welcome to another edition of 15MR! Today’s subject will be Post2Blog—A blogging tool with coverage of an assortment of blogging engines.
As Giveaway of the Day states:
“Post2Blog is a powerful desktop editor for WordPress, MovableType, Typepad, Livejournal, Drupal blogs (other blog types are supported as well).
It delivers a nice, well-designed interface and a set of unique functions such as automatic images (Imageshack, Flickr, FTP) uploading and live spell checking.
Program integrates itself with Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Word, FeedDemon, RSS Bandit and Sharp Reader.
Using “Portable Version” wizard a ‘portable’ copy of the program (with all the settings) can be saved to a USB stick or a flash drive that you can take with you whenever you go!”
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 06, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Hello all! Thanks for dropping by today! Today’s application is ApHeMo—an Apache monitoring application. Since I do not have a monitorable Apache server set up and would take too long to bring an Apache server to production-level to test properle, I do feel this application will not fit within the scope of a 15 Minute Review; However, I will comment upon the concept & design of it and my initial feelings on it.
As Giveaway of the Day states:
“ApHeMo is a Health Monitoring analyser for the famous Apache HTTP Server. ApHeMo makes administrators able to improve security, reliability and to easily detect attacks from hackers (scans, potential backdoors…)”
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 05, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
You may or may not know it, but the release of Radiant 0.6.0 is coming close. With the release of RC1 already out there and the system is totally new, and trying to influence a change of how the gem installer is used, I am going to hold off on the tutorial until 0.6.0 is fully released. If you are familiar with Radiant already and would like a quick run-down of stuff to do with installing the RC1, click the Continue Reading… link for a quick rundown. A note, I do not warrant this procedure is 100% fool-proof and it isn’t extremely detailed; I am simply posting it for those who really want to use Radiant 0.6.0 on DreamHost and already have themselves an idea of DreamHost’s munchkins.
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 05, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Hello all and welcome today’s 15MR! Today’s subject is Easy EMail Photos—A program for easy resizing & enhancing of photos and email them to a list of recipients.
As Giveaway of the Day states:
“Email and enhance your digital pictures with a few mouse clicks. Try sending your pictures with Windows and with Easy Email Photos, and discover the difference! Thanks to its built-in advanced photo manipulation controls, Easy Email Photos can automatically adjust the contrast and brightness of the pictures to optimal levels, making them look just as warm and bright as the day they were snapped.”
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 04, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Welcome to another edition of 15-Minute Reviews. Actually, today’s review of Elprime Clock Pro was closer to 45 minute review. Please read the review for more insight.
As Giveaway of the Day states:
“Elprime Clock Pro will really help you get places on time. Have a lovely transparent clock with as many alarms as you want.
Pick your clock from over 25 different ones included, or customize or even design your own! Set as many alarms as you want, even with sophisticated multiple conditions.
Choose your alarms sounds, and even sync the clock with any atomic clock servers or your Local Area Network for perfect accuracy.”
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 03, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Welcome to another edition of 15MR. Today’s subject will be GigaTribe of which we will review for you! It will be a little hard to test as since I don’t have any guinea pigs to try it on. I guess I have to fire up the other system.
As Giveaway of the Day states:
“GigaTribe is new software that allows you to share specific folders on your computer with friends/family/online collaborators who are online.
Only users you have invited will have access to the folders (and files) you share and all file exchanges are strongly encrypted, so your privacy is guaranteed.”
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 02, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
Today’s subject will be Computer-Expert Supervisor’s Pack—today’s review will be a quick review as since I had to spend the morning repairing the website.
As Giveaway of the Day states:
“Computer-Expert Supervisors Pack 1.1 is a collection of three powerful utilities for system maintenance, privacy protection and improving overall system performance.
With these tools you can control what is loaded on Startup (view, delete, edit, and add startup entries), protect your privacy by cleaning the histories Windows and IE leave behind (saving storage space and improving performance), as well as scan, clean, and repair registry problem”
Posted by BladedThoth on Feb 01, 2007 :: Continue Reading…
