tool

A crowded hard drive slows you down and stops you from fully enjoying all your favorite programs. Duplicate Cleaner helps you make some more room by removing unnecessary or copied files in bulk. This program delivers exactly what you would expect based on its name, and it does it quickly and effectively. You won't believe how much space it frees up.

The program's slick interface is a welcome change compared to what you might expect from utility programs. Scanning any drive or file location takes only one or two clicks. It only took the program about 90 seconds … Read more

We love utility apps that turn your iPhone into a Swiss Army knife of sorts (well, without the blade). Handy Tools - Ruler gives users a simple ruler for measuring objects on the fly. While not completely accurate, it's a great app for getting approximate measurements.

Handy Tools - Ruler cuts right to the chase and opens with an attractive ruler interface. The ruler has centimeters down one side and inches on the other; a simple tap of the switch button in the lower right corner flips the screen so you don't have to flip your phone. There … Read more

High-quality tax tools don't always come with high prices. Moose-Tech's Schedule D Tax Tool is a standalone tool for generating IRS Schedule D tax data in TXF files that can be imported into major tax preparation software. It can import XLS data and match individual transactions. It doesn't prepare your taxes for you, but it does simplify the process of entering your tax data, which frees you up to focus on more important parts of the whole taxpaying experience.

Schedule D Tax Tool's compact Main Menu offers a gentle reminder to have your personal data ready: &… Read more

Yelp has a new tool in place for business owners to gauge the value of its service.

The company yesterday announced a new tool, called "Revenue Estimate," that helps business owners determine the amount of revenue they're generating from their Yelp listings. The free tool multiplies the number of customer leads from Yelp each month by the company's average revenue per customer lead.

Yelp's Revenue Estimate follows a study released last week by the Boston Consulting Group, which found that local businesses with a free Yelp account saw revenue rise an average of $8,000 … Read more

For average Mac users, the trackpad's default functioning can sometimes be frustrating. BetterTouchTool for Mac allows users to customize the trackpad operation for their whole system or individual applications.

Available as freeware, the program downloaded and installed quickly. After initial startup, BetterTouchTool for Mac attempted to access all of the computers on the test network, which is a strange function for the type of features offered. Lacking instructions, the program was difficult to interpret outside of the main menus, which were featured at the top of the window. The overall appearance of the program is very good, albeit a … Read more

Research has shown that frequent use of a computer mouse may contribute to repetitive motion injuries. KeyCue for Mac claims to teach users how to replace the mouse with keyboard shortcuts, but its limited functionality and its price make it less useful than it could have been.

A 30-day free trial version of KeyCue for Mac is available, but it costs $29.99 for the full version. The program downloads quickly but despite having its own installer, proved difficult to set up. We had to try the installation several times due to the program claiming it could not install while … Read more

RAM sticks, known for their chip creep and random failures, are among the more annoying pieces of hardware to pinpoint as the source of a technical issue. Before you start digging around in the tower, it's best to start with a quick and free memory check via Windows. This way, you'll know whether or not it's worth swapping around sticks of RAM to see which one is the dud.

Here's how to get started:

Step 1: Open the Start Menu and type in mdsched.exe, then press enter.

Step 2. A pop-up will appear on your … Read more

LAS VEGAS--We've seen pistol-shaped screwdrivers before, but Black & Decker's Gyro takes the cake for cool weapon-style tools.

Shown off at CES 2013, Gyro looks like a ray gun and has a cutting-edge feature: it's billed as the world's first motion-activated screwdriver with variable speed and direction.

You grip it like a gun, then push a strip with the base of your thumb to activate the motor and an LED guide light. The more you rotate your wrist to the right, the faster it will turn clockwise. … Read more

Facebook began rolling out new tools this evening that it touts as helping users better manage who can see what on the social network.

Note that Facebook is not changing what settings users can pick, except for the option to block profile searches within the social network. The network has already begun phasing out this feature and soon it will be removed from everyone's profiles.

Facebook says these new changes are designed to give users more flexibility with their privacy.

"We believe that the better you understand who can see the things you share, the better your experience … Read more