Software

Coding with Coda

If you're looking for a low-cost alternative to expensive Web design suites, look no further than Coda from Panic Software. This one-window Web design app has all the tools you need for creating great Web sites. Collaboration tools let you seamlessly work together with others, and an integrated FTP sidebar-- using the power of Panic's Transmit--helps you get your site updated quickly. Hand coding experts will like the full-featured CSS and text editors, with tools that are always only a click away. Time savers like the Clips feature make frequently used code handy and convenient. We particularly like … Read more

Do a little Mac maintenance

We love our Macs, but over time, they can become cluttered, requiring periodic cleanups if they are to continue functioning efficiently. It's time to get rid of some of those duplicate files that can build up on your hard drive. Tidy Up is designed to help you find all the multiple duplicate files and offers a way to delete them. Whether it's sound files, digital photos, or data files, Tidy Up! takes a lot of the guesswork out of culling duplicates. This duplicate finder utility has excellent filtering capabilities: by name, date modified, date created, size, type, creator, … Read more

One sweet lime

From its start as a post-Napster clone to its leading role as the quintessential Gnutella client, LimeWire has been one of the highest-profile P2P applications. The latest version further ups the ante with a combination of new features, an updated interface, and better all-around performance.

On the surface, the refined and zippier Java interface houses some snazzy new icons and a few new features, including a connection-quality meter and a button matrix for zeroing in on specific file types. The search interface now sports a progress bar, and file information--such as artist and album--is more clearly displayed. The improved network … Read more

Clean up code before putting it online

This tool makes your Web pages load faster by optimizing both HTML and script code. We found that this app did a great job of simplifying the process of cleaning up code such as broken tags and links. It also removes tags generated by Web-mastering software such as Dreamweaver. The drag-and-drop interface makes for quick cleaning of code. The Smart Handling feature is a nice touch for those running large sites, because the program only processes the pages you make changes to. Whether you run a corporate Web site or a personal site, Web Site Maestro helps your pages run … Read more

Now playing in High Definition: QuickTime 7

After 10 years and with millions of users worldwide, Apple's QuickTime player still provides one of the best solutions for digital media. Whether you're watching streaming movie trailers online or diving headlong into QuickTime as a creation platform, you'll find little to quibble about in this veteran player.

Its few quirks are quickly offset by the elegant Apple interface and the top-notch audio/video playback quality. QuickTime 7 comes in two varieties. The free standard player handles popular audio, graphic, and video formats, including the much-ballyhooed H.264 and MPEG-4. Also, for $29.95, you can upgrade … Read more

Crystal clear video from Apple

After several years and with millions of users worldwide, Apple's QuickTime player still provides one of the best solutions for digital media. Whether you're watching streaming movie trailers online or diving headlong into QuickTime as a creation platform, you'll find little to quibble about in this veteran player. Its few quirks are quickly offset by the elegant Apple interface and top-notch audio/video playback quality.

QuickTime comes in two varieties: a standard free player, which handles popular audio, video and graphic formats such as MPEG, 3GPP, Flash, AVI, AIFF, JPEG, GIF, WAV, MPEG-4 and AAC; or, for $… Read more

Play with yourself

This top-rated trial for one of the most popular solitaire programs around continues to improve. The 2007 version of SolSuite Solitaire adds another three original games, in addition to improving the graphics and completely overhauling the already impressive Help system, which includes detailed information about each and every one of the 476 games (and counting) included in the suite. The excellent trial offers a free month of play (with three shuffles per game), and big solitaire fans will likely register before the 30 days are up.

The helpful interface lets you browse games grouped by type, time, difficulty, and skill … Read more

CD-ripping utopia

For ripping audio CDs, burning CDs and DVDs, and converting tracks, Easy CD-DA Extractor excels. The latest update to version 11 adds some notable new features, such as the ability to manage all of the metadata for songs or albums, including downloadable album covers. Also quite valuable is the new DVD-burning functionality, an excellent tool for backing up large digital-music collections.

A well-organized interface displays all of the major features and settings. Four tabs across the top access the Audio CD Ripper, the Audio File Format Converter, Audio CD Creator, and MP3/WMA CD Creator. Ripping CDs is simple: Insert … Read more

CD-ripping utopia

For ripping audio CDs, burning CDs and DVDs, and converting tracks, Easy CD-DA Extractor excels. The latest update to version 11 adds some notable new features, such as the ability to manage all of the metadata for songs or albums, including downloadable album covers. Also quite valuable is the new DVD-burning functionality, an excellent tool for backing up large digital-music collections.

A well-organized interface displays all of the major features and settings. Four tabs across the top access the Audio CD Ripper, the Audio File Format Converter, Audio CD Creator, and MP3/WMA CD Creator. Ripping CDs is simple: Insert … Read more

A simple fix

The usability of your site relies to some extent on how long it takes to download its pages. By removing unnecessary tags and characters, HTML-Optimizer Pro reduced the size of pages by an average of 20 percent in our testing. The utility handles both HTML and JavaScript, PHP, and CSS scripting. As you might guess from the Pro in the title, the program does more than reduce page size; it also checks internal and external links and makes Web documents more user-friendly. The Smart Handling feature uploads only the pages that have been changed. Options let you choose what to … Read more