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The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA, pronounced "you-a-fa") is Europe's pro soccer governing body. It coordinates national leagues and international tournaments and championships, among other activities. The UEFA Informer is a free Windows Gadget that tracks UEFA football teams, matches, scores, fixtures, standings, and leagues in real time and delivers them to a customizable display that sits in the Windows desktop sidebar. It tracks all UEFA competitions and national leagues for some 51 countries, including Europe's "major leagues," the English, German, French, Spanish, and Italian domestic leagues.

This tiny gadget is a mere … Read more

Two years ago it was difficult to see Samsung as a serious digital camera competitor in the U.S. But that was two years ago. The company has since released a handful of models that have helped it standout, and its newly announced TL500 looks like another standout to add to that list.

Judging by it specs alone, the TL500 looks like it can take down Canon's PowerShot S90, one of the most popular cameras on CNET. In front is a f1.8, 24mm-equivalent lens with a 3x zoom. In back is a 3-inch swivel-mounted rotating AMOLED screen. Inside … Read more

We've tried several different programs for keeping up with Twitter, and we typically find ourselves giving up on them and simply using Twitter's Web site. So many of the available Twitter clients are cumbersome and resource-hogging, and they tend to be more irritating than helpful. Echofon for Firefox (Windows), however, is a Twitter application of a different kind; this ingenious Firefox add-on keeps Twitter at your fingertips, but out of your way.

When the program is running, a small icon appears in the Firefox status bar. A number next to the icon lets users know how many unread … Read more

There's an abundance of peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing clients these days, each boasting a combination of features designed to distinguish itself by making the bit torrent downloading experience easier or more complex, depending on how much control each user needs. Goforshare's Torrent Monster takes the more complex approach, offering a plethora of features and settings that give users an unusual degree of power and control over the searching and downloading processes on Gnutella, the largest P2P network. Its connection optimizer matches your download speed to your Internet connection bandwidth. Torrent Monster also has a sophisticated library manager and features … Read more

Portable applications give so much and take so little; they pack powerful, useful programs in compact, efficient packages that are totally portable and self initializing. You can carry a bunch of them around in your pocket like a total software tool kit on a USB drive. They're quick and efficient operators, and they're often free, too. PortableApps' uTorrent is just such a program. It's a free, portable BitTorrent client that nevertheless includes most features common to peer-to-peer utilities, such as bandwidth prioritization, scheduling options, autodownloading of RSS feeds, and decentralized tracking through Mainline DHT. It typically uses … Read more

Flightmap is a fun and useful program that allows users to track the details of their flights. From the frequent business traveler to the sightseeing hobbyist, Flightmap offers tools that are both utilitarian and enjoyable (in a slightly nerdy way).

The program's interface is sleek and intuitive, clearly modeled after Office 2007 products. The program's main features are arranged in well-organized tabs. To get started, users enter flight information, which includes not only the departure and arrival cities but the date, airline, aircraft, flight number, class (including crew or other nonrevenue), and whether the flight counts toward reward … Read more

Small Business Tracker Deluxe provides a wide array of tools for managing a small business. However, its cluttered design leaves a lot to be desired.

We were initially excited that the program opens with a tutorial. While informative, this also worried us because we discovered how cluttered and amateurish the interface was. We were eventually able to operate each tool successfully, but we never felt comfortable because this random collection of commands left us wondering if we'd missed any options. The program offers a ton of seemingly helpful small business tools, from invoice creators and trackers to billing tools, … Read more

The Xobni Outlook add-on is at its heart a tool to search for and find e-mail and contacts faster. As an interesting, but far less crucial, secondary function, Xobni also collects statistics, like the frequency you e-mail a contact and at which hour, that can eventually help you manage your social relationships.

Visually, Xobni displays as an attractive sidebar that slides in an out from the right and over the reading pane. It features a Xobni search bar, faster-acting than Outlook's own by miles, and a Google search bar for more general queries. The search results pull up people, … Read more

VSO Image Resizer helps users deal with the massive amount of space photographs can take up on a hard drive. With a simple, yet directionless, interface, pictures can be reorganized and resized to meet needs, but comes with a risk.

This free program initially impresses with a colorful screen that looks professional and simple to navigate. However, a little playing around soon shows that users are in a canoe without any paddles. The simple-looking screen morphs into something far more complicated as option boxes expand with more confusing command choices. Not only are the options for adjusting picture size and … Read more