7.6

If you have a Blu-ray player and don't want to or can't use a native Mac media player app, Mac Blu-ray Player can be used to view Blu-rays in addition to DVDs, but some may find the price tag for the full version too high.

The installation and setup of a free trial version of Mac Blu-ray Player for Mac went smoothly. The initial menus are intuitive and well-designed. The trial version will only function a limited number of times, however, before the user must buy the full version at $59.95. Technical support is available, and the … Read more

With FLV in use as a popular format for streaming videos, not having a player capable of working with these files is problematic for many Mac users. 4Media FLV to MP4 Converter for Mac allows users to convert these files into more common types, albeit with a fairly high price tag for its limited functionality.

We tested the free trial version of 4Media FLV to MP4 Converter; those who want to convert more than three minutes of video will need to pay $29.99. 4Media FLV to MP4 Converter for Mac downloads quickly and installs well. It also has good … Read more

Looking for alternative options for browsing and discovering new apps other than Google's Play Store? AppBrain App Market is such a tool. This extensive application gives the tech-savvy user another outlet for their needs. It combines a very detailed search tool with a clever social-networking sharing option. The combination of these elements makes this app interesting, albeit a bit cumbersome at times.

After completing the quick and painless setup, AppBrain App Market welcomed us with a clean, detailed and well designed layout. There are not many options in the settings since this software reacts to your input as you … Read more

A full-featured disk management utility is something most experienced Windows users need, whether it's to add and format a new hard drive, configure a USB drive, or copy partitions or whole drives and move them to new drives. MiniTool Partition Wizard is a powerful but easy-to-use partition manager that does all that and much more, and it's free, too. It supports FAT, NTFS, EXT, and Linux Swap file systems, and all hard-disk types recognized by Windows, including RAID arrays. It's also compatible with both MBR and GPT partition tables. Partition Wizard supports hard disks of up to … Read more

As someone who parses through a prodigious amount of e-mail every day, I'm constantly working with Microsoft Outlook to find e-mails and recipients, add new contacts, write myself reminders, and make sure I actually see those reminders even after I've left the office.

Three free or free-to-try add-ons are a constant help. There's Xobni, a search tool, Gwabbit, a contact management helper, and Google Calendar Sync beta, which helps keep calendar items current in Outlook, Google's Calendar, or both. Read more about the three killer Outlook add-ons here.

If Outlook is too conventional (or expensive) for … Read more

e-Campaign provides users with a chance to design and send their e-mails to countless recipients. With a layout that caters to both HTML experts and e-mail novices alike, this is a fantastic choice for practically anyone.

The program's interface will remind many people of professional quality software like Microsoft Outlook. One major difference is the tabs for viewing HTML code and some additional word processing applications that help create unique e-mails. The program also provides a Help file for anyone feeling overwhelmed. Creating and sending e-mail was surprisingly simple, with very few roadblocks. Designing an e-mail to send was … Read more

This full-service encryption program easily and effectively protects files on your PC and when they're sent to others.

Lavasoft Digital Lock's user interface is straightforward and easy to navigate. The left-hand buttons are self-explanatory, but helpful explanations for each one are displayed on the right side of the screen to further help new users. The program supports drag-and-drop functionality to add files, and we were impressed by the options (shred, delete, or leave) for the source file after encrypting it. The log file also provides users with encryption activity and information.

What really sets this program apart are … Read more