2014 is here and so are we with our list of all the new Windows apps and extensions that got our attention in the past week. 2013 was a fantastic year, it made all of us go awe by the amazing apps that were released. We hope 2014 follows the same trend and leaves behind some cool stuff.
This week we’ll be checking out a password manager; an app that lets you find royalty free images; and a suite that does system benchmarking. Without further ado, let’s get into it.
Software
F-Secure Key (Type: Free, OS: Windows – all versions, Size: 10 MB)
We all know that we should use different passwords for each account. But managing all those accounts can be a really tiring experience. You can either save the login credentials in the browser itself, but that will not be a very sound choice from a security standpoint. You can also give a try to password management software such as KeePass and LastPass. Or better yet, use F-Secure Key. Much like the aforementioned apps, it requires you to remember just one master password. It then automatically detects the website you are visiting and logs you into it. It is available on Windows, Mac, Android and iOS.
Creative Commons Finder 2014 (Type: Free, OS: Windows – all versions, Size: 5 MB)
We have talked about copyright violation and how you can protect your content from it. One of the problems that especially we web writers and publishers face is that we do not know which images we could use in our articles without getting us in some trouble. While there are tricks to tweak Google searches so as to get free-to-use images, it just demands too much effort from our end to get a task done. Creative Common Finder 2014 can help you with that. Depending on the criteria you choose to find the image, you will get to know if you need to give the author or creator of that image any credit, and whether or not you can put such images on your commercial website.
SiSoftware Sandra Lite 2014 (Type: Free, OS: Windows – all versions, Size: 65 MB)
Consider if you will, a full-fledged benchmarking tool for your system that offers a plethora of testing utilities to find how strong your computer is, and how well its components are working. Add in-depth software and hardware information on top of that, that is SiSoft Sandra Lite 2014 for you. It is free, and I really don’t see any reason why one would not like it.
To give you an example of how powerful this app is, one of its feature lets you test the file transferring speeds and give you recommendations on whether or not your system is up to par with others.
PDF Shaper (Type: Free, OS: Windows – all versions, Size: 8 MB)
PDF Shaper is your Swiss Army knife to do everything you got to do with a PDF file. It lets you merge multiple PDF files to one, split one to many, put an encryption on them and then decrypt such encryptions. You can also extract text and image content off a PDF file.
Note: While installing this app, make sure to untick all the other extra tools that come bundled with it.
TaskSpace (Type: Free, OS: Windows – all versions, Size: 1 MB)
The built in Task manager in Windows is no slouch at managing all your apps on it as long as you are working on a big screen. However, if your laptop’s screen size is smaller, then opening just a few apps will start making things messy. TaskSpace is here to address that problem. It opens a box, where you can drag as many applications you want. You can either keep them minimized, or give it some space to work from within the TaskSpace’s window. If you have filled the entire area, you can launch another TaskSpace window. Although there isn’t any limitation on the number of applications you can keep fired up inside the window, it is advisable to not put any resource-hogging app inside it.
Browser extensions
NoTrace (Firefox)
It’s no secret that we’re being tracked. Whether it’s an advertising agency or a browser cookie, or may be even the NSA, our footprints at the digital woods are being recorded. NoTrack is a noble approach that tries to limit the tracking.
It can disable http cookies, filter HTML tags, keep the cache clean, and disable ad-network and hidden cookies and do a lot more similar things.
Duplicate Tab Blocker (Firefox)
This happens a lot with me, I open a tab, then I check something on another tab, then I go back to the original page and open the tab again, forgetting that I had already opened it once. Although you are not going to make a very big dent on your data usage with this add-on, it can still come handy to you. Chrome users can use an extension called Prevent Duplicate Tabs, which does a similar job.
Searchlet (Chrome and Firefox)
Remember how you open a new tab for every Google search you do? Yeah, well, check if that tab is still open, because many people forget to close that tab. If nothing, it is still hogging some memory of your processor.
Searchlet is an extension that makes a search bar appear at the right corner of your browser, which will cut the need of opening new tabs to perform Google searches.
Spots (Chrome)
We’ve covered many replacement for New Tab page of Chrome in our previous posts, but Spots takes it to another level and hence deserves a shout-out. If you have an Android phone, once you have paired it with the Spots app, you will be able to check your phone calls and messages right on your browser. You can then reply to messages from there also.
Uncheck Stay-signed-in for Google login (Firefox)
Google keeps on changing some of its settings to make it securer and more convenient for us to use. One such feature now keeps us logged in to our accounts all the time. While this can really make the experience of most users better, for those who are accessing someone else’s computer, or may be from a cyber-café, things can go wrong if they forget to sign-out. Uncheck Stay-signed-in for Google login helps one log out of the account pretty easily and quickly.
Stuff you should know
Snapchat and Yahoo (ad-server) have been hacked this past week. If you have an account in either of the services, it is advised that you change your passwords now.
Surface Pro 2 is now shipping with a new powerful processor. It originally coupled an Intel-4200U processor clocked at 1.6 GHz, in comparison to the newer one which is powered by Intel-4300U processor spinning at 1.9 GHz.
Tip of the week: Discount on Apple products for UK readers
If you reside in UK, Apple is running a “Reuse and Recycling Programme” through which you can trade in your old Apple products to get some discount on purchasing a newer on. You can find more information here .
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