Showing posts with label almost. Show all posts
Showing posts with label almost. Show all posts

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Review: Convert almost any entertainment file to another format with free Adapter

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
Adapter With so many devices and so many OSs, you may be done with fun if you can't convert an entertainment file format. Adapter converts audio, image video, and even game files to keep the good times rolling.

Download Now

Just think for a moment how many devices and operating systems you use in a day. Now you may jump from a Windows PC to a Mac (or vice versa). Or use an iPhone or Blackberry?  Or maybe you use an Android or Kindle Fire? The fact is that with so many systems, being able to do quick efficient no-fuss file conversions to suit the platform you are on has become an absolute-must. This is why Adapter should be on your shortlist of apps to install on your system.

Adapter is made by the same company that brought out the awesome iExplorer, and it comes in PC and Mac editions. The interface of the PC version I tested is straightforward and intuitive, and adding files is as simple as drag-and-drop with your mouse. There are no long complicated user manuals to memorize, no complicated audio codecs to install, no screen resolutions to remember in advance. Adapter is a good example of software that allows you to just add the source file and click the button to go.

After choosing the type of file and loading the source file, a range of options present themselves to you including the output file format, destination folder and more.

The software has numerous different functions. It can handle video (including DVD files and Flash), images (including animated GIFs) and audio (including iPhone ringtones). It can even convert files for games consoles such as the Playstation, Xbox, and Nintendo Wii. To begin, just choose your format at the top (video, audio, image) then either press the "add" button or drag the file into the main area with your mouse, and drop. Then in the top toolbar, choose the file format you want to convert to, check that the other options are as you want them. You can more or less keep them as they are, with the possible exception of the output directory. I wouldn't recommend fiddling with the default settings unless you know what you are doing. Then press the "start" button and wait for the file to be converted.

On the whole, Adapter converts files really fast, unless of course you are converting a huge video file which will take slightly longer. But if you are converting say an MP3 file or a YouTube video, then it doesn't take very long at all.

Adapter also lets you edit an MP3 file and convert it into an m4r file, so you can send it to iTunes as an iPhone ringtone. When you have dragged the source audio file into Adapter, look to your right and use the sliders to choose the size of file you want converted into the ringtone. Then choose m4r as the output format and away you go again. You can even tell Adapter to send the completed file directly to iTunes on your computer.

If you are using Adapter to make an iPhone ringtone, you can use this cropping tool to get the right length of file.

The final feature Adapter offers is a lightweight browser which you can use to go to YouTube and download videos directly to your Adapter installation. From there you can download as a video or extract the audio. Even though Adapter told me that the browser was "outdated" and "no longer supported," it still worked perfectly fine.

The only real con that was readily apparent was that trying to convert MP4 files resulted in the app crashing. It seems as if Adapter doesn't like converting MP4 files at all. The developer maintains however that this should not happen, and was unable to replicate the problem.

If you were planning to use Adapter for converting MP4's, and you encounter the same problem as I did, there's an easy fix: Use SUPER instead, which converts MP4 files to AVI in a flash.

There are lots of file converters on the market, some good, many bad. Adapter definitely firmly falls into the good column and is worth using, especially considering that it is free. You can't argue with that.


View the original article here

Monday, April 8, 2013

Review: Free Opener can open almost any type of file you can think of

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

What do you use to open files? If you're in the majority, your answer would be "depends on the file." This is not the case with Free Opener. Free Opener claims to open over 80 different file formats—anything from Microsoft Office documents and PDF files, to image, video and music files, with many more in between. It may not open as many file types as Quick View Plus, and it's certainly more of a viewer than an editor, but you can't argue with the price. It's a good first stop for trying to view that mystery document.

Free Opener comes with a simple interface that includes four basic menus and one toolbar. I started off my testing with the types of documents I edit most often: DOC and DOCX. Despite the respectable editing options—color, formatting, highlighting, tables, etc.—the first thing I noticed was a mysterious lack of keyboard shortcuts. According to the program's menus, all the basic shortcuts should be available. They're mentioned in the menus next to their respective commands. In practice, important shortcuts such as Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V and Ctrl+Z failed to work, while others such as Ctrl+F, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+O, etc., worked without a hitch. The undo feature did not work from the menu either, and worked only when I used the toolbar button. Note that Free Opener will not prompt you to save your work if you close it without saving.

So far, the experience was surprisingly similar to Free Editor, a similar all-around tool. This continued through the available DOC editing options such as tables, formatting, highlights, and more, but that's where the similarities ended. As opposed to Free Editor, Free Opener has almost no spreadsheet editing capabilities, lacking support for functions or formatting of any kind, which cripples viewing as well. It includes only basic image editing features, and those are presented in a confusing and not-so-intuitive interface. Music and video files open without noticeable problems, and offer repeat and shuffle functions, although the volume on some videos was significantly lower than on my default player.

Which brings us to PDFs: This is the most celebrated format on the program's website, and true to form, Free Opener opened every PDF file I threw at it, and even presented an automatic table of contents on the left sidebar. Problems started when I tried using the table of contents for large documents. Crashing, not responding, or simply doing nothing were all common occurrences. It sometimes took manual page-flipping to remind Free Opener that more pages exist in the document, an action that can only be done my clicking icons on the toolbar or with the Pg Up/Pg Dn buttons. No scrolling.

After checking out the most common formats, I took Free Opener through its paces and opened the following files successfully: CSS (no syntax highlighting), HTML, JS (with syntax highlighting), MOV, PPT, PPTX, RAR, REG, SWF, XML, XPS, and ZIP. While I didn't try all 80+ supported formats, everything I tried worked, and I found nothing that was supported in name only.

Some basic image-editing features are supported, but using it can get confusing at times.

Free Opener delivered on its promises every time. Free Opener feels like an honest try to make our lives easier, and it truly does open a large number of formats. If you need to view multiple formats and can only install one program, Free Opener can be a lifesaver. It may not be a complete substitute for other programs, but for viewing purposes, it can definitely save you some money.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software. Free Opener comes with no less than four additional programs in its third-party InstallIQ installer. You can skip all these offers with one click, or review each one and choose to accept or decline.

Yaara Lancet

Yaara is a foodie, horse-lover, and biologist who enjoys being a geek as a full-time job.
More by Yaara Lancet


View the original article here