Prezi Desktop review: Animate your presentations, even when you're away from the cloud

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AppId is over the quota

Once you notice your colleagues are catching up on their sleep during your PowerPoint presentations, you know you need Prezi Desktop. Using this software, you can wake up your presentations using animation that doesn't suck. Forget transitions and effects like dissolve and fly-in, Prezi Desktop focuses in on your important points within your slides, like actually visually focuses in.

Many of Prezi Desktop's 50+ templates include 3D animation. In this one, you start out in a forest and then move through the trees.

Prezi Desktop is similar to the online Prezi, but as you might guess from the name, it doesn't require an Internet connection after the initial registraion. This means that any storage limits are on your end, not on Prezi's cloud. It's also awfully handy to work offline when you're incorporating last-minute changes on a flight or at the slightly-too-rustic site for the company retreat.

The program opens with over 50 slide templates to choose from, all of which include animation built right in, and many of which include photo-realistic graphics or 3D aspects. You add text, images, and YouTube movies to areas of the slide and create a path for the animation to follow. Prezi flows seamlessly between these areas.

Filling in Prezi Desktop slides in a simple click-and-type affair.

Some of Prezi's 3D effects are better than others, with a few giving the impression of rotating the base image rather than actually occurring in three dimensions. You can add shapes and drawings from Prezi's library but they are not editable, so if you want to create a very unique Prezi you'll also need software to create PDF, PPT, or image files to import. And you may want to stick to a very basic Prezi if you're presenting to the National Association of Motion Sickness Sufferers, because the flow of the presentation can be disconcerting.

With credit card information in hand, Prezi Desktop offers a 30-day free trial of the Enjoy ($59 annually) or Pro ($159 annually) subscription, as well as the completely free (no credit card needed) Public version. Once the 30 days are up, only the Pro version supports Prezi Desktop. Your presentations are all public with the Public version of Prezi, and you get only 100MB of storage per user. With Prezi Desktop Enjoy and Pro subscriptions, you can keep your presentations private, eliminate the Prezi branding, and receive 500MB (Enjoy) or 2GB (Pro) of storage space.

You can tweak the text formatting in your Prezi Desktop slides.

Prezi Desktop can get pricey, and it won't fix a really bad presentation, but it will certainly help keep your visuals—and your audience—focused. Plus you'll never be bothered by snoring during a presentation again.

Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.

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Pixsta review: This is the Instagram desktop client you've been waiting for

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AppId is over the quota
Pixsta Pixsta (formerly Instagrille) is an excellent way to enjoy Instagram on your desktop.

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Instagram is so inherently a mobile-first experience, I didn't think it would be made any better by a desktop client. And yet Pixsta, a PC desktop Instagram client for the Pokki platform, feels like a Daft Punk song: Better, faster, stronger.

It's Instagram, for Windows.

Formerly known as Instagrille, the newly-christened Pixsta cheerfully eschews traditional Windows chrome, opting for a gray look with drop-shadows that would look right at home on a Mac. Despite not feeling like a native Windows app at all, it works: The lack of window borders puts the images front and center. You can resize the window to fit more images in, and toggle between a linear and a tile-based layout.

With a wider window, Pixsta fits more information on the screen.

Resizing the window changes the layout responsively. With a narrow window, the list view shows an image followed by its comments; make the window wider, and the comment thread pops up to the side of the photo. Make it wider still, and you can fit multiple images and comment threads side by side.

Once you log in with your Instagram account, you can Like photos and participate in discussion threads (being able to type on a full-sized keyboard makes commenting better, too). The only feature missing is a way to quickly flick through photos, one at a time: You can quickly scroll, but it's difficult to scroll exactly one photo up or down in the stream.

Instagram videos work well in Pixsta. You can play them just like on your phone, but you can also download them for safe keeping. By default, the video I downloaded was saved with no filename extension, but manually tacking on ".mp4" at the end worked. VLC played the video without a hitch, sound included.

When it comes to speed and responsiveness, Pixsta just flies. Photos load instantly, and the interface is quick and responsive. I tested the app on a powerful desktop machine, and the fast processor and 21-inch monitor made everything that's good about Instagram, better. Of course, your connection must be fast enough, too: On mine, videos did occasionally stutter.

Cat videos have never looked better.

Pixsta is free to download and use. Even if you only follow a handful of friends of Instagram, it's a dramatically better way to experience the service. Get it now, and your friends' cat videos will never look the same again.

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Review: Easy-to-use window manager Mosaico makes sense of your desktop

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AppId is over the quota

If your desktop deteriorates into a morass of windows, look to Mosaico to help you tile them neatly.  You can use this $10 window manager (14-day free trial) to create different desktop snapshots for various situations.

The simple interface revolves around taking snapshots and restoring them.

Once you're happy with the way your windows are laid out, click the snapshot button to save the arrangement. You can save up to eight different desktop snapshots, and restore them easily from the program's snapshot browser.

When restoring a snapshot, Mosiaco will open relevant programs if closed, and will minimize others that are not part of the snapshot. It cannot, however, go as far as opening specific documents.

Snapshots aside, Mosaico also comes with an enhanced window-snapping feature which can be accessed by clicking the arrows on the program's interface, or by dragging windows around. The latter can be achieved by enabling the "Arrange manually" option in the toolbar, or by pressing the "M" key. Mosaico supports multiple monitors well, and features a built-in button for moving windows between monitors.

Position previews make it easy to drag windows to an exact position on the screen.

Mosaico's main weakness is its current state of Windows 8 compatibility. Although the program runs fine on Windows 8, there are some small quirks such as random display issues, inability to set custom keyboard shortcuts, etc. These issues do not occur on every Windows 8 system, and will be fixed in the program's next update.

Note: The Download button will download the software to your system.

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Crisp up your desktop with a window manager utility

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AppId is over the quota

Whether you use one monitor or three, Windows XP or Windows 8, Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, you’re bound to have windows on your desktop. And you probably juggle several of them at once.

Windows operating systems come with several built-in management features, but they’re very basic and don’t always play well with multiple monitors. To control a cascade of windows effectively, you need a third-party window manager. I tested five popular ones—some of them free, and most of them inexpensive.

The free WinSplit Revolution is a great starter program. Simple and lightweight, WinSplit Revolution helps you manage multiple windows by assigning hotkeys to different window positions, and by providing a more sophisticated window-snapping feature.

Set up an exact layout for each window-snapping position with WinSplit Revolution.

WinSplit Revolution’s settings are completely customizable, and they handle everything from hotkeys to window-snapping positions, so you can move windows around swiftly and tile them exactly the way you want on each monitor. You can also set keyboard shortcuts for additional actions such as moving windows between monitors and toggling always-on-top desktop position.

A virtual numpad (a small on-screen arrow pad) is available for users who don’t mind clicking, but find dragging…well, a drag. You click the numpad to snap windows to various available positions. Though the idea itself is good, I found that the numpad tended to disappear inexplicably and remain gone until I restarted the program; even attempts to restore it from the program’s settings were futile. And because the numpad sits immovably at the top-left corner of the screen, it sometimes gets in the way of other windows’ options.

You can activate WinSplit Revolution's window-dragging-to-snapping function from the keyboard.

That quibble aside, WinSplit Revolution is a simple yet powerful program. For convenient window snapping, this app is your best option.

If your window management needs go beyond mere window snapping, however, the $10 Mosaico may be a better fit. Unlike WinSplit Revolution, Mosaico has an actual program interface, and you can use it to create different desktop snapshots for various situations. Once you’re happy with the way your windows are laid out, click the snapshot button to save the arrangement. You can save eight different desktop snapshots and restore them easily from the program’s snapshot browser.

Mosaico's simple interface revolves around taking (and restoring) desktop snapshots.

When restoring a snapshot, Mosaico will open relevant programs if they’re closed, and will minimize others that aren’t part of the snapshot. It can’t, however, open specific documents.

Snapshots aside, Mosaico offers an enhanced window-snapping feature, accessible by clicking arrows on the program’s interface or by dragging windows around. To perform the dragging function, you must first either enable the ‘Arrange manually’ option in the toolbar or press the M key. Mosaico supports multiple monitors well, and it comes with a built-in button for moving windows between monitors.

Mosaico's position previews make it easy to drag windows to an exact position on the screen.

Mosaico’s biggest weakness involves its imperfect state of Windows 8 compatibility. Though the program runs fine on Windows 8, I noticed some quirks, such as random display issues, and the program wouldn’t let me set custom keyboard shortcuts. These issues don’t occur on every Windows 8 system, however, and they should be fixed in the program’s next update. As Mosaico offers a 14-day free trial, you can try the program out to see how it works on your system.

Besides the ability to snap and tile windows, you may need more-advanced features in order to tame your desktop—such as windows that always open on a certain monitor or in a certain size, or easy access to transparency or always-on-top toggles, or program windows that snap automatically to one side of the screen whenever you open them.

Chameleon Window Manager's interface takes a little getting used to.

Chameleon Window Manager offers these and other features, in one or more of three packages: a very limited free version; a $25 Standard version; and a $30 Pro version. Surprisingly, only the Pro version offers certain basic features such as drag-to-snap, while the Standard version, too, includes some more-advanced features.

The custom title-bar buttons in Chameleon are reminiscent of a child's drawing, but they work.

Chameleon Window Manager gives you a multitude of options to apply to all of your windows, to specific programs, or even to specific windows within programs. Unfortunately, the interface is cluttered and confusing, so you could spend quite a while setting up everything. For each window, you can dedicate various title-bar buttons to performing actions such as basic snapping, monitor switching, and transparency toggling. Though the buttons are primitively designed, they work. You can save your configuration or create multiple ones and switch among them.

Chameleon's window-snapping layout is completely customizable.

These features look great on paper, but in reality Chameleon Window Manager performed very inconsistently for me. My settings worked only some of the time, windows became transparent when they shouldn’t have, and the title-bar buttons disappeared inexplicably. You could try the 30-day free trial and see how you fare, but competing programs in this roundup offer more-effective window management for the money.

Instead of focusing on how a window behaves when it’s opened, WindowSpace lets you control windows with dozens of customizable keyboard shortcuts. The operations involved range from regular window snapping and moving windows between monitors, to fine-tuning a window’s position on the screen, resizing, rolling up, and toggling transparency.

WindowSpace's interface is one big settings screen, and getting acquainted with it takes time.

Aside from letting you use keyboard shortcuts, WindowSpace can enhance each window’s title bar with additional context menu items and mouse actions that you can use to specify which menu items you want to add, and even how you want them to appear in the context menu. You can also set title-bar buttons such as Close, Minimize, and Maximize to perform new actions when right-clicked or middle-clicked.

Unlike the snapping function on most other window managers, WindowSpace’s Snapping tab doesn’t automatically send windows to corners. Instead, it concentrates on how windows behave when they’re positioned next to each other: Will they automatically snap to each other, for instance, or will they overlap? WindowSpace makes it easy for you to arrange your windows however you want.

In lieu of buttons, WindowSpace adds configurable context-menu items.

The program’s lack of a real interface—and the number of settings you need to ponder before you can start setting things up—can be confusing at first. Nevertheless, for fine-tuned control, WindowSpace is a solid option. It costs $25 after a 30-day free trial.

The four preceding tools above are free or reasonably inexpensive, but each offers only one set of features. The $50 Actual Window Manager includes every imaginable desktop-management feature, and then some—if you can find your way through the complicated, confusing, and rather unattractive interface.

Actual Window Manager's interface teems with countless options and tweaks.

Divided into nine different tabs, Actual Window Manager offers everything from specific window settings, a customized set of title bar buttons, and a configurable desktop grid for dragging and snapping windows, to keyboard shortcuts (dozens of them), window mirrors, virtual desktops, and a flexible Start-menu replacement. Unlike most Start menu replacements, Actual Window Manager lets you add just a Start button, and have the new Windows 8 Starts screen pop out of it, at full size or half size.

You can transform the Start screen's Apps section into a functional Start menu.

The program ably supports multiple monitors, giving you full control of multiple taskbars and their content. It even offers control of wallpaper settings, resolution controls, and other options that you’d normally select and manage through Windows’ native settings. Actual Window Manager includes more options than I could use in a year, and the program’s confusing interface can make them difficult to discover, but everything is there for the finding. All you need is the will to spend $50, the need for abundant features, and the patience to figure them out. The 60-day free trial can help you there.

Create your own desktop grids and dividers in Actual Window Manager, and use them to arrange your windows.

Windows is a manageable operating system even without these third-party programs; but once you add their fresh and useful features to the mix, you may find that going back isn’t an acceptable option. Whether you use multiple monitors or just one, a desktop manager can work wonders for your workflow. Try one, and see how well it helps you tame those wild and unmanageable beasts called windows.

Yaara is a foodie, horse-lover, and biologist who enjoys being a geek as a full-time job.
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Review: Fences 2 makes desktop icons smarter, cleaner, and more useful

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AppId is over the quota

I have no icons on my desktop. I have two wide-screen monitors totaling almost 4,000 horizontal pixels, and not a single icon— because one icon often begets many, ending up with a messy, disorganized desktop and crowding my beautiful wallpapers. But $10 utility Fences 2 has me rethinking my anti-icon stance.

Fences makes it easy to get started by automatically categorizing your existing icons.

Stardock's Fences 2 eliminates all of the annoyances traditionally linked to desktop icons, and makes what's good about them even better. Installed, it feels like such a natural part of Windows, it makes me wonder how come Microsoft doesn't build a feature like it right into the OS.

Fences integrates tightly with Windows, becoming part of the Control Panel.

At its simplest, Fences groups your icons into virtual folders on the desktop. You can have a bunch of icons for your favorite applications, and another bunch for frequently used documents, and yet another for Internet bookmarks. It's a similar system to what some fastidious users may already be doing on their own–but it makes the process of grouping your icons together easy enough for the rest of us. When you first launch Fences, it offers to group your existing icons automatically, so you get three fences to begin with. They won't be perfect, but they're easy to customize: You can rename them, pull icons out or put new ones in, and move them around the desktop.

For reasons of both aesthetics and privacy, you may not always going to want icons cluttering up your wallpaper, so Fences can hide the icons once you leave the desktop idle for a while. When you want to reveal the icons again, double-click anywhere on the desktop and all of your Fences pop back into view. It's instant, and it's my favorite feature because it lets me enjoy my wallpapers and still use the icons whenever I want them. You can also disable the timeout and opt to hide or show the icons yourself.

The default fences may not categorize well the icons you already have on your desktop, but they're easy to customize.

Taking a cue from the world of smartphones, Fences 2 introduces a feature called Desktop Pages. Just like home screens on a smartphone, you can have multiple "pages" on your desktop. Bring your mouse to the edge of the screen, hold the mouse button down, and drag: The screen swipes over, revealing more space for fences. This sounds like it could conflict with some Windows 8 gestures which also use the edges of the screen, but on my desktop it doesn't. If moving your mouse all the way to the edge of the screen is too much work, you can also click the desktop, hold down Alt, and rotate the mousewheel to quickly flip pages.

Another interesting feature new to Fences 2 is Folder Portals, which let you place interactive shortcuts to folders on your desktop. If you have a folder with many files and subfolders, you can create a Folder Portal for it, and then get at those files directly. It's basically like having that folder constantly open on your desktop. It's an interesting feature, but has drawbacks: You can't use the keyboard to quick-search within a folder, and you can't drill down to subfolders (clicking a subfolder just opens it in your file manager).

The Folder Portal feature lets you quickly put the contents of an entire folder on your desktop.

Fences was an excellent product to begin with, and Fences 2 keeps the good parts and largely manages to avoid bloat. I'm not convinced Folder Portals are all that useful, but Desktop Pages are a welcome addition, and feel fast and natural. Even if you're not the sort of user who enjoys having icons on your desktop, Fences 2 may convert you. Give it a shot.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page will download the software to your system.

Endlessly tweaking his workflow for comfort and efficiency, Erez is a freelance writer on a mission to discover the simplest, coolest, and most effective software and websites to make tomorrow happen today.
More by Erez Zukerman

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Review: Enjoy slick Web apps on your desktop with Cubiez

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AppId is over the quota

Web apps are great when you're on your PC, but they require a browser. Mobile apps, on the other hand, require nothing but a smartphone, but are not very convenient to use while working on your computer. So why choose? A new platform called Cubiez (currently in public beta) offers the best of both worlds: Light and responsive apps that feel almost like mobile ones, don't require a browse, and run on your computer. Very similar to the better-known Pokki, Cubiez is an online marketplace for apps through which you install and then run a variety of apps.

Cubiez's app icons sit in your tray—the more apps you install the more icons you have.

Cubiez is fairly new in its field, and therefore doesn't offer many apps yet. While its biggest rival Pokki includes hundreds of different apps, Cubiez has only a few dozen at the moment. There's no way to view Cubiez apps online, but you can check them all out by installing Cubiez and clicking on its taskbar icon. You can look at all available apps, only new apps, or apps you have installed. There is no way to view apps by category, but since not many apps are available, this doesn't make much of a difference.

Cubiez sits on the leftmost side of your taskbar—right next to the Start button (if you still have one)—and each app you install adds an icon on the taskbar as well. This is nice at first, but when you've installed seven apps, it starts to get crowded, and there's no way to put Cubiez to sleep or collapse all the icons into one. Installing apps is a breeze: After choosing an app from the marketplace and clicking the install button, you can't even count to five before the app is installed and available for use. Cubiez and its apps are all highly responsive, and there were no unexplained lags, sluggishness or unresponsiveness in any that I've tried.

Installing apps takes virtually seconds, and only one click.

Of all the apps Cubiez offers, about half are games. Among these, you'll find some big names such as Kingdom Rush, Little Alchemy, and Plants vs. Zombies, some classics such as Pacman, and some super-addictive ones such as Unicorn Robot Attack. Aside from games, you'll find useful apps such as Calculator, Facebook, Google Maps, Google Search, NewsHub (an RSS reader), and Weather. If you're looking for a specific app, you can use the search box to find it quickly, but note that search strings are case sensitive, so searching for "facebook" will yield no results. The apps all run in a small window that can be moved around the screen, but cannot be resized.

Looking closely at some of the apps, I found that while they're all generally good, some are still somewhat lacking in features. The Facebook app, for example, is a great take on a Facebook client, with a News Feed, birthdays and events calendar, a photos tab, an inbox, and a notification area. Some actions, such as comments and likes, can be done straight from the app, while others, such as writing a message or viewing a friend's profile, send you to your browser. The app even includes badge and pop-up notifications, but it doesn't manage to refresh properly, and keeps showing old updates when there are in fact newer ones to be seen. The Weather app can only show one location at a time and doesn't let you save locations, and the RSS reader includes a tiny number of publications, which, combined with an inaccurate search feature, forces you to enter the exact feed URL for almost any website you want to add.

The Facebook app for Cubiez is convenient and useful, when it updates properly.

These problems are in the minority, though, and most of the Cubiez apps are a joy to use. The games, especially, are a very nice combination between Web-based games, mobile games, and PC games, and literally give you the best of all worlds: instant, browser-less gaming. But don't let the browser-less apps fool you: All Cubiez apps, even games, require an Internet connection in order to work, and when one isn't available, most will not return any error, but will simply fail to load.

Considering its beta status, Cubiez is a very impressive take on the fairly new world of HTML5 desktop apps, and is open to developers who want to add apps of their own. It's still missing too many big names to be really useful, but more apps, new features, and some polishing, will surely turn it into something we would all want to have on our computer—even quicker access to productivity tools, information, social networks, and entertainment.

Note: By default, Cubiez's installer also includes a browser add-on called Cubiez Shopping Buddy. Despite the unfortunate name, this is a legitimate shopping add-on, and is one of the company's revenue streams. You can easily opt out of installing it. If you choose to install it and then change your mind, uninstall it through the control panel. 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.

Yaara is a foodie, horse-lover, and biologist who enjoys being a geek as a full-time job.
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Review: Google Mail Lite brings Gmail to your desktop about Pokki

Gmail client Google Mail Lite takes email out of your browser and brings it with a twist to your desktop. This Pokki-based app is incredibly easy.

Gmail lites clear interface makes supports Gmail user friendly desktop, provided all Google mail features that you need at the moment.

The best part of having Gmail on your desktop is the real time notifications; These are in Pop-Up banners and small specialist badges, and to ensure that no e-Mail is going unnoticed. Google Mail Lite is located in the Windows system tray and click, you have access to all emails, including labels, played and sent emails. Several Gmail actions such as assigning labels, actor and unstarring, archiving, and, of course, read and write emails can be performed easily.

Google Mail Lite is almost perfect, but it is missing some important features: you can not attach files; There is no email spell checker; You cannot select which email address to send if you have several, and (the most painful) the search function does not work. However, Google Mail Lite is an excellent client for most of the features of Gmail and supports multiple users really sealed the deal.

Note: The download button on the product information page will download the software on your system.

Yaara is a foodie and horse lover biologist who enjoys as a geek as a full-time job.
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Review: Postbox is a slick, affordable desktop email client that plays nice with Gmail

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AppId is over the quota

If you're after a desktop email client that isn't Outlook, you may discover you don't have very many options. Mozilla Thunderbird is no longer actively developed; Eudora is a distant memory; The Bat! is still around, but costs $35 (or $45 for the Professional edition). One of the more appealing options available is Postbox, a slick, modern-looking desktop email client that plays nice with Gmail and will set you back just $10 after the 30-day free trial.

With all panes shown, the Postbox interface feels powerful almost to the point of being overwhelming.

Postbox v3.0.7 is actually based on Thunderbird: If you go to Tools > Options, you'll find a very familiar looking Options dialog. The rest of the interface, however, looks different. Gone is the traditional horizontally-split layout, replaced by a vertical split that puts your message headers on the left, with the message body on the right, much like the Gmail Offline Chrome extension. You can still bring the Classic View back, though.

By default, the leftmost part of the window is populated by a nested list of folders based on your Gmail labels. Almost all of my labels synced correctly, except for one: the Bulk label, which I automatically filter incoming "gray mail" into. That label never made it all the way to Postbox due to a configuration error on my Gmail account: I had to make it available via IMAP (as all other labels were set), after which it synced to Postbox without a hitch.

In the past, each email was its own little island of text. Modern clients such as Gmail changed this by showing threaded conversations, which cleverly group related emails into one cohesive view. Postbox uses the same concept, and adds a few desktop interface niceties such as being able to pop open the conversation and access a specific email directly from the list of message headers.

Postbox makes it easy to individually collapse every pane, so that you can end up with a minimalistic list of conversations if you prefer.

As much as Postbox strives to play nice with Gmail, some of the visual differences are disorienting: For example, the message list shows senders' names in bold, even for messages you've already read. The "unread" marker is a small blue dot, quite elegant, but not as obvious as bold/non-bold text. There is a way to change this, but only by manually editing the configuration (or switching to the Classic, horizontally-split, view). Another point that kept me from seriously using Postbox is the lack of support for RTL languages, such as Hebrew and Arabic. If you write even the occasional email in such a language, Postbox is out of the question.

One of the challenges of managing email is quickly getting to the messages you care about within a cluttered folder. Gmail lets you do this with blazing-fast searches and clever operators like "is:unread." Postbox offers a more visual way, in the form of the Focus Pane. This collapsible pane lets you quickly slice and dice the current folder: Show only unread messages, show only messages that have attachments, only messages from today, yesterday, the past week, or the past month, and more. Postbox even lets you assign "topics" to your emails, which are another layer of classification, distinct from labels. You can assign any email to a topic such as Work, Home, or Personal. The Focus Bar lets you quickly filter these, as well.

With the folder pane, the focus pane, the vertical conversations list, and the email preview pane, the Postbox interface feels busy. Fortunately, Postbox allows you to eliminate the folder pane by setting up a handful of favorite folders, which you can then access via a toolbar at the top of the window. You can also collapse and expand the focus pane with a single click, and even hide the email preview pane, so that you're left with just a minimalistic list of message headers.

Threaded conversations, familiar to every Gmail user, are fully supported in Postbox.

Postbox isn't perfect, but then again, the same can be said about email itself as a communication medium. Still, if you're not happy with Gmail's browser interface and yearn for the comfort of the desktop clients of yore, you would do well to try it out. Be sure to allow for an adjustment period. Slick as it may be, it's still an acquired taste.

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.

Endlessly tweaking his workflow for comfort and efficiency, Erez is a freelance writer on a mission to discover the simplest, coolest, and most effective software and websites to make tomorrow happen today.
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Review: Songbird Desktop is much more than just a media player

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AppId is over the quota

Songbird Desktop is a media player that's not chained to your desktop, despite its name. Although this free application for PC and Mac will organize you collection and playback audio and video files from your computer, it's also a tool for discovering new music, learning more about your favorite artists, and connecting with friends.

Songbird installs quickly and easily, but getting your music into the program is entirely up to you. You have to add files manually, by pointing Songbird in the direction of your media collection. Once your songs and videos are added to Songbird, you can take advantage of its basic media playback functions. You can play songs, rip CDs (but not burn them), create playlists, and more. Songbird does play videos, but you may have to download some video codecs to play back all files, as Songbird doesn't include some that would require it to pay a royalty.

Songbird includes a Web browser that lets you discover info about your favorite artists.

Songbird will sync with Android mobile devices and smartphones, but not Apple's products. While iPhone and iPod owners are out of luck, Android users will appreciate that Songbird syncs with their devices. I had to download an add-on from Songbird's library in order to get the application to recognize my Motorola Droid Bionic, but once I made it through that somewhat confusing process, Songbird worked seamlessly with my phone.

In fact, Songbird's extensive library of add-ons is just one of the factors that make this application so interesting. In there, you can find add-ons that will do everything from adding lyrics to songs as they play to displaying album art from Last.fm. If you're willing to spend some time poking around the add-on collection, you can find plenty of tools for customizing everything from the look of Songbird to the experience of using its Web browser, which displays right in the main window of the application. This  allows you to find out more about your favorite artists. It also allows you to connect with other users, and lets you connect via Facebook to find out what artists your friends like, too.

Songbird's interface is a bit bland, but you can customize it with skins to get a new look.

And that's not all: Songbird also works as a media server, streaming your media collection to UPnP or DLNA devices on the same local network. It's also available as a Web app and an Android app that sync with the desktop version. In short, there's not a lot Songbird can't do.  It may all be too much for the casual user who simply wants to listen to a few tunes, and if you want to sync them to your iPhone, you're out of luck. But adventurous music fans looking for a player that they can customize will find a lot to sing about in Songbird.

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 appropriate to your system.

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Review: Dexpot virtual desktop makes feel like a native part of the Windows

Large desktop workstations have often more than enough screen: one or two 24-inch monitors to provide plenty of space for a mission-critical application, as well as multiple chat or email window next to. But if you have a Squeak with a 15-inch monitor (or maybe something even smaller), may be the next best thing to a virtual desktop laptop users additional monitor. Dexpot (25 euros, which is $33 on the 21.02.12; free for personal use) is a great way to get yourself a. Or five.

Dexpot taskbar plugin, you can use virtual desktops to control, without a special window.

I had to Dexpot in one word to describe, I would choose "customizable.". I can give me a single aspect of Dexpot you can not adjust: the animation (or lack thereof) used to switch between virtual desktops toggle number of desktops, hotkeys and active corners for desktops using keyboard and mouse, only one, are whether a virtual desktop runs all your monitors and the list goes on.

An application chooses total customization, is typically inflate the result. Dexpot tried to let you eat your cake and have it, too, through features in plugins break down you can enable or disable you prefer. Disable the plug ins animations, and sure enough, the animations go away - and do the options for them to control this. So not only you can customize the options according to your needs you can customize whether the options are also there from early on.

A learned skill is productive with virtual desktops. Because it is a paradox: a GUI assumes being able to see your applications. Hide in an imaginary desktop and you could also forget to come back later to them. To work around this issue, includes Dexpot Visual cues keep the virtual desktops and applications that contain them in the view. Food aid, Dexpot offers several features, ranging from a tiny indicator in the taskbar with the number which you are on the desktop, through a compact desktop switcher in the Windows taskbar until to an exposé-similar function, the screen shots with scaled-down versions of all window tiles you want all desktops so that you can easily click, without thinking what desk, built-in, it is (you can't learn it by entering its title, though). There is also a full screen preview mode, Division of the screen in separate desktop, you then Windows between can pull.

The preview screen shrinks, so can all virtual desktops on a physical screen and move to Windows.

When downs, some users prefer have a window with a different virtual desktop from the ALT-tab task switcher and taskbar disappear; others prefer it to stay there. Dexpot is to you, so that it is easy to experiment.

The Windows Catalog is similar to exposé on Mac, putting thumbnails of all Windows on the screen at once.

Dexpot staggering array of plug-in the and means fine-grained configuration options, the application you use only agree with the basic premise of virtual desktops, can be a useful thing. The rest is negotiable and can be flexibly adjusted.

You have a keyboard shortcut obsession, like commit Dexpot, your every desire.

Knowing how means everything must adjust to experiment with Dexpot for some time, until a combination of settings hit, which could be useful for you. But if you take the time to do this, you might realize that a 15-inch monitor is finally not so small.

Note: The download button on the product information page will download the software on your system.

Endless tweaking his workflow for comfort and efficiency, is Erez of freelance writer on a mission, the easiest and coolest most effective software and websites to discover, make happen this morning.
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