Top 25 Downloads For Your Computer

The latest new idea from the internet/aol etc is to use slide shows, videos and other multimedia to extend your time using the internet. For the most part these slide shows are used so that ads appear more often, stay on longer or cause you to see other ads. The name of the game is $$$$ and the companies are pull out all stops to get money through the internet.

The latest one has helpful hints and software downloads. You can spend many more minutes going through the slide show or use the following below. I have not listed belong Vista, Linux or other OSs only Mac ones (although some of them are cross platform and are included).

Top 25 Downloads For Your Computer

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Sep 3rd 2008 at 12:10PM


http://www.switched.com/2008/09/03/top-25-downloads-for-your-computer/?icid=100214839x1211905378x1200739484

http://switched.com.com/1770-20_4-0.html?part=switched&subj=search&tag=dl&query=adium&searchtype=downloads

Growl is a Mac-only notification application, which is a geeky way of saying that this program notifies you of things happening in the background -- IM messages, new e-mails, completed downloads -- on your computer.o, how does it work? Once Growl is installed and running, simply opening an application will allow it to start sending updates to Growl. Let's say you're browsing in Firefox, which is currently taking up entire screen, and an instant message comes in. Growl will pop up a discreet customizable window on your screen that displays the message contents and sender's name, which saves you the time and hassle of having to switch over to your IM application just to see what someone is saying. You can also set Growl up to display pop-up style alerts when your downloads finish, when new e-mail comes in (including subject and the first few lines of the note), or when new wireless networks become available. You can even set it up to display music video-style alerts (complete with cover art, artist, album and track info) that pop up whenever iTunes begins a new track.

Growl works with most popular Mac applications, and, best of all, it's free.

Thunderbird 2 (Mac, Windows XP and Vista)

iScrobbler, the iTunes plugin.
Picasa / Flickr Uploader (XP/Vista/OS X/Linux)

Have you ever snapped the perfect photo and wished you could share it with the world immediately? Grab either the Picasa or Flickr Uploadr, depending on your photo sharing site of choice, and put that digital camera and wireless Internet connection to good use. You can immediately upload your photos to share with, or embarrass, your friends and family. Even better are the Linux and Windows versions of Picasa, which allow you to clean up your photos (crop, remove red eye, etc.) before posting them online for the world to see.


Tomboy (Linux), Evernote (XP/Vista), Journler (OS X)

Sometimes you'll come across some information online, or you'll think of an idea for a new project, or you'll want to jot some quick bullet points for yourself in a meeting. For this sort of application a full word processor can be overkill, and not very useful. That's why there are dedicated note-taking and clipping applications like Evernote and Journler. These software packages allow you to quickly create, organize, and search notes. Evernote and Journler will even let you embed images and links to Web sites or files. Tomboy for Linux lacks many of the fancier features that Evernote and Journler have, but its sheer simplicity make it a pleasure to use. Tomboy lets you create simple text-based notes that can then be linked together like a Wiki (i.e. Wikipedia entries that link to other Wikipedia entries).

Outlook's note-taking capabilities and desktop post-It-like sticky notes have long been popular, but both lack the advanced organizational features and multimedia capabilities of these note-taking apps. Stickies and Outlook are fine for quick one-off notes and reminders, but for detailed brainstorming and research, Evernote, Journler, and Tomboy are much more up to the task.

http://www.dandans.com/TotallyFreeBurner.htm

Audacity
(Mac, Windows XP and Vista)

Audacity seems as though it has been around for ages, but there's a reason the app is still going strong: It's one of the most reliable and easy-to-use audio-editing programs out there. Plus, Audacity runs on all platforms, and it's free!

Want to digitize your old vinyl records? Boot up Audacity, hook up your stereo, and you'll be recording in no time. Looking to make the next mashup to take the Web world by storm? Audacity lets you easily import, edit, and mix MP3s (and WAV, AIFF and OGG files). Manipulating audio is as easy as cutting, pasting, and dragging -- highlight a section of a recording that has unwanted sound, and a quick cut will remove it from the file. If you're looking to get into more advanced editing and effects, Audacity comes with multiple sound filters.
http://switched.com.com/1770-20_4-0.html?part=switched&subj=search&tag=dl&query=audacity&searchtype=downloads

Google Earth
(Mac, Windows XP and Vista)

For those of you who haven't already taken one of its virtual tours, Google Earth is a pretty wild ride. By referencing satellite imagery of the entire planet, it allows you to enter an address and zoom from space right down into actual aerial images of your street in your city . Thanks to a handy "layers" feature, you can check out aerial views of restaurants, hospitals, banks, and other resources in a given area, or check things like housing prices, crime statistics, postal code boundaries, and dozens of other stats for the selected zone. But the coolest part? Google Earth features 3-D terrain mapping, which you can use to fly through the Grand Canyon or a block full of Manhattan skyscrapers to check out the terrain.

MAME (XP/Vista/OS X/Linux)

Most of the apps on our list are aimed at making your more productive or replacing expensive or slow applications with free light weight alternatives. But sometimes you just want to have a little fun. So pick up the free vintage arcade game emulator MAME, which let you play classic titles like 'Centipede' and 'Dig-Dug' on your computer. MAME on its own is a useless piece of software, but with a little Googling you can easily locate some ROMs, which you open with MAME to enjoy classic arcade-y goodness. The legal nature of MAME and ROMs is a bit murky -- technically you're supposed to own the original game for this to be legit -- but we doubt anyone is going to come and check your basement for an original 'Donkey Kong' coffee table, right?

http://switched.com.com/1770-20_4-0.html?part=switched&subj=search&tag=dl&query=mame&searchtype=downloads

Firefox (XP/Vista/OS X/Linux)

The most important item you can install on any computer.

The Firefox Web browser will probably be the application you use the most on your laptop. Now don't get us wrong -- Internet Explorer 7 isn't awful -- it's just that Firefox is that much better. Particularly attractive is the ability to add new features through extensions, which are small-add ons to Firefox that allow you do do everything from block advertisements to save chunks of Web sites to your Google Notebook.

We've discussed some of our favorite extensions before, but here are some other ones we like: If you use Gmail, then check out Better Gmail from the folks over at Life Hacker. Better Gmail adds a host of new abilities to the Google mail service, including new keyboard shortcuts or even a completely new look. We also like the Remember the Milk extension for adding a to-do list to your Gmail inbox. Also worth checking out (if you're a Windows or OS X user) is PicLens, which turns any photo site -- including Flickr, Google Image Search, or even MySpace -- into an interactive 3D wall of images that makes scrolling and scanning huge numbers of photos easy and fun.