Download Squad http://downloadsquad.switched.com Download Squad. http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/downloadsquad.switched.com/media/feedlogo.gif Download Squad http://downloadsquad.switched.com prods@weblogsinc.com (Weblogs, Inc. Producers) support@weblogsinc.com (Weblogs, Inc. Web Support) en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. View our terms of service here: http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/ Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/ <![CDATA[Rewind, play, rewind, play: AudioLobe makes transcription easier]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/19/rewind-play-rewind-play-audiolobe-makes-transcription-easier/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/19/rewind-play-rewind-play-audiolobe-makes-transcription-easier/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/19/rewind-play-rewind-play-audiolobe-makes-transcription-easier/#comments If you ever tried your hand at transcribing audio to text you're probably familiar with rewinding and playing back passages over and over again. What if you could slow down that audio file without altering the pitch to make it easier for you? Well if you're a Mac users, you're in luck as JS8 Media has developed a handy utility able to alter the speed of audio files without effecting it's pitch.

AudioLobe 3 is a light weight application that you can use to speed up or slow down your audio files. All that you need to change the speed of the audio is to move a slider back and forth. No programing or entering percentages. Just drag a slider from left (slower) to right (faster).

If you're working on a difficult passage you can set AudioLobe to loop that region and it will continue to play it back till you're done. This feature comes in very handy since it loops the section for playback so you won't need to press the rewind button over and over again allow you to concentrate on what is being said.

In our testing we found the audio quality very acceptable as the altered file still had a natural sound to it. We also appreciated the included Bass and Treble controls as that helped us focus on the speaking voice by dialing in the correct amount of low and high frequencies.

You can download a demo version of AudioLobe directly from JS8 Media. A full version is available for $20 and supports the saving of the altered file so that you play it back later without having to adjust the speed again.

So if you've been looking for a way to slow down voice dictations so that you can transcribe easier AudioLobe might be the software for you.

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Rewind, play, rewind, play: AudioLobe makes transcription easier originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> audiocommercialdictationtranscription Joey Celis Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Speckly: The torrent search engine]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/18/speckly-the-torrent-search-engine/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/18/speckly-the-torrent-search-engine/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/18/speckly-the-torrent-search-engine/#comments With torrents hiding in all corners of the 'net finding what you want can be difficult. Sure you could go to all the sites that host torrent files one by one or you could use Speckly and search all of them in one shot.

Speckly takes what you're looking for and searches most of the popular torrent sites for you. Speckly further breaks down your search results into categories to help narrow down your results.

In our test we searched for the very popular Linux distro Ubuntu which returned 312 matches. From this Speckly also listed that 198 matches were for the software, 39 for books and 2 for movies. Un-categorized results were listed as others.

Speckly results also lets you know how many" complete sources" (seeders) have the file as well as how long the file has bee online. This all helps in determining the success of retrieving what you are looking for.

All in all Speckly is a great option if you know what you want but don't want to spend the time hoping from one site to the next looking for it.

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Speckly: The torrent search engine originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> bittorrentp2psearch Joey Celis Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Draw your way to the Grammys with HighC]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/18/draw-your-way-to-the-grammys-with-highc/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/18/draw-your-way-to-the-grammys-with-highc/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/18/draw-your-way-to-the-grammys-with-highc/#comments It can takes a lifetime of schooling and practicing to learn how to write music. But why do you have to write music the traditional way? Is there really a need to learn the theory behind music? Maybe it's time to start drawing music.

With HighC, you won't need any formal music training to write your first piece. All you need is a mouse and the ability to drag it across the screen.

Of course when we tested it we had dreams of creating something that would ride Billboards Top 10. Unfortunately, it turns out that what we created sounded like a twisting knobs on an analog synth at the beach and nothing like the next club hit.

No matter how hard we tried, everything we made sounded a bit more atmospheric than anything danceable. But HighC never claimed that it would make dance music and is probably used for more for the creation of sound textures.

So if you're into musical experimentation give HighC a try but if you're sights are set on winning a Grammy better get back to that theory class you skipped out on.

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Draw your way to the Grammys with HighC originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> audiomusic Joey Celis Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Watching videos your way with iSofa]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/17/watching-videos-your-way/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/17/watching-videos-your-way/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/17/watching-videos-your-way/#comments Digital and satellite TV stations have given us so many channels to choose from it's sometimes difficult to decided on what to watch. And with the availability of shows on the Internet that decisions has become even harder. What if you could just type in what you felt like watching, maybe something romantic or some dancing and a list of videos that fit your criteria all came to you ready for viewing. If you like the idea of watching videos this way then iSofa may be what you've been waiting for.

In order to use iSofa, simply type in a search string and iSofa will bring back videos that matches your search and displays them in a heads up display type interface. From there you can just let them play in order or pick and choose what videos you want to watch.

The site is clearly in beta as some options only have graphic placeholders instead of actual functions. Also video quality is poor when you have your browser scaled larger than a post-it note, so we wouldn't even recommend you try the full screen option at this time.

Despite the negatives, we really like the idea behind the site and hope that in future versions iSofa increases the video quality as well as include an option to save favorites videos.

So far we like what we've seen and iSofa just might have something here.

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Watching videos your way with iSofa originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> IPTVvideoyoutube Joey Celis Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[iPhone app review: Mocha VNC Lite]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/17/iphone-app-review-mocha-vnc-lite/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/17/iphone-app-review-mocha-vnc-lite/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/17/iphone-app-review-mocha-vnc-lite/#comments VNC allows you to remotely manage one computer from another. But the thing is, you usually have to be at another computer to do this.

MochaSoft has just released a Mocha VNC Lite a VNC client for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch allowing you to control another computer all from your finger tips. We tested VNC Lite with a Mac Mini and an iPhone and after enabling remote management on the Mac connecting with the iPhone was a breeze.

The app supports both portrait and wide screen modes as well as the zoom in and out gestures. Along the bottom edge you have buttons for the on screen keyboard, options and to enable/disable mouse clicks.

Screen refresh on the iPhone was a bit slow but adequate but because the iPhone/iPod Touch sole input device is your finger it was hard to do any meaningful task.

Generally, when you're using remote management software like VNC you're using a keyboard an a mouse. Without these devices, trying to administer a computer with one finger proved to be slow and awkward.

VNC Lite is a great application, but we couldn't recommend it for any type of serious administrative task.

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iPhone app review: Mocha VNC Lite originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> app storeAppStoreiphoneipod touchIpodTouchitunesvnc Joey Celis Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Access Mac drives from Windows]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/17/access-mac-drives-from-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/17/access-mac-drives-from-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/17/access-mac-drives-from-windows/#comments Reading and writing to a Mac formatted drive from Windows couldn't be any easier than selecting the samba file sharing option in Leopard. This works great if you have 2 physical computers but what if you only have a Mac running Boot Camp? Since Leopard isn't running getting to that document on the Mac partition from Windows would be difficult unless you installed MacDrive.

Once installed, Windows Explorer is able to mount the Mac drives right along side your standard Windows formatted drives. You are free to access them like any other drive.

If you're worried that you may accidentally delete files off your Mac partition just tick the option to mount the drives in "read only" mode, thus preventing any accidents. MacDrive's options can be access by double clicking it's icon in the system tray. But once you have tailored it to your work flow you'll rarely have a need to access the options.

In our testing we found no noticeable performance drops while accessing standard office documents and music files. And even if there were any drops in performance, the benefit of being able to access files created on the Mac partition from within Windows more than makes up for it.

So if you have your Mac set to dual boot you may want to consider MacDrive in order to swap your documents back and forth.

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Access Mac drives from Windows originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> harddriveos xOsXutilitiesvistawindowsxp Joey Celis Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Hear it loud and clear]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/16/hear-it-loud-and-clear/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/16/hear-it-loud-and-clear/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/16/hear-it-loud-and-clear/#comments The built in speakers that come with Apple's notebooks are fine for most basic audio tasks. And if you want better sound you could hook up a set of external speakers. But external speakers aren't always an option and that shouldn't mean that you have to give up on better sound. With Hear, you can add some slick audio processing to make your notebook speakers sound bigger than what they really are.

Hear uses digital signal processing (DSP) to shape the audio coming from your applications (iTunes or DVD player) giving them a much needed boost in equalization and reverb allowing your music or movie to sound its best with the notebook speakers.

To make things easy, Hear has packaged a variety of presents to get you going. If you're the tweaking type, you can adjust the knobs and faders till you get the sound you're after.

In our testing we found the processing fine for most audio content and really enjoyed the phantom center channel option giving a weighted anchor to all the movies we watched.

Hear isn't only for your built in speakers, it also works great with headphones or external speakers. But if all you have is the notebook built in speakers, Hear will definitely make them sound better.

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Hear it loud and clear originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> audiocommercialdigital signal proce...DigitalSignalProce...dspitunes Joey Celis Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Add sound effects to your next project]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/16/add-sound-effects-to-your-next-project/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/16/add-sound-effects-to-your-next-project/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/16/add-sound-effects-to-your-next-project/#comments If you're a web designer or someone that deals with audio or video, you know how important having the right sound effect is to your production. Sound effects should be given the same amount of thought and care as the other parts of your project. But if you're not in the business of sound, where do you go? You go to soundsnap.

Soundsnap is all about high quality, member created sound effects. With effects ranging from animals to transportation, you're bound to find something that will complement your own creation.

Using soundsnap is easy, either type in a search term or browse via the categories on the front page. Soundsnap also lets you audition the files prior to downloading. Sound effects are available in either mp3, wav or aiff audio formats to fit your production needs.

According to soundsnap, most of the members creating sound effects are either industry professionals or hobbyist. This may explain why we found most of the samples of high quality.

So if you're looking for that effect that will put your production ahead of the rest you may want to check out soundsnap.

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Add sound effects to your next project originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> audiodesignsound effectsSoundEffects Joey Celis Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Find TV shows with TED]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/16/find-tv-shows-with-ted/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/16/find-tv-shows-with-ted/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/16/find-tv-shows-with-ted/#comments More and more TV shows are finding their way online in the form of torrent files. The question is how do you find them? And once you do, how do you keep downloading them? That's where torrent episode downloader, TED for short, comes in.

TED isn't another bit-torrent application. Actually you can't even download a single show with TED. Think of TED as the go to guy between you and your torrent software. You tell TED what shows you want to download and TED will scour the Internet for it and will pass on this information to your torrent application to do the rest of the work.

In addition to single downloads, you can also configure TED to download complete seasons so that once you have determined what show you want downloaded, TED will keep a look out for new episodes.

For the bandwidth conscious crowd TED will also give a brief synopsis of the show so you can determine if its worth the download or not.

Granted there are torrent applications available that have features similar to TED built in, but if you favorite torrent application lacks this then you might want to consider using TED as well.

*Disclaimer: you shouldn't download copyrighted material unless you have permission from the copyright holder to do so.

[via gHacks]

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Find TV shows with TED originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> bittorrentp2ptorrent Joey Celis Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Double check your next CD]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/16/double-check-your-next-cd/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/16/double-check-your-next-cd/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/16/double-check-your-next-cd/#comments Have you ever created a bunch of CDs to give out to friends and family only to receive some back because they didn't work? Of course they worked since the other ones you sent out were fine. It must be them! But you wouldn't want to start a family feud over a burnt CD so you graciously make another copy. The next time you decide to burn stuff you should double check your work with FileCheckMD5.

So how will FileCheckMD5 help you out? Well part of this is understanding what MD5 is. In the most basic of terms MD5 insures that the copy you made is the same as the source. Often MD5 are used to double check software downloads on the Internet.

Brandon Staggs, creator of FileCheckMD5, developed an application that can recursively scan all the files and folders in your project and create a MD5 file that you can burn onto your CDs. That way, before you start sending out those disc you can double check if all the data made it intact. You can even burn the application along with your files to have the receiver check the integrity of the disc on their end.

Sure you could always just verify that your CDs were burned correctly using the built in checker that came with your burning software but asking your friends to check to make sure the MD5 hash matches sounds much more technical.

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Double check your next CD originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> md5utilitieswindows Joey Celis Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Relax with binaural beats]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/14/relax-with-binaural-beats/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/14/relax-with-binaural-beats/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/14/relax-with-binaural-beats/#comments Some say that the use of ambient sounds can help you focus before a test or help you sleep better at night. We're not sure if this is true or not but a cottage industry has emerged in the belief that it does.

We previously reviewed I-Doser which offers their sounds via CD or software for a fee. But it seems that the developers of I Dose believed in the science so much that they are offering their services for free.

Binaural Beats, as I Dose calls it, simulate various states of mind. We tried the Coffee break beat and following I Dose's recommendation we sat down, put on our headphones and closed our eyes and listened.

I Dose claims that the coffee break beat is to be used in place of a cup of coffee. What we heard was a bunch of ocean waves and at the end still wanted a cup of java. It could be that their definition of a coffee break differs than our overly caffeinated one.

While there are only about 11 beats currently available at the site compared to I-Doser's larger library, I-Dose's selection is more than capable of covering a wide range of moods and mental states. So if you want to give soothing sounds a try without paying for it or if white noise isn't your thing give I-Dose a chance.

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Relax with binaural beats originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> audiomeditationrelaxation Joey Celis Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Get help making tiled backgrounds for your website]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/13/get-help-making-tiled-backgrounds-for-your-website/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/13/get-help-making-tiled-backgrounds-for-your-website/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/13/get-help-making-tiled-backgrounds-for-your-website/#comments If you ever wanted to make a tiled background pattern for your desktop or website but lacked the design expertise to create one, bgpatterns has you covered.

The site is very straight forward and easy to use. Start off by selecting the foreground and background color for your design, followed by the texture of your canvas. Once you have that dialed in you're ready for the next step which is selecting the image you want tiled.

After you've selected your image click the "apply background" link and the site's background will change so you can see if you like your design. If you're satisfied with the results you're free to download it or save it to your "My patterns" account.

While bgpatterns offers a number of stock images, it does lacks the option to upload your own custom image. Hopefully the developers will add this option in the future as the selection of images are rather "clip artish".

So if you've been looking at making a skull themed background for your MySpace page bgpatterns is ready for you!

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Get help making tiled backgrounds for your website originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 13 Jul 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> backgroundimageswebsite designWebsiteDesign Joey Celis Sun, 13 Jul 2008 14:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[See your del.icio.us bookmarks in a new way]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/13/see-your-del-icio-us-bookmarks-in-a-new-way/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/13/see-your-del-icio-us-bookmarks-in-a-new-way/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/13/see-your-del-icio-us-bookmarks-in-a-new-way/#comments Favthumbs takes a visual approach to your del.icio.us bookmarks. Instead of the usual text based links found on the Del.icio.us web site, Favthumbs displays image thumbnails of your bookmarks giving them a Web 2.0 look and feel.

No setup is required to use Favthumbs, simply enter in your del.icio.us user name and Favthumbs will generate thumbnails of all your bookmarks in either a grid or carousel (think cover flow) layout. You can further narrow down your bookmarks by clicking on your tags to the right of the screen.

We found that it took a bit longer to display our bookmarks on Favthumbs than using del.icio.us directly. This delay may be the result of Favthumbs fetching the images. But if thumbnails are your thing then you might want to give Favthumbs a try.

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See your del.icio.us bookmarks in a new way originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 13 Jul 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> bookmarksdel.icio.usweb2.0 Joey Celis Sun, 13 Jul 2008 10:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Get the party started with your own mixes.]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/12/get-the-party-started-with-your-own-mixes/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/12/get-the-party-started-with-your-own-mixes/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/12/get-the-party-started-with-your-own-mixes/#comments MixMeisterIf you ever made a music mix on your computer you know there are many ways to go about it. There are applications that simulate turntables giving you that analog feel or those that draw out waveforms so you can align the songs the way you want them to be played back. But one common aspect between these types of applications are that you really have to pay attention to the tempo to get them synced together.

We're not gonna pretend here, it's not easy to get different songs mixed together. So when we heard about MixMeister and it's automated mixes we were intrigued.

After selecting the songs you would like in your set, MixMeister will automatically determine the tempo as well as the key the song is in. From there, arrange your songs in the order you would like them played as well as their mix points.

Now here is the best part of the program, MixMeister will automatically sync the tempos of the 2 songs together so that when the mix occurs the beats are matched up seamlessly. MixMeister will also handle the fading from one song to the next and what you end up with is a perfect mix each and every time. We were absolutely floored when we heard our mixes as each song was perfectly synced up to one another.

MixMeister comes in several different versions ranging in prices of $50 - 400 and is available for both Windows and Mac operating systems. Unfortunately, the $50 Express version is only offered in Windows format. Those with Macs will have to spring for the $200 version.

[Thanks, Koan]

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Get the party started with your own mixes. originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 12 Jul 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> audiocommercialdjmixingmp3 Joey Celis Sat, 12 Jul 2008 14:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[MixMeister lets you get your scratch on with an iPhone]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/11/mixmeister-lets-you-get-your-scratch-on-with-an-iphone/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/11/mixmeister-lets-you-get-your-scratch-on-with-an-iphone/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/11/mixmeister-lets-you-get-your-scratch-on-with-an-iphone/#comments The team at MixMeister wasted no time developing a scratch app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The MixMeister Scratch allows you to scratch anywhere and anytime you feel the need to.

The app comes with audio clips that you can scratch to by sliding your finger back and forth on the vinyl portion of the screen. We found the scratching fairly responsive but lacks the feel of an actual record (for obvious reasons).

If anything this is just an app to have fun with. Sounds are realistic and should impress your friends as you pretend to be the next DMC world champion.

MixMeister Scratch is free and available now at the iTunes App Store.

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MixMeister lets you get your scratch on with an iPhone originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> audiodjfreewareiphoneitunes Joey Celis Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[VirtualDJ - mixing music with your eyes]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/10/virtualdj-mixing-music-with-your-eyes/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/10/virtualdj-mixing-music-with-your-eyes/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/10/virtualdj-mixing-music-with-your-eyes/#comments VirtualDJ is one of many mixing applications out on the market today. But what separates it from the rest is that it combines some nice features to help beginners as well as pros get the most out of their mix.

The greatest feature we like about VirtualDJ is that it displays the actual waveform of the music. This allows you to see the musical beats, giving the user greater accuracy when mixing two songs together. Also you can see breaks in the music, which gives you some key points to where you might want to mix in another song.

In addition, VirtualDJ also tries to figure out the tempo of each song and gives you indicators along the bottom edge of the waveform that act like visual aids to help you mix. And if you just can't get both songs playing in tempo, it also provides you with a sync button that will stretch the new song to fit the tempo of the current song.

We did notice that the accuracy of the tempo matching feature depends largely in part to the type of music. Your standard disco style beat gives more accurate results than one with more a more complicated drum pattern as it tend to throw off the system.

Other notable features include a built in sampler so that you can make loops on the fly, audio effects, scratching via the virtual turntables and cue points. These cue points are saved to a VirtualDJ file, so that each time you load up a specific song you can go directly to the cue point saving time in locating certain parts in the music.

VirtualDJ is available for both Windows and Mac operating systems and should be seriously consider for those wanting to dabble in electronic mixing.

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VirtualDJ - mixing music with your eyes originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> commercialdjmixingmusic Joey Celis Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Guilty conscious? It's ok i4Giveu.]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/10/guilty-conscious-its-ok-i4giveu/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/10/guilty-conscious-its-ok-i4giveu/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/10/guilty-conscious-its-ok-i4giveu/#comments Ever did something that you wish you could take back? Maybe you snuck out of the convenience store without paying for that pack of gum or never returned that past due library book. Whatever the case maybe, why not voice it to the world and get it off your chest with i4Giveu.

i4Giveu is not just a sounding board, its members judge your confessions, rate them and ultimately decide if your confession is worthy of forgiveness. Of course, you too can dish out a bowl of moral soup if you're feeling a bit high and mighty.

Oh, Internet... is there anything you can't do?

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Guilty conscious? It's ok i4Giveu. originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> funsocialweb2.0 Joey Celis Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Become a sushi chef - Time Waster]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/10/become-a-sushi-chef-time-waster/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/10/become-a-sushi-chef-time-waster/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/10/become-a-sushi-chef-time-waster/#comments The road to becoming a sushi chef is a long and hard one. Over 10 years are spent learning this culinary art form. From proper handling of the fish to mastering the intricate knife work, the dedication required is truly amazing. But if you're not sure that the profession is right for you why not fill in as a sushi chef for a week at Sushi Go Round.

Like any good sushi chef your goal is to keep your patrons happy by preparing their orders correctly and timely. When a customer places an order consult your recipe book, create it and send the dish down the conveyor belt. If you don't follow the recipe correctly your end product will be a turd of a dish, so no improvising here.

In addition, you'll have to also play executive chef keeping tabs on inventory, ordering when supplies are low. And if you're not careful, you may end up with no ingredients to make your dishes. In order to keep your customers happy you can certainly offer them some sake while you pay extra to have your deliveries rushed.

As you progress further into the week your menu expands and your daily goal increases. But remember a sushi chef is rooted in honor and tradition so keep your skills as sharp as your knives and press forward!

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Become a sushi chef - Time Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> flashflash gamesFlashGamessushitimewasters Joey Celis Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Give those home movies a makeover]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/10/give-those-home-movies-a-makeover/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/10/give-those-home-movies-a-makeover/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/10/give-those-home-movies-a-makeover/#comments Video camera equipped mobile phones are great simply because you're more likely to have it on you than a traditional video camera. The only downside is that the quality of the recording is anything but stellar. That's probably the reason why the people at MotionDSP created fixmymovie.

We're not going pretend to understand the technology behind the service but what we can tell you is that their technology does work. All you need to do is send them your video in one of 3 ways: upload to their website, email or directly from your phone via MMS. From there, fixmymovie will analyze your video attempting to clean up as much as possible and produce a video that will look a lot better than the original.

Once completed, fixmymovie will display it on your My Movies tab on the site as well as email you a link to the video. You can then share this with your friends and family members or download a copy directly to your computer.

The downloadable video comes in 2 versions: free and premium. Free downloads are limited to 640x480 and are watermarked with the fixmymoive logo. Premium downloads cost $2 and are up-scaled to 4x times the original resolution and are logo free.

We would suggest that you try out the free service first before purchasing the premium download and inspect the processed video and if you like the final results spring for the premium service!

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Give those home movies a makeover originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> videoweb2.0 Joey Celis Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[It's all bubble talk]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/09/its-all-bubble-talk/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/09/its-all-bubble-talk/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/09/its-all-bubble-talk/#comments Speech bubbles are great way to add commentary to pictures. To do this just fire up a graphic program like Photoshop, import your photo, make a new layer, select a shape, draw a shape, create another layer, select the text tool, type what you want, move it around and then save it. In the mean time, that fantastic comment that you wanted to share has gone passé. Of course you could have avoided all this nonsense by using Kyolo.

Kyolo has just one purpose in life, to place speech bubbles on your pictures. There are no layers or strokes here, just upload your photo, choose from 3 different speech bubbles and type away. It couldn't be any simpler.

But for those wanting just a little more control over their bubbles you can certainly rotate the bubbles and increase or decrease the font sizing.

Once you are happy with your artistic creation you can choose to save the photo locally or email it off to your friends to spread a little sunshine to their otherwise dreary day.

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It's all bubble talk originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> bubblegraphicgraphicsphotos Joey Celis Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Waste more time on Twitter with Twitscoop]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/09/waste-more-time-on-twitter-with-twitscoop/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/09/waste-more-time-on-twitter-with-twitscoop/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/09/waste-more-time-on-twitter-with-twitscoop/#comments Twitter is a vast network of individuals posting about all sorts of different things. Take for instance this very second, members are posting about cupcakes, the military, Ferrari, mobileme, the Olympics and much more. But these topics change so quickly you would be mad if you tried to keep up with them yourself. Thankfully, Twitscoop has automated this process so that you can continue to sit in front of your computer staring endlessly at other people conversation.

Twitscoop works by monitoring all the publicly available tweets out there and measures the frequency of the words used. The more mentions of a subject the more popular it must be.

Twitscoop then places them in alphabetical order in a Tag Cloud, the more popular the word the larger it is compared to the rest in the cloud. Mouse over the tag to find out who is talking about what, click on the tag and it will take you to a graph that will display the frequency of the topic along with the users. With all of this information available, you'll be one well informed Twitter!

In our time with using the site we only had one gripe with it, the lack to sort the cloud via the size of the tag. This is only a minor complaint really but something that should be added for those of us out there that like a little order in our lives.

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Waste more time on Twitter with Twitscoop originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> microbloggingsocialnetworkingtwitter Joey Celis Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[The end is near, let others know via email]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/09/the-end-is-near-let-others-know-via-email/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/09/the-end-is-near-let-others-know-via-email/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/09/the-end-is-near-let-others-know-via-email/#comments Everything has gone electronic these days, from banking to health records everything is online and the only thing keeping this information away from unauthorized users is the cryptic password that you came up with. But what if you were pass away one day? Will your family members know your password to get into your accounts to sort out your affairs? Sure they could enlist the help of Oda Mae Brown and a ouija board but sending them an email from Death Switch may be easier.

After creating an account with Death Switch, you simply fill out your message of what you would like sent to others after your demise. And when you pass, this email will be sent to those you have specified. Grim but straight forward.

In order for Death Switch to send out the email after your passing, it will send you messages from time to time to which you will need to respond back verifying that you are still with the living. If you fail to respond back to this message after several attempts, the service will assume that you have expired and your message will be sent.

While we can see the logic behind this, one has to wonder if a will with instructions on how to handle your estate would be a bit more tactful than freaking everyone out with an email out from the dead.

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The end is near, let others know via email originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> deathemail Joey Celis Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Reunite with your long lost partition]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/09/reunite-with-your-long-lost-partition/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/09/reunite-with-your-long-lost-partition/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/09/reunite-with-your-long-lost-partition/#comments "Disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter" is a message most feared while booting up a computer. It could mean a number of things from a loose cable to something as serious as your partition being deleted. A loose cable is a simple fix but if your hard drive's partition is lost you just may have to call in the big boys who specialize in data recovery.

But before you pick up that phone you might want to try your hand at recovering the data yourself using widely available programs like Partition Find and Mount.

Partition Find and Mount searches your hard drive for lost or deleted partitions using 3 different scanning methods: Fast, Normal and Thorough. Each scan has their merits and should be tried in the order listed to recovery your partition. Once Partition Find and Mount locates the partition it will assign it a drive letter and mount the drive in read-only mode preventing further damage to the data. From there you can access the drive in Windows Explorer to recover your data.

Of course you will need a bootable computer to use the software. So if your only hard drive on your only computer has failed you'll need to give a friend a call to borrow their computer.

Partition Find and Mount comes in 2 varieties: Free and Pro. Both versions are nearly identical with the difference being that the free version is limited to data transfers of 512 KBytes/s while the Pro version has no speed limit imposed. Because DIY data recovery has many variables you may just want to see if the free version works for you.

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Reunite with your long lost partition originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> partition recoveryPartitionRecoverytoolswindows Joey Celis Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[What's keeping you? What's keeping me?]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/08/whats-keeping-you-whats-keeping-me/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/08/whats-keeping-you-whats-keeping-me/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/08/whats-keeping-you-whats-keeping-me/#comments It's no secret that we install a lot of programs here at Download Squad to review. And when the review is over most of them get un-installed. For the our Mac apps, it's just a matter of dragging the application to the trash as well as the associated preference files. But some of the programs we review are utilities that run in the background so when it comes time to emptying the trash, we'll get an dialog box warning us that the file is currently in use. So we'll have to track down the file and make sure that it is no longer running before we can completely delete it. Tracking down these files is time consuming but programs like What's Keeping Me help to make it as painless as possible.

Simply put, when you're given the warning that a file can not be deleted enter the name in What's Keeping Me and it will search your computer for the file/application. Once it does you'll have 1 of 3 options to chose from: Quit, Relaunch or Kill. Since we're more interested in deleting the file, the Kill button will do just nicely freeing up the file so that it can be properly deleted.

While you can certainly use Activity Monitor to kill the offending application as well, those not familiar with it or those just wanting a more streamlined way of killing the application for deletion may find What's Keeping Me more helpful.

What's keeping me is a universal binary application and works on both PPC and Intel based Macs running OS X 10.4 or higher.

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What's keeping you? What's keeping me? originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> freewareosxtask managementTaskManagement Joey Celis Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Sending attachments is just a right click away - gAttach!]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/08/sending-attachments-is-just-a-right-click-away-gattach/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/08/sending-attachments-is-just-a-right-click-away-gattach/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/08/sending-attachments-is-just-a-right-click-away-gattach/#comments If you ever used the "E-mail this file" or "Send To Mail Recipient" link in Windows you know what a great convenience this is. Select the file and an email is automatically created with the attachment. All that's left to do is fill out the To field and send the file, the only downside is that you must use a desktop mail client like Outlook Express. This leaves people who only use web based email services out in the cold... unless you're a Gmail user.

Developed by Chris Wood, gAttach! changes the functions of these built in links so that instead of Outlook Express gAttach! will launch Internet Explorer, create a new email and attach the file and have it ready and waiting for you. In addition gAttach! also works from within applications like Microsoft Office, Firefox and Adobe Reader to further streamline your emailing needs by selecting the File > Sent To option on your tool bar.

So if you're a Gmail user wanting more integration with your desktop gAttach! just might make your life easier.


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Sending attachments is just a right click away - gAttach! originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> emailfreewaregmailwindows Joey Celis Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Your very own personal assistant]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/08/your-very-own-personal-assistant/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/08/your-very-own-personal-assistant/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/08/your-very-own-personal-assistant/#comments Having a personal assistant is great. If you need a cup of tea, your dry cleaning done or someone to walk the dog simply send your personal assistant out to do those things. If you lack the finances to retain the services of a personal assistant you can get one for free from macscheduler.

Unfortunately, Scheduler for Mac will not get get you a cup of tea or any of the other stuff that a real live personal assistant would do because after all Scheduler for Mac is a program on a computer. But what it can do is automate.

Unlike other basic schedulers that just present you with a dialog box letting you know that you should start on those sales charts now, Scheduler for Mac will actually open up your spreadsheet application as well as the document ready for your review. Scheduler for Mac has incorporated a very easy to use automation process along side the standard scheduling options. When setting up a new task, select the file or application you want open and when the time comes Scheduler for Mac will handle the rest.

Aside from the usual office documents you can also schedule websites to open (think eBay), assign custom audio files to act as audio alerts and customize the visual aspect of the alerts as well.

So while Scheduler for Mac will never take the place of a real live personal assistant, at least your reports will be completed on time.

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Your very own personal assistant originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> automationgetting things doneGettingThingsDonegtdproductivity Joey Celis Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Graphita - the non-complicated online image editor.]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/07/graphita-the-non-complicated-online-image-editor/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/07/graphita-the-non-complicated-online-image-editor/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/07/graphita-the-non-complicated-online-image-editor/#comments Unlike most online photo editing sites, Graphita doesn't give you ways to adjust the levels, white and black balance or saturation. Instead Graphita gives you stamps to "fun up" your photos. We were scratching our head at first as well. Why on earth would you not include the most basic tools for editing a photo? But the answer became apparent as we delved deeper into the site.

On most online photo sites your project ends pretty much the same way with you either downloading the photo or sharing it online. But Graphita did something different, by also letting you put your photos on mugs, mouse pads, shirts and a whole lot of other things that will either clutter up your home or your friends.

By teaming up with QOOP, the transition from one service to the next is fairly transparent. Once you're done placing witty captions or "slippery when wet" signs on your picture, simply select the Order Prints button and your image will be taken to the QOOP site where you can paste it on basically anything they carry.

So instead of trying to be a serious tool for photo editing, Graphita takes a more lighthearted approach. Upload a photo, add a caption or two and send it off to be printed... as a luggage tag.

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Graphita - the non-complicated online image editor. originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> designgreeting-cardsphotos Joey Celis Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Get an interesting view with TiltViewer]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/07/get-an-interesting-view-with-tiltviewer/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/07/get-an-interesting-view-with-tiltviewer/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/07/get-an-interesting-view-with-tiltviewer/#comments Tiltviewer is a very slick way to present your photos online. Generally photos are presented in a slide show presentation where photos are displayed one after the other. But unlike a typical slide show Tiltviewer presents your photos in an almost 3D like grid allowing people the freedom to glide around your photos.

In order to use Tiltviewer you will have to download the code and place it on your website. But once properly configured it gives your photos a very modern interface and backdrop. You can zoom into each photo, move around a 3D like space and even click on each photo for more information about it.

We wouldn't recommend Tiltviewer to everyone because of the installation process. But if you are pretty good a following directions and know your way around a few lines of code then you should definitely give Titlviewer a try.

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Get an interesting view with TiltViewer originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 07 Jul 2008 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> photosslideshow Joey Celis Mon, 07 Jul 2008 11:30:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Mobile carriers worst nightmare has come true, thanks to Qik]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/07/mobile-carriers-worst-nightmare-has-come-true-thanks-to-qik/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/07/mobile-carriers-worst-nightmare-has-come-true-thanks-to-qik/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/07/mobile-carriers-worst-nightmare-has-come-true-thanks-to-qik/#comments Live video streaming from your mobile phone is probably a mobile carrier worst nightmare simply because the amount of bandwidth video consumes. And leading that nightmare is Qik.

Simply put, Qik takes your mobile phone's built in video camera and transforms it into a webcam that connects to the Qik site where it will host live feeds of your video, as it happens. That's right, people can now watch you make a fool of yourself anywhere you go.

We were able to test the Qik service on our 3G connected Windows Mobile phone. The installation was quick and only required a few SMS messages be sent back and forth to authorize our account. Once configured just launch the application and your video will automatically appear on the Qik website. Video quality is acceptable and we only experienced slight delays due in part to our mobile connection and location.

Once you end your transmission the live video is then archived to the site for later viewing. Of course like any good site, they offer 2 different privacy settings for your feeds, public and private. At least this way not everyone in the world can see that you haven't cleaned up your room.

Currently in alpha, Qik supports a handful of Windows Mobile and Symbian phones with iPhone testing starting soon. We hope that future updates to the service will also include the ability to adjust video size and image quality. They do recommend an unlimited data plan and in the few days that we used the service we would also recommend it as well.

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Mobile carriers worst nightmare has come true, thanks to Qik originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> iphonemobilemobile videomobilephoneMobileVideosymbianwindows mobileWindowsMobile Joey Celis Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:30:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[This message will self-destruct in five seconds]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/04/this-message-will-self-destruct-in-five-seconds/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/04/this-message-will-self-destruct-in-five-seconds/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/04/this-message-will-self-destruct-in-five-seconds/#comments Imagine receiving an email and as soon as you've read it, the message burst into flames leaving no trace of its existence. Wouldn't you like that same type of power? Well now you can, minus the whole burst into flame thing with Privnote.

Simply type in your message on the website and Privnote note will generate a link that you can send to your operative. The link can only be used once, so if your contact wasn't able to retrieve the message you've got some security issues. But all is not loss since Privnote will display the IP address of the person that clicked the link.... traceroute anyone?

We doubt that you would actually want to send company sensitive information this way but we got to admit the whole "self destructing" message thing is pretty neat.

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This message will self-destruct in five seconds originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> email Joey Celis Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Socialize your next trip with tripwolf]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/03/socialize-your-next-trip-with-tripwolf/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/03/socialize-your-next-trip-with-tripwolf/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/03/socialize-your-next-trip-with-tripwolf/#comments Planning a vacation always starts with one thing... where to go. You could always ask a friend or a family member for their suggestions but then you would be only limited to where they've been. Tripwolf hopes to change that with there social travel website.

There are different ways you can use the site, if you already have an idea of where you would like to go enter it in the search box and Tripwolf will display the location along with places of interest, photos, videos and reviews by members of the site.

But the strongest feature of the site are the Trip Gurus. The trip gurus are self-proclaimed experts in their chosen areas of travel. Simply ask them a question and most will respond back with helpful suggestions.

So if you're thinking of planing a trip you might want to see what Tripwolf has to offer.

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Socialize your next trip with tripwolf originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> socialnetworkingtravel Joey Celis Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Let people know where you're at with byNotes]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/03/let-people-know-where-youre-at-with-bynotes/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/03/let-people-know-where-youre-at-with-bynotes/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/03/let-people-know-where-youre-at-with-bynotes/#comments Mirco-blogging is a great way to let people know what you're up to that very instant. But what if you could let your followers know where your post originated from. That may have been the very thing running through the minds of the people behind byNotes.

On the surface byNotes operates like any other micro-blogging site but in addition to sending messages you can also specify where in the world you are via Google Maps.

Now we know what you're thinking, stalker tool right? Post a message of "I'm at this really nice cafe posted at 123 Anystreet, Anytown" could lead to a lot of unwanted attention. Thankfully byNotes has put into place restriction levels so that based on the access level you have established, people can either know the exact location, a general location like the country or some where in between.

The only downside to this service is that you must be in front of a computer to use it as byNotes doesn't appear to have a mobile version available.

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Let people know where you're at with byNotes originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> blogginggeotagging Joey Celis Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[On the go reservations with OpenTable mobile]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/03/on-the-go-reservations-with-opentable-mobile/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/03/on-the-go-reservations-with-opentable-mobile/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/03/on-the-go-reservations-with-opentable-mobile/#comments OpenTable is a great way to make a reservation at a restaurant without having to speak to anyone. Their website is easy to use thanks in part to the drop down menus. So when it was time for OpenTable to release their mobile site we're glad they kept to the same, easy to use interface.

We tested the mobile site on Pocket Internet Explorer, Skyfire and iPhone's Safari and had no problems using the site on any of these browsers.

The mobile version is very straight forward. Pick a city, a restaurant, a date and time to make your reservation. And while it's quick and to the point the mobile version lacks any type of reviews or recommendations if you need a little help choosing a place to eat.

What would make this service even better would be the integration with sites like Yelp. Read a review of a restaurant and if it interest you, click on an OpenTable link to make the reservation right on the spot.

Still, given the lack of any reviews or recommended of places to try, the site is still a fun way to make a reservation while on the go.

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On the go reservations with OpenTable mobile originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> iphonemobilewindows mobileWindowsMobile Joey Celis Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Rember the memory checker]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/02/rember-the-memory-checker/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/02/rember-the-memory-checker/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/02/rember-the-memory-checker/#comments Contrary to marketing hype, Macs do crash and when they do you'll need to do some basic troubleshooting to determine the reason why.

If it appears to be a hardware problem, one thing you may want to remember is, well, Rember.

Rember is a front end GUI for Memtest and while you can certainly run Memtest in Terminal, Rember's GUI version makes it much easier to use.

The interface is broken up into 3 main parts:

  • How much memory you want tested
  • The number of times you want to run the test
  • Preferences

Once you decided on the amount of ram and the number of loops let Rember do the rest. Once completed, review the logs to determine if your RAM is the reason why your Mac is crashing.

Keep in mind that Rember is a GUI app that runs on top of your OS so some of your RAM will be in use and will not be available for testing. Think of it has a small trade off for not having to deal with the Memtest switches.

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Rember the memory checker originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> freewaremacintoshtoolsutilities Joey Celis Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Do you know what your hard drive has been up to?]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/02/do-you-know-what-your-hard-drive-has-been-up-to/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/02/do-you-know-what-your-hard-drive-has-been-up-to/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/02/do-you-know-what-your-hard-drive-has-been-up-to/#comments Knowing the status of your hard drive is a great way to prepare for problems that may potentially arise. And thank to CrystalDiskInfo obtaining this information from your hard drive couldn't be any easier.

CrystalDisk will gather data from your hard drive and will let you know its current temperature, the number of power cycles and even the number of hours the drive has been on. All this information comes in handy when trying to determine the root of a system crash or data failure, especially when you're dealing with an older drive in a crowded system case where cooling may not be optimal.

In our testing, the program was very easy to use and recognized our drive right away. Fortunately for us, we had no issues but if we did, we had no doubt that CrystalDisk would alert us to the problem so that appropriate steps could be taken.

CrystalDisk is a free application available for Windows and is a bit of a must have tool in diagnosing hard drive errors.

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Do you know what your hard drive has been up to? originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> freewareharddriveutilitieswindows Joey Celis Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[The ancient art of paper folding with a modern twist]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/02/the-ancient-art-of-paper-folding-with-a-modern-twist/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/02/the-ancient-art-of-paper-folding-with-a-modern-twist/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/02/the-ancient-art-of-paper-folding-with-a-modern-twist/#comments Origami is the art of folding paper to create beautiful sculptures of animals or objects. No glue or scissors are used at all, only folds on the paper itself. It goes without saying that it can take years to master the art of origami. But instant-origami has developed some clever ways to shorten the learning curve.

Using the power of video, instant-origami gives you a birds eye view of some very modern techniques to this ancient form of paper folding. Here you'll be able to view and create some of the most breathtaking paper sculptures like an octopus, a frog or even the mythical dragon.

We followed the instructions on the site and were very impressed with our own results as they came very close to the one on the video.

So if you've always wanted to try your hand at origami, check out some modern techniques over at instant-origami.

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The ancient art of paper folding with a modern twist originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> funfunnyorigamivideo Joey Celis Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:30:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Windows XP goes bye bye]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/01/windows-xp-goes-bye-bye/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/01/windows-xp-goes-bye-bye/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/01/windows-xp-goes-bye-bye/#comments July 1 will go down in history as the day that major PC manufactures can no longer sell Windows XP preinstalled. This news hasn't gone unnoticed; InfoWorld created a petition to save the aging OS.

The question is why?

Truth of the matter is that there are millions of reasons why one would want to stay with XP just like there are good reasons to upgrade to Vista. Each of them have their merits and it would be pointless to try to disprove any one of them.

But what's going to happen when its time to get another computer and the only option is Vista? Is the lack of an XP option enough to sway you to Ubuntu or OS X? According to Microsoft sales of Vista have reached 140 million copies world wide so it doesn't appear that most computer buyers mind upgrading to Vista.

But for those die hard XP users out there what are you going to do? The Grim Reaper has come for your OS.

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Windows XP goes bye bye originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> vistawindows xpWindowsXp Joey Celis Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:30:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[The power of PowerPoint in a flash movie]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/01/the-power-of-powerpoint-in-a-flash-movie/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/01/the-power-of-powerpoint-in-a-flash-movie/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/01/the-power-of-powerpoint-in-a-flash-movie/#comments Ever created a PowerPoint that everyone in your organization wanted a copy of? Sure you could go ahead and clog up your corporate email server with the 200MB + file or you could just convert your PowerPoint to a smaller flash file with iSpring and publish it to an internal or external website (slideboom account required) for others to view.

Converting your PowerPoint presentation to a flash movie couldn't be any easier as the iSpring installation puts the conversion buttons right in your PowerPoint menu bar. In addition to the one click conversion iSpring also allows for some customization such as generating HTML codes, looped and automatic playback, slide advance via mouse click as well as changing the duration of the slide.

iSpring comes in 3 flavors ranging from the free version which we tested on up to the Ultra version which allows the creation of E-learning content to additional playback controls. In our testing we found the free version more than adequate for most PowerPoint presentations.

So before you send that PowerPoint thru your company email, try converting it with iSpring instead.

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The power of PowerPoint in a flash movie originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> commercialflashfreewarepowerpoint Joey Celis Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Optically challenged computers rejoice!]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/01/optically-challenged-computers-rejoice/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/01/optically-challenged-computers-rejoice/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/01/optically-challenged-computers-rejoice/#comments Virtual drive software isn't new, but with the recent surge of ultra portable notebooks that do not have built in optical drives this is a good time to go over one of the free emulation software out there, Slysoft's Virtual CloneDrive.

For those that may not know, a virtual drive emulates a physical drive, in this case an optical drive. This way you can mount a disc image and use it as if a physical disc was inserted into an actual drive.

CloneDrive gives you the ability to mount up to 8 virtual drives at once. Simply right click the virtual drive under My Computer and select the image you would like to mount or just double click the image file itself.

One nice feature of CloneDrive is that it also shows a history of what's been mounted before making it easy to swap out images without the need to browse your computer.

Keep in mind that you will need to convert your CD/DVD to an image format before using CloneDrive. But once you have, loading programs are only a mouse click away.

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Optically challenged computers rejoice! originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> emulationfreewarevirtual Joey Celis Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Picjuice - another online imaging software]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/06/30/picjuice-another-online-imaging-software/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/06/30/picjuice-another-online-imaging-software/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/06/30/picjuice-another-online-imaging-software/#comments Web based image editors have been popping up for some time now. Even the de facto image editor Photoshop couldn't resist setting up shop. But sometimes you just want to simply resize or crop a photo and not be inadated with a multitude of tools and swatches. Enter picjuice, an online image editor with simplicity in mind.

As soon as you pull up the site it's clear that "ease of use" was the main objective here. The only tools available are Crop, Resize, Flip, Rotate and Adjust.

The controls for each tools are simple as well, depending on the tool selected you either get an A or B option, a slider or in the case of the Crop tool, a cross hair to select the area you want to use. These simple controls will aid in a shorter learning curve over the more feature rich sites.

In our testing we actually found the resizing tool here better than the one available from Photoshop Express. In Express, the resized image looked jagged but not in picjuice . However, the site seemed to be only compatible with JPG or PNG files as when we tried a GIF file picjuice would hang when we tried to edit the image.

Currently in beta, picjuice joins the already crowded online imaging arena. Hopefully, its limited get down to business attitude will help to differentiate itself from the competition.

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Picjuice - another online imaging software originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> image editingImageEditingphotosweb2.0 Joey Celis Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:00:00 EST Download Squad