www.fsbsoftware.com

Best Free Alternatives to Windows Media Player

admin — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Windows Media Player is a solid piece of software for music and videos that comes installed on every personal computer with the Windows operating system. While Windows Media Player is able to perform most tasks, there are still a few better alternatives for people looking for a more enhanced experience.

The top alternative to Windows Media Player would have to be Wondershare Player. It features a much more stylish and attractive design to go along with a few extra features. Wondershare Player can play just about every possible video file on your computer instantly, and you can even take a picture at any moment of your videos.

The other main alternative to Windows Media Player is VCL Media Player. The biggest draw to VCL Media Player is that it is accessible to a variety of different computer operating systems, unlike the other options. VCL Media Player will also attempt to fix any damaged video files that you have stored on your computer. While it is not going to be successful every time, it is nice option to have available.

RealPlayer is another free media player, but it does not offer the extra features found on VCL Media Player and Wondershare Player.

FREE! With a Catch…

admin — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Say you’re sitting at home using your http://www.satelliteinternetbroadband.com/hug when a tempting offer comes up – free _____! That’s all well and good but if it means you’ve got to install endless toolbars and reset your homepage it may not be a deal after all. Here are the worst offenders
Free E-Cards: People fall victim to the trap of taking forever to choose an e-card, spending time writing a message and then being asked just before it’s sent to install a toolbar. Deceptive? Yes, effective? Also yes.
Weather Apps: WeatherBug is one of the worst offenders but there are others so beware. They’ll ask you to install a toolbar to get free weather alerts – you’re better off just going to weather.com each time you need to check the conditions in your area.
Adobe: Acrobat is a necessary evil if you’ve got a PC but that doesn’t mean you have to be a slave to update after update. Remove yourself from the product update list and keep only the newest version of Reader that you need – you should only feel the need to update every 3 or 4 times they come out.

Ten Free Essential Add-ons For Chrome

admin — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Chrome is an excellent browser that provides a lot of useful add-ons to help make surfing the web a lot easier! Check out 10 of the most essential and free add-ons.

1.)For all the sports fans, there’s an app called the Sports Scoreboard that allows you to follow results from NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and the NCAA.

2.) If you want to have a little bit of fun and take a break from your work, there’s a Pacman Classic Arcade game.

3.) Chromed Bird is another excellent add-on just for people that use Twitter frequently. It makes tweeting a lot easier.

4.) Bit.ly is a great site for shortening your long URL links. Whether you are on Twitter, Facebook, or sending an e-mail, it creates less characters.

5.) For those that like to mess around with photos, Flickr has an add-on with keyboard shortcuts, lightbox for previews, and many more features!

6.) If you use Gmail, there’s an add on that checks your e-mail more speedily. This is also the case for those that use Google Plus as it shows your notifications on there as well.

7.) Are you a movie buff? Well, the Flixster add-on allows you to see release dates of DVDs, movie showings in theaters, and movie reviews without having to open another browser tab.

8.) Adblock is also an essential add-on. This helps with your speed of traveling to different pages as well as blocking ads.

9.) YouTube Downloader – it’s an excellent way to download videos right from the YouTube page onto your PC. If you have a favorite video, this is your add-on.

10.) Lastly, is the Google Chrome Dual View. For those that work on projects and use widescreen monitors, this is a great add-on to help get your tasks done more efficiently.

Free Alternative Download Managers for Firefox

admin — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Firefox’s add-on support makes the browser perfect for anybody unhappy with the performance of features that come preloaded. Download managers are among the more common downloads among those who use Firefox add-ons and they offer many features based on the one you choose. Here are the two most well-known managers, and best of all, they’re free!

DownThemAll
Powerful and easy to use, DownThemAll is completed integrated into Firefox and adds a number of features. Download multiple files with one click, downloading images off of a webpage with ease, autonaming of files and the use of directories so download stay organized. DownThemAll also optimizes download speed by splitting into pieces and claims to increase speeds by up to 400.

FlashGot
Does some of what DownThemAll does but allows for greater control in what is downloaded. Allows easy downloading of multiple files, increases download speeds. FlashGot also specializes in downloading FLV files (YouTube and many other streaming websites) a breeze. If you plan on downloading single, massive files and worry about your downloads failing, FlashGot is a good option. It’s often able to salvage a download if your connection dies mid way. FlashGot works in conjunction with DownThemAll; using them together proves very successful/

Free Add-ons That Run on Multiple Browsers

www.fsbsoftware.com — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

It isn’t unusual for me to use three different browser in my usual day. Between my computers at home, at work, and my laptop I need ways to keep all three connected so that I’m not redoing any work. The most important thing to me is to keep the information I want easily available to me across all machines and browsers. Three add-ons that I really enjoy are Xmarks, Evernote, and Dropbox.

Xmarks is a server-based add-on that saves your bookmarks to a server. Want more? Click here.

By having it installed on all the browsers you use it synchronizes your bookmarks every time you add or remove a bookmark. So if I find a recipe online during my lunch break I can bookmark it and pull it up on my browser at home.

Second is Evernote. Evernote acts more like a catalog of sites and attachments that I can categorize. Think of it as Xmarks but with content instead of websites.

Lastly is Dropbox. I fidget with my family’s budget a lot. Every time I get a bill I adjust it to make sure everything makes sense financially. By having my budget spreadsheet in Dropbox I can get access to it from any computer.

With these three add-ons installed on all my machines I find that I have a single browsing experience and not three fragmented ones.

The Best Video Plugins for Chrome

admin — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Google Chrome is highly regarded for its extensions and plugins, which allow it to be customized to the needs of the browser. Chrome offers many extensions for anything a person needs; if you find yourself wanting more from Chrome in terms of video plugins, here are a few of my favorites.

Easy YouTube Video Downloader
With one easy click, this add-on allows the downloading of YouTube videos in FLV, MP3, 3GP, MP4 and even in 720p and 1080p HD resolution.

iTube
Adds several features to YouTube. Functionality for using space as pause, options for those with very small monitors that allow the video to fit better, auto replay, and automatically setting videos to HD.

Illimitux
If you watch videos from several different streaming sites this is for you. It bypasses Megavideo’s daily video limit as well as other similar sites. It also adds divx/avi playback functionality. In addition, users with this extension can host and share content.

Turn Off the Lights
A neat plugin that allows a website to be dimmed so as to watch a video like in theaters. Simply press T to dim or un-dim the screen. Supports not just video but some imaging sites such as Picasa. Very customizable.

Firefox Plugins to Improve Browser Speed

admin — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

If you’ve been using Firefox as a standalone browser, boy are you missing out. The numerous add-ons available and the vast customization options offered by Mozilla transform Firefox from a good browser to a great one. For speeding up Firefox, here are a few that everybody needs to have:

Adblock Plus
Simply put, it blocks ads. Not just pop-up ads, but banner ads. The ads that blink, ones that want to sell you a free Ipod, those egging you into playing a game, all of them. It even blocks Youtube video ads. It must, however, be used sparingly.You can find a quick rundown here Some websites will not allow it to be used and force it to be turned off. It can be disabled on a specific sites with a simple click, so it should not be a problem.

NoScript
Everybody who has ever received adware or a virus from a webpage should get this one immediately. Those malicious scripts that launch in a browser causing all kinds of problems are prevented by this simple add-on. Any unneeded scripts on a webpage are killed immediately, increasing both your security and the speed at which Firefox will browse.

Firefox Lite
This simple little add-on allows the tweaking of various settings within Firefox. Simple tweaks can go a long way and it gave my own Firefox a small boost.