I Love Free Software

Amazon Glacier: Store Files Online for 1 Cent per GB!
Free Multimedia Player with Music Streaming: Cherryplayer
Free Software Updater to keep your PC Up-to-date: Update Detector
Free Image Editor with Collage and Panorama Support: PhotoPad
Free Music Player Designed for Musicians: MPFM
Download Super Mario Free on PC
Use Video As Desktop Background with Desktop Movie
How To Share Files Between Android Phones Wirelessly (Wi-Fi)
Free Website to Analyze System Requirements of Games
Free Online Image Editor to Edit RAW Photos and Images: Fix Picture

Amazon Glacier: Store Files Online for 1 Cent per GB!

Posted: 21 Aug 2012 11:08 PM PDT

Amazon has launched a new service called Amazon Glacier. This is an online file storage and file archival service. Amazon already has Amazon S3 as a popular file hosting service. What separates Amazon Glacier is that it is especially customized for archiving backups and data that you want to store for a long time. Let's say you have some data that you need to store for many months or years, but you will not need to frequently access or download that, then Amazon Glacier is the perfect service for that.

Why would you prefer Amazon Glacier over Amazon S3, or any other online cloud storage service? Because of the price. Amazon Glacier charges as less as 1 cent per GB per month! That's the lowest rate I have seen for online file storage. So, you can store 100 GB of data, and just pay $1 per month! The rates vary by regions.

Do note that Amazon Glacier is not a complete replacement for Amazon S3. It is not intended for quick data retrieval. In fact, if you want to retrieve some data from Amazon Glacier, you will need to submit a job for that, and data will ready for download after 3 to 5 hours! After that, data be available for 24 hours for download. So, you cannot use Amazon Glacier to store files that you need to access frequently. But this is perfect for storing data that you need to store for safety / audit / compliance purposes, and won't need to access for a long time.

This statement on pricing page of Amazon Glacier pretty much summarizes the intent of this service:

Glacier is designed with the expectation that retrievals are infrequent and unusual, and data will be stored for extended periods of time

Amazon also guarantees good safety SLA for data. Your data will be stored in multiple data centers, and on multiple devices within each data center. Here is the SLA that Amazon promises for this service:

Amazon Glacier is designed to provide average annual durability of 99.999999999% for an archive

Amazon Glacier Cost

Amazon Glacier has the basic storage cost starting from $.01 per GB per month. However, there are some other costs also associated with Amazon Glacier, which are structured reduce frequent access to the data. For example, moving data in Amazon Glacier is free, but moving data out of Amazon Glacier costs 12 cents per GB. There is a free limit also on moving data out, and that is capped at 5% of your data stored in Amazon Glacier. Apart from that, another interesting cost that Amazon had associated with Amazon Glacier is early data deletion cost. If you delete data within first 3 months of its storage, you will have to pay a fee. You can see complete pricing details here.

Amazon Glacier Client

At the moment of writing this article, there are no clients available for Amazon Glacier. You can use AWS console to upload and download files to Amazon Glacier. However, the API of Amazon Glacier is quite simple, and first client is expected within this week. Watch out this space for more. Apart from that, Amazon will soon allow moving data from Amazon S3 to Amazon Glacier.

Storage Limits on Amazon Glacier

You can store data from a few bytes up to 40 TB on Amazon Glacier. So, whatever your file size be, Amazon Glacier should work for you.

Amazon Glacier: Store Files Online for 1 Cent per GB! was originally published at I Love Free Software

Free Multimedia Player with Music Streaming: Cherryplayer

Posted: 21 Aug 2012 06:30 PM PDT

Cherryplayer is a free multimedia player which not only has the capabilities of a simple audio and video player but also streams lots of music files from VK.com. In addition it also features a YouTube player so that you can play your favorite videos and even download them. You ought to have this software if you wish to have loads of fun with music.

Installation of this multimedia player

Cherryplayer is a clean software and does not come bundled with any malware or adware. Hence, you can simply follow the installation steps without worrying about any additional and useless software or toolbar being installed in your system. Moreover, it installs quickly.

Also check out free media players reviewed by us.

Interface and key features of Cherryplayer

Cherryplayer has a very impressive and sleek interface. You will find it quite user friendly as the interface is well organized.

As you can see in the snapshot above, the left panel displays the audio files that we have added from the system. You can also drag and drop files to the player directly play them. Cherry player supports most of the formats.
On the right, there is a list of some popular songs on the internet which can be played. All this collection is available to you since Cherryplayer works directly against Last.fm so that you can listen to the best collection.
In addition, Cherryplayer also features an in-built search engine which fetches your favorite songs from VK archive.
Now, suppose you aren't happy with the free streaming, you can even buy the particular song or album by just clicking on it. This is because Cherryplayer is partnered with Amazon.com to make sure that you go for quality.
Cherryplayer also has an interesting feature. Not only you can play YouTube videos but also download them to your system.

Verdict

Cherryplayer has a size of 20.32MB. However, you will truly enjoy the software as it offers a good number of features. If you wish to use it as a simple music player, Cherryplayer works fine or if on the other hand, you wish to use this software for its amazing features, the software is bound to satisfy you.

Free Multimedia Player with Music Streaming: Cherryplayer was originally published at I Love Free Software

Free Software Updater to keep your PC Up-to-date: Update Detector

Posted: 21 Aug 2012 05:00 PM PDT

Update Detector is free software updater developed to inform its users about the latest updates available on the internet. It works for software downloaded from the internet as well as those purchased from vendors. Depending on the updates provided by the software vendors online, Update Detector informs about it to its user. It helps you to keep your PC updated and update installed apps.

Download and Installation

This free software updater is easy and simple to download. Any user who requires this software may go to the host link and click the 'download' option available there. Both the download and installation of the software are quick. When the download completes, the executable (.exe) file needs to be 'run' and the software gets ready to function with the first scan results already displaying on the screen and helps you to update install apps. You can also check out Glarysoft Software Update, Conloco and SUMo reviewed by us.

Features of Update Detector

The method of detecting updates is simple, effective and time-efficient. Whenever Update Detector is run, it scans the computer for all the software installed on it. The information regarding all the software is sent to the host website for checking availability of updates. Any number of updates available for any number of software is then reflected through the detailed options on the main window of Update Detector.

Update Detector allows its users to customise the frequency of scanning. The reception of updates information can be customised according to one's requirements. More importantly, the users can directly access information about several products that they might be using or looking to use. It supports all the operating systems of Windows – Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP.

Functionality and Usage of software updater

Using this free software updater is very easy thanks to the easy to understand and simple to implement interface. The 'Settings' option available at the main window of the software opens another window with three tabs for general customisation, results and interface preference. Under the general tab, users can check the settings according to their preferences so that the software functions only when they want it to. Through the 'Automatic Update' heading, users can choose to receive notification on availability of updates through Update Detector. Software updates will not be interrupted only if the detector is properly updated.

It is preferred to run software like Update Detector when the operating system starts so that users can work without any interruptions. By un-checking this option you will have to run detector by yourself. The third heading allows either exiting Update Detector after use or minimizing it to the system tray.

The second in the settings is the 'Show Results' tab which has two different headings – 'schedule' and 'results'. Under schedule, users can choose to scan with Update Detector at its launch as well as select the frequency of scanning. There are three options for scanning frequency available, viz. 'daily', 'weekly' and 'monthly'.

Users can check 'hide beta version' option under 'results' if they do not want to receive updates of beta launches. There is only language option under the interface tab and that too contains only English as the preferred language for the interface. Once this free software updater finds updates available at the internet, it notifies its users who can 'view information' online and helps you to update installed apps. After this option is clicked, the software opens the appropriate page3 of its source site where all the available updates for software that the user has on his PC are reflected. Important updates can be downloaded through given download options or the source link can also be visited.

Certain software such as anti viruses, media players, etc. need regular update for proper functioning and Update Detector efficiently notifies about those updates. It is more useful for novices who are not aware of the links from where useful software can be updated or, for those who do not have enough time to search updates. It is a pretty handy tool as you need not worry at all to keep a track of the updates you require on your system, this software would inform you as and when there is an update available for your favorite software.

Free Software Updater to keep your PC Up-to-date: Update Detector was originally published at I Love Free Software

Free Image Editor with Collage and Panorama Support: PhotoPad

Posted: 21 Aug 2012 03:30 PM PDT

PhotoPad is a free image editor where, next to the pretty basic image manipulations like adjusting image contrast and color, you can also load images from the scanner, create collages and even panoramas. But small scale image editing is where PhotoPad is the best, you can use it when you’re loading pictures from your camera or even your mobile phone to the computer.

Small welcome window waits for you when you open up PhotoPad for the first time, it can be seen on the image above. There you’re gonna be able to select basic functions, like opening new images, creating collages or loading new images using your scanner, if you happen to have one. Some of the more interesting features offered by this free image editor would be:

Creating image collages and panoramas
Support for layers, each new image effect or edit goes on a new layer
Effects – blur, sharpen, local focus, red eye removal, blemish, border, vignette
Color – auto contrast, levels, tint, negative, sepia, brightness
Importing images from the scanner

Simplest way of how you can start using PhotoPad would be by clicking on the Open new file from the welcome window that we mentioned before. After you do that, you’ll be able to see a very professional looking image editing area, where you can easily make changes to your photos and pictures.

Similar service: PicBackMan, PhotoOnWeb, Imagebox.com.

How to edit images and photos with PhotoPad

From the size of the PhotoPad installer you would have never guessed that this free photo editor has so many image editing tool. With less than a megabyte in size, when you open an image inside PhotoPad, you will be greeted with the following screen:

Majority of tools important for image editing are available in the upper toolbar, the one that’s all the way next to the top window border. On the image above we have the Effects tool tab opened, and you can see that we applied it to the main image at the center of the screen. On the right we also have a new layer added called blur, with a red x standing next to it, which you can use if you don’t like what you’re seeing and would like to remove the effect. Effect properties window can be seen in the lower right corner. That’s how every tool in the PhotoPad operates.

To create image collages, you need to click on the Collage button available in the Home tab, which will then open up the Create collage window where you need to select the size and add images for the collage. After clicking on Create, you should see something similar to what can be seen on the image above, only your image won’t be skewed, we did that using the transform handles which can be seen on the koala image.

Conclusion

PhotoPad is a very small and lightweight application which brings a lot of interested tools. With the Panorama tool you can stitch together several smaller photos so that they make a larger panorama type of photo, the collage tool you’ve already seen in action. Even without these two tools PhotoPad has a lot to offer and everyone should try it out.

Free Image Editor with Collage and Panorama Support: PhotoPad was originally published at I Love Free Software

Free Music Player Designed for Musicians: MPFM

Posted: 21 Aug 2012 02:00 PM PDT

MP4M, or Music Player for Musicians, is a music player that is designed so that musicians can benefit from it. It allows looping and markers so that musicians can practice certain portions of the songs over and over so that they can get it right.

Features of this music player for musicians

Looping- The software allows looping which enables musicians to practice only selected portions of a particular song or an instrumental piece. This is one of the many features that make this player helpful for musicians. But it is not unique by any means, as there were many music players which offered similar options.
Markers- These allow the user to place markers at particular points in the track which can then be looped, or skipped altogether.
Time shifting- This is a very important and useful feature that is provided by this software. This allows the user to slow down the track, or speed it up based on the individual requirements. The track can be played at 50% speed or up to 150%.
Audio format filtering- The application allows filtering of audio files based on their format. This is very helpful in certain cases.
Equalizer- The software features an 18-band professional level equalizer. The user can save frequently used settings as presets, and the difference in quality is very perceptible.

Interface and working

The application has a pleasant interface and is easy to work with. It shows a large amount of data, but doesn't feel cluttered at any time. The information available includes the waveform for the particular track, current position in absolute terms as well as percentage. If the track has an album cover, it is displayed on the top. Metadata is also available, such as guitar tabs and bass tabs. If the song has inbuilt lyrics, they can be displayed as well. The software also allows the user to include new metadata and edit the tags that are available.

Downloading and installation

The software is not very large. It is under 2MB, and is also very light on resources. It can be downloaded off two sources. Downloading is brisk and shouldn't take too long, even with a slow internet connection. The installation process is easy too, and involves a few very simple steps. The necessary resources are checked. If they aren't present, the software asks the user to download them. The libraries are created quickly enough and once installed, the software is good to use. It doesn't require a reboot.

Verdict

The MPFM (Music Player for Musicians) isn't a novel idea by any means, but it is very lightweight and provides features that are available in much more resource-hogging applications and music players. For musicians, there are a few features which can be quite handy. The best part about this application is that it is open-source and will always be free to download and use.

No related posts.

Free Music Player Designed for Musicians: MPFM was originally published at I Love Free Software

Download Super Mario Free on PC

Posted: 21 Aug 2012 12:30 PM PDT

Today we will tell you how can you download Super Mario Free on PC. Super Mario Game is a Popular, Classic TV Video Game, now available for Free Download on your PC. The downloadable avatar of Super Mario that we will talk about is called Mario Forever. It’s a remake of the Super Mario Bros.

So, here’s your chance to relive those old memories. Mario Forever is the latest version of Super Mario Game with a few changes in Graphics and Sound Effects. You can play Mario alternative on Android also.

Once you download Mario Forever, you can get the experience of playing Super Mario on PC. It is completely free, and easy to play. The controls are arrow keys for moving, Z for Jump, and X is for fire and run. I had a lot of fun while playing Super Mario for PC; I am sure you will enjoy it too.

Storyline of Super Mario Game:

Mario is a plumber who is on a mission to save the Princess Peach. Mario has to cross 8 different levels confronting certain monsters and obstacles. In the Final Stage, Super Mario has to defeat the Dragon Koopa to rescue the Princess.

Gameplay of Super Mario for PC:

There are three difficulty levels in this Game. You can collect powers and coins hidden in walls and question mark boxes. Collect coins to increase your number of life's and certain bonuses are also available. You have to kill small bugs, ducks etc. by stamping them or by firing bullets at them. Some stages have hidden levels also through pipes and bricks. The best option in this version is SAVE and Check Point's are available. The game has time limit and that time is sufficient to cross the stage. At the end of every stage you have to jump high on to a flag pole. The higher you jump the more points you get and the remaining time will be added to your score.

You can play in both Window Mode and Full Screen Mode.

I tried this game in Windows 7, but it didn’t work for me initially. So, I followed the following steps to play Super Mario for PC:

Step 1: Right Click on the shortcut icon of the game present on your desktop.

Step 2: Click on the Properties available as the last option.

Step 3: Choose the Compatibility tab (as shown in the screenshot below)

Step 4: Under the Compatibility Mode, Tick Mark the "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" option

Step 5: Choose the Windows XP (Service Pack 2) available in the drop down options.

(These steps work for any game or software that have compatibility problem)

This version has improved Graphics, nice Sound Effects and good Background Music. While playing you are given assistance as to what buttons to press and where the checkpoints are available. You can also check out Contra online.

So, try this new version of Super Mario on PC, Game which is available for Free Download.

Download Mario Forever Free.

Download Super Mario Free on PC was originally published at I Love Free Software

Use Video As Desktop Background with Desktop Movie

Posted: 21 Aug 2012 11:00 AM PDT

Desktop Movie 2.0 is a very simple movie player which is gonna play movies as your desktop background. Majority of us when we are on the computer doing something we rarely focus just one thing, we’re actually doing several things at once, which is called multitasking, that is why we have windows through which we can easily switch. When it comes to watching movies it can be a bit harder to focus on other things, which is why you should play them instead of your desktop background.

Player controls can be seen on the image above, there’s no video window because desktop background is the video window. Player’s gonna work in the system tray, and if you don’t right click on the tray icon to open up the video controls window they won’t be activated at all, because by default they are not showed when you start Desktop Movie video player.

Similar software: DJ Genius, Facebook Video Player, HyPlay.

How to play video as desktop background with Desktop Movie

Desktop Movie is a standalone application which doesn’t require installation. When you download it and run it it’s gonna ask you to open up a video right away. There won’t be any kind of player interface waiting for you, only the browser for file folder. Format support is good, this free desktop video player utilizes directshow for opening video, so all the formats which are supported in other directshow video players out there are also gonna be supported in Desktop Movie as well.

What you see on the image above is Desktop Movie playing in the desktop background, instead of the standard wallpaper which can be found there on practically all the computers of the world. To turn on the video controls window, you’re gonna have to right click on the Desktop Movie tray icon:

Once you do that, you’re gonna notice that next to activating player controls window, you’re also gonna be able to activate a playlist window, where you can import several videos and have them all playing one after another. Useful for those who would like to play their entire video collections inside Desktop Movie player as a desktop background. To activate the player controls window you’re gonna have to click on the Playing Control entry in the tray icon menu. Do the same thing if you’re interested in opening up the playlist window, only select Playlist, and to add videos while you have the Playlist window open, select Add to List and select videos that you’d like to watch.

Conclusion

Desktop Movie can be very useful for all those who would like to play a movie somewhere in the background and only listen to what’s going on, perhaps quickly minimize active windows when something interesting starts happening. That’s basically how majority of people are watching the TV now, just listening, while doing something else, being on the computer, cooking and so on. Using the program isn’t very difficult, although perhaps the player controls menu could be displayed right away, some might not figure out that there’s a tray icon where they can activate it. Download Desktop Movie for free and enjoy video as desktop background.

No related posts.

Use Video As Desktop Background with Desktop Movie was originally published at I Love Free Software

How To Share Files Between Android Phones Wirelessly (Wi-Fi)

Posted: 21 Aug 2012 09:30 AM PDT

Here, is a quick tutorial to share files between Android phone wirelessly (Wi-Fi). We normally share files between two Android phone or two mobile phones via Bluetooth. But now you can wirelessly share files and folders between two Android phones, without using Bluetooth. The files that you can share include any media file, app, or any other file stored on your SD card or in your phone's internal memory.

To perform this task, we will use "Wi-Fi File Transfer for Phone" app. The app lets you transfer files and folders wirelessly between Android phones. The devices are identified with a unique code provided by the app. The app is simple and easy to use on Android.

Steps To Share Files Between Android Phones Wirelessly:

Step 1: Download and install "WiFi File Transfer for Phone" app on both the Android phones from Google Play Store. You can also scan the QR Code below.

Step 2: Connect both the Android phone to same Wi-Fi network.

Step 3: Now launch the app on both the devices.

Step 4: Select the appropriate sharing mode on both the device and assign the command to the devices to receive or share the file. One Android device should be set for sharing the files/folders and other should be set to receive files/folders.

Step 5: Select the files, apps which you want to share. You can also multi-select the files if required. Now tap on share button to start sharing the file.

Step 6: Now enter the unique code provided by the sharing device into the receiving Android device.

Step 7: You will see the file starts transferring on a Wi-Fi connection.

Step 8: Tap on the received file or app to access it on your Android device.

WiFi File Transfer for Phone is a nice Android app which includes sharing mode and manage mode. The app even provides you the network setup option so that you can directly select the Wi-Fi network on which you want to stay connected. The app even provides you the multi-select option in order to send multiple files in one go. This makes your sharing easier and faster.

This process of transferring file is also useful when you have some older version Bluetooth installed on your Android phone. Older version of Bluetooth does not allow you to send multiple files in one go. In those cases, you can install this smart app and enhance your sharing of files.

Check out the post on Android Box app to share files online reviewed by us. Also, check out SPRiiD app for Android to share files and folder reviewed by us

How To Share Files Between Android Phones Wirelessly (Wi-Fi) was originally published at I Love Free Software

Free Website to Analyze System Requirements of Games

Posted: 21 Aug 2012 08:00 AM PDT

Can You Run It is a free web application that helps you to analyze System Requirements of a Game and lets you know whether you can play it on your PC.

Before buying a PC game, you definitely want to know whether it will even run on your system. This website is a good solution for that. This website analyzes your PC for both hardware, as well as software; and tells you whether you can run a game on your PC. The only software which needs to be installed is Java. This will install a ActiveX plugin on your PC to do the analysis, and that can be easily uninstalled later.

Two simple steps to analyze your System Requirements:

Step 1: Search a game by typing its name. In this step you just type the name of the game and the website itself starts suggesting the games which contain the words that are typed into it. If you want to directly find the game then there is a drop down option available below it, where you can find names all the PC games that this website supports.

Step 2: Next step is to just click on “CAN YOU RUN IT?” icon.

After these two simple steps, you will be shown the analysis for the Game or if you don't have JAVA installed on your PC, you will be assisted to install JAVA. After that you will be shown the analysis in two tabs namely Minimum and Recommended as shown below.

The analysis will be based upon different categories like CPU Speed, RAM, OS, Video Card, DirectX Version, Sound Card, Free Disk Space, DVD-ROM etc. The results are simply indicated by “PASS” and “FAIL”. The site may assist you to click for latest drivers, but that is not FREE. For that, you can check out free software to download drivers.

Your PC might meet only Minimum system requirements for some games, but not Recommended, so its up to you to try out the game based on the results. Sometimes even if DVD-ROM is not available then it may say the game doesn't meet minimum requirements but there are alternate solutions for that.

It runs fine on any web browser like Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome and no login or registrations required. Gamers and game lovers can get complete analysis in just seconds.

So, if you are planning to buy that expensive game you were always crazy about, do visit Can you Run it to avoid disappointment down the line.

Free Website to Analyze System Requirements of Games was originally published at I Love Free Software

Free Online Image Editor to Edit RAW Photos and Images: Fix Picture

Posted: 21 Aug 2012 06:30 AM PDT

Fix Picture is a free online image editor and converter where you can upload images, over 400 different formats are supported, including RAW digital camera photos, select either image resize, rotation or effects, and then simply click Convert to receive the download link of the converted and edited image.

Like we said Fix Picture is not a computer application, it’s a website where users can, in just a few easy steps, convert and make corrections to their images. No registration is necessary, all that you have to do is go through all of the image manipulation options which can be seen on the image above, first of which would be image selection. Note that there is a limitation when it comes to image size, selected images cannot be more than 3MB in size. Some of the features offered by Fix Picture are:

Good format support (JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TGA, ICO, ICNS, PDF etc)
RAW formats are also supported (CRW, NEF, RAF, CR2, DNG)
Select 3 different quality settings – for some formats like JPEG and PNG
Image resizing – according to templates or custom windows sizes
Photo rotation – for sideways camera photos
Image effects – automatic levels, contrast, greyscale, sharpen, sepia

Image that you can see above is where all the magic happens, after you’ve loaded image which needs to be edited or converted, you need to go through all the options down below. Options might be hidden from view, but they can be easily activated by clicking on the Options tab, once you do that, you’ll be able to see what can be seen on the screenshot above.

Similar software: Retouch Pilot Pro, RawTherapee, Funny Photo Maker.

How to edit and convert photos with Fix Picture

Image above shows us how easy it is to use this free online photo editor. By clicking on Browse we were presented with the standard image selection window where you can select image that you want to manipulate, only one, this is not a batch converter. Under Output, select the desired output format and quality, after which you can move on to the Options tab. There we decided to resize the image, and also to make automatic changes to color levels and contrast. Once we marked all the images edits which we wanted to apply, the only thing that was left to do was to click on the Convert button.

The entire process of uploading and converting images didn’t take long, and upon completion we were presented with the download link further down the screen, below the image editor. Our image was resized, and color corrections were applied just fine.

Conclusion

Sometimes we find ourselves in situations where we don’t have a photo editor installed on the computer that we’re using, but we need to edit photos and that’s exactly the kind of setup where Fix Picture online image editor can come in to save the day. Open the browser, visit the Fix Picture website, upload your image, select the changes that you want to do and then simply leave this free online image editor to do it’s thing. Once everything is done, just click the download link and grab your converted and edited photos.

Free Online Image Editor to Edit RAW Photos and Images: Fix Picture was originally published at I Love Free Software

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Wednesday, August 22, 2012