Net.Medic - 4/8/2004 A handy freeware diagnostic tool that identifies Internet bottlenecks and problems
Adobe ImageReady - 4/8/2004 Now integrated with Adobe Photoshop, ImageReady originally debuted as the perfect companion to Photoshop for creating & optimizing web graphics
CuteMAP - 4/8/2004 A handy tool for helping you create clickable image maps
Microsoft Internet Mail - 4/8/2004 Microsoft's first generation mail client — included with Internet Explorer 3.0
CuteZip - 4/8/2004 An innovative new compression tool from the developers of CuteFTP
Multimedia Xplorer - 4/8/2004 Multimedia Xplorer is a free one-of-a-kind, all-in-one multimedia viewer. Whereas in the past you would need a separate application in order to view each type of image, sound, movie, icon, etc. file that you download from the web or receive from a friend, now all you need is Multimedia Xplorer.
FTP Icon Connection - 4/8/2004 A FTP client that's all beauty and no brains?
Anzio Lite - 4/8/2004 A solid terminal emulator with extensive connectivity options and SSH support
Quick View Plus - 4/8/2004 A super-deluxe plug-in for viewing and/or printing virtually any type of file
TransSoft Mail Control - 4/8/2004 An Icelandic original, the discontinued TMC offers impressive features like PGP
Agent - 4/8/2004 The powerful, industrial-strength commercial release of Free Agent
Eudora - 4/8/2004 The consummate exemplar of e-mail clients — nothing else comes close
MPEGPlay - 4/8/2004 An extremely dated freeware player for viewing MPEG video files
I-View - 4/8/2004 A full-featured offline HTML browser for royalty-free distribution of docs
Macromedia Fireworks - 4/8/2004 Fireworks is the latest all-in-one Web graphics creation, animation, and optimization tool to hit the 'net. This combination vector and bitmap imaging app especially excels at optimization tasks for GIFs, animated GIFs, JPEGs, and PNGs, but it's also a full-scale graphics creation and manipulation program like Adobe Photoshop. If you're a long-time Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro user, you'll probably find the Fireworks interface a bit difficult to adjust to, but after getting by the relatively short learning curve you'll find that Fireworks isn't lacking in many areas.
Winamp - 4/6/2004 By far the best MP3 audio player on the 'net — and it's free!
McAfee SpamKiller - 3/18/2004 A powerful filter-based anti-spam tool that integrates with McAfee's security suite
CorelDraw Graphics Suite 12 - 3/1/2004 Looking for something between the low power of entry-level graphics packages and the high price of Adobe's Illustrator and Photoshop? Corel refreshes its CorelDraw drawing and page-layout, Photo-Paint image editing, and RAVE Web illustration packages with time-saving object-drawing, -positioning, and previewing tools and handy Microsoft Office export.
TurboTax Premier Home & Business for 2003 Review - 2/17/2004 You say you've got not only Form 1040 but Schedule C hanging over your head? Intuit puts last year's product-activation snafu behind it and pumps up its bestselling TurboTax lineup with four new versions, led by a package optimized for home-based businesses and sole proprietors. SmallBusinessComputing.com editor Patricia Fusco puts it to the test.
TaxCut Premium Home & Business 2003 Review - 2/9/2004 April 15 is getting closer every day, but H&R Block is ready to help -- even if you never go near an H&R Block office. Wayne Kawamoto says this year's version of the company's TaxCut compares favorably to Intuit's TurboTax or any other tax-preparation software, with a higher or friendlier ratio of plain English to nerdy numbers than ever before.
MSN Messenger for Mac OS X - 2/6/2004 Microsoft's instant messaging service for sending free, private messages
Ability Office Review - 1/5/2004 Most Windows users don't need the bulky muscle of Microsoft Office, and we're on record as recommending several alternatives to that super-powered, high-priced suite. Does this $50 entry from the U.K. join OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Works on our short list, or is it too little, too late for anyone who's outgrown, say, Office 95?
Shockwave Flash Player - 1/1/2004 A handy plug-in/ActiveX control for playing Flash multimedia content
QuickBooks 2004 Review - 12/29/2003 When it comes to offering annual upgrades that are hard to pass up, Microsoft could learn a thing or two from Intuit. This year's editions of the leading small-business accounting package offer not only truly useful new features, but industry-specific versions that make QuickBooks even more intuitive.
Cash Compass Review - 12/22/2003 A small-business operator needs a clear vision of the future -- and an even clearer one of the present as far as cash flow is concerned. SmallBusinessComputing.com's Wayne Kawamoto says the makers of Business Plan Pro have filled a gap in accounting software, providing easy, complete analysis of how your company (and your competitors) are doing today and likely to do tomorrow.
Adobe Acrobat Reader - 12/22/2003 A useful plug-in/ActiveX control for viewing inline Acrobat PDF files
Norton Internet Security 2004 Review - 12/15/2003 For several years, Symantec's antivirus, firewall, online-privacy, and smut- and ad-blocking bundle has been an Internet user's best friend — and this year's edition adds stronger spam relief to its germ-, worm-, and hacker-stopping toolkit. But could a couple of bumps in the road steer Norton loyalists toward alternatives?
InterVideo Home Theater Mimics Microsoft's Media Center Experience - 12/15/2003 DVD playback software leader InterVideo combines its WinDVD engine with a Windows Media Center-style personal video recorder and digital image and music browsing, organizing, and enjoying -- all from the comfort of your couch, thanks to an included remote control.
FileMaker Urges Excel Addicts To Try a Real Database - 12/15/2003 Microsoft Excel is the ace of spreadsheets -- but it's still a spreadsheet, so its flexibility suffers when you try to pour contacts, products, or other non-numeric info into its number-crunching columns. That plus a $50 rebate are the arguments FileMaker hopes will persuade Excel jockeys to consider managing data with, well, a database.
