2.1

Raise your hand if you think Instagram makes it almost too easy to share your photos. The hand without the phone! Too late: snapped, sent, and shared. All that remains is for millions of friends to download it. That could happen more easily than you'd think if they have Free Instagram Downloader from iWesoft. This free app makes it easy to download snapshots and other images shared on Instagram. All you need is the user's name.

We installed and opened Free Instagram Downloader, which has a simple and attractive interface that features an Office-style ribbon toolbar with three … Read more

Edifier, which has made a few funky-looking media speaker systems over the years, has now added another aesthetically interesting unit to its lineup: the Prisma, a 2.1 Bluetooth speaker system that just hit the market for $129.99.

Aside from the design, Edifier is highlighting the fact that the Prisma has a 48-watt power rating and its wired remote control is equipped with two auxiliary input ports, plus a headphone jack.

Continue reading about the Edifier Prisma

If you've ever tried to create some "easy" photo effects using a not-so-easy tool, you'll appreciate Easy Photo Effects, a free tool that actually makes it easy to apply cool effects to your digital photos. It handles basic chores like resizing and adding borders and adjusting brightness and contrast, but it also has interesting filters such as sepia, colored grid, and embossed effects. With easy-to-access settings for each individual effect and a prominent Undo button, Easy Photo Effects lets you quickly apply, view, and change effects until you get it right. Easy Photo Effects only handles … Read more

Since Windows is meant to be all things to most people, it leaves room for improvement on many fronts, such as copying files. Copying speed in Windows is mostly determined by your system's resources, but that's the point: by maximizing the copying according to your system's capabilities, it's possible to copy even very large files faster than Windows can. How much faster? Up to eight times faster, according to Easersoft, makers of ExtremeCopy Free, which optimizes copying speed based on your machine's resources. The standard version is free for personal and home use, though a … Read more

We badly need a new way to organize our recipes; they're currently on numerous sheets of paper, crammed into a decrepit binder, waiting for one wrong move to send them spilling across the kitchen floor. Creating a digital recipe archive sounds like a great idea, so we were excited to try Cookbook. The program didn't really knock our oven mitts off, but it's not a bad choice if you're looking to start a recipe database. It also comes with over 900 recipes to get you started.

Cookbook runs on Microsoft Access, so if you don't … Read more

Need an extra reminder for tasks or events? Desktop Alarm Clock from UT Bay is a free Windows utility that instructs your PC to sound an alert at a user-specified time, just like, well, an alarm clock.

The lightweight app needs no installation. Just run it after download and you're ready to go. Setting the alarm couldn't be easier. Pick the alarm sound from any audio file already in your computer or leave a note to yourself regarding the alarm. The small interface can be located anywhere you want it on your screen. You may even opt to … Read more

You know the TV ads for prescription drugs that warn of side effects "including blindness or death?" Something similar can happen when you forget the wrong birthday. That's why Google Calendar is one of the most popular Google Apps: People all over the world rely on it to remind them of those birthdays and events it's unwise and even unhealthy to space out on. Google Calendar Windows Client is a free tool that lets you use Google Calendar without opening Chrome or any other Google application. You still need a Google Account to use it, though.… Read more

It wasn't that long ago that Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, and Onkyo were locked in a fierce competition in the home theater in a box (HTIB) market. Every year I'd report about the latest advances in their systems in my CNET reviews. These days, fewer people want to deal with all of the wires and setup requirements of a five-speaker, subwoofer, receiver, and Blu-ray player based system. Skinny sound bars that sit under a TV are now more popular than HTIB systems. Most sound bars are 2.0- or 2.1-channel stereo systems, though some promise a "virtual&… Read more

Flip Words 2 is an addictive word puzzle that's part seek-and-find, part Wheel of Fortune, and all fun. If you like the challenge of creating words out of random letters and solving riddles, you'll find Flip Words 2 to be totally addictive.

Like all games from Free Ride Games, you will first have to download the game manager, which will then download Flip Words 2. It will also download a variety of other games without your permission unless you stop it. There's plenty of advertising, too; there's a video ad you have to sit through before … Read more