2.1

Watermarking helps secure your images and documents from unauthorized use and theft. TSR Watermarking Image Software Portable is a totally portable version of TSR's basic watermarking package. It's free for individuals, but commercial users must buy a license when their 30-day trial expires. Since it's totally portable, it can run from a USB drive, compact flash drive, and similar media. That makes it a great choice for on-the-go photographers since it can watermark images from any compatible PC.

TSR Watermarking's user interface is businesslike, with few frills, if any. Three tabs handle the program's functions: … Read more

So, Mr. Bond, you think you have won because you have our hard drives! Your Q Branch experts will never be able to recover the data! SPECTRE wipes its data with Files Terminator, a freely available computer program; freely obtained, Mr. Bond, from the Internet!

James Bond immediately came to mind when we downloaded and opened Files Terminator and clicked the Method Deletion menu button. This free utility securely deletes files and folders using a list of algorithms that reads like a confrontation at Checkpoint Charlie: British HGM IS5, Russian GOST P50739-95, US DoD 5220.22-M(E), German VSITR, Canadian … Read more

There are photo-editing programs available to match every skill set, whether you just need to rotate and resize your images or you have some serious correcting to do. PixBuilder Studio falls somewhere in the middle, with an uncomplicated interface that holds a surprisingly comprehensive set of features. Although PixBuilder Studio isn't going to replace any of the big-name photo-editing programs, it might be just the thing for serious amateurs and even some professionals.

The program's interface is familiar and intuitive, with menus across the top, a toolbar down the left side, and a set of panels down the … Read more

Energy's Power EM-2.1 plug-and-play desktop speaker system is remarkably compact.

How tiny is it? The EM-2.1's gloss-black 4.25-inch-by-2.25-inch-by-2.75-inch satellite speakers come mated with a satin black 4.5-inch-by-5.25-inch-by-5.75 inch subwoofer. Connectivity is as basic as it gets, there's just one 3.5mm input jack, and the sub has stereo RCA outputs that drive the satellites. Build quality is inline with my expectations for a $100 package.

The EM-2.1 system promises 80-Hertz-to-20-kHz frequency response, but those numbers sound a little optimistic as far as the bass goes. A power-house system, … Read more

Genie Timeline Free is designed to back up the stuff you want it to save and make it easy to retrieve it. It archives desktop files and folders, My Documents, e-mail, bookmarks, videos, music, pictures, Office files, and financial files. It's intended to be a set-and-forget solution for safeguarding your system. However, the freeware disables the critical Disaster Recovery feature that lets you recover your system after a disk failure or formatting. BlackBerry and iPhone/iPad/iPod also require a paid upgrade.

During its installation process, Genie Timeline asked for our full name and e-mail address, stating plainly that … Read more

I admit it. I enjoy a good firmware upgrade.

There's nothing like a software fix to make you feel better about your device, especially if it adds new features while eliminating bugs. But not every firmware upgrade is good. Sometimes things go horribly wrong. Which is what happened recently when I updated Jawbone's little Jambox Bluetooth speaker to version 2.0.

The update gave me something called LiveAudio, a "technological breakthrough" that would let me experience my music, games, video "like never before"--as if I was, "on stage, in the action, hearing it live." Furthermore, this immersive, three-dimensional listening experience brought "incredible depth, detail, and unprecedented spatial realism to everything from mp3s to special binaural recordings."

Based on the promo material, I expected a lot; I wanted in on the 2.0 LiveAudio action. Wanted it bad. … Read more

At first, 360Amigo System Speedup Free seemed to be of the more-tease-than-tool school of free system cleaners, and certainly its developers would like you to buy their premium package. But the free tool proved to be a good performer that will help many users keep their PCs running smooth and safe.

As with so many freeware versions of premium system utilities, 360Amigo's interface is stylish and heavy on the graphics and captions that explain what each feature does. The program consists of a system cleaner and a system optimizer, with a number of extra utilities, though some of the … Read more

One of the first things that any new Windows user learns is Control-Alt-Delete, the keyboard shortcut that brings up the Windows Task Manager and allows users to quit unresponsive programs and processes. The Task Manager is good for more than that, though; it can also provide valuable information about what's using up your memory or bandwidth. Auslogics Task Manager is a variation that provides even more information than the native Windows application. It's similar enough to be understood by non-expert users, but geekier sorts will find it useful as well.

Auslogics Task Manager has an attractive interface, with … Read more

Advanced Registry Clear is a free tool that scans the Windows Registry for invalid, leftover, and junk entries and cleans them out when you tell it to. It's designed to be easy enough for beginners and infrequent PC users yet provides enough information about the files it targets for advanced users to choose which files to clean and which to leave. However, as with many such tools, the "free" part only goes so far.

Advanced Registry Clear's colorful, easy-to-navigate interface is fairly typical of free system cleaners based on premium products, with a large Scan button … Read more