1.4

Awhile ago I said all HDMI cables are basically created equal, regardless of price. That's about to change.

HDMI Licensing, the body responsible for licensing the High-Definition Multimedia Interface specification (widely known as HDMI) announced Wednesday the features that will be incorporated in the upcoming HDMI 1.4 specification.

Among other advancements, the latest HDMI specification will offer networking capabilities with Ethernet connectivity and will add an Audio Return Channel to enable upstream audio connections via the HDMI cable.

According to HDMI Licensing, the detailed HDMI specification 1.4 will be available for download on its Web site no … Read more

Expense Tracker does just what its name suggests and lets you record all of your personal and business expenses. As long as you're not looking for any type of synchronization functionality, it's a very easy-to-use tool for managing your finances.

We were happy to find that the program is password-protected. The user interface is as simple as it gets, and we needed no guidance whatsoever to get started. Prominent icons on the left side of the window let you quickly access your accounts, transactions, and payees. Adding new accounts was as simple as clicking the Add button and … Read more

As you might expect from its name, this encryption program hides and encrypts important files. It performed well once we applied our administrator settings, but it came with one of the stingiest trial periods we've ever seen.

Lock and Hide Folder has a very basic user interface that proved simple to navigate. Large menu buttons at the top of the window make it easy to add, remove, hide, and show important files. The program uses 256-bit Blowfish encryption to keep your folders safely protected. It's not password-protected when you first access it, so you'll have to go … Read more

Pop-up advertisements and banners have evolved into more than just simple annoyances. In many cases these complicated advertisements slow down performance and many times clicking on these links could give your computer a virus. BFilter is here to protect your system, but does it do too good a job?

This free program downloads easily and hides in the bottom right-hand tray of your screen. In our tests, the program operated as advertised. Its filtering software ensures that pop-ups never create a window that could be dangerous to click. In addition, banners that change graphics are left as just a blank … Read more

This completely customizable clock lets you dress up its clock face with your own pictures. Though it took us a little time to load our picture, we found it a fun alternative to the staid system clock.

Custom Skin Clock appears on your desktop as a plain, analog clock with directions to right-click to add an image. Doing so introduces a menu that lets you adjust the clock's size and transparency. You can also choose to keep the clock on top of whatever you're working on at the moment. The Customize Clock option introduces a new interface that … Read more

This handy Firefox add-on lets you quickly download your favorite FLV files as you browse the Web, but we would have liked some way to use this toolbar's wasted space.

Clipta Toolbar with Downloader introduces a slim toolbar to your Firefox browser that makes it easy to quickly browse and download videos at the same time, but there's still too much wasted space for our tastes. The toolbar houses a search field that uses Clipta's own search capabilities, a button that displays featured videos, and another button that shows the number of videos captured during a single … Read more

Although its name might hint at broader functionality, Icon Remover performs the single function of removing the Safely Remove Hardware icon from the taskbar.

Icon Remover sports a very basic interface suited to its very basic functionality. Two command buttons--one for showing the taskbar icon and one for removing the same icon--are all it holds. You don't even have to close the program to see your actions take place. The Safely Remove Hardware icon was removed and restored as soon as the appropriate button was clicked.

The program is simple, to the point, and performs as promised. It also … Read more

Thanks to its easy-to-use interface, this free file compression tool makes it a snap to unzip files.

The Extractor opens with a panel-style interface that is clear-cut enough for all users to understand. We especially liked the drag-and-drop functionality that let us quickly add ZIP and RAR files. We also like that the user specifies the output file. Once we clicked Go, the program instantly unzipped our file and placed the contents into our designated output folder. Our favorite feature was the Preset option that let us assign a preset task for each output folder after unzipping the file. The … Read more

The iTunes App Store is glutted with to-do lists and time managers, but many are so simple they're ineffective. Appigo's Todo is the highest cost of its cohort, but is also more complete than the budget offerings. Unlike other to-do lists, you can have Todo assign a due date and priority ranking; it will winningly associate tasks with mobile numbers and Web sites. You can further synchronize your lists with your pro Remember the Milk account and with Toodledo, both Web-based task organizers. Now if only Apple would let Todo take the extra leap and let loose with … Read more