5.0

Losing a disk partition can really make your day. It can happen in lots of ways, including viruses, bad software, and operator error. EaseUs Partition Recovery is a free tool that can recover and restore lost or damaged partitions in many cases. It can recover partitions on most hard disks, including IDE, ATA, SATA, and SCSI drives and FAT, NTFS, and EXT formats, for both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows. It recovers MBR and GPT partitions, too.

EaseUs Partition Recovery's wizard-based interface serves the dual purpose of making the tool very easy to use and of reducing the chance of … Read more

UltraDefrag is a free, open-source file defragmentation utility for Windows. It can defragment any system file, including the Registry. It's fast and powerful by design, in part because it skips fancy data optimization strategies in favor of speed and reliability. UltraDefrag Portable is a fully portable, fully functional release based on UltraDefrag's source code. It has three operating modes: a GUI mode, with a standard user interface; a console mode; and a native mode for advanced users. We tried the GUI mode, in part because we like to see a cluster map when we defrag our drives.

You'… Read more

Most Windows users are familiar with the Disk Defragmenter utility -- or, at least, they should be. Defragmenting your hard drive can improve your computer's performance by making sure that files are all stored in one spot on the disk. There are plenty of alternatives to the built-in Windows defragmenter, including UltraDefrag (32-bit). This program comes with a defragmenter and other optimization tools that can ensure that your computer is performing as it should.

UltraDefrag has a simple interface that will look familiar to anyone who's used this kind of software before. We clicked the Analyze button, and … Read more

If you get bored with your desktop wallpaper but don't have the time to be perpetually seeking out new images to start your day with, the answer may be as simple as My Daily Wallpaper, a free app from My Portable Software that downloads, installs, and rotates desktop wallpaper images in a wide range of categories offering something for everyone. You can tell it to only download images of a certain size or larger, how often to download new images and change the wallpaper, and start with Windows. You can browse through groups of random images, too.

My Daily … Read more

Early this morning Foursquare rolled out a massive update, including both visual updates along with some great new features. One of which is the capability to easily discover and follow brand Pages. Up until now, there wasn't a streamlined method to follow a brand's Page when using the mobile app. 

Following a brand's page provides Foursquare users with the added benefit of seeing tips and check-ins from a particular brand. There's another incentive for following a Page -- badges.

Some badges can only be unlocked by following a Page and checking into a specific venue. … Read more

Temporary files tend to become permanent residents of your system, unless you clean them out regularly. Many cleaners miss some of the out-of-the-way places temporary files are cached, though. Nodesoft's EraseTemp is a simple, portable tool that scans your PC for temporary files and folders and deletes anything older than one day as well as old dump files. It ignores necessary files in temporary directories that might cause programs or your system to misbehave if you delete them. It requires .NET Framework.

EraseTemp's user interface is a plain dialog with a log view and basic menu bar. The … Read more

Just about anyone who uses a computer knows how useful the clipboard can be, but it's not hard to become frustrated by its limitations. Wouldn't it be great to be able to access previously cut and copied items, not just the most recent one? There are plenty of programs that let you do exactly that, and Clipboard Magic is one of them. This easy-to-use tool keeps all of your clipboard items handy and easily accessible, and it's a great choice for anyone who frequently moves text between documents or wants an easy way to save important information.… Read more

Taiwan's Digitimes is at it again, and this time, the publication says it knows when Android 5.0 (Jelly Bean) will launch.

The online publication says it has talked to Taiwan-based supply chain vendors who claim Google is planning to launch Android 5.0 at some point in the second quarter. The operating system will be optimized for tablets, Digitimes' sources say.

However, it is Digitimes' claim that vendors will be able to add Android 5.0 to a Windows 8-based tablet or notebook, allowing users to switch between the operating systems without a reboot, that's getting the … Read more

While Amazon's 5.0.3 software update for the Kindle Touch may seem relatively minor on the surface, it may help put to rest some complaints about the generally zippiness of the device compared with its non-touch sibling, which Amazon simply calls the Kindle.

Amazon has quietly released the update without making any reference to what it exactly it fixes. "This update features general software improvements for Kindle Touch," the update page reads.

Some users also were upset that Kindle Touch couldn't switch into landscape mode (yes, the non-touch Kindle can do that). That doesn't … Read more