tools

Daemon Tools Lite is a free tool that lets you create and burn simple disk images and add up to four virtual DVD drives to your system. These drives work just like a physical optical drive, only you don't have to keep shoving disks in and out of the tray. You can store your DVD and CD content on your hard disk and access the data quickly.

Daemon Tools Lite has significant advantages over many similar tools. For instance, it doesn't use a proprietary container format, which makes it widely compatible and gives you more options when burning … Read more

Twitter has made it easier to find its millions of users on search engines by launching a new "Profiles Directory" tool.

The directory lists all user accounts alphabetically and includes profiles with numbers and non-Latin character names.

Twitter did not formally announce its new directory but instead quietly debuted the feature on the bottom of its homepage. "We launched this a few weeks ago," a Twitter spokesperson told CNET, "to help people find the accounts they're looking for with various search engines."

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week readers wrote in with questions on PDF files appearing black in Safari, whether one can copy the password tools from the OS X installer drives to a working OS X volume, iTunes not reading discs it just burned, and how to tackle a system always going into hibernation instead of sleep mode. We welcome views from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: Black PDF files in Safari MacFixIt reader … Read more

Tor stands for The Onion Router. Imagine each layer of an onion is a server. That's essentially how Tor lets you surf the Web safely and anonymously, and with no creepy Web ads that have obviously been tracking you. The trouble with Tor is the trouble with onions: they can be overwhelming. ThankSoft's Mask Surf Pro makes it easy to use the Tor network yet offers advanced features like the capability to choose which host country to emulate. Developers can use it to test how their tools or Web pages perform in specific regions or under certain browser … Read more

Twitter today announced the launch of a real-time tool that allows Web site operators to embed interactive Twitter timelines on their Web pages.

"Today we're bringing Twitter and the Web closer together by launching new real-time tools for Web site developers," Twitter developer advocate Sylvain Carle wrote in a blog post today. "With our new embedded timelines, you can place any public timeline on your Web site, connecting your readers with the Tweets that you and others create on Twitter."

The way the tool works is that it lets users embed a stream of tweets … Read more

I imagine there's someone out there whose sole job it is to think up ways to make power tools even more manly. That person dreamed up the Drill Gun Power Screwdriver from Gadgets and Gear.

The Drill Gun is a power screwdriver in the shape of a snub-nose revolver. This tool is clearly pandering to the stereotypically testosteroned crowd, the kind of guys who might buy advance tickets to "The Expendables 2."… Read more

MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition is a free file- and data-recovery tool for Windows. It bundles several tools that together can recover lost and deleted data from hard drives, USB drives, and nearly every kind of disk or directory that can hold (and lose) data. Of course, not all lost data can be recovered, and there's no guarantee that recovered data will be intact or still usable. But MiniTool's modules are focused on specific data-recovery tasks, giving you a good chance of getting your data back. Its wizard-based operation and simple interface make it easy enough for … Read more

If you searched for something on Google today, you may have noticed something different, such as a new drop-down menu of search tools. This is the latest in Google's changes to how query results are displayed and how its search engine works.

Google's redesign was first noticed by TechCrunch, which noted that the major difference is the results are now vertical. Rather than having the search tools taking up space on a sidebar, they are now located directly under the search field.

The search engine has already started showing an automatic text box in the right side bar … Read more

Twitter is developing a new tool that will let users export their whole tweet history -- everything from smart observations to those embarrassing tweets that people may not want to remember.

"We're working on a tool to let users export all of their tweets," Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said in a meeting with The New York Times yesterday. "You'll be able to download a file of them."

As of now, users can only search back through the last few thousand posts. And even though third-party sites and apps let users backup their tweets, they … Read more