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Get old-school photographs with CamWow Retro

CamWow Retro is an iOS app that lets you take photos with antique effects applied to them. Whether a sepia-tint or grainy black-and-white images, there's a lot of effects you can apply. CamWow Retro is a free app and installs easily.

The CamWow Retro interface is based on a larger app called CamWow Pro and works the same way. When activated, the app opens an interface with four panes. One shows the image from the camera natively, and the other three panes show various effects in real time. You can scroll through a few screens of effects to find … Read more

Search, spell-check, and speed up app launches

Alfred for Mac is a tool designed to make it easier to locate files and applications and launch them faster. More than a simple search tool, Alfred for Mac analyzes your usage habits and can help make it easier and faster to access content on your Mac. Alfred for Mac installs quickly and easily.

One of the first things you'll see with Alfred for Mac is the ability to launch any application on your system with a shortcut. As you use your apps, Alfred for Mac watches to see which are the most commonly used and moves them higher … Read more

Talk to Talking Ginger as he gets ready for bedtime

Ginger is an adorable kitten who is very good about bedtime. When you talk to him, he talks back. He goes potty, showers, and, best of all, brushes his teeth with great diligence. Outfit7's Talking Ginger is a cute Android app that lets you help Ginger get ready for bed. Your kids will love Ginger, and he'll make them want to brush their teeth! We talked to Ginger in the latest Android release, Ice Cream Sandwich.

Before we could install the app, we had to agree to download an additional 41MB of game data. We're glad they … Read more

A bit expensive for a Bible app, but some nicely presented supplemental content

Bible Glo is a Bible study tool that includes the King James translation in full. For Mac, iPhone, and iPad, Bible Glo provides a wealth of accompanying information and analyses as well as linked resources and media content. The app is easy to install. The free version of Bible Glo has some limitations, but upgrading to the premium version will cost you $34.99.

The Bible Glo interface opens with a set of icons that let you decide what your actions will be during the session. Bible Glo calls these "lenses" as they control how you see the … Read more

Jump off stuff and live to play again with Stickman Base Jumper Free

Stickman, what makes you so reckless? Jumping off of perfectly safe buildings and bridges seems so ... dangerous. Lucky for you that you're an Android app and not a real Stickman! But you are real fun. Stickman Base Jumper Free is a freeware base jumping game from Djinnworks E.U. As you may know, base jumping is actually BASE jumping because it involves supposedly rational people jumping off of four types of structure: Buildings, Antennas, Spans (bridges), and Earth (cliffs and natural formations). Did we mention the parachute? You get to use a parachute. While that's not quite as … Read more

Jump off a cliff? Only with Stickman Cliff Diving Free, thanks.

Cliff diving looks dangerous because it is dangerous. Stickman laughs at danger, though, and you can, too, from the safety of wherever you happen to be with your Android phone. All you need to do is download Stickman Cliff Diving Free from Djinnworks E.U. This free game brings the old-school fun of controlling a stick figure as he dives off a cliff into the water below. The game's judges award points for each dive, just like the Olympics. It's totally simple, yet it's more challenging than it sounds. We played Cliff Diving Free on a smartphone … Read more

Record and manage audio files, but you need an external account to do so

SoundCloud is meant to allow people who work with audio files a lot to manage their workloads and their libraries. The idea is to use SoundCloud to listen to sound files from others and to share your own. To do so, you need to set up a SoundCloud account. SoundCloud installs easily on Mac OS X 10.6 or later.

The SoundCloud interface is similar to iTunes: there's a list of folders and playlists on the left, a middle pane that lists music files, and a panel on the right with more information about a selected file. There's … Read more

News feeds from around the Web in one place

iReader is a Mac OS X utility to display news, both online and stored for offline reading if you so wish. iReader installs quickly and there are several keyboard customizations available if you want to make your reading controls a little different than the default.

When launched, iReader opens a dialog with three sections, which can be resized or hidden if you wish to have more screen real estate for other panes. The left side is your list of subscriptions, and clicking on one opens the feed headlines in the middle pane. The larger right pane shows the actual content … Read more

Weather reports made fun with Swackett

Swackett is a weather app. Sounds exciting, huh? But surprisingly, Swackett does a great job at relaying what other sites don't really make clear, which is what the weather really will be like. Instead of complex weather data and a radar image, Swackett produces a condensed version with pictographs and a simple layout that gives you the weather forecast at a glance.

Swackett's simple interface gives you a picture of what the weather will be like using a simple image (for a hot day you see two cartoon figures dressed with hats and light clothes, holding suntan lotion … Read more

Projecting your financial situation, one expense at a time

Cashculator Free is a personal finance calculator and collection of utilities for helping you determine your future financial decisions. Cashculator Free is not just a set of spreadsheets, but a set of tools that help guide you through several important financial calculations. The app installs easily and when launched gives you a mini-tutorial on getting started.

Cashculator Free starts with simple financial analysis tools such as budgeting and determining cash flow. From there, you can do what-if scenarios. The free version of Cashculator allows you to save two scenarios and work forward only three months. To see more future planning … Read more