convertible

Care to venture a guess on what Samsung's next, cool hybrid-looking thing is?

If that description sounds vague, just watch the video below: it's more of an exercise in abstract expression than concrete design cues.

That said, it does show brushed metal, round edges, and hint at (near the end) a hybrid device possibly suggestive of the Samsung Series 5 Hybrid PC, first shown in June at Computex.

And this would fit nicely with one of the biggest design trends for Windows 8 devices. That is, newfangled laptops the convert readily to tablets or more tablet-like devices that … Read more

We've tried tons of freeware MP3 converters. They tend to fall somewhere in between Easy Enough for Beginners and Feature-Filled for Experts. DVDVideoSoft's Free Audio Converter definitely registers on the "Easy" end of the dial, but it offers enough options to enable you to encode your MP3s in several different formats, including three levels of LAME. A Preset Wizard makes it easy to save your settings for future use. It can access compatible audio files on your hard drive or stored on a CD, but it doesn't rip CD audio.

Free Audio Converter shares a … Read more

Late last year I raved about the ADL by Furutech Cruise USB digital-to-analog headphone amplifier, so when the company sent over the new Esprit desktop digital-to-analog converter, I was eager to see what it could do.

I had the 2.3-inch-by-5.8-inch-by-7.4-inch component on my desktop for a few months and I was a little concerned that I was starting to take it for granted. It sounded so utterly natural that I listened to it a lot longer than I needed to write a review, and that's always a good sign. I ran it with my Emotiva airmotiv … Read more

To test the latest version of Fre:AC, the free, open-source audio converter, we had to uninstall the previous version since we were already using it to create high-quality MP3s. The BonkEnc Project's Fre:AC (smile when you say that, pilgrim) is the best tool of its type we've yet tried for ripping, converting, and encoding MP3s with the best possible audio quality, including LAME. Fre:AC also converts files between different types of MP3 encoding with minimal loss. Suppose you have a large collection of tunes in an odd (OGG?) format. With Fre:AC, you can convert … Read more

Free Video to MP3 Converter: that pretty well sums up this app from DVDVideoSoft. It can extract audio clips from movies and other videos and save them as MP3s you can play, well, just about anywhere. From ringtones to e-greetings to sound effects, the uses for extracted audio clips are many. This freeware makes it all a matter of a few easy clicks. And it just doesn't create box-standard MP3s but also WAV, WMA, AAC, APE, FLAC, OGG, and more, with several quality options for each.

This program's user interface and layout shares a family resemblance with DVDVideoSoft'… Read more

Would you like a super-easy way to capture video frames and convert them into JPEG stills? Or generate a series of images showing a sequence from your favorite movie? Or create picture albums out of family videos? DVDVideoSoft's Free Video to JPG Converter is your production assistant. This free tool makes it easy to capture still images from video files and save them as JPEG images, the most common format by far. It can sample frames at rates you select or copy every frame, though you can also limit the total number of frames to keep things from getting … Read more

Creating a DVD, especially if you want custom title menus and other such personalization, isn't always an easy feat. AVStoDVD doesn't exactly make this task easier -- it's certainly not the most intuitive program we've used -- but it does provide plenty of options for the technically competent. If you're looking for a tidy wizard-style program that will walk you through each step and keep all the jargon under wraps, AVStoDVD is probably not the best choice. If you have some familiarity with digital video already, it may be just the thing.

AVStoDVD's interface … Read more

DVDVideoSoft's Free Video to Flash Converter has one purpose, two file types, four quality levels, and many uses. Its single mission is to convert various video files into one of two file types for posting online. It converts most common video formats into Flash (FLV) and Shockwave Flash (SWF) files you can post on your Web site or blog. When it's done, it plays a preview of your converted video in your browser. For SWF files, Free Video to Flash Converter also generates all the HTML code and documents you need, too.

Free Video to Flash Converter has … Read more

Looking for a free tool that can convert videos from your extensive, wide-ranging collection into a format that plays on your iPhone? Or just about any device or player? Any Video Converter will do. We're not kidding: Any Video Converter is probably the easiest, most foolproof video converter we've used, freeware or not. It uses Profiles based on your device's maker, including Apple, Sony, Microsoft, and Android, as well as Mobile Phones, HTML5 embedded video, and others.

Any Video Converter's clean, attractive user interface is dominated by a Getting Started screen in the main window, which … Read more