adjustments

Aviary: A well-rounded photo editor

It may not beat Photoshop, but Aviary is still one of the most comprehensive photo editors available for Android. What's more, it's incredibly simple to use.

From the get-go, Aviary makes it simple to edit your photos, as it opens up directly to a carousel of all the saved images on your device. From here, you can swipe through your photos straight away or go to your photo gallery and make your selection that way. Otherwise, the app also gives you the option to take a new photo to import into the editor.

Once you make your selection, … Read more

Eyejusters double-lens glasses offer DIY vision correction

Fixed-lens glasses are so last year -- if U.K.-based company Eyejusters has anything to say about it, that is.

Eyejusters' "SlideLens" technology enables users to turn a dial on one of the glasses' temple arms to slide two lenses across one another and thereby adjust the focus. That just might help some of the world's estimated 670 million people who need glasses but don't have them manipulate their own prescriptions.

Eyejusters calculates that its two types of glasses -- positive power (to correct near-sightedness) and negative power (to correct far-sightedness) -- could help roughly 90 percent of people whose poor vision can be corrected using glasses.… Read more

Schedules made easy with ClockIt: Easy Schedule Creator

Any manager of hourly employees can tell you how difficult it is to create a schedule that takes into account both business needs and employee availability. ClockIt: Easy Schedule Creator is a powerful program for managing employee schedules and attendance. It's not the most intuitive program we've ever seen, but it has plenty of tools for creating schedules no matter how complex your needs.

We liked that ClockIt: Easy Schedule Creator starts off with a wizard, which allows users to easily set up the schedule range, employees, and shifts. Once everything is configured, the schedule is displayed in … Read more

Adjustable Advantage toilet seat handles 1,000 lbs.

As a people, our butts are expanding at a much faster rate than our toilet seats. The Japanese have also been kicking our wide posteriors when it comes to toilet technology.

Now you can say hello to a distinctly American toilet seat innovation, the Adjustable Advantage. The seat features two wings that expand out to either side to accommodate varying sizes of derrieres.

The seat's most impressive stat is its ability to handle up to 1,000 pounds. The seat may hold up, but the toilet itself could be crushed. The company recommends double-checking the weight-bearing capacity of your toilet before testing the seat's limits.

Toilet tech doesn't come cheap. The Adjustable Advantage costs $180. It fits on both round and elongated bowls and comes with a lifetime warranty.

The Adjustable Advantage isn't just for people who have packed on a few pounds. The company is also promoting its use by pregnant women and folks with sciatic nerve issues. The seat clocks in at a few inches higher than a standard seat, so there's less distance to travel on the way down to a seated position.… Read more

Fixing and deleting saved passwords in Google Chrome

Forget which password you saved in Google Chrome for that random Web site? Wouldn't it be nice to take a peek at what it is, in case you need to log in from somewhere you can't sync your Chrome browser? How about when the wrong password gets saved and you're forced to type in the correct one every time you log in? Managing passwords in Chrome can be a speedy process--once you know where the tools are and how to use them.

Step 1: Click on the wrench icon in the top right corner and choose Options.… Read more

Resize photos for free with Apple's Preview

One of the unsung heroes of Apple's Mac OS X is the simple, yet incredibly powerful, Preview application. Using Preview, you can easily adjust your photos and get them ready for print, projects, and sharing. And best of all, it comes free on every Mac, bundled with OS X.

Many tips floating around the Internet will suggest using Adobe's Photoshop or Photoshop Elements to accomplish tasks like resizing and adjusting image resolution. Though these applications are great solutions, they can also be costly and somewhat complicated for new users. Photoshop can run as high as $199 for the … Read more

Apple's 27-inch Cinema Display has sound issues for some

Users in a growing Apple Support Discussions forum thread are expressing their concerns over what appears to be a hardware-related sound issue with Apple's 27-inch Cinema Displays. The main issue seems to be that sound will randomly cut out, ceasing to work until a system restart is applied.

Jerky video presentation with no or distorted sound is another symptom these users have noted, along with a delay when pressing the volume keys up or down to when the volume graphic is displayed onscreen.

Though a definitive solution does not appear to be available from Apple or users on the … Read more

Capable image editor

We've tested a lot of image editors lately, and most have been pretty disappointing, so we weren't expecting much from AKVIS MultiBrush. But we're happy to report that this program exceeded our expectations on a variety of levels.

AKVIS MultiBrush has a sleek user interface that is extremely straightforward and seems perfect for novice users. Five navigational commands run across the top of the window; these allow you to open new images, save, print, and undo and redo actions. A simple toolbox resides on the left side of the window, and hovering your mouse over each tool … Read more

Solid image editor

Finally there's a free image editor worth reviewing. So many Photoshop wannabes have failed to live up to expectations, which admittedly are high. But PhotoFiltre stands on its own as a basic, capable image editor.

The first good news is the program's user interface, which is very clean and not at all overwhelming, unlike many graphics tools. Menu items line the top of the window with their respective shortcut buttons below in two rows. Rather than using moveable color and tool palettes, PhotoFiltre places them in a narrow right-hand sidebar, which leaves plenty of room for images. We … Read more

Lasso a faster PC

Process Lasso is an interesting tool for speeding up your computer. By prioritizing its processes, this program helps improve an operating system's performance.

The program's interface is both helpful-looking, with a clean design and simple charts, and discouraging, with some highly technical command options. We were constantly spending time with and revisiting the program's Help file for instructions. The program's display clearly showcased all currently running processes and provided a suspected CPU usage chart--"suspected," because it didn't explain what any of the three bar charts represented. The visual aids were nice, but … Read more