convertible

Open Office to PDF Converter 1.0 Review

PDF files are much easier to send and read than your standard Open Office files. This app claims to convert your Office files into PDFs, but it does the bare minimum to live up to that name. In fact, Open Office to PDF Creator seems much more like a basic file viewer than anything else.

Most of Open Office to PDF Creator's navigation buttons are clouded by ads that take up the top and bottom of the screen. That really doesn't matter, since you can do most of the converting right from your file menu. Converting .odt files … Read more

Video Converter Fox 4.1 Review

Video Converter Fox bundles together a bunch of audio, video, and online resources into a single interface. It searches for and downloads MP3s and videos on YouTube, for starters, and even converts FLV files to MP3s, so you can save the tunes you find and play them on your portable device. It has a built-in Internet radio player, but it also plays your locally-stored media files. You can watch free online TV channels from dozens of countries, including free online movies. You can play all kinds of games while you're listening, too. And Video Converter Fox even has a … Read more

Simple Base Converter 1.2 Review

One of the best things about the App Store and the iOS devices it supports is that for nearly any issue you can imagine, there's an app designed to fix it. Simple Base Converter is such an app, a much-needed tool for programmers and engineers that is simple and straightforward to use.

Simple Base Converter uses the basic calculator interface on the iPhone but replaces the function buttons with base descriptions -- in this case, decimal, binary, base eight, and base six. To use the app, simply enter a string of numbers in any of the four sets and … Read more

Converter Pro 1.0 Review

There was once a time before everyone had an Internet-capable device in their pocket, when converting various measurements while cooking or finishing homework assignments would take time or require a sharper memory. Today, smartphones alleviate this problem almost entirely with apps like Converter Pro. Combining conversion tools for dozens of different weights, volumes, currencies, temperatures, and medical units, Converter Pro is a very useful tool for your iPhone or iPad if you are willing to look past its shortcomings.

Converter Pro provides tools to instantly convert one of many different units into any other included in its library. The list … Read more

VidConvert for Mac 1.4.2 Review

The number of video conversion programs available makes choosing a good one difficult. Though it's basically functional, the lack of features and problematic setup make VidConvert for Mac a less desirable option.

VidConvert is available as a free trial version with a three-minute conversion time limit; the full, unrestricted program requires payment of $7.99. The program installs quickly. Unfortunately, after initiating the program, the user must complete an additional download from a separate site before conversion can take place. This second download requires Terminal operations, which is a lot to ask of all but the most experienced Mac … Read more

Mega Video Converter Review

The field of Internet video converters is not short on contenders, some good at what they do and others, not so much. Mega Video Converter (MVC) from Clip Extractor is a new challenger in a very competitive market. Thankfully, it is one of the good guys.

We like Mega Video Converter for being fast, simple, and intuitive. Installation is quick and compact, only taking up about 20MB on your hard disk. However, you do need MS .NET Framework 4 before you can proceed and MVC will alert you if you don't already have it.

Upon launching Mega Video Converter … Read more

Apple patent envisions wireless charging on convertible laptop

Despite Apple CEO Tim Cook having knocked the idea of a convertible MacBook-iPad hybrid device, the company has filed a patent application for just that. The proposed patent, titled "Wireless display for electronic devices," was published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office today.

The application describes a computer display that is removable from its base -- basically a convertible laptop. But, what's different about this idea from other convertibles made by other companies is that it has wireless display technology. That means the device could be charged wirelessly.

Here's how Apple describes it in … Read more

Rip, encode, and convert your tunes in high-quality formats with Hanso Converter

Are your MP3s LAME? Don't Bonk us if we say we hope so. FAAC is, we're happy to take the FLAC. Weak puns, maybe, but great tunes; if you encode your digital music files in a high-fidelity format such as FLAC. It's simple: the best way to get the best sound from your portable tunes is to start out with higher quality files, ideally using a low-loss or lossless format. Hanso Converter offers high-quality ripping and converting into FLAC, FAAC, AAC, Bonk, MP4/M4A, Ogg Vorbis, each of which yields better sound quality than the basic MP3 … Read more

A $299 high-end USB digital converter from England

Regular readers of this blog know we're living in the golden age of desktop audio. The speakers just keep getting better and better, and digital converters from the likes of Schiit Audio, AudioQuest, Hifiman, FiiO, and HRT have all made computers sound better than ever.

Now along comes the Meridian Explorer, a sleek, extruded aluminum converter with line- and headphone-level 3.5mm output jacks and a USB input. The line-level output internally bypasses the headphone amp and volume control. Meridian is best known for its ultra-high-end digital converters that sell for thousands of dollars -- the Explorer is their … Read more

Leaked benchmarks portend shift in Windows 8 'PC' design

The first benchmarks of Intel's upcoming "Haswell" Fourth-Generation Core processors have leaked. But asking how fast future Windows 8 PCs will be is probably the wrong question.

The Haswell chip that Tom's Hardware got a hold of and tested showed only modest central processing unit, or CPU, performance improvements over the latest hardware.

This would seem to indicate the future of Windows PCs -- which in this case means newfangled devices like Microsoft Surface and HP's Envy x2 -- isn't about the desktop anymore.

"The mobile space is where Intel's efforts should … Read more