freeware

Get a free office suite, help charity

I love a good win-win.

From now until December 24, you can get SoftMaker FreeOffice for Windows or Linux absolutely free. And when you do, SoftMaker will donate 0.10 Euros to betterplace.org, which raises funds for a variety of worthy worldwide projects.

So what the heck is SoftMaker FreeOffice? As you may have guessed from the name, it's the free version of SoftMaker's commercial office suite. It provides word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations, all with an interface that closely resembles Microsoft Office 2003.

Speaking of which, FreeOffice is fully file-compatible with Microsoft's suite, though it'… Read more

Three ways to prevent inadvertent e-mail replies to all

The dreaded Reply All button rang up another victim last week when a Los Angeles Police Department commander asked his officers in an e-mail to arrest someone for the illegal sale of underage bunnies so the department wouldn't receive a "black eye" in the media.

As Ana Garcia reports for NBC Southern California, the commander didn't realize his reply to an LAPD officer was also sent to the TV news producer who requested information on the lack of animal-cruelty arrests months after the department claimed to be cracking down on the practice.

Unlike many Reply All … Read more

GreenShot is one of the best free screenshot tools for Windows

When choosing a free screenshot tool, consider why you're saving screenshots and what you need to do to them. It must quickly and easily capture all or part of your screen. You should be able to obscure, blur, annotate, or highlight parts of the image as you create it. Finally, you should be able to save or export your screenshot just as effortlessly as you created it, including uploading it directly to sites such as Picasa using plug-ins. That describes our new favorite screenshot tool, GreenShot. Recent updates include Windows 8 compatibility.

GreenShot's installation wizard lets you choose … Read more

Open Hexagon, an open copycat of Hexagon

Open Hexagon is a polygonal endurance run that draws heavy inspiration from Terry Cavanagh's Hexagon. Much like its former Web app game, Open Hexagon challenges players in a collapsing environment of walls that cave in. Your goal is to keep a dinky little triangle alive by orbiting around the core while dodging walls and crushing barriers. The game's overall design is a simple pixelated collection of lines and shapes, with some added chiptune tracks to appease the eardrums of our inner geek.

Since its release, the developer, Vittorio Romeo of Vee Software, has received mixed reactions for releasing … Read more

Manage your online time wisely with timeStats, a Chrome extension

The Internet is a pretty great resource for work or school, but it can also be an enormous distraction. timeStats is an extension for Google Chrome that allows you to see how you spend your online time. A few clicks will get you a chart distribution of your Internet activity; a couple more, and you can get even more detailed reports. The reports break down your daily/weekly/monthly activities with awesome pie charts and bar graphs showing what you did on which day. It can also show you other details such as the sites, domain zones, and time spent … Read more

JogoBox: Gaming museum for the old and abandoned or sweet treasure trove arcade?

Whether you're a long-time PC gamer or new to the club, (in which case, welcome!) you should check out JogoBox, a game client/downloader similar to the likes of Steam and Desura. What makes JogoBox stands out is that its entire collection is totally free. "Choose from a selection of thousands of free games and play for as long as you like!" -- boasts JogoBox.com.

The JogoBox team essentially went out into the Internet and collected as many abandonware and browser games as they could find and stuck it all in once place -- a simple … Read more

Funhouse of Horror 2012: Top 10 free scary games on Download.com (part 2)

As promised, we are here to deliver to you, our beloved readers, the second installment of last week's Funhouse of Horror 2012. If the following games can't get even a tiny whimper out of you, then you are made of sterner stuff than our editors or, most likely, are dead inside.

5. Which

This is a short indie game that pushes pixel-shading limits to create a unique atmosphere and provide an effective fright. Much shorter than most of the games on this list, Which takes place in a locked house from which you have to escape. Saw what … Read more

Listen to and follow the World Series online

Want to watch the World Series online? Sorry. Fox Broadcasting seems to have made that impossible (or just illegal) in 2012. But have no fear: when you're away from your TV, you can still listen to or follow the MLB championship games easily with a few choice Android apps.

Listen to the World Series live on your Android device

If you've sprung for a subscription from MLB At Bat, you're already covered. Those of us on the cheap can get our World Series broadcast on our Android phones for free with the ESPN Radio Android app. ESPN … Read more

Perform complete uninstallations

Uninstalling bloated programs and process-hogging applications is one of the most critical ways to keep your system's performance snappy. Unfortunately, the built-in Windows uninstaller is limited when it comes to removing leftover files and residue.

Wise Program Uninstaller takes it up a notch as an alternative solution. When you first fire up the program, you're greeted with some basic options and metrics. The bottom status bar lets you know how many running programs are installed and how much space is occupied. There are two main uninstall approaches: safe and forced.

Safe uninstall guides you through the default uninstallation … Read more