1.12

Bubble Free is a Mac OS X bubble-grouping game. It is identical to the Bubble MegaShift iOS game from the same publisher (99 cents for iOS; no free version listed in the App Store). Like so many other grouping games, it opens with a mix of colored bubbles that you remove by clicking on groups of two or more, causing the rest to shift down and fill the void. The larger the group you remove, the higher the score, until you can't remove any more.

Bubble Free installs easily enough and takes a second or two to learn. The … Read more

Favor DVD Player for Mac is a utility for playing and ripping DVDs. Supporting all DVD formats, Favor DVD Player for Mac lets you watch your DVDs on your MacBook or iMac. Even better, Favor DVD Player for Mac lets you rip DVDs to formats for your Mac or portable iDevice, as well as Apple TV.

Favor DVD Player for Mac downloads and installs easily. The interface has preset defaults for the most common settings, and a simple interface for watching DVDs. We watched a wide variety of disks, in numerous formats, and all played properly. We also ripped a … Read more

Fuzel Pro is a user-friendly app that brings all the benefits of a desktop collage app directly to your iPhone. You can create a stunning collage in just minutes and share it with your friends through multiple channels.

The nice, uncluttered interface is intuitive, so even first-time users will be able to jump right in and start creating collages. At the start you can choose from 30+ layouts of various widths and aspect ratios, and then you can either start taking pictures or access those on the camera roll. As soon as you have the pictures selected, the fun begins. … Read more

While we think the iOS default keyboard is nicely designed as it is, Color Keyboard Pro allows you to choose from more than six different skins that have the full set of QWERTY keys in various colors.

At launch, you'll see a colored keyboard with one of the available custom skins. While it was very easy to choose a skin, we found it annoying that the click is louder when you type than with the original iPhone option, and we couldn't find a reasonable explanation for this.

You can also use Color Keyboard Pro to create messages. When … Read more

Mac PDF Converter for Mac is a tool for everyday use, especially for those who need to work with PDF and text files, and its easy-to-use interface and speed help you save time.

The easy-to-handle interface makes using Mac PDF Converter a no-brainer, and it works straight out of the box: users can convert any PDF file to Word, text, image, HTML, or EPUB formats using the application. Although we missed having a convenient drag-and-drop function when adding files, we can live without it, if necessary. The trial version is limited to a conversion of five pages, which is adequate.… Read more

Bubble Mania is a free iOS app that will bring back the days when you used to pop bubbles to have fun and kill time while you were waiting for something. This time the bubbles come back with a tweak: you have to put them in the right order.

The app's interface couldn't be simpler, with instructions provided ahead of the game: pop 50 bubbles in less than 25 seconds, following the order of the bubbles at the top.

Yeah, that sounds like an easy job to do, and it really is on the first level, where you … Read more

So you're still logging on with the same old Windows log-on screen, day in, day out....You're right: it's extremely boring. Can't something be done about it? Yes. You can change the Windows log-on screen, but Windows doesn't make it as easy as changing your wallpaper or even your user account picture. Still, it's simple enough to do with help from tools like Saurabhorange's Logon Screen Changer.

This free app can banish the blue and replace it with high-resolution images that don't take up much space. It comes with a gallery of … Read more

FB Flicker by Guppy Media is free software that promises to make your Facebook albums more exciting, and while it didn't quite live up to the hype, it was extremely easy to use. One of the main drawbacks is that your friends will also need to have the app installed to see the effects you've added to your albums.

The application is an add-on that will work with Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, or any system running on Windows. There are no Help files or wizards to aid the user, but there is really no need. Once installed, … Read more

When we saw the name Doc Scrubber, we pictured a surgeon with scrubbed hands raised. While BrightFort's freeware does indeed scrub docs, it sanitizes Microsoft Word DOC files, not the hands of sawbones. Doc Scrubber extracts, displays, and removes the metadata hidden in many DOC files used in earlier versions of Microsoft Word. This metadata sometimes contains personal, proprietary, or potentially embarrassing information, or even just stuff you'd rather not share or post online. Doc Scrubber lets you decide just what data it removes. It works with older versions of DOC files, not the new DOCX format, but … Read more