Software

VideoUpLink for Mac helps users who take frequent videos for sharing with friends to quickly upload them. While it allows the user to save some steps required for this process, it is of little additional value.

VideoUpLink for Mac provides a free trial version, which restricts the uploads to personal Facebook pages. The unrestricted version costs $9.99. The program downloaded quickly and its installation was seamless. The application did have technical support available, and a basic Help menu provided initial user instructions. The main interface is sparse, but easy to navigate, with buttons on the top for uploading and … Read more

Despite its dated design, Toki LineTest HD for Mac easily creates early drafts of professional animators' work, and has all of the functions likely needed by these users.

The program offers a free trial version with a 60-frame limit. The full program costs $69.90. The download completed quickly over a high-speed connection. The installation folder contained readme, instructions, and license files in several languages, which was a nice feature. It was unclear if technical support was available, but the program started up without any problems. The instructions were a particularly useful feature since the main menu is not intuitive. … Read more

Last week, my son lost all the research he had done for his first science fair project. (Topic: Can Fossils Form in Igneous Rock?) Extreme drama ensued, and ultimately, I ended up typing his dictation for him as he Googled frantically to meet his deadline.

If you've ever worked with a nine-year-old on a big project, you know that unless your child is a prodigy, the process often dissolves into tears of frustration.

As a parent or adviser, you need to teach a child to think critically, understand basic concepts of measurement (Should we measure the temperature at which … Read more

When emptying a Mac's trash can, some items may be locked, which prevents removal. Trash It! for Mac is a basic program that forces the trash can to completely empty, but has no additional features and is not a useful program.

Trash It! for Mac is available as a free application. The program downloaded quickly, but there was no installer for the program. Instead of having one program that worked with all Mac OS X versions, the download included two separate folders, one for version 10.8 and one for earlier versions. There were no technical support or user … Read more

Mini Clip's 8 Ball Pool combines the pick up and play mechanics of many of the App Store's most compelling and addictive games with the physics of a realistic pool game to create a very engaging, online-enabled game with dozens of features that are perfect for a quick game of pool or for perfecting your touch screen technique.

When you first start 8 Ball Pool, you can choose to create an account using Facebook or Mini Clip or just play as a guest. The account feature is solely for online play and is optional, so don't feel … Read more

Stargazing is an amazing hobby, but the weather isn't always perfect for it. With Stellarium for Mac, users can now explore the galaxy anywhere, anytime.

The installation of Stellarium for Mac takes no time at all as it requires a simple drag and drop into the Applications folder. Once you launch the app, you will be greeted with a night sky full of stars, which looks really amazing. If you want to see more stars you can simply zoom in. The application reminded us of the Night Sky feature from Google Earth. One of the advantages of this app … Read more

Google's new education initiative, Google Play for Education, is designed to put more tablets into K-12 classrooms, the company said Wednesday at its Google I/O developers conference.

The new store launches this fall. It enables teachers deploy an app or an e-book to all of their students' tablets at once, and has apps that have been recommended by other teachers to make sure they are appropriate for specific ages and grades.

"Each app has been recommended by a group of educators," Engineering Director Chris Yerga said during the keynote. "This is key because teachers trust … Read more

Editors' note: This story was originally published on August 20, 2012. It has been updated several times since then to include additional programs and other details, most recently with Start Menu Reviver on May 15, 2013.

Still miss the classic Start menu in Windows 8? Never fear, alternatives are here.

Microsoft lopped off the Start menu in Windows 8 to force people to use the Start screen. And I'll admit it, the Start screen does offers several benefits.

Live Tiles can clue you in to the latest e-mails, appointments, news, and other information. You can easily search for any … Read more

VidBas for Mac allows users to download videos from the Web to view them later while offline, so it may be useful to some Mac owners despite the lack of additional features.

VidBas for Mac comes with a free trial version that restricts the ability to download from the Internet. The complete version requires a $19.99 payment to unlock. The download completed quickly, as did the installation despite the lack of a native installer. Through the program's support menu, user instructions and technical support for updates were present. The main menu was easy to use, but had little … Read more