Getting a new gadget is always fun but if it’s replacing an old gadget you might have questions about what to do with the old device. You might be thinking “Can I sell this old one for some cash?” or “Now, how exactly do I recycle this?”. The answer to both of those questions can be found with Gazelle.
Gazelle.com acts as a broker for your old devices, including: cell phones, laptops, MP3 Players, digital cameras, laptops, PDAs, game consoles, GPS devices, camcorders, desktops, LCD monitors, calculators, and more. Gazelle will quote you a price for the item and send you a postage-paid box to ship the device to them. After they get the chance to inspect the device they’ll pay you the quoted amount by check or PayPal or donate the money to a charity or other cause of your choice. Gazelle can also work as a fundraising tool for your school or organization.
Gazelle is able to get a second life out of about 80% of devices they receive. If a device doesn’t have any life (market value) left in it, Gazelle ensures the device is properly recycled. Even if your device doesn’t net you any money, you can still recycle it for free through Gazelle.
[Editor’s note: this review was written by Freewaregenius contributor Jason H. Check out his tech blog: 404techsupport.com].
Do you have a lot of podcasts and/or audio books that you want to listen to but are unable to find the time? If so, this program can help.
MP3 Speed is a simple, free program that does one thing: it changes the speed of your MP3 files. There are two ways in which it can do this, however; it can change both the speed and pitch, or it can change the speed and preserve pitch. The distinction is important, as preserving the pitch means that your podcasts and audiobooks, despite being faster, will be entirely listenable/comprehensible (within a certain range of speed) without having the “chipmunk” effect that you might get if you increase both tempo and pitch.
My suggestion: try it with a couple of podcasts and see how you like it (see the text below for a suggested tempo value that can work).
You can use MP3 Speed to process podcasts, audiobooks, and other MP3 files in batch, for folders and recursively through subfolders (and choosing whether to preserve the original and where the modified files should be saved). Continue reading ..
If you’re looking for a good, free desktop sticky-notes type program then give DeskNotes a try. I’ve been using this program for several weeks now, and while it doesn’t exactly introduce any new functionality or spin on the general desktop sticky notes program concept, it manages to be a highly usable and reliable program all the same.
If you happen to use Outlook you may be pleased to learn that DeskNotes can sync notes with it. But even if you don’t you will probably like DeskNotes anyway. Its list of features include: full rich text formatting for notes, archiving of notes into a (searchable) hierarchical structure, emailing of notes, timed reminders, the ability to hide notes into the system tray menu and unhide them again for desktop display, and the ability to make a note “switchable” i.e. visible in the taskbar and to Windows’ Alt+Tab switching. Continue reading ..
A popular post on this blog which you might have seen compares different ways to convert PDF to Word (Doc or RTF) formats for free, with several desktop-based programs and several online services tested. One of the programs written up is AnyBizSoft’s PDF to Word converter, whose version 2.53 was being provided 100% free. Aside from delivering excellent quality conversions, what I liked about this software is that it installed a “Convert to Word” entry in the Windows explorer context menu which appears whenever you right click a PDF file.
Recently, however, I was notified by Ricky from AnyBizSoft that version 2.53 is no longer on offer, and that the newest version 3.0 of the PDF to Word converter is available as a free giveaway on their Facebook page. The only caveat? Users are requested to “like” the company on Facebook before they can access the download link and the “request free registration code” button. Note: the giveaway for the Mac version lasts until Aug 8th, while the Windows giveaway will, according to the email I got, be on offer indefinitely. Continue reading ..
Sculptris is a free digital sculpting/3D modeling program that is both powerful and extremely easy to use. It provides a digital modeling experience that is very similar to creating real life models out of clay, whereupon the virtual clay simply materializes from thin air and can be quickly shaped, prodded, cut, modified, and added. In practice the effect is very pleasant; allowing your 3D creations to grow organically, on-the-fly, as the idea(s) come to you.
Sculptris is unlike other 3D modeling programs previously mentioned on this blog in that the interface is extremely easy to use and the program has a relatively small learning curve. The mouse driven sculpting works very well (see video above), and the modeling is duplicated symmetrically on the fly whereby what you are doing on one side of the object gets immediately emulated on the other (a simple yet brilliant device that is extremely helpful).
Sculptris provides a host of “materials” to choose from and, in addition to the sculpting tools it provides powerful painting/drawing/texturing tools that can be used to finesse your models once they are created. Continue reading ..
This is the kind of video conversion program that feels like it belongs in an Apple store; slick, clean-looking, with a lot of white space and colorful buttons in it’s interface, and as little information crammed on the screen at any one time as possible. It also delivers exactly what is promised, which is always a bonus.
Freemake Video Converter offers the ability to convert videos across different formats, burn video files to DVD, convert DVDs to video files, convert and upload to YouTube, convert photos to video slideshow, convert video files to MP3 (i.e.demux the sound) or even combine an audio file with a wide selection of pre-built visualizations. It can also perform some video editing functions in the process (i.e. cut, rotate, or join).
This program employs the now fashionable interface device of offering different conversion profiles based on the type of media or mobile device, such as iPod, iPhone, iPad, PSP, Xbox, and Blackberry. And while this can be very convenient for the average user, for advanced users it tends to come at the expense of having the degree of control over the conversion process which they may like or require. Continue reading ..
Last week Amazon announced that its sales of ebooks, in units, have exceeded its sales of hardback books. Further proof, of course, that the age of the ebook is upon us, and all the more reason for you to check out Calibre, a free, multiplatform ebook management software that is simply best in class.
Calibre can manage all aspects of maintaining and using an ebook library. It can view ebooks of virtually every conceivable type, convert across different formats, download and tag ebooks with metadata (including cover artwork), and upload ebooks to various hardware ebook readers and mobile devices, including the iPhone.
Calibre even has a built in server that can provide online access to your ebook collection remotely. Continue reading ..
Getting a new gadget is always fun but if it’s replacing an old gadget you might have questions about what to do with the old device. You might be thinking “Can I sell this old one for some cash?” or “Now, how exactly do I recycle this?”. The answer to both of those questions can be found with Gazelle.
Sculptris provides a host of “materials” to choose from and, in addition to the sculpting tools it provides powerful painting/drawing/texturing tools that can be used to finesse your models once they are created. 
