Instan-T: Voice, video and text chat client for Google, AOL, MSN, and Yahoo!

There are plenty of utilities that let you keep in touch with all of your contacts regardless of the IM platform they're using. But while we love Digsby, Trillian, Pidgin, and Adium most of the time, there are a few features missing from those apps:

• Support for voice and video chats
• The ability to invite friends from different IM networks into a single chat room

And that's where Instan-T comes in. This multi-protocol chat client for Windows supports AOL, Google, Yahoo!, and MSN Messengers. It also supports voice and video chat across each network

Technorati Tags: Messenger, Yahoo, MSN, Google

AVG Free Anti-Virus 2008 Released, Much Improved

Popular freeware anti-virus application AVG Free recently updated to AVG Free 2008. Aside from a general interface overhaul and faster performance, the updated anti-virus scanner has added several new features with a focus on web security.

21 Awesome But Lesser Known Open-Source Applications for Windows

 

Website Tech Tips For Us has a really nice list of 21 lesser know but highly useful open-source applications for Windows, worth browsing for new finds.

These applications range from moderately popular to downright obscure, but all of them are open-source and FREE. All of them are worth the install time if you have never tried them. As a side bonus, many of them are cross-platform as well.

 

21 Awesome (But Lesser-Known) Open-Source Applications for Windows (Tech Tips For Us)

Find Free Open Apps at Open Source Living.

There are countless arguments for using open source applications, but one of the strongest is having a single interface to learn when working on Windows, Mac or Linux systems. Web site directory Open Source Living helps you find just those kind of programs. It's not an extensive, all-in-one directory, but it seems to narrow its choices based on quality and widespread acceptance. And while not every application listed at Open Source Living is entirely cross-platform, a good deal of them are. For more free or open source applications.

Open Source Living [via etc.]

del.icio.us Tags: Download, Open Source, Software, Freeware

Technorati Tags: Download, Open Source, Software, Freeware

Automate computer settings by network with Net Profiles

Freeware application Net Profiles lets you automate tasks—like mapping drives or switching the default printer—based on the network your computer is currently connected to. After experiencing the pain of constantly switching the network connection settings between home and office, I lamented that I wasn't able to find a solid freeware tool for Windows that performed similar tasks; although Net Profiles doesn't handle any of the Bluetooth proximity functionality, it looks to work very well with location actions. It can even change your default browser homepage and proxy settings, switch desktop wallpapers, and launch programs. Net Profiles is freeware - Sweet !

Technorati Tags: Network Switcher, Utility, Freeware

Miro - a free, open source Swiss Army Knife of Video Players

Miro - free, open source internet tv and video player (formerly Democracy player) has rolled out offering the ability to play any video file, free internet tv, download YouTube videos and has BitTorrent abilities.

Website Simplehelp has a great "introduction to Miro" that's definitely worth a read as well.

Technorati Tags: Software, Freware, Video Players

Speed up file copying with TeraCopy

Free file-copying utility TeraCopy speeds up file transfers and can pause, resume and test file copy operations. With TeraCopy you can:

Copy files faster. TeraCopy uses dynamically adjusted buffers to reduce seek times. Asynchronous copy speeds up file transfer between two physical hard drives.
Pause and resume file transfers. Pause copy process at any time to free up system resources and continue with a single click.
Error recovery. In case of copy error, TeraCopy will try several times and in the worse case just skips the file, not terminating the entire transfer.

You can also use TeraCopy to diff the contents of two directories by running a "Test" copy, which shows you which files exist in the destination directory as compared to the source. If you've ever had Windows fail at the very last minute of a multi-gigabyte file copy, TeraCopy's for you. TeraCopy is a free download for home use for Windows.

Technorati tags: Download, Windows

Photo2Text: Convert an image to text

Photo2Text.com Convert an image and process to a text file of the original image. There is also a Firefox extension available.

New Windows Live Writer is here

Microsoft today released a new version of Windows Live Writer 1.0 (beta 2). This WYSIWYG blog editing software is a vast improvement over the previous version and a must-have upgrade.

There's an inline spell checker, support for HTML tables and a reminder option that will make sure you don't post stuff without adding appropriate titles and categories / tags.

Technorati tags: Blog

_sweet_downloads_ : Software for Starving Students

Software for Starving Students has released a 2007 edition of its collection of freeware and open-source software and its a nice collection I can say.

The entire collection is an ISO image and needs a burner to cut a DVD.

TorPark

If you're serious about online privacy, you probably already anonymize your browsing sessions at home, but what about when you sit down at an Internet cafe or public terminal where your decidedly non-anonymous use could be tracked back to you? The solution, of course, is to take your privacy with you, and that's what TorPark is here for. Download TorPark for your language, and put it on a USB Flash keychain. Plug it into any internet terminal whether at home, school, or public. Run Torpark.exe and it will launch a Tor circuit connection, which creates an encrypted tunnel from your computer indirectly to a Tor exit computer, giving the appearance of having the Tor exit computer's IP.