FotoFlexer

FotoFlexer, a cool Web 2.0 application, now offers a pro service, free to users. Web based photo editor FotoFlexer is now provided with an update that can now cater to the needs of advanced users.

Among the major additions is the inclusion of curves and high resolution editing, which let users work with large pictures. The new features also let users adjust colouring, contrast and exposure.

One feature among the new features that stands out is “smart scissors”, which is something like the magnetic lasso tool found in Photoshop. It uses FotoFlexer’s “Predictive Pixel Partitioning” technology to determine the object’s borders without user input.

Another feature that could prove useful is the new preference saver. This can automatically tune itself based on the tools used on a regular basis and have them set the next time the user logs in. This tool is similar to

Photoshop’s workspace preferences.

FotoFlexer has also added new colour effects (like Photoshop’s filters), along with a new way to add borders to photos.

Though Picnic might be preferred because of its deep level integration with Flickr and Box.net, FotoFlexer definitely would remain as one of the best online editors, specially for users who don’t want to shell out the $25 a year for Picnik’s pro offerings.

To use the FotoFlexer’s free service you need to register at http://www.fotoflexer.com/.

Fact200

Fact200 is both an Internet search client and a news feed reader that focuses on finding, sifting and browsing information while filtering out noise and junk.

The ‘Pre-Fetching’ feature in this utility ensures that Web pages actually exist and downloads them in parallel. The pre-rendered previews lets you to quickly view Web pages through hover browsing or slideshows and to view thumbnails of any size.

Web pages are indexed so that they can be easily retrieved or sub-filtered. Fact200 stores Web pages along with their previews on your computer for quick retrieval, portability, independence and privacy.

The customisable sources available in Fact200 lets you query or retrieve Web pages from a variety of sources including search engines, usenet and RSS feeds. And, the results appear as you type while searching through the library, providing a more fluid search experience that allows for more experimentation. Real-time term suggestions lets you find the correct spellings, misspellings or variations that will yield results.

Unicode support, Cookies, ActiveX and javascript are disabled to prevent tracking, malware and pop-up ads from interfering with the search experience in this utility. Search history, favourites and browsing patterns are all stored to provide a personalised search experience.

To maintain privacy, all data is stored on your computer or disk and never transmitted over the Internet. The sorting option allows you to sort Web pages by the last viewed date, content date, load dates or score. With the saving feature, you will be able to save result sets to preserve a specific list of Web pages.

Fact200 is distributed in a zip file. It is a monolithic 1MB executable that self-installs and self-uninstalls. The 440 KB Fact200 v1.08 (2/13/2008) for Windows 2000/XP can be downloaded at http://www.fact200.com/Fact200_108.zip. It does not install by itself onto the program files directory, the start menu, the quick launch or the desktop.

Open Menu+

Open Menu+ is an open source and free alternative to the Windows® Start Menu.

A Vista or Mac Spotlight style quick search let’s you use Vista Start Menu and Mac Spotlight features on XP to quickly find the application or file you need.

The Open Menu+ can appear next to the Start Menu to help you get familiarised with it before switching over.

For Tablet PC users, Open Menu+ can open with a mouse-over, without having to click on the Start button.
The 12 MB Open Menu+ V1.5.6 (uncompressed) requires Windows® XP or Vista. It can be downloaded at http://downloads.sourceforge.net/
openmenuplus/OpenMenuPlus156Setup.exe

Disk Copy

The EASEUS Disk Copy can be used for sector by sector disk partition or copy, regardless of the OS, file systems and partition schemes. The sector to sector method assures you a copy 100 per cent identity to original.
The utility can be used to copy, clone or while upgrading to a new larger drive. It can copy anything from old hard drive including deleted, lost files and inaccessible data.

Disk Copy’s new features include its ability to support IDE, SATAI, SATAII, SCSI, Firewire (IEEE1394) and USB drives. The utility also supports partition copy, dynamic disk, inaccessible disk copy and booting from CD Rom.
The application has a friendly graphical user interface and relay disk space for insufficient destination. It is an essential utility for disaster recovery. The 19.7 MB Disk Copy 2.0 (New Upgrade!) can be downloaded at http://www.easeus.com/disk-copy/download/dc.zip
N S SOUNDAR RAJAN
dheutilities@gmail.com