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OCRFeeder Fails to Feed Factually October 31, 2012 
OCRFeeder is a document layout analysis and optical character recognition application. It is a type of software that leaves much to be desired on the Linux desktop. OCR software is a companion tool to scanning a document. The scanner software creates a photo-like image of the scanned document. The OCR component lets you edit the text and then export the edited version into a word processor or page-design program.
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Roam Control Could Muscle You Out of a Tight Spot October 26, 2012 
Minimal signal bars? In the middle of nowhere? Your phone should automatically roam
onto alternative networks designated by carrier roaming agreements, but sometimes it
doesn't -- the phone can appear biased towards your home network. I've been looking at Roam Control, an Android app -- not available in Google Play -- that lets you force your phone to roam.
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Darhon Finance: Feature-Packed but Some Assembly Required October 24, 2012 
Darhon Finance is a comprehensive personal finance program packed with features to manage finances and bank accounts, track credit cards and investments and plan for expenses. It goes far beyond serving as a typical electronic check or bank book register. That leap to being full financial package puts it in the realm of database functionality.
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JuiceDefender Can Be a Battery Savior if You Have a Bit of Patience October 19, 2012 
Consider how far we have come as a communications-driven society since the days of the messenger pigeon and telegraph. It's about 150 years since the Pony
Express rode in the West. From horses to microwave, one of life's mysteries is that battery technology is still dead-ending us. Portable power chemistry hasn't been conquered.
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Freeplane: Solid Mind Mapping but You May Need a Map October 17, 2012 
Freeplane is an application for creating mind maps. A mind map is the doodling you draw with shapes and other symbols around words connected with lines to make charts representing your thoughts and ideas on a particular topic or project.It's not often that productivity software makes the task at hand more difficult than old-fashioned methods, but in this case it might be easier to draw a mind map on paper than to do so using Freeplane.
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ROM Toolbox Pro's Pretty Nifty for Rooting Around in Your Phone October 12, 2012 
Privileged control of your smartphone is one of the killer features of the Android
operating system. This control, known as "root access," allows users to remove
manufacturer and mobile operator hardware and software limits to takeover the device. I've written about competitor ClockworkMod's ROM Manager Premium app that you can use to automate and streamline maintenance and other tasks.
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NoteCase Is Back in Pro Form - but There's a Hitch October 10, 2012 
NoteCase Pro is a note-taking and outliner application with a hefty list of features if you venture beyond the free version and buy into the shareware license. Even if you settle for the unregistered lite version, NoteCase Pro is an impressive tool for cataloging your notes and collected information into a hierarchically organized database. NoteCase Manager was well known in the Linux/Unix world.
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PYKL3 Radar Is a Fine Foul-Weather Tracker October 05, 2012 
If you've ever been frustrated by the inaccuracy of a television weather report, in particular the graphics, there's always been a way out -- you could go to the National Weather Service website and look at the online radar images pulled straight off the actual radar. If you're fishing, hiking or working outdoors, though, you'll find the graphics don't render all that well on mobile devices.
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Calligra Productivity Suite: Too Much Trouble October 03, 2012 
The Calligra Suite is an unusual compilation of office tools with much potential -- but it has a good deal of maturing to do before it can advance beyond its mediocre performance following a debut almost three years ago. Calligra is a fork of KDE's KOffice that grew out of unresolved disputes among KOffice developers. The project team recently announced the second stable release.
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Chrome for Android Is More Sticky Than Slick September 28, 2012 
Some of my earliest memories of smartphones are of the hassles involved with getting
bookmarks loaded across devices. Why was it that Web properties thought -- and some still think -- you needed different information at your desk from what you wanted on the road? The issue has never been properly addressed -- until now, maybe.
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Mageia Linux: A Delightful OS for Work or Play September 26, 2012 
If you fancy game playing, the latest release of the Mageia Linux OS will be a fun experience. Even if you never open a game, Mageia 2 is a solid distribution well suited to newcomers and seasoned Linux users alike. Mageia is a fork of the now defunct Mandriva distro. It was developed by a team of former employees of the France-based company that folded Mandriva.
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Ubuntu Made Easy Shortens the Learning Curve September 25, 2012 
Ubuntu is one of the most popular and user-friendly Linux operating systems you will find. That said, Ubuntu can be intimidating and frustrating to computer users just stepping out of the World of Windows. Nothing beats learning how to use the Linux operating system like hands-on discovery. Having someone to coach you through the questions does a lot to remove frustrations and shorten the learning curve.
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Tasker: Micro-Managing Automated Routines Can Be Crazy Fun September 21, 2012 
Want to launch a music app when you plug in your headphones, or wake up to a specific app? You can do things like this with sets of automated routines that you program via the Tasker app. Crafty's Tasker app automates settings on Android devices and lets you micro-manage them. Does this level of in-depth control and automation make you a control freak? Well, maybe.
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Zorin Linux Is Heavy on the Windows Dressing September 19, 2012 
Zorin Linux 6.0 is a very capable replacement operating system for Microsoft Windows. It is also a bother-free alternative to other Linux distros that suffer from the usability issues of the Gnome 3 or Ubuntu Unity desktop interfaces. The Zorin Linux distro is an offshoot of Canonical's Ubuntu Linux but it has much more of the look and feel of Linux Mint with a few very substantial differences
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3G Watchdog Pro Keeps Massive Data Charges at Bay September 14, 2012 
With the preponderance of data quotas imposed by telcos on mobile phone usage and the rapid introduction of data-hogging apps -- in particular, those related to TV and music -- it may well be time to investigate counters. Counters let you see how much data you're using, and warn you of potential overages.
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VectorLinux: A Desktop That's Slim, Sleek and Speedy September 12, 2012 
The VectorLinux distro does an impressive job of blending a traditional Linux environment with the performance of other more mainstream offerings. VectorLinux is not a newcomer to the Linux desktop world. Despite its more than 10 years in development, this distro is not as well known as other Linux choices.
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Fast Burst Camera: When Great Action Shots Are Enough September 07, 2012 
Spritefish's Fast Burst Camera may be just the app for sports photography. I've reviewed camera apps for Android OS before, and I've been particularly fond of
Vignette, with its 76 customizable photo effects including infrared. That app is superior to market leader Instagram. However, Spritefish claims that Fast Burst Camera can take up to 30 photos per second.
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SolusOS Has Something Cool for Veterans, Novices Alike September 05, 2012
SolusOS is a relatively new Linux distribution that is attracting considerable interest as an alternative to unpopular desktop replacements for traditional Linux user interfaces. It has much to offer Linux users who reject the Gnome 3 desktop and find little appeal from the KDE and Unity desktop environments. It also provides Linux newcomers from the Microsoft platform a comfortable and familiar desktop experience.
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Switchpro Widget: A Passel of Pretty Little Toggles August 31, 2012 
If you're a regular reader of this column, you may remember that I recently took a look at Cloud TV's HD Widgets, an app for creating your own elegant, translucent widgets to replace ugly stock widgets that appear to permeate today's Android phones -- Motorola, I'm referring to you mainly.
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Blender Graphics Editor Slices, Dices and Amazes August 29, 2012 
Blender is such a highly specialized and powerful rendering app that at least two Linux distros are built around it. This cross-platform 3D graphics application matches features and performance of the leading commercial equivalent software packages. Professional-strength rendering software is not a tool for tinkerers.
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