Recently, I acquired an android Smartphone and while browsing in several android forums and the android market, I discovered the following useful applications:

Gmote: An amazing application that turns Android into a remote control for a computer, allowing users to run movies and music at a distance. It supports all of the standard remote control features such as play, pause, rewind, volume controls etc. It also has a built-in file browser that lets you select what to play.

TasKiller free: Let you close (kill) any running application in one click.

BatteryLife: Displays the percent of the remaining battery.

Power manager: Adds new power settings to the phone (e.g. how long the screen is on during a call, if device stays on while the keyboard is open, etc.) and allows you to quickly view and change other phone settings depending on different conditions (e.g. low battery).

Quick Uninstaller: Uninstalls applications from the phone using a desktop-style view. The uninstall is performed by only two clicks.

Any Cut: Allows you to create Home shortcuts to anything! Popular shortcuts like directly calling a phone number or sending an SMS are supported.

Some of the applications listed here have also a paid version, but this post refers only to their free versions.

All Web Developers/Designers need to test their Websites in several different versions of all the famous browsers to ensure compatibility with each one of them. Sometimes it’s almost impossible to have every version installed on your computer (e.g. multiple versions of Internet Explorer on Vista..).

A great solution to this problem came from Spoon. They created the Browser Sandbox, which allows you to run different versions of all the famous browsers in your computer, without having to install any of them. Only a tiny plugin needs to be installed and then you can run all the supported browsers without any other installation.

The list of browsers that are currently available:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 8
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 7
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6
• Mozilla Firefox 3.5
• MozillaFirefox 3
• MozillaFirefox 2
• Apple Safari 4
• Apple Safari 3
• Google Chrome
• Opera 10
• Opera 9

The application is free, so why don’t you try it?

For many years now, Nero is one of the most known solutions to burn CDs/DVDs. In its latest versions it can do a lot more, like play your video and music files or help you to share your photos/videos in online communities. But how many of its users actually use all those features? For anyone who just want a quick and reliable way to burn CDs/DVDs, those are the best 3 free alternatives:

InfraRecorder “is a free CD/DVD burning solution for Microsoft Windows. It offers a wide range of powerful features; all through an easy to use application interface and Windows Explorer integration”. Try It!

ImgBurn “is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit”. Try It!

CDBurnerXP “is a free application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a multi-language interface. Everyone, even companies, can use it for free. It does not include adware or similar malicious components”. Try It!

Yesterday, i picked up the task of bringing back to life an old laptop, a HP Compaq Presario 2500 series. Unfortunately, when i tried to boot from the Windows XP disk so i can format it and then install the OS, i found out that the laptop’s DVD drive was…dead!

I didn’t had a replacement for it, so my first thought was to copy everything in a USB stick and just boot from it and complete the process. But it wasn’t as easy as i thought it would be! Of course my first attempt (just copy everything to the USB stick) was a failure (i wasn’t expected anything more). Afterwards, when i googled the issue, i found a lot of different ways to accomplish the task. After spending some hours trying a lot of them, komku’s solution actually worked and the old laptop resurrected!