Software reviews, news, tweets, ratings and blog posts | Software Shoutdown.net

Registry Easy

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 17:30:18 +0100

PC Pandora

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 22:31:38 +0000

IBP (iBusinessPromoter)

Tue, 19 May 2009 23:31:14 +0100

IBP (or iBusinessPromoter) has released version 10 of their SEO suite and the software is looking better than ever. Axandra have taken an alternative marketing strategy to their close competitor WebCEO and offer an unconditional 30-day money back guarantee rather than a free version of the software. So is it worth the price tag? The patter is familiar. The suite helps you Optimize, Promote and Track your website marketing efforts. All the usual are there ? keyword selection, link analysis, submission and reporting. In fact, the reporting is perhaps a little more professional than competing suites making IBP a solid choice for the SEO or marketing professional. With a core featureset that resembles WebCEO and WebPosition, the interesting differentiator in IBP is the money back guarantee they offer. It demonstrates a level of confidence in their optimization module that warrants investigation. The wording of the guarantee state that:

Your website will be listed in the top 10 results in the search engine of your choice. If not, you will get your money back.
You decide for which keywords you want to be listed.
This guarantee is valid for one full year after your purchase.

All you need to do is complete all the suggestions generated by the optimization reports. This is a pretty useful motivational trick, since most users of the software would fall some way short of completing all suggested steps. IBP comes in two flavours, IBP Standard and IBP Business. The standard version is built for those who promote their own websites, supporting up to 5 projects and costing EUR 249.95. You don?t need to be a rocket scientist to work out that the business package is intended for use by those who promote other people?s websites. The business package supports unlimited projects and comes in at EUR 449.95. A free trial can be downloaded from the website. Give it a spin.

Norton PC Tune-up Service

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:30:39 +0100

While this site focuses on software, we've been hearing some positive reports about the Norton PC Tune-up Service. Instead of buying a piece of software, a Norton system engineer will take control of your machine remotely and optimize the memory usage and start-up programs. It's not rocket science, but it's something that can benefit from an expert eye. What's more, it's a task that doesn't need to be repeated often and so isn't really worth shelling out on a dedicated piece of software. A 30 minute session is normally all that is required to boost your system's performance. The service is inexpensive and is slick, and looking at the recommendation emails we've received is going down well. It's a little bit of personal service on a sometimes impersonal internet.

McAfee VirusScan Plus

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:31:59 +0000

McAfee is a trusted name in the Antivirus market that has long played second position to the popular Norton range. Those in the industry have for some time regarded McAfee as a better product, primarily due to the fact that it is less of a resource hog. The program provides good protection against the usual suspects - viruses, Trojans, worms, malicious ActiveX controls and Java applets to name but some. Like counterpart programs it falls down a little on newer threats coming from Instant Messaging and Peer-to-Peer downloads which it doesn't scan by default. The virus database is updated frequently and the detection rate is one of the best in the industry, having recently been awarded a VB100% award and the ICSA award. I personally used McAfee protection for years, only decamping to Kaspersky after recommendation from a trusted security website. However the product is excellent and highly recommended.

Privacy Toolbox

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 18:31:10 +0000

This is a great bundle from Lavasoft - the company renown for online security solutions. The suite contains two products that target separate problems. Problem 1 : Delete does not really mean delete. I've said it time and time again. When you delete something from your computer the file isn't really deleted, it's simply marked as deleted and not shown by your operating system. Anyone can access these files on your hard drive with nothing more than some open-source free software. So if you really want to delete something, for good, you need memory erasing software that overwrites the file and fragments it beyond retrieval. This kind of process is useful if you have sensitive files that you don't want anyone else to see, and essential if you are going to bin your PC or hard drive and need to erase all data beforehand. Privacy Toolbox contains Lavasoft's File Shredder to perform exactly this task. It does exactly what it says on the tin - shreds files! Problem 2 : Protect your data Laptops are getting smaller and lighter, and therefore are getting increasingly easy to steal or loose. Even desktop PC's are subject to theft or prying yes. Would you like someone to have open access to all of the files on your machine? Lavasoft include their Digital Lock product in the Privacy Toolkit which uses cutting edge encryption to secure your files and keep them safe. Only the correct password will unlock the files, so make sure you remember it! A highly recommended suite of privacy tools which has always been rated highly by Shoutdown.

RankSense

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 23:31:33 +0000

RankSense prides itself in offering only the most useful tools for your SEO projects, made up of 12 software modules. The other large suites STILL pack legacy modules, such as site submission, that just aren't useful any more, but RankSense has been brave and cut the crap. All the elements that you'd expect are there. Keyword research, link analysis, rank reporting. An interesting deviation from the norm is that RankSense have decided not to include their own traffic and conversion tracking system (as Web CEO does), but instead provide log stats and Google Analytics integration. Where I wouldn't use a proprietary system, I would linked my Analytics account to the software in order to increase it's reporting capability. The program provides a step-by-step SEO wizard to take a novice through every stage of the SEO process, or the tools can be used independently by more advanced users. While the tools are moderately powerful, they are too slow and cumbersome to be used across multiple sites easily and so the suite is more suited to the beginner or webmaster rather than the SEO professional. My initial assessment of the program can be summarised as follows:

The initial tool that analyses traffic stats to pick up keywords already being used to find a website didn?t work. The report took at least an hour to run and was full of totally meaningless keywords. I could have found the same information within 5 minutes by looking in Google Webmaster Tools or Analytics. While I agree that it's often a good idea to look at keywords already drawing in traffic and build on them, from an SEO consultants point of view this feature adds little value for me.
By taking the "Smart Mode" route, you will be running a lot of reports before getting to the action. Again this is good for the novice but not for the more advanced.
In general, the software is extremely slow. In conjunction with point 2, this makes the whole process rather tiresome.

The software is in active development and I expect updates to be frequent, therefore this review is likely to be update frequently.

Coda

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 10:31:41 +0000

Having recently moved from PC to Mac I needed to buy a new copy of Adobe Dreamweaver, my coding software of choice. Having looked at the Adobe price tag, and subsequently picking myself up of the floor, I decided to investigate the alternatives. It must be said that I didn't use Dreamweaver in design view. If your looking for a WYSISYG website design solution then Dreamweaver rocks (pretty good, clean code generation that is light-years ahead of the competition). My criteria for the new software included a decent sized coding view, colour coding, brace balancing, code hints, decent file management, FTP and stability, stability, stability. Having looked at a few open source and commercial solutions, I've plumped for Coda from Panic software. Coda is a lovely looking piece of kit. It has a nice visual organisation of projects and ticks almost all of my boxes. It's almost perfect, although there are a few features of Dreamweaver that I still yearn for;

Please Coda, let me view all the files in my project in expandable tree format. I hate switching between folders to upload amended files ? I want to be able to see them all.
And talking about file management, I do like the Dreamweaver cache that lets me know which files are linking to each other and allows me to update links sitewide
File location prompts please! When I type url(../images I want to be presented with a window to navigate to the file (al-la Dreamweaver)

Other than those, Coda is awesome and at just $99 is worth every cent.

McAfee Total Protection

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 04:31:19 +0000

McAfee is a trusted name in online protection market that has long played second position to the popular Norton range. Those in the industry have for some time regarded McAfee as a better product, primarily due to the fact that it is less of a resource hog. With it's Total Protection release, McAfee bundles it's antivirus offering with a firewall, parental controls, adware protection, back-up and restore plus tools to help you avoid identity thieves and online scammers. Everything but the kitchen sink. Because of that, it's a hefty piece of software. Install is protracted and the firewall is a little demanding as it requires the usual training. Once all is set up however the programs run with less overhead than Norton and provide excellent protection and piece of mind. Advanced users will probably want the lighter touch of the Kaspersky range, however for a family PC this suite is recommended.

Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 09:29:53 +0000

Trend Micro's PC-cillin protects against a variety of internet menaces. Hailed by C-NET as the 'best Internet Security package on the market,' it certainly deserves attention. It is bundled free with a year's supply of updates to combat new threats, and is compatible with Windows Vista. PC-cillin received the VB 100% award, has been approved by ICSA and passed the rigurous West Coast Labs effectiveness checks. Installation is simple, and the program runs silently without noticeably consuming system resources. So far so good... In terms of the variety of threat coverage offered by pc-cillin, the results are promising. The automatic virus scans are able to detect and deal with just about anything, even when the virus is encrypted so as to distort its hex signature. Prevention of unauthorised registry changes is well implemented, but can be configured so as not to be intrusive. The automatic updates are frequent and prompt. The support team are helpful and friendly, as well as being able to offer expert advice on advance issues. Overall review - 10/10. This is a must buy!

Norton Internet Security

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 10:29:19 +0000

Norton is one of the big players in Internet security alongside McAfee. The Norton Internet Security suite rolls up some of it's most popular security packages into one conventient consumer package that is ideal when looking to protect a desktop PC or small network. The suite includes the following Norton programs:

Antivirus
Antispyware
Two-way firewall
Antiphishing
Rootkit detection
Intrusion prevention
Web site authentication
Eavesdropping protection
Confidential information management
Antispam and Parental Control

According to the promotional material, the key benefits of the suite are :

Detects and eliminates spyware.
Removes viruses and Internet worms automatically.
Protects email and instant messaging from viruses.
Protects against hackers.
Blocks identity theft by phishing Web sites.
NEW! Improved performance delivers faster starts and scans.
NEW! One click access to expert support.
NEW! Network security monitoring helps protect your wireless network.
NEW! Norton Identity Safe delivers enhanced ID theft protection.
NEW! Works quietly in the background.
Download antispam and parental controls.
Protection for up to 3 PCs.
Includes one year of automatic definition updates, new product features, and access to updated versions of Norton Internet Security� throughout the life of your service subscription.
On-going Protection keeps your computer protected from the latest Internet risks by automatically renewing your subscription at the regular subscription price (plus applicable tax), so you don't have to.

I have personally used both Norton Security Suite and MacAfee suite. One thing I would say is that you need to have a fairly high spec machine, in terms of processor speed and RAM, for these products to run successfully. Anything less that 1GB of RAM and your PC will litterally grind to a hault and more than likely crash after running the suite for more than a month. I'd be interested to know of any other problems with this suite, and whether anyone else has suffered the RAM problem. That said, if you do have over 1GB RAM the program seems to run very smoothly.

SpamAid

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 04:30:15 +0000

With reports out this weekend that spam is choking up the internet, spam defence is becoming big business. On that note I thought I'd revisit a little piece of kit that I used a couple of years ago, before I went fully Gmail. The little chap is called SpamAid, and it's a very simple plug in for MS Outlook that will defend your inbox. The program is based on Bayesian filtering technology (a very clever bloke was Mr Bayes :o) and automatically learns using your personal correspondence to increase the filtration accuracy. Quarantined e-mails are stored in a separate SPAM folder, so that you can periodically check over things being deleted, and it has the usual friends, enemies and filter lists. Other features include an option to test outgoing mail for potential risk of being filtered as spam (a very nice addition not often found), and support for POP3, IMAP, HTTP and MS Exchange. I would not advise that you use SpamAid as your only line of defence. Why? If your email gets on a spam list (which eventually it will) you will start receiving floods of unwanted mail. SpamAid works by filtering the email as it is downloaded on to your local machine, which means that you might still be sitting idol as the program sifts through wades of junk. I personally use a server side spam filter (namely my Gmail account) and then download from Gmail to MS Outlook with a spam plug attached. The plug in catches the rouge emails that Gmail fails to catch, but doesn't have to burn up my bandwidth dealing with the whole lot. Moral of the story. SpamAid makes a great Outlook plug in, but don't rely on it as your only line of defence.

ClipCache Pro 3

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 15:31:39 +0000

I spotted a review of the newest version of ClipCache today on LinuxInsider. I remember using ClipCache ages ago and was surprised to hear that Xrayz Software have only just released an upgrade. From what I remember, the program is a really useful extension to the Windows clipboard. The fear with any very simple program is that an upgrade will bloat the code with useless features which destroys the usability of the application. So are Xrayz guilty of a vanity upgrade? Well, version 3 seems to be a fitting heir. The program essentially stores anything that you cut and paste, ready for re-use. This is extremely useful when coding a website for example, where snips of code can be stacked up. If you familiarise yourself with the programs shortcut keys the utility further increases in power. The newer features include colour highlighting (always good), a customizable toolbar, nested folders for clip organization and a tabbed preview pane. For anyone that uses a pc all day for multiple tasks I would encourage you to download the trial of this little program. It is very light, and will happily sit in your task bar working positively towards your productivity.

Panda Antivirus

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 08:31:32 +0100

I love Pandas, but the only way the world will wake up to the threat that mankind is placing on endangered species will be for the panda to become extinct. Sad but true I fear. Anyway another Panda I've always admired from afar is the security software company. While I've never owned a piece of Panda software I've read good things about them, and have always felt they are up there with the likes of McAfee and Symantec as far as reputation goes. So the new range of 2007 products is out, with updates to the Antivirus, Firewall and Encryption packages. There are several flavours to the product, depending on what kind of protection you need, all offering great value. Panda Internet Security 2007
Panda Antivirus + Firewall 2007
Panda Antivirus 2007 One common criticism of the consumer Antivirus product is that while the program is very light, in doesn't offer the same level of protection as some of the more expensive products. However, my experience of antivirus products is that often a lighter product is more that capable of defending a desktop computer and is less likely to cripple your processor (see http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/index.php?p=327). I'm going to give Panda a try when my current product expires - you should too!

Macrovirus

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 13:31:45 +0100

Macrovirus is an anti virus program with some neat little extras. It has an inbuilt Adware and Spyware scanner and will repair any damage they've caused and delete them from your system. It also acts as a pop-up blocker, although most browsers now include this functionality. Usually I don't like software that uses gimmicks (like pop-up blockers) and would prefer them to stick to a core purpose, but I do like this product. I'd be interested in running some comparisons on the virus database to check that it's comprehensive enough - anyone tried this one and have a review?

PPC BidMax 4.0

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 22:31:54 +0100

Until recently no one product could be used to maintain PPC campaigns across the various networks available. And then Apex got their act together and launched version 4 of their Bid maximizer software. This is what the PPC world have been waiting for. An exceptionally well executed piece of software that can cope with all of the major PPC providers, including Google Adwords and Yahoo! Search Marketing. The software includes some useful tools, such as keyword research, ROI calculation and integrated account management, however it's the simple fact that you can see all your campaigns on one screen, and automate the tedious task of monitoring which is the greatest hoot. An exceptional leap forward in PPC management - well done Dynamic.

Rapid Keywords

Sun, 17 Sep 2006 07:30:07 +0100

Another keyword product, perhaps adding weight to the argument that keywords are now king on the web? Rapid Keyword offers all the features that you would expect from such a product, namely:

Keyword finder
Competition analyzer
Keyword management

It does these things a little better than the big seo suits (such as Web CEO or WebPosition), however whether you need this level of detail is up for debate. This product is well put together however and is a contender to the implausibly popular Keyword Elite.

Content Cleaner

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 17:30:27 +0100

Content Cleaner (from Content Purity) is a little program that will remove any trace of those sessions when you mouse wanders into the darker side of the web. It's a simple idea that is effectively executed, however I find the marketing of this product rather bizarre. Their website seems to refer to Content Cleaner as a parental control tool, and tries to make a case that pornography can accidentally find its way onto your pc ready to be found by a child. Firstly, children are very unlikely to find adult images while scratching around a pc's internal files - they are much more likely to find them on the open web (which, let's face it is much more fun that looking at cached files!). Secondly, let's get real gentlemen. Porn makes its way on to your computer when you go looking for it. It's not a sin (well actually, I guess it could be :), but it might be a good idea to remove it once in a while. For those who need it, Content Cleaner is an effective and affordable tool at just $29.99.

Win-Spy

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 03:31:47 +0100

Do you need to know what your child is doing on the computer? Is your spouse cheating on you? Do you need to monitor what your employees are doing during work hours? Is someone tampering with your computer while you are away? With Win Spy you will know exactly what they are doing. WinSpy is a complete Stealth Monitoring program that can both monitor your local and remote PC. It's rock solid, and is completely inaccessible to anyone that doesn't know the secret hotkey access system. The list of features is endless - take a look at their website! If you really need to know what other people are doing online, this is your best bet at just $19.95.

IamBigBrother

Sun, 09 Jul 2006 20:31:07 +0100

I find these products pretty scary! They are pitched at the parent market, although I suspect that the majority of sales are generated from suspicious spouses and partners. This product does exactly what it says on the tin. It will record the movements of your loved ones in huge detail, allowing you discreet access to their exact activities online. Among the features of the latest release are:

Will capture ALL passwords typed.
Now records all MYSPACE.COM keystrokes!
Records BOTH SIDES of MSN, Yahoo, AOL Instant Messages.
Records INCOMING and OUTGOING Yahoo Mail and Hotmail.
Works in total secrecy...cannot be bypassed or detected by user.
Will not slow down the computer.
IamBigBrother includes FREE email-based tech support

If you really find it difficult to have trust in someone close to you, then this is probably your best bet.