Foobar2000 is a lightweight, free audio player for Windows that supports multiple audio formats and replay gain. The program has a very minimalist look but is very easily customizable to suit personal preferences. It also supports plugins, tagging, keyboard shortcuts and a lot more. The download is quite small at only 3MB and installation is pretty quick as well. This is my personal choice, since I need a low resource usage music player that can work in the background while I am playing a game or other resouce intensive application.

35 of the best music players for Windows

For users who wants to see all the good music players for Windows, here is the list. I am not going to review each, the links should take you to the respective pages where you can find more info. The ones marked in bold are quite popular.

aTunes
AIMP2
Alpha2
AquaLung (linux)
BS.Player
Cool Player
E Jukebox
Foobar2000
Groovy Media Player
iTunes
J.River Media Center
J.River Media Jukebox
Jaangle
Jet Audio
KMPlayer
Muffin Music Player
MediaMan
MediaMonkey
Media Player Classic (comes with windows)
MusicBee
Quintessential Player
Real Player
Songbird
Spider Player
Spotify
The Godfather
VLC Player
vuplayer
Winamp
Windows Media Center (comes with windows)
Windows Media Player (comes with windows)
Xion Player
XBMC Media Center
XMPlay
Zune

We had written about Glide Gdrive which offers 30GB of online space. Glide is a whole cloud computing package and can be quite interesting if that is what you are looking for. If you just want to store and back files online then the best service we have found till now is iDrive.

iDrive is an online storage and backup service that gives you 12GB of storage for your files. The first time you visit iDrive it just shows you a 2GB quota for free members. However once you register, you are given an option to spread the word about iDrive by letting them send promotional emails to your contacts. Fill it up and your account will get an additional 10GB worth of online storage absolutely free.

So besides the 12GB space, what does iDrive have to offer ?

It allows your to automatically backup selected files and folders. Folders can also be set to sync so that it remains the same and the contents of your computer. It automatically selectes My Documents to back but this can be changed to the folders you prefer.

Once you have chosen the folder you wish to backup I recommed you head to options and set the threshold for Bandwidth Usage when the computer is in use. This ensures that the backup process does not slow down your internet activities. Click the backup button to start a backup, alternatively you have schedule a backup that can start at a time when the computer is not in use.

iDrive can also allow you to restore different versions of the backup you made to their servers. This is a very helpful utility if you accidentally modified or deleted a file.

Features of iDrive

• Automatic Selection
• Continuous Data Protection (CDP)
• True Archiving / Sync
• Open/Locked File Backup
• Mapped Drive Backup
• IDrive Explorer
• Search and Restore
• Time-Line Restore
• Versioning
• Retrieve data from any location
• Web Based Backup Management
• Manage multiple accounts
• 128-bit SSL encryption on transfers
• 256-bit AES encryption on storage
• Scheduled backup even if system is logged off

Try iDrive

Many users have started using external hard disks to store their data and files. While Windows Vista and Windows Seven automatically start defragmentation of your internal hard disks when the computer is idle, it does not degfrag external hard disks. If you dont like the defrag program that comes with Windows, here is a list of 5 free defrag programs that can help you.

Top 10 free Defrag software of 2010

Auslogics Disk Defrag

Auslogics Disk Defrag is fast and easy and boasts an improved interface and other features that make the tool a pleasure to use. Auslogics Disk Defrag’s graphical representation of the defrag process makes things much easier to follow. There are plenty of settings that can be tweaked by advanced users.

MyDefrag

JKDefrag used to be considered as a very good defrag program but it used to run from the commad line. The software is back with a new name and a GUI to work with.

MyDefrag is a disk defragmenter and optimizer that is fast with low resource usage, multiple optimization strategies and support for external hard disks. It is extremely solid because it is based on the standard defragmentation API by Microsoft. It comes with scripts to help new users.

Defragler

The makers of the famous CCleaner have their own free defragmentation software. While soft defrag programs process entire hard disks, Defragler has the ability to defrag specific files. This can be useful if u have large amounts in data stored in a few files that is frequently accessed. Its smal light weight, has a quick defrag option, option to defrag only free space and offers scheduling.

Smart Defrag

The application has four main sections: Defrag Now, Auto Defrag, Schedule and Options. In the first, Smart Defrag allows you to choose a drive to defragment and what type of defrag you want. While defragmenting, Smart Defrag can also optimize your drive to further improve its performance, although this process takes longer.

SpeeDefrag
SpeeDefrag optimizes Windows XP defrag function. It restarts your computer, which refreshes the RAM and loads just the defrag.exe program. This imposes minimum load on the system and therefore defragmentation speed is increased. It also supports scheduling of defrag and multiple hard disks.

Always remember to defrag each hard disk atleast once in two weeks. This will ensure your hard disks perform well. Also not that the inbuilt Windows Defragmentation software for Vista and Windows 7 is pretty good. You wont really need any adddtional software unless u want to tweak around with the settings.

While Blizzard has authenticator does not support PC and windows mobile phones, there is a java compatible app that is on sale on the Blizzard mobile store. In this tutorial we show you how to run this Java app on your computer.

How to run Blizzard Authenticator PC

First you will need the Java Blizzard Authenticator app, that can get bought for 1$ from Blizzard’s mobile store. It is not unique so if your friends have it, just get it from them.

Next we need a Java emulator, for this we will be using Midpx v 1.3.1 (download). This emulator works well because it converts the .jar app into an exe file that can be run from your desktop.

Save the Authenticator to your desktop. Right click on the file and choose Open With and select midpx2exe compiler. Select English as the language. On the next screen choose “This time. Ask me next time” and click ok.

You will now see a 14 digit serial number on the emulator screen. If you cannot see the 14 digits on the screen see the troubleshooting in the next part. Go to Battle.net and add the authenticator by entering the serial (without hyphen) and the code shown.

You have successfully setup the authenticator on your WoW account ! You can start the emulator using the exe file that was created on your desktop. There will also be a new folder, DO NOT DELETE this folder as it saves the settings for the application. Make a backup of the exe file and folder so you do not loose it. Loosing it is the same as loosing a battle.net authenticator, you will have to call them to get it removed !

If you cannot see 14 digit serial number

There should be a new folder after running the Java emulator. There will be a single file inside this folder. Right click and open the file using notepad. You should find the serial number in this file. It will be something like EU-1234-1234-1234. This authenticator also works for US versions of the game.

You will also get an ingame mail from Blizzard along with a unique Core Hound pup mini pet ! Enjoy !

Manycam is a free software that can add effects to the video stream from your webcam. It also allows you to add text to your video stream. You need to download the software and set it as your primary webcam application. Once this is done the software will allow you to add text, animations, CGI effects and more to your videos.

The software tracks the user’s face for most effects and adds animations that simulate eyewear, hair, etc. There are thousands of animation available for download on Manycam’s website.

Download ManyCam

How to export email address of Facebook friends into a CSV file

First we need to go to address.yahoo.com, click on the Facebook icon on this page. A new window will open asking if you want to share your contacts with Yahoo. Click Okay to proceed.

Yahoo will now import all your contacts and give you an recap on the number of contacts that were imported.

Once all the contacts have been imported you can use the export function in Yahoo contacts to export them to a format of your choice. I would recommend exporting them to the CSV format since it is supported by almost all email clients and services. Access the Yahoo Contacts Export to do this.

You can now use this CSV file to import your contacts to Gmail or desktop email clients. Follow instructions on how to import CSV into Gmail. If the contacts had some error head over to Facebook’s application settings page and remove Yahoo Contacts Importer and try again.

Google TV

Google aims to bridge this gap by trying to get your TV to show you all the videos that you can watch on the internet through your PC. Google has tied up with Intel and Sony to come up with Google TV.

Google TV can either be built into new models of TV’s that will the sold in the future, the first being from Sony. It can also be accessed by buying a Google TV set top box. Its is reported that Google is looking at Logitech to provide bluetooth devices like a remote and keyboard that works with this platform.

Google TV allows you to search for shows on your cable TV, internet video sharing sites and use internet websites directly on your TV. See the intro video from Google to get a good idea about this platform.

Will Google TV become a hit ? Is it viable ? Leave a comment and tell us.

Read2Me is a free software that can speak out any text that you select on a website. It is an opensource software that can convert text to speech. It can also allow you to save the voice as an mp3 file.

To listen to any text, just select it in your browser or document, copy it and paste it to the application. The software can then read out the text that you pasted.

There are a few voices to choose from with additional voices available for download.

If you do not want to use an external application for text to speech you can also look at HearWho or Japlis Speech, websites with text to speech. You can also use a browser addon like Internet Text Speaker without having to leave the browser at all.

Download Read2Me

To get the audio working be sure to download the new Realtek High Definition Audio drivers from the link below. These drivers also include ATI HDMI Audio Device driver and 3D SoundBack. This will help enhance the audio over Windows 7 default drivers.

You can also download a driver backup software like Driver Max 3 which can make re-installation of drivers easy the next time you format the computer.

Another software to help with reinstalling programs is Ninite, choose programs to install and forget it. It will download and install everything without an manual intervention.

Download Realtek High Definition Audio driver

The maze is shaped like a google logo. You can move the character with your keyboard’s arrow keys. Tapping on the “insert coins” button allows you to control another pac-man using WSAD keys.

Go ahead enjoy the game while it lasts on Google.com.