iPhone 4 only: Last Friday Apple announced they’d be handing out free cases to iPhone 4 owners in response to reception problems. Today, you can download the official iPhone 4 Case Program application, which will verify your iPhone 4 and allow you to choose a bumper or other case.

Only iPhone 4 owners are eligible for this program. The app will check the IMEI and serial number to verify that you have an iPhone 4. Once eligibility is confirmed, you will be able to choose an iPhone 4 Bumper or other case. The Bumper or case will be shipped to you at no charge

All iPhone 4 purchases must be made by September 30, 2010, to qualify for this program. For iPhone 4 purchases made before July 23, 2010, you must apply no later than August 22, 2010; otherwise, you must apply within 30 days of your iPhone 4 purchase.

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Windows standalone or Firefox/Chrome/IE: If you’re looking for a snappy screenshot tool, LightShot is lightweight, fast, featured packed, and available as a stand alone application or a browser add-on.

LightShot is a lightweight screenshot tool available for Windows or as an add-on for Firefox, Chrome, and IE. You can capture screenshots in a variety of ways including uploading them to the internet via ImageShack, dumping the sreenshot to your clipboard, opening the screenshot for editing in Pixlr, or simply saving them to your computer as a JPG, PNG, or BMP. LightShot also supports hot keys for every major function—CTRL+E, for example, launches the online editor for your images while CTRL+D uploads it to ImageShack.

LightShot is a free tool and requires no registration.

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CD Burning or CD Writing software is essential for anyone wanting to backup their computer data to CD or DVD. The software usually allow you to save data on CD or DVD, as well as creating audio CD’s from MP3, WAV, WMA, and other types of files.

Windows XP comes with built-in software to burn to CDs or DVDs, but the features are limited. So in many cases, computer owners have other software they use to burn CDs. Most of the time, this software is either preloaded on a computer by the manufacturer or comes with the new CD-RW or DVD-RW drive you’ve purchased.

What happens when you have reformatted your computer and don’t have the original disks to reinstall the software? Are you stuck with just using the Windows XP built-in software? The answer is no. There are several good packages out there to choose from. Most of these work on Windows 98, ME, 2000, and XP.

Free CD Burning Software Solutions

CD Burner XP

One of the best free CD burning utilities is CDBurnerXP. Its from a swedish development team and has great features and an easy to use interface similar to Roxio and Nero. The feature list is long, and although it doesnt burn to double-layer DVD’s yet, it will in the future. Here are some of its features.

* Writes all kind of mediums apart from double-layer DVD (follows in next version). Burning video-DVDs is limited.
* Burn audio-CDs with and without gaps between tracks
* Burn on the fly / Burn-proof
* Supports most IDE, USB, Firewire and SCSI drives
* Rip Audio-CDs to harddrive, obtain track-information (ID3-tags) from Internet
* Burn and create ISO-files
* Customizeable with many settings
* Data verification after burn, create bootable discs
* (will be) available in multiple languages
* 100% freeware – no adware or restrictions
* bin/nrg->ISO converter, simple cover printing and much more!
* Operating systems: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/2003 Server.

Express Burn

Express Burn is another great free alternative to the commercial CD and DVD burning packages on the market. The Australian company behind Express Burn distributes it free in the hopes that you will upgrade to Express Burn Plus. The Plus version adds the ability to create and record ISO images and, for audio CD, support for many more file formats (the basic version only supports wav and mp3). Although in most cases, the free version does an outstanding job for the average person.

Deep Burner

Deep Burner is one of my favorite free CD burning programs. Easy to use and it just works. It features the ability to data CDs and DVDs, audio CDs, and create and burn ISOs. The paid version will do even more, but for most applications the free version will do.

Download and install Deep Burner, I think you’ll be impressed.

Burn4Free

Burn4Free is a fourth alternative that definitely deserves a look.  Burn4Free is ad supported so you get some advertising throughout the program. It includes a Burn4Free toolbar and has some files that may be seen as suspicious by several antispyware programs. Its features include

1. Burn4Free burn data (CD and DVD) and audio from different files types (WAV, FLAC, WavPack, WMA, M3U (mp3 winamp compilation) , MP3, MP2, MP1 OGG and CDA (normal cd audio tracks))
2. Low cost burning : you can burn and dvd copy- backup data – cd with only 2 clicks
3. CD-R/CD-RW/DVD-R/DVD+R/DVD-RW/DVD+RW/DVD-RAM drives (SCSI – IDE/EIDE – USB) are supported
4. Multi languages: many languages are available, choose your favorite
5. Print Compilation, select layout, colors and items to print
6. 4 way to burn your CD/DVD: you can choose the way you prefer to burn a CD/DVD (fly window, right click from explorer, internal add window, derag & drop
7. Burn and save .ISO files
8. DVD dual layer support (check Compatibility menu)
9. Print Compilation
10. Burn MP3 compilation
11. Free online upgrades
12. Easy Interface
13. Easy to use ex: you can store all your movies
14. 1900 + COMPATIBLE RECORDERS

There are many other free alternatives to the commercial versions of Roxio and Nero, however I do like CD Burner XP and its features, even though you can’t burn ISO files yet.

Commercial Software Packages to Burn CDs and DVDs

Roxio CD Creator

Roxio CD Creator and related titles have been around for a long time, they are stable and easy to use, definitely a good choice.

Nero Burning Rom

Nero is another great commercial program with all the features you need to burn CDs, DVDs, ISOs, audio, and more.

What about Software to Backup DVDs?

Ok, so you can view DVD’s on your computer, but what you really want is to backup the DVDs in case of disaster. There is software still out there that allows you to do this, one of the most popular is DVD-Cloner III.

This software will allow the user to make Perfect 1:1 copies with no watermark and no warning screen. You can also make unlimited copies from a copy. AND there is a 30 day money back warranty. Check it out for yourself.
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Amazon is running a brief promotion (ends November 30th) offering $3 worth of MP3s from Amazon MP3 for free. Just head to this page, follow the directions, and enjoy your free credit. Jason mentioned this in today’s deals of the day, but we all know how important music can be to getting work done, so take advantage. [Amazon via UneasySilence]

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It provides a clear report showing installed hardware including CPU type and speed, motherboard brand and model including the serial number, amount and type of memory installed, hard drive/cd-rom drive information, video, sound, modem, network,printer and other installed devices.

It also shows in the report a list of installed software versions and licenses for that software with a link to the location on the hard drive where the software can be found.

Microsoft Updates

One of the best features of the Belarc Advisor is its report showing all the Microsoft Windows Critical updates that are installed on the computer and a list of any that are missing.  Included in the list are links to Microsoft’s support database for each security patch for anyone that wishes to read more about a particular update.

System Security Status

At the top of the Belarc report is a system security status report showing Benchmark score for the computer along with a quick visual representation of the status of virus protection and security updates. With a quick glance, anyone is able to see whether their system is currently at risk.

Where to Download Belarc Advisor

Since this inventory checkup of your computer system is absolutely free, I would recommend everyone download and install this program and print out the report. You can download Belarc Advisor by visiting their link below:

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

Privacy Warning

Although Belarc Advisor delivers excellent information about the hardware and software installed on your computer, it can also reveal more information that you want as well. For instance on a normal Windows XP installation, it will show your Windows XP CD Key. This may not seem like a big deal. However, if you post the report to the web and it gets indexed, you have now distributed your valid Windows XP key to the world. In many cases, a user with a pirated copy of Windows XP may use this key to valid their version of XP and cause you trouble in the future when you need to validate your own copy.

For this reason, its not a good idea to post the Belarc report to the Internet, but rather print it out and keep it in a safe place when you need it.

Windows: If you don’t want to spend time micro-designing an icon and you’ve already got a source image, SimplyIcon makes creating your buttons and icons a drag-and-drop matter.

Download the SimplyIcon package, extract the executable and DLL file to a folder, run the program, and you’re presented with a simple dialogue box and the instructions to drag and drop an image onto it. Once you drag and drop the image, SimplyIcon creates a variety of icon files in various sizes—up to 128×128 if you source image is large enough.

You won’t find any image editing tools or tweaks on SimplyIcon, it accepts whatever image you drag into it and cranks out an icon file. If that’s good enough for you, it’s definitely a download you’ll want to keep stashed in your home folder.

SimplyIcon is free, Windows only, and requires .Net 2.0 Framework or higher. Have a favorite icon creation tool of your own? Share it in the comments.

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