SheepTech » freebies

Chrometa Time Tracking Software Goes Free

Vincent — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 10:39:40 +0000

Chrometa is a time tracking software for Windows that will possibly eliminate the question “Where did my time go?“. Once installed, Chrometa will track the amount of time you have spent on any application in a very detailed manner. When you’re on a browser for example, Chrometa will track the time you have spent on individual web pages.

A copy of Chrometa used to be cost $99, but you can now get yourself a license key for free by just providing your email address (the key will be sent to your email). The license key will only work on the desktop version though, the web app version starts from $19 to $99.

Link: Request License Key | Download Chrometa 2.0

Send Free US/International SMS from iPhone/Android

Vincent — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 08:02:41 +0000

(iDevices/Android) If you text very frequently to local or international numbers and the cost is sucking your wallet dry, you should check this out.

HeyWire is a free app for both iDevices (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad) and Android that provides unlimited free text not only in the United States, but also to numbers in any of the 146 supported countries.

It is not a BBM-like messaging app like Whatsapp and KakaoTalk. The recipient need not to have the same app installed. All he need is a phone that is capable of receiving text messages, be it a monochrome Nokia 3210 or a cheap Chinese knock-off.

When you first sign up for the service after downloading the app, you will receive a real free US number. The recipient will see your text message as a regular SMS originating from that number. If he decides to reply to that number, he will be charged at the same rate texting to any other US number by his carrier.

Supported Countries & Carriers

At the time of writing, you can send free text internationally to any numbers in the 146 supported countries. You can find the full list of supported countries on this page (select region on the left pane, list of countries and carriers on the right)

I have personally tested texting myself to both my Google Voice number (US) and my Malaysian number (Digi, but both Celcom & Maxis is also supported according to the list). Both worked great. The message arrived almost instantly.

If you are sending a text outside US, make sure the number is formatted correctly with the country and area code.

Pros:

Free text to almost anyone in any country, to any number
Free US number, capable of both sending and receiving SMS
The app is free, available in both App Store and Android Market
Send a message to up to 10 contacts at a time
Facebook Chat and Google Talk integration (optional)

Cons:

App is ad-supported to pay for your free texts
HeyWire promotional signature in all outgoing texts by default (you can change it easily to your own personalized signature or remove it all together. No biggie)

Download: App Store | Android Market
(or just search for “HeyWire” in the store or market)

Get 1GB Free Extra Space on Dropbox with Dropquest

Vincent — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 10:38:36 +0000

Another reason to love Dropbox. It seems that my free space is constantly growing ever since I signed up for a free 2GB account, having a total of 4.75GB now.

Every so often, Dropbox will award its users some free space for completing tasks (linking Dropbox account to Facebook & Twitter, explore “Getting Started” page), on top of the maximum 8GB referral bonus.

From 15th January to 29th January, you can snap up to 1GB of free space on Dropbox by solving their first ever Dropquest, an online scavenger hunt they have come up with.

You are required to solve a 29-steps quest that will suck your brain juice dry—requiring you to explore the Dropbox site, solve puzzles, extract answers from the given hints etc.

The quest however has been ongoing for two days now, which means answers and walkthrough are already posted all over the internet. If you don’t think you’d have enough time, energy or brain to figure all the answers out by yourself, here’s two walkthrough that will breeze you through the quest effortlessly (walkthrough1, walkthrough2).

Ready? Start the Dropquest.

Good luck!

How-To: Backup Photos from Flickr to PC

Vincent — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 00:00:32 +0000

(Windows Only) The cloud is probably the best place to store your data. You can gain access to them easily on just any device with an internet connection even if your primary computer is stolen or damaged. But should you rely 100% on the cloud for your important files?

Probably not. The cloud is only reliable to a point where the company decides to sunset it. The fact that Flickr is owned by Yahoo! doesn’t help. They would probably not sunset one of their most valuable asset, but no one can say for sure.

You can never go wrong keeping a copy of all your Flickr photos offline, especially with the generous storage PCs come with these days.

Downloadr

We will be using Downloadr for this purpose. It’s a Windows-only photo downloader, completely free, and capable of downloading both public and private photos (after you have authorize it to do so).

Download Downloadr

How to backup

1. The first step is to authenticate Downloadr on your Flickr account. That would give permission to Downloadr to backup your private photos.

To do so, go to Extras > Authenticate.

2. Your browser will now fetch the Flickr account link page. There will be two “Next” button. Click the right one.

3. Go to Extras > Settings, check the “Try to get all photos” box.

4. Enter your Flickr username (your display username, not the one on your URL) and click “Search“. Doing this will fetch all photos from your Flickr account. If it doesn’t, click on the “Search more” button.

If you only wish to backup part of your Flickr photos, you can filter the result by date range, tags, fulltext, place, only Creative Commons or only Geotagged.

5. Once all your photos are fetched, hit Ctrl-A to select them all. All your photos will be highlighted after you have done so.

6. Click on the “Download selected” button.

There is no way to pause and resume your photo download. Keep your PC and connection on until the download is complete to avoid any interruption.

Otherwise you would have to manually repeat the steps above up to step 4, then manually select the remaining photos that are yet to be downloaded.

InPaint: Automagically Remove Object from Photos (free)

Vincent — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 13:15:28 +0000

Want to remove an object from a photo but don’t have the necessary photoshop skills?

InPaint is a software that does exactly that, with minimal effort on your part. Simply crop the object you want to remove from a photo and click the Run button. InPaint will use its surrounding background to fill in the hole left by the removed object.

I’ve used a small giraffe photo as a demo:

It obviously will not work on photos with complicated background. InPaint normally cost $40 a pop, which is pretty steep for a software with just one functionality.

You can however get a copy of InPaint 2.4 for free by subscribing Software-Butler’s newsletter. After subscribing, you will receive a license key to activate your InPaint.

[Download InPaint 2.4]

Free: Returnil System Safe Pro for 1 Year

Vincent — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 14:10:34 +0000

Your computer might have an antivirus installed, but disaster can still strike at the least expected time, especially when you are sharing it with someone less tech-savvy.

Returnil System Safe Pro is an antivirus famed for its system restore feature. With it, you can be assured that everything will be fine no matter how harmful the websites you are visiting or the new software you are installing, because everything can be rolled back by just a reboot.

You can learn more about Returnil on PCMag.

A 1-year subscription of Returnil System Safe Pro would normally cost $39.95, but it’s going free this Christmas. Just fill in your particulars in this product giveaway page and you will be on your way.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Freebies: Gameloft Mobile Games & FontDeck Fonts

Vincent — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 14:57:14 +0000

It’s end of the year again! It will take a while till Christmas, but you can have your Christmas gifts right from today, for every single every day until 25th of December.

The first early Santa will be Gameloft, the popular mobile games maker. Starting from 1st of December, Gameloft will surprise you with a gift every day until Christmas.

The gifts can be anything like free mobile games for iPhone and Android, game discounts and game related contents like wallpapers.

To make sure you don’t miss any freebies or deals from them during this period, follow @gameloft on Twitter, the only place the gifts will be announced.

The second early Santa is FontDeck. Just like Gameloft, FontDeck will be offering premium fonts for free everyday until Christmas.

Simply go to Adfont Calender every day to check out the free font of the day. Perfect for web designers.

Free Download: McAfee Internet Security

Vincent — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 08:16:22 +0000

McAfee is back again with its free antivirus promotion, this time with a 6 months free subscription of McAfee Internet Security 2010 which acts as an antivirus, anti-spyware, firewall, identity protection, anti-spam, anti-phishing and parental controls.

A 1-year subscription of McAfee Internet Security would normally cost $48.99, so this would be around $24.50 worth of free subscription.

How to claim your 6 months free McAfee Internet Security Subscription:

Go to this promotional page
Create a McAfee account with a valid email address
Activate your McAfee account by clicking on the link in the confirmation email
Checkout Internet Security (6-month subscription) at the price of $0.00
Download your complimentary 6-month subscription

This is a time limited offer, so grab your free subscription while you can.

Vuvuzela Ringtone: Free Download

Vincent — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 08:39:07 +0000

Vuvuzela is an icon to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, one that is most discussed and meme-fied, besides the infamous Paul the Octopus. The bzzzzz bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz bzzzzzzzzzzzz noise it produce is also dubbed as one of the most annoying noise ever.

Now how does having these noise as your mobile phone ringtone sounds? Download these Vuvuzela ringtone if you want your phone to bzzzzzz away from your pocket whenever someone calls. Heck, it would even make a better alarm tone than a ringtone. Click on the links below to preview the ringtone and reveal the download link.

Vuvuzela Ringtone 01

Vuvuzela Ringtone 02

Vuvuzela Ringtone 03

BatteryBar: Detailed Information on Laptop’s Battery Life

Vincent — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:29:34 +0000

The default battery indicator on laptops powered by Windows XP, Vista and 7 shows only the most basic information—% of battery juice available, estimated time left before the battery dies off, and charging or plugged in. You are simply out of luck if you want to know more about your laptop’s battery using it.

Whether you are a road warrior who cares much of your battery’s health or is just simply curious about it, check out BatteryBar. It sits beautifully on the taskbar indicating the percentage of battery juice left or time left depending on preference. Hovering it will reveal:

Percent of battery juice left
Capacity of battery – e.g 12,443 mWh of 17,294 mWh
Charged rate – e.g 13,642mW
Battery life left in time – e.g 0:34
Full battery lifetime in time – e.g 1:00
A/C – connected or disconnected
Battery wear – e.g 700% of 57,720 mWh

Connected to AC power supply:

Discharging, disconnected from AC supply

Charging

Accuracy of information

Quoted from BatteryBar’s homepage:

BatteryBar constantly monitors the status of your battery as you use your laptop. As it monitors your battery, it keeps historical data on your battery and provide you with a very accurate estimate of how much time is remaining on your battery.

In short, the longer you have it installed, the more accurate it gets.

What’s cool: The battery wear information is really awesome. With the numbers shown, you can’t deny that you need a laptop battery replacement, or a new laptop even. Of course, unless your wallet disagrees.

What’s not: You see, the default Windows battery indicator won’t warn even if the battery juice hits rock bottom. Neither do BatteryBar, unless you upgrade to BatteryBar Pro ($3 to $10), which would also gives you a couple of extra settings.

P.s: Yes. My battery condition is that bad :/