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Featured Freeware: Evernote

Functional, useful, and always on, the note-taking application Evernote goes beyond mere cool program architecture and is also interesting. It’s a true three-platform play: it works very well, and somewhat differently, on desktop computers, mobile phones, and over the Web. You can download it for Windows, Mac, and your mobile phone.

One of the cooler features is that when Evernote runs on your camera phone, it will automatically upload your snapshots to the Evernote server, creating a useful archive of them. The killer feature is that it also does OCR on your images so you can find them later by searching for text in them. Use this tool to snap pictures of products you see in stores and want to remember, to grab whiteboards in meetings, and to take pictures of people with name tags at conferences. It’s one of those utilities that might just change your life.

Everything you do on your phone and on your computer is synchronized to your Evernote account on the Web. Since it synchronizes as soon as you log on, and regularly thereafter, reinstalling the software or losing data because of a crash are nonfatal problems.

Do note that the Web-based text editor isn’t keystroke compatible with the PC-based editor, which makes switching between the two experiences confusing. Evernote is also still in beta. The free version offers 40MB per month for uploading and unpredictable OCR performance, while a year gets you a 500MB a month allowance, priority OCR, better security features, and support.

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Featured Freeware: RocketDock

Where most other docks fail, RocketDock soars. The Mac-style program dock and launcher for Windows 2000, XP, and Vista has it all, from a smooth installation to flawless icon transitions and an unobtrusive footprint.

The app is loaded with options. The dock can live on any of the four edges of your monitor, as well as autohide or be ever-present. It comes with more than 20 skins, and fonts and colors are fully customizable, as is the icon order. Program icons are customizable, too. The program publisher is also growing a community around the program, and the app’s Web site has areas where you can download more icons, widgets, and skins to enhance and further customize your experience.

One drawback of the program is that the main settings menu is not where you go to add in and configure these extras. Instead, they’re accessible from a secondary settings menu available only by right-clicking on the dock itself. It’s frustrating, but not a major problem, and hopefully can be addressed in future updates.

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Featured Freeware: Avant Browser

There’s a Web browser out there for everybody, and Avant should appeal to those users who like their customization in-house and built on an IE-rendering engine. Avant takes off in a different direction from Internet Explorer, though. It’s IE if it were being produced by a small firm instead of Microsoft.

The browser is sufficiently zippy, preloaded with two dozen similar skins as well as tabbed browsing and modular toolbars. The Menu bar, though, is counterintuitively pinned to the upper-right corner, and icons for proprietary functions, such as an in-page search term highlighting toggle, aren’t instantly comprehensible.

Avant can save personalized data online, making bookmarks and form content accessible from any machine. Avant includes many features that are available to Firefox users only through plug-ins, such as automatic form fillers. The Full Screen view auto hides all menu bars, a nice touch, but certain plug-ins–notably Flash–don’t work on Windows Vista.

Avant is a good browser with some nice built-in features and interface-customization options, but the lack of extensibility and Vista problems don’t help. We recommend it to XP users who want a Microsoft-based engine but think that Internet Explorer 7 is a pain.

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Featured Freeware: Notepad++

Notepad++ is a Notepad replacement with an eye toward programmers, although it should also appeal to the casual user who wants a cross between Notepad and WordPad. Notepad++ has some noticeable differences from WordPad. Support for tabs is key, letting users manage different documents simultaneously. Line numbering is important, too, a feature that nobody mucking about in C should be without.

The interface is much simpler compared with some of its competitors. A familiar row of icons with their mouse-over labels sits at the top, and one row of tabs is just below that. The rest of the screen is made of nothing but pure white space. All the coding tools live in the menu bar, with some represented on the toolbar. Users can compile and run macros, convert text to Hex, submit directly to W3C for validation, launch in Firefox and Internet Explorer, and more. There’s also a built-in spell-checker.

Notably, Notepad++ can not auto-replace Notepad, but it’s still an excellent Notepad replacement.

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Featured Freeware: ObjectDock

Are you jealous of that slick Mac interface? Check out ObjectDock, a free utility that replaces the Windows Taskbar with a colorful, animated dock similar to the taskbar in Mac OS X.

ObjectDock displays icons for currently running applications and can hold quick-launch icons for your favorite programs. As you pass the cursor over each icon, ObjectDock magnifies it and displays relevant information, helping you find what you need even when you’re running several programs at once. An attractive but optional clock rounds out the toolbar. The tiny utility comes with a dozen attractive skins, and users with slow computers can reduce the animation quality to increase speed.

You can even force it to permanently hide the native Windows Taskbar and create a dock icon for the Start menu, but there’s a drawback: no built-in support for the system tray short of upgrading to the paid version. Despite this, ObjectDock is a no-risk, solid choice for an alternative taskbar if you’re dissatisfied with the Windows offerings.

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First Look video: SugarSync file-syncing

For serious syncers who routinely work from multiple computers or mobile phones, SugarSync is, in more ways than one, a premium solution to file-transferring problems. More flexible than some competing PC-to-PC syncing software or mobile and PC remote access services, Sugar Sync weaves in elements of both. Lite sync some folders for online back-up and fully sync folders or files to load them on each of your computers. A change to one file exacts a change to all.

SugarSync doesn’t do everything, and the mobile functionality could use some usability finessing. There are also a few tricks worth knowing to ease your way. Here’s a good one–if you’re not interested in transferring every icon or EXE to all hooked-in computers, before syncing your Desktop folder, either move the elements you do want to a different folder and bypass the Desktop sync, or throw everything into a new folder on your desktop and exclude it from the syncing.

SugarSync managers are available for Windows, Mac, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and iPhone. A free trial of the service is available for 45 days. SugarSync premium storage prices can be found here.

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