Recently I've learned of 'Giveaway of the Day'. It's been around a while and it seems strange I haven't learned of it before. You see, I spend quite a bit of time searching the web for 'freeware'. There is lots of it but as you may know, some of it really sucks or is just quite useless.



So, I thought I would offer up a few free apps that I have downloaded and actually used. These are app's I like and found to be relatively useful and or interesting. I just thought I'd share them with you. If this goes over, I may post more on a regular basis. You may have even come across some, but are afraid to try. Well, let me know. I have a couple of pathetic little computers I salvaged and would be willing to try it for you.




First up is SPYDERBAR from TGTSoft. I have investigated a few of the sidebar apps that are out there. For me, this is the easiest to use. You can't 'skin' it, but it has a plethora of it's own skin settings, most of which are very non-offensive when it comes to blending it in with your desktop. It has transparency settings if your video card supports them. It's easy to add and remove panels and has a wide assortment to chose from. Things like the basics...clock, weather, media player...to news feeds, system performance and even an ebay watch.





SPYDERBAR ~ WWW Link









The next is a handy little phone app. It's the GIZMO PROJECT. I tried Skype and a few others. My thing was finding one that made PC to Phone calls for free. I have yet to find one. Yet, Gizmo has allowed me all my calls from PC to Phone for free on a temp basis as a new user. (I believe it was a limited offer) However, unlike the other apps, this is kind of the pre-pay cell phones of apps. You can buy the minutes as you want them or need them. Of course it's free to call other Gizmo user's and you can earn credits by inviting others to use it. It also supports chat. I have used it for work, mostly, to finalize my payroll and stuff. Unlike Skype and the other's I tried, this never crashed. The clarity of sound is great also.



It’s FREE!
FREE call's to any GizmoProject, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, or Windows Live user
Free Voicemail and Conference calling.
Super clear call quality
Inexpensive add-ons that let you make and receive calls from any mobile phone or landline



GIZMO PROJECT ~ WWW Link






Finally, I just came across Win Vista 1.2. This is a wallpaper manager that also allows you to play mpegs and avi files as your wallpaper!



Main Features:
- Thumbnail viewer for image chooser
- Change in list order or random order
- Image is best fitted to windows
- Filters are used for resizing
- Load and save Gallery lists (image file lists)
- Switch individual images on / off
- Previous and Next images
- Run on a Timer (minutes)
- Changes background colour to suit image



New Features
- Now Plays Video Wallpaper
- Use Mpeg and AVI
- Renders the video as your wallpaper
- Load and save Gallery lists (Video file lists)
- Switch individual Video on / off
- Previous and Next video



This sounded too good to be true so I checked it out. I played a music video as my wallpaper and dang if it didn't work. Very well, I might add. Downside? Well, when I checked my Taskmanager it was using 48% of my CPU and 16, 252 k of memory. I plan to experiment some more with it and see if the video size has anything to do with the size of the system drain. Sorry, I have no SS for this. I use SnagIt and it won't catch the video in a still frame.



Win Vista ~ WWW Link



That's it. They are all free and I felt worth sharing. You may or may not be familiar with these apps, but let me know what you think no matter what.