Software : Download review: Recuva review

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• Download review: Recuva review
• Round up: The best free torrent clients 2016
• Android apps are now available on these Chromebooks
• Round up: The best free YouTube to MP3 converters 2016
• Updated: Top 10 business apps for iPhone

Download review: Recuva review Posted: Recuva free file recovery software review Specifications Developer: Piriform Licence: Freeware System requirements: Operating system: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10 Processor: N/A RAM: N/A Disk space: 6MB What does it do? As you might be able to guess from the playfully-spelled name, Recuva is designed to recover deleted data. It takes advantage of the fact that when files are files, they are not actually removed from your hard drive, and remain restorable until the space they occupy is overwritten with new files. If you've accidentally deleted files and emptied the Recycle Bin, or even you've suffered from a virus or hard drive problem, Recuva might just be able to help you to get back your valuable data without having to pay expensive recovery charges. The program can also recover deleted emails, or there is the option of using it the other way around to securely delete sensitive files you want to ensure cannot be recovered. User experience There are a few ways to use Recuva, and the easiest option is to make use of the wizard. This guides you through every steps of the recovery process, although it does mean missing out on some of the program's options. The first stage of the wizard asks you to specify the type of files you want to track down. You can search for any recoverable file, or you can speed up the process by limiting the search to just, say, image files. Searchescan be restricted to individual folders or drives - including memory cards and CDs/DVDs. Alternatively, you can check everywhere - just be prepared for a lengthy search (it can take over an hour to scan a large drive). Switching to Advanced mode may not appear to unlock a huge selection of additional options, but it does provide you will much more information about files that are found and the state they are in. For any files that are determined to be recoverable, Recuva uses a traffic light system to indicate the quality of the data. As well as the main program interface, Recuva can also be accessed through Windows' context menu. This means that searching for deleted files is as simple as right clicking on a folder or the Recycle Bin. This is handy if you know you have deleted a file from a particular folder, as it saves having to manually launch the program. Pros Recuva is delightfully easy to use and is a refreshing alternative to the selection of commercial recovery tools vying for attention. It's a great piece of software to have installed just in case you need it further down the line, but it can also be installed as a portable app so you can pop it onto a USB drive and use on multiple computers. If you find that your computer has a lot of recoverable file, you can home in on the specific documents you're looking for by filtering by type, or even searching for strings of text you know exist in the files. Cons It is not made clear enough that by installing Recuva, you could inadvertently overwrite data that would otherwise have been recoverable. Remember, that if you want to recover data from a drive and don't already have Recuva installed, you really need to install the software to a different drive, or use the portable version. You might be feel pressed by the website into parting with your cash to upgrade to the Professional edition of the program, but you don't need to. Hang onto your money and stick with the free version. Conclusion Fast, effective and free, this is the data recovery tool you probably thought didn't exist. Recuva is a hidden gem in the software world. You might also like Wise Data Recovery FreeUndelete PC Inspector File Recovery

Round up: The best free torrent clients 2016 Posted: The best and fastest BitTorrent clients The best and fastest free BitTorrent clients BitTorrent is brilliant: torrent files turn your computer into part of a swarm where data is shared as it's downloaded, so while you're downloading something from other people you're also helping others download the bits you've already got. The result is a very reliable and often very fast way to get your hands on huge files. What kind of files? Well, as every torrent user knows, torrents are used exclusively to download Linux installers, open source software and live jams by hippie bands who've expressly given permission for others to share their stuff. They're never ever used for anything dodgy like illegal copies of music, movies or other copyrighted content, no siree. Pirate Bay? Never heard of it. Cheap sarcasm aside, torrents can be very useful for fans of free, legal media and software - but you need the right apps to use them. Here are our ten favorites. 1. qBittorrent The perfect balance of features, speed and simplicity Some torrent apps offer every conceivable function. Others keep things as simple as possible. qBittorrent sits right in the middle, aiming to "meet the needs of most users while using as little CPU and memory as possible". It boasts an integrated torrent search engine, media player, encryption, prioritisation of torrents and the files within those torrents, IP filtering and torrent creation, and it's the closest open source, junk-free equivalent to uTorrent. If you're looking for a cross-platform torrent client that covers the essentials without getting overly complicated, qBittorrent is great. 2. Deluge A customizable client that can be as lean or powerful as you like Deluge has been around forever, and it can be as simple or as powerful as you want it to be. That's because it's extendable via plug-ins, which effectively enable you to build your own personalised version of Deluge. Fancy something that resembles uTorrent without the unwanted software? No problem. Want to add alphabetical downloading, move downloaded files to specific directories according to the file type, adjust speed according to network conditions, create pretty graphs, schedule everything, integrate with Chrome or Firefox or batch-rename downloads? That's not a problem either. 3. Transmission Remarkably fast and lightweight - our go-to client for use on a Mac We like Transmission (for Mac and Linux - read on for the Windows alternative) a lot. It's donationware rather than adware, so there aren't any bundled toolbars, invasive ads or greyed-out features that you need to pay to access. It's blazingly fast and with a tiny footprint, and while there are lots and lots of options for power users - speed limits, webseed support, magnet links, port forwarding, encryption and many, many more - it's simple enough for absolute beginners too. On a Mac, Transmission is our go-to torrent tool. 4. Transmission-Qt Win Don't be sad, Windows people! Transmission might not be available for your Windows PC, but that hasn't stopped some nice people from making a Windows port of it: Transmission-Qt Win, aka Transmission-Qt for Windows. It delivers all the features of the Mac/Linux Transmission app, and it's worth installing if you like a simple torrent app that still includes a decent selection of features. It isn't perfect, though: known issues include poor performance on really big torrents (terabytes rather than gigabytes, so not a problem for most of us) and a memory leak if it's left running for very long periods. 5. uTorrent uTorrent, also known as µTorrent, has been around since 2005 and it's the most widely used BitTorrent client outside China. It's attracted some criticism over the years, however: it's ad-supported and many users argue that the most recent versions are a little too heavy on the advertising and bundled software front. Nevertheless it's useful, effective and doesn't gobble up too much of your system's resources: the entire app is smaller than a digital photo. Although it isn't the official BitTorrent app, it's been maintained by BitTorrent for the last decade. 6. BitTorrent Free BitTorrent's own client, with web-based seeding, comments and reviewing You might be wondering why BitTorrent has its own BitTorrent app when it also maintains uTorrent, especially when the BitTorrent app is a rebranded version of uTorrent. However, while the apps are functionally identical there are a few key differences: BitTorrent offers web-based seeding, commenting and reviewing, and you may find that the BitTorrent client is welcomed by private trackers that don't like uTorrent. 7. Vuze An ambitious free client, but more like a taster for the premium version Vuze (formerly Azureus) claims to be the most powerful BitTorrent client on Earth. We're not sure how it ranks on other planets. There are two flavours: the stripped-back Vuze Leap, and the fully fledged Vuze. Both apps offer torrent download, media playback and support for magnet file links, but the main Vuze app also adds plugins, remote control via web or mobile and video conversion. Leap is free and ad-free, but the main app is ad-supported unless you buy the Vuze+ app. That's usually £22.99 (about US$32.84, AU$44.39), but at the time of writing Vuze is currently running a half-price offer. The ad-supported Vuze has attracted some criticisms of its bundled ads and software: be careful what you click if you're installing it. 8. BitComet An ad-free client that can handle any download you throw at it Why stick with torrents when you can also have HTTP and FTP downloads too? That's not as bloaty as it sounds, because BitComet is positioned as a download manager for any kind of file, not just torrents. It looks like Windows Explorer, doesn't try and install eleventy billion toolbars in your web browser and doesn't blast you with ads. It's not as pretty or as user-friendly as some other apps but there's lots here for power users to play with and it's a perfectly decent torrent downloader too. 9. BitLord Simplicity is king with this minimalist torrent client Torrents don't get much simpler than this. BitLord aims to be the simplest torrent app around, and as part of that it doesn't include any useless bundled software. It does include an integrated version of the excellent VLC Media Player, however, which means you can play pretty much any kind of media file ever invented, and it's very good at helping you find things to download. It might be a little stripped-back for experienced torrent fiends, but if you're new to torrents BitLord is a good place to start. 10. Tixati Another pared-back client with a frill-free interface "NO spyware. NO ads. NO nonsense", says the blurb, and that's a pretty good start - but there's not much point in having a nonsense-free experience if the app doesn't cover the essentials. Thankfully Tixati does, although its none-more-black interface might put you off: the main window makes it look like you're running something in MS-DOS. It's been designed to be as lightweight as possible, boasts very good filtering options and lives up to the no-nonsense promise. If you're a more experienced downloader and have an old PC gathering dust in the garage, check out our guide to setting up your own torrent server.

Android apps are now available on these Chromebooks Posted: Remember when we heard that Chromebooks were going to be able to run Android apps? Well, support for these in Chrome OS just became a reality, at least for certain devices. Back at the I/O event last month, Google announced that the Asus Chromebook Flip, Acer Chromebook R11 and the latest Chromebook Pixel would be the first devices to support Android apps, and indeed this is the case. However, as Engadget reports, it appears the Asus Flip is the first machine to gain this functionality – if you're running Chrome OS dev channel 53, that is – and Reddit users reckon the Play Store still isn't working properly on the other two notebooks. But it should be very soon. These have been chosen as the initial Chromebooks to run the apps because they've got chunky enough hardware and a touchscreen on board. The touchscreen makes things easier initially, as it means users can avail themselves of Android goodies without proper keyboard support. More devices in the pipeline However, support for far more Chromebooks is in the pipeline as developers get their apps in shape to be compatible with Chrome OS. Check out this support page to see the full – and quite lengthy – list of Chromebooks that will run Android apps later this year. Note that at the moment, even those with the correct device and alpha version of Chrome OS loaded can only use tablet apps and games; those designed for smartphones won't work. Naturally, you can expect some level of instability given that this is still early days on the dev channel, with screen rotation apparently broken, the accelerometer being buggy, and some apps are certainly not functioning correctly. But there are reports of a fair number of apps and games working seemingly well, including Hearthstone, Galaxy of Heroes, The Simpsons: Tapped Out and Crossy Road. Everything will be running more smoothly with the stable release later this year, of course, and far more Chromebooks will get support as mentioned, opening up a massive new world of apps for all and sundry – and indeed programs and games that can be used offline, making the Chromebook far more versatile when no internet connection is available. Also check out our 10 best Chromebooks of 2016

Round up: The best free YouTube to MP3 converters 2016 Posted: Download the best free YouTube to MP3 converters Save YouTube audio in MP3 format YouTube is a great site, packed with amazing content, and it's easy to spend hours just browsing from one video to another. But sometimes, when you're out and about, driving, maybe running, that's just not possible. The solution? Download your favourite videos, maybe convert them to MP3, then burn them to CD or listen to them anywhere with your favourite music app. There are websites that can help you do this, but they're often slow, packed with ads, and only able to download one file at a time. Specialist YouTube to MP3 converters deliver much better results. They're easy to use, just paste your file URL and it's usually downloaded and converted with a single click. The top programs add support for other video and music-sharing sites, and can download complete playlists as well as individual files, yet still won't cost you anything at all. Isn't freeware great? 1. YouTube Song Downloader Download, convert and listen to music from YouTube with just one program Despite the name, YouTube Song Downloader isn't just another simple converter. It's a complete YouTube client with everything you need to find, hear and download your favourite tunes. Smart search tool helps track down the songs you need, both individual tracks and entire albums. If you're not sure whether you've found the right version, no problem - a built-in player means you can watch the video right now. Once you're ready, single tracks can be downloaded with a click, or you can select multiple files and grab them all at once. And if you're still not convinced, YouTube Song Downloader has another big advantage over most of the competition: it can download the source video, as well as a converted MP3. The free edition does have ads, and a nag screen when you close the program, but they're not annoying, and upgrading for around £8 (about US$12, AU$16) will get you a version free of both. Read on to discover four more of our favourite YouTube to MP3 converters. 2. Free YouTube to MP3 Converter Download music from YouTube quickly and easily, complete with artwork Video conversion tools can be complex, but Free YouTube to MP3 Converter shows they don't have to be that way. The program really couldn't be much easier to use. Copy your source YouTube link to the clipboard, click 'Paste', and the video name, quality and a tiny thumbnail appear to confirm your choice. Choose a different quality setting if you prefer, otherwise simply click 'Download' and wait as the video is downloaded and converted. A progress bar keeps you up to date with what's happening, and once it's finished, there are buttons to play the MP3 or open its folder in Windows Explorer. The file even has its YouTube frame embedded as sort of 'cover art', which means you'll see it in Windows Explorer's preview pane, or when viewing a folder as icons. 3. MediaHuman YouTube to MP3 Converter Not just YouTube - this downloader works with Vevo, Vimeo and more At first glance, MediaHuman YouTube to MP3 Converter seems a little basic, limited, too short on features to be really useful. But start to explore and you might be surprised. Choosing a file can be as easy as dragging and dropping the URL, for instance, or pasting it from the clipboard. The program doesn't just fetch YouTube files: it also works with Vevo.com, Vimeo, DailyMotion, Soundcloud, Bandcamp and Hype Machine. MP3 tag support enables entering the correct artist and album name from within the program, and you can start the download with a click. That's good, but the real highlights are hidden away in a tiny toolbar. MediaHuman YouTube to MP3 Converter can also download entire playlists, use a 'speed limit' mode to prevent it hogging your bandwidth, add music to iTunes, or - for really big jobs - automatically sleep or shut down your PC when the downloads have finished. 4. 4K YouTube to MP3 Stress-free MP3 downloading from whole YouTube playlists or channels 4K YouTube to MP3 is a straightforward converter which aims to download your chosen music with the absolute minimum of hassle. The program works with individual videos, full YouTube playlists or channels (up to 25 videos in the free version), and accepts links from other sites including SoundCloud, Vimeo, Flickr and DailyMotion. It's all very simple to use. Paste in a link and you don't have to consider options, or click a separate 'Download' button, as with some of the competition. 4K YouTube to MP3 just downloads and converts your files immediately. But there's also real power here, when you need it. You're able to download files using multiple threads, for example, use your preferred quality settings, and choose from several output formats (MP3, M4A, OGG). And if you're downloading a complete YouTube playlist, good news: M3U file generation means you can use that playlist in most media players immediately, no extra steps required. 4K YouTube to MP3 is also available as a portable app. 5. Lacey Search dozens of video sites to find exactly what you want If you're tired of adware-infested 'freeware' then Lacey should appeal right away. There's no registration, no sneaky setup program, in fact no installer at all: just unzip the download and run Lacey.exe. The program opens with a simple search box. Type the name of your favourite artist, a song, album, whatever you like, and matches are displayed in seconds. Other tools do something similar, but Lacey stands out because it's not restricted to YouTube. If you can't find your track there, it's also able to search Baidu, BandCamp, MP3Fusion, VEVO, Vimeo, SoundCloud, XMusic.Me, and a lengthy list of other sites. There's no detailed preview of your search results, and often all you'll see is the title, artist and duration. But if the program locates songs that others miss then you probably won't care much, and Lacey can download whatever you like in a couple of clicks. Have we missed your favorite YouTube to MP3 converter? Let us know in the comments below.

Updated: Top 10 business apps for iPhone Posted: Introduction When Apple launched the iPhone, many people in the business world – including Microsoft's CEO at the time, Steve Ballmer – sneered at it. It didn't have a keyboard, was expensive, and didn't even have 3G in its original form. A lot has changed since then, and the numerous updates and tweaks that Apple has made have turned it into the perfect on-the-go smartphone for business. The App Store is the main driver behind the surge in productivity on Apple's mobile devices, but it has become very crowded – 1.5 million apps, at the last count – and finding exactly the right apps can be difficult. Which is exactly why we've compiled this list of the best and brightest apps for doing business on the iPhone. Also check out: 7 ways Apple can improve the iPhone for business users Microsoft Office Microsoft brought the Office suite – Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, and so on – to the iPhone (and iPad) several years back, and the apps have been getting better and better ever since. The suite, which is broken down into separate apps, initially needed an Office 365 account to do many tasks – like editing documents – but that has since changed and Office is now the best way to create, edit, and distribute documents on an iPhone. Everything syncs to the cloud and documents created on a Windows PC or Mac can be opened and edited seamlessly. It's the best of the best for productivity and even beats out Apple's own iWork suite. Google Docs For those who want a more Google-y experience – or, most likely, rely on Google services – the company has a good set of apps for the iPhone which do pretty much what you'd expect. The Google Docs app, which is free and does not require a subscription, can be used to edit, export, and view documents (among other things), making it the perfect way to interact with Google's productivity software. The Docs suite is incorporated into one application which can be used to create word, spreadsheet, or presentation documents. Google has worked hard to make it as smooth and seamless as possible and the results are impressive. Wolfram Alpha The Wolfram Alpha app is a mobile version of the website and it can be used to do almost any task. Unlike Google, which can add, subtract and so on, Wolfram Alpha can work out dates, times, food, complex mathematical equations, the weather and so on. The list is endless. The app costs £2.29 ($2.99 in the US, which is just over AU$4) – there is also a subscription option which adds extra utilities – and is a valuable asset if you need to quickly work out something obscure, like how many days away a specific date is or the physical properties of white pine wood. Adobe Reader Having a dedicated PDF reader can come in handy and Adobe does it best. The Adobe Reader app, which is free, can be used to make edits and comments on PDFs, and much more. The software can also be used in conjunction with an Abode account, which adds various high-end features like the ability to export files into different formats. Apple does provide a PDF reader in most apps, such as Mail, but having a third-party app can come in handy if you look at, edit, and receive a lot of them. Genius Scan Speaking of PDFs (see the previous slide), one of the iPhone's biggest flaws is not being able to create them from an image. Luckily, Genius Scan – a free app – has you covered. The app has various different options and offers guidance on the best settings – camera position, lighting, and so on – for creating crystal clear PDFs, which can then be sent via text, email, or another messaging app, or exported to Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, or elsewhere. Genius Scan can also organise PDFs within the app by tags, titles, and so on, making it ideal for creating and then storing large volumes of documents. Gmail With more than 400 million users, Gmail is a goliath. Apple does offer support for the service in its own Mail app, but many users like having the Google-made app itself installed – mainly because it comes with a number of considerable added benefits. The biggest advantage of using Google's own app is that it integrates directly with other Google services, like Docs or Calendar. Invitations can be answered right within the app while Google+ posts – for those who actually use Google+ – become interactive inside Gmail. The app has the full range of achieving, tagging, labelling and categorisation features you'd expect, and is quite simply much better than Apple's built-in client. Slack Slack, the enterprise messaging app, has over three million daily active users, and is spreading to more and more workplaces around the world as companies move past email, which is now seen as slow and hierarchical, for a friendlier solution. Having Slack on the iPhone is a big bonus and can help with staying in touch on the move, which is essentially what the app is designed to do. Private and team chats are kept intact, notifications sync between devices, and even the read messages go across, which is especially useful if your team works around the globe and you often wake up to hundreds of new missives. MailChimp MailChimp is useful for anyone who wants to distribute an email newsletter to a number of people. The service, which launched in 2001, sends over 10 billion per month on behalf of its users and is free for anyone who doesn't have a massive mailing list. The iPhone app, which is a free download, does many of the same things as the desktop client but in a miniature format. Lists can be checked, created, edited and emails sent to recipients. Analytics for emails – who opened it, where, and so on – can also be viewed, giving valuable insights on-the-go. For those who manage a mailing list via MailChimp, the iOS app is a good thing to have installed on your device. Things Good to-do list apps are in high demand as the iPhone becomes more and more ingrained into our daily lives. Setting a reminder for long- or short-term goals, tasks, and objectives is an easy way to keep track of everything. Apple recently beefed up its iOS-based offerings with a new Notes app, which features tick boxes, and a refreshed Reminders app. While these two efforts are good they don't come anywhere near Things, which has apps across the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Things is, essentially, the king of all to-do apps with a list of features that is too lengthy to go into fully, but starts at simple cross-device syncing and ends somewhere around creating tasks that are labelled and repeat every other week. For people with lots to do, Things can't be beaten. Pocket Saving articles for offline use is handy in so many ways. Commuting, for example, is far more tolerable with a lengthy piece from The Atlantic, London Review of Books, or any other publication that is saved offline and therefore not subject to a spotty internet connection. Pocket can also store videos and has the ability to sync, tag, and search the full text of any article if you get the monthly subscription option. While Pocket may not be a business app in the truest sense of the word, it's a valuable addition to any iPhone and makes the commute – or any other travel time, or perhaps your lunch break – much more interesting.

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