When I think about the way technology changes our lives, I don't know if I should be happy or not about things that people usually consider to be a part of the progress. For example, let's take the electronic mail. Millions of people are using it, and it's much better than the old snail mail, but what about hand writing?

Apart from signing papers and filling forms when needed, I don't find myself writing without the use of a computer too often, so if I'm going to forget to write down my name without a keyboard, at least I want to get a serious email client, and that's what I have here today...


Setup

Mail Commander's last version is 8.60, and the 30 days trial doesn't have any functional limitations. Of course that if you want to use the program for more than a month, you'll have to register. If the cost of $49.95 is rewarded in terms of features and ease of use, that's what we'll have to see next.

The reason I didn't include any setup pictures here is that the 2MB setup package installed the program in a flash, without asking me anything else than to confirm the destination folder. What else can I say? It can't get much easier than that!


Interface

I know the screenshot to the left looks a bit empty, but that's how you'll face this program, once the setup process completes and you launch it for the first time. The icons look good, there are no skins available, customization possibilities are very low, but the program's interface is well organized and pretty easy to use. Anyway, more tips and a contextual help system would help a lot. These being said, let's leave the looks behind and dig in the features and also point out some things you should pay attention to...


Features

When installing a new email client, always remember the golden rule: always leave the messages on the server! Think about this - usually, commercial email clients are used in large organizations, or by people that use multiple mail addresses and share them with others. If you install an email client and forget about this option called "Delete mail from server" (or something close to this), you'll leave the rest of the team blind, because every time you'll check for new mail, you'll download the messages on your computer and remove them from the server!

Regarding what I just said, there's one thing I really don't understand - why is this option enabled by default in most email clients I bump into? Anyway, just remember to be careful when setting up your email client. There are two ways of setting it up, by using a wizard, or manually. As you can see in the screenshots above, the wizard is almost useless, since it's very easy to add as many email accounts as you need even without its help.

While I was impressed by the speed of this email client, I noticed that the pictures in my HTML emails didn't load, and this is not what I was expecting. Even worse, while the email templates feature is very useful, I would like to get some built in ones, since this is a rather expensive program, in my opinion.

Another interesting features of this program are its email lists processing capabilities, as well as the built in spam filter or support for external virus scanners.

Personalized emails and an unlimited number of address books are not features I'm going to use anytime soon, but for corporate users, keeping in touch with clients the right way could be the difference between success and failure.

While I had problems reading HTML emails (I guess it's not the program's fault, after all, but I'll check this problem and let you know if I find out something new), editing HTML emails with this program is a pleasure, since the simple HTML editor included does its job wonderfully.

These being said, let's move on and draw the conclusions, shall we? I am sure there's more to discover inside Mail Commander, but I don't want to spoil all your fun!


The Good

Mail Commander is a solid email client, easy to use and with capabilities suited for processing large amounts of data.

The Bad

To conquer home users, this product needs to look better, and maybe have a simplified layout available for them, with on-screen guidance all the way, from reading emails, to setting advanced options. A strange problem occured when I tried to attach a file to my email, because most folders on my drive were not visible in the program's file browser.

Conclusion

I know I should say a lot, because Mail Commander is a pretty "big" program, but I am somehow confused today. This program is easy to use, decently priced, and full of useful features for companies, while managing to keep its price and system requirements low enough for home users too. This is my first encounter with Mail Commander and InternetSoft Corporation, but be sure I'll get back to this program in the future, as well as to other products of the company.

Developer: InternetSoft Corporation
Price: $49.95
Trial Link: Download

Creating back-ups or simply saving data files on removable media like CD/DVDs is a common practice in companies dealing with huge amounts of daily information data. The software solutions are varied any many, but only few could really come in handy in such situations. The French developers from Droppix present us the Droppix Recorder, a very good and easy to use application for burning CDs and DVDs.

<-234x60 Half Banner - left->Droppix is known for its simple and intuitive interface that helps in bringing to completion any CD/DVD burning or copying tasks. Among the new features in the 2.5.1 version, there are the support for Blu-ray (BD-ROM, BD-R and BD-RE), Windows Vista Shell integration and compatibility and the inclusion of the Droppix Label Maker Lite (version 2.8).

A very interesting feature is the possibility of downloading and updating the firmware of the CD/DVD writer (“graveur” as it is known in French) – I wouldn’t really recommend doing that unless the maker of the writer states on its website that it is safe. But it’s quite interesting to work with the standard features of this program, like the creation of Data CD/DVDs, Audio CDs, Video CDs, Super Video CDs, DVD and mini DVD video discs.

With Droppix Recorder you can also create media images, like CD/DVD images (a virtual copy of the entire CD/DVD structure and contents), create exact copies if you have 2 CD/DVD burners, from one drive to another (“on-the-fly”), or you can use the Tool Box, that contains a rewritable CD/DVD eraser, a ripper for the (unprotected) audio CDs, the label maker that I mentioned above and even a benchmark that can test your disc drives and display detailed information with performance graphs.

Applicability:
This is one of the suites of the many-in-one type of applications, and it does offer something good for its price – a reliable CD/DVD tool that can provide a real value if it is used intensively. It is addressed mostly to beginners into CD/DVD burning procedures, but can be used by professionals as well because it can be tweaked and it has various settings for the burning module.

Pro(s): The interface is simple and quite easy to get used to. The price is rather fair for the demanding customers and it reflects the true value of the software. The LightScribe features can help you in creating very original CD/DVD labels.

Con(s): While it does offer quite some outstanding options and modules, the whole application suite looks more like a 2nd placer in many top ten CD/DVD burning tools. The interface for the data CD/DVD burning needs a refresh.

Official Website

Buy: (around) $52

Download Trial

To be honest, I hate reading long documents on my computer. I always enjoyed reading books and magazines while sitting on my couch, relaxed and without having to stare at a computer display, no matter how good and eye-friendly that one may be.

Since it is possible to make my computer read some text to me, that's much better. No, this is not future technology, the same way as voice recognition is not future tech either.

Although none of these two technologies mentioned here is still pretty far from maturity, TextAloud is a very interesting text-to-speech software that can prove useful for a lot of people, so let's get in and find out more about it...

Setup

While the official site claims the current version of the program is 2.260, the download link leads to the setup package of the version 2.255, so this is what I'm going to review today. Anyway, I don't expect any revolutionary changes, since 2.260 is just a minor update...

The full program is priced at $29.95, and the trial version can be used for 20 days, with some minor limitations and, of course, some nag screens that appear here and there, but at least they didn't manage to become really annoying while I used the application.












Now, the download and install parts should be pretty easy, since the setup package has only 3MB in size, and I think everyone should be able to install this program without running into any trouble. One thing that is worth being mentioned here is that the setup type screen didn't give me any clue about the difference between "full", "custom" and "minimal" setup types, so I chose "full", to be sure I won't miss anything...Interface

As you'll see in the screenshots from the "Features" section of this article, TextAloud has a skinnable interface, so despite its simplicity, this program can look pretty good, depending on the skin you're using. The default look of the main window doesn't have anything special, as it looks like a Notepad with a toolbar, and nothing more. The large icons on the toolbar look pretty strange, but the good part is that you can switch to small icons, and they fit in really great. Other than that, you'll see and feel while working with the program...

Features

As you're probably waiting to find out, TextAloud reads text that you enter into the text area, while also being able to load various file formats, but there's an issue with this part. When trying to load a large text file (I tried with a 3MB TXT file), the program returns an "out of memory" error. Since I wasn't running any memory-hungry application at that time, I must conclude that TextAloud has some problems...

Anyway, what you want to know is how good can be this program at reading text, don't you? To be honest, the default voice, Sam, doesn't sound good at all. In fact, the voice quality and reading aren't good at all, in my opinion, but the big advantage of this program is that you can customize the way it "speaks" a lot. I know we all want to simply click and make it work, but in this case, you'll need a bit of customization work...












TextAloud can monitor your clipboard, sending the text from it right to Sam, so you'll simply sit back and listen (and sometimes laught your heart out, considering the way Sam can read). Don't get me wrong, this program is not bad at all. If you set pronunciation rules the right way, it may become an excellent tool, and using the additional natural voices set, available for a fee, everything can get much, much better.If you don't want the text to be read, you can also choose to save an audio file with a voice of your choice (in the trial version, there's only Sam, I have to remind this, so you don't get in panic because the lack of voice characters) in one of the available formats (WAV and MP3 should be enough for most people, anyway). Pretty cool, isn't it?

The Good

TextAloud is a good looking program that promises a lot, is very easy to use and has a decent price, considering its features. With a bit of work for setting the program right, you can even go to a restaurant while the computer reads tales to your kids, and get back just in time for the good night kisses!

The Bad

I don't have an ancient computer, but I must confess that TextAloud was surprisingly sluggish, and I really didn't expect this. At last, the default settings of the program make it look like a pretty bad solution for text-to-speech tasks, at first sight.

Conclusion

The machines still can't replace man in a lot of fields, and reading text aloud is one of these fields. The good part is that progress is obvious, and after using this program for a while, you'll probably agree with me that TextAloud is a program that deserves at least to be taken for a trial run, if not bought...

Developer: NextUp Technologies, LLC.
Price: $29.95
Trial Link: Download