Everyone these days is downloading, watching, and sharing videos from video-sharing sites like YouTube, Google Video, MetaCafe,DailyMotion, Veoh, Break, and a ton of other similar sites. Whether you want to watch the video on your iPod while working out, insert it into a PowerPoint presentation to add some spice, or simply download a video before it’s removed, it’s quite essential to know how to download,convert, and play these videos.

Free Web services for downloading videos from video-sharing sites

ClipNabber allows you to download videos from YouTube, Metacafe, etc by simply copying and pasting the URL. You’ll then get a link whereby you can download the file to your computer, iPod, iPhone, or any other media player. You’ll need to have an FLV player for the YouTube videos. Quick and very easy to use!

Zamzar is a free online file conversion web application that can not only convert videos off the Internet to AVI, MPEG, 3GP, MP4, MOV, etc, but also converts between audio, image, and document formats. Paste the URL into Step 1 and then convert the file to your favorite format.

VideoDownloader is a FireFox extension, but also allows you to paste in any URL from many sites such as Blip.TV, iFilm, and even social networking sites like MySpace. You can also download a free FLV player from their site to play the videos.

Vixy.net is another site that not only downloads online videos, but will also convert them AVI, MOV, MP4, 3GP, or MP3 (if you want to extract the audio from the file). Using this site, you don’t have to worry about downloading a FLV player as you can convert it to Windows format. (Same as Zamzar)

KeepVid also supports just about any video sharing site out there and the only difference about this site is that it also has a Top Videos section, so you can quickly download the most watched videos around the web.

Media Converter is similar to ZamZar and vixy.net, but requires you to create an account and log in. Also, it seems like it only supports downloading and converting videos from YouTube. You can also download their video download program, but it only supports 5 sites.

Hey! Watch is an online video encoding web service that encodes video into different formats including HD very quickly. The graphical interface is very nice and there are lots of features and options, such as the ability to transfer any video from the web directly to an FTP server or to online storage.

YoutubeX, as the name suggests, allows you to download videos from YouTube.Obviously, it only supports YouTube, but it has a couple of other features, such as the ability to play your video on the site and find popular videos quickly.

VideoRonk searches across multiple video-sharing sites such as Google Video, YouTube, MetaCafe and DailyMotion to find the most popular videos on each of them. You can either watch them on VideoRonk or download them to your computer in FLV format.

Source: techpraveen.com

Portable computing for most people means a laptop PC. However if you want to avoid the hassle of having to carry a laptop, then portable applications may be the thing for you. Using a portable application allows you to carry your favorite programs with you, on your USB drive. This has become a more practical solution now that the prices of USB flashdrives and USB hard drives have come down, and their capacities have increased.

Advantages of this include:

• Security – Your applications and data are kept with you. 
• Familiarity – you don’t need to relearn new applications on a different PC or cope with different versions of software that might exist on your home, work, internet café PC, etc. 
• Convenience – If you work on windows based PCs then this may be an effective way for you to work portably. This can possibly save you the hassle of having to tote around a laptop and its associated peripherals.
  

Portable applications may not work for you if:

• Your applications need specialised hardware. 
• Your applications have high-end hardware requirements. 
  

Can I just copy a program folder off my PC onto my USB and work from there? Unfortunately it’s not always as simple as that. Part of the reason for this is that way the Windows installs programs on your computer. Usually a program has a folder that it lives in, and then there are connections to the Windows Registry as well as connections to library files in the Windows folder. This means that you may not be able to simply copy the program folder to your USB drive and run it from there.

Occasionally you may find that older versions of programs will work in this fashion – the simplest way to find out is to try.

Libraries of portable applications There are a number of websites that contain free or public domain software that can be run from a USB memory stick or hard drive. Here are two sites to get you started:

http://portableapps.com/

http://www.pendriveapps.com/

More information is available at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_application

For anyone who loves facebook and twitter and gets sick of using social media dashboards or flicking between screens this is for you.
Rockmelt is a new web browser that has changed the way you can use the web. View the video below for a full run down on RockMelt

Rockmelt incorporates facebook, twitter, searching, sharing, chatting all into your single web browser making all of your web activity available at your fingertips


How Does it Work?
Rockmelt works like a normal web browser but requires you to have a facebook page and requires you to log in to Rockmelt via your facebook login. This does mean that you have to allow Rockmelt as an application on facebook. 


Download Rockmelt Now!
To download Rockmelt click on download file below

Once you have installed Rockmelt simply log in using your facebook login and allow Rockmelt access and you are all set with your new social networking browser.

If you need instructions on installation please comment and we can upload instructions.

This tool is a great download for anyone who wants to quickly resize their photos to send or upload to the web. The instructions below will show you how to download this tool for your windows 7 & vista computer.

Download Instructions

Click on this link: http://imageresizer.codeplex.com/releases/view/51338#DownloadId=152077

Under the Downloads heading click on the option best suited to your computer, 32 bit or 64 bit
Once you have selected your download the agreement below will display, click on I Agree.

The Run dialog box will open click on Run

the dialog box below will display this is saving the executable file to the computer. When finished click open

To run the executable file click on Run

The Install wizard will open, Tick the I accept box and click Install

The installer progress bar will display below

Click on Finish

You have now Downloaded the power resizer tool

How to use the tool?

Find your picture you want to resize
Right click on the picture and click on Resize Picture

The option box below will display, choose the size you want and click ok

The progress bar will appear

Below is how the resized image will appear, notice how it has "Small" in the file name.

Ever thought you don't have enough space on your desktop? Here is your solution, a 3D 6 sided cube that allows you to have 6 different desktops.

Demonstration of Desktop Cube

Navigate to this website: http://www.soft82.com/download/windows/cubedesktop/
Click on the Free Download

Since we are using Firefox as our web browser we need to save the file, the box below will display click on Save File

The saving dialog box below will display usually in the top left of the screen. This shows the time it takes to save the .exe (executable file).

Once the file has finished saving the image below will be visible

Double click on the setup_cubedesktop.exe
The run box below will display, Click on Run

You now need to select the language you wish to use. Click Ok

The install Wizard will now open as shown below, click on Next

Please read the terms and conditions and click I Agree

Select the destination for the file to be saved and click install

The install progress box will appear below

Click Finish and your 3D cube desktop trial will start

You will notice the 6 buttons appear on your Taskbar

To change the view of your cube, right click on the yellow cube on your taskbar and click 3D cube you desktop will change to the below image.

3D Desktop Cube

Here are two other views you can use with 3D cube desktop

3D Desktop Flip

3D Desktop Carousel

You can click and hold you mouse button down to drag to different desktops, There are many customizing tools with this 3D desktop cube. You can set individual backgrounds to each desktop and have different Icons on each desktop also. However as this is a trial you will need to purchase the full version to experience all functionality for an extended period of time.

This Youtube Downloader is a great tool for downloading you tube video clips directly to your computer so you can view them offline.

Download Instructions

Navigate to this site http://download.cnet.com/YouTube-Downloader/3000-2071_4-10647340.html
Click on Download Now

The web page below will display, click on the warning message along the top of the website and click "download file"

The Run box below will display, click on Run

The executable file will now download onto your system, Click open once this is complete

A second run box will open, Click on Run

The Download Wizard will now open click on Next to start the wizard

The terms and conditions will now be displayed as shown below, read these then click I Agree

You will now be shown where the file will be downloaded to. Click Next

You will now be prompted with installing the Yahoo search bar and setting Yahoo as your home page. To avoid this deselect both tick box's and click next

The File is now ready to to install, Click on Install

The Youtube Downloader will now install, once it is finished click on Finish and you will see the Youtube Downloader Open as shown below

How to use the Youtube Downloader
Go to www.youtube.com
Search your video
Click in the Address bar and copy the URL
Minimize your web browser and click into the first box of the Internet Downloader and click paste
Check the destination of where you are saving your video
Click Download