38 MA XIMUMPC APRIL 2006
Softy Awards
AnyDVD
Free your DVDs! Free your CDs! Stick
it to The Man!Whether you want to watch movies on your PSP;
make a quick copy of Finding Nemo so your kids
don’t scratch up the original; or just rip a CD that’s
encumbered with “copy-protection,” so you can
play it on your MP3 player, AnyDVD will make it
happen. While AnyDVD doesn’t include any specif-
ic ripping or conversion functionality, it does auto-
matically decrypt the contents of any disc you put
in your optical drive, on the fl y. Be it a DVD or CD,
making a copy of your disc is as simple as drag-
ging and dropping its contents to your hard drive.
If that’s not enough, AnyDVD even deactivates
the forced previews and other annoying adverts
that run before many DVDs these days.AnyDVD doesn’t sport much of an interface, just a few screens with
options. But don’t be fooled— AnyDVD has the power to unlock all
your media!The Deadly PDF Duo
PDF files are a fact of life, but the PC-based tools are a drag.
Here are two kick-ass free alternatives to AcrobatOne thing that most PC users will agree on is that Acrobat sucks
Acro-ass. It takes an insane amount of time to load and the full
version is stupid-expensive. Lucky for you, there are a couple of
excellent, free, alternatives— Foxit PDF Reader and PDF Creator.
Foxit PDF Reader loads fast, and lets you read, print, and
even input data into some PDFs. In fact, we managed to down-
load and install Foxit in the time it took Acrobat Reader to open
on a particularly slow PC.
PDF Creator is a brilliant open-source project that adds a special
printer driver to your Windows install. When you want to make a PDF,
simply print to that driver, and your PDF will be created in a jiffy.
Install these two apps, and you’ll never have to face
Acrobat again!Don’t waste another second waiting on Acrobat Reader
to load. Use the super-speedy Foxit PDF Reader instead!FREE FOXIT READER: WWW.FOXITSOFTWARE.COMUsing PDF Creator , you can create PDFs from any application
that has a Print function. FREEPDF CREATOR: HTTP://SOURCEFORGE.NET/
PROJECTS/PDFCREATOR$40^ WWW.SLYSOFT.COM