Thursday, July 30, 2009

Best Free Weblog Software Other Than WordPress

Those software download adress:

Textpattern
Drupal
XOOPS

Weblog software is designed to simplify the creation and maintenance of weblogs. As specialized content management systems, weblog applications support the authoring, editing, and publishing of blog posts and comments, with special functions for image management, web syndication, and moderation of posts and comments.

We all know WordPress is one the most popular weblog applications. What other options can we choose? We have collected the following Top Quality Weblog Software Other Than WordPress for you.

melody

Melody is an open source content management, blogging and publishing platform, derived from the popular blogging tool Movable Type. At its onset, Melody is distinct from Movable Type by having put in place a set of processes that assist the greater Movable Type and Melody communities to contribute features, changes and fixes more freely and quickly back to the core product. This allows independent developers to pursue the features and preferences that matter to them most.

The promise of Melody is to serve its community by working to build a product according to the principles and philosophies that have helped make WordPress, Apache, Linux, Firefox and other open source applications so successful. Those principles include creating and fostering open communication channels with its user base, by building transparency into its roadmap, and by permitting users to more freely contribute back to the core product.


textpattern.png

When it comes to publishing on the internet, beginners and experts alike are met with a bothersome paradox: word processors and graphics applications allow anyone to do a pretty good job of managing text and images on a personal computer, but to make these available to the worldwide web – a seemingly similar environment of documents and destinations – ease of use vanishes behind sudden requirements for multilingual programming skills, proficiency in computer-based graphic design, and, ultimately, the patience of a saint.

Textpattern is a flexible, elegant and easy-to-use content management system and it is both free and open source. Textpattern is a web application designed to help overcome these and other hurdles to publishing online, and to simplify the production of well-structured, standards-compliant web pages.

drupal.png

Drupal is a free software package that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website. Drupal is open-source software distributed under the GPL (”General Public License”) and is maintained and developed by a community of thousands of users and developers.


radiant.png

Radiant is a no-fluff, open source content management system designed for small teams with the following main features. Built from the ground up to be as simple as possible, Radiant features an elegant administrative interface that centers around three key components: pages, snippets, and layouts.


Radiant is licensed under the MIT License. This means that Radiant is free for commercial and non-profit use. It also means that you are free to modify and distribute Radiant as long as you don’t remove the appropriate notices from the source code.

frog.png


Frog CMS is a PHP version of Radiant CMS, a well known Ruby on Rails application. Frog CMS share the goal to simplify content management, and offer an elegant user interface, flexible templating per page, simple user management and permissions and all what you need for your files management.


Frog requires a MySQL database with InnoDB support, a web server (Apache with mod_rewrite is highly recommended) and is distributed under the MIT software license.

xoops.png


XOOPS is an acronym of eXtensible Object Oriented Portal System. Though started as a portal system, XOOPS is in fact striving steadily on the track of Content Management System. It can serve as a web framework for use by small, medium and large sites.

A lite XOOPS can be used as a personal weblog or journal. For this purpose, you can do a standard install, and use its News module only. For a medium site, you can use modules like News, Forum, Download, Web Links etc to form a community to interact with your members and visitors. For a large site as an enterprise one, you can develop your own modules such as eShop, and use XOOP’s uniform user management system to seamlessly integrate your modules with the whole system.

movable-type.png

The Movable Type Open Source Project was announced in conjunction with the launch of the Movable Type 4 Beta on June 5th, 2007. The MTOS Project is a community and Six Apart driven project that will produce an open source version of the Movable Type Publishing Platform that will form the core of all other Movable Type products.

modx.png

MODx is 100% buzzword compliant, and makes child’s play of building content managed sites with validating, accessible CSS layouts – hence Ajax CMS. It empowers its users to build engaging “Web 2.0? sites today, with its pre-integrated MooTools, Scriptaculous and Prototype libraries. If you’re a CSS designer or Ajax aficionado, this is the CMS for you; and if you like what you see today, you’ll love what’s coming.

Techies call MODx a Content Management Framework (”CMF“): equal parts custom web app builder and Content Management System (”CMS“). With a flexible API and a robust event override system, MODx makes building engaging web projects straightforward — or changing core functionality without hacking the core code possible. Custom tweaks won’t leave you pulling out your hair when it’s time to upgrade.

snews.png

sNews is a completely free, standards compliant, PHP and MySQL driven content management system. Consisting of only one small core file, sNews is extremely lightweight, easy to install, and easy to use via a simple web interface.

With sNews you can create a website that consists of dynamic pages and have a blog at the same time. sNews has a front page option and categories for you to categorize your articles. Corporate CMS or a personal blog - your choice.

sNews uses search engine friendly URLs throughout, to make your website truly loved by Google and other search engines (as well as your visitors). This makes a sNews driven site highly Search Engine Optimized from the get-go and will greatly assist in your site obtaining a good SEO ranking.

opencms.png

OpenCms from Alkacon Software is a professional, easy to use website content management system. OpenCms helps content managers worldwide to create and maintain beautiful websites fast and efficiently.

The fully browser based user interface features configurable editors for structured content with well defined fields. Alternatively, content can be created using an integrated WYSIWYG editor similar to well known office applications. A sophisticated template engine enforces a site-wide corporate layout and W3C standard compliance for all content.

ocportal.jpg

ocPortal is a CMS (Content Management System) that allows you to create and manage your interactive and dynamic website from an easy to use administration interface. ocPortal is unique by the combination of a vast and diverse range of provided functionality, out-of-the-box usability, and an ability for unlimited customisation.

ocPortal is completely free under an OSI-approved Open Source licence since version 4.0. There are no restrictions on usage, and they don’t keep away any features from users.

habari.png

Habari is being written with a firm understanding of the current state of blogging. Most other blogging packages have been around long enough that their responses to things like comment spam and Digg site overloads are bolted on after the fact; whereas Habari is being written from the beginning to take these things — and more — into account.

Habari strongly favors open, standard, and documented protocols. Atom, being both open and documented, is the prefered syndication format, and the Atom Publishing Protocol is the prefered means of remote communication with your site. This is a core feature, and not a plugin.

dotcms.png


dotCMS Core is the most feature complete open source web CMS available today. Available under the GPL, you can freely download the dotCMS system and get up, running and managing web sites and web content in a matter of minutes.

Unlike many other “open source” cms, dotCMS is in no way crippled. When you download the dotCMS system, you are getting all of the functions and features needed to begin creating customized, manageable and scalable web sites. This includes so called “advanced” features such as LDAP/AD integration, clustering support, online templating, Web2.0 Calendaring and the structured content engine.

symphony.png

Symphony is a web publishing system made for web developers. It gives you all the power and flexibility you’ll need, while keeping out of your way.

Symphony lets you organise everything the way you like, from your publishing environment to your website’s URL structure. Built to be versatile and customisable, Symphony really is what you make of it.

Symphony’s templating engine is pure XSLT goodness. XSLT is a standard recommended by the W3C, so learning Symphony means that you’re learning skills that you can also use outside of the system. If you already know the XML and CSS standards, then chances are you should be able to quickly pick up XSLT.

(from blogperfume.com)

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Top 5 DVD to Zune Converter discount Suite

Top 5 DVD to Zune Converter discount Suite

Do you know… How easily to use Zune Video Converter?The differences of the hottest and popular Zune Video Converter?How to choose and get the high cost performance Zune Video Converter?

If you have already had a Zune, no doubt that you need a good Zune video converter when you use your Zune as a portable video player. As you know, there’are abundant series of Zune video Converter software flooding the market today. For better or worse, most of these Zune Video Converters are of different or similar functions and prices. Usually, you will be confused with them, and still don’t know which one to choose after costing much time of finding.

Here is a way that provide the most discount and high cost performance Zune Video Converter

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Top 10 Free Computer System Recovery Tools

Those software download adress:

SuperDuper! (Mac boot drive maker)
Magical Jelly Bean Key Finder (Windows)
Undelete Plus (Windows file recovery)
Ultimate Boot CD(bootable diagnostic CD,x386)
Knoppix(bootable CD,X386)

Your data's trapped on a dead computer. You lost your login password. You never wrote down the product key on a non-working Windows installation. Your Mac won't start.

Don't pay the extortionists at the computer repair shop 800 bucks to get your data back or start up your dead computer. Plenty of free tools can help you and are available for download right now. Today we've got our top 10 system recovery picks which span operating systems but all cost the same: exactly nothing.

Which one of these tools is right for you depends on your skill level, operating system and particular problem. Do yourself a favor and burn yourself a disc with a couple of these before the terrible day when you need 'em happens.

10. SuperDuper! (Mac boot drive maker)

Top 10 Free System Recovery Tools, #10: The free version of SuperDuper is a pre-emptive recovery tool. Use it to clone your Mac's hard drive onto an external drive. Once you've created that bootable clone, if your Mac dies, connect the clone, hold down the Option key when you boot your Mac, and choose the external drive as your boot drive.
Read more about full drive clones as a part of your complete Mac backup system.

9. Magical Jelly Bean Key Finder (Windows)

Top 10 Free System Recovery Tools, #9: Extract the Windows XP or Vista product key from a dead Windows installation with the beta version 2 of Key Finder, which also displays the product keys of common Windows apps like Microsoft Office.

8. USB PC Repair Kit (Windows)

Top 10 Free System Recovery Tools, #8: Access a menu of 37 Windows repair and recovery utilities from a 32MB USB drive with the all-in-one USB PC Repair Kit. The program list ranges from CCleaner, to Eraser, to ProcessExplorer and ProduKey and TweakUI.

7. Undelete Plus (Windows file recovery)

Top 10 Free System Recovery Tools, #7: Resurrect that deleted file with Undelete Plus, a simple utility that brings back deleted files that haven't been overwritten on disk.

6. System Information for Windows (diagnostics)

Top 10 Free System Recovery Tools, #6: Dig up software licenses, the type of BIOS or RAM or motherboard installed on your PC, saved web browser passwords and more with System Information for Windows. Before you wipe your machine clean and rebuild, you'd be smart to save a comprehensive SIW report first. See a screenshot tour of what System Information for Windows can do.

5. DasBoot (Mac boot CD maker)

Top 10 Free System Recovery Tools, #5: DasBoot for Mac OS X takes a bootable CD - like DiskWarrior - and installs it plus other utilities to a portable, writable, external drive, even an iPod. Effectively this makes a writable Mac diagnostic disk to go. DasBoot is ad-supported freeware, and utilities like DiskWarrior cost money separately.

4. Ophcrack Live CD (Windows password cracker)

Top 10 Free System Recovery Tools, #4: Forgot your Windows administrator password? Need to boot up an inherited PC for which you've got no password? Ophcrack can boot a Windows PC and crack alphanumeric passwords less than 15 characters for various Windows users. See a screenshot tour of Ophcrack cracking Adam's Windows password.

3. Ultimate Boot CD (bootable diagnostic CD, x386)

Top 10 Free System Recovery Tools, #3: The Ultimate Boot CD offers a menu of diagnostic disk tools to scan and repair your PC's drives. The UBCD is faster than a floppy disk - and a USB drive version's available, too.

2. Knoppix (bootable CD, x386)

Top 10 Free System Recovery Tools, #2: The Knoppix bootable CD boots a completely usable Linux desktop that can copy otherwise inaccessible files from your PC's hard drive to another disk, like a USB drive. See more on how to rescue files with the Knoppix boot CD.

1. GParted LiveCD (partition manager, x386)

Top 10 Free System Recovery Tools, #1: The GParted LiveCD is a bootable disk with an excellent partition manager that rivals the commercial, pay-for Partition Magic.

GParted is a graphical user interface to GNU Parted, an open source Linux partition manager, which can read, copy, create, shrink, expand, and move partitions.

(From lifehaker.com)

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Top 20 Free Applications to Increase Your Productivity

Those software download address:
Launchy
AutoHotKey
AVG AntiVirus
SpyBot Search and Destroy
Ad-Aware
Free Download Manager
Cam Studio
Audacity

Foxit PDF Reader
7-Zip
CCleaner
OpenOffice.org
Skype
Better Gmail
FileZilla
RoboForm
Google Calendar

The Internet is loaded with free software, making it hard to know which one’s you really need. This article will act as your guide to the top 20 free applications (Web and Windows) for increased productivity.

These programs will make your PC faster, stronger, and more productive.

1. Launchy

Launchy is the best free program launcher. It allows you to launch your documents, files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes. Launchy is also packed with a few extra features. You can use Launchy’s keyboard shortcuts to:
  • Search Google
  • Check the weather
  • Search other sites
  • Browse your computer
  • Use the built in calculator
  • Index your music, pictures, bookmarks, and folders
  • and much more…

2. AutoHotKey

When it comes to raw power, it doesn’t get much better than AutoHotKey. This software can automate just about anything by capturing your keystrokes and mouse clicks. This free utility allows you to define your own hotkeys, enabling you to launch an applicaton with a single key press.

AutoHotKey is a bit more technical than Launchy, but it’s well worth the effort. Fortunately, this application does come with a built-in macro recorder.

3. AVG AntiVirus

If you’re looking for free antivirus software, nothing beats AVG Antivirus 7. This product has been continuously improved and updated since 1991.

4. SpyBot Search and Destroy

There’s nothing worse than spyware to cripple a computer. For years, millions of users have relied on SpyBot Search and Destroy to keep their computer running smoothly.

5. Ad-Aware

Ad-Aware works perfectly along side SpyBot Search and Destroy to help protect your computer against harmful spyware.

Other good choices include SpyWare Terminator and Win Patrol.

6. Free Download Manager

Free Download Manager is a highly recommended download accelerator and manager. Don’t waste time waiting for your files to download. Free Download Manager will instantly increase your download speed by up to 600%.

7. BK ReplaceEm

Have you ever needed to replace a certain string of text in multiple files? If so, then you know what a pain it can be. Fortunately, there a number of free search and replace utilities that will help you get the job done quickly.

BK ReplaceEm is one of the most powerful search and replace utilities, allowing you to operate on multiple files at once.

8. Google Web Accelerator

Speed up the Web with Google Web Accelerator. This simple program will allow you to enjoy faster web browsing in seconds.

9. CamStudio

CamStudio is free recording software that will allow you to create demonstration videos, online tutorials, or even video-based information products. The possibilities are endless with this professional software. Fortunately, it doesn’t have the price tag that goes along with most streaming video software.

10. Audacity

Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. You can use Audacity to record live audio, edit sound files, mix sounds together, and much more.

11. Foxit PDF Reader

Here’s a small PDF reader that loads in a flash. It’s an excellent alternative to Adobe’s slow, bloated PDF Reader.

12. 7-Zip

7-Zip is one of the best file compressors available. This open source software will allow you to compress a number of different file formats.

Another excellent zip utility is IZArc, which supports nearly 50 different archive file types.

13. CCleaner

CCleaner is a simple program that will help keep your computer running at its peak. This freeware utility removes unused files from your system, freeing up valuable hard disk space.

14. OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice is the number one open source alternative to Microsoft’s Office Suite. OpenOffice includes a word processor, spreadsheet software similar to Microsoft Excel, web page editor, photo software and a presentation program similar to Microsoft Powerpoint.

15. Skype

Skype allows you to talk to people across the world for free. This program is perfect for business application as well as personal use.

16. Gmail

Gmail is hands-down the best email client available. It comes with built-in Google search technology, 2.6 GB of storage, and a number of excellent features.
Gmail allows you to apply labels to your email, create filters, and presents your email messages as threaded conversations.

17. Better Gmail

To enhance your Gmail for optimum productivity, then you will need to download the Better Gmail Firefox extension. Better Gmail adds a number of features, including:

  • Google Calendar in the folder list
  • a number of new Gmail skins
  • saved searches and…
  • additional macros

18. FileZilla

FileZilla is a fast and reliable FTP client that packs a ton of useful features. This is by far the best free FTP client that I have found.

19. RoboForm

RoboForm will help you navigate the Web with ease. It is the top-rated password manager and web form filler that will allow you to browse the Web faster than ever.

20. Google Calendar

Organize your life with Google Calendar. You can use Google Calendar to set up automatic event reminders, add important events with a single click, and use the built-in search tool to keep track of all your events.

(from http://www.lifehack.org/)

Five Best Image Editing Software

Those software download address:

Pixelmator
Inkscape
Fireworks
GIMP
Photoshop

Image editing software has become ubiquitous in this digital age. Whether you’re creating a web interface or simply cropping and enhancing your family photos – you’ll need your favorite image editor to do it.

In this article, you’ll find the top image editing applications currently out in the market.

Last week, readers of Sia Revisions were asked what they thought was the
best image editing software. Over 150 people responded and here, you’ll find the pick of the litter.

5.
Pixelmator

Pixelmator is a fast and powerful image editing software for the Mac operating system. With its intuitive and beautiful Graphical User Interface (GUI), support for layers to organize your document, a large assortment of painting tools, and simple-to-use photo correction tools - Pixelmator is an excellent pick for Mac users who don’t quite need the features (and price tag) of Photoshop.

4. Inkscape

Inkscape is an open source vector graphics editor much like Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw, and Xara X. Its default file format is web standards compliant Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) under W3C’s specifications. Want to learn more about what Inkscape has to offer? Check out this list of articles and presentations about Inkscape.

If you’re interested in finding more open source and free alternatives to Photoshop, you may want to read this list of
ten open source and free alternatives.

3. Fireworks

Fireworks is Adobe’s image editing software for the web designers. It excels in several areas over its big brother Photoshop, namely in high-fidelity prototyping of sites and a workspace environment that’s optimized for web designers. It is also a raster and vector hybrid, being able to work with raster-based images and vector-based graphics better and more symbiotically than Photoshop.

Fireworks is a popular tool of choice for many web designers and was once voted as one of the
top tools for web designers.

2.
GIMP
GIMP - which stands for the GNU Image Manipulation Program - is a feature-packed and powerful open source image editor that can be used in all major operating systems (Linux, Mac, and Windows). It has a customizable interface so that you can easily set the view and behavior of GIMP.

It has a huge set of retouching tools that will allow you to perform advanced image retouching and manipulation. The GIMP outputs your work in many common formats like JPG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, and even PSD (Photoshop’s native file format).

1. Photoshop
Not surprisingly, Photoshop is the winner by a landslide, garnering over half of all the total votes. Photoshop is what comes to mind when image editing is involved there’s very little that can be said about it that hasn’t been said already.

With an insurmountable amount of features that help you manipulate and enhance photos as well as create web graphics, all while helping you manage your workflow and image editing environment – Photoshop comes in at numero uno as the best image editing software currently in the market.


(from sixrevisions.com)

Monday, June 15, 2009

Top 10 Freeware Software Nobody Knows About - But Should

Those software download address:

Sharepod
ConTEXT
EditPlus
IrfanView
Windows Live Writer
Foxit Reader
Snipping Tool
Blender
ImgBurn
MusikCube
AutoHotkey


It’s always a shame when a great program is not heard about by most people - especially when it’s free. Here are the top 10 freeware software that many people still haven’t tried, but definitely should.

10. Sharepod

If you want to get all those files off your iPod and into your computer, then this is the program for you. In a previous post (Transfer Files From Your iPod To PC For Free) Sharepod was used to show how to freely and easily transfer files from an iPod to PC.



9. ConTEXT

Not only is this a great notepad replacement, it is also a great help for software developers.


[Edit: ConTEXT is one of useful editor , but Personally I think the EditPlus is much more popular and better than it. And on the contrary, the EditPlus need to be paid. ..]

8. IrfanView


Simply put, this is a simple graphic viewer. It has many essential features like email, Thumbnail/preview option, various Effects, changing color depth, and, of course, an extensive file format support.



7. Windows Live Writer


Although still in beta, this makes blogging both easy and comfortable. It supports many blog services, including WordPress, Blogger, and TypePad, and also has a some very good plugins.



6. Foxit Reader


This is the adobe reader replacement. It is much faster than adobe reader, and much friendlier to use. Try this once, and you’ll never go back.


5. Snipping Tool

Comes installed in Windows Vista. This program lets you take screenshots of the whole screen, only a certain program, free-form, or rectangular snips. Immediately after taking the screen shot, you are given the choice of editing it and saving it into your computer. They couldn’t have made it easier. This was also covered in a previous post: Top 5 Applications That Come Installed With Windows Vista


[Edit: Some people pointed out that this isn’t necessarily freeware because you need to have Vista in order to use it. MWSnap can be used instead of it. Thanks TemporalBeing and everyone else who pointed that out.]

4. Blender

Did you ever see the amazing CGI movies Pixar makes, like Ratatouille? Well, with Blender, you can make similar computer generated graphics that will amaze everyone.




3. ImgBurn

ImgBurn is great tool to create image files from discs and burn images to discs. It even supports HD DVD and Blu-ray. There is no need to use an high cost programs for images.


2. MusikCube

This is what iTunes should be like. An easy to use, uncluttered, lightweight program, which will convert most people to it after seconds of use. The plugins that are available will make for an easy transition, like being able to grab ratings from iTunes or Windows Media Player and import them to MusikCube.


1. AutoHotkey

This is the one of the most essential programs ever - if you know how to use it. With AutoHotkey, you can write scripts that automate keystrokes, which can save you a lot of time. You can make it automate annoying internship jobs, like copying and pasting a bunch of text from one place to another, to more complex applications like Lifehacker’s Texter. The beauty of it all is that it very easy to learn and master.


(from liveslick.com)

Top 10 Free Video Rippers, Encoders, and Converters

Those software download address:
VLC media player
MediaCoder
Avi2Dvd
Any Video Converter
DVD Shrink
Handbrake


So many video file formats, so many handheld video players, so many online video sites, and so little time. To have your favorite clips how you want them—whether that's on your DVR, iPod, PSP or desktop—you need the right utility to convert 'em into the format that works for you. Commercial video converter software's aplenty, but there are several solid free utilities that can convert your video files on every operating system, or if you've just got a web browser and a quick clip. Put DVDs on your iPod, YouTube videos on DVD, or convert any video file with today's top 10 free video rippers, encoders and converters.

10. VLC media player (Open source/All platforms)Ok, so VLC is a media player, not converter, but if you're watching digital video, it's a must-have—plus VLC can indeed rip DVD's, as well as play ripped discs in ISO format (no actual optical media required.) VLC can also play FLV files downloaded from YouTube et al, no conversion to AVI required. Since there's a portable version, VLC's a nice choice for getting your DVD rips/saved YouTube video watching on wherever you go.

9. MediaCoder (Open source/Windows)
Batch convert audio and video compression formats with the open source Media Coder for Windows, which works with a long laundry lists of formats, including MP3, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, AAC+, AAC+V2, MusePack, WMA, RealAudio, AVI, MPEG/VOB, Matroska, MP4, RealMedia, ASF/WMV, Quicktime, and OGM, to name a few.

8. Avi2Dvd (Freeware/Windows)
Make your video files burnable to a DVD with Avi2Dvd, a utility that converts Avi/Ogm/Mkv/Wmv/Dvd files to Dvd/Svcd/Vcd format. Avi2Dvd can also produce DVD menus with chapter, audio, and subtitle buttons.

7. Videora Converter (Freeware/Windows only)
Videora Converter is a set of programs, each designed to convert regular PC video files into a format tailored to your favorite video-playing handheld device. The Videora program list includes iPod Video Converter (for 5th gen iPods), iPod classic Video Converter (for 6th gen classic iPods), iPod nano Video Converter (for 3rd gen iPod nanos), iPod touch Video Converter, iPhone Video Converter, Videora Apple TV Converter, PSP Video 9, Videora Xbox360 Converter, Videora TiVo Converter, and Videora PMP Converter. Lifehacker alum Rick Broida used Videora in conjunction with DVD Decrypter to copy DVDs to his iPod.
Honorable Mention: Ares Tube for Windows converts YouTube and other online videos to iPod format.

6. Any Video Converter (Freeware/Windows only)
Convert almost all video formats including DivX, XviD, MOV, rm, rmvb, MPEG, VOB, DVD, WMV, AVI to MPEG-4 movie format for iPod/PSP or other portable video device, MP4 player or smart phone with Any Video Converter, which also supports user-defined video file formats as the output. Batch process multiple files that AVC saves to a pre-selected directory folder, leaving the original files untouched.

5. Hey!Watch (webapp)
Web application Hey!Watch converts video located on your computer desktop as well as clips hosted on video sites. Upload your video to Hey!Watch to encode it into a wide variety of file formats, like H264, MP4, WMV, DivX, HD Video, Mobile 3GP/MP4, iPod, Archos and PSP. Hey!Watch only allows for 10MB of video uploads per month for free, and from there you pay for what you use, but it's got lots of neat features for video publishers like podcast feed generation and automatic batch processing with options you set once.

4. VidDownloader (webapp)
When you don't want to mess with installing software to grab that priceless YouTube clip before it gets yanked, head over to web site VidDownloader which sucks in videos from all the big streaming sites (YouTube, Google Video, iFilm, Blip.TV, DailyMotion, etc.), converts 'em for you to a playable format and offers them for download. Other downloaders for online video sites buy you a Flash FLV file, but VidDownloader spits back an AVI file.

3. iSquint (Freeware/Mac OS X only)
Convert any video file to iPod-sized versions and automatically add the results to your iTunes library. iSquint is free, but Lifehacker readers have praised the pay-for iSquint upgrade, VisualHub, which offers more advanced options for a $23 license fee. Check out the feature comparison chart between iSquint and VisualHub.

2. DVD Shrink (Freeware/Windows only)
Copy a DVD to your hard drive and leave off all the extras like bonus footage, trailers and other extras to save space with DVD Shrink. Download Adam's one-click AutoHotkey/DVD Shrink utility to rip your DVDs to your hard drive for skip-free video play from scratchy optical media.
Honorable mention: DVD Decrypter (beware of advertisement interstitial page), which Windows peeps can use to copy DVDs to their iPods.

1. Handbrake (Open source/Windows, Mac)
Back up your DVD's to digital file with this open source DVD to MPEG-4 converter app. See also how to rip DVDs to your iPod with Handbrake.

What's your favorite way to convert video to the right format? Did we miss any good ones in this list? Let us know in the comments.

(from lifehacker.com)