It's the time of year where we all give thanks, and among many other things, we here at Lifehacker are thankful for all the free apps out there that improve our lives (and the developers that make them!). Here are 50 of our favorites.
We asked you which free apps you're most thankful for, you offered hundreds of suggestions both classic and new. Here, we've taken your votes (and added a few of our own) and ranked our 50 apps using those votes as a guide. So without further ado, here are 50 free apps for your downloading feast.
Dropbox
Category: Cloud Storage
See also: Top 10 Clever Uses for Dropbox, The Cheapskate's Guide to Getting Free Dropbox Space, How to Get 8GB+ Extra Dropbox Space for Free with Google AdWords, How to Supercharge Your Dropbox with Wappwolf, and more Dropbox coverage
Google Chrome
Category: Web Browsers
See also: The Always Up-to-Date Power User's Guide to Chrome, How to Really Browse Without Leaving a Trace, Which Browser Should I Use: Firefox or Chrome?, How and Why Chrome Is Overtaking Firefox Among Power Users, and more Chrome coverage
Firefox
Category: Web Browsers
See also: The Always Up-to-Date Power User's Guide to Firefox, Why I've Switched From Chrome to Firefox 4, Top 10 Must-Have Browser Extensions, Which Browser Should I Use: Firefox or Chrome?, and more Firefox coverage
Evernote
Category: Notes
See also: Expand Your Brain with Evernote and Clever Uses for Evernote, The Complete Guide to Going Paperless, Turn Your Mess of Ideas Into Something Organized and Useful, and more Evernote coverage
Alternative: Use Springpad as Your New Personal Assistant
Category: Bookmarking
See also: The Best Way to Save All the Useful Articles You Come Across Online and More Pocket Coverage
Alternatives: Instapaper and Readability
Skype
Category: VoIP
See also: Get Better Quality Video Chat, The Five Best Webcams, Phone-ify Your Computer for Considerably Improved At-Home Calls and Texts, and more Skype coverage
Google Maps
Category: Maps
See also: Make your GPS App Give You Better Directions, Wean Yourself Off Your GPS Dependency, 5 Great Experimental Features You Should Enable from the Google Maps Laboratory, and Our complete Google Maps coverage
Gmail
Category: Email
See also: Master the New Gmail with These Tips, Shortcuts, and Add-Ons, Top 10 Clever Tricks Built Right Into Gmail, Get Google and iOS Living Together in Perfect Harmony, Fix Gmail's Newest Annoyances with These Userstyles and Userscripts, and more Gmail coverage
Google Voice
Category: Communication
See also: Phone-ify Your Computer for Considerably Improved At-Home Calls and Texts, The Most Helpful Ways to Use Google Voice that You're Not Using, Top 10 Clever Google Voice Tricks, How to Improve Your Google Voice Experience on the iPhone, Get the Most Out of Google Voice on Your Non-Smartphone, How to Port Your Number to Google Voice Without Paying an Arm and a Leg, and more Google Voice coverage
Category: Photos
See also: Know Which Shots Work Best with Each Instagram Filter, Normalize Turns Instagram'd Photos Back to Normal, and more Instagram coverage
Spotify
Category: Music Streaming
See also: Spotify Is the Best Desktop Music Player We've Ever Used, The Essential Spotify Tools, How to Automatically Mute Ads on Spotify, How to Stop Spotify from Posting Every Song You Listen to on Facebook, How to Discover New Music in the Post-MP3 Age, and more Spotify coverage
Category: News Readers
See also: Lifehacker Faceoff: The Best Digital Digests on iPad and iPhone and more Flipboard coverage
Google Drive
Category: Cloud Storage
See also: File Syncing Faceoff: Dropbox vs. Google Drive, How to Supercharge Your Google Drive with Wappwolf, Instantly Send Any Gmail Attachment to Google Drive, and more Google Drive coverage
Google Calendar
Category: Calendars
See also: Get Google and iOS Living Together in Perfect Harmony, Manage Your Money with Google Calendar, How to Use Google Calendar as a Project Management Tool, 8 Great Experimental Features to Enable in Google Calendar's Labs, and more Google Calendar coverage
Google Play Music
Category: Music Streaming
See also: How to Make Google Music Your Secondary Media Player (and Why You Should), Cloud Music Comparison: What's the Best Service for Streaming Your Library Everywhere?, Music Plus Makes Google Music Awesome, and more Google Play Music coverage
Waze
Category: Maps
See also: Make your GPS App Give You Better Directions, Wean Yourself Off Your GPS Dependency, and more Waze coverage
Dolphin
Category: Web Browsers
See also: Dolphin Jetpack Supercharges Dolphin Browser, Makes Mobile Surfing Stupid Fast, Lifehacker Faceoff: The Best Web Browsers for iPhone and iPad, and more Dolphin coverage
Wunderlist
Category: To-Do Lists
See also: Wunderlist Is a Simple, Elegant, and Free To-Do App that Synchronizes Across Your Machines, Back to Basics: How to Simplify Your To-Do List and Make It Useful Again and more Wunderlist coverage
Pandora
Category: Music Streaming
See also: How to Discover New Music in the Post-MP3 Age, Five Best Internet Radio Services, and more Pandora coverage
Google Reader
Category: News Readers
See also: Supercharge Google Reader with Styles and Extensions, Organize My RSS Feeds So They're More Manageable, How to Turn Google Reader into a Customizable Read-It-Later Service, and more Google Reader coverage
LastPass
Category: Password Managers
See also: The Intermediate Guide to Mastering Passwords with LastPass, How to Build a (Nearly) Hack-Proof Password System with LastPass and a Thumb Drive How to Automatically Fill in Repetitive Web Forms (and Avoid Tons of Tedious Typing), and more LastPass coverage
XBMC
Category: Media Center S
See also: http://lifehacker.com/5900626/create-a-kickass-seamless-play+everything-media-center-the-complete-guide, How I Built the Media Center of My Dreams for Under $500, How to Make XBMC Easier to Use (Especially for Non-Geeks), OpenELEC Is a Fast-Booting, Self-Updating Version of XBMC for Home Theater PCs, Top 10 Ways to Power Up Your Home Theater PC, and more XBMC coverage
Alternative: How to Stream Your Media from Home to Your Phone Anywhere You Go with Plex
VLC
Category: Media Players
See also: Master Your Digital Media with VLC, Set a Video as Your Wallpaper with VLC, How to Fix Movies that Are Really Quiet, then REALLY LOUD, and more VLC coverage
Mint.com
Category: Personal Finance
See also: Is Mint Ready for Your Money?, How to Create (and Stick to) a Realistic Budget with Mint, and more Mint coverage
TeamViewer
Category: Remote Access
See also: Use Your Home Computer from Anywhere: A Comprehensive Guide to Remote Controlling Your PC How Do I Troubleshoot My Parents' PC Remotely? and more TeamViewer coverage
AirDroid
Category: Remote Access
See also: AirDroid Controls Your Android Phone or Tablet from Any Modern Web Browser
FoxFi
Category: Tethering
See also: Use Your Android Phone as a Wi-Fi Hotspot for Free, No Rooting Required
Ubuntu(and other Linux Distros)
Category: Operating System
See also: Getting Started with Linux: The Complete Guide, How to Find the Perfect Linux Distribution for You, Five Best Linux Distributions, Build a Killer Customized Arch Linux Installation (and Learn All About Linux in the Process), Turn an Old Computer into a Networked Backup, Streaming, or Torrenting Machine with Ubuntu, and more Linux coverage
Microsoft Security Essentials
Category: Antivirus
See also: Stop Paying for Windows Security; Microsoft's Security Tools Are Good Enough, Nine Common Myths and Misconceptions About Viruses, Examined and Debunked, Change Microsoft Security Essential's Update Frequency, and more Security Essentials coverage
uTorrent
Category: BitTorrent Client
See also: How to Add Automatic Virus Scanning, Video Conversion, and Remote Downloading to uTorrent for Free, How to Monitor Your BitTorrent Downloads from Any Computer or Mobile Device, How Do I Torrent Safely Now That Demonoid Is Down?, and more uTorrent coverage
Alternative: Transmission
CCleaner
Category: Utilities
See also: The Maintenance You Need to Do on a Windows PC, Run CCleaner on a Schedule to Keep Your PC Crap-Free, CCleaner Enhancer Makes CCleaner Even Better, Now Cleans 270 New Apps, and more CCleaner coverage
HandBrake
Category: Video Conversion
See also: How to Rip a DVD to Your Computer, The Hassle-Free Guide to Ripping Your Blu-Ray Collection, Calculate the Perfect HandBrake Video Encoding Settings for Your Device, and more Handbrake coverage
VirtualBox
Category: Virtualization
See also: The Beginner's Guide to Creating Virtual Machines with VirtualBox, Should I Run a Second Operating System in a Virtual Machine or Dual Boot?, How to Run Mac OS X Inside Windows Using VirtualBox, and more VirtualBox coverage
CyanogenMod
Category: Android ROMs
See also: The Always Up-To-Date Guide to Rooting the Most Popular Android Phones, How to Choose the Right Android ROM for You, and more CyanogenMod coverage
Flux
Category: CATEGORY
See also: Flux Changes Your Screen Brightness by Time of Day, Make Your Computer and More Friendly to Use at Night, Prevent Eyestrain at Your Computer, and more Flux coverage
GIMP
Category: Image Editing
See also: Top 10 Photoshop Tricks You Can Use Without Buying Photoshop, Is GIMP better than Photoshop?, Tweak GIMP to be More Like Photoshop, and more GIMP coverage
LibreOffice
Category: Office Suite
See also: Am I Missing Out by Using Free Alternatives to Microsoft Office? and more LibreOffice coverage
Thunderbird
Category: Email
See also: Backing up Gmail with Thunderbird, Eight Killer Thunderbird Extensions, How to Sync Your Desktop Email Client (Outlook or Thunderbird) Across Multiple Computers, Thunderbird to Slow Down Development, Focus on "Security and Stability" Only, and more Thunderbird coverage
Picasa
Category: Photo Manager
See also: How to Upload and Share Photos on Flickr, Picasa, or Facebook, Picasa 3.5 Organizes Your Photos with Facial Recognition, Picasa Now Offering Virtually Unlimited Photo Storage, Brings Google+ Tagging, and more Picasa coverage
Category: Social Networking
See also: Top 10 Uses for Twitter (That Aren't Self-Indulgent), Navigate the New Twitter Like a Pro with Keyboard Shortcuts, Why's Everybody So Pissed About Twitter, and Should I Care?, How to Deal with Your Biggest Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ Annoyances, and more Twitter coverage
AutoHotkey
Category: Utilities
See also: Turn Any Action into a Keyboard Shortcut, The Best Time-Saving AutoHotkey Tricks You Should Be Using, Put Your Keyboard's Unused Keys to Use (by Turning Them into Awesome Shortcuts), and more AutoHotkey coverage
Launchy
Category: Utilities
See also: Integrate Everything Search Tool and Launchy, Take Launchy beyond application launching, Screenshot Tour: Tweaking Launchy, and more Launchy coverage
Quicksilver
Category: Utilities
See also: Hack Attack: A beginner's guide to Quicksilver, Top 10 Quicksilver Plug-ins, Turn Any Action Into a Keyboard Shortcut on Your Mac, and more Quicksilver coverage
Simplenote
Category: Note Taking
See also: The Holy Grail of Ubiquitous Plain-Text Capture, The Best Ways to Keep Your Notes in Sync Across All Your Devices, and more Simplenote coverage
Titanium Backup
Category: Utilities
See also: How to Set Up a Fully Automated App and Settings Backup on Android, How to Upgrade to a New Android Phone and Take Everything with You, and How to Speed Up Your Old or Sluggish Android Device
Winamp
Category: Media Players
See also: Manage your music with Winamp, Control Winamp Remotely from Any Browser, Music Player Showdown: Which Desktop Player Is Best for Syncing to Android?, and more Winamp coverage
Google Tasks
Category: To-Do Lists
See also: Google Tasks Extension Brings Super-Fast Task Management to Chrome, To-Do Manager Any.DO Comes to the Web, Launches New iOS App, and more Tasks coverage
Opera
Category: Web Browsers
See also: How (and Why) to Set Up a Secondary Browser Optimized for Slow Internet Connections, Top 10 Must-Have Browser Extensions, and more Opera coverage
Notepad++
Category: Text editors
See also: Five Best Text Editors, AutoSave Adds Reassurance to Notepad++ Editing, and How to Get More Plus out of Notepad++
7-Zip
Category: File Compression
See also: What's the Best Way to Compress a Bunch of Files? and From Saucy Pics to Passwords: How to Share Sensitive Information Over the Internet
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/rgHAhHyrksw/the-50-free-apps-were-most-thankful-for
weather st louis faceoff kings island red hot chili peppers tour orange juice photos doomsday clock
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.