Month: March 2012

How to open Word documents on Mac

OS X doesn’t come installed with software to open Microsoft Word documents, and unlike Windows, Microsoft doesn’t provide a Word Viewer for Mac.

Fortunately, there are other ways of opening Word documents on Mac without having to purchase Microsoft Office for Mac. Here are a few of them:

Open Office

OpenOffice

OpenOffice is a multi-platform and multilingual office suite that is compatible with all other major office suites (meaning it will open and edit Word, Powerpoint documents etc). Best of all, its absolutely free to use.

LibreOffice

Like OpenOffice, LibreOffice boasts a comprehensive set of office management tools arguably on par with Microsoft Office itself. Mostly importantly, however, it opens Word documents. LibreOffice offers six different office management tools to meet your project management needs: Text Document, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Drawing, Database, and Formula.

Pages

Pages is Apple’s answer to Microsoft Word, although it can take some getting used to if you’ve used Word all your life. Unfortunately, it’s not free– it comes as part of iWork, which includes, among other things, the excellent Keynote presentation software. That being said, it’s relatively inexpensive compared to Microsoft Office.

Looking for more options? Google now offers a full suite of apps, including Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings, which could be the next great replacement for Microsoft Word, compatible with all OSes and based in the cloud.

5 iPhone apps to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day falls on Saturday March 17 this year, so it’s a prime time to get out and celebrate. Find a pub, wear something green and get your Irish on. Of course, you’ll most likely have your iPhone with you too.

Whether you’re a hardcore St. Patty’s Day celebrator or someone more interested in trivia surrounding the holiday, there’s an iPhone app for you.

Here’s a list of five iPhone apps that can help you enjoy St. Patrick’s Day, no matter what you decide to spend it doing. Continue reading “5 iPhone apps to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day”

Behind the scenes of Sleeping Dogs

United Front Games and Square Enix released a behind the scenes trailer about the development of Sleeping Dogs and how Hong Kong shaped its tone and visual style. Their experiences seeing the city and culture helped shape the dynamics of the third person action adventure game.

My first impressions at GDC 2012 convinced me the gameplay was solid, and hearing how much Hong Kong influenced the developers illustrated that they’re introducing the city in as authentic a way as possible.

10 apps and games to show off your new iPad

The new iPad (officially titled ‘new iPad’) will be released on the world tomorrow and we’ve been thinking about the apps that will best show off its impressive hardware capabilities.

Of course, we’ll soon see the release of plenty of new apps and games designed to take advantage of the retina display, A5X processor and improved camera specs. But there are already a bunch of great iPad apps and games available that will look stunning on the new tablet.

We’ve already seen some of the new and enhanced applications designed with the New iPad in mind. Check our post from last week for more about iPhoto and the overhauls to GarageBand, iMovie and iWork. But here are our recommendations for what should be the first apps you install on your new iPad:

Continue reading “10 apps and games to show off your new iPad”

4 Alternatives to Hotspot Shield

It can be really frustrating when you want to watch a video on YouTube, only to receive a notice saying that viewing is region-restricted for your country. The same goes for accessing other websites available only to certain countries.

Luckily, there are tools like Hotspot Shield which create a Virtual Private Network (VPN) and allows access to geo-restricted websites.

If you’re interested in viewing content from countries other than the US, or are just looking for a comparable alternative to Hotspot Shield, there are a ton of great tools that’ll let you view the content you want, no matter where you are.

Cyberghost VPN

Cyberghost VPN is a nice alternative that lets you access region-restricted online services, as well as browse anonymously online. There is a free VPN package available for download on the developer’s website that includes up to 1 GB of traffic per month, as well as access to free servers. There are also other monthly paid plans if you want less wait time and more server availability.

UltraSurf

UltraSurf is well-known as a tool to browse the web anonymously, but it can also help you view sites that are otherwise restricted based on your location. Simple to install and use, UltraSurf  is a tool for Internet Explorer that works automatically on startup. You can also use it on Firefox, thanks to the handy UltraSurf Firefox Tool.

TunnelBear

Much like Hotspot Shield, TunnelBear enables users to view region-restricted web content securely. By creating an encrypted connection between your computer and a server in the country you want to connect to, TunnelBear essentially lets you experience online content as if you were viewing it from another country. TunnelBear is available in three pricing plans, one of which is free and gives you up to 500MB of free data per month via the developer’s website.

ExPat Shield

ExPat Shield is essentially Hotspot Shield for users who want access to UK-specific content from outside of the United Kingdom. It does this by connecting your IP address to a UK IP. Installation of ExPat Shield can be a bit arduous, but the surfing speed is pretty impressive. In addition to offering simple VPN connectivity, ExPat Shield also has an anonymous browsing option.

If you’re looking for a few more options for streaming video content, there are even more browesr add-ons and tools you can use.

Star Wars: The Old Republic free this weekend

Bioware’s Star Wars: The Old Republic is free to play this weekend, Thursday March 15 at 12:01AM CT until Monday, March 19 at 2:00AM CT.

If you haven’t tried this massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG), it’s worth checking out. You can join the Empire or the Republic, and each with its own classes of character, who all have their own stories. It’s the most ambitious MMORPG since World of Warcraft, and has impressed fans with its faithful recreation of the Star Wars universe.
Continue reading “Star Wars: The Old Republic free this weekend”

Firefox 11.0 final released

Mozilla have released the final version of Firefox 11.0 for Mac and Windows. The most notable change in Firefox 11 is add-on syncing which means that you can sync your add-ons across machines.

This means that if you install Firefox on a different computer and need the same add-ons that you usually use, Firefox will sync them automatically so you have identical browsers. You can toggle it off and on via the Sync tab in the Options window.

Continue reading “Firefox 11.0 final released”

The best Facebook extensions for Opera

Facebook is great fun for catching up with friends, but there are things that annoy us all when using it. If you surf the Web with Opera, then go check out the useful Facebook extensions listed below, which will improve your experience of the social network.

All of the Opera extensions are free to download, and you can install them just by following the link, then clicking the Download button on the extension’s page. Once it’s downloaded, you’ll be prompted to install the extension. Click the Install button and the add-on’s functionality will be applied immediately.

To view and manage your installed Opera extensions, click the Opera button in the top-left of the browser, go to Extensions, and select the Manage Extensions option. You’ll see a list of all of the extensions you’ve installed, and you can disable/enable, uninstall, or adjust the preferences for each of them.

Continue reading “The best Facebook extensions for Opera”

5 reasons to try Mozilla’s new mobile OS

If you’re confused by the never ending Android/iPhone/Windows Phone debate, then Mozilla’s new mobile operating system Boot to Gecko (B2G) may come as a breath of fresh air.

Announced last summer, it was premiered for the first time at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and promises some exciting possibilities for the mobile market:

Continue reading “5 reasons to try Mozilla’s new mobile OS”