MakeUseOf » charity

Get 7 Indie PC Games For Any Price You Wish To Pay [News]

Yaara Lancet — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 13:16:17 +0000

Bored with your old PC games? Why not try seven new games for any price you choose? Indie Gala is a bundle of indie games which you can buy for any price you feel like paying, and even decide who the money goes to.

The bundle includes five PC games which range from zombie shooters to a hacking simulation game. If you hurry and purchase the games today, you will also get two bonus games and more bonus material. But even without the bonus, 5 new games are worth digging into your pocket for; and you can dig as deep as you want!

So how does it work? Head over to the Indie Gala website and read about the games you’re going to buy. Then scroll down and decide how much you are going to pay – you can choose one of the set prices or insert any custom amount. After today, you will only be able to pay amounts which are above the current average, but that average currently stands at $1.42. Still an awesome deal!

After you’ve chosen your amount, you can choose how you want to divide the money among the recipients: the developers of the games, Save The Children and Child’s Play charities, or Indie Gala itself. When you complete the purchase, you will receive codes for the games which you will need to redeem on Steam, so a free Steam account is a must.

Let us know what you think of the games in the comments below!

Source: Indie Gala

Google Launches Person Finder In Turkish In Response To Recent Earthquake [News]

Yaara Lancet — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:31:08 +0000

Google has launched its Person Finder service in Turkish following the recent 7.2 earthquake that has struck Turkey. Over 400 people were killed in the earthquake, and many are still missing. Google’s Person Finder aims at helping rescue services and civilians locate missing people by publicly sharing information about them.

Anyone can access the site and enter a new record of a missing person. Other people with relevant information can then update the record accordingly. The information is available publicly and anyone can view it and use it. Rescue teams can also use this information in order to spread their efforts effectively.

The Google Person Finder service was developed after the 2010 Haiti earthquake in order to provide one central information center for missing person records. According to the service’s FAQ, this year’s tsunami disaster in Japan saw over 600,000 missing person records in the service. The service is being updated solely by users, which should set an expiration date for the record they enter or make sure to delete it when it’s no longer relevant.

Click here to access the Turkish Person Finder.

Source: Google Blog
Image credit: Shutterstock

Playing Farmville Can Help Cure World Hunger [News]

Dave LeClair — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 14:31:41 +0000

The social gaming giant Zynga has teamed up with Pizza Hut to help cure world hunger. Players across a number of their games including Farmville and Cityville can buy select items for $5, and all proceeds from these purchases will go towards the World Food Programme.

This is a great move for Pizza Hut and Zynga for two reasons – it is a good cause, and supporting a good cause can never be a bad thing. The second reason is it is great marketing for both companies. People always love to see big companies promoting humanitarian efforts, and that is exactly what is happening here.

The program is beneficial for players of the games as well. They get to buy some cute in-game items, and they get the satisfaction of knowing that their hard-earned dollars are being put to a great use.

This is the first time Zynga has partnered with an outside company for a venture such as this, and I hope to see them keep this kind of thing up. After all, purchasing fake items in a fake world can be a hollow experience, but at least if your money is going to a good cause it is easier to stomach.

Source: Mashable

Get $326 Worth Of Apps From Bundlelytic By Donating $20 To UNICEF [News]

Angela Alcorn — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 14:31:02 +0000

Bundlelytic is currently offering five Windows photo applications worth $326 for the bargain price of a $40 $20 donation to UNICEF. The deal is limited in number, so there will be no extensions once the available 300 deals have been purchased.

Applications in the bundle include EasyHDR Pro, Photo EQ, Automata, SpringPublisher Pro and BatchPhoto. Payments can be made by credit card or PayPal and 100% of your $20 donation for these applications will go to UNICEF.

Buyers will also receive a free eBook on “50 Common Windows Problems and Solutions” and a chance to win a 32 GB iPad 2.

EasyHDR is image processing software used for HDR photo processing. It comes with numerous useful features for HDR photos, such as automatic image alignment and ghost removal.

PhotoEQ is designed for batch-editing multiple types of images. It’s extremely useful for colour, exposure and white balance processing, but can also be used for cropping and straightening photos in batches.

Automata is a post-processing workflow application designed for professional photographers and designers. It allows you to edit photos in the background and can even process photos automatically.

SpringPublisher is a desktop publisher which makes business cards, flyers, postcards and letterhead creation easy. With the Pro version you’ll also have access to the online templates.

BatchPhoto makes photo editing easy by letting users apply creative effects to photos in batches.

Act quickly to buy all of these applications for $40 $20 with the knowledge that your money is going to charity.

Source: Bundlelytic

3 Ways Reddit Can Help Those In Need

Joshua Lockhart — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 00:30:17 +0000

Reddit is a miraculous little site that yields the potential to either make or break the Internet but when its users are not spreading memes like a disease, they are caring for people that are truly in need.

So what if you end up actually needing assistance? It’s a good thing that the philanthropic users of Reddit and their lovely alien named Snoo are here to help.

Some Pointers

Let’s be straight about a few things. The people of Reddit typically want to look after those who are already existing members of its online community. Furthermore, they will only provide relief if you can prove that you genuinely need it. That is really sad to say, but we all know that the Internet is full of liars. Consider the last time you received an email from that Nigerian prince. You really should refer to our wide assortment of work concerning internet scams.

All in all, if you are not a Redditor, it would be best to try one of these options:

Find a friend who is a Redditor who can go speak to the masses on your behalf.
Include yourself in the community prior to requesting assistance and just wait it out.
Using a new account, ask for help, provide some proof, and hope for the best.

Also, if you are already a Redditor, do not make a throwaway account for this type of request. This is one situation where Reddit karma pays off. Reddit can be a nice community, but it also isn’t afraid to unleash its cyber-missiles on those who may be even the most innocent of users. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

In MakeUseOf’s past article concerning Reddit - 5 Cool Things You Should Know about Reddit - the sections known among the general community as “subreddits” are lightly touched upon. Below, MakeUseOf provides you with three different subreddits that are good to remember.

r/Assistance

This subreddit is for the general requests and offers on Reddit. Here you can find anything ranging from requests to relieve medical needs all the way to support with housing troubles.

Often, there will be those that cannot assist you financially, but they will provide you with advice that can help you get around any financial woes. Sometimes that is better than anyone sending a few dollars your way. However, since this subreddit is full of people trying to do goodwill unto others, they do not like to be conned, so be prepared with some proof it you really need some help.

Submitting a scan of some medical documents or even a picture of your damaged home should be good enough. Even better, place a handwritten sign featuring your username next to both types of images while creating them.

r/Food_Pantry

No one should have to go hungry, and Reddit makes sure of that with r/Food_Pantry. The formula of this subreddit is quite similar to r/Assistance, but the primary focus is on giving away food.

As the Internet’s soup kitchen, users take on a high responsibility of caring for the public. On this subreddit, you will find generous Redditors openly offering gift cards, pre-bought food items, and whatever else people might lack.

Redditors in need can request help by making a simple post explaining their situation and general location. Those that see the post can offer their assistance by shipping non-perishables or working with local grocery stores that are able to deliver.

r/Random_Acts_of_Pizza

While pizza may not appeal to the lactose intolerant or picky six-year-olds, I think we can all agree that it is a standard food that is cheap, filling, and plentiful. Although it is in the same spirit of r/Food_Pantry, this subreddit is a little bit more lighthearted than its other philanthropic counterparts, and it offers a more open environment for making requests.

Basically, if you are hungry and can’t afford a hot meal, just make a post explaining what’s all going on. Let Reddit do the rest. There is no shame in asking for a pizza here, but it helps if you keep the “pay it forward” mentality.

Pizza donors primarily use two methods to send you pizza. For instance, they may just call it in themselves if they are in your area, or if you are at a distance, they will send you an eGift Card for the pizza place of your choice. Also, if there are any other delivery services in your areas, this Reddit can adjust to whatever your starving palate desires.

Conclusion

To recap, Reddit is a site that is chock-full of generally good folks. Even in the midst of the heavy debates and questionable controversy that may end up on the site, it is quite obvious that those items can be set aside to aid someone. Also, if you want to check out some success stories about how people have helped others, take a gander at r/TodayYouTomorrowMe.

So why don’t you tell us what you think of the helpful sections of Reddit? Have you ever received help from one of the subreddits? Have you ever given help to someone?

Image Credits: click, BuckEyeGold

Limited Edition Charity Bundle for Japan, $200+ Worth of Apps for $30

Jackson Chung — Wed, 04 May 2011 16:00:05 +0000

Nitro PDF Professional, Sticky Password PRO 5.0, Zoner Photo Studio 13 HOME, MaxTo and IObit Advanced SystemCare PRO 3. Those are the amazing Windows apps featured in this limited edition charity bundle. Worth over $200 in Windows software, you have the opportunity of purchasing this bundle for $30 and to top it off, all $30 will be donated to the Japanese Red Cross. There are only 300 copies of the bundle available so you might want to buy it now it before it runs out.

MakeUseOf, AllMyApps and TheDailyBuggle are the key organisers of this bundle. The licenses were generously sponsored by their individual companies in good faith. Thanks go out to all of them for participating in this charity effort.

What’s featured in the bundle

Sticky Password PRO 5.0

Sticky Password PRO 5.0 is an extremely useful and secure password and identity manager for Windows. In addition to storing online passwords and other personal information for form-filling, it can also manage passwords for your desktop applications like Skype, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Trillian, iTunes, Dropbox, etc.; thus saving you time. Sticky Password PRO 5.0 automatically retrieves your stored password and fills in any online form for your with just one click.

Switching over to Sticky Password from other password managers is a cinch — Sticky Password PRO 5.0 is able to retrieve store credentials from AI RoboForm, KeePass, LastPass as well as online passwords stored within browsers.If you’re always on the go, then use the included portable version of Sticky Password and you’ll never be without your passwords. Both the desktop and portable versions are secured using the same strong military grade encryption algorithms.

Sticky Password PRO 5.0 runs on all versions of Windows and is available in multiple languages.

MaxTo

MaxTo is truly one of those applications that you have to have, especially if you’re a web designer, programmer or perhaps just anyone who claims to be a productivist with a single or multi-monitor setup. MaxTo is a simple system tray application that helps you to organise your workspace and resize active windows just the way you want them. You don’t even need to stick to just one configuration — MaxTo allows you to store multiple profiles, so you can have as many arrangements as you need.

Whenever you need your windows arranged according to your preset workspace, invoke MaxTo from the system tray or by using the hotkey and you’ll have you perfect setup spanning one or several monitors. Setting these configurations is really easy with the overlay screen. MaxTo allows you to split each screen segment into as many areas as you require. Pixel perfectly.

With a purchase of this bundle, you’ll receive a perpetual license for MaxTo with free upgrades for 1 month. After that, the software will continue to operate normally but further updates will not be available.

MaxTo works with all versions of Windows and is available in multiple languages.

IObit Advanced SystemCare PRO 3

Although IObit Advanced SystemCare PRO 3 is one lower than the current version offered, it is still a complete PC maintaince suite. Advanced SystemCare PRO 3 works in the background to help you optimise your PC when it’s left idle.

It boosts your system’s performance with its Deep Clean feature by cleaning unwanted junk files, deleting obsolete files, defragmenting your hard drive, correcting system errors and finding and correcting registry errors. It offers the option of creating restore points before performing these tasks, enabling you to reverse any unwanted changes.

For those looking for a temporary speed boost, Advanced SystemCare PRO 3 offers Turbo Boost, a feature which temporarily grants your computer an additional boost of speed by disabling unnecessary background processes, clearing the RAM and thereby concentrating processor performance to your task at hand. In addition to all that, it also sports a malware scanner to protect your PC from infection and nefarious software.

*This version of Advanced SystemCare PRO 3 is upgradeable to PRO 4 but only until version 4.00.

IObit Advanced SystemCare PRO 3 runs on Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7.

Zoner Photo Studio 13 HOME

Zoner Photo Studio HOME can be easily described as “an Explorer for photos on steroids”. Zoner Photo Studio 13 Home is the latest update of one of the best photo manager and editor there is for Windows. Photo Studio provides you with an easy-to-use interface for organising your photographs, as well as a simple yet powerful image editor for quick touch-ups.

Zoner Photo Studio 13 HOME is able to import and preview pictures from your digital SLR and provide you with a convenient platform to edit those photos. It has a built-in library of retouching tools and special graphical effects to add some pizzaz to your images.

Zoner Photo Studio 13 HOME will also help you to share those photos with your friends by directly exporting them to Facebook, Flickr and Picasa. The intelligent software can the daunting task of creating beautiful calendars and web galleries using your images and turn it into a two-click process.

Zoner Photo Studio 13 HOME is compatible with all versions of Windows including Windows 7 64-bit.

Nitro PDF Professional

Nitro PDF Professional is more than just an Adobe Acrobat alternative, it provides you with a complete suite of tools to create, convert, edit, combine, secure, annotate, form-fill and save industry standard PDF files. Yet, it manages to be truly intuitive and easy-to-use.

Nitro PDF Professional can create PDF files from virtually any Windows application and is able to convert many file types into PDF with just one click. One of its most sought after features is the ability to accurately and intelligently convert PDFs to Word, Excel and RTF files individually or in a batch; retaining graphics, text formatting, paragraphs, columns, tables, headers, footers and more.

With its editorial tools, Nitro PDF Professional enables you to edit any text, graphics, links and metadata in your PDF files without going back to the source file in Microsoft Word or Excel. You can change the type of font face and size, insert new text, crop and resize images, add bookmarks and links directly in the PDF.

Nitro PDF Professional runs on all versions of Windows and on Windows Server 2003, 2008 and 2008 R2.

Convinced? Grab a bundle now before it runs out!

6 Charities That You Can Just Text To Donate

Jessica Cam Wong — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 23:30:46 +0000

Back in early 2010, when Haiti was devastated by a massive earthquake, text-to-donate campaigns helped raise the amazing amount of $10 million pretty quickly. Though that campaign is no longer active (you can still mail cash donations), other donation-by-SMS campaigns now exist to provide disaster relief to Japan and the tsunami-hit Pacific. There are many additional non-profit organizations that make use of these text-to-donate campaigns.

Why not? The donation process is fast and easy: Once you text the appropriate number, in most cases, you’ll need to confirm your donation with another text message. Finally, you’ll see the charge on your next cell phone bill. That’s it. Read on to see the major charities that you can help with a simple text message (SMS fees still apply).

Red Cross

Most people have probably heard about this campaign, so as a reminder, US residents can text “REDCROSS” to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross. During the donation process, you’ll be presented with the option to specify whether your gift should go to help those affected by the earthquake in Japan and tsunami throughout the Pacific, or to support the Red Cross efforts. Participating carriers include all four major US carriers, such as AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and other regional carriers, like Virgin Mobile, U.S. Cellular, and Cricket. Most wireless carriers allow you to donate up to $30 per month to a specific keyword, like REDCROSS.

Susan G. Komen For The Cure

Formerly known as The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, this organization is the largest and most widely known breast cancer organization that invests in breast cancer research, education, advocacy, health services and social support programs in the US. It’s well-known for holding large fundraising events, like the Susan G. Komen Race For The Cure, which take place worldwide. To donate $10 to this organization, text “KOMEN” to 90999. You can donate up to 5 times per monthly billing cycle.

Water.org

Text “POOPIN” (yes, you read right) to 27722 to give $10 to Water.org, a nonprofit organization whose goal is to provide aid to regions in developing countries that have no access to safe drinking water and sanitation. The organization, co-founded by Matt Damon, aims to bring adequate, safe drinking water worldwide.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation

Founded in 1980, the Make-A-Wish Foundation aims to give hope and joy to children who have life-threatening, degenerative or malignant medical conditions by granting them wishes, like meeting a celebrity, or getting a princess bedroom. To donate $5 to this organization, text “WISH” to 90999.

Keep A Child Alive

You can text “ALIVE” to 90999 to donate $5 to Keep A Child Alive, a non-profit organization that aims to provide medicine to families with HIV and AIDS in Africa and India. It’s partly founded by R&B singer, Alicia Keys, who was involved in the Digital Death campaign, along with Kim Kardashian, Ryan Seacrest and other celebrities, where they signed off Twitter and Facebook (digitally dead) so fans could donate to this charity in honor of World AIDS Day and in order to reach a $1 million fundraiser goal.

Operation Smile

Formed in 1982, Operation Smile is a not-for-profit medical service organization aiming to provide cleft lip and palate surgeries to children and adolescents across the globe. $240 can fund a surgery and change the life of a child with cleft palate forever. That’s way less than an iPad. Text the keyword “SMILE” to the short code 90999 to donate $5.

To see additional charities and even universities that accept text message donations, see this page.

Do you know of other charities that allow donations by SMS? Let us know in the comments!

Photo credit: Susan G. Komen For The Cure, Water.org, The Make-A-Wish Foundation, Keep A Child Alive, Operation Smile, Shutterstock

Crowdrise – Armchair Fundraising For Charities & Events

Angela Alcorn — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 19:31:09 +0000

Every now and then, you find some gem online which inspires you to be a better person and to raise awareness and money for causes you believe in. Sometimes this might be an inspiring post or it might be that you’ve seen someone else really working towards something they believe in. Less often, you might find something that helps you to achieve your goals.

This is where Crowdrise fits in it helps you to support what you think is important. It enables you to create fundraising drives, campaigns and more. Plus, it will inspire you to work harder by showing you what other people are doing with the site. Once you get the bug you’ll be organising campaigns left, right and centre. It will feel great to be able to say you’re really working towards results for all of the causes you believe in.

What’s Crowdrise?

In essence, Crowdrise is a simple way to create fundraising campaigns for your favourite causes. You can use it to fundraise for a charity or for an event all you do is sign up, tell your story in simple English, add photos or video and share your cause with your friends and followers. They can either help to promote your cause or donate immediately. It’s that simple.

Crowdrise says

Our goal at Crowdrise is to make fundraising so fun and addicting that everyone wants to do more of it. The power of the crowd is real, lots of small donations really do add up, and the Crowdrise community can have a monumental impact on causes around the world.

How Does Crowdwise Work?

Crowdrise works by allowing you to be in charge of your own fundraising project and goals, but it also enables the Crowdrise community to support you and your ideals by letting other users vote on your projects. You get 100 points for every community vote for your project, plus 10 points for every dollar you raise. If your project has lots of points, you’ll be featured on a leaderboard and receive even more attention, votes and donations for your cause. There’s also a number of incentives for donating and raising money via Crowdrise.

Not only can the Crowdrise community donate and vote for your project, but they can actively help to support it too. You never know who might jump on board to help you out! Individual Crowdrise users have incentives within the site too. Whenever you raise points for your projects, you’re also stacking up points beside your name. Top users will be featured in a leaderboard and awarded silly titles to show just how far they’ve come. See featured user Tiffany here.

Don’t forget donations are tax deductible in many countries and that Crowdrise helps to facilitate extra donations by ensuring receipts are sent immediately and on request if required. Crowdrise itself takes a 5% payment and a small transaction fee for each donation.

Getting started with Crowdrise only involves a simple sign-up form. After that you can choose which details to add now and which to add later. Hint: Adding yourself to the mailing list scores you 500 points to start you off!

What Could You Use Crowdwise For?

The best way to get ideas is to check out the top projects currently funded through Crowdrise. Also check out what projects are being supported by celebrities and jump on board.

Or do you have a cause you’re itching to support? Search for it and either join a project already underway or start it yourself.

One of the more interesting ideas to come out of Crowdrise is the idea of sponsored volunteerism. If you want to volunteer your time directly to a project, but don’t want to starve in the meantime, Crowdrise can help you to raise money to fund yourself. If enough people think your time is worthwhile, you might be able to continue this for some time.

What’s Similar To Crowdwise?

If you’re keen to volunteer or fundraise online, there’s a few other sites where you can achieve this.

Sparked will let you volunteer your professional skills to good causes for 5 minutes at a time.
Jumo allows you to nominate your interests and have Jumo connect you with causes you might like.
Facebook Causes is extremely viral and tied into Facebook, which makes it effective within Facebook and less so on the rest of the Internet.
Kickstarter, JustGiving and PledgeBank are quite similar to Crowdrise, but they’re all subtly different. Pledgebank involves making a pledge to undertake a certain activity, Kickstart is able to be used to fund start-ups and JustGiving is a little less viral and sociable in nature than Crowdrise.

There are many ways to be charitable online but most of them work in slightly different ways. I see JustGiving and Facebook Causes as the big competitors for Crowdrise, but I think there’s room enough for all of them to co-exist nicely.

What Will You Do With Crowdrise?

Now that you’ve seen just how easy it is to start fundraising for things you believe in, what will you work on? Feel free to share your Crowdrise projects with us in the comments!

9 Apps For The Price Of 1: bundlelytic charity bundle [Giveaway]

Jackson Chung — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 15:30:09 +0000

What do you get when you bring 9 great app developers, 1 awesome hot product and a fantastic website together? Pure awesome, that’s what. Brought to you by the guys behind MakeUseOf with a little help from TheDailyBuggle and fueled by good will, we’re proud to present the bundlelytic charity Windows app bundle.

Featuring some of the best, must-have apps from around the web like Paragon Partition Manager 11, EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard, Divvy for Windows and many more; the bundlelytic app bundle will be available at just $39.99 (original total price of $299) from today until midnight, 28th of February 2011. We’ll also be giving away 25 copies of the bundle here at MakeUseOf totalling to over $1200 worth of apps! We’ve also got a coupon code exclusively for MakeUseOf readers if you’re looking to purchase this bundle today.

So let’s take a closer look at the bundlelytic charity bundle.

UPDATE: We’ve got a second 250GB ioSafe Rugged Portable to give away! In order to be in the running to win it, all you have to do is go to bundlelytic.com and hit the retweet button or share the page on Facebook. Easy!

Aside from the fact that this is a chance for you to get 9 useful applications at a greatly reduced price, you’ll also be donating to a worthwhile cause. 50% of the proceeds from this bundle will be donated to the Queensland Premier’s Disaster Relief Appeal, a fund for those affected by the overwhelming floods in Queensland, Australia. Over 70 towns and 200,000 people were affected by the floods, costing over AUD$30 billion in damages. Families are left homeless, food prices are skyrocketing. It is only right for us to do what we can in order to help out. Your money will be touching the lives of those who had to leave all of their belongings behind.

What’s included

And now, a quick summary about the apps that are included in this bundle.

Paragon Partition Manager 11 Personal

Paragon’s Partion Manager 11 Personal is an advanced disk management application that is packed with sophisticated features like Hot Resize which allows you to change any NTFS partition without rebooting, setup multi-boot environments, creates backup images and more. 32- and 64-bit versions available.

We’ve featured Partition Manager 11 Personal before — Get Your Drives Under Control With Paragon Partition Manager

SafeWallet for Windows v.2.0.2

SafeWallet is a secure personal information manager. It utilises AES 256-bit encryption to store your private data like credit card information, passwords, banking information, etc. safely on your computer. It is also able to sync with iPhones, Androids, BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows mobile phones via its mobile app counterpart.

We reviewed SafeWallet recently, take a look: Store Confidential Details on your Phone with SafeWallet

Divvy for Windows

Divvy is an insanely simple tool yet vitally important in your daily workflow. It allows you to easily manage the sizes of your windows and organise them on the screen however you want. Divvy is perfect for the multi-tasking productivist.

“If you want some better tools for organizing and resizing your windows, Mizage’s Divvy might be a breath of fresh air.” — PCWorld

Altaro Oops!Backup

Altaro Oops!Backup is a highly functional yet easy way to back up your data on a Windows PC. With its unique BackInTime technology, you can travel back in time to find and revert changes made to your documents, photos and other files.

“I fell in deep like with Oops!Backup’s well-designed interface and its plain, straightforward English dialogs.” — PCWorld

360Amigo System Speedup Pro

360Amigo’s System Speedup PRO offers a one-click solution to fix PC problems quickly. Additionally, it can also scan and erase malicious processes & clear your computer of junk data and errors, giving it a new breath of life. Purchase of this bundle entitles you to full 1-year license.

“360 Amigo System SpeedUp’s pro edition delivered significant improvements to a well-worn system. These improvements, coupled with a wallet-friendly price, make this a compelling utility for breathing new life into aging machines.” — PCMag

We’ve ran several giveaways featuring 360Amigo System Speedup PRO — Nurse Windows Back To Health With System Speedup Pro

novaPDF Professional v.7

From the makers of the fabulous free PDF converter, doPDF — NovaPDF Professional Desktop is a souped-up, feature-packed application that enables you to easily convert any document to PDF via a printer driver interface or a simple Microsoft Office add-in. It can also secure your PDF documents by requiring a password in order to view, print or copy; among other great features.

EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard v.5.0.1

Easeus Data Recovery Wizard is a powerful, straightforward application that will help you recover deleted data from an existing partition, data from a reformatted partition, and lost data from a corrupted partition and it supports sector-by-sector recovery. It works on hardware RAID arrays, hard drives, USB drives, SD and other memory cards.

Returnil System Safe v.3.2.11341

Returnil System Safe 2011 uses a combination of anti-virus/anti-malware protection and a virtual system to clone your operating system in order to create a safe, secure virtual environment for your PC. Instead of loading the real operating system, a clone (copy) is booted and allows you to run your applications (or try new apps) in an isolated setting. Purchase of this bundle entitles you to full 1-year license.

Pixo

Pixo is an interesting image effects editor that allows you to “brush” effects directly on images. It can also process effects using compatible Photoshop plugins. It’s really simple to use — just pick your image, select an effect and start painting.

We’re reviewed Pixo before too — Add Special Effects To Your Photos With Pixo

Lucky draws

Ah but wait, that’s not all. Purchasing this bundle will automatically enter you into our lucky draw to win a free 250 GB ioSafe Rugged Portable bulletproof hard drive which was only recently revealed in CES ’11. Like its older sibling the SoloPRO, this 2.5″ portable hard drive is also virtually indestructible and capable of withstanding extreme amounts of torture. The winner of this lucky draw will be announced on March 15th, 2011.

There’s more — a second lucky draw which you will qualify for upon purchasing the bundle, and the prize is one of 100 copies of Nitro PDF Professional worth $99.99 each. That’s almost $10,000 of freebies up for grabs!

The bundlelytic charity bundle is available at just $39.99 for a limited time only — the bundle expires at midnight, 28th of February 2011.

Click here to buy now.

Or if you’d like to take the chance, we’re giving away 25 copies of this bundle.

How do I win a copy?

It’s simple, just follow the instructions.

STEP 1
Join our Facebook page by clicking the Like button or you can follow us on Twitter, if you prefer. If you’re already following us, you may skip this step.
If you can’t see the fanbox, click on this link.

STEP 1a
If you want, you can also Like the bundlelytic charity bundle.

STEP 1a

If you want, you can also Like the bundlelytic charity bundle.

STEP 2
Here’s our giveaway form. Please fill it in accurately. Be sure to enter your real name and email address so that we can get in touch if you are chosen as a winner. Click here if you can’t view the form.

STEP 2

Here’s our giveaway form. Please fill it in accurately. Be sure to enter your real name and email address so that we can get in touch if you are chosen as a winner. Click here if you can’t view the form.

STEP 3
You’re almost done. Now, all that’s left to do is to share the post. There are 2 options to choose from or you can do both!
Like it on Facebook	Or share it on Twitter Tweet
And that’s it! You’re done!

Giveaway eligibility
In accordance to Facebook’s Promotional Guidelines 2.4.2 and 2.4.3:
Individuals who are over the age of 18. If you are under 18, get your parents to participate on your behalf;
Individuals who reside in a country embargoed by the United States; Belgium, Norway, Sweden, or India are not permitted to enter.

This giveaway begins now and ends Tuesday, March 1st at 0000hrs PST. The winners will be selected at random and announced via email.

Spread the word to your friends and have fun!

Image: Wikimedia

5 Easy Ways To Be Charitable In The Year Ahead

Angela Alcorn — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 00:31:49 +0000

So Christmas has been and gone. Are you now facing the New Year and wondering how you can keep up the Christmas spirit and goodwill for the coming year? Well, it certainly helps when you know how to do so for free from your own home.

There are so many simple ways to volunteer or donate to charity by giving up a small amount of your time or re-purposing some money you would normally have spent. So here’s a list of five of the best quick and easy ways to volunteer or donate to charity. Bookmark the list of charities and use it to do the rounds weekly!

Skip1.org

This is a great concept “” it’s a site which makes you think about how much money you waste on frivolous things. You nominate something which you will give up, say a lunch or newspapers for a month. Then you donate that same amount of money to feeding a hungry child.

Yes, you’re handing over money to charity, but it’s money you would have spent anyway. It’s also easy to share news of your donation with your friends via social networks, and hopefully convince a few of them to skip something for charity too.

Free Rice

Free Rice has been around a while, but it’s so good it’s worth making sure it’s on this list. Play a simple, addictive trivia quiz and Free Rice will donate rice for each of your correct answers. This is a free and simple way to give whenever you have a free moment. Read more on FreeRice here.

Causes

There are a number of things you can do using Causes, including raising awareness for your chosen charity and helping to raise funds for them. By far the easiest way to donate money with Causes is to set up a birthday or holiday fund. This way, instead of receiving presents from friends and family, you simply ask them to donate the money on your behalf. It takes about two minutes to set up, since you can log in with Facebook Connect – just choose the charity and you’re set!

Charity Gifts

Here’s another easy way to spend your money on charity instead of something you were already going to pay for. Instead of giving gifts to your friends, give them the knowledge that you have donated to charity on their behalf. The Donation4Charity website searches all the big charity gifting sites (such as UNICEF, WWF and Oxfam) and lets you search the gifts according to how much money you have available to spend. Buy a goat for charity for about the same price as a modest gift!

Sparked

Spend 5-10 minutes donating your expertise to charity: Give website feedback, brainstorm fundraising ideas or help design an awareness campaign. This is what they need help with – if you can spend a few minutes working on it then you’ve made a difference to a real charity with just a moment of your time. Read more on Sparked here & get going!

And many, many more!

There are so many great ways to donate your time to charity “” the sites listed above are just a few. Here’s some more great articles which introduce many more you might like to try.

What are your favourite sites for donating your time to charity? Do you appreciate charity gifts given on your behalf? Let us know in the comments!