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The Free Apps We’re Most Thankful For

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Whitson Gordon


Our Lifehacker US colleagues are in full Thanksgiving mode, and while we might be waiting until December to gorge on turkey and seafood, everyone can be grateful for free apps and services. Here’s a roundup of our favourite free apps and our best guides and posts to help you make the most of them.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

The Free Apps We’re Most Thankful For

  1. Dropbox

    Category: Cloud Storage

    See also: Top 10 Clever Uses For Dropbox; The Cheapskate’s Guide To Getting Free Dropbox Space; more Dropbox coverage.

  2. Google Chrome

    Category: Web Browsers

    See also: 6 Great Experimental Features To Enable In Google Chrome’s Labs; Make Chrome Use A Specific Country Version Of Google; more Chrome coverage.

  3. Firefox

    Category: Web Browsers

    See also: Set A New Custom Tab Page In Firefox; ; more Firefox coverage.

  4. Evernote

    Category: Notes

    See also: The Complete Guide To Going Paperless; Turn Your Mess Of Ideas Into Something Organised And Useful; more Evernote coverage.

    Alternative: Use Springpad As Your New Personal Assistant

  5. Pocket

    Category: Bookmarking

    See also: The Best Way To Save All The Useful Articles You Come Across Online; More Pocket Coverage.

    Alternatives: Instapaper and Readability

  6. Skype

    Category: VoIP

    See also: Get Better Quality Video Chat; The Five Best Webcams; more Skype coverage.

  7. 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; more Google Maps coverage.

  8. 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; more Gmail coverage.

  9. Instagram

    Category: Photos

    See also: Know Which Shots Work Best With Each Instagram Filter; Normalize Turns Instagram’d Photos Back To Normal; more Instagram coverage.

  10. Spotify

    Category: Music Streaming

    See also: more Spotify coverage.

    Alternatives: Australian Subscription Music Services Compared

  11. Flipboard

    Category: News Readers

    See also: Lifehacker Faceoff: The Best Digital Digests on iPad and iPhone; more Flipboard coverage.

  12. Google Drive

    Category: Cloud Storage

    See also: File Syncing Faceoff: Dropbox Versus Google Drive; more Google Drive coverage.

  13. Google Calendar

    Category: Calendars

    See also: 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; more Google Calendar coverage.

  14. Dolphin

    Category: Web Browsers

    See also: Dolphin Jetpack Supercharges Dolphin Browser; Lifehacker Faceoff: The Best Web Browsers For iPhone And iPad; more Dolphin coverage.

  15. Wunderlist

    Category: To-Do Lists

    See also: Wunderlist Is A Free To-Do App That Syncs Across Your Machines; How To Simplify Your To-Do List And Make It Useful Again; more Wunderlist coverage.

  16. Pandora

    Category: Music Streaming

    See also: more Pandora coverage.l

  17. Google Reader

    Category: News Readers

    See also: Supercharge Google Reader With Styles and Extensions; Organise My RSS Feeds So They’re More Manageable; How To Turn Google Reader Into A Customisable Read-It-Later Service; more Google Reader coverage.

  18. 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 USB Drive How to Automatically Fill In Repetitive Web Forms; more LastPass coverage.

  19. XBMC

    Category: Media Centres

    See also: The Complete Guide To Creating A Seamless, Play-Everything Media Centre; Build Your Dream Media Centre For Under $700; How To Make XBMC Easier To Use; OpenELEC Is A Fast-Booting XBMC For Home Theatre PCs; Top 10 Ways To Power Up Your Home Theatre PC; more XBMC coverage.

    Alternative: How To Stream Your Media From Home To Your Phone Anywhere You Go With Plex

  20. 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; more VLC coverage.

  21. TeamViewer

    Category: Remote Access

    See also: Use Your Home Computer From Anywhere How Do I Troubleshoot My Parents’ PC Remotely?; more TeamViewer coverage

  22. AirDroid

    Category: Remote Access

    See also: AirDroid Controls Your Android Phone Or Tablet From Any Modern Web Browser.

  23. 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 Customised Arch Linux Installation; Turn an Old Computer Into A Networked Backup Or StreamingMachine With Ubuntu; and more Linux coverage.

  24. Microsoft Security Essentials

    Category: Antivirus

    See also: Stop Paying For Windows Security; Nine Common Myths and Misconceptions About Viruses Examined and Debunked; Change Microsoft Security Essential’s Update Frequency; more Security Essentials coverage.

  25. uTorrent

    Category: BitTorrent Client

    See also: How To Add Automatic Virus Scanning And More To uTorrent For Free; How to Monitor BitTorrent From Any Device; How Do I Torrent Safely Now That Demonoid Is Down?; more uTorrent coverage.

    Alternative: Transmission

  26. CCleaner

    Category: Utilities

    See also: The Maintenance You Need To Do On A Windows PC; CCleaner Enhancer Makes CCleaner Even Better; more CCleaner coverage.

  27. 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; more Handbrake coverage.

  28. VirtualBox

    Category: Virtualisation

    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; more VirtualBox coverage.

  29. CyanogenMod

    Category: Android ROMs

    See also: How to Choose The Right Android ROM For You; more CyanogenMod coverage.

  30. Flux

    Category: Utility

    See also: Make Your Computer More Friendly To Use at Night; Prevent Eyestrain At Your Computer.

  31. GIMP

    Category: Image Editing

    See also: Top 10 Photoshop Tricks You Can Use Without Buying Photoshop; Tweak GIMP To Be More Like Photoshop; more GIMP coverage.

  32. LibreOffice

    Category: Office Suite

    See also: Am I Missing Out By Using Free Alternatives To Microsoft Office?; more LibreOffice coverage

  33. Thunderbird

    Category: Email

    See also: How To Sync Your Desktop Email Client Across Multiple Computers; Thunderbird To Slow Down Development, Focus on “Security and Stability” Only; more Thunderbird coverage.

  34. Picasa

    Category: Photo Manager

    See also: How To Upload And Share Photos on Flickr, Picasa Or Facebook; Picasa 3.5 Organises Your Photos With Facial Recognition; Picasa Now Offering Virtually Unlimited Photo Storage; more Picasa coverage.

  35. Twitter

    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 Upset About Twitter; How to Deal With Your Biggest Facebook, Twitter And Google+ Annoyances; more Twitter coverage.

  36. AutoHotkey

    Category: Utilities

    See also: The Best Time-Saving AutoHotkey Tricks You Should Be Using; more AutoHotkey coverage.

  37. Launchy

    Category: Utilities

    See also: Integrate Everything Search Tool And Launchy; more Launchy coverage.

  38. Quicksilver

    Category: Utilities

    See also: Turn Any Action Into A Keyboard Shortcut On Your Mac; more Quicksilver coverage.

  39. 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; more Simplenote coverage.

  40. 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; How to Speed Up Your Old or Sluggish Android Device.

  41. Winamp

    Category: Media Players

    See also: Which Desktop Player Is Best for Syncing to Android?; and more Winamp coverage.

  42. 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 Web And iOS; more Tasks coverage.

  43. Opera

    Category: Web Browsers

    See also: How To Set Up A Secondary Browser Optimised For Slow Internet Connections; Top 10 Must-Have Browser Extensions; more Opera coverage.

  44. 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++.

  45. 7-Zip

    Category: File Compression

    See also: From Saucy Pics to Passwords: How to Share Sensitive Information Over the Internet.

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