The internet is always there, vast and accessible, from wherever you happen to be -\- until it isn't. Maybe you've got a long flight ahead of you and need some reading material, maybe you just want to store something for safe-keeping. Whatever your reason here's how you can download just about anything you come across on the internet with free tricks and tools.
There are plenty of resources that let you download stuff for free - but most of them aren't legal. To save your eternal soul, we've compiled a list of the best (mostly) copyright-free freebies that the internet has to offer - from books and artwork to music and video games.
I'm a journalist. (Kind of.) I have to record calls a lot, to supplement my notes. When I make a call over Skype, I use Ecamm Call Recorder, a simple but full-featured Mac-only Skype extension.
If Hell exists, I will spend eternity being forced to read PDFs on my phone. I'll be pinching and zooming some D&D playbook or work document, struggling to fit the whole page on the screen while making the text big enough to read, then doing the whole thing again on the next page. And I won't have GoodReader, the powerful and customisable iPhone app that makes PDFs less painful, for a reasonable $8.
No virtual whiteboard is perfect for everyone - and every virtual whiteboard service seems to shut down after a few years. While we've recommended several over the years, the only one still around is Twiddla, which is so feature-rich that it might feel too complicated (and ugly) for some projects. If so, try the simpler app RealtimeBoard.
Facebook's mobile-friendly 'Lite' version is finally available in Australia. Boasting an APK of just 252KB and a simplified front end, it is perfect for anyone hampered by poor network coverage or an older Android model. (It will also suit people who just want a faster, less bloated version of Facebook.) Here's how to get it on your phone.
Mac: Some people keep their computer desktop neat. Some people are happy to keep their desktop messy. For those who want a clean desktop but have trouble maintaining it, there's Declutter.
Android/iOS: Podcasting should be stupid easy. The underlying technology isn't much more complicated than blogging. But so far, there's no Blogger or Tumblr of podcasting, to make podcast recording accessible to anyone with a phone. Until last week's release of Anchor 3.0 for iOS and Android.
There are currently over two million apps available for Apple iPhone. Android has even more. When you throw in Windows, Mac, Linux and myriad browser extensions, the number of apps to choose from is truly overwhelming.
To help simplify things, Lifehacker's experts have hand-picked around 200 apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, Chrome and iOS that every technology user should own. Best of all, most of them are completely free!
There is not shortage of free mobile and desktop applications available on the internet. Unfortunately, most of them are either rubbish or trick you into parting with your cash via in-app purchases. But if you take the time to sort the wheat from the chaff, you'll find plenty of excellent apps that truly are free.
We're thankful every day for all the free apps out there that improve our lives (and the developers that make them!). Here are 50 our favourites.
You've stood at a bus stop, or in a line at the supermarket, or you've sat waiting for a movie to start, so you immediately reach for Facebook or Twitter, right? Well, maybe not, because here are seven app categories we've picked out that are a better use of your downtime than scrolling through posts from people you don't even like that much.
Music streaming is the future, apparently, which means the digital download had a bright and brief existence - lasting from the end of the 1990s to (presumably) the end of the 2010s. But before you erase all your carefully collected MP3s from the disk and close down the iTunes Store for the last time, we've got some very good reasons why you shouldn't.
Still using BitTorrent to exclusively download legally acquired content such as operating system images or files you want to share privately with friends? If so, you might want to double-check your security settings to protect yourself from what researchers at Google's Project Zero are calling a "low complexity hack" affecting Transmission and other popular BitTorrent clients. The flaw could leave your computer vulnerable to control by malicious hackers, but you can protect yourself by following a few steps until official fixes are in place.
Chrome/Safari: If you want a gentle reminder not to waste time online - without investing in a full-featured paid app such as Freedom - try Nothing on the Internet, an extension for Chrome and Safari that turns off all the content of the web, leaving a zen-like expanse of empty wireframes.
You know by now that you absolutely need a password manager. But you never get around to buying one. Let's fix that right now with RememBear, a new password manager that's easy to install and figure out. We tested it, and while we still prefer 1Password for most users, we recommend RememBear for beginners, especially during its free beta period.
iOS: We already know that for various users, iOS 11.1 makes media playback stutter, breaks audio control on the lock screen, and autocorrects the word "I" to an unrecognisable character. But there's more! It also breaks the Calculator app.
iOS/Android: If you're worried about apps tracking your location, it's not enough to limit your location sharing. You need to limit camera-roll sharing too. If you've ever given an app access to your camera roll - to take photos, or store screenshots, or any given reason - you've also let it see where all those photos were taken. Felix Krause, an iOS developer and security writer, built an app to demonstrate this back door.
Be My Eyes, an app that lets sighted people remotely help blind people with visual tasks, is now available on Android, after two years on iOS.
iOS: You might not want to upgrade to iOS 11 just yet, but you should update these top-shelf iOS apps.
