Archives: Reviews

If there's one thing that we can all agree on it's that learning Chinese is challenging. The language has unique pronunciation – where your tone changes the meaning of a word – and features a complicated alphabet that not even native speakers know fully. So, it's not surprising that around 90% of Mandarin students give up. But Mandarin Blueprint is here to save the day. Created by two people who learned the language from scratch and became fluent, the app offers a fresh perspective on teaching Mandarin – where students start by learning the different tones. After getting a grasp of the pronunciation, you'll begin to learn characters and components. To achieve this, Mandarin Blueprint follows a unique teaching sequence called Optimal Character Learning Order (OCLO) that speeds up the learning process tremendously. If that wasn't enough, the company offers a 14-day trial to test everything out, which is enough time to learn the first phase of the course for free.

For more than ten years, Amrev has been recovering data from all kinds of losses, including file corruption, accidental deletion, and hardware malfunction. The straightforward and lightweight software takes less than an hour to scan your computer. Additionally, it works with various file sources, including external drives and SD cards. The app even recognizes lost partitions, allowing you to salvage files that seemed gone forever. Plus, Amrev works with most file types, making it the perfect software to recover images, Word documents, emails, audio files, and more. The process is as easy as it gets, but if you do face any issues, don't worry – Amrev's customer support works 24/7 to make sure no queries are left unanswered. Although Amrev only restores data after you activate a paid license, the company allows you to download the software for free to check whether the app can find the files you're looking for first.

Not all of us are blessed with artistic abilities. So, when you need an eye-catching design for your business, it's time to call in the experts – like New Jersey-based graphic design service, Penji. Since 2017, the company has been creating top-notch custom logos, UX designs, packaging, marketing materials, and more for businesses of all sizes and niches. With over two million designs from the top 2% talent in the world, it's never been easier to keep your brand on point alongside an on-demand graphic design company like Penji. The easy-to-use platform also lets clients communicate with designers, who tweak and revise the designs until the customer is satisfied. To top it all off, Penji allows for unlimited design requests, regardless of the subscription chosen. But before committing, there's a 30-day money-back guarantee to take a closer look at Penji risk free and see whether it meets your graphic design needs.

Monitoring your employees isn't the most glamorous thing to do, but it's necessary. Fortunately, companies like ActivTrak have come up with smart ways for you to be on top of your workers' productivity without breaching their privacy. Unlike other monitoring systems, ActivTrak doesn't take screenshots all day long, but the app does take screenshots when an employee goes against your company policies. The software will also automatically blur any personal information on the image, such as Social Security numbers. To make things even better, the comprehensive reporting ActivTrak offers is the perfect way to check where you need to improve operational bottlenecks, which employees may need help, and more. Prices start at $9 per month per user, but you can try ActivTrak's paid features with the 14-day free trial available. Plus, there's a free plan that supports up to three users.

Based in Switzerland and founded in 2013, pCloud is one of the most secure cloud backup services on the market. It offers peace of mind with 256-bit AES end-to-end encryption and 30-day file revisions. Beyond privacy, pCloud's ideal for both beginners and advanced users, and subscriptions cover an unlimited number of devices. The online backup service automatically syncs documents and folders from all devices and stores data in a logical file structure. Last but not least, sharing documents is a straightforward process. Users can share files by creating unique links on the website, desktop application, and mobile app. There are also no size limitations when it comes to uploading larger photos and videos. Prices start as low as $4.17 per month, but it's possible to use pCloud's services at zero cost by taking advantage of its 10GB free version.

MacCleaner Pro, developed by Ukraine-based macOS experts Nektony in 2011, is one of the best Mac optimizers available.

The Mac optimization software not only lets you clean your system and manage disk space, but also helps you find duplicate files, properly uninstall applications, update apps, and more.

Users can download the software and test out the features with a 2-day free trial and after that subscribe the service for as low as $3.33 per month, including a $15.51 discount.

Whenever a new VPN service enters the market, it's always hard to predict its success. Will it bring something fresh and be a threat to the bigger names? Or will it fall through the cracks along with so many others? Switzerland-based PrivadoVPN may not be the most recognizable name in the VPN industry just yet, but it's definitely worth attention and praise. Not only is it headquartered in one of the safest places for online privacy, but it also provides fast and reliable worldwide connections with end-to-end encryption, user-friendly multiplatform apps, P2P support, and much more. Even better, it comes at an attractive price and offers a very interesting free version.

If you've been using email marketing to leverage your sales funnel, you know how important sender reputation is. After all, no one can open your emails if they don't reach your customers' inboxes. SMTP.com knows this too, and that's why it created an email delivery platform to improve the quality of your mailing list. The company collaborates with clients non-stop to pinpoint the reasons behind soft bounces, user engagement, and more. However, unlike email marketing services, SMTP.com doesn't have a platform to create your newsletters. Instead, you'll have to integrate it into your website either via its API or by using a plugin. This can be a bit challenging for those just starting out. But don't worry, SMTP.com guides you every step of the way. Better yet, the service doesn't come with a prohibitive price. You can get SMTP.com for as low as $22.50 per month with a monthly allowance of 50,000 emails. Additionally, there's a 30-day sandbox account available to test everything out.

Canva is one of the most popular graphic design platforms on the market. Not only is it extremely easy to use, but it comes with thousands of templates that allow you to create beautiful designs in just a few minutes. Although it doesn't offer the same flexibility as other apps like Photoshop, it's the perfect solution for anyone who doesn't have advanced design skills but needs to create visuals for social media, websites, reports, and more. Canva also caters to businesses by allowing coworkers to edit images together and providing shared file management. Canva offers a limited free plan that you can use forever. But considering all the features and templates you get with a paid plan, the $9.99 per month subscription is worthwhile.

1-800Accountant is a hybrid online accounting solution that covers entity formation, tax filing, and bookkeeping under one roof, removing the complexity and administrative burden of running a business.

This user-friendly online accounting service, also available for Android and iOS, is designed for solopreneurs and small businesses who want to stay worry-free from IRS audits and missed tax filing deadlines.

It includes business tax preparation, unlimited access to tax experts, audit defense, ADP-powered payroll, and several integrations.

You can schedule a free consultation with an expert to get a personalized package, or start a subscription right away for a minimum of $209 per month.