Need Some Photos Fast?

very good
key review info
application features
  • Downloads pictures, audio, video and any other files.
  • (7 more, see all...)

Do you like high resolution pictures? I surely do, especially those that are well done. No, I am not really into bikini babes wallpapers, but I would spend countless hours watching photos with landscapes or different modern age machines such as planes, boats or tanks, but that's enough about "what", because the problem today is "how".

Getting free photos from the Internet can be a tricky task, especially because you don't find high resolution photo archives all over the place, and for most sites where such photos can be found, there's one problem - you'll have to download them one by one...or use a specialized program, of course!

NeoDownloader is a program that can be used for getting photos from the internet, but you can also use it to grab other files, acting like a basic download manager. Its latest version is 2.1, and unfortunately, you won't get to use it freely for a period longer than a month. No worries about this, because the shareware version has no limitations, so you'll have the full taste of this program worth 39.95$ at your disposal!

The setup package has 1.8MB in size and the program is as easy to install as it is to use, but the best part is that you also get some built-in projects that are waiting for you to press the Start button... but before getting to them, I have to tell you a few words about NeoDownloader's interface.

The main window of this program hosts the following elements: a main menu, a toolbar, the project tree pane, the image preview area that can also function as an audio/video player and, at last, the download progress panel. The graphics from the toolbar look very good, and the entire interface looks fresh. If you're a beginner, there's no need to worry, because NeoDownloader is really easy to use.

Before moving on to create a project of your own, I think that best way to start working with this program is to run one or more of the available built-in projects that I?ve told you about earlier. There are more project categories available, such as celebrities, fantasy art, military and science, wallpapers, each having more projects that you can choose from. Starting a project is very easy, but before starting it, I advise you to change its destination folder. To do this, select the project, press Alt+Enter, and then change this setting that you'll find in the General tab.

Since we got to the project settings area, let's explore it a little further. The Scan Settings tab allows you to choose the page scanning depth and enable or not the use of external links, so files from other sites related with the starting one can be retrieved easily. Next, we have three filters available, based on file type, URL and size of the files you are downloading. This way, you'll be able to accurately control what you are downloading, and I was very pleased to find these settings here.

Creating a new project is very easy, and you can start with the well known keyboard shortcut Ctrl+N or by choosing the first item from the File menu. This will open the New Project Wizard, and the first step required is to enter the starting address and project title, as well as login data, if required (you can also choose the manual login). Next, you can select one of the 6 available templates that allow you to choose the items to download from the site. At last, you can choose to start the project immediately or play with the advanced properties, this taking you to the settings that we talked about earlier.

The built-in multimedia player works fine, and you can watch the images full screen too, as well as setting the current image as desktop wallpaper. The program's preferences allow you to use up to 10 simultaneous connections, configure a proxy server and more.

Before moving on to the conclusions, I have to tell you about the existence of a Drop Basket that can be used to drag pictures or other files from the Web browser and start a new project. Cool, isn't it?

The Good

NeoDownloader is very easy to use, fast and powerful. Its interface is well organized and the built-in projects as well as the full featured shareware version that you can use freely for an entire month are the best gift I have received lately!

The Bad

I don't know why, but this program's price seems a bit too high for me, but other than that, things look really fine.

The Truth

You could probably use a free download manager for performing most of the tasks handled by this program, but you won't get a built-in multimedia player and preview window there! Anyway, the trial is free, so even if I can't afford a Ferrari, I won't refuse a one-month test drive, even if I have to pay for the fuel...

Here are some snapshots of the application in action:

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user interface 4
features 4
ease of use 5
pricing / value 2


final rating 4
Editor's review
very good
 
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