5. Leisure
And finally, let's not kid ourselves. Just because summer's over, the party doesn't stop. While you may not have time to put in your 24-hour MMO sessions anymore, there are some great games and software titles that can provide you with those short bursts of fun and relaxation that every student needs:
OnLive
Price: $9.99/month, or pay-per-game; installed
OnLive is the video game equivalent of Netflix’s streaming video service. Subscribers pay a $9.99 monthly fee and can then play through as many games as they want from OnLive’s compatible library of more than 60 games. Because everything is based in the cloud, there’s no need to install large game files, and you can run games right on your laptop without the need for a special controller or set-top box (though those are optional accessories). There’s an alternate way to use OnLive, which is to sign up for a free account and then pay individually for each game they want to play, ranging from $5 for a 3-day “rental” to $60 for full access to a single title.
Steam
Price: Varies per game; installed
While OnLive has a collection of games available for purchase, its value is mostly in the “all you can eat” monthly subscription service. Gamers who want a centralized storefront for downloadable games will find a much broader collection of content on Steam. Steam is a software program in and of itself that allows users to browse through a collection of hundreds of games. For students on a budget, Steam has numerous titles that are under $10 and frequently offers deep discount sales. There are even some free games to browse through.
Fraps
Price: $0 - $37; installed
Fraps is the most well-known application for capturing content on your computer screen for playback at a later date. This means you can record YouTube videos, awesome gameplay moments from your favorite PC titles, and any other streaming content you want to save for eternity, all with full audio and video. It can also capture screenshots, so use it to grab your favorite scene from Total Recall as your wallpaper. There is a free version that limits the length of each recording and places a watermark over all captured content, and a premium version that eliminates all those restrictions.
Pandora
Price: Free; Web-based
Planning an awesome party but embarrassed by the collection of music in your MP3 player? Or maybe all your music files are just scattered around all kinds of devices and you don’t want to take the time to put them all together for your party playlist. Then just set your laptop’s browser to Pandora.com and get ready to listen to a nonstop collection of music. It’s a completely free Internet radio service, although there are limitations, such as not being able to skip over too many tracks, and not having any way to search for and play specific songs.
PowerDVD
Price: $39.95; installed
If your laptop has a built-in DVD player, then it has some sort of DVD playing software, even if it’s just Windows Media Player. But PowerDVD, which is one of the cheapest DVD player programs on the market, ensures that watching a movie on your laptop is as feature-rich as watching it on your TV, and then some. With full support for HD playback, subtitles and closed captioning, and even lesser-known features like pan-and-scan and “smart stretching,” the playback experience on PowerDVD will be superior to whatever your default software is. It even has support for karaoke DVDs, for those nights when you’re in that kind of mood.
Useful and informative article - very good.
Seven SPAM posts in comments - not good.
I use ubuntu, and I don't need more for electric ing, Mathlab runs better on linux. And have good tools for microcontroler programming
Pandora has two services, the paid and free one. I feel the article is doing it a disfavor by listing it as free only.
AVG no, Avast yes.
Pandora no, LastFM yes.
Oh, and why pay $40 for a DVD player when you can use VLC or Media Player Classic for free?
I agree with scythe, PowerDVD struck me as an odd addition here. VLC is free.