Sketchy tool from Alias, and pop-up killer from Sunbelt

As usual there's a pileup in the Cool Tools Testing Zone. Here's a look at two stand-outs.

IHatePopUps: The name pretty much says it all. Sunbelt Software, maker of the excellent IHateSpam software, has come out with a follow-up that aims to ban pop-up and pop-under ads from browser windows.

The software is easy to install, and it comes with a control panel that offers simple check-boxes for decisions (including whether you want a sound to play when the software blocks a pop-up ad). The software also blocks a list of ad-ware programs, including Gator, WeatherBug and Bargain Buddy. It keeps a log of blocked sites for users to view and provides the opportunity to white list pop-up windows that a user wants to keep.

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As usual there's a pileup in the Cool Tools Testing Zone. Here's a look at two stand-outs.

IHatePopUps: The name pretty much says it all. Sunbelt Software, maker of the excellent IHateSpam software, has come out with a follow-up that aims to ban pop-up and pop-under ads from browser windows.

The software is easy to install, and it comes with a control panel that offers simple check-boxes for decisions (including whether you want a sound to play when the software blocks a pop-up ad). The software also blocks a list of ad-ware programs, including Gator, WeatherBug and Bargain Buddy. It keeps a log of blocked sites for users to view and provides the opportunity to white list pop-up windows that a user wants to keep.

While this software works great with pop-up windows that a user doesn't ask for, it also blocks windows that users choose to open. For example, when I use the Outlook Web client (via Internet Explorer) to read my e-mail, clicking on a link brings up the message in a new window. For me to view this with the IHatePopUps software, I have to hold down the CRTL button when I click. Even this method didn't work sometimes, so I ended up disabling the software when reading my e-mail. White listing doesn't solve the problem because each e-mail has a unique URL identifier.

But $10 is a good price to pay if you do a lot of Web surfing and are tired of pop-ups (almost every site has some). Go to the Sunbelt Software Web site for more details.

Alias SketchBook Pro: From Alias Wavefront comes this sketching application built for Tablet PCs. The application is more complex than the Paint application that comes bundled on Tablet PCs and is aimed at graphic artists and professional designers. We recently tested the SketchBook Pro application on an Acer TravelMate C100 Tablet.

The tools available for the artist are impressive and include options such as different brush styles, colors and layer features that are easy to understand for nonartists. Because my artistic ability is mostly in the stick-figure oeuvre, I wasn't creating masterpieces. But I was impressed with the application's tools ability to become pressure-sensitive - the longer I held down the pen on the tablet's screen, the more color I could get (the bleed effect).

The layer concept will appeal to nonartists for group annotations and collaboration. For example, diagram and document changes can be made by giving each team member his own layer. If you want to ignore someone's input, just hide the appropriate layer from viewers. This also helps in cases where drawings are so detailed that having notes written on one layer would mess up the drawing.

One of our graphic artists tried the software and was impressed with the visual interface, which was designed for artists, not programmers. He was disappointed, however, in the lack of integration with current art applications, such as Adobe Photoshop and Procreate's Painter.

Still, this was a good example of the type of application that will succeed on Tablet PCs. The software starts at $129 ($149 for a shipping version), and a 15-day trial version is available at Alias Wavefront's Web site. The company recently announced a deal with Acer to bundle the trial version on every new Acer TravelMate tablet.