I usually don’t showcase new software developers on here however Icecream Apps is a freeware developer whos goal is to provide free replacements for popular paid applications. Currently their focus lies on Windows based applications, however Mac versions are said to be available “soon”. In the meantime Icecream Apps opened their doors with three freeware Windows tools: Media Converter, PDF Split and Merge and Image Resizer.
Icecream Media Converter is a free tool for converting video and audio files between all the main formats (and most of the minor ones). The program can import multiple local files, or download its source videos from web URLs, before converting them to your preferred device, audio or video format. What you don’t get here is any real control of the converted file. There are no options to set resolution, codec, bitrates or anything else: just a single “Quality” setting with four options (Best, Good, Average, Bad).
Regardless the conversion process is fast, a useful History tab displays details of your recently converted files (good news if you’ve forgotten where they were saved), and overall Icecream Media Converter is an easy-to-use audio/ video conversion tool which handles the basics well.
Icecream PDF Split and Merge is a well-designed tool for splitting PDFs, merging them, or just removing pages that you don’t really need. Again, the interface looks good, and there are plenty of options. The program can split your source PDF into single pages, groups (sets of x consecutive pages starting from page y) and ranges (any specified range, like 3-9 or 12-14), while you’re also able to delete any specified page numbers.
The final program in the range is Icecream Image Resizer, which works almost exactly as you’d expect: drag and drop individual files or entire folders, choose your target resolution and a few options (preserve aspect ratio, reverse the resolution for portrait images), and resize everything with a click. Nothing too advanced, but once again it handles the basics well, looks good and is easy to use.
All 3 applications are available for download from our Webmasters Resources Directory. Furthermore Icecream Apps has promised to release 3 new applications by July 20th, 2014. These are set to be IceCream Screen Recorder, IceCream eBook Reader, and IceCream Slideshow Maker. Full versions of these will be available soon, however you can head over to IceCreamApps.com today to download the beta versions. Once the full release occurs these apps will be featured within the Rapid Purple Webmasters Resource Directory alongside the current IceCream Apps software.