First we told you about photo editors, then photo organizers. But perhaps your current photo program has almost everything you need, and the previous free programs are missing a feature or two. Or perhaps you just need a program that will do one specific thing you rarely have to do.

Here are a few very specialized programs that could help in some cases. And they’re still free.

36-Image Converter

This program has some basic photo editing and special effects tools, but it’s not nearly as powerful as some of the editors we told you about previously.

The strength of this program is in its powerful ability to convert photos to another graphics format. Its range is amazing; it doesn’t just convert the usual file formats, like .jpg, .gif, .png, .tif, and .bmp. How would you like to turn your favorite photos into icons and cursors? Well, this program can convert pictures to .ico and .cur formats, which means you can do that.

Download 36-Image Converter

Photo Dater

If all of your photos are from digital cameras, then every photo you have probably has a date stamp on it somewhere. But chances are you have photos without dates, such as photos scanned from paper. Photo Dater 1.2 allows you to add dates or other basic information to photos. You can add a date or short text (it doesn’t force you into a certain date format) to one photo, or a whole batch of them. It also allows you to choose the font, color and size of the text stamp, and also allows you to put it wherever you want it in the photo; in one of the corners, or even in the center, if that’s what you want.

Download Photo Dater 1.2

VisiPics

If you’re a typical photographer, you have tons of photos on your hard drive, and most likely hundreds of duplicates are taking hundreds of megabytes, or even a few gigabytes of hard drive space. Trying to weed through all of those photos can be a daunting task.

But VisiPics will do all of that for you. The best part is, It doesn’t just look for duplicate file names; it actually compares the images in the photos themselves. As you prepare to run Visipics, tell it whether you want a Strict, Basic or Loose comparison, and the program will adjust how it will evaluate your photos. After searching, it will show the duplicates it uncovers, side by side. Mouse over any set of supposed duplicate photos, and the preview pane will come up, and you can decide whether they’re actually the same. If they are the same, then you can direct VisiPics to delete the duplicates or simply move them to a separate folder; it’s up to you.

Download VisiPics

One of the best ways to keep up with the news, or to listen to or watch your favorite radio or tv program on your time is through podcasts. But iTunes isn’t the only program to use when looking for and downloading podcasts. The term for finding and downloading a podcast is “podcatching” and there are several programs available to do it for you, even if you don’t like iTunes. .

Here are a few excellent alternative podcatching programs. And don’t worry; like iTunes, these programs are free.

Miro

Miro is a very small podcast manager that is also a video manager, if you’re into that. It actually has its roots as a media player, so its major strength is streaming and web-based media. As such, its best quality is its ability to provide excellent video playback, which makes it an ideal choice for managing video podcasts.

With Miro, you can manage your podcasts yourself, and either set them to automatically download, or make them wait until you give permission. You can also set parameters for keeping podcasts, and decide how long they stay on your hard drive before they expire, and you can also set limits on how much disk space you want to take up with podcasts. Miro will also import and export podcasts in OPML format, which makes it compatible with all major feed readers and other podcasting clients.

“http://www.getmiro.com/” Download Miro

Juice

This program used to be known as iPodder, and was one of the first open source podcast managers available. They just don’t get lighter and more streamlined. Juice pretty much only retrieves podcasts, downloading them on your schedule or its. The summary of its components are a built-in directory and a clean-up tool for deleting old podcasts. But if you want a program that just does what it’s supposed to do, and isn’t a resource hog, Juice is a great program.

“http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/” Download Juice

gPodder

Unlike Juice, which just does a couple of things quite well, gPodder looks like a basic podcast manager, in that it doesn’t include a built-in media player of its own, but it sports a huge array of extras, including the ability to sync to iPods, as well as directory-based and MTP-compatible players. Plus, you can specify which media player you’d like it to work with.

gPodder’s advanced options are actually pretty awesome; in fact, you’ll find multiple options for just about every aspect of the program’s functionality. It includes some advanced tools, as well, including the ability to alter the playback speed of podcasts, which allows you to cram more podcasts into your lunch hour. Be careful, though; you’ll need the manual to be able to access and learn to use many of the program’s more advanced features.

“http://gpodder.org/” Download gPodder