It seems like a cruel trick. After minutes upon minutes of channeling Tyra Banks, giving your best duck-face (I call it the Olsen Twin), and finding that just-vintage-enough filter, you end up with a photo that is totes adorable but is stuck on Instagram and impossible for you to get your hands on to use on any other platform.
Or how about when you find a video on YouTube that really drives home the main point of a presentation you’re giving, you include it in a slideshow only to have the office WiFi crap out on you. If only there were a way to download these media files directly… This is where 4K Download comes in and saves the day by providing apps with straightforward functions that bring a little common sense back into the online media game.
4K Download came up with 5 apps that let users merge their desktop with the content they care about online. The company has come out as saying:
“Our goal is to remove artificial restrictions and limitations ‘enforced’ by online services.”
As if that wasn’t a noble enough cause on its own, these little karma-nuggets are offering it all for free. Not just for a few days – FOREVER. These power-balancing apps can run on Windows, Mac, and Linux, backing up 4K Download’s stated priority of delivering “usability and security” to everyone that wants to use their service.
4K Video Downloader
The video downloader app is by far 4K Download’s most popular app. It allows users to download high quality video from sites like Vimeo and YouTube. There’s no gimmicks, shady adware, or malware – just straight forward function. All a user has to do is copy and paste the video’s link into a box and click download. The video is now usable in presentations, even when the user is offline (duh).
4K YouTube to MP3
As the name indicates, this app gives users a way to extract and download audio from online video sites. The process is just as easy as operating the video downloader, just copy and paste the video’s link and presto – you’ve got yourself some fresh usable audio in MP3 form.
4K Video to MP3
This one lets users convert video they already have saved on their computer into MP3 format. Instead of adding a link, you select the saved video file through the app and click download. Easy-peasy-video-squeezy.
4K Stogram
The app is listed as an “Instagram client for PC, Mac, and PC” on their website, but I like to think of it as the “thanks-for-letting-me-use-my-own-G-D-photo” app. The app gives users the ability to download and backup any Instagram user’s photos (including their own). Keeping with the general theme of ease of use, all one has to do is enter a username and select photos to download. Looks like I know where I’m going to get my x-mas card photo from this year.
4K Slideshow Maker
Provides an easy platform for people looking to create photo slideshows from their own library and/or Instagram. Easy to use (again are you noticing the pattern here?) plus the app has a facial recognition function making it easy to find the main characters in your soon to be award winning slideshow.
4K Download is obviously committed to giving their users what they want in a safe and straightforward way. Conspiracy theories aside – it’s not totally clear why the sites we love make it hard for us to get our hands on the media files being displayed, but it’s cool to know that people like the team at 4K Download are doing something to even the playing field a bit. If you’re a supporter of the cause too, check them out on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
