Free software download

Long gone are the days when you’d have to save up for weeks to make a long distance or international phone call. Thanks to Voice over IP technology and the widespread availability of broadband it’s now possible to talk free of charge to anyone in the world.

Skype has made the technology accessible to all through it’s simple and fun-to-use chat-style interface. The program is gaining in popularity, meaning the community of users you can chat to for free is expanding. This update certainly contains some decent additions to the previous version, most notably its webcam facilities. This means you can now watch your buddies as you chat to them and let them see you if you want.

You can use the program to chat with other Skype users anywhere in the world for free either via telephone or the built-in chat feature. However, some overly optimistic users may be disappointed to learn that you still need to pay for credits to make calls to landlines and mobiles with Skype, through the SkypeOut function. Luckily, this is a very painless process, and Skype has recently added a plethora of different ways to pay.

The program is perhaps even easier to use than ever, with streamlined new tools such as the ability to add a contact from the main Skype window and contact grouping for arranging your friends, family and colleagues into categories. You can even import contacts from Outlook, and find out if any of these use Skype. The changes to the interface and its icons may confuse existing users for a while, but once you get used to it, the new GUI is arguably more intuitive than ever.

As we’ve come to expect there’s plenty you can do other than just having a two-way conversation with a friend, including inviting other users into a conference, setting up chatrooms, exchanging files, and viewing the history of your contacts. You can even set up customized voicemail to record messages while you’re away from base.

We’re also excited by the new public chats function. You’ll get to join in many different groups and talk about a specific subject. You can even create your own chat for others to join in, like an Italian language class or a talk on the consequences of the Iraq war.

As more people clamber aboard the Skype bandwagon, the network will become a much more convenient way for people to chat with each other. The client now provides the perfect platform on which to join the communication revolution. Let the Skyping commence…

Download Skype 3.8.0.188 in Softonic

When it comes to photo viewers there are many alternatives to choose from. I’ve always had something of a crush on Picasa and this new version has made it my absolute favorite.

The brand new Picasa 3.0 is just out beta stage and you can already get a full glimpse of all the eyecandy it brings to your desktop. The interface remains pretty similar to the previous one, but has been enriched with new options to manage and edit your photos, as well as some new ways to show them off.

Among other features, Picasa now includes a folder manager to handle your folders right on the hard drive, a screen capturing tool, an improved and extended photo editing menu (with new filters and effects) and new exciting options for your creativity, such as creating a movie with your photos.

Picasa now lets you manage your pictures in more comfortable way, both online – by automatically syncing your photo library with Picasa web albums – and offline, with an awesome photo viewer you can use instead of the default Windows image viewer.

The all-new Picasa has successfully completed what it seemed a difficult task: improving a software app that was already very good.

Download Picasa 3.0.0 (57.53) in Softonic

When it comes to photo viewers there are many alternatives to choose from. I’ve always had something of a crush on Picasa and this new version has made it my absolute favorite.

The brand new Picasa 3.0 is just out beta stage and you can already get a full glimpse of all the eyecandy it brings to your desktop. The interface remains pretty similar to the previous one, but has been enriched with new options to manage and edit your photos, as well as some new ways to show them off.

Among other features, Picasa now includes a folder manager to handle your folders right on the hard drive, a screen capturing tool, an improved and extended photo editing menu (with new filters and effects) and new exciting options for your creativity, such as creating a movie with your photos.

Picasa now lets you manage your pictures in more comfortable way, both online – by automatically syncing your photo library with Picasa web albums – and offline, with an awesome photo viewer you can use instead of the default Windows image viewer.

The all-new Picasa has successfully completed what it seemed a difficult task: improving a software app that was already very good.

Download Picasa 3.0.0 (57.53) in Softonic

Download Griffith 0.9.8 in Softonic

Mac users are often regarded as very loyal customers, but that’s because they have very good reasons, such as iTunes, to stick to Apple products.

iTunes has become one of the most widely spread music managers today. The release of the iPhone and the new iPod models has only contributed to increase this popularity, thanks to the seamless synchronization of contents between the computer and your device.

Now with iTunes 8, Apple continues to develop and improve this music software masterpiece with fresh new features that enable users to make the most of their multimedia library.

Managing your iTunes library is a piece of cake. You can view extended information about each track, edit their tags and rate them. Also, iTunes lets you comfortably browse through your library with the amazing Cover Flow system or the newly implemented grid view, which displays cover artwork sorted by album, artist, genre or composer. And for those of you who work in a LAN environment, the great news is that you can share your music libraries with your network mates.

One thing I particularly like of iTunes as music manager is its ability to create playlists. The Smart Playlist tool enables you to create almost any kind of playlist based on just about any criteria you set: artist, genre, date added, star rating or even the number of times you’ve played each song. Another great playlist is the so called Party Shuffle, which comes in very handy when you invite some friends over to your place. You can then leave iTunes working as a DJ and play music on its own, but if you drop by the PC at any time, you can freely add more songs to the list or rearrange them in any way.

Regarding playlists, iTunes 8 includes now an exciting new feature called Genius. Just like other popular music sharing tools, Genius learns from the tracks you play on iTunes and recommends you similar songs, either from your own library or from the iTunes Store. In this way you can easily build thematic playlists by grouping similar songs, and also meet new bands you may not know about. The only drawback is that Genius needs to gather information about your music library and send it over to Apple in order to work, something that privacy freaks won’t be happy about.

However, if there’s something where iTunes is not perfect yet, that’s the player function. You may disagree here, but I think the iTunes player falls too short, especially when compared to its music manager side. It does have some interesting features, like the Smart shuffle function and crossfading playback, but I still find it too simple. I also missed the ability to control the player from anywhere with global hotkeys, which is great if you listen to music while you’re working on the PC with other apps. Fortunately there are some plug-ins that cover this need.

In all, despite these slight flaws, iTunes is probably the best choice to manage your music collection –and that includes Windows users.

Download iTunes 8.0.2 in Softonic

XnView, simply put, is a file explorer. What makes it a bit special is that instead of treating every file as equal, it tries to make sense of each and every one and let you see, in the most relevant form possible, what exactly is contained in the file.

When checking this program out, we were immediately reminded of another quality file previewer, ACDSee. While that has gone on to become a fully featured photo manager, available for $50, XnView will take care of most users’ basic needs while boasting a price tag of $0 (for personal use). With its built-in preview engine, the program can display 400 different image file formats as well as play various media formats such as AVI or MP3.

Using the program will already be second nature to most users as it works like Windows Explorer. On the left side of the screen you see all your directories, with the contents of the directories being displayed in the upper half of the right window. Selecting any of these files will then bring up a preview in the lower half of the window. If you’re browsing through some photos you can run them as a slideshow and view in full screen. If you’re browsing through simple TXT or INI files, the opening few lines of text will show up as an icon and you can view the entire contents of the file without needing to open other programs.

There is a good level of support for various formats and the interface zips along without delays, even when displaying large video files. On encountering a file that it doesn’t recognize, XnView displays its hash values, which may or may not be of use. If you run into any difficulty, there is a help file that is sufficient but not overwhelming.

One aspect that wasn’t quite as we would have liked was that it didn’t recognize the native format of files. For example, a simple text file with a LOG extension wasn’t treated as the same file with a TXT extension. It’s a small inconvenience but does stand out because of the general high quality of the software. For anyone with a large number of files that they want to organize, convert or just browse, XnView is certainly worth a look.

Download XnView 1.95.4 in Softonic

PDF (Portable Document Format) is now one of the most ubiquitous document formats on the net. The problem is that Adobe Reader is the only tool to read it and it’s both bulky and slow.

Foxit PDF Reader on the other hand is light and quick. The proof is in the pudding for starters – compare Foxit’s installation file is only of just 2.2 MB against Acrobat’s 20.8 MB and you can see why it opens documents in a snap. The key is that it doesn’t have all those annoying splash-up screens, endless credits lists and plugins.

The program’s interface been designed with ease of use in mind. You have several toolbars available, which you can show or hide at your will and which give you access to all the available utilities: zoom, text selection, image snapshot, search tool, rotation or full screen view, among others. There is a small ad in the upper right corner, but you can deactivate it by going to the View menu and deselecting the Advertisement option. One added bonus is that you can annotate PDF documents in several ways by highlighting text fragments, underlining them, strike them out or even add personal comments.

If you want a small, fast, stable and functional alternative to Adobe Reader, then look no further

Download Foxit Reader 3.0 in Softonic

Managing separate windows that are open within Windows can be a real pain especially if you’re trying to slot them together neatly.

Linux and Mac OS do this job well but with Windows, you’d be best to try something like AltDrag to help things fit together more neatly. AltDrag is a program that attaches to your taskbar and allow you to drag windows from point to point by holding down the Alt key.

In addition, if you press Shift-Alt alongside it, AltDrag joins the windows between them by the edge or hit the edge of the screen. It is a bit annoying that you have to use the keyboard at the same time as dragging and it would be easier if you could just activate it by default in Windows but it’s better than nothing.

Simple and lightweight, AltDrag can greatly improve the way you drag and drop windows on your desktop.

Download AltDrag 0.4 in Softonic

The SysInternals Suite is a full-featured pack of system utilities that cover a wide range of functions and needs and which are especially addressed at expert users and system administrators.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that average users can’t take advantage of the more than 60 different tools included in the package. Simply bear in mind that they are not designed to be particularly easy to use, but just useful and straight to the point. Also, the featured utilities are presented as a ZIP archive with all the standalone files, rather than under a single interface which would have been definitely easier.

That said, the truth is that SysInternals is a very complete suite with all sorts of tools. Many of them include command-line controls, and most of them enable you to take full control of the way the whole system works, plus analyzing everything that’s going on and preventing any malware from running without your knowledge.

In spite of not being very user-friendly, the SysInternals Suite is still a very valuable piece of software with a rich collection of system tools and tweaks.

Download Sysinternals Suite 19.11.08 in Softonic

Checking webmail can be a real pain especially when you’ve got several accounts, the servers are always hanging and you have to flick between tabs.

Therefore, it’s nice to know there’s an easy way – let a Firefox extension do it for you. The great thing about this particular extension too is that it works right across the board with all the major web clients and more. The application sits in the Firefox status bar in the bottom right and when you have mail, an envelope will appear. Clicking on this status bar icon allows you to access the extension preferences or simply go straight to your waiting mail. In the extension preferences you can add and delete accounts including such services as daum.net, naver.com, empas.com and nate.com. You can also choose whether to activate audio or visual warnings. The worry I always have with these extensions however is when it comes to entering your username and password. Of course, the likelihood is that it will be kept safe but there is no guarantee it’s not being sent to a third party. On the plus side, if your webmail is not supported, there’s a good chance a user is developing a script for it so it really is very flexible and powerful.

A great webmail checker than works across several platforms and saves you valuable time checking your accounts.

Download WebMail Notifier 1.1.7 in Softonic