Google's satellite imagery software has truly changed the way we look at the globe. The application lets you zoom in on any part of the world and for some places, observe from a few meters away.

Google Earth not only displaces satellite images but it also includes terrains and sometimes 3D reconstruction of buildings. You can look for directions and businesses, just like in Google Maps and pinpoint areas or draw on maps straight in Google Earth.

Google Earth includes a very wide, and constantly increasing library of layers, which you can add to the map to enrich your experience. You'll find all sorts of information, from historical landscapes to national parks, regions where you can find endangered species or tourist spots. Google Earth will also showcase more news related information such as forest fires or tsunamis.

If stars is what you are into, turn to the Space mode and navigate among the constellations.

Moving around in Google Earth is incredibly intuitive thanks to the multiple navigation tools. Some areas will show less information than others, and Google Earth is known to use up a substantial amount of bandwidth, but it remains a fascinating piece of software

Google Earth is as of yet an unequalled application. Browse around the world, zoom into streets or go up and gaze at the stars. Millions of possibilities.

Download Google Earth 4.3 Beta in Softonic

If you write many articles, you probably know what a pain it is to have to regularly skim through a heavy dictionary to find the word you’re looking for. Luckily there’s a whole batch of lexicon applications that’ll send it back to the shelf (or in the trash can) forever. WordWeb is the perfect example of this type of dictionary and thesaurus combo in a hands-on interface.

What you’re looking for in a dictionary application is something you can open in a click, paste your word, and immediately get the results. You get that in Wordweb via system tray integration, and a Ctrl+Alt+W hot key combination. On install WordWeb will ask you the English locale you will use, such as Australian, Canadian American or New Zealander. The program keeps a history of your searches and you can quickly access them via the side arrows. You can refine your search by selecting word category like nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs and decide to show pronunciation, usage and offensive or vulgar words. WordWeb isn’t associated to any world famous reliable dictionary like Webster’s ,preferring its very own online source, comprising of more than 240,000 words and updated regularly, according to the developer.

The heart of WordWeb resides in the results tabs, although the difference between them all wasn’t obvious from the start. After a bit of testing we found that the “nearest” tab showed you the preceding and following words in the dictionary, “see also” was a suggestion of related words and “similar” presented a word that resembled your search but had a slightly different meaning. “Types” goes down to the meaning of the word, for example solid “types” will be plastic, crystal or block. The “type of” tab is another variation. “Types of” solid will be substance, state or form. These tools will be particularly helpful if you feel limited by your vocabulary and are looking to diversify your choice of words in the document you are writing.

WordWeb is a reliable dictionary and thesaurus with a simple, hands-on approach. It is an ideal partner to fight off writer’s block and improve your vocabulary. The online dictionary is a rich source and WordWeb should help you out of any mind jam whenever you’re writing an article.

Download WordWeb 5.5 in Softonic

This song-based learning software complements guitar tablature by providing additional, detailed instructions that guitar tab alone is unable to provide. Guitar Guru teaches guitarists of all skill levels how to play songs from a variety of genres.

Tools and features:

• Virtual fret board displays proper fingerings in real-time
• Detailed instructions for all guitar parts in a song
• Adjustable playback/learning tempo
• MIDI or CD-Synched Audio
• Customizable display with additional guitar skins
• Step-Through Playback Function
• Delayed start option: Give yourself time to grab your guitar
• Bass guitar support
• Select MIDI playback instrument to match your preferred sound
• Choose colored dots, numbers or dots and numbers to represent fingerings
• Adjust tempo up to 300% without changing pitch (MIDI only)
• Mute Button: The volume reset has been changed to an on/off toggle

Download Guitar Guru 2.1.4.1 in Softonic

Have you ever wondered what life is like on the other side of the world, just on a normal day like today? Stop wondering: now you can see it.

Satellite Live is an impressive mapping application with which you can view satellite imagery from any location on the planet, traveling from one place to another with just a mouse click and zooming in and out at your will. In a way it works very much like the popular Google Earth but with a slight difference: Satellite Live offers live, real-time images.

The program uses former military technology that has now been released to civilians. Software developers have quickly taken advantage of it, producing a striking piece of software like you'll never have seen before.

You're able to watch people actually walking down the street, parking their cars, buying groceries from the market stall or going for a walk in the park. Obviously the program only shows images from public and open areas so forget about peeking into somebody's bathroom to witness private stuff. Nevertheless, Satellite Live features an extraordinary zoom level with which you won't miss a single thing.

The program includes also a locating feature (which finds any place on Earth in a matter of seconds), an embedded screen capturing tool and navigational buttons to move around maps. However, there's no support for extra information layers yet.

Bear in mind that the level of detail may vary from one place to another, which means that populated areas such as New York, Los Angeles, London or Tokyo have more image quality than the Nevada desert or the Amazon jungle. In any case, Satellite Live is still an incredible application that opens a window to the world from your own computer.

Satellite Live lets you witness what's going on in any location on the planet, in real time. Though the level of detail may vary, it's still an impressive app with which to learn how life is in other parts of the world.

Download April Fools Satellite Live 1.0 in Softonic

Islamasoft Solutions is proud to present the Hadith Software English translated hadith (plug-in) databases all bundled together in one easy to use application. The software is equipped with an explorer type user interface for ease of use.

It has the ability to export hadiths books/chapters to a text editor (e.g. Notepad), bookmarks, advanced search engine (super fast), active marker 'highlight text' display, and allows hadiths to be sent to anyone via email + more... This is an excellent resource for both muslims and non-muslims who are interested in learning more about Islam.

Download The Hadith Software 1.0 in Softonic

On the whole, Lingoes is an interesting application which combines a comprehensive dictionary with a translator service (while looking and feeling mysteriously similar to its competitor, Babylon). There are also some useful tools like the periodic table, an abbreviation chart and an irregular verbs one, plus an international time zone converter, a dialing codes directory, a weights & measures converter and to end a currency converter.

Theoretically the most useful tool is that by pressing CTRL+ right click on whatever word you have on your screen, a pop-up window should appear with the definition of that word, a search tool for a deeper definition and also an audio file with the correct pronunciation. The disappointing aspect of this feature is that it doesn't work with a lot of words (unfortunately, I have to say, the majority), even if they appear in the list of definitions that Lingoes has in its database. I think this is a major bug as it invalidates massively the application's main utility which would be to have an always-available dictionary without having to change window.

The program leans on Google for the translation function which I find to be weak as many words are not translated correctly or not even found.

Because of strange performance issues, Lingoes is not worth using if you're just looking for an on-the-fly dictionary or translator. Some of its other features are really useful, though.

Download Lingoes 2.2.0 Beta in Softonic

I play the guitar a little bit and so I was glad to discover this program. The problem with my manual electronic tuner is that it's always running out of battery power so half the time I'm playing completely out of tune. However, Free Guitar Tuner totally eliminates this problem by running directly through my PC.

The principle is very simple. You've got six strings and to pluck each one you just click the mouse on them. There are three main settings - acoustic, electric and synthesized guitar. Just keep clicking the string until the tone on the program sounds exactly like the tone on your guitar. The disadvantage however is that, if you're tone deaf like me, it's hard to ascertain when you've got it right. If only the program could "hear" the guitar through the microphone, and show you how close it was to being in tune like a normal tuner, it would score much more highly.

Nevertheless, for a simple and elegant looking tuner, you need look no further.

Download Free Guitar Tuner 1.50 in Softonic

Chances are that not very many people have heard of Stellarium although it is very similar to one of the most popular pieces of software available today – Google Earth. While Google’s software allows you to focus on the earth from a starting point in outer space, Stellarium reverses your perspective and places you at any point on the earth’s surface, staring up and out into deep space.

An interesting feature is that as time passes, the virtual star system will evolve, with the sun setting and the various constellations becoming more prominent in the dark night sky. You have a selection of visual effects that you can switch on or off such as the atmosphere, or trace lines for the star systems. Impressive stuff for a few minutes, but once you’ve got the general gist of what the software entails, you’ll quickly tire of zooming out to distant stars and watching as they slowly move across the screen.

While Google Earth brings you detailed photos of our planet’s surface, Stellarium can only achieve a much lower resolution representation of the solar system’s planets, without mentioning the fact that stars are limited to simple white dots zipping through the sky. With over 120,000 stars accurately plotted out in this virtual planetarium, it’s obvious that a lot of work has gone in to its creation. However, that excruciating level of detail is likely only to appeal to the real die-hard star gazers.

The idea behind Stellarium is a good one in theory, but when it comes down to it most people will see it as little more than a smart, interactive screensaver. That said, if you have an affinity for astronomy, would like to learn the constellations, or simply enjoy watching beautiful sunsets, then this is for you.

Download Stellarium 0.9.0 in Softonic

Scratch broadens the range of what you can design and create on the computer, making it easier to express your creativity. With Scratch, you can create characters that dance, sing and interact with one another, create images that whirl, spin, and animate in response to movements of the mouse, or integrate images with sound effects and music clips.

Scratch is a perfect tool for kids to learn the basics of computer programming, providing them with a tool that helps them explore their creative side by designing interactive birthday cards, short animated videoclips or interactive reports for school.

At the core of Scratch is a graphical programming language that lets you control the actions and interactions among different media. Coding in Scratch is much easier than in traditional programming languages: to create a script, you simply snap together graphical blocks, much like LEGO bricks or puzzle pieces.

Once you’ve created a Scratch project, you can share it on the Scratch website, the same way you might share videos on YouTube or photos on Flickr. Or you can embed your Scratch project in any other webpage – for example, embedding an interactive Scratch animation on your MySpace or Facebook homepage.

Download Scratch 1.2 in Softonic

TuxGuitar is a full featured music composition tool that can be really helpful to musicians, whether they use their computer to compose music or not.

The program looks really complex at first sight – at least for a music newbie like me – so I have the feeling it may overwhelm more novice users. But the amount of available tools, along with an extensive help section and documentation really encourages you to give it a go.

TuxGuitar features a nicely designed interface with clear, simple lines that turns your music composition tasks into a lighter work. Besides composing right on the tablature, you can also have a virtual guitar fretboard or piano keyboard to make composition even easier. What's more, the program lets you play the songs you just composed, using one of the many instruments included in it.

In spite of a confusing first impression, TuxGuitar well deserves a chance from all music composers: it's nicely designed and features many interesting tools.

Download TuxGuitar 1.0 RC3 in Softonic

With Arm Map Explorer you can:

• Study physical and economic geography
• Explore the Earth surface using dynamic interactive maps
• View maps with a coordinate grid
• View state capitals, large cities, international airports, world landmarks
• Print and save map images

Arm Map Explorer recreates all the functionalities of Google Maps on your desktop and adds extras. Map Explorer lets you locate and view any place on the planet using dynamic interactive maps. These maps are draggable, meaning no need to click and wait for graphics to reload each time you want to view adjacent parts of a map. Viewing locations on maps in Map Explorer resembles the way you use a regular street map.

In addition to the features offered by Google Maps, Map Explorer allows you to view a map with a coordinate grid on it, get precise coordinates of any location on the map and move to a location based on specified coordinates. With the help of the object tree, you can instantly locate and view capitals of states, large cities, world landmarks, monuments, international airports and other locations. You can save a map as a file or print it to use on a trip. Map Explorer can help you study geography, both physical and economic. The program will display a satellite view of any location that you can zoom in and out and pan in any direction.

Download Arm Map Explorer 1.0 in Softonic

Celestia is a free real-time space simulation that lets you experience our universe in three dimensions. Unlike most planetarium software, Celestia doesn't confine you to the surface of the Earth. You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy.

All travel in Celestia is seamless; the exponential zoom feature lets you explore space across a huge range of scales, from galaxy clusters down to spacecraft only a few meters across. A 'point-and-goto' interface makes it simple to navigate through the universe to the object you want to visit.

Download Celestia 1.5.0 in Softonic

Application containing all the elements of the Periodic Table along with images of the elements in their natural state.

Features include:

• Detailed information on each element
• Images for each element (126 images in total)
• Glossary
• Graphs of important element properties
• Biographies for the element discoverers
• Interactive display allows you to view the states of the elements at any temperature (from 0 - 6000k)
• XP style support
• Search the all of the element, biography and glossary pages.
• Electron shell diagrams of each element
• Atomic width diagram

Download Periodic Table 3.4 in Softonic

Instead of the traditional look of many buttons, Equalizer has a simple text line on which you can write the expression in the same way you'd write it on paper (for example: typing "(6*5-12) / 2" will show the answer "9"). Equalizer can also draw graphs of equations. In addition, Equalizer is fully skinable - you can completely change its appearance, and even create your own skins.

Download Equalizer 1.77 in Softonic

NASA released World Wind six months before Google Earth, yet it failed to make as much of an impact. However, anything coming out of the prestigious American aeronautics administration is definitely worth a closer look. So what sets World Wind apart from Google Earth?

World Wind's real selling point is the quality of its satellite imagery. World Wind reveals Earth in many different perspectives thanks to the large variety of maps. Blue Marble exposes Earth in its true colors, Landsat 7 gives you high resolution imagery, and MODIS can display time relevant data such as earthquakes, fires or floods. Browse over mountains and observe the snowy peaks, the clouds, and the different colors of the rock, with incredible precision. Be aware though that the lower you go, the more detail will appear, and World Wind will take more time to process the image.

A digital globe wouldn't be complete without its own search option. Find a destination by typing its name in the search tool located on the top bar. Landmarks are particularly well catalogued. If you select the landmark finder tool from the top section, World Wind will exhibit small tags for all locations it considers of significance. Click on the tag and you will be directed to the Wikipedia page for that particular landmark, where you'll be able to read all about it. It is important to point out however that the search function in World Wind is not as good at finding cities as it is with landmarks.

Another of World Wind's assets is its usability. Zoom in over the map using the rollover button of your mouse and skim to parts of the screen with your mouse. The more you focus down on a place the more names of cities and significant locations pop up. These can clog up your screen however, so you'd be wise to configure World Wind to only show the information you need, like country borders and urban areas.

To set itself apart from Google Earth, World Wind provides two original tools. Capitalizing on its lunar explorations, the aeronautics administration lets you view the Moon in extremely high definition. Focus in on its craters, deserts and plains and search for Apollo 11's landing site. Additionally, World Wind recreates the infamous Oregon trail mapped out by American adventurers Lewis and Clark at the beginning of the 19th century, stretching out from Independece, Missouri to the Pacific state of Oregon. World Wind points to significant landmarks which should be of interest to students or history amateurs.

World Wind is as good a digital imagery program as Google Earth. While the image resolution process can be sluggish, World Wind manages to set itself apart thanks to its landmark finder and fun tools like the Moon visualizer and the Lewis & Clark trail.

Download NASA World Wind 1.3.5 in Softonic

Earth3D enables you to have your own personal planetarium at home. Simply copy this tool to your hard drive – no installation required – and be ready to enjoy great views from our planet while sitting right in front of your computer.

The program grabs spatial imagery from NASA, USGS, CIA and other resources and displays them on a simply-designed interface. You can change between different views and locations by using the categorized list on the left side of the interface, while viewing images themselves on the right side. While the virtual trip can be quite fun, bear in mind that this is no Google Earth, so don't expect to be able to see your home from outer space.

Earth3D features some interesting extras such as the ability to capture images or even record a small video while you're moving around the Earth or zooming in and out – just with your mouse. However, there's one big problem that prevented us from giving Earth3D a better score, and that is its incredible slowness when loading pictures.

Earth3D includes a beautiful collection of images from our planet in 3D perspective, but unfortunately takes way too long to display them.

Download Earth3D 1.0.4 in Softonic

Rapid Typing is a fast and useful application that allows you to improve your typing skills, both in accuracy and speed. The interface is fairly clear, although maybe you will have to disable the aquarium animation set as default in the background as it can disturb you when concentrating on your exercises. You can do that, in the option menu, ticking the animation option and if you wish, choosing a background colour, although the white one, is probably the clearer.

When you start the session, simply type the letters you see on the screen, without looking at your keyboard. Exercises are increasingly difficult and test you on specific letters each time, until you are able to remember better what’s where.

If you don’t know which is the correct finger to use to press a letter, press the Show/Hide Virtual Keyboard button, on the far bottom of the main frame. You’ll get a representation of your hands, telling you with which finger you should use to press the key.
At the end of each session the program tells you how many mistakes you made and how fast you have been, showing you a graph of your improvements.

With Rapid Typing you can improve your typing speed and accuracy when using your keyboard with increasingly more difficult exercises. Although it’s very easy to use, it lacks of an initial explanation on how to position and move your fingers, so two-finger typers might have to look for an alternative training method.

Download RapidTyping 1.9.9.6 in Softonic

MidiPiano is a very simple and useful application, with which you can open MIDI files and play them in a virtual piano keyboard. It also allows you to record MIDI files by the virtual keyboard or using a MIDI IN device.

Here's that MidiPiano has to offer:

• Supports MIDI IN/MIDI OUT devices
• Simple to Play and Record MIDI file
• Different color for tracks simulate hands
• Supports 128 GM Patches selection
• Supports customize keyboard layout
• Supports plugins with user message

Download MidiPiano 1.8.3 in Softonic

GS Typing Tutor is a powerful and rich features typing tutor & test software. It is an ideal teaching tool for learning to type and developing typing speed. It is geared towards kids aged nine to adult.

As a beginner, you start by "hunting and pecking" and two finger typing. GS Typing Tutor will help you memorize the keyboard layout and go on to develop typing speed quickly. If you already know how to touch type, GS Typing Tutor can help you to acquire professional touch-typing skills. Faster typing speed will help you save time, every day.

How does GS Typing Tutor help you to learn type?

Complete typing lessons

The complete typing lessons include levels from the basics of typing to advanced subjects, such as the numeric keypad and special characters.

Onscreen keyboard

GS Typing Tutor offers an onscreen keyboard which helps a novice to find out where a key is, also which can help to memorize the keyboard layout quickly.

Amusing learning process

With 5 typing games, GS Typing Tutor makes the process of learning to type amusing.

Track your improvement

GS Typing Tutor will track your learning process and try to figure out your problem keys, you can improve these keys with personalized review exercises.

Download GS Typing Tutor 2.96 in Softonic

Nessus focuses on the developement of security checks for recent security holes. The security checks database is updated on a daily basis, and all the newest security checks are available here and can be retrieved with the command nessus-update-plugins.

An RSS feed of all the newest security checks allows you to monitor which plugins are added and when. Traditional network security scanners tend to focus on the services listening on the network - and only on these. Now that viruses and worms are propagating thanks to flaws in mail clients or web browsers, this conception of security is getting outdated.

Nessus 2.1 is the only security scanner out there which has the ability to detect the remote flaws of the hosts on your network, but their local flaws and missing patches as well - whether they are running Windows, Mac OS X or a Unix-like system.

Get the full picture - not just half of it

Download Nessus 3.0.5.W313 in Softonic