In fact, FrostWire has more than just a few similarities to Limewire although unlike the latter, it does not carry advertising and there are no annoying pop ups. Just as Limewire was, FrostWire is straightforward and easy to use. A simple search bar, divided by category, makes it a breeze to browse for a file, whether it is a video, image, audio, or program. FrostWire also has a What’s New button to check out what popular files users have recently exchanged.

One particularly handy feature of FrostWire is a special direct connect option. If you know the IP address of one of your friends, type it in the box and FrostWire will browse to that user’s files. This is a quick way of sharing files with someone you know although it would be even better if you could enter the username of a user rather than the IP address.

In terms of speed, much will depend on the speed of your own connection. It definitely helps though if you've correctly opened your router’s ports and whether you’re downloading a popular file or not. To avoid the risk of downloading copyrighted or adult material, FrostWire also allows you to apply content filters. Another handy feature of FrostWire is a built-in media player. Video and audio can be tested using Frostwire’s media player which gives you an immediate preview of your file.

However, one major annoyance with Frostwire is the number of fake files on it. Many songs and files look genuine but are in fact either completely fake or in the worst case scenarios, malicious. You should be very careful when opening files. It should also be noted that FrostWire is basically a stripped-down version of Limewire, but is a not-for-profit project. The developers claim it will never support Digital Rights Management (DRM) or any type of advertising. However, the demise of Limewire due to legal issues mean that FrostWire may well be targeted in the future for closure.

FrostWire for Mac is a hugely popular alternative for anyone who misses Limewire but there are a lot of fake files and it doesn't quite measure up to the latter in most areas.

Download FrostWire 5.3.2 in Softonic

One way to prevent such compromises is by encrypting data. TrueCrypt aims to do this by allowing you to encrypt data 'on-the-fly'. This means that data is automatically encrypted or decrypted immediately before it is loaded or saved. Nothing can be encrypted or decrypted without using the correct password or encryption keys.

This encryption extends to entire file systems such as file names, folder names, file contents, free disk space etc. The good thing about TrueCrypt is that it doesn't get in the way of you dragging and dropping files. Some encryption programs that work on-the-fly prevent you from doing so easily or add a delay to the transfer but that's not the case with TrueCrypt. The other good thing is that TrueCrypt never saves any decrypted data to a disk – it only stores them temporarily in your RAM. This is far more secure because when you restart your Mac or turn off your computer, the volume will be dismounted and files stored in it will be inaccessible and still encrypted.

TrueCrypt takes you through the encryption process step-by-step via a handy wizard. Just select the volume that you'd like to encrypt and then click 'Create Volume' to encrypt it. This will create a TrueCrypt 'container', which acts like normal file or folder but of course, it's totally encrypted. Note that if you select an existing file, TrueCrypt will not encrypt it - rather it will delete and replace it with a container.

For a free application, TrueCrypt is remarkably powerful and will be easy enough even for beginners to encrypt their hard drive.

Download TrueCrypt 7.1 in Softonic

Let’s quickly go through what you can do with the Gimp. The painting function has the essential clone, airbrush or pencil tools and a powerful gradient and blend tool. You can also create and save your own brushes and patterns for later use. The program lets you manipulate your photos, adding layers, doing Bezier and polygonal selections or setting text. Load and save animations in a frame-as-layer format and batch process all your photos for quick editing. The multi-windowed interface can be moved around to fit your needs and resized according to your desktop space.

What’s more, the Gimp can be expanded with over 100 different plug-ins and extensions available on the Gimp’s website. These apply in majority for layer effects such as render, distort or blur and make a great addition to the ones already present in the program.

While the Gimp is user friendly, the installation process can be a bit hairy. Because the application works under the GTK Runtime Environment, you will have to install this kit to successfully launch the program. The process is fairly lengthy and some error messages tend to pop up, however if you persist, you will be able to install the Gimp properly on your PC

Despite this fairly hazardous installation process, the Gimp is a program we recommend. Whether you’re out of dough or are looking for a free alternative to Photoshop, the Gimp is excellent image manipulation software with all the tools you’d expect.

Download The GIMP 2.6.12 in Softonic

For those of you not familiar with Quicksilver, it's an application that lets you reach any program, folder or file in a few keystrokes. You don't have to go searching through your files, you don't have to worry about how your folders are arranged. For many, Quicksilver was a godsend in the pre-Spotlight Mac era. Although it's lost some of its importance with the new powerful search and Finder features in Leopard it still remains very much an excellent Mac application.

The search function is very quick and powerful and once you've found what you're looking for you can apply a number of actions like simply launching it, emailing or moving. What's more Quicksilver adapts to the file it finds, so if it's a document you'll get to modify or send it, and if it's an email you'll get to email or copy it. Quicksilver users also like the fact that the application learns from what you search to bring up what you search for or use most.

Quicksilver wouldn't be what it is without its large library of plugins though. This includes everything from dialing a phone number to interacting with iTunes or image and text manipulation. This means you can really customize the application to work according to your needs.

The only downside is the stability issues that Quicksilver seems to have. The application is noted to crash every once in a while.

Despite this stability issue, Quicksilver remains an incredibly intuitive and powerful multi-application launcher for Mac. Recommended for productivity geeks.

Download Quicksilver 1.0 b64 in Softonic

My Living Desktop is an interesting blend of a video desktop (i.e. a moving wallpaper) and a traditional screensaver. The aim is to turn your desktop into a moving, soothing living environment although you can use any video you want, including home movies. There are 26 relaxing high definition video scenes from around the world to choose from however to get you started.

While many will be tempted to add their own video, relaxation is the aim of My Living Desktop. There's even an Auto Serenity Break which reminds you when its time to take a break from the screen. If you like particular scenes in the videos, you can rate them so that My Living Desktop replays them more. And while you might think that My Living Desktop might slow down your machine while you're using it, there's actually no noticeable difference.

However, My Living Desktop will only appeal to those who can handle distractions as the moving images can actually become annoying in the background. In addition, it's probably an application which will be more appreciated by those using large screen displays rather than laptops. It also automatically installs itself as your default screensaver although you can change this in your Mac System Preferences. However, there's no denying that it's visually eye catching and it sure to create a stir by all who see it.

My Living Desktop is an original way of trying to bring your desktop alive with video backdrops.

Download My Living Desktop 5.0.2 in Softonic

It's also much more than just a cache cleaner which makes Lion Cache Cleaner in the running for surely one of the most misleadingly named applications ever! Lion Cache Cleaner is a one stop solution for a range of OS X maintenance needs. It works on both Intel and PPC Macs using Panther or above. It even extends to virus scanning of internet downloads although this can be extremely slow.

What we really liked about Lion Cache Cleaner is that it can repair permissions automatically after software installations - very useful for someone like me that installs and tests a lot of software. As the name suggests, you can obviously flush several caches at once, language localization files and other useless data. I'm always a bit wary of programs that claim to optimize RAM as this is something that can make your system terribly unstable if done badly but you can run Lion Cache Cleaner in Single User Mode to avoid crashing your entire machine in one go.

We also liked the fact that you can instantly see the login items on your Mac which can reveal erroneous entries that may be slowing down your startups. On the downside, Lion Cache Cleaner leaves behind the package receipt and . plist file when uninstalled and the overall interface, while easy to use, is very dated.

Despite the confusing name, rest assured that Lion Cache Cleaner works from Panther upwards and is a lightweight, easy to use and effective way to maintain your system.

Download Lion Cache Cleaner 6.0.8 in Softonic

Angry Birds Seasons includes more than 200 seasonal variations on the game including Angry Birds Halloween, Mooncake Festival, St. Patrick's Day and Angry Birds Christmas.

The gameplay of Angry Birds Seasons is exactly the same as predecessors Angry Birds and Angry Birds Rio i.e. catapult the birds into towers of stone to destroy them. If you hit them at the right angle, the green pigs are harvested and the points gained allow you to move to the next level.

There is therefore very little difference from the original game but the level of difficulty is a bit higher and more challenging.

If you're a big fan of Angry Birds, then you'll love Angry Birds Seasons.

Download Angry Birds Seasons 2.0.0 in Softonic

What I enjoyed most from the application is how easy it is to work with. With this type of program, you're looking to play around and Comic Life feels just like that. You can quickly drag and drop your images onto the interface, arrange them in order onto a page, drag bubbles and then enter your text.

Comic Life offers many shapes, forms and text lettering with styles reminiscent of the best cartoons and comics. All can be extensively customized to your taste from the style attributes tab on the right. I also quite liked the choice of filters, with which you can give a different aspect to your photos, like turning them into a scene from Sin City. If you don't want to get carried away into editing, Comic Life also features loads of page templates and themes that you can start off with.

Importing pictures onto the screen is easy, as you'll only need to drag and drop them from your desktop or pick straight from the preview pane in the application. Even more, you can use your webcam or DV camera to take snaps and post them immediately into your comic strip.

The only little downside to this app is that it sometimes uses up a little too much RAM.

Very intuitive and loaded with features, Comic Life is a great way to have fun with your pictures. It has all the bubbles, styles and fonts you'd expect to make good looking comics. Highly recommended.

Download Comic Life 2.1.1 in Softonic

Apple claims that Final Cut Pro features a revolutionary new video editing system centered around a Magnetic Timeline, which removes the problem of clip collisions and sync problems. This new Magnetic Timeline lets you edit on a flexible, trackless canvas while Content Auto-Analysis categorizes your content upon import by shot type, media and people. There's also less waiting around for rendering because Final Cut Pro X now supports background rendering while you get on with editing.

Final Cut Pro X is less fussy about importing footage than earlier versions. It now supports a broader range of formats including native AVCHD and H.264 from DSLRs. Final Cut Pro X has been designed to squeeze every inch out of 64-bit Macs and needs at least 2GB of RAM but for larger projects and richer effects, you're highly advised to have at least 4GB

The main interface has been given a fresh new Cocoa base, making it slicker and generally easier to use although its increasingly looking similar to iMovie. For some professionals, this may be a bit annoying as it does make Final Cut look and feel a bit more amateurish than previous versions. Those that film using multicams will also be delighted that in version 10.0.3, Final Cut Pro X finally supports it again.

Final Cut Pro X simplifies Apple's famous video editor while making it a lot more powerful. However, dedicated fans may not be delighted with everything that's been changed. Beginners may well love it but professionals will feel it's been dumbed-down too far.

Download Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3 in Softonic

Whether you want to rock your bedroom or the club, Traktor Pro is a very complete program that does pretty much everything you might want. It's highly configurable, which makes it very flexible but also pretty inaccessible to beginners. There is extensive documentation for Traktor Pro, but even that is pretty scary!

As well as controlling external sources, Traktor Pro allows you to mix from your computer on up to four decks at once. Importing your music library is really simple, and it works with iTunes libraries too. Tracks are analyzed when loaded into a deck, and appear as a wave form that can be moved with the mouse, alongside the beats per minute (BPM) and much more information. Traktor Pro is pretty accurate when it comes to finding BPMs, but if it is wrong, you can set them manually.

All the usual mixing tools are present, with pitch control, crossfader effects, and levels. There is extensive hotkey mapping, which is fully configurable, but takes a lot of time to do. Once you get used to Traktor Pro, it reveals itself as an incredible DJ tool. With some practice you'll be able to create fantastic mixes, which you can record from within the program.

Traktor Pro is an excellent and incredibly powerful DJ application with a steep learning curve that is worth climbing.

Download Traktor Pro 2.1.2 in Softonic

The most notable changes in Firefox 10 are bug fixes, better extension management, an auto-hiding forward button, improvements to CSS3 capabilities, antialiasing support for WebGL as well as some other minor additions.

The slight disadvantage of Firefox 10 is that many add-ons won't work from the start until the developers have upgraded them although the beta testing period for version 9 should have given them chance to do so. The interface in Firefox 10 is pretty much the same as Firefox 9, with a minimalist toolbar and hidden buttons.

Firefox 10 isn't a revolution in the development of Firefox, but there are some useful improvements that still make it a decent browser.

Download Mozilla Firefox 10 in Softonic

9mm features excellent graphics, gameplay and online multiplayer action. You play the role of "madman" John Kannon and have to lead a team specialized in fighting crime. The murder of one of the underworld's biggest drug lords has set off a gang war and it's your job to bring justice back to the streets.

The plot unfolds gradually through different scenarios such as the favelas of South American neighborhoods, to industrial areas, police stations etc. During the game, you have to capture informants or gang leaders to interrogate and obtain inside information.

9mm is primarily an action game with excellent 3D graphics great thickness and some cinematic gameplay. You have a vast arsenal of weapons at your disposal including pistols, machine guns, rifles and several other guns. In story mode, there are only 12 levels however which is a bit limited.

In addition to single player, there are multiplayer modes in 9mm of up to 12 players and a winner takes all last man standing Team Deathmatch.

9mm is an excellent first person with plenty of depth to keep you going for a while.

Download 9mm 1.0.0 in Softonic

Cocktail can do all your essential maintenance tasks from clearing your cache to controlling sleep times. There's nothing new in Cocktail that you can't do in Terminal but Cocktail makes it so much easier through its GUI. Many of it's functions and tweaks will remain a mystery to basic users though - options such as whether to switch on or switch of journaling and the network options are aimed more at power users.

Nevertheless, for those that want more control over how their dock works, their startup sequence and other OS interface related issues, Cocktail gives you immense control. The Interface options are perhaps the most useful allowing you to select a range of different features such as Finder, Safari and Mail and tweak them to your own liking.

Some users will complain that what Cocktail does for a modest fee, other apps do for nothing but as an all round system maintenance tool, especially for power users, it's one of the best out there.

Download Cocktail 5.1.2 in Softonic

If this sounds a bit much to pull off well you'd be right. SeaMonkey is a bit of an outdated concept nowadays and it's no surprise that it carried on the work that Netscape started many years ago. It's a lot to get right in one go but this latest release sees SeaMonkey finally brought in line with the demands of Internet users today. And you know from the start it can't be that bad - under the hood, SeaMonkey is based on the same Mozilla source code which powers such things as Firefox, Thunderbird, Camino, Sunbird and Miro.

The similarities of SeaMonkey with Firefox are obvious from the start - and with good reason. SeaMonkey 2.0 has been refurbished with a modern version of Firefox based on Firefox 3.5.4 and is now much closer to Firefox as far as user profiles, add-ons, and functionality of user interface elements are concerned. Tabs in SeaMonkey can now be reopened after they have been closed and the way passwords and usernames are handled has been overhauled. To select another part of the suite you want to use, just go to the 'Window' option in the Menu Bar and select either Browser, Mail and Newsgroups, Address Book, IRC Chat and Composer.

There are several other major improvements related to the mail client. Setting up an account is easy and retrieving email using the IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) protocol is now faster and mail is synchronized by default by your Mac. And at long last, email accounts, folders, and messages can be viewed in tabs. In terms of looks, SeaMonkey has also been given a much better OS X theme which goes a long way to shaking off it's Windows heritage.

On the downside, some people feel that the new SeaMonkey has moved too far away from it's original Netscape origins in look, functionality and feel. The IRC chat client still looks very basic, techy and intimidating too. Also, it seems there is no basic import function to import passwords from earlier versions of SeaMonkey or even Firefox which is a bit annoying.

SeaMonkey will still probably only appeal to those who have used it from version 1.0, but there's no doubt that this latest release makes it a much more competitive and Mac friendly suite.

Download SeaMonkey 2.6.1 in Softonic

If you're tired of making up passwords to access sites or worried that your passwords are not secure enough, it really is invaluable. 1Password creates strong, unique passwords for you, then remembers and restores them all within your web browser. At first glance, you may be concerned by the potential security risks of having one program manage all your passwords, but the number of users that rely and praise this program illustrates that you have little to worry about.

Using 1Password is very simple. On startup you have to configure one master password, which should be as tough as possible. After that, 1Password detects when you are visiting sites that require passwords and stores them automatically. You can set up time locks so that your Mac is protected while you're away from it and even synchronize it with your iPhone, .Mac account and Palm devices, although it doesn't work with other mobile phones. If you encounter any problems, the developer is also widely praised for their swift response time although I had problems accessing some of their online tutorials.

1Password is a powerful and effective application to manage all your passwords from one place. Highly recommended to protect your identity on the web.

Download 1Password 3.8.15 in Softonic

Growly Notes lets you capture just about anything all in one place. It's a great tool for organizing research projects, trips, to-do lists, or journals. In addition, its equally competent at creating scrapbooks of random images, web links and video clips.

Like OneNote, the great strength of Growly Notes is that it can contain almost anything, including formatted text, images, movies, audio clips, PDF files, tables, lists, web and file links, and drawings you create in Notes. You can place things anywhere so you don't have to worry about inflexible templates or rigid rules. You can separate ideas and brainstorming sessions into tabs which you can navigate very easily.

It's impressive that Growly Notes offers for free many of the features of a highly polished application like Curio. Growly comes amazingly close to OneNote in many aspects with the bonus of a slick OS X interface of course. However, some of the more advanced features of OneNote - such as integration with OneNote web app and syncing with Outlook aren't possible in Growly Notes.

Growly Notes is an excellent free Mac alternative to OneNote and is perfect for mind-mapping, note-taking and brainstorming.

Download Growly Notes 1.2.5 in Softonic

While keeping the same minimalist design and features (new tab page, download manager, incognito window and more) of the stable version, Google Chrome Beta provides you with the possibility to try out the latest tools before they're implemented in the stable version.

Of course, you should bear in mind that using a beta version means you may find the odd bug and have stability issues, but for the most adventurous users this is a small price to pay for being the first to try out new Google Chrome's features – and provide Google with early feedback about them.

If you feel like walking on the wild side, give Google Chrome Beta a try and you'll be able to test new features before anybody else.

Download Google Chrome (Beta) 17.0.963.44 in Softonic

EarthDesk features three map views (Political, Natural Color and Living Earth Satellite), 11 projections, and 10,000 cities. You have many options that cover how the Earth is projected onto your desktop, the centering of the map, and how you want it to refresh. Note that EarthDesk does not install itself as a standalone application - it simply loads as a preference pane, from where you can administer it.

When you install the EarthDesk in your preference pane, you're presented with the configuration options. The first thing you need to do is choose a city to center it on in the Locations tab (your hometown location in other words). There are 10,000 to go through but fortunately you can search for them using the search box.

The Display tab is the most interesting as regards setup. In here, you can configure what kind of view you want to use, how far you want to zoom into the Earth and how close you want to see the clouds. Note that you can access the preferences at any time from the menu bar, where you'll see the EarthDesk icon although you'll have to activate this option in the actual preferences itself.

You'll have to experiment for quite a while to find the view that you like. One thing I definitely recommend however is zooming into the planet because it's a bit more interesting than seeing the globe as a whole (at least during the day anyway). The cloud formations you see are the actual clouds in the sky at any given moment and their movements update according to the time schedule you've specified.

All things considered, this isn't particularly interesting. There's a saying "About as interesting as watching paint dry" - and "watching clouds move" could be used in the way. I imagine that EarthDesk is more interesting at night when darkness falls and you start to cities light-up. I also experienced problems stopping and starting Earth Desk - the second time I tried to start it, it simply wouldn't.

EarthDesk is an interesting desktop background for geographers, those keen on keeping an eye on weather movements in real time, or simply those that want a slightly more original desktop background.

Download EarthDesk 5.8.3 in Softonic

The developers of VueScan claim that it's the world's most widely-used scanning software among photographers, home users and corporations. Although this would seem far fetched, it's certainly true that it must be popular simply by virtue of it's simplicity and ease of use for anyone not familiar with scanning software.

VueScan is highly flexible which is another great aspect of it - it doesn't matter if you change scanner as it still continues to support it whatever model it is. According to the developers, VueScan supports more than 400 scanners and 185 digital camera raw files so you won't find any incompatibility issues. Installation is lightning quick as it's such a light package and there's little waiting around - just open VueScan and you're ready to scan.

VueScan is not only great for simple scanning tasks, but its also suitable for Optical Character Recognition (OCR). VueScan is impressively accurate in this respect although it works even better if you download this dictionary of common words. Just place the file (vuedict.dat) in the same directory as the VueScan program and choose the language using the "Output|OCR text language" option.

There's not much to it but in a way, that's the great thing about VueScan - it doesn't bloat your system with unnecessary features or scanning options.

Download VueScan 9.0.78 in Softonic

However, I soon grew to use and depend on it until now, I can't imagine OS X without it. Growl is basically an alert tool which can be used by hundreds of applications to inform you that an action has just taken place. So for example, when using Spotify, Growl alerts will let you know when a new track has started with a discreet pop up message in the top right of your screen.

Alternatively, Growl can be used to tell you when a download has been completed, a user has logged onto a messaging client and just about anything that involves notification. Of course, an application has to support Growl in order to use it. Some applications can, however, have Growl support added to them using plug-ins or 'extras' which can be found in a folder in the installer.

Growl alerts are highly customizable. You can choose a range of display styles, select which corner of the screen you want to display alerts, and select how long to leave notifications on the screen among many other things. You can even change the opacity of alerts. All of these settings can be accessed using the Growl preference panel installed in the System Preferences.

Growl is a must-have notification tool for Mac users. It's the easiest, slickest and most convenient way to keep track of what's going on on your system.

Download Growl 1.3.3 in Softonic