When I first started to access newsgroups on my Mac, I found that sometimes, after a binary download was complete, I'd be left with various .RAR files and at least a couple of .PAR or .PAR2 files too. A quick Google search for how to work with PAR files led me to the excellent MacPAR deLuxe, a free, simple and easy-to-use utility for Macs and PAR/PAR2 files.

MacPAR deLuxe works extremely well in its main function: analyzing and joining large archive files that have been downloaded from Internet newsgroups. Simply right-click a PAR file in Finder and open it with MacPAR deLuxe. The program will immediately start analyzing the PAR file and checking that you have all the necessary constituent parts to rebuild the original file, generally a RAR compressed archive.

After checking that you have all the correct files, MacPAR Deluxe starts the process of joining them together. This doesn't take much time at all (in fact, the process has become even quicker recently on Intel based Macs). As soon as the joining process is done, the program starts extracting the contents of the compressed file. What's more, MacPAR Deluxe can even repair and recover some problematic archive files.

Another feature of MacPAR deLuxe is is PAR creation. Simply select (or drag and drop) the files you're planning to upload to your favorite newsgroup and MacPAR deLuxe produces the PAR file for you.

If you're working with newsgroup binaries on a Mac, MacPAR deLuxe is a truly essential piece of software. It's simple, uncluttered, clear but most importantly: it works!

Download MacPAR deLuxe 3.8 in Softonic

Everybody knows that MSN Messenger on Mac is never as polished as it is on the PC. Still, that doesn't mean you should give up chat clients altogether, as the Mac offers excellent alternatives, like Adium X.

This messaging client is the perfect example of an excellent open source program. It's very regularly updated and has a strong and active community. Adium X works with almost all the IM services you'll find out there, including Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger.

The interface is simple yet colorful and multiple chats can be tabbed all into one window. If you want to engage in a private conversation with another user, Adium X support Off The Record (OTR) encrypted messaging.

As I said before, Adium X has generated an active community, which generates all sorts of extras for the client like icons, sounds, plugins or applescripts.

True, file transfer is a little flaky, and Adium X still doesn't offer voice or video chat, but it's very enjoyable to use and extremely flexible.

Adium X is a free and highly customizable IM client, that allows you to connect to almost any online chat service and engage in multiple conversations simultaneously.

Download Adium X 1.3 in Softonic

When it comes to P2P file sharing, eMule usually wins hands down but UseNeXT is an interesting, slightly more sophisticated offering which has a lot to offer.

For starters, depending on your connection, it can be remarkably quick. You can download at speeds of up to 25 Mbps with DSL/Cable and it�s pretty constant rather than the fluctuations you often get with such services. The network also prides itself on security over it's rivals such as Limewire and eMule - with ISPs continually cracking down on users, UseNeXT promises users far more anonymity than most.

The Usenet archives are supposedly some of the biggest in the world - more than 300 Terabytes of data available at all times and they claim that around 2,000 Gigabytes of new files are added daily. The problem in the past was that UseNeXT used to be a very complicated affair that only tech geeks can handle. However, nowadays, it's been simplified to such an extent that eMule, Limewire and other P2P users will feel more than comfortable with it.

While it can't possibly hope to compete with the reach and depth of the major P2P networks, UseNeXT offers an impressive selection with some super fast downloads.

Download UseNeXT 4.81 in Softonic

Limewire, one of the world’s most popular peer-to-peer filesharing applications, has received a lawsuit from the RIAA, who are demanding $115 million in damages, claiming the application promotes the infringement of copyright. Similar applications like Grokster and Kazaa have been forced to go legal and speculation goes as to when Limewire will have to buckle and pay up. The existence of the popular P2P application is not under threat, but if you haven’t given it a try yet, here’s just what makes it a standout program.

In terms of file sharing, Limewire is the cream of the crop, offering the essential peer-to- peer tools in what is probably the friendliest interface of applications in its class. Beginners will appreciate the search bar, which allows you to select the type of file you’re looking for, video, image, audio, or program. Limewire has a “what’s new” button to check out what popular files users have recently exchanged. We also enjoyed the direct connect option. If you know the IP address of one of your friends, type it in the box and Limewire will browse that user’s files. This is a quick way of sharing files with someone else and can come in handy when working on a project and exchanging documents. The only little snag we have with direct connect is that it doesn’t let you enter the username, much simpler than looking for your friend’s IP address.

Downloading with Limewire is very intuitive. After you’ve searched and found the file you are looking for, double-click on it to start the downloading process. The speed of your download depends firstly on the quality of your connection (broadband is a minimum), if you’ve correctly opened your router’s ports and whether you’re downloading a popular file or not. We would like to point out the effort that Limewire takes to make itself accessible to beginners. Not only does a tip pop up every time you launch the application, the help option also leads you to Limewire’s support centre, FAQs and a forum to get in contact with other users.

The lawsuit carried out by the RIAA is all the more surprising because of the measures Limewire takes to keep you in the realms of legality. If you decide to download Limewire from its website, you will first have to agree you will not use it for copyright infringement. When you’re configuring the application, you can set content filters, to avoid downloading files that copyright owners do not want you to share. To avoid embarrassing situations, make sure you tick the “block adult content” box, which will filter out any pornographic files from your searches.

The best way of checking the quality of the audio or video you’re downloading is via Limewire’s mini player. It’s fairly basic and to par with the players you find in similar filesharing applications, but we appreciated the way it was integrated in the program.

If there’s one thing that we’re still expecting from the Limewire team, it’s that it finally decides to jump on the BitTorrent bandwagon. Torrents are the way forward when it comes to peer to peer file sharing because of the speed, the security and freshness of downloads. Large files like movies or complete seasons of TV series are much easier to download via BitTorrent. We were also annoyed by the “buy the PRO version” window that popped up every time we started Limewire.

For its wealth of possibilities and huge base of users, (more than 4 million simultaneously on the Gnutella network) we encourage you to give Limewire a test drive. Because of the controversial nature of the application, you should always make sure that you aren’t using Limewire for illegal activities like copyright infringement. However don’t be scared off by the legality issue. Limewire, like most P2P applications is one of the most exciting possibilities that the internet gives us. It would be a shame not to give it a try. You should also check out Frostwire, the not-for-profit project of the Limewire development team.

Download LimeWire 4.18.6 in Softonic

Mailings is a full featured application for batch emailing that delivers any web page or plain text document with attachments to multiple recipients for marketing, news announcements, product updates etc.

Mailings facilitates the task of delivering regular bulk email distributions with such features as logging, progress monitoring, scheduling, error recovery, throttling, personalization and much more. Integrates with your mail client, browser and Address Book to simplify its functionality. The one window user interface makes the program a breeze to learn and fun to use.

Download Mailings 1.9.41 in Softonic

EvoCam is the program to turn to if you're looking to have better control on your Mac's webcam. Working equally well with iSight as with other external webcams for Mac, EvoCam lets you record, view and stream videos straight from your webcam to an external server.

EvoCam comes with a number of filters to spice up your videos and you can choose whether to include or not the audio. The program also features more than two dozen animations to slip into your window. EvoCam features motion sensor recording, so that the app only records when the webcam identifies movements.

You'll be able to export to a normal FTP, but EvoCam also gives you the choices of both passive and secure FTP. Note that your videos can be compressed and the quality adjusted according to your needs.

If you're looking for a great solution to record, view and stream videos taken with your Mac's webcam then EvoCam is what you need.

Download EvoCam 3.6.2 in Softonic

Following the release of new versions of both Internet Explorer and Firefox, the infamous 'browser wars' are flaring up again. Despite both Firefox 1.5 and the Beta of IE7 making significant strides, it would be be foolish to think this was a two-horse race. While gaining a good reputation with geeks and power users, Opera has long been a bit-part player among the big boys of the browser world. However, if this preview release is anything to go by, the Norwegian-built browser could finally be ready to punch with the heavyweights.

Opera has been pioneering new ways of browsing the web for some time. It has had tabbed browsing since the days before tabbed browsing was cool and developed the innovative 'mouse gestures' control system, where you navigate through the web just by holding the mouse button and flicking your wrist. The developers even dabbled with a multi-pane interface for viewing several pages within one interface.

The good news is that Opera has lost none of its appetite for innovation, and version 9 is packed with new goodies that will have the programmers at Mozilla and Microsoft choking on their doughnuts. For starters the app runs much quicker than the previous release, making it arguably the quickest browser around (except perhaps for Safari) at rendering pages. Incredibly, despite this boost in performance, the program appears to use less memory than version 8.5, making it far less draining on system resources than Firefox and IE.

In terms of features Opera is the gift that keeps on giving. New to the program comes OSX Tiger-style 'widgets', allowing you to check news, convert currency, view the weather and so on through a series of draggable pop-ups which anchor themselves in front of the browser. Although there aren’t many widgets to choose from at present, this is sure to change once the tech-minded Opera fans start developing more.

Another great addition to Opera 9 is BitTorrent support, allowing you to download torrents directly within the browser – a feature that amazingly no one had thought of before. This system works very smoothly, which makes us wonder why RSS feed reading support in Opera is still so poor.

Among the other new treats within the program is a nifty new search feature which lets you add any search engine to the search bar in the main toolbar. This means you can instantly access searches within your favorite online destinations (Softonic, for instance).

Tabbed browsing remains, although some users may be annoyed to discover that Opera has added close tab buttons to the tabs themselves rather than as a separate button. Having said this, the new web page preview thumbnails that appear when you rollover a tab are a real masterstroke. Mouse gestures are still there too, along with the addition of Total Recall-style voice commands – another example of how cutting-edge this browser is.

Opera's developers have been keen to ramp up security features too, and although they aren't highly original, the new content blocking and pop-up blocking functions serve their purpose effectively. What's more, it's refreshing to see a browser that embraces the latest web standards so freely, with the latest release boasting support for CSS 2.1 and CSS 3 tags.

The browser is remarkably stable and is far better behaved than Internet Explorer 7. Combined with its speed, innovative features and standards support, Opera is undoubtedly web software's best-kept secret, and the final release may prove to be even better than Firefox. Don't say anything though, or everyone will want it.

Download Opera 9.52 in Softonic

Transmission is currently the best torrent client on Mac thanks to a beautiful interface and a simple set of intuitive features.

This new version brings many more improvements to an already solid release. You can set different priority levels for torrents and establish stall limit times. The speed limit mode, represented by a turtle icon at the bottom of the interface, is extremely useful if you're looking to control the amount of bandwidth you use for uploads and downloads.

Transmission has consistently improved over time, offering many more options to view your torrents. You can now filter your torrent list according to downloading, seeding, or paused. The client can also organize transfers by queue order, date added, name, process. Transmission also allows you to label, filter and sort torrents by groups and total activity. You can also encrypt your torrent activity in case you want it to stay private.

We really like the new interface, which blends in perfectly to the new Mac OS X Leopard. Transmission manages to display all the essential information without actually seeming crowded, which is no easy feat. The only little nag we'd have with it is that it doesn't offer as many advanced statistics as you'd find in Azureus.

Despite no advanced statistics, Transmission is a beautiful and incredibly intuitive torrent client for Mac.

Download Transmission 1.33 in Softonic

Fugu gives an interface to the commandline Secure File Transfer (SFTP). The whole application is encrypted letting you upload and download files in total security.

Fugu offers an interface that, if not a little rudimentary, is similar to most FTP clients. You can browse through your directories, drag and drop files and preview images. Fugu includes full directory upload and history.

In terms of security, not only does Fugu handle SFTP, but you'll also find it works with SCP and SSH. You can create your own SSH tunnels, perfect for transmitting encrypted information. Fugu also interacts well with your Mac's Keychain and handles Public Key Authentication.

Fugu works with external editor and you securely change your permissions and owner or group access. The application can also connect to alternate ports.

The interface may not be that sexy, but Fugu is a very reliable SFTP client. What's more it's completely free!

Download Fugu 1.2.0 in Softonic

Conversation is a free and unassuming IRC client mainly aimed at users with little technological knowledge. The friendly interface and simple set up make for a good chat client to start out with.

Conversation lets you connect to multiple servers, as long as you have your user name and password. You can keep more than one conversation open at once and organize your contacts in groups. Like in other IRC clients, Conversation has simple drag and drop file transfer, emoticons and lets you customize your profile.

Conversation is supposedly aimed at newbies, so I was a bit surprised to find advanced features like XDCC or a customizable search box, which not all people will know how to handle.

Conversation is enjoyable to use, yet I wouldn't say it's more intuitive than MSN Messenger or iChat. Rather than going for it because it's aimed at beginners, I'd give it a try if you feel satisfied with the set of features.

An accessible IRC client, Conversation is a good alternative app for chatting.

Download Conversation 2.14 in Softonic

Pandora (formerly known as Netscrape) combines the power of a web spider with an easy-to-use image browser. It generates resizable thumbnails on the fly, and allows you to preview, examine, save, and print images.

Give it a URL, and it will "scrape" all of the images from the site; feed it some keywords, and it will Google you some relevant images in no time flat. You can configure NetScrape to ignore images under a certain size or of the wrong type, to stay on a particular site or wander the web, and even specify how quickly Pandora should do its work.

Download Pandora 2.3.2 in Softonic

The Sogudi plugin for Safari lets you create shortcuts for complicated urls. Instead of typing a full address, you can create a shortcut of only a few words.

The thing with that Sogudi is that it's not limited to creating shortcuts for websites. If you type in your shortcut (such as goo for Google) then type in any search term, you can actually use it like a normal search tool.

Obviously if you've already added your favorite search engines to the Safari search box, you may find it of little utility. However, you have to think that Sogudi does not limit you to these search engines but also lets you search any site you want to.

Although installation was quick, I did need a bit of time getting used to the process of adding bookmarks. It's a good thing that Sogudi includes preset shortcuts to help you get started.

Sogudi, by letting you create simple shortcuts for url, can make for a good complement for your Safari browser. This one's for productivity geeks!

Download Sogudi 0.46 in Softonic

Pukka is a minimalist posting client for del.icio.us. Fire it up and within seconds you can easily post to one or more del.icio.us accounts. Drag a URL from any browser, open a URL shortcut file on the desktop, or drag a URL right onto the dock icon. You can even set Pukka as your external weblog client in NetNewsWire.

No more waiting for the posting page to load, no more bulky bookmark organizers when all you want to do right now is post a link. Pukka moves in fast and then gets out of the way so that you can keep browsing.

Features:

• Fast & lightweight
• Handles multiple del.icio.us accounts
• Auto-completes tags
• Stores passwords in the keychain
• Accesses del.icio.us over SSL
• Bonjour auto-discovery of local Pukka users
• Drag URLs to window or dock
• Efficient keyboard navigation
• Can use bookmarklets for fast posting from any recent browser
• Use as an external weblog editor in NetNewsWire
• Growl integration
• Dynamic display of notes length while typing to stay within limit
• Compatible with .webloc and .url files
• Main window gets out of the way after posting
• System service for sending a URL from other applications
• Self-updating with Sparkle
• Universal application

Download Pukka 1.7 in Softonic

Chaxer is a small little application that lets you quickly change your status in three of the most popular messenger clients for Mac: Adium, Skype and iChat.

Chaxer unfortunately will not work with other IM clients, and the ones mentioned above will have to be launched for it to work. Admittedly though, Chaxer is a pretty limited tool. True you can either change your status individually or in multiple apps at once, but you are pretty left with a choice of login, logout, available, away and offline. There is no way of adding your own custom status message for example.

Chaxer is discreet though and really simple to use. If you find that you constantly have Adium, iChat and Skype opened up it can be a good tool to have around. Users who only stick to one IM client will not find it of any use though.

An interesting application, yet Chaxer is fairly limited in changing the status on only three IM clients.

Download Chaxer 1.2 in Softonic

Are you afraid of your Mac's Terminal? True, it doesn't offer the most exciting interface of all the applications you could find on your Mac, but iTerm furnishes the Terminal with a slightly more engaging interface.

Those of you that regularly use the Terminal shouldn't be afraid though. iTerm doesn't completely change it or hide it under a heap of unnecessary features. Instead, it makes for a clear and effective interface. Your Terminal window still takes up the center of your screen, yet you are given a number of buttons to help you out.

The top of the interface features buttons to quickly close the window, open new ones or customize the interface. I particularly liked the quick execute box at the top. This lets you launch commands without wasting any time.

iTerm also lets you use both Growl and Bonjour with the Terminal. You'll find a sidebar for bookmarks, which you can save and use any time.

Although it won't supercharge your Terminal, iTerm makes for a more accessible interface.

Download iTerm 0.9.5 Beta in Softonic

For me, the feature which best sums up the PlayStation's impressive multimedia capabilities is its membership of the DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance). This means that the PS3 can communicate and share content with a large number of other networked devices. And although Apple aren't members of the DLNA, several companies have been working to enable streaming of multimedia content from Macs to the PS3. Nullriver's MediaLink is the newest kid on the block.

MediaLink works in a similar way to its competitors, acting as a file server which allows you to stream multimedia files, including your iTunes and iPhoto libraries across your home network. Your PS3 detects the server, connects and the shared content shows up in the XMB (PS3 menu).

When compared with its competitors, notably Elgato's EyeConnect, MediaLink performs very well. I experienced no cuts in transmission or delays, and I was impressed to see better handling of iTunes artwork as well as video previews. Some DivX files which worked with other media servers weren't detected by MediaLink, which was disappointing. I think this was due to the files having the '.divx' format and I expect that this issue will fixed in time. That said, video playback generally works without issues, though image quality was not always as good as when using EyeConnect.

Browsing photo and music libraries is a breeze with MediaLink, though there are some interesting differences with competitors in the way that it presents the iTunes library. I noticed that EyeConnect always displays the iTunes library exactly as iTunes would (select an artist, then an album and you'll see tracks by that artist which feature on that album), while MediaLink seems to use a different indexing system (select an artist and then an album and you'll see all the tracks on that album, irrespective of artist) - this suggests that MediaLink is building its own index of files rather than relying on your iTunes library file.

MediaLink is a robust, reliable media server option for sharing content from your Mac to your PS3, and compares well to other apps in its class. Recommended.

Download MediaLink 1.58 in Softonic

Anyone with kids worries about what they might be exposed to on the Internet. To protect them you need to make sure you can monitor their usage of both the internet and the computer. Net Nanny is a parental control tool built to help you do this.

First things first, Net Nanny lets you block inconvenient material such as adult sites, violence or drug related websites. In all there are 31 categories of sensitive material that you can choose to block or not. Net Nanny also integrates Safe Search, a feature which works with most search engines like Yahoo! or Google.

Net Nanny also lets you set time restrictions and decide when your computer is blocked. You can also put limits on games played on internet by your kids.

The best way to use Net Nanny is probably to create profiles for each of your kids and set filters, different login types and passwords for each of them.

Net Nanny will also generate reports of login and usage and keep you aware of any attempts at accessing restricted material.

Although the installation is a little lengthy, Net Nanny will give you good control over what your children can access on your computer.

Download Net Nanny Parental Controls 5.6 in Softonic

Get Tube is yet another YouTube video downloader with which you can get and store any clip from the famous video sharing site.

Get Tube lets you save videos in four different formats (mp4, mov, mp3, avi). The download process itself is a little unintuitive: not only does it only work with Firefox or Safari, but you also need to have one of the browsers open to a video to be able to download. Downloading with Get Tube can take a little while, but you'll be able to follow the whole operation thanks to a process bar.

Get Tube won't work if there are multiple videos opened up in the browser. Similarly try to avoid having multiple tabs opened as to seems to confuse the program.

Get Tube lets you select the folder to which you'll save videos, although the default is normally your download folder.

As to image and sound quality, you'll find they are exactly the same as you would have online.

Although a little counter-intuitive, Get Tube is a handy program to download videos from YouTube.

Download Get Tube 3.02 in Softonic

We recently reviewed MacFUSE, which we explained would help create all sorts of intuitive interfaces for file system implementation. ExpanDrive is the perfect example of what you can achieve with MacFUSE.

This application lets you access all your remote files via SFTP straight from your Finder. There's no worrying about downloading or uploading files, the program keeps you connected to your server from your Finder and you can edit, change and save your files easily. All you need to know is your host name, username and password to connect to your SFTP server.

Files opened from a Subversion (SVN) can be edited straight from ExpanDrive using the built-in SVN commands from any text editor. The most impressive thing about ExpanDrive is how responsive it is, making you almost forget that you're working on remote files.

On the downside, ExpanDrive tends to leave behind '.DS_Store' files in your remote server, which you'll have to remove afterwards, if you want to keep your folders tidy. ExpanDrive also lacks proper explanations as to how it can be uninstalled. It installs a lot of different files on your system and you'll have to get rid of them to if your removing the program.

Despite these two minor drawbacks, ExpanDrive is a perfect example of what can be achieved with MacFUSE, access to remote folders in a snap.

Download ExpanDrive 1.2.10 in Softonic

If you've just bought a new MacBook, it's understandable that you might be a little paranoid. You can never guarantee to have it with you all the time. With Watchmac you can monitor any infringement on your Mac while you are away.

The application is easy to set up and will monitor two types of infringements: authentication failures and failed screen unlocks. Once you come back to your MacBook, you can view how many infringements there has been and what sort they were, straight from the menu bar. Watchmac also keeps them all in a log.

One of the handy features of Watchmac is that it can take snapshots of whoever tries to force themselves onto your Mac. In the preferences, you'll see you can take snapshots, from one to ten, and set your own interval and delay. If the intruder is a Mac user, he might notice the iSight camera changing color though.

If you feel comfortable using the Terminal, you'll see you can control Watchmac from a simple script in the utility. I don't advise all users to try this out though. It's easier to stick with the normal interface.

While it monitors only two types of infringements, Watchmac is a useful tool to see if anybody has tried to use your MacBook while you were away.

Download Watchmac 1.0 in Softonic