aMSN is an alternative to the classic MSN Messenger, with more features yet a much weaker interface. The chat client looks very similar to Microsoft's product yet differs on a number of points. aMSN developers have delved into the preferences menu, adding extra little features like event alerts and sounds, conferencing support or autoaway messages. Like with MSN Messenger you'll be able to transfer files and organize all your contacts into groups.

Audio/Video support is the number one function that users look for in IM clients nowadays, yet an area which aMSN doesn't particularly focus on. Webcam support is fairly weak and unstable, and instead of integrating into your chat window will open up in a new Quicktime window.

One of the biggest pet peeves of users with aMSN is the interface. It simply doesn't compare with more sleeker, more recent IM clients. To the developer's defense though you can download all sorts of skins from the program's website. Similarly it offers up a range of plugins, to customize your client to your liking. Chat addicts will also appreciate the animated emoticons on hand.

In terms of performance, you have to keep in mind that aMSN is still a Beta product, so still liable to some crashes and bugs. We did have some trouble when opening up new chat window and noticed that the client tended to use a lot of CPU.

In a few words, aMSN is a good alternative to MSN for users looking to add more plugins, skins and delve into the preferences menu.

Download aMSN Messenger 0.97.2 in Softonic

The world of dubbing and lip syncing has come a long way since the days when high-pitched voice actors would jabber away in not-so-perfect harmony to Japanese Kung Fu fighters in the martial arts movies of the 1970s. In fact, digital animation technology has improved so much that it’s now possible to animate your own talking heads from your home PC.

CrazyTalk Media Studio promises to give you all the tools you need to import images and photographs before quickly applying mouth, head and eye movement to create realistic looking avatars and fun animations. At first we were a little dubious about the value of such a product, but were soon pleasantly surprised by the power of the utility.

Granted, our initial efforts were limited to taking pictures of friends and giggling inanely as they repeated audio clips from famous movies or songs. These first experiments were a little clunky to say the least and looked far from realistic when we relied on the automatic lip-syncing functionality. However, once you delve deeper into the settings, you start to realize that you can actually produce some impressive animations.

With enough tinkering you can customize everything from the teeth in the character’s mouth to their facial movements and their range of movement. Best of all is the built-in timeline, which gives you complete control of the animation and sound, much as you would do in Flash, or a video-editing suite. Complete with alpha channel support, the program is ideal for producing talking presenters to welcome visitors to your web site or presentations. The simple-to-use export facilities allow you to save to a range of formats whether as a media file, email attachment or a personalized greeting.

There are a few flaws with the program that are a little frustrating, but they fail to prevent CrazyTalk Media Studio from being a great program. Minor niggles are the lack of MP3 audio import support, and the relatively low number of preset templates and characters. The app does have a fairly steep learning curve but it’s good fun to use and is surprisingly powerful.

Download CrazyTalk 5.0 in Softonic

Would you like to impress your friends with an impressive presentation of your last holiday pictures and are you looking for a special way to do it? What could be better than having a whole art-gallery just for you, maybe set in an ancient castle, or in a modern skyscraper or, why not, in a Chinese garden?

Photo! 3D Album is a simple free program that lets you upload your photo collection in very nice 3D settings that you can choose from a menu that pops up when you create a new project. If you don't like your original selection, don't worry as you can change the template later. It's like a first-person computer game, where you navigate through the gallery and you attach your photographs to the available canvases. Although there are many, frames are limited and this is a real problem for medium-size collections.

When you have finished navigating and uploading, you have several options in order to export your photo-collection. You can create a screen saver or a stand alone gallery which can be run with a double-click, or alternatively a web gallery in VRML or Shockwave format. For the latter format you will have to register, for free, on the developer's web site. When you launch the final video, press F1 if you want to navigate freely around the gallery.

Photo! 3D Album is great to create cool animations with the photos you want. Unfortunately the spaces available in the art gallery are limited, as they would be in a real one. It's also an interesting program to create your own personal screen savers.

Download Photo! 3D Album 1.1 in Softonic

If you get easily bored of your desktop or your desktop background, Dream Wallpaper is a free and easy-to-use solution that changes your computer desktop wallpaper.

With Dream Wallpaper, the developer has left 80,000 high-quality free wallpapers at your disposal, ranging on themes from Movies to Stars, Nature, Cartoons, Art, Animal and Games. Dream Wallpaper automatically cycles through your wallpaper too, so that you have a different image every day if you want.

Alternatively, if you don't like the selection on offer at the developer website, you can use your own images and Dream Wallpaper will cycle through the wallpapers automatically. The selection of images on the developer website is truly outstanding including high-quality images and even widescreen options. However, there don't seem to be many tweaks that you can perform such as adding fade-in and fade outs to changes but this is no big drawback.

Dream Wallpaper is an excellent solution for those that can't be bothered changing their wallpaper manually and want something that spices up their desktop a bit.

Download Dream Wallpaper 1.2 in Softonic

The Gimp is the open source reference in image manipulation. This free application will allow you to retouch, author and edit your photos thanks to a wide set of tools.

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 result 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. The friendly interface and expandability make this a program of choice.

Download The GIMP 2.4.7 in Softonic

Some years ago ICQ was one of the most popular IM applications among Internet users. But when Microsoft launched MSN Messenger, many of these users forgot about their original IM client and joined a network that was growing very quickly. In the meantime, ICQ continued to be upgraded until finally reaching version 6, which sets a new milestone in the history of this classic piece of software.

To begin with, the installation process is fast and easy, the only downside being the fact that you must set ICQ Search as your web browser's default search engine, as there's no way of getting around this option.

This new ICQ boasts a fresh-looking interface which has been completely redesigned. Also, you can customize it with skins, although you'll have to download them because there's not a single skin included in the program. It does include, however, a very complete personal profile which you can fill in with all your information, including name, location, interests, spoken languages and a personal avatar that ICQ oddly refers to as "devil".

Generally speaking, ICQ 6 offers all the functions that we find in other IM applications, namely instant written messages, voice calls and video calls. All of these are complemented with a very nice set of animated smilies and the so called "Tzers" which are the equivalent to Messenger's "Winks". Chat sessions can be grouped together under the same window, which prevents your taskbar getting cluttered. ICQ allows you to start text conversations right from the contact list using the Quick message feature. There's also the option to send SMS messages to your contacts, but this is not available in all countries yet.

This new version promises to give you complete control over configuration settings. However, we must admit that we had some trouble in finding them, until we happened to click on the "Main" button on the interface. The configuration options are quite complete indeed, allowing you to change every single detail regarding sounds, notifications, privacy and security, message history, appearance and the program's general behaviour.

In all, ICQ seems to have developed a new version with a fresh redesign only to measure up to its main competitors but without really offering any new functions. Again, choosing ICQ (or any other IM app) ends up being just a question of which IM your friends use.

Download ICQ 6.0.0.6063 in Softonic

When I first saw Ratmania I though it would be something similar to Ratatouille, the videogame based on the Pixar movie. Unfortunately I must say the game fell short of my expectations.

Ratmania is quite an original puzzle game in which you're a rat. Yes, it's as creepy and nasty as it sounds. As a rat, you have to go through a series of labyrinths, following a specific route to the exit in the shortest time possible. The faster you are, the higher score Ratmania awards you.

The problem with Ratmania is that it all feels a bit too slow. The actual game takes ages to start, only after a long list of sponsors and a cinematic intro – a highly detailed, quite impressive one to say the truth. When playing, the rat moves too slow and you tend to desperately press the "run forward" key in hope that it'll make the animal run faster. Well, at least there are quite a few power-ups and bonus items to make each level in Ratmania a bit more exciting.

As for graphics, they're pretty elaborate – especially when you take into account that Ratmania is a project made by students – but not brilliant. In any case they're better than the perspective, which is a bit hard to judge and sometimes makes you lose sight of your way.

Ratmania is certainly not a Pixar game, but we appreciate the originality of the plot and the decent graphic work.

Download Ratmania 1.3 in Softonic

AllWebMenus is a DHMTL menu/Javascript menu builder for web navigation that requires absolutely no DHTML or Javascript experience. It creates any cross-browser, pop-up or drop-down web menu that works alike in all browsers supporting DHTML held by all popular platforms (PC, MAC, Unix).

DHTML/JavaScript menus are designed with a tree-like approach. Users can tailor their menus by using the Properties Pane or by choosing from a series of predefined themes from the Theme Gallery. The menu can be either vertical or horizontal (pop-up or drop-down menu), it can be movable, stay visible while scrolling, contain static or animated images, borders, colors, and much more. Once everything is set, you can use the Link Menu to Web Page command to link the menu to your Web page in a fast and easy manner.

AllWebMenus offers:

• New ready-to-use Themes
• Optimized Style Editor
• Creation and saving of customized Themes
• Free Dreamweaver extension and NetObjects Fusion component
• Import FrontPage Navigation Structures
• Support for .JPG, .GIF and .PNG image files.
• UNDO/REDO function
• Right-to-Left language support (Arabic, Hebrew, etc.)
• Non-English font support
• Optimized menu building process with separate javascripts for different browsers
• Use menus over flash objects, form elements, applets and iframes
• Use multiple menus in the same page
• Create popup, hidden, horizontal and vertical menus
• Free Sitemap generator based on the menu structure
• Specify optional Javascript Commands

Download AllWebMenus Pro 5.1.742 in Softonic

Would you like to create your own presentations in Flash but you don't even know where to start? Then FlyPaper is for you.

FlyPaper is an intuitive application that lets you create Flash presentations without having to code a single line. Simply select your favorite photos or videos, add some transition effects and save the result as an FLV, MPG or MP4 video.

That said, the truth is that I expected FlyPaper to be easier to use. The interface is not as straightforward as I thought but luckily the program at least features a complete tutorial you can watch the first time you run it. Also, FlyPaper includes a wide array of material (templates, themes, ready-made stories…) to get you started, although the files are actually stored on the program's website and you have to download them in order to use them.

In spite of all, FlyPaper is a very decent tool to create multimedia presentations which comes in specially handy for those of us who don't have the slightest idea about Flash.

FlyPaper lets you create beautiful customized Flash presentations with photos, videos and animations even if you don't know anything about Flash.

Download Flypaper 1.0.1.2 in Softonic

If you're planning to have a tattoo done, you should choose the design very carefully because it's something that will stay with you forever. Maybe Chinese Symbol Studio can help you here.

Chinese Symbol Studio includes more than 100,000 tattoo designs, all created with Chinese ideograms. They're conveniently organized in several different categories, including man and woman names, horoscope symbols, numbers, animal names and more.

Chinese Symbol Studio has a clearly designed interface where you can comfortably browse symbols. Plus you can customize some settings like font color, size and shadow effect, among others, and also check the tattoo's meaning and pronunciation.

Which I didn't find that comfortable was the way Chinese Symbol Studio handles menus (Translation, Settings and Symbol library) which are displayed on panels that hide automatically. Also, the program saves tattoos only in EPS, BMP and PNG.

If you're looking for a nice Chinese symbol to tattoo, take a look at Chinese Symbol Studio as it includes more than 100,000 Chinese words.

Download Chinese Symbol Studio 3.3 in Softonic

Believe it or not there was a time when using email was something of a novelty, rather than the routine means of communication it’s become today. If you’re yearning for those halcyon days when emailing was new and exciting then maybe it’s time you found a way to spice up your text life. Incredimail is an email client that allows you to inject a bit of fun into your mail.

The application, which has been around in various forms for some years now, allows you to insert audio and visual elements such as background images, animated pictures or humorous (or at least supposedly humorous) noises. It’s clear from the outset that the program is aimed at the less technical user from the set-up wizard that makes it incredibly easy to register your accounts and import your existing mail from either Outlook or your webmail account.

Once you’ve got the app up and running, you’ll find a truly impressive range of backgrounds, fonts, emoticons and all manner of other bells and whistles that you can browse through and add to your messages effortlessly. There’s also a wealth of downloadable extras you can find on the web should you want to add even more variety to your outgoing mail.

In terms of its basic mail features Incredimail is very similar to Outlook Express, though the junk filtering system is a little difficult to set up, which isn’t really in keeping with the rest of the program. Another interesting touch is the addition of a ‘mail servant,’ which notifies you of new mail even before you’ve opened the client. The default is in the form of an animated butler, although this can be changed if, or should we say when, you become annoyed with him.

There’s no doubt that the program provides an interesting way of making your emails appear more interesting. The trouble is, one person’s idea of fun is another’s vision of tackiness hell, and festooning your messages with all these gimmicks means mail takes longer to download, which is doubly annoying for dial-up users. Although we personally wouldn’t want to subject our friends to animated kisses, jumping clowns or burp sounds, Incredimail certainly provides a novel way of making your emails stand out from the rest.

Download IncrediMail Xe 5.85.3718 in Softonic

Fractals are fascinating things although I don't understand them one bit - I just like the pretty pictures they make.

Fortunately, no mathematical knowledge is required with ChaosPro which generates several fractals simultaneously in different windows but all at the same time. ChaosPro can create fractal animations, generate 3D fractal transformations in 2D, and create true color fractals. Of course, the processing power required to do this so unless you're working on something NASA might use, you'll be best to connect several PC's together and see what happens.

There are many fractal programs available for Windows but it's precisely the huge processing power that they require that usually ends up in crashes or system failure. They also tend to be very outdated and aimed at scientific or mathematical boffins which is where ChaosPro breaks the mould as a more modern and attractive attempt.

If you like pretty pictures or are seriously studying fractals then ChaosPro is one of the more user friendly and spectacular programs out there.

Download ChaosPro 3.3.215 in Softonic

There are great sites on the Internet to watch videos, but most of them don't allow you to directly download those clips to your PC. A good option is having this extension installed on Firefox, enabling you to download embedded video files from a great variety of video sites all over the Internet.

Although it gave us some error messages (it wasn't able to find anything on a Youtube video page) Fast Video Dowloader is still a convenient tool to download embedded clips. It sits unobtrusively on Firefox's statusbar and saves video files in several formats, depending on which website you're downloading from.

Download Fast Video Download Firefox Extension 1.6.1 in Softonic

PostSmile makes it easy to add fun and excitement to your email messages and web-forum postings. You can drag and drop images and animations, smileys and emoticons, text or HTML snippets, quotes and signatures into your email, message board or web-forum postings.

The program offers a wide variety of original artist-created smileys that are sure to leave no one indifferent. All smiley faces are divided into clear categories - Happy, Love, Sad, Communication, Other, Signatures, Famous Quotes, Love Quotes, Proverbs, Jokes and Compliments. But, you don't have to stop there! Our artists have created for you the world best Online Smileys Collection!

PostSmile works with the most popular email programs, including Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Thunderbird, IncrediMail, AOL Mail and many others that support HTML-based email. And also it works with Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail and other Internet Web-based email systems.

The program is easy to use, has an attractive and compact interface with images, animations, emoticons, "signatures" and text snippets organized into categories. You may change the appearance of the Smileycons program interface by using the different "skins" provided with the package.

Download PostSmile 6.8.1 in Softonic

Stickman is a 2D animation tool that is supposed to make animated cartoon creation much easier. And I say supposed because I've faced great difficulties when testing this program.

The upside to Stickman is that it includes a vast catalog of ready-to-use backgrounds, figures and all kinds of elements. Being an online database, we strongly recommend that you download it to your hard drive so that it's always available for you.

But in spite of that, I personally didn’t find the program that easy to use. There was no default scene included to begin working with and I couldn't even put a single character onto a background scene. Luckily enough, Stickman includes video tutorials and very complete documentation, so after struggling with the program for a while, I was able to produce something. My advice then would be to be patient and read the documentation carefully if you want to take advantage of Stickman's possibilities.

Download Stickman 5.2.23 in Softonic

Finally you can convert your PowerPoint presentation into Flash file so to have the benefits of both formats. Microsoft's popular slideshow tool makes it quick and easy to to create attractive, animated presentations; whereas Flash offers all the benefits of a universal format which can be viewed on any computer and any browser as well as a potentially much smaller file size.

Firstly, you do need to register before you can convert any presentations, but the process will take just a minute. The program integrates perfectly with Microsoft PowerPoint. Put simply, when you have created the PPT presentation, press the 'Quick Publish' or the 'Publish' button, where you can select some options, and that's all you have to do. iSpring also includes a feature which allows you to insert Flash movies into PowerPoint presentations. It's a pity that there is not an option to set the compression rates for specific elements (certain images, sounds, etc.) - as that would make it possible to decide exactly where you want to compromise on quality.

It is also interesting that you can publish your Flash file online, allowing you to access all your presentations wherever you are. After pressing the 'Publish' button, select 'SlideBoom' as destination of your file and type the account details. You can sign up for a free account from the menu as well, and the process is fairly easy and quick.

iSpring lets you easily create your PPT presentations and convert them into a Flash file to share with your co-workers and friends. You can also publish and store them online thanks to a free hosting service.

Download iSpring Free 3.5.1.2363 in Softonic

Sometimes you need a quick and easy solution to your conversion needs whether it's audio or images that are the problem.

Konvertor is a simple multimedia viewer and converter which supports conversion of various formats of images, animations, audio, video and text formats quickly and easily. Konvertor is able to convert just about any conceivable format which makes it extremely powerful. You can also use Konverter to organise your files by labeling them with personalised descriptions and as regards images, add filters. These include such effects as resizing, blurring and charcoal effects and it even accepts Photoshop plugins. However, the program only works alongside Internet Explorer as a plugin so Firefox users will be disappointed. By right clicking on images on any internet page, you can preview them in Konverter and be given options which format you want to convert it to. It also offers you the option to send the photo by e-mail or set it as your Windows wallpaper. The developers claim it supports over 140 formats and while that may be hard to believe, you'll certainly find it hard to catch it out.

Konverter is a great IE add on for anyone that wants to have an all powerful conversion tool for images and some audio.

Download Konvertor 3.66 in Softonic

Video DownloadHelper installs in the Firefox toolbar to enable you to download in just a few clicks.

When it animates, clicking on the video icon downloads it directly. This simple extension downloads anything from YouTube videos, to MySpace, Google Video, DailyMotion, Porkolt, iFilm and more. You can select the folder you want to download videos where you will find them in FLV format. To make things even easier to keep track of, the files are added to the list of Firefox downloads like any other file. So you can see in a glance exactly what you've downloaded and how many videos you have in your collection. The only problem you might find is that sometimes, the downloads don't start immediately. It can take time depending on the streaming on the video site server but also, it seems that the program itself has to process the file before it starts downloading. The latest version has introduced some major innovations in the interface which make it much faster to use. One example is that FLV videos that you view are now remembered by the program so you can view your viewing history at any time and request the download of several videos in one batch or go directly to their original page. You have to enable this function via the system preferences and select 'enabled' in the 'History' tab. The developers have also reduced the number o duplicate entries that used to plague the previous version and there are fewer memory leaks so it's lighter on your RAM.

A useful FLV video downloading tool for Firefox users and the latest improvements have fixed many of the speed problems which hampered it before.

Download Video DownloadHelper 3.2 in Softonic

The simplest way to breathe new life into your desktop is to give it a decent wallpaper but even a static paper can get boring after a while.

Adolix Wallpaper Changer is a free tool which helps configure your desktop wallpaper easily to change automatically. You can use any image as long as it's in JPG, GIF, PNG or BMP format. Adolix Wallpaper Changer comes with a simple and intuitive control panel to customize your desktop wallpaper allowing you to change the size, position, transition style and other little tweaks.

The Adolix Wallpaper Changer control panel itself is user friendly and there's not much to it. One particularly useful feature in Adolix Wallpaper Changer is a "playlist" editor which allows you to create playlists for your wallpapers in much the same way as you would for a music application. This is great depending on your mood or who is using the computer allowing you to set up different profiles for each. The time period of changes in Adolix Wallpaper Changer is entirely up to you and you can add a few snazzy background images for your photos. In Adolix Wallpaper Changer, everything can also be controlled from a system tray icon rather than having to go through your control panel.

A free and easy way to freshen up your desktop, Animate Adolix Wallpaper Changer will make the best of your photo collection.

Download Adolix Wallpaper Changer 2.2 in Softonic

Chinese Calendrics is a tool for the study of the Chinese Calendar. The Chinese Lunar Calendar is not only a lunar calendar but also a solilunar calendar (what some call a 'lunisolar' calendar), consisting of months corresponding exactly to lunar cycles and years which stay more-or-less in sync with seasonal years. Implicit in the construction of this calendar is a separate solar calendar, less well-known.

Both calendars depend on the times of certain astronomical events, principally dark moons and winter solstices. For at least several centuries (according to some scholars, since the 5th C. BCE) the times of these events have been ascertained not by observation but rather by calculation, so these calendars can be classified rule-based.

The calendar has the following uses:

• Convert between dates in the Chinese solar and lunar calendars and dates in the Common Era and Julian calendars

• Calculate the date of New Year's Day in the Chinese lunar calendar

• Ascertain the Western dates of the starts of all of the lunar months in a year in the lunar calendar

• Find leap months in the lunar calendar

• Find the Western dates corresponding to Chinese anniversaries, such as birthdays and wedding anniversaries

• Move forward or backward from a given date (and time) either by a period such as a month (Western or Chinese) or by any number of days

• Calculate the phase of the Moon for any time within a 6000-year period

• Search for the next or previous full moon, dark moon, lunar quarter, solar term or solstice or equinox of a certain type

• Search for a solstice or an equinox in combination with a dark moom or a full moon

• Search for the next or previous day, month or year with a certain element-animal correspondence (e.g., the next water-rabbit year or the next fire-chicken day)

• Find days for which the element-animal is the same for day, month and year

• Study the effect of changes in the prime meridian (120 degrees East, 116, 109, etc.) on the calendar

Download Chinese Calendrics 8.91 in Softonic