Comic Life is a really fun application with which you can create comics out of your photos and images.

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

Firefox is of course Mozilla's big success story but the Mozilla Foundation do a lot more than web browsers. The unusually named SeaMonkey is a Mozilla product which has lofty ambitions - to be a web browser, advanced email, newsgroup and feed client, IRC chat, and HTML editor in one.

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 SeaMonkey is a bit of an outdated concept nowadays and it's no surprise that it carried on the work that Netscape started many years ago.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

Print individual envelopes and labels or batch print addresses from Apple Address Book, Numbers 09, MS Entourage, MS Excel, MS Outlook 2011, Now Contact, FileMaker, vCards or tab-delimited text files. Labels & Addresses prints Intelligent Mail, USPS POSTNET, Canada Post and Royal Mail barcodes on labels and envelopes. Print price tags and labels with industry-standard Code 39, Code 128, EAN-8/13, UPC-A/E, ISBN and Data Matrix barcodes. Supports hundreds of label layouts.

Small business employees can use it to batch-print labels for their customer lists or inventory. Home users find it helpful when they need to send letters to their relatives or friends. The program is especially popular ob Christmas.

Download Labels and Addresses 1.6.3 in Softonic

If you own an ebook (electronic book) reader, or just feel like reading ebooks on your desktop or netbook, Calibre will help keep them organized.

Calibre is a library for eBooks. It has a big, bold interface that's really easy to use, and ebook files of most formats can just be dragged into the Calibre window. Editing the metadata (title, genre etc) is just a case of hitting the button on the tool bar, and typing in your changes. You can select multiple books and edit them in bulk too, for example if you want to regroup some books in a particular genre.

Viewing is also just a button click, and opens an ebook reader window. Here you can increase or decrease the font size to your comfort, add bookmarks and more. You can also set Calibre to download feed from news websites, although the layout results are sometimes a bit odd. There is also, of course, ebook reader synchronizing, so you can easily keep your device up to date.

Free, open-source and easy to use, Calibre is a great e-book library tool and reader.

Download Calibre 0.8.36 in Softonic

To get you started quickly, there are lots of Apple-designed templates that merely require you to add your own text and drag and drop images. To add interactive photo galleries, movies, Keynote presentations, 3D objects and more, there are simple widgets which make things very easy indeed. To check how your book is looking, you can preview it on your iPad at any time although note that you'll need iBooks 2 installed on your iOS device to do this.

The widgets are one of the outstanding features of iBooks Author. They enable you to add everything from a photo gallery to a Keynote (Keynote ’09 v5.1.1 or later) presentation and can be easily identified in your Table of Contents. You can also add a voice-over to make it easier for sight-impaired readers to read your books.

If you don't like the look or layout of your book, you can easily re-arrange it using the Book Navigator including the possibility of adding a cover and table of contents. In addition, you can import a chapter written in Pages or Microsoft Word and automatically create a portrait view of your book which makes it easier for readers to focus on the text.

The final step is to submit your finished work to the iBookstore and hey presto, you're a self-published author. However, be aware that once you've issued it to the iBookstore, the terms and conditions stipulate that you can't sell it elsewhere. The exports are in iBook format but you can also export them as PDF files which any e-reader or tablet can read. Presumably however, any multimedia elements are excluded from PDF files so the result won't be as good as if you publish to the iBookstore. Alternatively, you can just export a pure Text version.

As you'd expect from an Apple application, iBooks Author is a very stylish and easy to use application. If you've ever used Keynote to make a presentation, then you'll feel very at home with iBooks Author.

iBooks Author is a superb iBook authoring package which produces stunning results with relatively little effort.

Download iBooks Author 1.0 in Softonic

If you're a student or academic then cross referencing your work can be a painstaking and laborious task.

Bookends aims to ensure you spend more time working than referencing by providing a fully featured bibliography/reference and information management system. To make life easy, it integrates with Microsoft Word (as well as OpenOffice 3, Apple Pages, Mellel, Nisus Writer Pro and any other RTF formatted documents) by scanning your documents and automatically referencing articles. In theory, you can generate finished manuscripts with properly formatted bibliographies automatically!

To make things easier, Bookends has a search and import wizard which allows you to import references automatically from sources such as Google Scholar, Amazon and EndNote. If you're collaborating on a project with others, Bookends even allows you to share your references over the internet. You can also attach reference files and search for PDF documents that you'd like to cross reference or attach to your document.

On the downside, there's no support for NeoOffice in Bookends and you may find that importing references may occasionally crash the application in which case all you need to do is a database rebuild and it should work again.

Bookends could potentially reduce the amount of time you spend cross referencing academic documents and creating bibliographies.

Download Bookends 11.2.4 in Softonic

With Skype you can call other Skype users absolutely free wherever they are in the world thanks to P2P technology. Skype 5 brings together the main functions of talk, chat, video and file sharing in one main window. By default, your contacts list is on the left, the other basic functions are in the main part of the program window making it more streamlined and slicker than previous releases.

New in Skype 5 is the ability to video conference with up to ten participants. Group conferencing has also been made easier thanks to the redesigned call window which means that all distractions (such as other conversations) are minimized and only the names of participants displayed. However, although you can video chat with one contact for free, group video conferencing is now a premium feature which you have to pay for which will disappoint many users.

Skype 5 features a new contacts list sorted by category and you can add favorites to the top of the list. Searching for them has also been made easier by integrating them with your Mac address book. You can also now rename contacts so that you're not stuck with their default username. Finally, accessing Skype is now easier thanks to a mini Skype control bar that sits on top of any web pages, documents or photos you've got open although some may find this a bit intrusive.

Although Skype 5 adds many improvements, some people may miss the smaller and more discreet interface of Skype 2.8.0.866. There is a feeling that the developers have gone a bit over the top in expanding Skype and "hiding" certain features and it will take users of the old version some getting used to. The fact that video conferencing is now a premium feature will also annoy many faithful users.

Skype 5 brings video conferencing and a more intelligent user interface that once you've adapted to, should make Skype an even better way to keep in touch while you're away.

Download Skype 5.5.0.2069 Beta in Softonic

phpMyAdmin is one of the most popular tools written in PHP which allows you to handle the administration of MySQL over the Web.

You can use phpMyAdmin to create and drop databases, create/drop/alter tables, delete/edit/add fields, execute SQL, manage user privileges and export data into various formats. Although phpMyAdmin's a remarkably simple SQL database, it's obviously still beyond the grasp of most novices users, especially those that have no SQL database experience. However, the success of phpMyAdmin has been so great that the developers have even written a book about it!

If you are just starting in php however and can't handle the complexities of the book, then the developers have also written an easy to use tutorial aimed at programmers, designers and analysts of dynamic websites that want to learn the basics of SQL. Of course, before you start anything you'll need access to a MySQL server which you can host on any major web hosting platform.

phpMyAdmin is one of the benchmark programs for learning about PHP and SQL programming and it remains a popular choice with beginners and experts alike.

Download phpMyAdmin 3.4.9 in Softonic

iRatchet features tracking hourly and fixed entries, multiple clients/projects, timers, PDF output, emailing of invoices as you'd expect. It also has tools to help you manage workflow, hours worked and and web interface that you can access anywhere. i

iRatchet is ideal for those working for clients in different countries as it can store country codes and currency codes of multiple international clients. The latest version works with GoiRatchet - a free iPhone companion that allows you to sync up with your database, modify items in an open project and sync them again later.

There are several professional looking invoice templates to choose from and you can import, backup and export databases into an XML with ease.

iRatchet is an ideal solution for someone who needs a professional invoicing solution or has clients in several different countries.

Download iRatchet 3.09 in Softonic

Coda unites all your different web development tools under one beautifully designed interface.

From text editor to previewer, CSS editor or terminal, Coda includes all you need to write up, review and upload your web pages. The program is flexible: projects are considered as sites, which sync perfectly with your server and maintain all your changes. You can connect to any server and thanks to the Transmit Turbo Engine quickly upload changes remotely.

In terms of editing, Coda offers up advanced features like auto completion, block editing or syntax coloring. You can also drag and drop clips of text anywhere. As of CSS, Coda offers two editing modes: visual and text, the first being more user friendly and the second best for advanced users. Coda has also thoughtfully integrated a terminal window, so you can run MYSQL queries quickly or connect to a local shell.

But it's the design that really stands out in Coda. Winner of the 2007 Apple Design Award, the program has been redesigned with a sleek Leopard GUI. Full of colors and smooth animations, Coda is a real pleasure to use and very well structured. The program even features a collection of reference books if you need a spark of knowledge to help you build your site.

Coda is a beautiful, all in one web development tool you can't go without if you're building web sites.

Download Coda 1.7.5 in Softonic

Some say it's a little "too" inspired by Thunderbird but the developers have only basically taken the core code behind it and expanded on it to make what some consider to be a superior mail client. There's no doubt that Postbox features many useful tools that make organizing and tracking your e-mails very intuitive and version 2.0 has made it even better.

Features that particularly standout in Postbox are a slick, Apple Mail style interface, very fast searching for everything from messages to attachments, Gmail style conversation views, tabbed browsing of mail, categories and folders, to-do lists and integration with Address Book, iCal, iPhoto, Spotlight, and Quick Look. Postbox also works with third party apps such as OmniFocus and Things.

Setting-up Postbox is very straightforward. A wizard takes you through the entire import process and Postbox automatically determines connection settings for you. The great thing is Postbox is a lot simpler than Thunderbird and getting your webmail - such as Gmail or Yahoo e-mail onto your desktop - is extremely quick and painless. It can even retrieve your Facebook messages for you using a separate simple setup wizard. Once you've imported, Postbox works behind the scenes to catalog everything including every single bit of text, contact, address, link, picture, document and attachment. Within seconds, you should have a fully searchable and effectively backed-up copy of your e-mail on your hard drive.

Browsing images is a pleasure in Postbox and I liked the way you can scroll through every single image in your inbox in one go. Organizing your mail and work load using Postbox is refreshingly easy and reminds me of a more advanced version of Gmail. It does not however extract labels from Gmail which is a downside because it means reorganising your entire collection once again. You may also receive quite a bit of spam in Postbox because although it has it's own spam filter, it doesn't support more powerful solutions such as SpamSieve.

Postbox is one of the most intelligent e-mail clients you're likely to try on Mac. The latest version is better than ever although now that Outlook is available on Mac in Office 2011, it may have to improve even further to attract more users.

Download Postbox 3.0.2 in Softonic

Download Bookdog 5.3.20 in Softonic

1. Hundreds of templates, horizontal and vertical layouts are supplied with the product. 2. There are many varieties of business card paper. 3. Powerful printing features 4. Home Business Card integrates with mac Address Book to import personal data into the address field objects. 5. Integrate Google Maps objects to your card to show your personal or business location in Google Maps and place the map image on your business card. 6. Add Code 128, Datamatrix and QR Code objects to your card.

Creative people, students, managers,designers, businessmen who wish to create impressive professional business cards, create and maintain relationships, personally and professionally, socialize with other people.

Download Home Business Card for Mac 1.3.7 in Softonic

Staying on top of your to-do list is usually an uphill battle that doesn't get any easier the busier you get.

Using a simple organizational tool such as Circus Ponies NoteBook can help you keep on top of tasks through a simple and easy to use notebook format. As you enter entries into NoteBook, much as you would in a real notebook, you can clip memos, add an attachment, check it or add flags to remind you when it's due.

Circus Ponies NoteBook uses a system patented by the developer called "Multidex" which makes it easy to view all of your to do tasks in a glance. You can view them all in one go, separately, by category or by importance. You're encouraged at all times to give context to your notes so that they mean a bit more than just "complete project assignment". You can do this by uploading attachments or adding useful links to the project in question.

The big draw of Circus Ponies NoteBook is that it uses a familiar notebook format and feel to make adding tasks easy. However, the danger with this is that you end up scribbling things down randomly much as you would with a real notebook and while there's less chance of getting lost or confused with NoteBook, it's still less effective than using a more conventional organizer.

If you're a born scribbler and are always losing pieces of paper with reminders on, elegantly designed and intelligently organized Circus Ponies NoteBook will definitely appeal to you.

Download Circus Ponies NoteBook 3.1.1 in Softonic

Dragon Dictate has been designed specifically for Mac OS X and helps you create reports, emails, articles, books, research notes, online content - just about anything you'd normally use a keyboard for. The developer claims it has 99% accuracy, although you'll definitely find it doesn't quite measure up to that claim. However, the overall reproduction and accuracy is generally very good.

Dragon Dictate can even be used to command your Mac to carry out certain functions such as “Reply To This Message” when using email, or “Open Microsoft Word” or “Search Google for software” etc. You can also customize Dragon Dictate with personal vocabulary and voice commands for specific tasks related to your work.

A lot will depend on the kind of microphone you are using. Although it works with any microphone, the developer also provides its own when you purchase the full version. It does work with the Mac microphone very well, although it's subject to instability from time to time.

Dragon Dictate could increase your productivity significantly - its at least worth a try.

Download Dragon Dictate 2.5.2 in Softonic

Kindle for Mac is a very simple e-book reader which allows you to read and sync your library with your Kindle. You can purchase books online and have them directly delivered to Kindle for Mac and then sync it with your device.

Kindle for Mac is extremely simple. When you first install it you're required to enter in your Amazon account details or sign-up for one. You can then either transfer books from your Kindle to Kindle for Mac by clicking the rather small synchronization symbol or go directly to the Amazon site by clicking Shop In Kindle Store. You can sort titles by name, author or most recently purchased but other than that there are absolutely no other preferences. It's a little annoying that long book names are truncated on your Kindle for Mac library page and there seems no way of changing this.

Reading with Kindle for Mac is a simple case of dragging pages up and down with your mouse or using your mouse wheel. Alternatively, you can use the white arrow on the right to skip pages. Strangely though, you can't seem to zoom in or out which you'd imagine as a basic feature in something like this. You can add bookmarks on any page by just clicking Bookmark and a small fold will appear in the top right corner of the page for when you return too the book later. There are extensive keyboard shortcuts also, details of which can be found on the Kindle for Mac help page.

Overall Kindle for Mac does an efficient but basic job of managing your Kindle books but considering how long its taken to arrive, its a little disappointing.

Download Kindle for Mac 2.8.5 in Softonic

Things is an innovative task management program for Mac, which GTD (Getting Things Done) adepts will be comfortable working with.

Things lets you easily create tasks and organize these by project. You can set them for a given date or delay less important ones by placing them in the 'Someday' category. Things syncs perfectly with iCal so that any newly created task of project appears in the Mac calendar.

To keep your tasks organized, Things lets you add tags. The more you add the easier it will be to find and identify a task. You'll also notice tags appear at the top of the interface.

If multiple people are working on a same project, Things lets them collaborate and remembers contributions from each person.

I've found Things enjoyable to work with, although I would have liked it to interact with more applications like Address Book.

Things is a smart and friendly task management application for Mac.

Download Things 1.5.3 in Softonic

It is a very intelligent tool created and developed to suit to everyone regarding photo colorization. AKVIS Coloriage PligIn (Home license) enables you to recolor your photos and see or discover what your images will look like if you varied the color.

It works very well for coloring landscapes, portraits, fashion and still lifes. It can be as easy as using a coloring book. It has no layer manipulation and no complicated techniques.

You will not have to wait several frustrating hours because everything is perfect with just a few brush strokes. All you need to do is identify the color you desire by stroking the brush and this application does the rest.

Download AKVIS Coloriage PligIn (Home license) 8.0 in Softonic

SyncMate is an easy to use little program works with all Windows Mobile devices, including Standard, Classic and Professional versions.
Most recently, it's been updated to work with Android devices including synchronization with Android devices via USB cable, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and also mount them as a volume on Mac (via USB cable, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth).

Because it is built specifically for Mac, SyncMate works seamlessly with applications, such as iPhoto, iCal, iTunes and your Address Book.
SyncMate's interface is structured, letting you easily browse the elements you want to sync with your Windows Mobile device. You can transfer all your bookmarks from your browser to your Windows Mobile device.
SyncMate also lets you manage all your text messages and transfer them onto your Mac, and simply resize videos.
However, this free edition of SyncMate is a bit limited.
You can't create, send, delete and search SMS messages from Nokia or Windows Mobile on your Mac or analyze and search call history unless you upgrade to the Expert edition.
You also can't install any . cab files to your Windows Mobile phone right from your Mac.
All in all though, SyncMate is an excellent tool to synchronize your Mac with any Windows Mobile or Android device and more.

Download SyncMate 3.1.1684 in Softonic