There’s a plethora of music players to choose from, among which iTunes and Winamp usually have the upper hand. However, if you are curious enough, you might find that lesser known alternatives like MediaMonkey offer a reasonable amount of features and tools to organize and equally enjoy your music library.

MediaMonkey automatically scans your PC for all types of music formats. If you have playlists from other programs, it’s good to know that the application also adds m3u files, sparing you the pain of having to recreate them. The file explorer view on the left lets you easily navigate your music collection by categories like artist, genre or rating. You can convert tracks into any format you wish, depending on what size or quality of sound you’re looking for. MediaMonkey also lets you analyze and adjust the volume of tracks to increase your listening experience.

MediaMonkey has made its reputation on its advanced tagging management feature. Every time a track is added, the program will verify its tags. You can automatically fill in missing details with info from Amazon or Filename. The program can clean up your tags, move information into the correct categories and synchronize tags for selected tracks. You can also rename and move multiple files thanks to the auto-organize function. MediaMonkey also supports Winamp plugins and visualizations plus skins can be applied to spice up the interface.

If you want to make your own mix CDs, you’ll be happy to know that MediaMonkey rips and burns CDs and DVDs. Create a virtual CD of your favorite tracks and let MediaMonkey do its job. Budding DJs will enjoy the auto-DJ mode, which mixes tracks for you and the Party Mode, which blocks your configuration but lets anybody play their favorite tune. MediaMonkey’s versatility doesn’t stop there. The music manager also lets you synchronize with your portable music devices like your iPod or iRiver.

If you feel like completing your library with a couple of fresh albums you can browse sites like Amazon, Barnes and Noble or AllPosters and purchase tracks. However, unlike Songbird, where you can type in a URL, browse and save your favorite music blogs and sites, MediaMonkey only allows you to browse their selection of online stores.

We were disappointed with the web radio selection, which only features Shoutcast and Icecast, and were surprised to see no sign of podcasts anywhere in the application. However version 3.0 is planning on incorporating this to the application.

Despite these drawbacks, we recommend MediaMonkey to anybody looking for a solid alternative to iTunes or Winamp. This original music manager is more than capable of organizing a very large music library and offers advanced tagging management rarely seen in other music applications. While the browser and web radio are fairly limited, MediaMonkey allows you to rip your custom CDs and connects to most portable music devices. If you really take a liking to MediaMonkey, cough up a few bucks and upgrade to the Gold version, which will open up all of the program’s functionalities like finding missing tracks or creating auto (smart) playlists.

Download MediaMonkey 3.0.5.1187 in Softonic

Google is aiming to create a shake-up in mobile phone operating systems with the launch of its Android platform. Designed to be completely open and free for developers, the API could change the way mobile phone software is used, making all applications equal and combining phone-based data with web tools.

The Android SDK gives mobile software developers the chance to play around with the new platform. It contains everything you need to start building applications, as well as a fully functional device emulator for testing them out when you've finished.

Even non-developers can try out the emulator, as it's easy to set up and run (it does take a while to load up, mind you). There is a choice of phone skins and resolutions to tinker with too. After fiddling around for a bit with the OS I must say I'm pretty impressed. Its integration with Google Maps is seamless and only shows to highlight the potential for development of apps that blur the boundaries between phone and web-based software.

Installing software onto the emulator isn't easy and you need to fiddle around with code in order to do so. Although, there's plenty of documentation available online to help you get the most from the SDK, this is still really only something mobile developers will get much use out of, rather than just those curious about how Android applications will look.

Overall though, Android SDK provides a fast and reliable development environment for those looking towards the next era of mobile software.

Download Android SDK 1.0 in Softonic

Lightning Download is a download manager that helps you speed up downloads from the Internet.

It's aim is to ensure you never suffer a lost, failed or incomplete download again, although that's a lofty claim by any stretch of the imagination. Lightning Download basically accelerates downloads by splitting files and downloading up to 10 parts at the same time. It also allows you to manage your downloads fairly easily and recover those that broke for some reason.

The applications works within your web browser and seems to work equally well in IE as in Firefox (although I'm not sure about Chrome). One of the nicest features is the "mirror search" option which allows you to look for possible alternative download locations when your original source isn't working well. However, it frequently fails in it's search for other mirrors but can occasionally help out.

Lightning Download is a functional, if not the most elegant download manager available for those that find their current manager too limited or ineffective.

Download Lightning Download 2.3 in Softonic

If you need to keep an eye on the usage of your CPU then PerfMonitor allows you to see what's happening at all times.

PerfMonitor is basically a processor performance monitoring tool which allows you to track the frequency of up to four processes. It can be used to identify performance bottlenecks or to monitor a program that may be hogging your CPU.

There are no fancy touches to this app and it could do with a few more tips as to what the various parameters are. It displays in graphical format - a bit like a graphic equalizer - the activity of your CPU at any one time.

PerfMonitor is a great tool for system administrators or those that need to get to the bottom of a CPU hogging issue.

Download PerfMonitor 1.0.0.8 in Softonic

Sometimes I prefer watching movies and TV series on the computer rather than doing it on the couch. The image quality in my PC monitor is better and I can handle more formats than just DVD.

Of course, I need a good video player in order to enjoy my favorite movies at their most, and my choice is no other than BSPlayer. This great video player features anything you need to watch movies or any other kind of video on your PC. It supports all popular video formats (and audio as well, in case you were wondering) and though its basic interface is not really the nicest one I've seen, you can easily customize it with skins.

BSPlayer supports video subtitles, takes screenshots of movie currently playing, lets you create bookmarks and chapters to move along videos more easily and has also support for plug-ins. I especially liked the way you can control playback, either by using keyboard shortcuts or simply your mouse: one click to stop the video, two clicks to go full screen, mouse wheel to raise or low the volume…

The only thing I didn't like was the fact that, being a free version, you're obliged to install an adware element on your PC that displays ads from time to time while you're browsing the way. It's a safe app that doesn't compromise your privacy, but still it's not my cup of tea. I guess it's just the price you have to pay for having such a great video player for free.

BSPlayer lets you enjoy your favorite movies on the PC with a wide range of features (subtitles, screenshots, bookmarks and more) provided you're willing to accept some ads on your desktop.

Download BS.Player Free 2.31.974 in Softonic

To extract and compress your files, 7-Zip is a perfectly viable alternative to the better known WinZip or WinRAR. The application works exactly like its main competitors yet manages to mix in WinZip’s selection of tools with WinRAR’s versatility.

The 7-Zip interface is similar to that of its competitors, with a main file manager and a command line to search and select files to extract or compress. The control panel is comprised of the essential buttons like extract, add and test, but also features copy, move and delete functions to allow you to manage your files. 7-Zip extracts and compresses files as fast as WinZip and WinRAR and handles the main archive formats like ZIP, TAR, RAR and ISO.

The archiving process is where 7-Zip differs most from its rivals. Where WinZip only lets you compress to ZIP and WinRAR to RAR or ZIP, 7zip offers you up to 5 different archive formats to choose from. The application lets you choose the update mode, depending on whether you want to add and replace files, refresh the archive or just synchronize files. If you don’t want somebody opening up your archive without your permission, you can set a password to protect your archive.We particularly liked the split tool because it can cut up your archive into equal parts which fit on a floppy, CD or DVD, handy if you need to distribute a particularly large archive.

Security is where 7-Zip lags behind its main rivals. There is no option to scan archives for viruses and you can’t repair damaged or corrupted files. While you can set a password to protect your archive, you can’t choose between different levels of encryption.

7-Zip might not be as secure as WinZip or WinRAR but it is definitely more versatile. It works with more archive formats and offers many useful tools like update mode or splitting. If you feel too limited by WinZip and if you don’t like WinRAR we suggest giving 7-Zip a try and taking advantage of all its possibilities.

Download 7-Zip 4.60 in Softonic

There's an increasing demand for alternatives to Adobe's resource hogging, RAM sapping, not least expensive PDF creator and PrimoPDF weighs in as an excellent alternative.

The fact that this program is free makes it all the more appealing. One of the problems with these PDF programs is that invariably, they change the formatting of your text, once you've converted your Word, Publisher etc. document to PDF. PrimoPDF largely avoids this however converting to PDF as faithfully as the original. It's also remarkably fast and the installation is equally speedy.

Once installed, the program appears as a virtual printer in your Printer Driver preferences too. The main downside, of which there are few, is that you are regularly prompted to register although this is a small price to pay for an excellent program. It's also a bit unreliable when converting images. Text is fine but images can sometimes be in the wrong position or formatted incorrectly when converting from Office documents. It also doesn't use Windows standard way of saving documents - it has it's own format which doesn't suggest a file name but it's a small drawback.

A really excellent PDF creator that will have Adobe critics laughing all the way to their virtual printers.

Download PrimoPDF 4.1.0.9 in Softonic

If you fancy designing a new website for yourself, then turn back now, Twisted Brush has not been developed to give clean crisp graphics, and will frustrate you unless you use it for what it was designed for, art. Having established that this is a program for drawing, it follows that the most natural way to sketch anything and in turn to use this software effectively is with a pen and a drawing tablet.

When the program starts, you’re assaulted by the quick-start guide that is designed to gently introduce you to the features. In reality it’s a bunch of screenshots crammed with info bubbles that contain un-detailed information and no links to find out more. That said, how many people stop to read welcome screens anyway?

A lot of effort was put into making TwistedBrush a realistic substitute for actual painting and when you start working with the various brushes you see just how well they interact with the colors to create a convincing portrait. Undoubtedly the greatest strength of this program is the vast selection of brush types and styles that are available to use. From simple fine pens, to wet oil brushes, to progressive 3D designs, you’ll find them all. The beauty of each brush is that they can be used quickly and easily, with stunning effects.

You will also find support for all the major image file formats, including TIFF, PSD, JPG, GIF, and PNG and there is an option to create a script, either to record the steps taken in the painting process, to insert a message, or to insert random dabs of paint, something that doesn’t quite seem to add to the functionality (although any Dadaists out there may disagree about that).

While getting to grips with the program, it seemed that there was one feature that had been unforgettably forgotten, the select tool. After using Photoshop for so long, this seems like a key tool in any imaging software that the TwistedBrush developers have overlooked. Alternatively it could be the very omission of the select tool that sets this program apart with the production process being more of an evolution rather than a construction.

TwistedBrush is a quality painting application that, judging from its interface and features, is aimed at anyone with a drawing tablet. There are tons of great brushes to experiment with but for anyone relying on the lowly mouse and the lack of a selection tool, it may become very frustrating, very quickly.

Download TwistedBrush Pro Studio 15.51 in Softonic

XnView, simply put, is a file explorer. What makes it a bit special is that instead of treating every file as equal, it tries to make sense of each and every one and let you see, in the most relevant form possible, what exactly is contained in the file.

When checking this program out, we were immediately reminded of another quality file previewer, ACDSee. While that has gone on to become a fully featured photo manager, available for $50, XnView will take care of most users’ basic needs while boasting a price tag of $0 (for personal use). With its built-in preview engine, the program can display 400 different image file formats as well as play various media formats such as AVI or MP3.

Using the program will already be second nature to most users as it works like Windows Explorer. On the left side of the screen you see all your directories, with the contents of the directories being displayed in the upper half of the right window. Selecting any of these files will then bring up a preview in the lower half of the window. If you’re browsing through some photos you can run them as a slideshow and view in full screen. If you’re browsing through simple TXT or INI files, the opening few lines of text will show up as an icon and you can view the entire contents of the file without needing to open other programs.

There is a good level of support for various formats and the interface zips along without delays, even when displaying large video files. On encountering a file that it doesn’t recognize, XnView displays its hash values, which may or may not be of use. If you run into any difficulty, there is a help file that is sufficient but not overwhelming.

One aspect that wasn’t quite as we would have liked was that it didn’t recognize the native format of files. For example, a simple text file with a LOG extension wasn’t treated as the same file with a TXT extension. It’s a small inconvenience but does stand out because of the general high quality of the software. For anyone with a large number of files that they want to organize, convert or just browse, XnView is certainly worth a look.

Download XnView 1.94.2 in Softonic

When you first start up FxFoto it searches your entire hard drive for images and imports them into a handy thumbnail viewer. From there it’s as easy as a drag-and-drop operation to add pictures to your collage. You can also import you pictures directly from your scanner or digital camera.

If some of the pictures need a little tweaking, FxFoto provides you with all of the basic image adjustment controls and also has an impressive collection of filters which are all easily accessible from the well laid-out interface. You can add frames to individual pictures in your collage or to the entire creation.

FxFoto can also be used to make scrapbook pages and slide shows and has a great number of ways to publish your creations including, email, print, web sites and slide shows. This makes a brilliant for non-techy users or even small kids to use. There are a few more advanced photo management tools out there, but FxFoto provides a cheap alternative that is more than equal to most tasks.

Download FxFoto 6.0.070 in Softonic

With Create Ringtone it is easy to load into phone memory music, ringtones, podcasts, video, MS Office documents and PDF files. Any new content can be sent directly to the phone via WAP protocol. If the computer is connected to the Internet, any other physical link to the phone becomes redundant.

Using data exchange protocols, Create Ringtone sends the newly made content directly to the phone. A new ringtone or wallpaper can become a present for relatives and friends. By just choosing a global operator and typing the phone number you can forward both greetings and presents. IrDA, Bluetooth, and USB connectivity are equally supported. Automatic conversion and file transfer take a minute or so.

The program's intuitive interface makes the job of creating a new tune or a background a real pleasure. Create Ringtone saves both time and money that might have been spent with a content provider. It gives independence for creative thoughts and means to apply them in custom phone profiles. With wide range of supported audio formats one can convert any audio file into a trendy ringtone with a few mouse clicks.

Download Create Ringtone 4.98 in Softonic

The music world has truly been revolutionized by the use of software, and nowadays you'll find a plethora of application to help you from production to recording, mixing and playback.

UltraMixer, as the name suggests, is a mixing program aimed at DJs. Fitted with two channels a mixer and library, it allows you to store your tracks and play them consecutively, adjusting sound settings along the way.

I found the interface pretty clear, if not a little dull, yet first time DJs will probably find it handy to get grips with the different elements. Use of typical features like the crossfader, equalizer or cue are just like you would expect on a regular mixer.

The library is well organized in a tree structure, and allows you to keep all your different tracks the way you're most comfortable with.

If there is one big turnoff, according to me, it's the installation process. I found it way too long and suspect that it's intended to encourage you of going for the more advanced, and more expensive versions of UltraMixer. Effectively you'll find there is only one file to download, which contains all three versions: professional, basic and free. You'll need a key to activate the demo, and the process just takes even more time.

If the installation wasn't so complicated, I'd recommend UltraMixer as a good all around mixer for aspiring DJs. However for now I'd recommend turning to other programs.

Download UltraMixer Free 2.3.4 in Softonic

AC3Filter is a filter for the reproduction of AVI video codecs with AC3 sound tracks AC3 and MPEG2 (DVD). It provides numerous options to configure the audio using the equalizer to change settings such as voice or subwoofer gain. Compatible with DolbySurround, Dolby ProLogic and Dolby ProLogic II.

Download AC3Filter 1.50a in Softonic

You can make a certain song become unrecognizable by changing the singer’s voice to male, female, kid, girly, manly, warm…. Singer’s voice can be altered in pitch, timbre, frequency, and then audio effects can be added to produce a wide range of different voices. You can make the song’s speed faster or slower by changing tempo value, thus changing its style and genre. Now you can clone CDs to make brand new ones; you can use Cover Editor to design CD cover and CD label for you clone CD.

Your recorded music can be enhanced by setting equalizer values and applying audio enhancing effects then saving to new file. AV MP3 Player-Morpher supports 10-bar equalizer and a great deal of mixable and editable effects. You can modify or combine the following effects for better music quality: Noise Reduction, AutoLoudness, Normalize, 2 Order Equalizer, 4 Order Equalizer, Volume, Surround…

Download AV Music Morpher 4.0.66 Gold in Softonic

Power Sound Editor is one in a long line of similar audio editing programs that gives you everything you need to edit, cut and splice your music but nothing particularly original.

The program is mainly useful for those that need to add sound effects or special effects to music and sounds. It's also useful for equalising sounds although not a great deal more than that. The good aspect is that it's a very GUI based program - i.e. it presents everything in graphical form usually via icons. These graphics represent the various actions you might wish to carry out such as ripping tracks, equalising sounds and cutting tracks. For novices, the cutting and editing is particularly easy as it allows you to do everything in visual form. In terms of editing, this means Delete, Cut, Copy, Paste, Paste From File, Mix, Mix From File and apply different effects i.e. Amplify, Delay, Equalizer, Fade, Flanger, Invert, Normalize, Reverse, MultiTapDelay, Silence, Stretch, Vibrato, Echo and Chorus.

This is hardly the most original music editor you'll ever use but it will have some limited appeal for beginners.

Download Power Sound Editor 5.96 in Softonic

Dexster is a perfect audio editor tool for your audio production that supports many popular audio formats and features audio cd burning. With Dexster audio editor you can do the following:

• Edit an audio file visually (Cut, Copy, Delete Select, Delete Silence, Paste, Paste From File, Mix, Mix From File)
• Apply different effects (Amplify, Compressor, Delay, Envelope, Equalizer, Expander, Fade, Flanger, Invert, Normalize, Phaser, Reverb, Reverse, Silence, Stretch, Trim, Vibrato, Chorus, Pitch Shift)
• Insert noise and silence in an audio file
• Vocal Reduction
• Mix Stereo Channels
• Insert and change described information about a marker
• Apply different filters to the selected part of an audio file (Band Pass Filter, FFT Filter, High Pass Filter, High Shelf Filter, Low Pass Filter, Low Shelf Filter, Notch Filter, Peak EQ Filter, Finite Impulse Response Filter)
• Record an audio file from a microphone or from other input device
• Play an audio file or any part of it
• Convert an audio file from one format to another
• Extract Audio from Video files
• Extract Audio from Audio CD

Download Dexster Audio Editor 3.2 in Softonic

Akram Audio Editor provides cool and easy-to-use interface that allows you to edit an audio file visually (Cut, Copy, Delete Select, Delete Silence, Paste, Paste From File, Mix, Mix From File). You can apply a variety of effects including Amplify, Compressor, Delay, Envelope, Equalizer, Expander, Fade, Flanger, Invert, Normalize, Phaser, Reverb, Reverse, Silence, Stretch, Trim, Vibrato, Chorus, and Pitch Shift.

The program also lets you insert noise and silence in an audio file; Insert and change described information about a marker; Apply different filters to the selected part of an audio file (Band Pass Filter, FFT Filter, High Pass Filter, High Shelf Filter, Low Pass Filter, Low Shelf Filter, Notch Filter, Finite Impulse Response Filter, Peak EQ Filter); Record an audio file from a microphone or from other input device; and Play an audio file or any part of it.

Akram Audio Editor supports audio format of uncompressed WAV PCM,compressed WAV (ADPCM, GSM, DSP and others),MP2 (MPEG 1/2 Layer-2),MP3 (MPEG 1/2 Layer-3),VOX (Dialogic ADPCM),WMA (Windows Media Audio 9),RAW audio (PCM, A-LAW, U-LAW),MPC (MusicPack),AVI (audio track),Ogg Vorbis (Version 1.0),G.721, G.723, G.726,AIFF (Apple audio format) and AU (UNIX audio format).

Download Akram Audio Editor 2007 5.0.112 in Softonic

According to some happy users, Spider Player is so good that it could even rival Winamp in the popularity stakes for basic players one day. It's certainly a very good looking player and not only that, it makes life easy where listening to music is concerned.

The look is obviously a key part for the developers and they've even included a "tuning" bar in the skin which allows you to change the tone of it according to the mood you are in. As with Winamp, I like the fact that you can also divide-up the player as you like. For example, when you open it, the main playback window, equaliser and playlist are all joined together. But you can split these up as you like and place them in various parts of your desktop for easy access. To control playback, you can simply drag and drop the status bar and it responds very quickly. There's also a pitchshifter, echo and reverb bar to play with.

One nice added little extra us that Spider Player also has a built-in ID3 tag editor and CD ripper that can burn in MP3, WAV, OGG and WMA formats. Once minimised, the player also sits neatly in your system tray so it's well integrated into your OS. This is one of the best Mp3 players I've tried outside of Winamp although it lacks the plugins of the former.

Download Spider Player 2.3.5 in Softonic

Controlling your monitor is something that Windows fails to provide adequate support for no matter what version you have.

Display Tuner aims to fill that vacuum by providing instant desktop access to your monitor settings such as brightness, contrast, color settings or geometry. It even extends to adjusting the speaker settings of your monitor although I don't recommend that you use monitor speakers anyway - it's always best to use a separate sound system. Like with any music application, you can define several monitor profiles with different color settings such as "Films", "Text", "Games" in the same way as you define "Disco" and "Club" equalizer settings with a music application. The Display Tuner meanwhile allows you to easily change the color settings by just hitting a hotkey meaning you'll never need to reach under your monitor and find those awkward to reach controls. Note that the program doesn't support all video cards but it works with nVidia, ATI, Intel, S3, SiS, Matrox, etc.

Display Tuner is an excellent way to control your monitor without even having to touch it physically.

Download Display Tuner 1.6 in Softonic

This product is intended for quick, easy, and simple processing of one or several Video, Audio, or Image files! VideoCharge is a full-range editor, which allows users to perform practically any operations with incoming files such as:

• Splitting files up into several scenes
• Merging several files into a single file
• Cutting scene(s) out of video files
• Creating video file(s) based on selected scene(s)
• Creating thumbnails for video files in manually or automatically mode
• Addition Watermark to movie(s) or thumbnail(s)
• Solving Interlace Video problem

Using VC you can split a video film by time, by size, into several equal (by duration) parts. Besides you can automatically split video file by scenes! VideoCharge includes enhanced DVD Ripper and DVD Player, which are intended, except processing DVD contents, to play and convert Mpeg-2, VOB files (.vob), and also to work with a group of VOB files, using index information from IFO files.

VideoCharge allows users to produce video files with effect of 25th frame. VideoCharge is the best application among similar ones to create Video galleries, representing an ability of FTP upload of generated files. It also supports work with command-line. VideoCharge includes a complete Help system and Wizard, which makes your work with VideoCharge simpler, even if you don't have special knowledge!

Download VideoCharge Pro 3.14.2.03 in Softonic