The first thing we noticed about Google Chrome for Mac is that it's unbelievably lightweight. While Firefox was consuming anything from an average of 20-30% of a Mac's CPU, Chrome for Mac barely registered on the scale, occasionally touching 1%. For anyone plagued with Firefox memory leaks and crashes, this alone is surely going to be a compelling reason to give Chrome a go.

As you'd expect, Google Chrome for Mac also features tabbed browsing, which visually, is more attractive than Firefox which tends to cram them together somewhat. Extensions and bookmarking (including syncing across machines) are included, as is Adobe Flash.

Chrome for Mac only works on Intel Macs and you might find that some add-ons that you used with previous browsers aren't available for it yet. This is rapidly changing however and most popular add-ons are now available on Chrome.

Perhaps most importantly, Google Chrome for Mac is extremely quick. Surfing the Softonic site, page-loads took less then a second and all images were loaded very quickly. YouTube in particular loaded with lightening speed.

Overall, the handling of sites using JavaScript in particular is mightily impressive and this has been made even better with the implementation of a V8 Crankshaft. Its also nice to know that with Chrome for Mac, even if there is a problem with one of your tabs, that it won't crash the whole browser - just the tab itself. However, sandboxing of Flash still isn't available in the Mac version, even though it is on Windows.

The final version ensures that you'll be able to synchronize not only bookmarks across multiple computers, but also browser preferences - including themes, homepage and startup settings, web content settings, preferred languages, and even page zoom settings. Meanwhile, you can also enable each extension to work in incognito mode through the extensions manager.

With thousands of extensions, super fast browsing and all the intelligence and slickness you expect from a Google product, Chrome for Mac delivers an excellent browsing experience.

Download Google Chrome for Mac 27.0.1453.93 in Softonic

With good reason too. Firefox remains an incredibly powerful and customizable browser although persistent memory leakage problems and competition from Google Chrome have dented its popularity.

There are a few interesting improvements in Firefox 21. There's a new Enhanced three-state UI for Do Not Track (DNT) to enhance privacy protection. Firefox should also start a bit quicker on your Mac as it suggests what can be done to improve start-up time (such as disabling certain unused add-ons). There's also a new Firefox Health Report feature which monitors how stable and well oiled your version of Firefox is. Other than this, there have been some minor cosmetic changes to functionality and some developer focused improvements.

The interface is pretty much the same as previous versions of Firefox, with a minimalist toolbar and there's still no way of removing elements that you may not want such as Java and .Net Framework. The major downside for most users however is that some plug-ins or add-ons won't work with the latest version of Firefox yet - so if you have a lot installed, prepare to be disappointed.

One major problem that persists is the high usage of RAM when Firefox is displaying Flash videos such as YouTube. Firefox runs an extra "Plugin-container" process for Flash videos that can occasionally consume 100% of your CPU and cause your Mac to freeze temporarily.

Something that's been introduced in more recent versions of Mozilla Firefox is Facebook integration. Firefox now supports Facebook's social API so you can have dedicated buttons for Facebook in your browser. Mozilla Firefox supports Facebook's Messenger within Firefox, giving users desktop notifications as well as a persistent friends list and activity feed on the right. Conversations will open up as overlays on top of whatever website you're on so you can multitask while you chat.

Mozilla Firefox 20 isn't a revolution in the development of Firefox, but there are some useful improvements that still make it a decent browser.

Download Mozilla Firefox for Mac 21.0 in Softonic

Although Microsoft's Silverlight was originally conceived as a competitor to Adobe Flash, it now finds itself competing with Abobe's Web 2.0 platform, Adobe Air.

The harsh truth is, Microsoft Silverlight has already fallen considerably behind Adobe Air and typical for a Microsoft product on Mac, it's prone to bugs. In typically Microsoft style, the software giant has surely missed the boat by aiming at a replacement for Adobe Flash when the web world was already shifting towards interactive Web 2.0 platforms such as Adobe Air.

Microsoft Silverlight is a lightweight plug-in that allows you to watch Silverlight-based content in your browser. It works with most major browsers, including Firefox and Safari. There is no prompt to restart the browser after installation but I recommend you do so because the first site of Silverlight content I accessed after installation simply crashed the browser.

The most important improvements to the latest version of Microsoft Silverlight are smoother streaming, DRM management, and an out-of browser player. The out-of browser player however is dependent on developers embracing it and as yet, there are few examples available. The smooth streaming feature will iron out many of the streaming problems that have plagued Silverlight in the past. If your bandwidth drops below 3Mbps, smooth streaming will kick-in so that your video isn't affected.

Microsoft Silverlight can stream high-resolution video well and supports HD-quality videos. If you want to create content for Silverlight, you'll need Expression Studio and Visual Studio. In fact, this latest release is is of particular interest to developers because it adds 60 customizable controls, new layout containers, 'deep linking' for page bookmarking, search engine optimization, and enhanced data support.

The signs are, however, that Microsoft has already realized that the battle for web content is being won by the much slicker and more stable Adobe Air platform, and is therefore aiming Silverlight at business users. The Silverlight homepage boasts: 'Learn how Silverlight is right for your business'. It points out that companies such as Continental Airlines have adopted Microsoft Silverlight for use in their reservation system showing that Microsoft knows which side its bread is buttered on.

Microsoft Silverlight has probably missed the boat as far as Web 2.0 goes, although there's probably no way Mac users can avoid it since there will always be some websites that opt to stream content with Silverlight rather than Flash.

Download Microsoft Silverlight 5.1.20125.0 in Softonic

The first thing you notice from this version if you've ever used CCleaner for Windows is how many features are missing. The Uninstaller, the Drive Wiper and Tools section are all missing. Of course, some of these, such as The Registry Cleaner, aren't relevant to Macs anyway but its clear from the start that Mac users have a much reduced version.

In terms of browsers, CCleaner for Mac is strictly limited to cleaning Safari and Firefox - Chrome and Opera are not supported. It does, however, allow you to select exactly which parts of the browsers you want to clean (i.e. include or exclude, cookies, history, download history, etc.) In terms of hard drive cleaning, CCleaner for Mac supports cleaning trash, recent files and servers, cleaning of temporary folders and recent applications.

That's about it for functionality. There is a Preference option under File but its not accessible yet for some reason.

When it comes to actually cleaning, CCleaner is fast like the Windows version. There's no progress bar to tell you how things are going though if you Analyze or Clean - just a short pause and then a report of what's been done.

CCleaner for Mac is nowhere near as complete as the Windows version but as a one-stop cleaning tool for anyone that's familiar with the Windows version, it's worth installing.

Download CCleaner 1.07.233 in Softonic

Opera 12 keeps the general design and functionality of the highly-praised Opera 11, but adds convenient improved features like themes, web cam access and hardware acceleration. As for the the interface, Opera 12 features a slightly cleaner GUI with a focus on webpages instead of buttons and menus. Overall, Opera 12 isn't a huge change compared to the last version, but it has been improved with some nice new features.

The big innovation in the last version of Opera was extensions and while the choice of browser enhancements is still fairly limited, when you install or uninstall add-ons, you don't have to restart your browser. They are also sandboxed, so if one crashes, your browser won't. Opera 12 runs just as quickly as Google Chrome (the developer claims it's even faster) and the rendering engine has been tweaked slightly to offer an even faster browsing experience.

Visual Tabs and Tab Stacking is useful if you often have too many open, and there are now visual mouse gestures. These are well implemented, and accessed by holding the right mouse button which brings up a translucent guide to mouse gestures. This is a great introduction for people who've never used gestures, and hopefully allows for greater use in the future.

There's still an integrated mail client, which continues Opera's move towards doing everything you need in one application. The newest features or improvements of note are themes and web cam access. The most notable improvement has been to Speed Dial which instead of simply giving easy access to your favorite sites, now allows you to embed your Speed Dial with dynamic information - in other words, web apps within Opera. Meanwhile Password Syncing allows you to sync passwords across machines and devices - just sign-up for an account and Opera does the rest. There have also been some HTML5 improvements for developers such as Session History, Navigation and the W3C File API.

Conclusions

Opera 12 is a definite improvement on Opera 11 although the changes aren't revolutionary. However, if you're looking for a new browser, this is probably the most innovative currently on the market and is well worth installing.

Download Opera 12.15 in Softonic

If you design websites across different platforms, then you need an editor that can keep up with you. Komodo Edit is not only cross platform but it's completely free to use.

Komodo Edit offers support for just about every language out there, including Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Tcl, plus JavaScript, CSS, HTML, and XML, and template languages, such as RHTML, Template-Toolkit, HTML-Smarty and Django.

Even though it's free, Komodo Edit doesn't skimp on features, and includes everything you'd expect, such as autocomplete, syntax coloring and syntax checking. Even better, it's a little like Firefox in that it supports extensions and plug-ins to extend it's capabilities.

This shouldn't come as a surprise however as Komodo Edit is built on Mozilla code and the same licensing rules as Firefox. All of the extensions have been created by the Komodo community so as with Firefox, you're spoiled for choice. The overall benefits of Komodo Edit is it should enable you to write code faster and shorten the coding learning curve for those that are new to it. As with Firefox however, the drawback to it is that if you overload it with add-ons, you may experience plugin conflicts that result in crashes and actually slow down your programming.

If you're looking for a web editor designed in the same spirit as Firefox, then Komodo Edit is an excellent choice.

Download Komodo Edit 8.0.0 in Softonic

Every now and then you need clean your Mac and get rid of cookies, logs or history. It'll ensure that your Mac isn't clogged with obsolete files and runs smoothly.

Mac Cleanse is a shareware program mainly focused on cleaning internet applications, like browsers. It provides a list of the applications you can clean, and clicking on a a name will open up a drop down menu of the elements you can check for deletion, such as cookies, downloads, or recent searches. The right side of the interface features an information panel with a description for the selected application, something which isn't really necessary.

We were a little confused by the way Mac Cleanse worked. The + and - buttons on the left won't let you add more applications to the cleanse list. Instead these let you create or remove custom selections of the applications in the list. The 'cleanse' button isn't very apparent either. You'll find it on the bottom right of the interface.

The good thing about Mac Cleanse though is that it lets you select and clean multiple applications quickly and safely, saving you lots of time.

Despite the slightly counterintuitive interface, Mac Cleanse is efficient at cleaning up multiple internet applications at once.

Download MacCleanse 3.3.1 in Softonic

With just a few simple clicks you can delete useless files that tend to mount-up and waste valuable disk space such as temporary files, disk images and all types of caches. CleanMyMac goes very deep so be warned that you won't even be able to see your "most recent" list in applications such as Excel and Word once you've used it.

CleanMyMac is clearly presented and its strongest point is that it gives you full control over what you clean. Only want to clean Firefox? No problem, CleanMyMac allows you to select only those programs that you want to clean. What's more, it also allows you to clean only those parts of applications that you want to - i.e. cache, language files and temp files. Be careful however when allowing it to clean language files that you may later need! Cleaning is quick and you're always updated on the status of the process with a status bar.

CleanMyMac is an elegant and excellent cleaning program which gives you maximum control over how you clean your machine.

Download CleanMyMac 2.0.3 in Softonic

Songbird is an open-source music player and organizer with which you can manage, play and discover music.

It's free, cross-platform and highly customizable thanks to a wide variety of plug-ins and can be improved and extended by the contribution of its user community. The first thing you'll notice about Songbird is its resemblance to the iTunes interface, which means that if you've ever used iTunes you won't have any problem in learning how to use Songbird.

Songbird automatically imports your music files from a selected folder, monitors that folder for future music additions, organizes your music in a handy, easily browsable catalog, is compatible with iTunes and Last.fm libraries, can be controlled from any other app thanks to global hotkeys and also supports Last.fm scrobbling. It also includes album art and a simple equalizer.

Songbird is such a complete tool that's hard to find negative sides to it. Plus there's an army of developers constantly working on improvements and new features. The only thing that's missing is support for podcasts. It should also be noted that with each new release of Songbird, your plugins may be broken by the new release.

Songbird is a complete, full-featured music player and organizer with support for plug-ins and an extensive user community.

Download Songbird 2.2.0 in Softonic

After three release candidates that gave us a sneak peek at their latest version of Firefox, the guys over at Mozilla present us with the next step in their never-ending development agenda: the final version of Firefox 3.5.

Firefox 3.5 hardly includes any outstanding features, at least regarding the browser's external appearance. Web developers though will be glad to know that the new Firefox supports CSS 2.1 and CSS 3 properties, has improved Web standards in the Gecko layout engine and now features a much more efficient Tracemonkey JavaScript engine, which means that websites will now load significantly faster.

But what about the average Firefox user who spend a few hours every day browsing the web? Well, there are certainly a few new features that make the new Firefox even easier and more comfortable to use. One of them is the Awesome bar, which has been improved and now accepts special characters with which you can filter and narrow your searches. Browsing history has also been enhanced, with new tools to clear browsing traces from just the past two or four hours, or from a specific website only thanks to the "Forget about this site" option.

Other interesting features included in Firefox 3.5 are the Private Browsing mode (which lets you browse the web without leaving any traces behind) and support for Open Video, which enables you to right-click on certain videos and access extended options to control,

Video integration has also been improved in this version of Firefox. When you open certain videos, you’ll able to right-click to display options that allow you to control, save or send the video, among others. Flash videos don't seem to be supported though.

The new Firefox 3.5 includes many new exciting features that will make your web browsing even more enjoyable.

Download Mozilla Firefox 3.6.28 in Softonic

Firefox Beta 19 adds a built-in PDF viewer so you don't have to rely on a plug-in. The other big update is that Firefox will offer to reset the URL bar for the default search provider if a third-party program changed it.

Smaller improvements include faster startup performance so the browser should open quicker. Developers also gained new features with the debugger supporting pausing on exceptions, the remote web console being able to connect to Firefox on Android or the Firefox OS, and a browser debugger add-on.

Firefox Beta 19 didn't add many major features, but continues the steady development of the browser.

For the stable version Firefox, click here.

Download Firefox Beta 19.0 in Softonic

Powered by jQuery, the created slider can work all modern devices and web browsers, including iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone, Tablet, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer 7, 8, 9 and 10. Not just jQuery Image Sliders, you can also use Amazing Slider to create YouTube Video Galleries. Or you can combine images and YouTube videos in one slider! The created slider resizes automatically according to the screen size or web browser size which lets you easily create mobile friendly websites. Designed and developed for cross-platform, Amazing Slider will give you a seamless user experience between Windows and Mac.

Cross-platform, works on Windows and Mac; Fancy effects and professional pre-made templates; Created Sliders work on all modern devices and web browsers; The sliders are fully responsive; Support images and YouTube Videos.

Amazing Slider is a handy tool for web designer, web developer, WordPress blogger to create beautiful, professional image and YouTube video slideshows.

Download Amazing Slider for Mac 1 in Softonic

Thunderbird is Mozilla's award winning and free solution to manage your mail more efficiently. And there are many advantages of switching to it too. Unlike Mail for example, it can handle virtual identities and create on-the-fly addresses and it's widely regarded as having one of the best spam filters out there. Most recently, it's been updated with a slick tabbed interface to make managing your e-mail easier.

The fact that like Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird can be beefed up with all manner of extensions makes it an extremely competitive mail client. It's also now much faster and more stable than before due to the Gecko 5 engine.

Getting going

Setting up Mozilla Thunderbird is painless. You can quickly import your mail and contacts from your Outlook or Mail account and set up POP3, IMAP or SMTP accounts in a flash. To stay well organized, Mozilla Thunderbird offers filters to deliver your mail into separate folders and inboxes. And of course, there's a built-in spell checker to make sure that your mails are professionally crafted.

What makes Mozilla Thunderbird slightly more unusual is the fact that it comes with an integrated RSS reader. Nowadays, this is a little outdated because many people use a separate application - or even Firefox itself - to follow RSS feeds but it may be useful if you only want to mail and follow RSS feeds at the same time when composing mails.

Searching your mail

The search tool in Thunderbird is excellent and searches happen in real time as you type. Search results are displayed in a separate tab. Tabs in general are a very big part of Thunderbird and like Firefox, you can have multiple messages open in separate tabs. This is a fantastic feature of Thunderbird, although does tempt you to have too many mails open at once. Archiving is also another handy feature for those that don't want to delete messages but want to clear space in their inbox.

So what about security? You might think an open source mail client would inherently be less secure than a paid one but Thunderbird is surprisingly secure, with a fairly bulletproof spam filter. The reason being is that Thunderbird is regularly updated and crafted by volunteers who's main interest is making a better product rather than profiting from an end-product. Security updates are regular but small so as not to slow-down Thunderbird.

Exchange support

One of the biggest selling points of Mozilla Thunderbird is, due to the launch of Snow Leopard, that it now offers Microsoft Exchange support, meaning it will appeal to Office users who previously discounted it. Whats more, Mozilla has finally given Thunderbird a real OS X look and feel rather than just a clone of the Windows version as in previous releases.

On the downside, the app is lacking some finesse in certain areas. Thunderbird still doesn't have conversation style email views like in Gmail (although an extension to do this can be downloaded separately) and there aren't many options for managing attachments and photos. There's also no calendar but again, this can be downloaded separately in the form of "Lightening".

Overall, Thunderbird is an excellent free alternative to Microsoft Outlook.

Download Mozilla Thunderbird 17.0 in Softonic

The mobile OS space is already crowded with iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Blackberry but that's not stopping Mozilla from developing its own. Firefox OS Simulator will let you test out Mozilla's offering without the need for fancy hardware.

Firefox OS Simulator is in an early alpha but it proved to be very stable and usable. The emulator worked flawlessly and didn't crash. There are elements in the emulator that don't look quite right, such as text overlaid on top of other text. This may just be an early (and rough) build of the Firefox OS.

You can download apps from Mozilla's marketplace to test within the Firefox OS Simulator. Apps loaded quickly and functioned much as you would expect apps to function. These apps are basically web applications but feel like native apps.

The Firefox OS Simulator provides an early taste into Mozilla's latest mobile operating system but doesn't offer any features beyond a simulator.

Download Firefox OS Simulator 1.0 in Softonic

Mozilla Archive Format is a simple Firefox extension which allows you to view MHT files within Firefox. Once installed, all you need to do is drag and drop MHT web pages into Firefox and they will render properly to that you can see the content. Mozilla Archive Format also works with to open web pages saved with other browsers as long as they are in MHT format.

Mozilla Archive Format also has the advantage of allowing you to save entire web pages in MHT format. This has a few advantages over Firefox's own built-in save page system as a complete page can be saved as a single file (i.e. web archive), you can name files using the title of the page (title save) and the saved pages are faithful to the original (exact save)

Mozilla Archive Format is an excellent extension for anyone that needs to open MHT files.

Download Mozilla Archive Format for Firefox in Softonic

Once installed, you'll be surprised at how much tracking you're subjected to and how much DoNotTrackMe blocks. DoNotTrackMe claims it can stop more than 600 trackers and it is compatible with Mac or PC for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer. It's constantly updated to keep ahead of the latest trackers. Benefits of DoNotTrackMe include more privacy, vastly increased control over what can track your activity and faster browsing speeds.

It's also very discreet. A small green icon appears in your browser toolbar with a number in it indicating the number of tracking cookies that the site you are currently browsing is trying to leave on your computer. If you click on the number, a drop down menu displays information about the tracking cookies which usually consist of anything from social media trackers to advertising trackers. If there's something in there that you don't want blocked, just click on it and DoNotTrackMe will immediately allow it to track you.

If you want more information on exactly what is tracking you, just click on the block counts and a drop down menu shows you the names of the companies (usually big ad networks such as Doubleclick, Omniture and Comscore). There is an additional information link "Who are these companies?" although it doesn't give any specific information - just a useful general description of why these companies are tracking you.

Finally, there's an "All Time Block Counter" which keeps track of the total number of trackers that are blocked which can easily run into the thousands in just one day.

If you're concerned about targeted advertising or how much websites seem to know about you, DoNotTrackMe is a powerful yet simple solution.

Download DoNotTrackMe for Firefox 2.2.5.1205 in Softonic

Once installed, you'll be surprised at how much tracking you're subjected to and how much DoNotTrackMe blocks. DoNotTrackMe claims it can stop more than 600 trackers and it is compatible with Mac or PC for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer. It's constantly updated to keep ahead of the latest trackers. Benefits of DoNotTrackMe include more privacy, vastly increased control over what can track your activity and faster browsing speeds.

It's also very discreet. A small green icon appears in your browser toolbar with a number in it indicating the number of tracking cookies that the site you are currently browsing is trying to leave on your computer. If you click on the number, a drop down menu displays information about the tracking cookies which usually consist of anything from social media trackers to advertising trackers. If there's something in there that you don't want blocked, just click on it and DoNotTrackMe will immediately allow it to track you.

If you want more information on exactly what is tracking you, just click on the block counts and a drop down menu shows you the names of the companies (usually big ad networks such as Doubleclick, Omniture and Comscore). There is an additional information link "Who are these companies?" although it doesn't give any specific information - just a useful general description of why these companies are tracking you.

Finally, there's an "All Time Block Counter" which keeps track of the total number of trackers that are blocked which can easily run into the thousands in just one day.

If you're concerned about targeted advertising or how much websites seem to know about you, DoNotTrackMe is a powerful yet simple solution.

Download DoNotTrackMe for Chrome 2.2.5.1205 in Softonic

Once installed, you'll be surprised at how much tracking you're subjected to and how much DoNotTrackMe blocks. DoNotTrackMe claims it can stop more than 600 trackers and it is compatible with Mac or PC for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer. It's constantly updated to keep ahead of the latest trackers. Benefits of DoNotTrackMe include more privacy, vastly increased control over what can track your activity and faster browsing speeds.

It's also very discreet. A small green icon appears in your browser toolbar with a number in it indicating the number of tracking cookies that the site you are currently browsing is trying to leave on your computer. If you click on the number, a drop down menu displays information about the tracking cookies which usually consist of anything from social media trackers to advertising trackers. If there's something in there that you don't want blocked, just click on it and DoNotTrackMe will immediately allow it to track you.

If you want more information on exactly what is tracking you, just click on the block counts and a drop down menu shows you the names of the companies (usually big ad networks such as Doubleclick, Omniture and Comscore). There is an additional information link "Who are these companies?" although it doesn't give any specific information - just a useful general description of why these companies are tracking you.

Finally, there's an "All Time Block Counter" which keeps track of the total number of trackers that are blocked which can easily run into the thousands in just one day.

If you're concerned about targeted advertising or how much websites seem to know about you, DoNotTrackMe is a powerful yet simple solution.

Download DoNotTrackMe for Safari 2.2.5.1205 in Softonic

- Automatically run at Mac startup stealthily - Monitor all user accounts with one click - Log typed keystrokes such as account names - Log chats from Skype/AIM/iChat/Adium/MSN - Record websites in Safari/Firefox/Chrome - Take periodical high-quality screenshots - Log typed Passwords (Professional only) - Log the IP address of monitored Macintosh - Send logs to Email/FTP at preset interval - Password protection for keylogger access - Customizable hot key for keylogger access

Parents: Watch your Kids Online Spouses: Catch a Cheating Spouse Employers: Monitor Employees on Macs

Download Amac Keylogger Standard 2.2 in Softonic

As the developers point-out, "Giving someone your IP address is the digital equivalent of giving someone your home address" and if privacy is a concern, you shouldn't be leaving it all over the net. NetShade prevents this by acting as a "middle-man" in your connection.

In reality, NetShade does nothing more than link you to a list of publicly available proxies that, with a little tinkering in your browser, you could access manually anyway. However, NetShade makes the process a lot easier and it includes it's own private server which is useful if the other proxies are unavailable or not working very well. The private server is particularly fast and reliable.

The floating NetShade interface is very well presented and extremely easy to use. You can select Direct Connection, Public Proxy or NetShade Proxy in a click of the floating control panel. A globe revolves and plants a flag where the proxy you are currently using is coming from which is another nice feature. The flag remains in your Dock over the NetShade icon so you know which country you are connected to. I also really like the way you can select which country you want to connect to via a drop down menu on the Public Proxy option.

Connections are established and disconnected very quickly which is unusual for a proxy application. The only slight drawback of NetShade is that you need to do a little configuring to make it work with Firefox. The configuration process is however really simple and only requires you accessing your Firefox preferences, and changing the Network settings to work with a system proxy.

NetShade looks great and is easy to use and this latest release is a vast improvement on the previous version.

Download NetShade 5.2 in Softonic