iTunes 11 has been completely redesigned from the ground up. Development of iTunes has been stagnant the last few years so Apple needs to get this one right. Has Apple nailed it or is the new iTunes a mess? Read on to find out.

The interface of iTunes has been completely re-imagined. Everything is simpler and space is better utilized. In the previous version of iTunes, there was a persistent bar on the left where you can access playlists, albums, devices, and more. While it provided quick access to those features, most users didn't use them most of the time. Apple has scrapped this and has made the default album view take up the entire window.

Browsing by album is a pleasure. Click on an album and the tracks will show up below. iTunes also analyzes the color of album artwork to create a colored background for each individual album. It works well for the most part but the effect blurs the album art around the edges.

New in iTunes 11 is the "Up Next" feature, which is basically a fancy name for your queue. Add songs to your queue from wherever you are in the interface. You don't need to manage a playlist to arrange and rearrange the tracks to your liking.

Creating playlists is much improved. Instead of having to jump in and out a playlist to add and arrange tracks, playlists now have a dedicated pane on the right where you can manipulate tracks without having to jump around the program.

iCloud integration has also been tightened. Every track you've bought in iTunes will now show up in your music library, whether or not it has been downloaded. Click on it to download the album. User can now also stream directly from the cloud instead of having to download the track first. This also applies to all your TV and movies that were purchased in iTunes. There's also a dedicated tab for iTunes Match, Apple's music matching service to make all of your tracks available across devices, if they're available in the iTunes store.

The iTunes store has also gone through a redesign with featured content up top. Top lists are still there and are easier to browse. iTunes 11 will also allow you to access the iTunes store content from your music library, suggesting similar artists and tracks, without having to take you to the iTunes store.

The mini player has also been completely redesigned and is actually useful now. The mini player has gotten smaller but utilizes that small space much better than previous versions. Player controls will show up with you hover your mouse over the mini player. There's access to search and your Up Next queue can be manipulated from the mini player.

Devices now show up as a button at the top right. Clicking on it will take you to a detailed page where you can manage everything. Choose what you want synced, manage your apps, and even play music directly from your iOS device. Everything is easier to read and comprehend in the device tab.

The only thing missing from iTunes 11 is a music streaming service. iCloud gives users the ability to download tracks locally but not stream them. There is no subscription service in iTunes to compete with the likes of Spotify, Rdio, and Xbox Music. It's only matter of time before Apple releases its own music subscription service but it's disappointing that Apple didn't release it with iTunes 11.

iTunes is still one of the best media players around. It has gotten easier to use, feels less bloated, but is still missing a music subscription service.

Download iTunes 11.0.3 in Softonic

In fact, FrostWire has more than just a few similarities to Limewire although unlike the latter, it does not carry advertising and there are no annoying pop ups. Just as Limewire was, FrostWire is straightforward and easy to use. A simple search bar, divided by category, makes it a breeze to browse for a file, whether it is a video, image, audio, or program. FrostWire also has a What’s New button to check out what popular files users have recently exchanged.

One particularly handy feature of FrostWire is a special direct connect option. If you know the IP address of one of your friends, type it in the box and FrostWire will browse to that user’s files. This is a quick way of sharing files with someone you know although it would be even better if you could enter the username of a user rather than the IP address.

In terms of speed, much will depend on the speed of your own connection. It definitely helps though if you've correctly opened your router’s ports and whether you’re downloading a popular file or not. To avoid the risk of downloading copyrighted or adult material, FrostWire also allows you to apply content filters. Another handy feature of FrostWire is a built-in media player. Video and audio can be tested using Frostwire’s media player which gives you an immediate preview of your file.

However, one major annoyance with Frostwire is the number of fake files on it. Many songs and files look genuine but are in fact either completely fake or in the worst case scenarios, malicious. You should be very careful when opening files. It should also be noted that FrostWire is basically a stripped-down version of Limewire, but is a not-for-profit project. The developers claim it will never support Digital Rights Management (DRM) or any type of advertising. However, the demise of Limewire due to legal issues mean that FrostWire may well be targeted in the future for closure.

FrostWire for Mac is a hugely popular alternative for anyone who misses Limewire but there are a lot of fake files and it doesn't quite measure up to the latter in most areas.

Download FrostWire 5.5.6 in Softonic

With Awaken you'll be able to get up to the sound of your iTunes library in the morning.

The application, presented in a smooth and well designed interface, is essentially a digital alarm clock with a wide range of features. You can set up alarms different times and associate them with any song, playlist, podcast from iTunes, or just one of the built in sounds. It won't work with anything that's on an external hard drive though. When a song is played, Awaken will show its album art and information in its interface.

Setting up alarms is a cinch, and even if you fail to hear your wake up call, Awaken will launch a backup alarm for you. It also features snooze for those dark and cold mornings when you just can't get out of bed. If you'd like to use it for short tasks, you can work with the egg timer which can be adjusted to a few minutes or seconds.

We were also glad to see that Awaken works seamlessly with the Apple Remote, so even if your Mac is far away from you you can still control the alarm clock. However, you should know that alarms tend not to launch if an update of Awaken is available. Make sure you have the latest version of the program frequently to avoid falling out of bed.

Fitted with a beautiful interface, Awaken is an excellent alarm clock for Mac which works seamlessly with iTunes. It could just make you want to wake up in the morning!

Download Awaken 5.0.10 in Softonic

Now the wait is over, though the reaction around the Mac community has been less than impressive, with many users reporting problems and sync issues after the recent update to version 1.0.1. BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac is supposed to allow Mac users to easily sync data from popular applications like iCal, Address Book, Microsoft Entourage and others. It also allows you to add and remove applications, schedule automatic backups, encrypt backup files and install software updates for your BlackBerry smartphone.

BlackBerry Desktop Manager also integrates BlackBerry Media Sync thus enabling you to sync your iTunes music collection with your BlackBerry. Simply select the desired iTunes playlists from within BlackBerry Desktop Manager and the music, including song information and album art, is quickly transferred.

However, as mentioned earlier, users have reported problems when updating to this version of the program from version 1.0.0. They report contacts haven't been syncing properly, problems updating calendars, and even runtime errors. Note that installing this software also requires a restart of your Mac and disables all other BlackBerry syncing software installed on your machine. This means PocketMac for BlackBerry or The Missing Sync, will no longer be able to connect to your device and will not work until BlackBerry Desktop Manager is uninstalled.

It's unbelievable that it's taken RIM so long to BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac and depending on your individual experience, you may not think it was worth the wait.

Download BlackBerry Desktop Manager 2.4.0.17 in Softonic

Economical yet powerful Download Mac Recovery Software restore encrypted zip file. Highly configured data rescue tool support hard disk drives of different capacity and manufacture brand to regain inaccessible business document at an affordable rate. User friendly multimedia memory card images regaining program support advance searching algorithm to retrieve images and restore all valuable content without any modification.

Want to restore images from corrupted digital camera memory card? Don’t feel sad! Website offers Download Mac Recovery Software to restore important business document that are not detected or recognized by computer system.

Download Download Mac Recovery Software 5.3.1.2 in Softonic

Download Mac Memory Card Recovery program and see how to get back your permanently deleted and lost files and images. Data retrieval program runs on Mac operating system and easily repair multiple video, text, songs, images, pictures, wallpapers and many more. Easy to use repairing program supports major latest brands of storage media to get your precious and valuable file back.

Mac Memory Card Recovery utility enables you to repair all those files which were lost due to virus attack or improper shut down of system.

Download Mac Memory Card Recovery 5.4.1.1 in Softonic

Overview

Digital animation technology has improved so much that it’s now possible to animate your own talking heads from your home PC. CrazyTalk 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 users might be a little skeptical about the value of CrazyTalk, Give it a try though and you'll be pleasantly surprised by the power of the utility. Granted, most peoples' initial efforts with the program will likely be limited to taking pictures of friends and adding famous song or movie audio clips to them just for kicks. These first experiments in CrazyTalk will be a little clunky and look far from realistic when you rely on the automatic lip-syncing functionality.

Features

Once you delve deeper into CrazyTalk's settings though, you'll start to realize that you can actually produce some impressive animations.

With enough tinkering you can customize everything in CrazyTalk, 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.

CrazyTalk offers alpha channel support, making it ideal for producing talking images to welcome visitors to your web site or in presentations. The simple-to-use export facilities also allow you to save to a range of formats as a media file, email attachment or a personalized greeting.

There are a few flaws with CrazyTalk that are a little frustrating though. The auto lip sync feature isn't all that impressive or accurate, for one, and there's no support for MP3 format audio. There also aren't all that many preset templates to work from, which might be bothersome to some users. In addition, on Mac there are too many updates and when new updates are applied, you lose any bonus content you may have added.

CrazyTalk requires some getting used to, but once you get the hang of it you'll be able to create unique facial animations.

Download CrazyTalk 7.0 in Softonic

Quicksilver is a handy app and folder launcher has quickly become one of the essential applications on Mac.

For those of you not familiar with Quicksilver, it's an application that lets you reach any program, folder or file in a few keystrokes. You don't have to go searching through your files, you don't have to worry about how your folders are arranged. For many, Quicksilver was a godsend in the pre-Spotlight Mac era. Although it's lost some of its importance with the new powerful search and Finder features in Leopard it still remains very much an excellent Mac application.

The search function is very quick and powerful and once you've found what you're looking for you can apply a number of actions like simply launching it, emailing or moving. What's more Quicksilver adapts to the file it finds, so if it's a document you'll get to modify or send it, and if it's an email you'll get to email or copy it. Quicksilver users also like the fact that the application learns from what you search to bring up what you search for or use most.

Quicksilver wouldn't be what it is without its large library of plugins though. This includes everything from dialing a phone number to interacting with iTunes or image and text manipulation. This means you can really customize the application to work according to your needs.

The only downside is the stability issues that Quicksilver seems to have. The application is noted to crash every once in a while.

Despite this stability issue, Quicksilver remains an incredibly intuitive and powerful multi-application launcher for Mac. Recommended for productivity geeks.

Download Quicksilver 1.0 b71 in Softonic

iPad Video Converter Mac is an ideal video tool for users to convert video iPad, iPad 2 new iPad devices from video and audio formats like AVI, FLV, MKV, VOB, MTS, M2TS, and you can instantly convert AVI, WMV, FLV, RMVB, etc. iPad Converter for Mac can be as an iPad Editor Mac as well such as trim your video or audio files; adjust the aspect ratio and remove the black edges easily; add a text/image watermark to your video etc.

Bros iPad Converter Mac is a supreb video to iPad converter for Mac users. With it, you can easily convert any video(MPG, MPEG, VOB, MP4, M4V, WMV, ASF, MKV, TS, MPV, AVI, 3GP, FLV, MPV, MOD, TOD and HD video ) to iPad MPEG-4, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, AAC, MP3, WAV on Mac.

iPad Converter for Mac can be as an iPad Editor Mac as well such as trim your video or audio files; adjust the aspect ratio and remove the black edges easily; add a text/image watermark to your video etc.

Download Bros iPad Converter for Mac 1.7.12 in Softonic

Synthesia started life as 'Piano Hero', obviously trying to cash in on the Guitar Hero genre of music games.

The more sensibly named Synthesia is meant to be a gentle introduction to playing the piano on your Mac, although it's hardly a beginners tool. Firstly, you should note that without a real keyboard to plug into your Mac, playing it on your keyboard isn't much fun at all. To avoid any copyright problems, most of the songs in Synthesia are taken from old computer games such as Zelda and Bubble Bobble and you have to follow the falling bars on the keyboard to press the right keys.

This is extremely hard when key strokes can be within a millisecond of each other so you end up rapidly mashing your fingers into the keyboard. After you've finished, you get a nice little appraisal of your performance with a grade such as A, B and C etc. The program is simple to use and well presented but without a proper piano or synth keyboard, you can't do it justice.

If you're a piano player and have an external keyboard, you'll enjoy Synthesia - but without one, it's not much use.

Download Synthesia 0.8.3 in Softonic

Zulu DJ software is a DJ program for Mac. Drag and drop your music anywhere in Zulu DJ Software, and preview upcoming tracks before they play on a separate output for your DJ headphones. It can also be used with USB DJ Mixing Consoles. Your songs will always stay on the beat with Zulu's advanced, automatic beat detection.

Zulu virtual DJ software is the complete DJ software solution for amateur and professional DJs. Powerful features united with an easy-to-use interface makes mixing your favorite tracks easy. Zulu lets you mix your music live while applying effects o

Download Zulu Mac DJ Software Master Edition 2.4 in Softonic

The Chord Scale Generator provides settings for left handed players. It is also possible to define if you play the instrument as a lefty or righty. The graphical representations of chords and scales can be exported to other applications via the clipboard or as image files. Therefore, the Chord Scale Generator supports the creation of individual scale, song and chord books.

Rather than building on a statical limited database the Chord Scale Generator uses generic algorithms to enable calculations for any tuning or stringed instrument. The software supports all instruments with 2 to 12 strings (or doubled strings) such as guitar, bass, ukulele, banjo or mandolin as well as more exotic instruments like charango, bouzouki or balalaika. The usage of generic algorithms also allows for the individual extension of the program with additional chord and scale definitions.

The Chord Scale Generator is intended for all string instrumentalists (such as guitarists or bassists) who want to learn more about chords and scales. The Chord Scale Generator supports equally beginners and pros.

Download Chord Scale Generator for Mac 1.3 in Softonic

Snowtape brings back that eighties 'taping off the radio' vibe to the internet in a slick interface that anyone will be able to use. This demo gives you sixty minutes of recording time, plenty enough to see if you like the system. You can tune in to a selection of radio stations, or search for more and add them to the list.

Recording is simply a case of hitting the red button. Song titles will be automatically added, and any songs you record will be kept in a special Snowtape library. Your library can be exported to iTunes or a folder of your choice in MP3 or AAC format, to a maximum of 192kbps, which is reasonable quality.

Snowtape has a lovely interface, that's really easy to use and well presented. For recording internet radio, it really couldn't be better, and Snowtape makes the process unbelievably painless! Obviously songs on the radio aren't always complete, and the sound quality isn't fantastic, but it's hard to complain about free music. Snowtape is great for recording spoken word programs.

Snowtape makes recording internet radio as easy as could be, and looks great in the process.

Download Snowtape 2.1 in Softonic

Want to get rid of all those annoying duplicate files you have in iTunes? Dupin's aim is to help you via an easy to use iTunes style interface. It allows you to easily view your songs and playlists. You can search and filter songs based on numerous criteria like artist, album or size or by category, such as podcasts, audiobooks and movies. Dupin locates files in Finder and in iTunes, and even finds duplicates in libraries from other users.

In terms of performance, Dupin can be a bit slow at times, and iTunes' own speed is slowed down when both programs are open at the same time. When searching for duplicates in smart playlists Dupin is also not as effective as in normal libraries.

Some users might also be annoyed at having to examine every track to make sure that all duplicates have been eliminated. This is especially difficult when the check boxes to remove tracks are so small. There should really be an easier way of mass selecting those files in need of removal.

Dupin is a handy tool to quickly find any duplicates in your iTunes libraries.

Download Dupin 2.4.2 in Softonic

Want to get rid of all those annoying duplicate files you have in iTunes? Dupin's aim is to help you via an easy to use iTunes style interface. It allows you to easily view your songs and playlists. You can search and filter songs based on numerous criteria like artist, album or size or by category, such as podcasts, audiobooks and movies. Dupin locates files in Finder and in iTunes, and even finds duplicates in libraries from other users.

In terms of performance, Dupin can be a bit slow at times, and iTunes' own speed is slowed down when both programs are open at the same time. When searching for duplicates in smart playlists Dupin is also not as effective as in normal libraries.

Some users might also be annoyed at having to examine every track to make sure that all duplicates have been eliminated. This is especially difficult when the check boxes to remove tracks are so small. There should really be an easier way of mass selecting those files in need of removal.

Dupin is a handy tool to quickly find any duplicates in your iTunes libraries.

Download Dupin Lite 1.2.1 in Softonic

Download Sweet MIDI Player 2.5.1 in Softonic

Pandora is one of the best online music services you'll come across and, thanks to PandoraJam, you'll be able to enjoy it straight from your desktop. The application is fitted with a nice interface which displays a list of your stations, the basic playback buttons and a handy search bar. You can set the autoscrobble feature to submit your songs to Last.fm and use Growl to get popup updates on new songs in your list. PandoraJam will show status updates in Skype, Adium and iChat but not other IM clients.

PandoraJam is much more than a simple desktop application for Mac though. The program adds wireless streaming to Airport Express, which although unstable every now and then, should work well if you have a good wireless connection. You'll also be able to record songs playing in PandoraJam to play them in your iPod or iTunes. Unfortunately, since Pandora.com is now only available to the UK and US, lots of users will shy away from it and turn to Last.fm, which also provides a good desktop playback client.

PandoraJam is a desktop application for the online music service Pandora, with nice advanced features.

Download PandoraJam 1.7 in Softonic

To ease the learning you can change the tempo and transpose the exercises to your needs. The repeat part on miss lets you repeat the wrong passage immediatly to train difficult parts.

For each note statistics are kept to help you identify trends. Up to 8 users can use the program and compete for the highest score for each exercise.

To use Listening Singing Teacher you need a suitable microphone and a fast enough computer with at least 1 GB of RAM. Windows XP SP3 or higher.

Windows XP SP3 or higher.

Download Listening-Singing-Teacher Macintosh in Softonic

Chord Pickout is useful for guitar and piano players who need the chords to popular songs without having to transcribe them manually. This includes Guitar fingerings for guitarists for even easier playback. Of course, the results are never perfect which is why Chord Pickout allows you to modify and edit the chords to make them more accurate.

To use Chord Pickout, just download a song or audio file and save it to an MP3, WMA, OGG, AAC, M4A, WAV & CD file. Load it into Chord Pickout and the program does the rest. Chord Pickout transcribes the music and produces a printable and editable score to play from.

The most annoying thing about Chord Pickout however is that the demo only transcribes the first 20 seconds of a song. This is far too short to judge its performance before deciding whether to pay for the full version.

Chord Pickout doesn't produce perfect results nor is the demo long enough but for pitch deaf musicians, it's an excellent playing aid.

Download Chord Pickout 1.4 in Softonic

The creator of Senuti Free says: "The author of Senuti distributed copies of it for years under the GPL, which states: 'If you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must pass on to the recipients the same freedoms that you received.

You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights.'" However, as a result of this you obviously won't receive any support from the developer of Senuti as the app has now moved to a paid model.

Senuti could be useful to transfer music after a hard drive crash, the purchase of a new computer or just to move music between computers. When your iPod or iPhone is connected, Senuti Free instantly lists all the songs and playlists that it can detect. It can automatically add songs to your iTunes library or you can define a folder for them to go into. If you are worried about duplicates, Senuti Free displays a small blue dot next to every song you already have in your library.

The first thing that strikes you is the simplicity of the interface followed by the speed of Senuti Free. It uses a small file known as 'iTunesDB' on your iPod or iPhone device to rapidly extract every bit of essential information for every song and playlist. In addition, it supports simple dragging and dropping of both music and playlists, which will not only copy songs to your computer and add them to iTunes, but will make a new playlist with the same name and add all of the songs to that list.

Senuti Free detected our iPod's songs instantly and transfers to iTunes were extremely quick. However, Senuti can be unstable at times and because this is an open source version of the app, there are no fixes or support for such problems. If you experience too many problems with Senuti Free, you're highly advised to download the paid version of Senuti instead which offers regular support and fixes.

Senuti Free offers a quick and simple way of transferring songs and playlists from your iPod or iPhone to your Mac.

Download Senuti Free 0.52 in Softonic