With multimedia portable devices growing in popularity and features, it's not surprising that DVD ripping tools like Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate have started to offer support for them so that you can take your favorite movies anywhere with you.

Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate is one of those applications: a full featured DVD ripper than can extract all data inside your DVD movies and convert it right away to another video format, including the most popular ones and – of course – video formats for mobile devices such as the iPod, the iPhone and the PSP.

Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate lets you choose the video size, image quality and audio quality, and also create and use different profiles according to the target format or device. Also, Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate lets you trim specific video fragments, edit video effects, adjust subtitles and even add a watermark so that you obtain fully customized DVD video and audio files.

Additionally, Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate can help you clip video segment, crop video size, edit video effects, adjust subtitle, and add video watermark, to get the customized DVD audio and video files.

In addition to ripping the whole DVD, you can also select specific chapters and convert only those. The whole process is done via drop-down menus and Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate is generally very easy to use.

With Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate you can rip the contents of your favorite DVD movies and convert them to different formats – including mobile video - in just a few easy steps.

Download Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate 5.0.40.0729 in Softonic

MAGIX Ringtone Maker lets you add some spice to your mobile device by creating your own ringtones and animated pictures. The program is extremely friendly to use. The interface itself is clearly divided in sections to select your media, edit the ringtone and export it. A help guide is easily accessible from the bottom right of the interface and tutorials for specific actions from the menu bar. We were impressed with the advanced editing tools on hand to add effects like distortion, filters or delay. Similarly, the equalizer was very effective at adjusting sounds. If you want to add extra elements, you can also access the extensive Catooh online library from the menu bar. MAGIX Ringtone Maker features a "simulate ringtone" button, quite useful to test your creation before exporting it.

We were also well impressed with the export function. The application provides a list of many mobile manufacturers and models to allow you to export to the format which most corresponds to your device.

Overall, the structure of the interface feels great, especially the timeline view, which really makes it easy to edit your media. We did feel however that some elements, like the media selection part at the top, felt a little bit crowded. It's a shame that you can't resize the interface window. Similarly, the installation process was a bit lengthy.

On the whole though, MAGIX Ringtone Maker is a great application to create and add media to your mobile device, providing a very accessible interface and loads of advanced editing tools.

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Yahoo! Messenger has long been one of the world's most popular IM clients, mainly because Yahoo! itself is such a large presence in the realms of web-mail, communities and so on. It now sits comfortably in second place to Windows Live Messenger in terms of user-base.

Among the new features in Yahoo! Messenger 9, the emphasis is very much on looks rather than functions. For example, the brand new IMVironment feature (which completely customises your chat windows) looks pretty impressive at first until you realise that nearly all of them are simply complex advertisements or marketing campaigns from firms like Gatorade and Kleenex. Improvements to the way contacts' images are displayed, as well as new photo-sharing via the excellent Flickr are welcome additions but even they can't dispel the bad smell emanating from IMVironment.

New emoticons have been added to this latest version of Yahoo! Messenger, as have new skins for the main window. To me, these represent fairly minor aesthetic changes rather than important new functionalities, and as such aren't enough of a reason to upgrade. More handy features like improved handling of PC to PC calls, MP3 voicemail, and better integration with Yahoo! sites have also been included but again, none except for the Flickr tool seems really useful. Really, this Beta feels as if it's about matching Live Messenger for features and not much more.

Yahoo! Messenger probably isn't aimed at users like me who prize usability and simplicity above bright colours and lots of advertising. If you like the sound of branding every chat window you use with Kleenex or Axe deodorant then Yahoo! Messenger 9 Beta is for you. If you'd rather use a simple, elegant and uncluttered chat interface, switch to Google Talk and you'll never look back.

A bloated, brightly coloured IM client packed with advertising and not much more.

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Nearly all software can be categorised as being from one of two groups: the programs that do one thing, normally fairly well, and the programs which do everything - often with some loss of quality. Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite (EMCS) is a classic case of the second type. While its capabilities are huge and impressive, they bring with them other problems like reduced performance and long load times.

The original cornerstone of Roxio's flagship product is CD and DVD burning. EMCS still packs a powerful tool for writing to disks but it's really all the extra functionality that makes this suite interesting. EMCS does it all: photo slide shows, video editing, iPod and MP3 player management, secure backups, multimedia organisation and video playback - to name but a few.

We tested each of the components and found that most of them perform to at least a satisfactory level. Sadly, Roxio included several design-related elements which annoy (like using custom window decorations, buttons and even file browsers when the Windows default shell is perfectly usable). Also, the suite contains numerous advertisements for new Roxio services which appear a little odd given that this isn't a free program. Likewise, Roxio's insistence on opening web links using Internet Explorer whether it's your default browser or not was disappointing: it's never a good sign when a program effectively forces you to do things its way or not at all.

The worst feature of the suite is without doubt the video player (called 'CinePlayer') which is nothing more than a run-of-the-mill movie player. After loading for nearly 30 seconds, it took ages to load a simple DivX file and crashed when a couple of buttons were clicked. When free players like VLC can do so much better, one has to wonder why Roxio didn't make an effort to deliver a really fast, lightweight player instead of the slovenly, unstable one bundled in this suite.

All that said, Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite is actually a pretty good bundle. We love the photo editing application which is fairly fast and has just the right balance of basic and advanced tools. The mobile phone photo wizard is a particularly cool utility which really did help camera-phone pictures look better.

The most significant problem with Roxio is the way it treats your PC. This is not a program which is designed to be removed once installed. It installs so many components to your system that you can easily lose track of them... and it fails to include a comprehensive uninstall application for the whole bundle. Instead, you must uninstall each component separately, a time consuming and irritating hassle. I'm still having trouble getting the 1.4 GB installer off my computer!

Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite is a powerful and comprehensive media suite. If you're looking for one bundle of software, which you'll never remove from your computer, to handle all your media tasks then this is the software for you. If, however, you prize quality over convenience, and have some respect for your hard-disk and registry, Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite is not recommended.

Download Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite 10 in Softonic

Monkey’s Audio is a lossless audio compressor which aims to reduce the size of audio files as much as possible without losing any sound quality. The program uses its own file format, .ape, which is known to have a better compression rate than the lossless FLAC format, but files tend to be larger than lossy compression formats like MP3 or AAC.

We recommend using Monkey’s Audio to compress audio CDs to your PC. Your songs will not lose their quality but will take up less space than if they were uncompressed. What’s more, Monkey’s Audio handles tag support, keeping all your file information, like artist name, track numbers and playing time.

Monkey’s Audio can decompress files back to their original type without losing any quality and the program features an option to verify the MD5 checksum of compressed files. Compressed .ape files can play in any of the major media players and the program can also install a plug-in to compress audio files directly from Winamp.

Monkey’s Audio is a great solution if you’re worried about losing any quality when compressing audio files. However, because it only compresses to .ape, you’re pretty much stuck with playing your converted files on your PC. To enjoy them on your mobile music player you’ll have to use another program, like dbpowerAMP Music Converter or Switch Free, to convert your audio files to MP3 or AAC, which remain the most widely supported audio formats.

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While the audio technology behind DVDs and computer speaker systems has improved greatly over the last few years, the applications designed to play DVDs on your PC are often less advanced. AVS DVD Player has been designed with this factor in mind. It aims to ensure that you get the maximum benefit from any surround sound or multi-channel soundtracks that your films have.

AVS DVD’s interface is typical enough, although it does include a handy shortcut button which lets you burn the file you are watching to a DVD. The program also distinguishes itself with an inbuilt set of codecs that will play most files, meaning you don’t have to trawl the internet for the right decoder just when you want to watch a movie. AVS is really flexible, supporting all the regular DVD and DivX formats but also Real Media, Quicktime and 3GP (mobile video) formats. It’s sound processing where AVS really excels, however, and if you’ve got a decent set of surround sound speakers, you’ll really notice the difference. AVS DVD includes a surround equaliser which distributes sound according to your setup. Currently, this multi-channel surround sound feature supports 3.1, 5.1 and 7.1 speaker configurations.

There is a price to pay, however, for this emphasis on sound. Unfortunately, AVS DVD player is hindered by several basic flaws. Firstly, it’s very heavy on resources. Even if you own a machine with a high-end processor and graphics card, you’ll notice that AVS hogs your CPU power, so it’s advisable to close absolutely every other application to prevent your system from becoming unstable. One technical drawback is that it does not de-interlace images. This means that if you’re watching torrents or DivX files taken from TV shows, you could experience poor image quality, especially around the borders of the screen. This is due to the image resolution in TV broadcasts which operate at a lower frequency than those made for DVD.

Another annoying problem is that you can’t make the playback controls stay visible on the screen in full playback mode. You end up having to return to a smaller viewing window to control the film you are watching. This is not an issue if you just plan on watching a film from start to finish but it is if you plan to stop and start it a lot. One other minor issue is the lack of extra skins available. The black default skin looks great and there are a few more to choose from but nowhere near as many as other players such as WinDVD.

For a totally free DVD Player, AVS is not a bad product and it certainly looks good. However, as many users report, the developers seem to have focused too much on design and sound features than the bread and butter of usability. Nevertheless, if you’ve got a serious sound system or want to feel the full thrilling sound of your films, it’s certainly worth a try.

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With Windows Media Player (WMP) 11 Microsoft aims to counter iTunes’ dominance. The interface has been beefed-up, usability has been enhanced and Microsoft has worked at turning its flagship media application into a full multimedia center, linked to online stores and compatible with mobile devices. We take a look at its new features.

The first thing that will strike you when you start up WMP 11, is the complete revamp of the interface. No more deep blue, the whole application is now dark and shiny and you can customize it by selecting a hue of your choice. The left side is a drop down pane for your library, the centre displays your lists and the right side is used to create playlists which you can rip, burn or sync with a mobile device.

Compared to version 10, we feel that Microsoft actually made an effort to simplify the whole interface and give you more ways to browse through your media list, whether by using the drop down menu or the quick rollout line on the top left. The “play” and “previous” and next” buttons are now nested at the bottom of the interface and have a jazzy glow whenever you roll over them. Microsoft has finally succeeded in integrating a good search function into its WMP interface. As you type the name of an artist or title the application will bring up the results in the main window.

WMP 11 makes all your media more accessible. Double click the Media Library button to browse from your music to pictures, movie files and recorded TV. The thumbnail view is a great way to quickly scan through pictures and videos and to include the album image to audio tracks. By clicking the “Media information changes” option under the Library button you can also scan your PC to automatically find new media files. Creating a playlist is a case of drag and drop and oddly enough you can integrate audio, video and pictures. Burning and ripping is also very simple, yet disappointingly converting is limited to WMA, WAV or MP3.

The sync process is promising yet remains a bit unstable. While it’s very easy to create a list and sync media, WMP can occasionally crash or fail to load your mobile device, even if you press the refresh button. When we tested it with a Pocket PC, we had to restart WMP 11 so that it would recognize it and let us sync our music. As soon as the device became accessible though, it also became visible on the left sided menu, making it very easy to browse through it for music or pictures.

The Media Guide is Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s Media Store. The first page it leads you to is Windows Media , an attempt at music and entertainment news linking to albums on sale. The page works like an inbuilt browser window and loads up fairly quickly. Even though you will not get access to the Apple Media Store, you can still buy music via other known sites such as Napster, MTV’s Urge (the default store) or eMusic. Whilst on the subject of online features, note that WMP 11 doesn’t let you save and update podcast feeds, something that iTunes does very well.

WMP 11 is a huge improvement from version 10. The whole interface is snazzier and makes browsing through your media simpler. Microsoft has also made creating playlists, syncing, burning or ripping just a case of drag-and-drop. WMP lets you check out music on dozens of online stores and is loaded with small features to customize your interface and change how you interact with your media. While the syncing process still remains a bit unstable and we lament the lack of podcast feed support, WMP 11 is a solid competitor to Apple’s iTunes.

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