Features

These days, it's an app that attempts to be all things to all people - play DVDs, organize music, catalog photos, convert video, interact with social networking sites, browse internet multimedia....there's no end to what RealPlayer offers to its users. Even so, it's not an out-and-out success...

Usability

For a start, installation of RealPlayer is annoying - it takes a while, requires lots of "nexts" and tries to install and enable several features that users don't really need. Finally, when it starts, you're offered a chance to upgrade to paid versions of RealPlayer before you have to register yourself with Real Networks. If all this messing around doesn't appeal, check out a slimline app like UMPlayer.

When you're up and running, RealPlayer features a wide interface where you will notice ads and videos recommended by Real Networks. This looks cluttered and messy, and it's hard to know what the app actually offers. In reality, RealPlayer is ideal for playing and sharing video with your friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter and it works easily with BlackBerry, iPod, iPhone and other game systems. The new video converter allows you to copy online video to your iPod, Xbox, PS3 and other devices. Unfortunately, you can't rip DVDs with RealPlayer, although this is available as a feature if you upgrade to RealPlayer Plus.

Most recently, RealPlayer has been updated with far better mobile and social networking integration. You can now copy your favorite videos to an iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry and dozens of other popular devices automatically. Downloading internet videos is faster, and for those of you with something to hide, RealPlayer offers a new Private folder. Social media has also been bumped up, with direct access to Facebook videos and usefully, a built-in feature to transfer videos to your mobile devices.

Quality

That said, RealPlayer isn't bad at all. It's comparable to Windows Media Player 12 as they both have some impressive ways of organizing your music. For me, the best feature is the CD burner which is something I've used from the early days of RealPlayer. The sheer quality of some of the media only available in Real formats makes RealPlayer an essential item in the toolkit of any fan of internet video and audio.

Conclusion

There's no shortage of media players theses days, and RealPlayer is by no means a bad option. It offers lots of features, good options and is a high-quality player that will do justice to your media. The only problem is that despite its modern features, it feels like a bit of a dinosaur. It's heavy and slow, looks chunky and takes an age to respond to clicks, and for many people - especially those who have experience of lighter options - it's just not the most comfortable player.

RealPlayer is a media player that, although powerful, has suffered from serious feature-creep over the years.

Download RealPlayer 16.0.2.232 in Softonic

Amazingly, since Bosnian developer Irfan Skiljan released the image viewer back in 1996, he’s generously kept it free of charge in spite of its massive popularity. Perhaps even more incredibly, the app still stands at just over 1Mb, bucking the trend of programs that swell immensely as the feature updates go by. In fact, it’s Irfanview’s slimline qualities that are its greatest asset, helping to make it the fastest image viewer in the West. Images load almost instantaneously when you click on them and you get rapid-fire results when cycling through a directory of photos using the Back and Forward buttons. It’s only when you’re flicking through vast amounts of images using the thumbnail viewer that things get a bit slow, which could easily be remedied do with an improved caching function.

Another of Irfanview’s crowd-pleasing talents is its ability to handle an enormous range of different file formats, including g, somewhat rarely, icon (.ico) files. Unlike many of its rival tools, Irfanview doesn’t try to impose itself as the default viewer for all image types, giving you the option to specify the formats you wish to associate with it for yourself.

The program’s functionality can be expanded by installing plug-ins that allow Irfanview to open other file types, such as movies and audio – again a unique feature among photo viewers. You also get a smattering of basic editing features such as crop, rotate, flip and resize, along with some bread-and-butter effects like blur and sharpen, plus a smart crop function.

Upon first try, many users might be put off by the somewhat basic interface and the fact that it loads new images externally, rather than within the GUI itself. Nevertheless this is a small sacrifice to pay for a program that proves to be probably the quickest way to view images on your PC.

Download IrfanView 4.35 in Softonic

So much emphasis is placed on adding showy effects and filters to your images on graphic design programs like Photoshop. You also need to make sure the finer aspects of your images are perfect as well.

Golden Ratio can help you do that by letting you properly compose the elements in your images, as well as measure proportions to ensure all elements in your photo look correct.

As a measurement tool, Golden Ratio has two main windows to work with. The first is translucent and remains in the foreground. It can be placed above any image on the screen you want to edit. This window contains a grid and measuring axises.

The other window is your control panel that lets you alter the transparency of each element, see different angles and lengths, change the appearance of lines, and define the type of composition rule (think: the golden ratio or the rule of thirds).

Golden Ratio also include two different tools: the Stencil and Measure tools. Golden Ratio's Stencil tool is used to create template patterns, which you can use along with any other sort of graphic design software. The Measure tool defines two lines on your screen and will display the angle and the ratio of them for your convenience.

Unfortunately, the control panel in Golden Ratio can look a little cluttered and be a little complicated initially to figure out how to use. It'd also be nice if there were an option to be able to minimize the program to your desktop tray when you're using multiple photo editing programs.

As a stand-alone photo editing and image optimization, Golden Ratio really shines.

Download Golden Ratio 3.0 in Softonic

Floor plan: Create the individual floor plan of your room to the dot. Easily copy and draft your floor plan with our background image-function. Simply upload the image, and draw over it. Drag your interior or materials from the catalog in your room. Push and pull them like you would in reality. Use our sidebar to control your object. Wherever possible, roomeon will automatically help you with your interiors. Objects will seamlessly snap into place, and orient themselves exactly to walls. Let the execution be flawless, so your ideas can be wild.

Graphics: Roomeon has a integrated 3d-Graphic engine, that reacts on your interaction speed. If you move fast, the gloss goes. Once you stand still, welcome back to high definition photo-realism. A unique feature which spares you long loading times. Integrated light-function lends your room authenticity. Let the sun shine in or get comfy and close the blinds. A light-flooded living room or an atmospheric office environment - simple mouse clicks bathe your rooms in the desired light.

The Software roomeon is for interieur designer, archictects and anybody else how wants to design rooms.

Download roomeon 3D-Planer 1.4.2 in Softonic

Now suppose you have a digital photo and a beautiful landscape picture, and you want to add you digital photo onto the landscape picture. You want to softly blend them together, and the blended picture should be natural and attractive. You are looking for a photo editing software which can do it easily and quickly.

You can easily blend your digital photo onto another image to create special effect with Magic Photo Editor. You can also easily add many pretty frames, flowers and cartoon pictures onto your photo. It makes your photo more interesting and attractive.

You can easily change the size and position of the photos, flowers, cartoon pictures or text just by clicking and dragging them.

Give this photo editor to your girlfriend or wife. I think it makes a good present.

The features include:

1) There are 180 masks for you to choose, which changes your photo in different shapes then blend it onto the backdrop image

2)Add 100 cliparts onto your photo, which make you photo more beautiful

3)Add 180 cartoon pictures onto your photo, which make you photo more interesting.

4)Add 60 outlines onto your photo, which make you photo more shining.

5)Add text comments onto your photo.

6)Add pretty frames onto your photo. There are 100 frames included.

Download Magic Photo Editor 6.1 in Softonic

PhotoShine's biggest problem is its interface, which is hard to navigate, doesn't resize properly, and just looks a old-fashioned. Improvements here would make the app much, much better. If you can get past this, though, PhotoShine is packed with loads of features, frames and scenarios that will allow you to personalize your photos for almost any occasion you can imagine.

To use PhotoShine, just hit the green folder icon and you can open your photos. Once they're in, you can re-orient, resize and move them, as well as applying some color effects, like gray, old and sketch. Some of PhotoShine's effects are better than others, though, so check them all out before saving.

Where PhotoShine really stands out, however, is in its effects, frames and other features. There are bunches of them for you to play with, organized into strange-sounding categories called things like Baby, Simulation and Magazine. The great thing about PhotoShine, is that simply clicking on the effect is enough to insert your image very accurately - it detects people and faces very well, and even if it doesn't, you can change them by double-clicking again.

PhotoShine's effects are certainly not to everyone's taste, but if you're looking for some fun for your photos, it's worth checking out.

Download PhotoShine Mini 4.0 in Softonic

1. Unlimited Creativity – Settings are adjustable allowing for unlimited looks and styles 2. Updated Style Templates – New styles offered regularly for free download 3. Built In Sharing – Share directly to Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr 4. Before and After Comparison – Easily review before and after effects 5.Customize Key Points – Adjust key points for tilted and off-center profiles s 6.Saved Looks – Save favorite looks for sharing and comparison 7.Print Posters and Photos – Easily order high quality prints and posters

1. One-Touch Touchup and Makeup –One-touch preset cleanup and style templates 2. Instant Facial Recognition – ArcSoft’s algorithm allows accurate facial mapping instantly 3. Multiple Face Recognition – Up to 20 faces are automatically detected (PC Only) 4.Cleanup Features – Clear blemishes and under-eye circles, remove shine, soften skin, and whiten teeth 5.Makeup Features – Face, lips, eyes, contact lenses adjustment for color and intensity 6.Enhancement Features – Smile enhance, bridge and

Perfect365 is a One-click makeup, which can detect faces in images automatically and let users make cosmetic changes, like fading dark circles under eyes and so on. Also allow users add makeup,which could make it useful for testing out new looks.

Download Perfect365 1.0.0.9 in Softonic

Chicago Tribune's Metro app features an identical tiled design and integrates well into Metro. Every set of tiles shows a different section in the app, although you might see some run-over from one section to another in the right hand side of the app. Each section in the Chicago Tribune Metro app corresponds to a different topic in the newspaper, such as Sports, Top Headlines and more. There's generally one larger, featured article in each section, with a picture to illustrate, and then smaller articles below.

Reading specific articles is as simple as clicking on the article title. Every article is formatted similarly, with a single image. The articles are easy to read and written in columns just like a regular newspaper. Articles scroll left to right if they're longer.

Unfortunately, there are very few links in the Chicago Tribune Metro app, and multimedia is limited to photos. You also lose a bit of the social aspect of reading an online newspaper, since there are no comments. There's not even a search tool in Chicago Tribune's metro app, if you want to find something specifically. iOS newspaper apps like The Guardian have implemented their apps much more successfully.

The Chicago Tribune Metro app is off to a good start, but it needs to implement more multimedia and social features in order to really shine.

Download Chicago Tribune for Windows 8 in Softonic

This is a completely unique program and there are no similar in your market yet. This is a network messenger which is already very successful on the Android, iPhone and BlackBerry markets and now we decided to make the same one for PC, so people who want to chat with others and stay in contact with friends can do it from everywhere.

For all who want to have plenty of friends to chat with in Messenger. This could be anybody who has PC and internet connection and want to meet new people. Somebody who is interesting person and want to share its thought with others.

Download Giggitus Video Chat 1.0.6 in Softonic

This software enables you to touch up your digital photos fast. Everything is so simple you never need to read a manual - after you point and shoot just click and goPhoto Touch doesn't try to replace major graphics programs.

It just gives you everything you need when you want results fast. Instant Optimize functionYou'll love this if you&'ve ever struggled with all the complicated settings in a graphics editor.

Just select a photo and click Optimize. Suddenly a dull photo starts to shine. There's nothing to configure, you really just select and click. The results look attractive and natural, not artificially boosted.

You can also optimize all your photos with a single click; it's just as easy as a single photo. Red eye correctionCorrecting the dreaded red eye effect in flash photos is just as easy: Just roughly select the part of the photo containing the red eyes and click, Photo Touch does all the rest.

You don't have to make a precise selection; the red area is found and corrected automatically. Here too, the result looks attractively natural and you get it instantly, without having to spend hours studying a manual.

Rotate, brightness, contrast and effectsClick once to rotate photos that are on their sides. Adjust brightness and contrast with simple sliders.

Convert your photos to graphic black-and-white or sepia or invert the colors, all with a single click. Instant preview, instant results - and just click on Undo if you change your mind.

Download Photo Touch in Softonic

VSO PhotoDVD is easy to use and generally intuitive. It uses a wizard to guide you through the process: add your photos (drag & drop or use the file > add file(s) option), then apply effects and music, and finally burn them to DVD. Of course, you can preview your slideshow at any point to make sure it is turning out the way you want.

VSO PhotoDVD has plenty of settings, both technical and aesthetic. You can choose between NTSC and PAL coding and tweak image specs and properties, as well as adding photo transition effects, subtitles and a soundtrack. Once you are happy with your creation, the VSO PhotoDVD wizard prompts you to burn it to disc. There is even a label editor, to make sure the end product really shines.

VSO PhotoDVD has a help file, but it must be downloaded separately, and although the program uses a wizard to guide you, it requires some familiarity with slideshow editing programs and is probably not suitable for total beginners. On other hand, the effects it provides are sweet, but not very advanced, so anyone aware of the variety of slideshow effects that exist is probably not going to be happy with the limited range offered by VSO PhotoDVD.

VSO PhotoDVD is a simple, easy program to allow editing newbies to get started in the world of photo slideshows.

Download VSO PhotoDVD 4.0.0.37 in Softonic

I have to admit, it would be nice to reply just on one photo editing and viewing program to manage my photos.

The problem at the moment is that I use Picasa for uploading but not for editing or management. Visions is designed to try and unite all the most important photos editing and managements tasks in one program, mainly viewing, editing and sharing. Editing photos is very simple in visions and the feel is really professional and solid. In particular, the program outs a heavy focus on the right tagging of photos via it's advanced Meta (EXIF) editor. The problem or advantage, depending on whether you use it regularly, is that the only way you can share photos with Visions is via Flickr so like it or not, you'll need a Flickr account. But what really shines out with Twins Visions is the 3D viewer which allows you to view and manage your photos in 3D. Via the 3D showroom, you can navigate through your folders, run slide-shows of your photos, manage your albums, perform quick photo collection tasks and execute advanced search queries on your collections.

This is an immensely attractive and powerful photo management/viewing application. However, it does require a Flickr account.

Download Twins Visions 1.0.0.169 in Softonic

If you've ever wondered why the models in magazines always have such perfect skin, then look no further. Softener is remarkably effective at transforming your photos into something that could quite easily go into a copy of Vogue. According to the developers, 'Softener' is the effect that glamour photographers use to smooth skin imperfections. Adding Softener to a photo gives it a soft, dreamy haze that leaves skin looking as good as a magazine cover model. It's perfect for close-up photos and portraits - any photo where you want to see the face, but not the imperfections.

Normally, you have to pay big bucks for this kind of effect and because Softener is digital, you won't need to reshoot a photo to change the effect. You can undo any changes to an image at anytime. There are also plenty of tweak settings until you've found that perfect skin you are looking for. There's not much to criticise other than the fact that it's obviously not as good as using a proper lens. Sometimes it just seems to simply make the skin more pink rather than soften the image as such.

However, this is an excellent cheap solution for those looking for professional images.

Download Softener Plug-in 1.27 in Softonic

Glamour Filter is designed to improve your portraits by balancing colours, lights and contrast. You just have to load a picture, press the 'Add Glamour' button and see the preview next to your picture. At this point you can decide to add a soft-focus and a saturation effect which can make your photo a little bit fake or ‘dream-like’ if you want.

The application is basic and easy to use, and can be suitable for non-tech savvy users who would like to improve the appearance of a picture in a few clicks. Although you can set some values to the filters, the results are not exciting and basically any graphics editor can improve saturation, brightness and contrast in a very easy way.

Glamour Filter can help you improve the appearance of pictures with easy contrast and colour optimization. The soft-focus effect can also add some 'shine', which some may like but others not.

Download Glamour Filter 1.1.1 in Softonic

This unique 3D-accelerated screensaver features true photo-realistic and astronomically accurate 3D animation of the Earth viewed from Space. It features beautiful scenes of cosmic sunrises and sunsets, stunningly real-looking atmosphere effects, oceanic shines, and surface relief.

The unique and randomized camera flyby trajectory gives you the opportunity to see the planet from different perspectives. Each single frame of endless smooth animation is comparable with the best NASA photos, so this screensaver can be also used for educational purposes (just imagine how it looks on a screen projector in a dark room!)

Download Earth 3D Space Tour screensaver 1.1 in Softonic