Motype is a powerful text animation plug-in that can add a touch of class to your After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Motion and Final Cut Express animations.

Motype can enable you to create the kind of flashy text graphics that you see in the movies but at a fraction of the cost. It works with most major editing applications such as After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Motion and Final Cut Express. For instance, you can add special blurring, 3D, particle and shadow effects to your intro or outro text that simply isn't possible in most editing applications.

It takes quite a while to get used to because it's designed for those that know their way around complex editing packages, so you'll have to spend quite some time learning it before you get what you want. However, once mastered Motype, it's remarkably easy to shape text into the effects and styles that you want.

Motype could still do with a wider choice of effects to add to text, but if you're just looking for a few basic extra touches, you'll find it more than sufficient.

Download Motype 1.1.1 in Softonic

FastCut offers video editing in realtime. Experience outstanding performance. FastCut uses the power of the GPU for accelerated graphical calculations.

Feature List:

• Dynamic playback quality for optimal performance
• 3D motion keyframe animation
• Masking
• Video transitions and filter FX (CoreImage)

Download FastCut 3.0.6 in Softonic

The application serves up a scrumptious mix of maintenance tools and interface tweaks, all accessible via a comprehensive graphical interface and toolset. It is a smooth and powerful utility that simplifies the use of advanced UNIX functions.

Disks

• Enable or disable journaling

• Repair disk permissions

• Set disk spindown time

System

• Prebind/re-prebind the entire system or selected folder

• Run cron scripts

• Change startup mode

• Modify sleep settings for portable computers

• Force empty trash

• Rebuild Launch Services database

• Update whatis and locate databases

Files

• Delete locked or inaccessible items

• Delete invisible DS Store files

• Clean system, user and Internet caches

• View, rotate, print and save logs

• Create symbolic links

• Recreate Mac OS 9 Desktop alias

• Lock or unlock files and folders

Network

• Change speed, duplex and MTU

• Optimize network settings for eight most common connections or apply the custom optimization

• Configure the built-in Mac OS X file server

Interface

• Customize look and features of Finder, Dock and login window

• Change screenshot file format

• Set window resize speed

• Modify hidden settings of Exposé, Mail, Safari and other applications

Pilot

• Easily optimize your system

• Schedule maintenance tasks

Download Cocktail 4.1.5 in Softonic

With Tidy Up! you can search for duplicate files: by the owner application, content, type, creator, extension, date modified, date created, name, label, visibility and more. You can also search by tag, duration and bit rate of MP3s and AACs audio files, search the content of iTunes and iPod dababases and synchronize deletions with iTunes.

Tidy Up! is fast, from 20% to 50% faster than the already fast Doublet Scan. With its multitasking capability, you can do more searches at a time and take advantage of the latest Macintosh computers and operating systems. Tidy Up! offers a full-size preview of the most commonly used files such as: audio, media, text, pdf, graphics, fonts and more... One of the most interesting features of Tidy Up! is the capability to separate, for quick and easy organization, found items using custom criteria via "Smart Baskets".

Download Tidy Up! 1.4.5 in Softonic

When it comes to creating complex eye-catching graphics, usually you need graphic design skills that are beyond the means of most mere mortals.

Toolbox allows you to to construct some amazingly impressive graphics using "building blocks" rather than paint brushes or spray cans. Toolbox is not like conventional image editing apps and it takes sometime to get your head around the way it works. In saying that, if you're used advanced applications like Photoshop, then Toolbox will seem pretty basic and will be fairly easy to pick up.

It's very hard to describe exactly how Toolbox works if you haven't worked with a building block design app before but it basically involves selecting pre-defined parameters and then putting them together in a creative way. However, it can't be denied that it's very frustrating not have access to a brush or simply retouch other images.

Toolbox is an innovative and unique design application but at 50 dollars to purchase to the full version, you'll probably only upgrade if you really love the building block design principle.

Download Toolbox 0.8.1 in Softonic

Long awaited by the Mac crowd, the beauty that is Pixelmator is finally out. This intuitive and sleek image editor can be seen as a slimmed down version of Photoshop. It integrates layers and filters perfectly and gives you all the essential tools of a good image editor: brushes, magic wand, objects, text, gradients and fills. The multi-windowed interface makes it very easy to edit. Every time you select a different tool, you'll notice that the "Tool" window at the bottom left will change to show the settings for that tool. Similarly, depending on the selected tool, the "brush" window on the right will offer different settings.

It's recommended that you have a Core Image supported graphics card when you use Pixelmator, and you'll understand why after experiencing the smooth transitions and flowing movements of the different elements of the application. The dark, slightly transparent look of the interface also sets it apart from other image editors.

Pixelmator is an excellent image editor in a gorgeous interface. It may not offer Photoshop shortcuts, nor all of the effects you can find in Adobe's image editing app, but Pixelmator looks great, is very intuitive and has pretty much all the effects and filters you'd need.

Download Pixelmator 1.2.3 in Softonic

Creates complex, dynamic, lyrical forms with and animation with ease. It combines artistic expression with interactive exploration of 3D form and motion. Anyone who enjoys fast, fluid 3D creativity will love GroBoto. Ease of use makes GroBoto ideal for artists who aren’t steeped in the technical aspects of digital 3D — and don’t really want to be. Its unparalleled quality-to-speed ratio provides great workflow for 2D & 3D Design, Illustration & Motion Graphics professionals who require high resolution, high quality imagery... and it’s just fun.

Download GroBoto 2.3.2 in Softonic

I'm a sucker for any game that features 3D graphics (it goes back to the days of Stunt Car Racer on the Amiga) and especially those that are free.

Marble Arena ticks both boxes and while it's not exactly the most spectacular or exciting game around (certainly not a patch on Stunt Car Racer) Marble Arena is a lot of fun. Basically, Marble Arena requires you to roll your marble around a 3D obstacle course going up and down slippery slopes, mastering air vents, jump-zones and even vortexes.

The more obstacles you successfully navigate in Marble Arena, the further you get and the more points you score. You can face a variety of surfaces such as sand, water, glass, ice and tarmac and if you get through them all, you're rewarded with upgrade points which you can use to improve your marble or change your skin.

It can be a bit boring on your own after a while although you do quite attached to the ball's plight. However, I imagine the real fun starts when you add more balls and more players who can roll against each other at the same time.

Marble Arena will either make you roll over and go to sleep after a few levels or lose your marbles trying to navigate it's many challenges.

Download Marble Arena 1.4 in Softonic

Blender is the open source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback. It lets users create high quality 3D graphics, movies and replay real-time, interactive 3D content. Over the last decade, Blender has evolved as an in-house tool for a leading European animation studio. Blender is powerful technology used for creating broadcast quality 3D content.

Download Blender 2.47 in Softonic

GameMaker is an easy to use card based development system which allows you to create simple adventure games with graphics, buttons, and text. There is no programming required, but it does have a small programming language which can be used to make better games. Just draw the pictures, type some text, click a few buttons, choose some options... and PRESTO, an adventure game is completed! You can then compile your game into a real stand-alone application that can be uploaded to online services.

Download GameMaker 3.9.91 in Softonic

Super Frog is a classic arcade game where you have to guide a frog across a busy highway to safety. This Christmas alternative to the popular game adds a bit of twist to it, with not only cars and trucks, but also candy canes and stockings coming into your way. After crossing the road successfully you'll have to make your way on a path and grab the present on the other side.

Christmas Super Frog is a fun timewaster but doesn't offer much more. First of all the graphics are really weak and the music itself gets annoying after a while. Even though the game is fairly easy to get used to, all you need is your arrow keys, it lacks any guidance for new users. We also thought the game got too difficult too early, as level 2 is already very challenging, with much more faster cars than the first level.

Christmas Super Frog is a basic time waster, fun for the holidays but nothing more.

Download Christmas Super Frog 1.9.1 in Softonic

Following the release of new versions of both Internet Explorer and Firefox, the infamous 'browser wars' are flaring up again. Despite both Firefox 1.5 and the Beta of IE7 making significant strides, it would be be foolish to think this was a two-horse race. While gaining a good reputation with geeks and power users, Opera has long been a bit-part player among the big boys of the browser world. However, if this preview release is anything to go by, the Norwegian-built browser could finally be ready to punch with the heavyweights.

Opera has been pioneering new ways of browsing the web for some time. It has had tabbed browsing since the days before tabbed browsing was cool and developed the innovative 'mouse gestures' control system, where you navigate through the web just by holding the mouse button and flicking your wrist. The developers even dabbled with a multi-pane interface for viewing several pages within one interface.

The good news is that Opera has lost none of its appetite for innovation, and version 9 is packed with new goodies that will have the programmers at Mozilla and Microsoft choking on their doughnuts. For starters the app runs much quicker than the previous release, making it arguably the quickest browser around (except perhaps for Safari) at rendering pages. Incredibly, despite this boost in performance, the program appears to use less memory than version 8.5, making it far less draining on system resources than Firefox and IE.

In terms of features Opera is the gift that keeps on giving. New to the program comes OSX Tiger-style 'widgets', allowing you to check news, convert currency, view the weather and so on through a series of draggable pop-ups which anchor themselves in front of the browser. Although there aren’t many widgets to choose from at present, this is sure to change once the tech-minded Opera fans start developing more.

Another great addition to Opera 9 is BitTorrent support, allowing you to download torrents directly within the browser – a feature that amazingly no one had thought of before. This system works very smoothly, which makes us wonder why RSS feed reading support in Opera is still so poor.

Among the other new treats within the program is a nifty new search feature which lets you add any search engine to the search bar in the main toolbar. This means you can instantly access searches within your favorite online destinations (Softonic, for instance).

Tabbed browsing remains, although some users may be annoyed to discover that Opera has added close tab buttons to the tabs themselves rather than as a separate button. Having said this, the new web page preview thumbnails that appear when you rollover a tab are a real masterstroke. Mouse gestures are still there too, along with the addition of Total Recall-style voice commands – another example of how cutting-edge this browser is.

Opera's developers have been keen to ramp up security features too, and although they aren't highly original, the new content blocking and pop-up blocking functions serve their purpose effectively. What's more, it's refreshing to see a browser that embraces the latest web standards so freely, with the latest release boasting support for CSS 2.1 and CSS 3 tags.

The browser is remarkably stable and is far better behaved than Internet Explorer 7. Combined with its speed, innovative features and standards support, Opera is undoubtedly web software's best-kept secret, and the final release may prove to be even better than Firefox. Don't say anything though, or everyone will want it.

Download Opera 9.52 in Softonic

Choosing the right font for a project is essential when it comes to its presentation. We've all seen those cheesy used car commercials using a messy font like "Sand". Don't let that happen to you! Take control of your font collection. In the old days, before Font Pilot, you'd be stuck manually installing one font at a time and relaunching your programs until you found the one you liked. Not anymore!

Using its superior font management engine, Font Pilot plunges into your system and digs up the dirt on your fonts. Copyrights, licenses, descriptions, postscript names, file sizes, locations, and so much more! However, Font Pilot would have hardly graduated flight school if it didn't go above and beyond its other classmates.

Font Pilot allows you to browse an entire folder of fonts that are NOT installed with a visual preview! While viewing the slideshow, click the Install button at any time to have that font permanently installed and activated on the computer. No fuss, no gimmicks, just pure functionality. Also activate (without installing) fonts on the fly!

Amongst these great features, and numerous others like the character map, key combo list, and print engine. Font Pilot is an essential font management software tool in any graphic designer's repertoire. Give it the free fifteen day trial, and we're sure you'll find it hard to let go!

Download Font Pilot 2.2.7 in Softonic

Lemmings is one of those classic video games that everyone has played at least once. If you haven't (shame on you) then here is a quick recap of what it's about. Your goal is to guide a group of lemmings through highly dangerous levels without getting any of them killed. Unfortunately, lemmings tend to be a little dumb and unaware of dangers surrounding them. However, you can give each of them a specific task so that the whole group manages it through levels.

The graphics in Lemmings are the same as 10 years ago, however you will probably overlook them if you are a true Lemmings fan. The gameplay is very easy to get accustomed to, and you can easily handle Lemmings with your keyboard.

One of the things Lemmings is truly infamous for is its difficulty level. As you progress through the game, and particularly near the end, you will be confronted with very very difficult obstacles. Either this will have put you off or you will rejoice at the complexity. In the end, Lemmings is really a puzzle game, which requires patience, planning and a whole lot of luck.

Get those Lemmings past the obstacles, whatever it takes!

Download Lemmings 1.4.2a in Softonic

Vector drawing is almost an art in itself, and something that takes time to master. VectorDesigner is a good program both for those looking to learn all about and others who already have some experience with the technique.

VectorDesigner offers a simple, multi-windowed interface from which you can use all sorts of tools and shapes like rectangles, stars, polygons or bezier creations. Boolean tools offered by the program are easy to work with and let you combine your different shapes in all sorts of ways. Vector drawing is perfect for creating posters, stickers, t-shirts...anything onto which you can apply a design. VectorDesigner takes this into account and lets you constrain text to any shape.

The program includes many filters and compositions, however some effects will only work if you're running Mac OS X 10.5. One element we did enjoy was the Flickr browser tool, by which you can find images in the photo sharing site.

VectorDesigner gives anybody the chance to work with vector drawings and create great looking designs thanks to powerful tools and effects.

Download VectorDesigner 1.4.2 in Softonic

PRAAT is a computer program with which you can analyse, synthesize, and manipulate speech, and create high-quality pictures for your articles and thesis. It has the following features:

Speech analysis:

• Spectral analysis (spectrograms)

• Pitch analysis

• Formant analysis

• Intensity analysis

• Jitter, shimmer, voice breaks

• Cochleagram

• Excitation pattern

Speech synthesis:

• From pitch, formant, and intensity

• Articulatory synthesis

Listening experiments:

• Identification and discrimination tests

Labelling and segmentation:

• Label intervals and time points on multiple tiers

• Use phonetic alphabet

• Use sound files up to 2 gigabytes (3 hours)

Speech manipulation:

• Change pitch and duration contours

• Filtering

Learning algorithms:

• Feedforward neural networks

• Discrete and stochastic Optimality Theory

Statistics:

• Multidimensional scaling

• Principal component analysis

• Discriminant analysis

Graphics:

• High quality for your articles and thesis

• Produce Encapsulated PostScript files

• Integrated mathematical and phonetic symbols

Programmability:

• Easy programmable scripting language

• Communicate with other programs

• Create hypertext manuals with sound I/O

Portability:

• Machine-independent binary files

• Read and write many sound and other file types

Configurability:

• Grow or shrink menus

• Save prefs for fonts, views, sound devices

Download Praat 5.0.31 in Softonic

Arkanoid is still as fun now as it ever was. Whether on a big old arcade box or on your Mac, the game always manages to keep its fun and excitement.

Arkanoid: Space Ball puts you in control of a little spaceship, with your goal being to destroy as many colored tiles as you can by hitting a ball back and forth. Arkanoid: Space Ball comes with plenty of bonuses and varying difficulty levels.

The quality of the graphics and sound isn't amazing, and I have to admit I expected something a little better, at least to separate Arkanoid: Space Ball from other games of the same genre.

Arkanoid: Space Ball comes with a level generator and editor, good for coming up with your own challenges, but most players will probably not matter with it.

Arkanoid: Space Ball is a good adaptation of the classic arcade game on Mac.

Download Arkanoid: Space Ball 1.1.9 in Softonic

Art of Illusion is a free, open source 3D modelling and rendering studio. It is written entirely in Java, and should be usable on any Java Virtual Machine which is compatible with J2SE 1.4 or later.

This latest version is both stable and powerful enough to be used for serious, high end animation work. Many of its capabilities rival those found in commercial programs. Some of the highlights include subdivision surface based modelling tools, skeleton based animation, and a graphical language for designing procedural textures and materials.

Download Art of Illusion 2.6.1 in Softonic

A little game of pool is always good fun and MacPool makes it possible.

We liked the sleek graphics, the way the balls roll, the semi transparent interface window and the colors used in the game. Hitting balls is all done by dragging your mouse to add force to your shot and calculate the angle. You use the arrow arrow keys to adjust the hitting point on the ball and add effects like top spin.

The game offers detailed instructions for anybody who might not know the rules of pool and the advanced settings, available from the top menu, allow you to set table cloth color or table quality (traction and cushions). You can supposedly play online against competitors from anywhere in the world, but we never managed to connect with anyone when we tried out MacPool. There's more than a dozen narrator voices to comment your play, some of them rather annoying and others amusing.

MacPool is an entertaining pool game for Mac. Although the controls are a bit tricky at first, once you get used to it it should prove loads of fun.

Download MacPool 10.5 in Softonic

When Softonic programmers are tired of working and need a break, they usually play a quick game at the table-football the company has installed in the coffee room. But now that I've found this game, they won't have to leave their desks to play their favorite pastime!

Master Kick is a fun arcade football game that's already been available for a while on different portable devices (Palm, Pocket PC). It's not exactly like other football sims you may have seen before: actually, it's a table-football (or foosball) game, meaning you play with football players attached to bar that you can move up and down to play the ball around the game field.

I don't know if it was because I'm hopeless at table-football, or because the game's AI is too high, but I found scoring goals quite difficult even in the easiest playing mode. On the upside, the game in itself is quite elaborate, with a varied selection of fields and even some crowd cheering sound effects in the background. You can play either a quick match or a complete league, and also try different team layouts. The only thing I missed was the possibility to play against another human opponent.

Master Kick is a fun table-football game, more like an arcade than a simulator. Pity it doesn't have a multiplayer option!

Download Master Kick 1.4.1 in Softonic