Limewire, one of the world’s most popular peer-to-peer filesharing applications, has received a lawsuit from the RIAA, who are demanding $115 million in damages, claiming the application promotes the infringement of copyright. Similar applications like Grokster and Kazaa have been forced to go legal and there is speculation as to just how long LimeWire will resist until they have to buckle and pay up. The existence of the popular P2P application is not under threat, but if you haven’t given it a try yet, here’s just what makes it a standout program.

In terms of file sharing, LimeWire is the cream of the crop, offering the essential peer-to- peer tools in what is probably the friendliest interface of applications in its class. Beginners will appreciate the search bar, which allows you to select the type of file you’re looking for, video, image, audio, program or file. LimeWire has a “what’s new” button to check out what popular files users have recently exchanged. We also enjoyed the direct connect option. If you know the IP address of one of your friends, type it in the box and LimeWire will browse that user’s files. This is a quick way of sharing files with someone else and can come in handy when working on a project and exchanging documents. The only little snag we have with direct connect is that it doesn’t let you enter the username, much simpler than looking for your friend’s IP address.

Downloading with LimeWire is very intuitive. After you’ve searched and found the file you are looking for, double-click on it to start the downloading process. The speed of your download depends firstly on the quality of your connection (broadband is a minimum), if you’ve correctly opened your router’s ports and whether you’re downloading a popular file or not. We would like to point out the effort that Limewire takes to make itself accessible to beginners. Not only does a tip pop up every time you launch the application, the help option also leads you to LimeWire’s support centre, FAQs and a forum to get in contact with other users.

The lawsuit carried out by the RIAA is all the more surprising because of the measures LimeWire takes to keep you in the realms of legality. If you decide to download LimeWire from its website, you will first have to agree you will not use it for copyright infringement. When you’re configuring the application, you can set content filters, to avoid downloading files that copyright owners do not want you to share. To avoid embarrassing situations, make sure you tick the “block adult content” box, which will filter out any pornographic files from your searches.

The best way of checking the quality of the audio or video you’re downloading is via LimeWire’s mini player. It’s fairly basic and to par with the players you find in similar filesharing applications, but we appreciated the way it was integrated in the application.

If there’s one thing that we’re still expecting from the LimeWire team, it’s that it finally decides to jump on the BitTorrent bandwagon. Torrents are the way forward when it comes to peer to peer file sharing because of the speed, the security and freshness of downloads. Large files like movies or complete seasons of TV series are much easier to download via BitTorrent. We were also annoyed by the “buy the PRO version” window that popped up every time we started LimeWire.

For its wealth of possibilities and huge base of users, (more than 4 million simultaneously on the Gnutella network) we encourage you to give LimeWire a test drive. Because of the controversial nature of the application, you should always make sure that you aren’t using LimeWire for illegal activities like copyright infringement. However don’t be scared off by the legality issue. LimeWire, like most P2P applications is one of the most exciting possibilities that the internet gives us. It would be a shame not to give it a try. You should also check out Frostwire, the not-for-profit project of the LimeWire development team.

Download LimeWire Basic 4.18.8 in Softonic

As English speakers, we don't usually have any problems with understanding movies and TV shows in their native language as a great percentage of them is produced in our mother tongue. However there are quite a large number of movies in other languages for which we may need SubDowbloader's help.

This program enables you to search the Internet for subtitle files for any video files you have in your computer. This means it can work the same with movies and series. The search procedure is a bit strange, as you have to select the actual video file you're searching subtitles for - instead of entering the video's title which makes more sense to me.

On the upside, the program lets you search subtitles for several files simultaneously, making the task a lot easier when you need subtitles for a complete season of your favorite TV show. You can also upload your own subtitle files, which keeps the program's database in constant growth thanks to its users.

If you ever need subtitles for your movies or TV shows then give SubDownloader a go: it may be the faster, easier way to find them.

Download SubDownloader 2.0.5.1 in Softonic

Thanks to the constant improvement of broadband connections, watching TV over the internet is now possible. The current trend is to use Peer to Peer (P2P) technology to stream media quickly to consumers. TVU Player allows you to watch major cable channels over the internet, by sharing your bandwidth with other users.

TVU Player usually streams around 20 different channels, from a large American sports network to the major Chinese television channel and you can watch everything from gossip to movies or sports. TVU Player is extremely simple to use, you only have to double click on the channel of your choice, wait a few minutes for it to buffer, and start watching. Refreshing every now and then lets you check whether new channels are on offer.

TVU Player is a bit unstable, so you shouldn’t be surprised if it fails to initialize or if the channel you are watching tends to lag. If very few people are connected to the same channel you might get poor streaming quality, but if you are watching a popular program there should be a good number of peers sharing the load and the transmission will flow. Always remember to check the number of peers before watching a channel.

TVU Player doesn’t let you set your preferences, like your preferred bandwidth speed or which port to use and there is no way of getting extra information on the channels. There is a command button, but we couldn’t figure out what it was meant for, and TVU Player lacks help files to guide you out of problems. The interface window is mid-sized but you can’t enlarge it, though even if you could, we believe you would end up with a pretty poor quality image.

In other words, TVU Player is far from polished. However it’s an exciting application, which opens up the possibilities of television on Internet. While not everybody might be interested in watching Koweit TV, TVU Player still streams big American and Chinese channels and the other eclectic content. Don’t get taken aback by the instability of the application. If you have a solid broadband connection and a keen sense of curiosity, we suggest giving it a try to get a glimpse of the near future of television.

Download TVUPlayer 2.3.7.1 in Softonic

Online TV Player lets you watch 850+ free Internet TV and listen 1500+ free online radio stations on your PC. It allows watcher to watch directly into TV without having to experience the annoyances of a Web site (like slow-loading pages and pop-up ads).

No additional equipment required. Online TV Player support both Windows Media and Real Video. You can play most of stream formats in one program. It can set the screen window to any size that you want. It supports full-screen mode too.

Download Online TV Player 4.6 in Softonic

Don't be fooled by the name - Alarm Clock Pro is much more than just a flashy way of getting you out of bed on time.

Alarm Clock Pro is a fully functional organizer and scheduler that aims to ensure you never miss an important date again. As a wake-up alarm, it allows you to configure the tone as anything from an internet radio station to an MP3 and even a movie or daily task. If you don't have your PC in your bedroom that's no problem either - Alarm Clock Pro can be configured to send wake-up text messages to your cell phone.

An alternative use for the application is to have it periodically check your webcam and automatically send security screenshots to your e-mail address. This way, you can use your PC as a closed circuit TV monitoring device. In addition, you can program it to randomize the iTunes playlist, remind you of holidays and special occasions, perform system tasks, automatically send out birthday cards, text message your daily task list to a cell phone, amongst other things.

One slightly unusual aspect of Alarm Clock Pro is the ability to speak inspirational quotes at random moments throughout the day. This can be programmed to occur at virtually any specific time interval set by yourself to keep you going through the day.

An attractive interface combined with an array of different uses make Alarm Clock Pro one of the best alarm clocks around - it's just a shame it's not free.

Download Alarm Clock Pro 8.4.7 in Softonic

Watching television is no longer a dining-room activity. With the number of available online TV channels constantly increasing, chances are you'll end up watching TV on your computer rather than on a TV set.

Internet TV is the perfect tool to watch television on the PC. This free app gives you access to more than 5,000 TV channels that stream content over the Internet. Among such a wide offer you'll surely find something you like, from news to sports, from music to documentaries, from religion to education.

Using the program is a piece of cake. Simply select the channel you're interested in and click on the "Play" button on the right-side screen. After a few seconds of buffering, the show will start. I have to say most of the channels I tested worked perfectly fine and only a few failed to start, most of them when I tried to filter contents by country. Apparently it's better to just leave the "All countries" option enabled. Also, when a channel didn't work sometimes it showed music instead, so in the end it wasn't that disappointing.

Internet TV lets you add your own Internet TV channels, if you know any that's not currently on the list and provided you have all the necessary data. A Favorites list completes the array of included features.

Internet TV is a basic viewer with which you can access thousands of streaming TV channels worldwide. Perfect to have a sneak peek at how television looks like in other countries and other cultures!

Download InternetTV 7.12 in Softonic

Esmas Player is a truly multimedia application that provides the user with almost any tool they may need to enjoy image, music and video files on the computer.

The program's interface is suspiciously similar to that of iTunes, which makes us wonder why is it that developers weren't able to come up with a more original design. Similarities to iTunes don't end here, though: as you'll see, you can organize your library, play your favorite songs, edit tags, listen to podcasts, synchronize contents with your portable music device and even buy music online. Some people may find this resemblance somewhat uncomfortable – like a cheap imitation – but it's also a way to make the program look familiar and be easy to use from the very beginning.

Leaving comparisons aside, Esmas Player goes a step forward and also enables you to organize photos and videos, and also features extended functionality such as a disc burner, a DVD player and support for online TV channels and radio stations. During our tests, however, I had the impression that some of its functions were not properly implemented or at least not as easy to use as I expected. Also, though the program's language can be set to English, both the installer and documentation haven't been translated from Spanish yet.

In all, Esmas Player works fine as an all-in-one multimedia organizer, but it still needs some improvements in usability – as well as adding the necessary distance between iTunes and itself in order to avoid odious comparisons.

Download Esmas Player 11026 in Softonic

Online Live lets you watch 3645+ free Internet TV, on demand videos and listen free online radio stations. The live television channels database is the biggest worldwide. No additional equipment required. Online TV Player supports Windows Media Player. You can play most stream formats in this program.

Download OnlineLive 6.3.41 in Softonic

FireANT is an RSS video aggregator and media player that helps you keep up to date with the latest internet TV channels and programming.

With the FireANT Player, you can subscribe to any RSS 2.0 channel and automatically download fresh media content to watch and listen to. In this way, you don't need to keep checking your favourite channel - whether it be CNN or ESPN - to see whether there's anything you want to watch on as FireANT delivers it all to you in much the same way as Google Reader tracks your favourite blogs.

The other big draw of FireANT is that the media player is incredibly versatile - rivalling VLC Player in some respects - as it's able to play just about any format without the need for codecs including Quicktime, Windows Media, Flash, Real Media. FireANT can even sync downloaded files with portable media players such as iPod and Sony PSP.

In addition, FireANT player comes with an integrated Yahoo! Video Search function. When FireANT was originally released this was probably quite useful but now that Google is king, you probably won't find much use for it. You can also interact with video creators by sending comments to them based on their content although I'm sceptical as to whether this actually works properly.

A format free and fun way to keep track of your favourite programming, FireANT is maybe a bit dated now but better than having to keep checking channels for new content yourself.

Download FireANT Beta in Softonic

anyTV lets you play TV channels and radio stations that stream their contents on the Internet. The program features a huge list of channels from hundreds of countries around the world.

The list is divided into TV channels, radio stations and videos, the latter being presumably videos from web pages about the most diverse topics. Lists can be filtered according to several topics and also arranged by rating, bitrate or genre. In spite of that, sometimes the channel list is difficult to manage especially when it's too long. One feature I missed, for example, is being able to jump to a certain part of the list by pressing its first letter on the keyboard.

anyTV looks very promising: a nice interface, hundreds of TV channels to watch and radio stations to listen to, a Favorites system, the possibility to rate channels… unfortunately while testing the program we found way too many channels that didn't work well or didn't even load at all. And what's worse, the program didn't show up any error message to let us know if we were missing any codec or other necessary component.

Watch streaming TV channels on your computer without any additional hardware.

Download anyTV 2.20 in Softonic

If you're tired of always watching the same channels in your TV set, why not try channels from other countries that stream content on the Internet?

This is precisely what you can do with PCShowBuzz, an Internet TV tuner that allows you to watch hundreds of TV channels from all over the world. Channels are classified by country and also by genre, so it's easy to find something interesting to watch. There's also a button for radio stations, but apparently this function is currently not working. The program features some advanced tools as well, such as a bookmark manager to save your favorite channels and the ability to schedule channels for playback or recording (with a third-party tool).

As for other similar tools, image quality depends on several factors: your Internet connection, your computer specs and also the channel's features. Generally speaking PCShowBuzz worked fine during our tests, though I found it a bit annoying having to wait until the whole buffering was finished in order to start playing a channel.

PCShowBuzz lets you watch online TV channels from many different countries and genres right in your computer.

Download PCShowBuzz 1.20 in Softonic

Make no mistake: the media industry has changed significantly in the last couple of years. Big corporations are now starting to consider the possibility that their traditional business models could well be about to crumble around them. Newspapers are facing the blogging threat, podcasting is the cool alternative to radio, and now the big TV stations must be starting to sweat a little following the dawn of free online video services such as YouTube, Joost and the one we're about to review: Miro.

After a few months in beta stage, Miro has reached version 1.0, which is considered as a new milestone in the production and development of video and TV content for the Web. Miro is defined by its developers as "the open-source Internet TV platform". In fact, it's been built by a non-profit organization called the Participatory Culture Foundation, which aims to bring together a community of broadcasters to create, what it calls, an 'Internet video ecosystem'. But besides all these elaborate definitions, Miro is simply a great application to watch online videos.

You could now be wondering what's the point of using Miro if you can get those same videos from other places? Well, Miro makes the process faster and much easier. The program uses open protocols to let you subscribe to video channels and video blogs that are fed in via RSS, and uses BitTorrent to download the files. You can also watch videos from Youtube and Dailymotion, or use it to subscribe to a Youtube channel you like, for example. The program supports video playlists and can resume playback just where you stopped.

The inclusion of the 'Channel Guide' is a welcome one, as it helps you get started with the program and also lets you search and browse the various channels effortlessly. Not only can you browse through the existing channel list, but you can easily add new channels simply by clicking a button to subscribe. There are more than two thousand channels available, and all of them are free. Beware, however, that the video quality may vary from one channel or video source to another.

Another great benefit of Miro is that it can handle a wide variety of video formats and, as a good open-source project, it ignores DRM and patents. These and other interesting features are used to compare Miro to Joost, but I think there's no reason for this comparison: they're just different applications with different purposes. In any case, Miro's first public release is an excellent example of how video content from different sources can be integrated into one single application and served directly to your PC in a fast, easy and elegant way.

Download Miro 1.2.4 in Softonic

I'm sure that over the years you've managed to build up quite a collection of music. However, if you were born before the year 2000 then the chances are they won't all be stored in the form of perfect quality digital audio files. Vinyl, tapes and CDs were very good at the time, but given that we're all used to listening to music in crystal clarity these days, it can be quite painful to listen to these crackily old recordings.

Cool Record Edit is here to help though, allowing you to polish up your music and audio through an intuitive editor. The program is able to import recordings from LP, Internet, radio, TV, cassette, etc. to your hard drive, before making refinements to it. The application contains many useful tools, such as an amplifier, reverberator, volume gain, etc. as well as a handy zoom feature for pinpoint manipulation of the audio spectrum. I was also mightily impressed with the click and crackle filter, which is particularly good for cleaning up vinyl recordings.

Once you've edited your audio, you can committ it to CD using the built-in burning tool, and there are also tools for ripping and converting. If you want a program that can edit tracks for mixing and creating your own music then look elsewhere, but if you're after something that can improve the sound quality of your audio then Cool Record Edit is a powerful solution.

Download Cool Record Edit 5.9 Pro in Softonic

Watch over 853 television channels all over the world with TeleStreamer. The application streams all online video content that TV channels make available on the web. For each country then, you'll probably get satellite channels rather than the national ones, but you still have a really large choice, with many news channels in nearly all the languages in the world. It’s also a good way to have a general idea about how TV formats are elsewhere; bear in mind though that maybe you will not have access to the most popular programs.

The GUI is very simple and clear. There is a list of nationalities with TV channels associated and you just have to double click on the one you want to watch. Not all the programs will work, but this may also depend on the availability of the content provider’s server. When you manage to connect to a channel though, the sound and the video quality are fairly good and you can either watch the program in windowed mode or, by double-clicking on it, enjoy the full screen mode.

Unfortunately, it’s not possible to pause the stream, as the program doesn’t store data on your hard disk. It is a big limitation considering that it’s a very easy function to have on PCs and it’s the real plus in rapport to traditional broadcasted TV.

Although you can’t have any control when watching a program, TeleStreamer allows you to watch 853 channels all over the world, both to practice your language skills and to see what’s going on in Africa, Iraq or Suriname, if you know where that is.

Download Tele-Streamer 1.0 in Softonic

ChrisTV Online! is software for Windows which brings to your desktop a large number of TV channels, radio channels and other kinds of video/audio content broadcasted on the Internet (like music video clips, movie trailers, public webcams, etc) using only your Internet connection and no other dedicated hardware. Having a channels' database with 800+ TV channels and 600+ radio stations from more than 100 countries, ChrisTV Online! provides you access to those channels and more than that a professional user friendly interface to watch and listen high quality video/audio content from the Internet.

The channels database is updated on a daily basis, so you'll benefit of an increased number of updated channels' streams every time without any effort. An outstanding feature of ChrisTV Online!, which you will not find in a similar software product, is the frame display mode which lets you watch video played content in a custom or predefined size frame window. This frame video window can be dragged in any place of your desktop and in combination with 'Always on Top' feature gives you the option to work on your computer and watch your favorite show in one corner of the screen.

The ChrisTV Online! interface offers you fast and easy access to all channels available in our database through the Channels List panel, where you can Group channels by Country, Type, Category, Language, Station Name. To gain fast access to your favorite TV channel or Radio station, you can add them to ChrisTV Online! Favorites List, which provides the same grouping feature as with the Channels List.

Download ChrisTV Online! 2.99 in Softonic

Kat MP3 recorder is a powerful and free, sound recorder for your computer. It is very user friendly and all the options available to set the sound quality and the file formats are visible from the main program view, making it very easy to use.

The interesting feature of this program is that you can record any sound that is passing through your computer, which includes phone calls with Skype or other VoIP programs, your favourite internet radio programs or even game soundtracks. With this versatility, Kat MP3 recorder can replace many different recording programs previously used to record just phone calls, or internet audio streaming.

The application worked well during my test, but I had to select a sound quality of 192Kbps in the format settings to obtain a decent quality for the recordings. Lowers settings seem to make the sound too distorted for my tastes. You can save your recordings as MP3 files, but also WMA, OGG, VOX and many others.

Kat MP3 recorder is useful, free and easy to use. It can record any sound passing through your computer's sound card and saves it in 7 different formats. Record phone calls or your favorite radio programs to create your own personal audio collection.

Download Kat MP3 Recorder 1.1 in Softonic

They said it would come but I never believed them - live TV on the Internet, that is. Zattoo brings genuine TV to your PC via peer-to-peer technology, indicating the appropriate selection of television channels based on the country you live in, something that no Internet TV app has done successfully to date. After registering for a Zattoo account online and installing the client, you'll get an overview of the available TV stations in your locality.

For viewing things like live sport, Zattoo is a dream come true. You simply click onyour desired channel and the transmission begins within a few seconds. Providing you have a quick Net connection, the streaming of the broadcast will work very smoothly, with only a few seconds delay from the live television show itself.

Zattoo finally brings genuine live TV to your computer, after a very long wait, and because the program provides channels local to you, you don't have to endure commentary in gobbledegook. Although the image quality leaves a lot to be desired, with a fast Internet connection, Zattoo gives you genuine live television in a way no other application can do at the moment.

Download Zattoo 3.1.1 Beta (2000/XP) in Softonic

They said it would come but I never believed them - live TV on the Internet, that is. Zattoo brings genuine TV to your PC via peer-to-peer technology, indicating the appropriate selection of television channels based on the country you live in, something that no Internet TV app has done successfully to date. After registering for a Zattoo account online and installing the client, you'll get an overview of the available TV stations in your locality.

For viewing things like live sport, Zattoo is a dream come true. You simply click onyour desired channel and the transmission begins within a few seconds. Providing you have a quick Net connection, the streaming of the broadcast will work very smoothly, with only a few seconds delay from the live television show itself.

Zattoo finally brings genuine live TV to your computer, after a very long wait, and because the program provides channels local to you, you don't have to endure commentary in gobbledegook. Although the image quality leaves a lot to be desired, with a fast Internet connection, Zattoo gives you genuine live television in a way no other application can do at the moment.

Download Zattoo 3.1.1 Vista in Softonic

This popular web tv player allows you to watch TV programs in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Arabic and many other languages. The live channel guide is divided by thematic categories such as music, news, educational, sport and shopping. In the station-by-region menu, you have a list of all available channels divided by nationality so you can have a quick glance on the offer.

Unfortunately, the choice of programs seems to be based on a quantity, not quality policy. It does offer TV channels from all over the world although you will not have the best national broadcasters.

TV's design is really disappointing: the main page is stuffed with so many advertisements that using the application can be confusing; the list of channels is presented in a very inelegant way; the video is slow to start and the video player is different for every channel.

TV might be an interesting application if you want to watch 'not-so-common' TV programs from all over the world but you will have to put up with poor quality and design.

Download TV 2.1 in Softonic

The aim behind YarNE is to provide an online TV service which enables you to choose which shows you watch and when. It’s essentially a video-on-demand service, featuring short load-times and decent image quality all at pretty respectable resolutions.

Although the design follows the guidelines of its well-established competitor Joost, from the home page it’s not immediately clear what you have to click to select a channel and view a video. While testing the program, we found that an easy way to proceed is to click on the triangle button called "Theatre", then choose a channel, like "Documentaries", and click one of the items available in the list on the right. The video will start after a few seconds.

Another comparison worth making between YarNe and its competitors is the amount of content available. Unfortunately, YarNe fails to offer much of a selection. Hopefully, as the number of users will increase, the number of videos will follow suit and in that case the service could start to look more interesting to a much broader audience.

In spite of the developer’s good intentions, the application fails to deliver on what it promises. The biggest problem YarNe has is its lack of content: there are only a few videos available to watch, although the quality is in line with competitors.

Unfortunately, YarNe is still not good enough to make you decide to throw your television away.

Download YarNe 1.37 in Softonic