Few can dispute the fact that Apple created a flawless product when it built the iPod. However, the company did omit to include one feature that still bothers me. The legally-aware developer made it so that you couldn't copy tunes from your iPod onto another computer. OK, so it means everything is above board, but it also means that if you get a new computer or your hard drive fails, you have to build up your MP3 collection all over again. Luckily, there are now several programs available that let you copy your iPod tunes to any machine, and CopyTrans is a good example of one of these.

The process of synchronising your music with CopyTrans is a simple one and you can choose to archive your collection or import it into a new iTunes library. All you need to do is connect your iPod, wait for the program to scan the device, choose your transfer settings then wait for CopyTrans to work its magic.

It does take quite a long time to copy across the music, but the operation works very well and I experienced no problems other than that it didn't reproduce all of the album art I had. The program boasts some nice features such as selective transfers, incremental back-ups, and repair to damaged iPod databases.

If you're scared of losing all your iPod data then install CopyTrans and erase your worries with ease.

Download CopyTrans 2.590 in Softonic

Mac users are often regarded as very loyal customers, but that's because they have very good reasons, such as iTunes, to stick to Apple products.

iTunes has become one of the most widely spread music managers today. The release of the iPhone and the new iPod models has only contributed to increase this popularity, thanks to the seamless synchronization of contents between the computer and your device.

Now with iTunes 8, Apple continues to develop and improve this music software masterpiece with fresh new features that enable users to make the most of their multimedia library.

Managing your iTunes library is a piece of cake. You can view extended information about each track, edit their tags and rate them. Also, iTunes lets you comfortably browse through your library with the amazing Cover Flow system or the newly implemented grid view, which displays cover artwork sorted by album, artist, genre or composer. And for those of you who work in a LAN environment, the great news is that you can share your music libraries with your network mates.

One thing I particularly like of iTunes as music manager is its ability to create playlists. The Smart Playlist tool enables you to create almost any kind of playlist based on just about any criteria you set: artist, genre, date added, star rating or even the number of times you've played each song. Another great playlist is the so called Party Shuffle, which comes in very handy when you invite some friends over to your place. You can then leave iTunes working as a DJ and play music on its own, but if you drop by the PC at any time, you can freely add more songs to the list or rearrange them in any way.

Regarding playlists, iTunes 8 includes now an exciting new feature called Genius. Just like other popular music sharing tools, Genius learns from the tracks you play on iTunes and recommends you similar songs, either from your own library or from the iTunes Store. In this way you can easily build thematic playlists by grouping similar songs, and also meet new bands you may not know about. The only drawback is that Genius needs to gather information about your music library and send it over to Apple in order to work, something that privacy freaks won't be happy about.

However, if there's something where iTunes is not perfect yet, that's the player function. You may disagree here, but I think the iTunes player falls too short, especially when compared to its music manager side. It does have some interesting features, like the Smart shuffle function and crossfading playback, but I still find it too simple. I also missed the ability to control the player from anywhere with global hotkeys, which is great if you listen to music while you're working on the PC with other apps. Fortunately there are some plug-ins that cover this need.

In all, despite these slight flaws, iTunes is probably the best choice to manage your music collection –and that includes Windows users.

Download iTunes 8.0.1.11 in Softonic

Do you have a favorite DVD movie that you would like to watch on the move on your iPod or iPhone? Then Plato DVD to iPod Converter is what you need.

Plato DVD to iPod Converter has been especially developed to convert DVD movies straight into the correct audio and video format for Apple mobile devices, so that you can easily enjoy your favorite DVDs on your iPod or iPhone.

Plato DVD to iPod Converter is very easy to use. Simply load the DVD movie you want to convert from the DVD drive on your computer and select the target conversion profile in the program's Output menu. You can tweak all settings: video size, bitrate, frame rate, aspect ratio and more. Plato DVD to iPod Converter can also be set to automatically shut down the computer when the conversion is finished. Apart from that, there are no other configuration settings.

I especially liked the simplicity of use of Plato DVD to iPod Converter. On the downside, it seems there's no easy way to select what chapters you want to convert – I'd prefer a full list on the interface rather than menus and submenus which are uncomfortable to browse.

With Plato DVD to iPod Converter you'll be able to convert your favorite DVD movies to an iPod or iPhone compatible format and enjoy those videos on the move.

Download Plato DVD to iPod Converter 8.87 in Softonic

If you have different devices with video capabilities, you need a complete video tool like ALO AVI MPEG WMV 3GP MP4 iPod PSP Converter.

With ALO AVI MPEG WMV 3GP MP4 iPod PSP Converter you can convert from the most popular video formats to those formats used in devices such as the iPod, the Zune, the PSP, the PS3 or the Apple TV. All you have to do is load the source video, select the target format and let the program take care of the rest. Plus, you can convert several videos simultaneously.

Formats are conveniently organized in profiles according to the target device.
ALO AVI MPEG WMV 3GP MP4 iPod PSP Converter lets you tweak those target profiles by customizing bitrate, frame rate, video codec, audio bitrate and other elements, but unfortunately you can't save this customization as a new personal profile.

ALO AVI MPEG WMV 3GP MP4 iPod PSP Converter features a straightforward interface and is really easy to use. It includes a video window preview, but it's meant to only show video as it's being converted, not work as a built-in player.

With ALO AVI MPEG WMV 3GP MP4 iPod PSP Converter you'll always find the right combination to convert videos from one format to another and watch them on any device.

Download ALO AVI MPEG WMV 3GP MP4 iPod PSP Converter 6.6 in Softonic

Do you have a favorite DVD movie that you would like to watch on the move on your mobile phone? Are you having trouble in finding the right app you convert it?

Plato DVD to 3GP Converter is what you're looking for. This simple video converter has been especially developed to convert DVD movies right into the standard video used for most mobile devices, 3GP.

The program is very easy to use. Simply load the DVD movie you want to convert from the DVD drive on your computer and tweak the conversion options according to your needs or the characteristics of the target mobile device: video size, bitrate, frame rate, aspect ratio and a lot more. The program can also be set to automatically shut down the computer when the conversion is finished. Apart from that, there are no other configuration settings.

I especially liked the simplicity of use of Plato DVD to 3GP Converter. On the downside, the interface is a bit too dull. Also, it would be great to have predefined profiles for certain devices, such as the iPod, the iPhone or the PSP.

If you want to convert your favorite DVD movies to 3GP and carry them on your mobile device wherever you go, this is the tool you need.

Download Plato DVD to 3GP Converter 8.87 in Softonic

With such an ever growing range of multimedia devices, no wonder format converters are becoming so popular these days!

Any Audio/Video Converter is one of those converters: a simple, easy-to-use application that support pretty much any format you can find nowadays and lets you convert both audio and video files in just a few steps.

The program works with a list where you add the files you want to convert, no matter what format they are. Then you configure the conversion options for each one of them separately and finally click on the "Convert" button to let the program do the rest. I think this method is quite handy and saves you loads of work and time; pity the trial version only accepts one file on this list!

Any Audio/Video Converter includes a built-in player in its interface, but it's only good to watch the video while it's being converted and not preview it before actually starting the process.

With Any Audio/Video Converter you can convert basically any audio and video file you can think of, in a quite easy process that involves very little effort.

Download Any Audio/Video Converter 5.6 in Softonic

There’s a plethora of music players to choose from, among which iTunes and Winamp usually have the upper hand. However, if you are curious enough, you might find that lesser known alternatives like MediaMonkey offer a reasonable amount of features and tools to organize and equally enjoy your music library.

MediaMonkey automatically scans your PC for all types of music formats. If you have playlists from other programs, it’s good to know that the application also adds m3u files, sparing you the pain of having to recreate them. The file explorer view on the left lets you easily navigate your music collection by categories like artist, genre or rating. You can convert tracks into any format you wish, depending on what size or quality of sound you’re looking for. MediaMonkey also lets you analyze and adjust the volume of tracks to increase your listening experience.

MediaMonkey has made its reputation on its advanced tagging management feature. Every time a track is added, the program will verify its tags. You can automatically fill in missing details with info from Amazon or Filename. The program can clean up your tags, move information into the correct categories and synchronize tags for selected tracks. You can also rename and move multiple files thanks to the auto-organize function. MediaMonkey also supports Winamp plugins and visualizations plus skins can be applied to spice up the interface.

If you want to make your own mix CDs, you’ll be happy to know that MediaMonkey rips and burns CDs and DVDs. Create a virtual CD of your favorite tracks and let MediaMonkey do its job. Budding DJs will enjoy the auto-DJ mode, which mixes tracks for you and the Party Mode, which blocks your configuration but lets anybody play their favorite tune. MediaMonkey’s versatility doesn’t stop there. The music manager also lets you synchronize with your portable music devices like your iPod or iRiver.

If you feel like completing your library with a couple of fresh albums you can browse sites like Amazon, Barnes and Noble or AllPosters and purchase tracks. However, unlike Songbird, where you can type in a URL, browse and save your favorite music blogs and sites, MediaMonkey only allows you to browse their selection of online stores.

We were disappointed with the web radio selection, which only features Shoutcast and Icecast, and were surprised to see no sign of podcasts anywhere in the application. However version 3.0 is planning on incorporating this to the application.

Despite these drawbacks, we recommend MediaMonkey to anybody looking for a solid alternative to iTunes or Winamp. This original music manager is more than capable of organizing a very large music library and offers advanced tagging management rarely seen in other music applications. While the browser and web radio are fairly limited, MediaMonkey allows you to rip your custom CDs and connects to most portable music devices. If you really take a liking to MediaMonkey, cough up a few bucks and upgrade to the Gold version, which will open up all of the program’s functionalities like finding missing tracks or creating auto (smart) playlists.

Download MediaMonkey 3.0.4.1185 in Softonic

FreeRip is a freeware Windows application that lets you save audio CD tracks to Wav, MP3, WMA, Ogg Vorbis or FLAC audio files. FreeRIP is also an audio file converter and it can convert audio files from one of the named formats to another.

Converting your audio CD collection to digital audio files to move to your portable digital audio player (including iPod), mobile phone, car audio system, or whatever, is a matter of minutes with FreeRIP. Just start FreeRIP, put audio CD in and click on Rip button.

FreeRIP is a CD ripper, this means that it can record digital audio tracks directly from audio CD to files onto your hard drive (this process is known as "ripping"). You can save tracks as CD quality WAV files or encode them to a lossy (MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA) or lossless (FLAC) audio format.

FreeRIP supports extended tagging and ID3 v2 standard, so that you can add information to audio tracks like artist name, song title, lyrics and so on, and FreeRIP will store them in the audio file itself. It also provide access to FreeRIP CD Database, an Open Source, collaborative CD information repository. It also provides backward compatibility with well known freedb CD database.

FreeRIP lets you convert audio files from a format to another: its integrated audio converter helps you to convert as many files you want between the most famous audio formats.

It also includes a contextual search button to help you finding information, images, videos and lyrics about the selected track or artist. Find a song lyrics in few seconds: select the track, select "Search Lyrics ..." menu option and browse search results to find what you need.

Download FreeRIP MP3 3.091 in Softonic

The iPod is a great music player but it's also a bit picky when it comes to supported audio formats.

iPod Audiobook can lend you a hand in these situations by enabling you to convert a handful of audio formats to MB4, the audiobook format supported by the iPod. This means that you can convert complete music collections to this format and have them synced to your iPod via iTunes in the blink of an eye.

iPod Audiobook is very easy to use, with a wizard-style interface to convert audio files. Plus it supports multiple simultaneous conversions and is also seamlessly embedded into Windows File Explorer. This means you can convert files right from the context menu, without having to open the program itself. With such a nice interface and handy tools, it would be great to have more audiobook target formats to choose from.

iPod Audiobook is a format converter specially developed to convert from a wide variety of sound formats to the iPod native audiobook format.

Download iPod AudioBook 1.1 in Softonic

If you have a large collection of videos on your computer and a video-capable portable device, you may find this app quite useful.

Xilisoft Video Converter Ultimate is a simple, straightforward tool that enables you to convert video files between a wide array of formats, with special attention to mobile phones, handheld gaming consoles and multimedia players such as iPod, iPhone, iRiver and Zune. All supported formats are presented to the user as profiles that you can simply choose from a drop-down list.

There's also the possibility to create your own format profiles by tweaking a few settings, such as video size, image quality and sound quality, among others.

Xilisoft Video Converter Ultimate also features a built-in video player you can use to preview the video you're about to convert. Sadly the program was a bit too unstable and crashed every now and then during video conversion.

Despite the odd crash, Xilisoft Video Converter Ultimate is a handy video converter specially created for mobile devices.

Download Xilisoft Video Converter Ultimate 5.0.98.0729 in Softonic

If you have a large collection of videos and a video-capable portable device, this might be the perfect app for you.

ImTOO MPEG Encoder Ultimate provides you with a straightforward tool to convert video files between a wide array of formats, with special attention to mobile devices, handheld consoles and multimedia players such as iPod, iPhone, iRiver and Zune. All supported formats are saved as profiles that you simply choose from a drop-down list, though you can also create your own format profiles by tweaking a few settings.

Besides converting, ImTOO MPEG Encoder Ultimate includes some extra tools with which you preview the video, take a snapshot, add special effects, trim the image or even add a watermark to it. Too bad the program was so unstable during our tests: it crashed every now and then without any apparent reason.

Despite these crashes, ImTOO MPEG Encoder Ultimate is a very complete video converting tool that well deserves a try.

Download ImTOO MPEG Encoder 5.0.9.9 Ultimate in Softonic

liteRecorder is a simple sound recorder and editor in one that combines an elegant interface with easy one-touch recording.

liteRecorder works very simply, presenting you with the basics such as the number of channels, bitrate and ratio, type of file you want to save (WAV, WMA, MP3 or OGG) and recording time. You can set it to record over a given period of time, meaning that you can program it to record streaming audio while you sleep. For instance, you could record a streaming lecture while you're sleeping and then transfer the audio file to your iPod ready to listen to on the way to school or college the next morning.

The application can also be used to record Skype calls although it would be nice to be able to synchronize calls with when they start. If, on the other hand, you want to use it as a personal dicta-phone, you can chat away while you work, recording messages and memos that you can then e-mail in MP3 format.

There's nothing special about liteRecorder although it is a very well organized and presented application that fulfills just about any recording need.

Download liteRecorder 1.7 in Softonic

Many people spend hours on Youtube and other similar sites watching online videos. But wouldn't it be better to download them to your PC and watch them any time you like?

xVideoServiceThief is precisely the tool you need. This smart app lets you download online videos from more than fifty video sharing sites and convert them straight away from FLV to other popular video formats including AVI, WMV, MPEG, 3GP and MP4 (iPod-compatible format).

xVideoServiceThief is extremely easy to use. Just copy and paste the video URL from your favorite video site and it'll be added to the download list. You can then start downloading it right away or collect a few videos to download them all at the same time later on. This is quite convenient, as you can leave xVideoServiceThief working in the background while you keep on working on something else, and you'll get a notice window as soon as the download process is finished.

Like I said before, xVideoServiceThief supports more than fifty video sharing sites and allows you to block inappropriate content if necessary. The program also features a handy drag-and-drop window where you can directly paste the video URL. It would be even nicer if it recognized URL addresses when copied to the Clipboard though.

With xVideoServiceThief you can easily download and convert online videos from pretty much every video sharing site you know.

Download xVideoServiceThief 1.8.2 Alpha in Softonic

DVD protection is advancing at an ever increasing rate but unfortunately for the manufacturers, so are the ripping programs. If you’ve ever had problem’s copying one of your favourite DVD’s (just to make sure you’ve got a backup of course) then DVDFab could be what you’reve been looking for. It has proved popular a hit with thousands of Softonic users so far and there seems little prospect of its popularity waning.

DVDFab is an all-in-one DVD copying/converting/burning software. In just one or two steps, you can copy DVD’s to DVDR/PSP and even iPods. For such a powerful package, it only requires a mere 1.3MB of your hard drive hardrive so its not bulky like similar packages. However, note that this is the ‘lite’ version of the software; and the fully featured Express edition will probably weigh-in at somewhat more than this.

The conversion process itself couldn’t be easier. There are 5 DVD to DVD copy modes available - Full Disc, Main Movie, Split, Customize and Clone. To use any, its simply a matter of inserting your disk and Windows will ask you if you want to open it with DVDFab amongst other programs installed on your PC. In Full Disc mode, all movies, menus and trailers, are copied to a DVD in one click. In “Main Movie” mode, only the movie is copied with your specified audio. In “Split”’ mode, you can copy a DVD-9 onto two DVD-5 discs but also preserve the original menus on both discs. According to the developers, this rare little feature is apparently ideal for TV series DVD’s.

The handy “customize” mode allows you to personalize your DVD’s by recording such things as only your favourite scenes, removing adverts or selecting only certain audio tracks. Finally, “Clone”’ mode allows you to make exact 1:1 bit-to-bit copy of DVDs or even copy games disks such as PS2 DVD’s. There is also a DVD to Mobile option so you can reduce your favourite films to watch on your iPod or other favourite hand held device. Formats available include MPEG-4, DivX, XVID and Mp4.

DVDFab is a tough cookie – even those disks that refuse to be copied with other programmes can usually be cracked. The customise option allows you to get rid of pesky files that stand in your way and just rip the actual movie or essential files. It can also help in reconstituting recovering scratched or dirty disks that don’t play properly in your DVD player anymore. In addition, the ripping speed is remarkably fast. Depending on the size of disk, you can record a new one in less than 10 minutes although the average time is around 30 minutes.

One of the minor drawbacks to this ripper is that the inevitably heavy processing power needed to rip a disk often results in crashes. This will obviously be less of a problem on more powerful machines but on machines with old processors, using DVDFab may become impractical. Many user forums are however full of praise for DVDFab claiming that it can rip more disks and whatsmore, faster than comparable products such as DVD Shrink or ShrinkTo5. At the end of the day, most users consistently report they appreciate the simplicity and power of this rip-roaring ripper.

Download DVDFab HD Decrypter 5.0.9.0 in Softonic

Have you ever wanted to search for and download your favourite videos without using your browser? Free FLV Converter lets you automatically access sites such as YouTube, DailyMotion, Google and Metacafé without opening anything else.

You can search by keyword and preview each video found in the rather basic interface and also download them in FLV format. After that, you can convert the files to AVI, IPod, IPhone, 3GP or PSP format. It also works vice versa and if the files in question are already in FLV format, it can convert to DivX, Xvid, MPEG, DVD and AVI with automatic HTML embed links. This means you can paste them into your website or blog to share instantly with the world. If you don't require these functions, the program interface still provides a convenient search platform because you can browse and watch videos at the same time. With just one click, you can download the video you are previewing. For ease of use, it allows you to create a download list of videos you want to save. Once it's complete, you can just leave the program to download the videos whilst you get on with something else although unfortunately, it still doesn't support batch downloading.

A very useful application for those who are not content with only having videos on the Internet but also want them on their hard drive but don't want to visit each video content site seperately.

Download Free FLV Converter 5.6 in Softonic

Build better iTunes™ and iPod™ playlists using beaTunes. By analyzing the songs in your existing library beaTunes is capable of finding songs that simply match. Could your last mix CD's song order use some improvement? Let beaTunes re-arrange your playlist for you!

Always wondered how you could take advantage of the BPM (beats per minute) field in iTunes? Let beaTunes fill in the blanks and help you while DJ'ing at your next party.

Here are some more examples of what you can do with beaTunes:

• Automatically determine BPM (beats per minute) and store the result in iTunes
• Manually determine BPM and store the result in iTunes
• Sort existing playlists so that matching songs succeed each other
• Create matchlists, i.e. playlists based on one or more sample songs
• Browse songs from your music collection that match the currently selected song
• Discover albums that aren't in your music collection, but would complement it
• Keep up to date through Amazon™ album charts
• Automatically set start and end times of songs based on their volume
• Categorize songs by their sound color
• Build playlists per drag and drop
• Create blog entries on blogger.com with your favorite playlist or songs
• Inspect and fix your music library
• Add tags to your songs

Download beaTunes 1.2.14 in Softonic

Floola is a freeware application to efficiently manage your iPod or your Motorola mobile phone (any model supporting iTunes).

It can be run directly from your iPod and needs no installation under Linux, Mac OS X and Windows (Windows Vista is supported).

Floola supports all most common used features including podcasts. Take a look at the feature list to see what you are missing!

Download Floola 3.5 in Softonic

Replay Converter is the easiest way to convert video and audio files. You simply pick the files to convert, choose an output format, and click a button to start the process. Everything happens automatically.

You don't need to be a geek to use Replay Converter - just pick the desired format from the list, and the conversions happen for you. There's no need to know about complicated encoding parameters. If you want more control, you can trigger an Option to change things like bit rate, frames per second, or any other encoding parameters before a conversion runs.

Download Replay Converter 3.1 in Softonic

Ares Tube is a multi-video downloader that comes with a built-in browser and allows you to save clips from YouTube, Google Video, MySpace, Blip TV, DailyMotion, Metacafe and many more sites that support FLV files.

Ares Tube automatically converts to IPOD, MP4 and MPEG so you can watch films on your iPod or external device. Alternatively, you can export downloaded videos automatically to iTunes. Simply surf to YouTube and Ares Tube will automatically prompt you to convert and import the file directly into iTunes.

When you connect your iPod , Ares Tube will automatically prompt you whether you want to transfer your converted files to your device. Note, however, that you'll have to install the .NET framework to use it, although if it's not installed the first time you use Ares Tube, you will be redirected to it.

Ares Tube is a great way to download FLV files from multiple sites without having to worry about which particular one it is.

Download Ares Tube 3.2 in Softonic

With TubeTilla you can easily download your favorite YouTube videos and convert them to MP3 and MP4 format in three easy steps.

TubeTilla converts YouTube videos to WMV, MP4, and MP3. You can then play these formats on your PSP, iPod, iPhone, Zune and with Windows Media Player. To use it just copy the link of the video into TubeTilla interface and the program then automatically converts everything to Mp3, WMV or Mp4 format.

For some reason however, the developer has not allowed users to convert to formats other than these, such as AVI or MPG. Previous versions of TubeTilla were subject to frequent bugs and crashes, but in this latest version it's much more stable. The big plus of this app of course is that it automatically converts as it downloads so it saves you a lot of time when your clips is on your hard drive.

TubeTilla is a solid attempt at an integrated YouTube downloader and converter in one although it could do with a few more conversion formats adding.

Download TubeTilla 3.0 in Softonic