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

Although Microsoft's Silverlight was originally conceived as a competitor to Adobe Flash, it now finds itself competing with Abobe's Web 2.0 platform, Adobe Air.

The harsh truth is, Microsoft Silverlight has already fallen considerably behind Adobe Air. In typically Microsoft style, the software giant's surely missed the boat, by aiming at a replacement for Adobe Flash when the web world was already shifting towards interactive Web 2.0 platforms such as Adobe Air.

Microsoft Silverlight is a lightweight plugin that allows you to watch Silverlight-based content in your browser. It works with most major browsers, including Firefox and Safari. There is no prompt to restart the browser after installation but I recommend you do so because the first site of Silverlight content I accessed after installation simply crashed the browser.

The most important improvements to the latest version are smoother streaming, DRM management, and an out-of browser player. The out-of browser player, however, is dependent on developers embracing it and as yet, there are few examples available. The smooth streaming feature will iron out many of the streaming programs that have plagued Microsoft Silverlight in the past. If your bandwidth drops below 3Mbps, smooth streaming will kick-in so that your video isn't affected.

Microsoft Silverlight can stream high resolution video well and supports HD-quality videos. If you want to create content for Silverlight, you'll need Expression Studio and Visual Studio. In fact, this latest release is is of particular interest to developers because it adds 60 customizable controls, new layout containers, 'deep linking' for page bookmarking, search engine optimization, and enhanced data support.

The signs are though that Microsoft has realized that the battle for web content is already being won by the much slicker and more stable Adobe Air platform and is therefore aiming Microsoft Silverlight at business users. The Silverlight homepage boasts 'Learn how Silverlight is right for your business', and that companies such as Continental Airlines have adopted Silverlight for use in their reservation system, showing that Microsoft knows which side its bread is buttered on.

Silverlight has probably missed the boat as far as Web 2.0 goes, although there's probably no way you can avoid it since there will always be some websites that opt to stream content with Silverlight rather than Flash.

Download Microsoft Silverlight 5.1.20125.0 in Softonic

Adobe Flash Player is an essential plugin for your browser that allows you to view everything from video to games and animation on the web.

Features

Adobe Flash Player 10 includes a range of interesting additions and improvements when compared to previous versions. Top of that list is the inclusion of support for the H.264 video codec and the HE-AAC audio codec, which together offer a much richer, higher-definition picture along with crystal-clear sound. Introducing these capabilities in Adobe Flash Player with only slightly reduced performance looks set to trigger another revolution in web video, as HD movies are already an important element on YouTube - and they look and sound great!

Quality

Adobe Flash Player 10 irons out some of the problems that previous versions have suffered from (like security and stability issues), as well including support for ActionScript 3.0. It also makes fantastic 3D graphics possible. This makes for more dynamic and interesting navigation, games and interactivity on websites.

Conclusion

Adobe Flash Player 10 represents a leap forward in terms of quality as well as stability and security. It's therefore a highly recommended download for all users.

Download Adobe Flash Player Firefox, Safari, Opera 11.8.800.42 (Firefox) in Softonic

Adobe Flash Player (originally a Macromedia product) remains the standard platform for viewing a wide variety of web content, varying from navigation elements to every video you watch on YouTube.

Some of the main reasons to use Adobe Flash Player are:

-simple to use
-high performance
-small file size
-near-HD quality

Additions and Improvements

Adobe Flash Player 10 includes a wide range of interesting additions and improvements when compared to previous versions. Some of these great new features include the inclusion of support for the H.264 video codec and the HE-AAC audio codec, which together offer a much richer, higher-definition picture and crystal-clear sound. By introducing these capabilities and only slightly impacting performance, Adobe Flash Player is set to encourage another revolution in web video, since HD movies are becoming standard on YouTube. They also look and sound fantastic!

Adobe Flash Player 10 also irons out some of the problems that previous versions have suffered from. These include previous security and stability issues. This update also includes support for ActionScript 3.0 and makes fantastic 3D graphics possible. This means more dynamic and interesting navigation, games and interactivity on websites.

Adobe Flash Player 11 represents a leap forward in terms of quality, stability and security.

Download Adobe Flash Player (for IE) 11.8.800.42 in Softonic

FreeSmith Video Player looks nice, with a slick interface, easy full screen mode and clear controls. What we didn't like was that although the full screen mode looks good, there are no on-screen controls - except by right-clicking and selecting Play. There are fully-customizable hotkey controls, but we'd like to see both options for the full "movie experience".

As features go, FreeSmith Video Player covers the basics, but is unlikely to amaze you. It's got the full selection of extras that make it user-friendly - like a screenshot function, subtitles and good playlist options, but that's about it.

FreeSmith Video Player's technical options are middle of the pack - you'll be able to make basic changes to your videos, like cropping and rotating, but the program doesn't offer the advanced options that you might see on players like VLC.

Overall. we thought that FreeSmith Video Player was a nice free application that will suit many people's needs. That said, if you've got a bit of experience with multimedia players and are looking for something a little special, you're unlikely to find it with FreeSmith Video Player. We also noticed a lot of lag, which, for a player that prides itself on being light, was a little unusual.

FreeSmith Video Player covers basic media player needs, but really offers little to make it stand out from the pack.

Download FreeSmith Video Player 1.2.3 in Softonic

With a challenging single player game and host of online options enabling gamers to interact with thousands of others simultaneously, Test Drive Unlimited is racing reinvented.

The PC game has been painstakingly adapted and configured to get the very best out of the latest cutting edge PC hardware, allowing it to be played in extremely high resolution with the incredible effects taking the visuals of Test Drive Unlimited to a stunning new level.

No monthly subscription is required to play. Test Drive Unlimited redefines the racing genre: over 1000 miles of tropical Hawaiian roadways, instant challenges launched with a flash of the headlights, online functionality allowing thousands of gamers to play and up to 8 to race against each other, and much more.

New Hardcore Mode: Available in free-ride and multiplayer challenges, simulation mode will expand the experience for players looking for ultra-realistic driving for both cars and bikes.

For the cars, telemetric data shows the actual physics modelled on real life parameters (independent grip for each tyre, weight transfer with G-meter, suspension, etc).

Adapted to steering wheels and the standard controller, the hardcore mode shows drivers exactly where they succeed and where they need to improve, pushing their driving skills and the vehicles to the very limits

Download Test Drive Unlimited in Softonic

With a challenging single player game and host of online options enabling gamers to interact with thousands of others simultaneously, Test Drive Unlimited is racing reinvented.

The PC game has been painstakingly adapted and configured to get the very best out of the latest cutting edge PC hardware, allowing it to be played in extremely high resolution with the incredible effects taking the visuals of Test Drive Unlimited to a stunning new level.

No monthly subscription is required to play. Test Drive Unlimited redefines the racing genre: over 1000 miles of tropical Hawaiian roadways, instant challenges launched with a flash of the headlights, online functionality allowing thousands of gamers to play and up to 8 to race against each other, and much more.

New Hardcore Mode: Available in free-ride and multiplayer challenges, simulation mode will expand the experience for players looking for ultra-realistic driving for both cars and bikes.

For the cars, telemetric data shows the actual physics modelled on real life parameters (independent grip for each tyre, weight transfer with G-meter, suspension, etc).

Adapted to steering wheels and the standard controller, the hardcore mode shows drivers exactly where they succeed and where they need to improve, pushing their driving skills and the vehicles to the very limits

Download Test Drive Megapack in Softonic

It's hard to review something like Smart Installer Pack, because it's not really a software app in itself, but rather a collection of software apps.

Smart Installer Pack contains 24 popular software utilities, among which you can probably find the first five or ten you download on your computer after reinstalling your operating system. This is precisely the aim behind Smart Installer Pack: saving you the pain of having to search, download and install all those programs.

Smart Installer Pack includes Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo Widgets, Skype, Google Earth, Winamp, Firefox, BitTorrent, Gmail Notifier, Rocket Dock, a pack of codecs, Adobe Flash Player, Apple Quicktime, the Java Runtime, Adobe Reader, WinRAR, Open Office, Daemon Tools, Thunderbird, Gimp, Picasa, Avira Antivirus, Google Chrome, CCleaner and KMPlayer.

Of course, you don't have to install them all. Simply browse through the program's tabs and click on the icon of the program you're interested in. Installation will start right away.

Smart Installer Pack is certainly a handy tool that can save you lots of time. On the downside, you're obliged to download a huge file – no matter how many of those tools you'll use – and the programs included in the pack may not be updated to the latest version.

With Smart Installer Pack you can save a lot of time when downloading and installing your favorite software after an OS re-installation.

Download Smart Installer Pack 1.5 in Softonic

In an age of multiple media players all with different codecs and formats, it's nice to know there's at least one out there that can play just about anything.

Haihaisoft Universal Player supports almost all popular digital media formats and can also play digital media files protected by DRM-X. Amongst the players it can emulate are Windows Media Player, Real Player, Adobe Flash Player, Apple QuickTime Player, PowerDVD and Flash Video (FLV) Player. What's more though, this player embeds itself into Internet Explorer meaning that whenever you are presented with a format compatible with any of these file types, you can watch it instantly. The number of formats it can play is mind-boggling, including those protected by DRM such as WMV(Windows Media Video), WMA(Windows Media Audio), ASF, WMS, DVD, VCD, SVCD, MOV, RM, RMVB, AVI, MPEG, WMV, 3GP, FLV, SWF, MP3, AMR, M4A, ACC, OGG, MIDI, GIF and JPEG file format. Best of all, the program is constantly updated with the latest codecs so you don't need to worry about it suddenly not being able to play files.

A completely free player that supports just about any format imaginable and embeds itself into IE perfectly.

Download Haihaisoft Universal Player 1.5.7.0 in Softonic

CineCenter encompasses Movies, Music, Photos, Weather in an attractive and easy to use interface. Organize and Watch Movies in CineCenter. Building your movie collection is simple.

Choose movies files, a folder of movies, barcode scan DVD boxes, or type-in a list of movie titles and CineCenter will download Movie Information, and DVD Cover Art (or Posters) for you.

Automatically! With built-in DVD and video players using DirectX and Flash technology, CineCenter will allow you to play DVD's and most common video file formats.

Get the latest movie scoop on New Releases and Top Movies on Netflix and Blockbuster! If you have a Netflix account you can even view your Netflix Queue, Watch Movies Instantly, and more.

Create and Listen to Play Lists of your music files and Audio CD's in MusicCenter while watching cool looking ;VizFX; loops. You can continue listening to music while you browse your movie collection.

Where ever you go, a mini-player tags along on CineCenter's bottom control-bar. Create Photo Albums and SlideShows with image transition effects in PhotoCenter.

You can even listen to a Play List from the MusicCenter while watching a SlideShow. Get up-to-date Weather Information in WeatherCenter. Get current weather conditions for your area, including temperature, and moon phase, as well as a five-day forecast and current weather maps for the US, all brought to directly from The Weather Channel.

Customize the look of CineCenter with Themes! Choose different backgrounds, PNG icon images, and sounds to change the CineCenter appearance. The colorful, high-contrast screens look great on your Widescreen TV or Home Theater Projector!

Download CineCenter 2.x 2.0.1 in Softonic

at an amazingly affordable price! StickRadio makes internet radio as easy as using a car or kitchen radio. Tuning in to a station and playing it is a matter of seconds.

Your most favourite stations can be stored in ten presets and thus are available at a single mouse click. And you can store as many stations as you like in your personal list of favourites.

StickRadio was designed to be portable. You can put it on a hard disk, flash drive or memory card and it will work on any Windows PC that meets the system requirements.

You can use it at home and in the office, on your notebook or netbook and always listen to your favourite stations, anytime. StickRadio can send its output over your local network to almost any streaming box or software player.

This feature will save a lot of internet bandwidth usage if you want to listen to a single station all around the house. It also will enable your streaming box to play stations using audio formats which are not supported by the manufacturer of your hardware player.

Download StickRadio 1.0 in Softonic

). Edit video such as trim, crop, and add special effects, etc. Support HD Video formats and flash videos. Support for Andriod, Blackberry, and Nokia phones.

Support for the latest iPod Nano 5G, iPod Touch 3, iPhone 3GS/OS 3. 1, Apple tablet iPad Key Features:High definition, fast speed and expert conversion So enormous video, audio and picture formats supported beyond your imagination High-Definition video converterServed with a wide range of High-Definition video formats, the video converter enables you to convert video between multiform High-Definition movies, such as H.

264/MPEG-4 AVC, AVCHD Video (*. m2ts, *. mts), Apple TV h. 264 720P, MKV, HD WMV, MPEG2/MPEG-4 TS HD Video, etc. , as well as convert video from High-Definition to Standard-Definition for watching.

Super high speed to convert videoThe video converter can detect your CPU automatically and supports multi-core CPU for a single task, it not only can help you convert files at high speed but will also improve the speed of which the video conversion takes place.

Video and audio conversionNo matter whether you are converting between multifarious video formats, convert AVI, MPEG, WMV, DivX, MP4, H. 264/AVC, MKV, RM, MOV, XviD, 3GP, FLV, or mutually transforming among MP3, WMA, WAV, RA, M4A, AAC, AC3, MP2, OGG and so on, or extracting any audio format from your video, it can all be done with just a few clicks.

Transformation between video and picturesProduce a creative video from your favourite photos within minutes, or create a picture collection from your movies or fun videos as souvenir/memento, to view and enjoy them with your friends and family at your fingertips.

Great film clipper to merge, clip and split files Make enchanting movies your way and take them to playback devices for viewing Merge several files into one Xilisoft Video Converter increases your enjoyment with multiple files or clips merged into one for outputting a single long movie.

Clip any segments randomlyThis amazing video converter will assist you to clip any favored segments whether they are intersected or not, then optionally merge and sort them to make a creative movie.

Split a single file into severalIs a single long video file is too large for your iPod, iPhone, PSP, or mobile phone? Split it into several files by presetting time or size to make them fit your multimedia device exactly.

Download iToolSoft Video Converter in Softonic

The Google Desktop application allows users to search their desktop content quickly and easily. Praised for its ingenuity and criticised for its intrusiveness, Google Desktop brings the power of Google’s search engine technology to your PC.

After installing the application, you’ll have to give it some time to index the files on your PC, including emails, photos, chats, contacts and calendar events. Google Desktop will index the first 10,000 words in the first 100,000 documents on your PC. The application supports the majority of file types and you can decide which ones to index, or omit protected files, using the preferences menu.

In its latest version, which is compatible with Windows Vista, Google Desktop has been given a new transparent look, providing a pretty sleek feel to your PC. Your search results will appear in your browser (in the familiar Google web page format) and a small preview button allows you to view results without actually clicking on the corresponding link. Results are as precise as we’ve come to expect from Google searches, however we were slightly disappointed to learn that the application doesn’t offer logical 'OR' support or substring search. On another note, Google Desktop is not limited to your PC as you can cross index content from multiple machines and share some panel items with your friends.

Google Desktop is not only about search, though. Joining a marketplace already occupied by Apple’s Dashboard Widgets and Yahoo! Widgets, Google Desktop can be fitted with any number of little gadgets. These mini apps perform all kinds of functions, from fetching your mail to jotting down notes or checking up on your local weather. There are hundreds of gadgets to choose from to customize your desktop bar. Our personal favorites are: Google Translate, the Skype plug-in to check your credit and call your contacts, “Am I Blocked” to find out who’s blocked you on IM, Workspace to quickly move between tasks, System Stats to monitor your PC and Games, a selection of Flash games like Tetris and Moonlander.

When running, we found Google Desktop to use up around 30 MBs, but that can quickly increase if you add more gadgets to it. The application is also constantly re-indexing your files to incorporate your modifications and new elements. However you should rarely feel your PC slowing due to indexing.

When you’re dealing with Google, however, you know the main criticism will be about security. Because Google Desktop indexes all your documents, you’re basically opening up your PC and all your personal files to the Moutain View company. What some users fear is that Google could one day take advantage of that access or that a bug in the application would allow malicious users to infiltrate your PC and steal information.

While the intrusiveness of Google Desktop will give some users pause for thought on installing the app, Google Desktop is highly effective and simple to use. The gadgets you can add to its sidebar may not all be essential, but many of them are quite fun and original and let’s face it, the sidebar looks good. Give it a go if you think your PC is a mess and you need quick access to anything.

Download Google Desktop 5.9.911.3589 in Softonic

Social networking is great, but it can really eat into your free time. Watching videos online, browsing the most popular photos on Flickr or checking what your friends are up to on all your social networking sites can sometimes feel like a full-time job.

Luckily you can now engage in all these activities and some others from one single program: Bookmash. This AIR-based application provides you with direct access to the newly published material in the most popular video and video sharing sites, social networks, tech news and music communities.

Bookmash presents all these elements together as thumbnail galleries in a slick, attractive interface which somehow reminds me of Apple's Cover Flow. You can browse content by dragging thumbnails from one side to the other, with a very appealing animated effect.

Besides viewing content, Bookmash also lets you download those videos, photos and tracks you like best. In the case of videos though you'll need an FLV player, as you'll get them in their native Flash format. As for the social and news networks, I honestly don't find them that useful, because you still need to use your Web browser to open up links.

In summary, Bookmash is the perfect app to get a glimpse at the latest content in your favorite photo, video and music websites, but does have one important drawback: it's surprisingly heavy on resources!

If you spend a lot of time browsing video and photo sharing sites, as well as online social communities, you'll find Bookmash really helpful.

Download Bookmash 0.21 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