Slideshows are one of the best ways to add colour and life to a photo collection no matter what the subject matter.

Slideshow Magic is aimed at both home users and business professionals who want to impress friends or colleagues with their photo slideshow creations. Best of all, it doesn't require the viewer to have the program installed as all slideshows can be saved in any QuickTime compatible format.

The easy to use interface is somewhat like that of a video editor allowing you to add music or audio tracks either for the whole slideshow or just specific segments. You can add some impressive transitions and titles much in the same way as you do with Windows Movie Maker for example. The program also features a useful guide to help you get your photos online or burnt to DVD. However, unfortunately the program doesn't provide either it's own webspace or burner for uploading and saving photos. For uploading, you'll need an FTP client and web host and for burning, a third party burner such as Nero.

In addition, although it's a cross platform application, sharing with other platforms requires some form of network solution between clients (although this needn't be something complicated - a program like MSN Live Messenger is enough

Slideshow Magic is a relatively cheap but powerful way to get your photos either online or burnt to DVD.

Download Slideshow Magic 5.0.5 in Softonic

The highly awaited new version of Messenger for Mac is finally out. While it keeps a slightly similar interface and same set of features, Messenger for Mac comes with some extra features.

You will still have to sign in using your hotmail or Windows Live account. Once installed, you'll see Microsoft Messenger 7 offers a slightly updated interface, yet overall very similar to that of version6. Messenger now offers Bonjour support, so you can detect and connect with users on the same local network as you. Features like sending files, displaying a picture or emoticons are unchanged. You can change your display name and add a personal message just by clicking on them. One new feature is that you can give nicknames to your friends. Just click on their display name and start typing. We also liked the search feature, which is really handy to quickly find a contact or email address.

It's obvious that this upgrade is aimed at corporate users as they get the most significant updates though. The highly touted audio and video feature, with which you can have videoconferences with your contacts, is only available to them. The same goes with detailed presence information, as you'll need a version of Office Communications Server 2007 to use it.

Corporate users will love the new features in Messenger for Mac 7, like Bonjour Support, detailed presence information and especially audio and video. Personal users will find barely anything different from version 6.

Download Messenger for Mac 7.0.1 in Softonic

Mercury Messenger, also known as MM or dMSN, is a free alternative to MSN Messenger offering almost all the same features.

The IM client allows you to connect to your live or hotmail account and chat with your contacts. You can organize them by groups, use emoticons, send files and activate your webcam during chats. The interface itself is highly similar to that of MSN Messenger albeit a much less attractive one. I found that the different elements are placed a little clumsily here and there, making Mercury Messenger slightly unintuitive. Luckily the interface is interchangeable so if you find a good skin you can use that instead.

A big difference with MSN Messenger is RSS support. Mercury allows you to add and preview RSS feeds. I was a little skeptic of the idea at first, as I much prefer previewing RSS feeds on a whole screen, however I found it very similar to feed reading on a mobile device, which works in some way. Mercury Messenger has a tabbed interface which allows you to open and work with multiple accounts. Beware that having too many open simply ends up confusing though.

Although missing the most recent features of MSN Messengers and despite a weaker interface, Mercury Messenger is a good alternative with RSS and multiple account support.

Download Mercury Messenger 1.9 in Softonic