When editing, converting and even managing images on a Mac, the obvious choice can tend to be to use iPhoto, Aperture or Lightroom. GraphicConverter X is not as much in the limelight even though it proves to be a more than worthy alternative.

GraphicConverter X comes with two browsing views, which let you dig in deep in folders and find your pictures. The application can also convert pictures into any of the popular image formats out there. The interface itself is well structured and streamlines your workflow.

Although you may not find as many editing tools as in Aperture or Ligtroom, GraphicConverter X comes with a very wide list of filters and effects that you can place onto your pictures. These are all accessible from the menu bar.

GraphicConverter X probably lacks more advanced web and sharing features as you can only really send pictures by mail and create a rather basic HTML catalog. Considering that sharing pictures online is more and more common I would have liked to see more choices in this sense.

Thanks to a great interface, powerful and accessible features, GraphicConverter X is a solid photo application for managing, converting and editing your pictures.

Download GraphicConverter X 6.1.5 in Softonic

Snapper is an unassuming yet powerful little application to work with your audio files.

The application displays the wave form of any audio file you select and you can play it back to work through the audio, if you're looking for a specific section. Those of you who have worked with audio files before know how much easier having a wave form allows you to study and edit an audio file.

Snapper seems to be particularly useful to check an audio file quickly before opening it up in Pro Tools. However, you can also use the program to send a file by mail and convert it to any format, such as MP3, WAV or AIFF. You can even convert it into separate L and R files for more precise sound editing.

What really makes Snapper attractive though is the fact that it can handle 50 different popular audio formats.

The only gripes we could have with it is that the interface looks a little outdated, especially for an application that can be run on Leopard, and that, at $79, its a fairly expensive application.

Despite the poor interface, Snapper is an excellent tool to preview any audio file in wave format and convert it to another format.

Download Snapper 1.4 in Softonic

Sometimes Newton's Law of Inertia is just as applicable to the digital world as to the physical. All too often our files sit around never to be filed. Downloads and other sundry files pile up never to leave. Fortunately, an uncluttered desktop can be a reality.

Meet Hazel, your personal housekeeper.

Hazel works on whatever folders you tell it to, automatically organizing your files according to the rules you create. It features a rule interface similar to that of Apple Mail so you should feel right at home. Have Hazel move files around based on name, date, what site/email address it came from (Safari and Mail only) and much more. Keep your downloads off the desktop and put them where they need to be.

Hazel can open, archive, set color labels and add Spotlight comments. And in Hazel 2, you can now have Hazel rename your files or sort them into subfolders based on name, date or whatever combination of attributes you choose. Hazel 2 gives you the ability to create even more powerful workflows than ever before.

Download Hazel 2.2.2 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

If you need a way to send out e-mails to a huge number of contacts then UniMailer helps you reach them.

UniMailer allows you to manage multiple groups of contacts but also makes e-mails to them feel more personal by allowing you to add a separate name to each one. UniMailer allows you to write plain text or HTML messages and supports attachments, although it doesn't seem possible to insert images into e-mails.

You can however track mail after it has been sent so that you get a delivery receipt on arrival. On the other hand, if you need to add lots of statistical data to e-mails, you can import it from Excel, which makes it a particularly useful tool for businesses. After sending, you've got a complete searchable archive of what you've sent, showing when and who to.

Most home users won't find much need for UniMail but small businesses will find it an invaluable tool.

Download UniMailer 2.1 in Softonic

Most of us use either Outlook or an online web client such as Gmail or Hotmail for e-mail but some people have particular demands from their e-mail client due to the amount of mail they receive.

For those that receive very large amounts of mail daily, none of the above are particularly helpful when it comes to organizing content. MailSteward can help in this regard because it helps to control and organize large amounts of mail automatically so that it's easy for you to read and filter. Unfortunately, MailSteward doesn't work with web based clients although you can always redirect your mail to a desktop client.

With MailSteward, you can safely archive your large volume of vital email information, easily access your email database with fast, sophisticated searching and protect your essential email data from data formatting by locking important batches of mails. MailSteward can be a little tricky to configure but once you've done so, it works quietly in the background.

If you're already using another mail client such as Entourage you can export mbox files to MailSteward which could make your life seriously easier.

Download MailSteward 8.0.5 in Softonic

While most security packages employ 128-bit encryption, Data Guardian goes a lot further with a staggering 448-bit level of protection.

The Blowfish protection system is enough to stop all but the most determined hackers. The program basically allows you to create multiple databases based on different themes e.g. an address book, customer database, journal, password manager, or even notepad. With 448-bit encryption employed on each of these however, you can be sure that they'll be pretty safe even if they're not stored locally.

The program prides itself on customizability - i.e. you can create just about any kind of database you require with any category or colour coding of your choice. The program also employs what it calls "Keychain integration" which basically autofills passwords. Although Firefox and IE also do this now, you're probably much safer using Data Guardian because of the encrytion protection that surrounds your data.

It also offers a few other useful shortcuts such as one click calling based on auto recognition of phone numbers, instant access to your e-mail client via auto recognition of e-mail addresses and generation of secure passwords.

A well designed a super secure database/productivity enhancement application, Data Guardian gives you more than one less thing to worry about.

Download Data Guardian 1.5.2 in Softonic

Iris adds some cool extra features to your Mac's iSight camera.

The application is easy to set up and use. You can take snapshots or make movies in real time or via time lapse. The fun thing though is adding filters to make your snapshots a bit more original. Iris can also be used as a covert monitoring tool if you're worried about your Mac being stolen or tampered with. Use Motion Detection and Email alerting to detect intruders and notify you, when you're away.

The fun thing about taking snapshots and videos is to share them with your friends and family. Iris not only keeps them well organized in a gallery but it also includes features to send them by mail, upload to Flickr or export to an Apple device like an iPod or iPhone. Again here the process is simple and quick and easy enough for any beginner.

Iris adds a bit of excitement to your iSight camera. Although the controls can feel somewhat limited, the application enhances the Mac webcam and in a way encourages you to use it.

Despite some limited controls, Iris empowers your iSight to take snapshots and movies, share them with your friends and even monitor your Mac.

Download Iris 1.0.8 in Softonic

SMARTReporter is an application that can warn you of ATA hard-drive failures before they actually happen! It does so by periodically polling the S.M.A.R.T.-status of your hard-drives. S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) is a technology built into most modern hard-drives that acts as an "early warning system" for pending drive problems. Because SMARTReporter relies on the S.M.A.R.T. implementation of Mac OS X, it only supports ATA or S-ATA hard-drives, if you want S.M.A.R.T. support for your FireWire hard-drive, send feedback to Apple.

SMARTReporter can notify you of impending drive failures by sending e-mails, displaying a warning dialog or executing an application. The current status of your drives is always displayed through the customizable menu item.

Download SMARTReporter 2.3.8 in Softonic

Daylite is a productivity suite specifically built for small businesses and private users. The application lets you manage your projects and all your contact information and data.

Daylite streamlines your work process, in that it's easy to create all elements to a project and manage them. You can easily import and sync all your contact info from iCal and Address Book and create elements like tasks, appointments, notes, projects and even add opportunities for businesses.

The interface is built so that you always have an eye on your calendars, contacts and projects. Even so, the search function is very efficient at finding anything. First time users will like to find a wide range of sample data with which to get an idea of how the application works.

We would have like to see integration with more online productivity services, as many small businesses rely on these every day. We also found the application to freeze up all too frequently when loading data. It also tended to make Apple Mail a little unstable.

Although it can freeze up when loading data, Daylite is a streamlined all-in-one productivity suite.

Download Daylite 3.7.6 in Softonic

Mailings is a full featured application for batch emailing that delivers any web page or plain text document with attachments to multiple recipients for marketing, news announcements, product updates etc.

Mailings facilitates the task of delivering regular bulk email distributions with such features as logging, progress monitoring, scheduling, error recovery, throttling, personalization and much more. Integrates with your mail client, browser and Address Book to simplify its functionality. The one window user interface makes the program a breeze to learn and fun to use.

Download Mailings 1.9.41 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

AmazonWatcher alerts you of price changes on Amazon products, so you can get hold of holiday deals or be alerted of price falls on products you bought.

The application supports the six international Amazon sites and you can search for items by entering their URL, ISBN or ASIN. A preview image of the product, title and price will appear in AmazonWatcher's interface and the item will be added in your list. You can then choose whether to be alert by a sound, a pop up or by mail and manually set a price from which you want to be notified. The sound alert is horrendous though and it can only be set in seconds and minutes.

AmazonWatcher allows you to automatically place orders, for which you'll naturally need to have an Amazon account setup with your credit card details and 1-Click setup. We were a bit surprised to see items we hadn't picked appear in our lists. When selecting Amazon US, a Wii had already been selected (a trick to incite me to buy? who knows).

Despite a few limitations, AmazonWatcher can be a useful tool if you're the kind of person that likes to pounce on deals.

Download AmazonWatcher 0.4.1 in Softonic

To survive the theft or crash of your Mac you need to make sure you have backups of your most important files. Always overlooked by users, this boring yet necessary task can be easily handled by Time Machine if you have Leopard. If not you'll have to choose a backup program.

BackityMac lets you select what you consider to be your most important files and save them in a dmg. The application offers a simple menu view from which you check the files you'd like to backup, such as Apple Mail files, iCal calendars, or iPhoto and iTunes libraries.

You can save files in a disk image (dmg) or have them burned in a CD or DVD. BackityMac can also restore all your files at the click of a button. A lesser known yet smart feature of BackityMac is that it can import music stored on your iPod back into your iTunes library, in case you've lost it.

BackityMac is simple to use but does include some limitations. For one you won't be able to properly clone your hard drive, meaning you're liable to forget files in the backup process. You won't be able to make incremental backups either so every time you want to save new files you'll have to start from scratch.

In all, BackityMac is a good program for those of you looking for a basic backup solution. For serious backups, find a program which can clone your hard drive, or use Time Machine.

Download BackityMac 2.2 in Softonic

If you’ve ever had to publish, send or receive particularly large files sizes, you’ll know that it can throw up all kinds of problems – crashed servers, blocked inboxes and transfers that suddenly just hang-up. Pando aims to take the pain out of this process and according to the developers, 3 million people agree that it does exactly that.

Pando is based on a P2P network that enables you to send files of up to 1GB in size by e-mail or by publishing it to the web. It supports all multimedia file types including video, audio and photos meaning it’s great for people who deal with audio-visual files regularly.

For most users, the major benefit will be with e-mail attachments and the good news is, there's no need to change your existing e-mail client. Pando works by creating a torrent-like link file which you can then send in the body of your e-mail for the recipient to click on. There’s no need to be online when the recipient downloads the file and there’s no compression, FTP or dodgy web uploading applets to deal with. The reason you don’'t need to be online is because Pando sends files to its "super-node" servers, which means that there's always at least one "seeder" online at any given time. This seed is guaranteed for 14 days so even if you log off, your recipient can still view it. Obviously, the more people that share it too, the faster the download.

For those unfamiliar with FTP, Pando is fantastic since it works on the same principle as a Bittorrent client. Once the small interface is opened, you can drag and drop or select “add-file” to create a ".pando” file which you can then e-mail to whoever you want once it is uploaded.

The main drawback is that the recipient has to have Pando installed to receive the file. If you transfer files to someone regularly, this is not a problem but if it’'s just the odd file you want to send, then it could be a nuisance to ask someone to install it just to see your file. Be warned also that Pando cannot guarantee security although the developers assure that Pando has 256bit AES end-to-end encryption built in making it technically one of the most secure ways to transfers files online today. The only way that someone could realistically compromise your security however is by hacking into your e-mail account.

Whilst Pando is obviously open to abuse by sharing illegal files, most people go to the major Torrent sites to do that, meaning Pando is refreshingly free of any copyrighted material flying around and causing problems. Overall, it’'s a great solution for those unfamiliar with FTP who need to send big files regularly.

Download Pando 2.1.5.5 in Softonic

So you’ve taken the leap and installed the versatile internet browser, Firefox, but are you ready to trade in your Outlook Express for Mozilla’s open source mail application? Thunderbird is Mozilla’s award winning and free solution to manage your mail more efficiently.

Thunderbird woos users thanks to its flurry of options and the benefits of an open source application. Automatic updates ensure that you have the latest version of Thunderbird, preventing any security threats and offering you new features as soon as they’re available.

The biggest worry for users is switching from one mail application to another and losing precious information. With Thunderbird the switch is painless because you can quickly import your mail and contacts from your Outlook and set up your POP3 or IMAP account is a snap. To stay well organized we suggest taking advantage of Thunderbird’s filters. While this option is nothing new to the experienced Outlook user, you’ll have to admit that Thunderbird makes filters much more accessible, thanks to a simple selection of combinations and actions. Create distinct folders for your personal and professional mail and your newsletters and associate them with filters to avoid the hassle of constantly sorting your mail. Another feature we could single out is the integrated spell checker, a blessing if you send many emails and can’t be bothered to constantly verify your writing.

Although it isn’t visible right away, Thunderbird also features an RSS reader. Handy if you need to follow the news or specialist websites, this tool fits seamlessly into Thunderbird and you could almost forget that it is a mail application. Paste in the RSS feed from your favorite news source and the main messages window will reveal a list of all the latest feeds. The message pane is used as an integrated browser window to display the selected article.

Email is the number one source of viruses, that’s why Thunderbird offers various levels of message encryption, a spam filter and support for valid certificates. We found the spam filter particularly effective. Set it to “learn” mode, and it teaches itself to separate the valid email from the rest of the junk. You have to be mindful of this option though, because Thunderbird can become too restrictive and may decide on its own that one of your friends is suddenly persona non grata. Reviewing your junk folder every now and then should avoid you accidentally losing friends. Thunderbird also automatically turns off Javascript and by default does not load remote images, a good way to defuse the risk of viruses from dodgy emails.

Another known feature of the Mozilla line of products is customization. Just as with Firefox, Thunderbird can integrate a slew of extensions and add-ons to rev up your inbox. You can also add or remove icons from the actions pane, selecting the ones you use most frequently.

The one place where Thunderbird fails, and professionals will confirm this, is the failure to integrate Microsoft Exchange support. An essential tool in any work environment, the collaborative messaging software is sorely missed in Thunderbird and seriously limits its usefulness in offices. Furthermore, we can question why Mozilla included an RSS reader yet failed to incorporate a calendar, standard in most mail applications nowadays.

While the lack of proper business minded features will limit Thunderbird’s point in the workplace, the simplicity, customizability and security make it a number one choice for home users. If you’re worried about your safety on the Internet or are just looking for a more efficient way of handling your mail, Thunderbird is probably the best solution out there.

Download Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0.0.16 in Softonic

Synchronisation is becoming increasingly important with so many different portable devices able to handle huge amounts of data - the ability to work on the road has never been easier which is why Super Flexible File Synchronizer was made.

Super Flexible File Synchronizer can back up data and to synchronize PCs, Macs, servers and notebooks. Everything is neatly organised in multiple profiles and it supports FTP servers, ZIP compression, data encryption, and a scheduler for automated backups. In Windows NT/2000/XP, the Super Flexible File Synchronizer scheduler can run as a service - without users even having to log on which makes it a good solution for network administrators wanting to make sure users continually back up their data.

The GUI is elegant and well designed with Super Flexible File Synchronizer allowing you to choose files and folders across the whole folder hierarchy in tree-views. Super Flexible File Synchronizer also features support for e-mail notification, profile categories, and various filters. Super Flexible File Synchronizer is most effective when used via the scheduler though - it can be configured to backup to an FTP server without any need to even log on.

Cross platforms, an attractive interface and quick synching make Super Flexible File Synchronizer a decent proposition for anyone working on the move.

Download Super Flexible File Synchronizer 4.22 in Softonic

SnapNDrag lets you take a screenshot by just clicking a button and dragging the resulting screenshot off. For example, to email a screenshot, you would drag the screenshot from SnapNDrag to the Mail application. It is that simple. No hard-to-remember key combinations, no file conversion to deal with, no file dialog boxes to navigate, no temporary files to erase later on.

Download SnapNDrag 2.4.4 in Softonic

Kerio MailServer is what's known as a "groupware server" which basically means it allows several companies or organisations to collaborate on it at the same time.

Kerio MailServer does this through email, shared contacts, shared calendars and tasks.
Kerio MailServer does this in complete security because it is integrated with McAfee Antivirus which enables it to instantly remove viruses from incoming and outgoing email. Likewise, SpamEliminator automatically detects and filters spam from the Kerio MailServer.

Kerio WebMail is particularly easy to use. You can drag and drop mails to an extent that's not possible in Outlook but at the same time, it can be used in conjunction with Outlook because Kerio MailServer Server-based calendars and address books synchronize seamlessly with both Outlook, Entourage and of course, Kerio WebMail. You can even migrate data and messages from Outlook on anything held on an MS Exchange server with a handy wizard.

If you're looking for a good alternative to Outlook with more drag-and-drop features and need group collaboration options, Kerio MailServer is worth a try.

Download Kerio MailServer 6.4.2 in Softonic

Microsoft seem to be taking file synching very seriously with File Mesh recently released and this older offering, FolderShare also belonging to the synchronisation line of software.

FolderShare gives you the ability to create a private peer-to-peer network that will help you to synchronize files across multiple devices and access or share files with colleagues and friends. This obviously removes the need to send large files via email, burn them to CDs/DVDs or upload them to a website - simply sync them with FolderShare.

FolderShare allows you to share and sync important information with anyone you invite but the drawback is that they must have a Windows Live account. If you've already got a Windows Live Mail account, then this is no big problem but if you haven't, you'll have to go through the laborious signing up process to use FolderShare.

The FolderShare interface is extremely simple showing you at a glance, everything you need to sync devices, information with other people and even access your files remotely - a much better solution than carrying them around on an external drive.

FolderShare is a useful way to sync your devices and information with other users although Microsoft's Live Mesh is a much better product.

Download FolderShare 2.6.6 in Softonic