Livestation brings together one of the most impressive and widest selection of channels from around Europe under one easy to use and beautifully presented package.

Unlike many P2P TV apps, Livestation has official agreements with major channels such as BBC World, CNN and The Discovery Channel meaning that you're guaranteed high quality programming and images. Even better you can interact with other users very easily via an online chat function which also gives viewers a chance to rate their favourite channels.

You can add channels by going to the developer website and simply clicking "Add to player" and you'll find that it's automatically added to your channel list in Livestation. The presentation of Livestation is simply superb - you can select channels in a 3D revolving list of logos in much the same way as you do albums in iTunes. The quality of the streams in terms of video and sound is first class and expanding it to full screen mode still retains excellent quality.

If you don't have regular access to a TV or are on the move and want the highest possible quality programming, then Livestation will not disappoint.

Download Livestation 2.1.1 in Softonic

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 speculation goes as to when Limewire will 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, or program. 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 program.

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 4.18.8 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 9.6 in Softonic

I must admit I'm not very fond of audio editing tools. Mixing music has never been my cup of tea, so when it comes to testing an audio editor, chances are I end up more confused than satisfied. However, this isn't the case with Audacity. To begin with, this editor is free source and supports MP3, two features which usually don't meet in this kind of application. Secondly, it's easy to master, even for newcomers. And finally, there's a wide range of filters and special effects you can apply to your music so that you easily achieve the desired effect.

Audacity doesn't stand out for its interface. At first sight one wonders if this program is really going to be that easy to use. In fact, the interface sometimes makes it really hard to work with your tracks, especially when you zoom in on them for a more comfortable editing session. Besides this, I found myself constantly right-clicking on the working area and the tracks too, waiting for some handy context menu to appear but nothing came out.

After these few first minutes struggling with the interface, it's time to begin having fun. You can open as many tracks as you want by just dragging and dropping audio files onto the program's interface. Use your mouse to select the fragment you're interested in and begin working with it. You can perform the basic editing actions (cut, copy, paste) or apply effects to it. The zoom tool helps a lot when selecting small areas, as well as the chronometers found at the bottom of the program's window. Obviously, you can use the integrated player to check how your work sounds before saving the project.

Audacity features quite a large selection of filters and effects. Each one has its own setting options to adjust it to your liking. But what I loved is the possibility to preview how the filter will look on the audio track. This preview function allows novice users to test each filter before actually using it and also configure it with great accuracy.

On the downside, Audacity doesn't have much more to offer. After a few days playing with the program, you soon grow tired of selecting audio fragments and adding effects, and you feel like you need something else. In other words, the simplicity of the program makes it easy to learn, but at the same it makes it too basic and requires a lot of creativity on the user's side to obtain ear-catching results. Anyhow, Audacity is still a perfect choice to take your first steps in the music mixing world and then perhaps move on to another more professional tool.

Download Audacity 1.3.5 d in Softonic

MacTubes is a handy YouTube video player and downloader that allows you to create playlists and download video files.

The program allows you to subscribe to video channels on YouTube and view them from your desktop with no need to actually visit the YouTube site itself. MacTubes can then search and download files directly onto your desktop. It can also allow you to create playlists based on what you've downloaded or what you've searched on. So just line up what you want to watch and let it all go on while you sit back and enjoy.

Searches in MacTubes are more or less the same as using the YouTube site, allowing you to view videos by keyword, theme and even the user who uploaded it. The disadvantage is that you can't see any of the comments without going to the YouTube site, which is one of the best aspects of YouTube anyway. The other big drawback is of course that it only works with YouTube - other major sites such as DailyMotion and Metacafe are completely ignored.

MacTubes is a really easy-to-use and handy YouTube searcher and downloader that will make sure your favorite YouTube clips remain in your hands.

Download MacTubes 1.3 in Softonic

DRM Dumpster will allow you to remove the digital protection from your DRM tracks in iTunes.

Although it looks like DRM will probably be abandoned in the future you may still have purchased DRM tracks in the iTunes Store. You might want to remove the DRM so that you can play these tracks on any device and make your own copies. The simplest way would have been to burn them to a CD and rip them to an unprotected format, which can be a bit of a hassle.

DRM Dumpster takes tracks in groups of 10 to 20 and automatically removes the DRM without you having to worry about it. It automatically goes through the protected tracks and performs the erase/burn/rip cycle for you, saving you a lot of time and effort.

DRM Dumpster still remains pretty expensive, with a current price of $40, given that it only performs one specific action. Also, we found that the trial itself doesn't even let you try out removing DRM from a track, so you're basically forced to dish out $40 to see how it works.

DRM Dumpster is limited to iTunes, which is a bit of a shame as you might also want to remove the DRM from protected tracks bought on another website or stored elsewhere.

Despite being a little expensive, DRM Dumpster offers an effective way of quickly remove the protection from DRM tracks.

Download DRM Dumpster 3.2 in Softonic

Radioshift is a unique tool to browse and listen to any radio station in the world straight from your desktop. The interface, a mix between iTunes and a news reader, makes it easy to browse and subscribe to new radio stations. You can find shows by using the search window or simply browsing through the categories. Shows are divided into three main sections: spoken, music and sports but you can also search for stations geographically, thanks to a map included in the interface.

Radioshift offers a good deal of extra features like the lists of favorite and popular shows. Once you subscribe to a song (by clicking the + button) it'll be added in the list on the left side of the interface. You can also edit show information, although in a limited way. In terms of usability, Radioshift includes an intro movie and a help manual to get first time users going.

Radioshift is the application of choice for any radio or podcast addict.

Download Radioshift 1.1 in Softonic

There was a time when video files all conformed to some basic requirements and could be played without protest using any media software. As technologies change and licensing becomes more restrictive and specific, simply playing a video file has now become a challenge and thanks to the plethora of obscure proprietary formats now available, finding a media player that works for the majority has become more hassle than it’s worth. Thankfully the open source community have come up with a solution in the form of VLC, otherwise know as VideoLAN.

This cross platform player doesn't strike as particularly good-looking when put side by side with Windows Media Player or Winamp, but you'll appreciate its far superior usability within moments. Its power can be demonstrated with any video files you happen to be downloading, which can be played in whatever form they exist, be it an actual video format or an unclassified temporary one. As you preview a video, it will skip the parts that have yet to be downloaded and let you see the rest – Media Player in comparison, can't preview files in this way.

Apart from playing incomplete videos, because lets face it not many people want to do that anyway, VLC has support for a huge range of video formats. If it doesn't recognize the file type it will try playing it anyway often successfully or if it's an encrypted file it will display the scrambled video in its raw form. The interface is stripped down to the bare bones, with the apparent objective of making it as unobtrusive as possible. With superb hotkey support, you can do practically everything you want without touching your mouse.

Put simply, VLC is a video player that doesn't stray in to other areas. You won't find any media catalogs or fancy visualizations thrown in and although there is one alternative skin available, all it will take is one look and you'll quickly be switching back to the default.

This free player should appeal to true cinephiles who want as little distraction as possible from their viewing experience. Being open source it's free to use and thanks to a small file size and a friendly installation process, we would recommend it to absolutely everyone as their "backup" or "catch-all" video player.

Download VLC Media Player 0.9.3 in Softonic

DVD Snap can take snapshots of any movie playing in your Mac DVD Player. Because it's built specifically for this, it's much easier to use than a traditional screen capture application. Just configure the program, launch the Mac DVD Player and then take your shots. You can grab one image or decide to create a sequence, by setting the time interval. DVD Snap can bet set from 0.5 to 600 seconds intervals.

The application stores and numbers your shots, making them easy to find and exports to a number of image formats, including JPEG, PNG or GIF. The program window is very discreet and can be resized so it doesn't obstruct you when playing back the DVD.

DVD Snap works flawlessly with the Mac DVD Player, a huge plus but also it's only true limitation. We would have loved to see it being associated to any other media player and not just to DVDs, as you may want to take shots from other movie formats. That said you're sure to get an excellent image quality from a DVD.

DVD Snap allows to take unique or sequential shots from movies played in the Mac DVD Player. A discreet program with good settings.

Download DVD Snap 2.1.0 in Softonic

RevolverHD is supposed to be used in conjunction with VoltaicHD so that you can play back your edited high definition movies from iMovie08 on the Playstation3.

In addition though, it allows you to create Blu-ray compatible DVDs so that you've got a complete HDTV editing and playback suite. This is fantastic for all those that don't have or can't afford a Blu-ray burner or simply don't have any Blu-ray disks.

RevolverHD is a very lightweight program and burning AVCHD clips straight from your camera to HD format is very simple. Simply open RevolverHD and add the required MTS or m2ts files. The just set your preference to "Blu-ray" DVD's and click burn. The result is a DVD that can be played on most Blu-ray players although it should be noted that there's no guarantee it will work on every single manufacturer.

With Blu-ray still taking off and HD editing an increasingly important aspect of video production, RevolverHD gives Mac users professional processing power in a remarkably lightweight utility.

Download RevolverHD 1.2 in Softonic

It's probably going to be a good few years before the first manned mission to Mars so until then, you'll have to make do with Mars Explorer Widget.

Mars Explorer Widget is a free 3D game which works inside your browser and sees you explore the volcanoes, plateaus and lava flows of Mars with a few stunts thrown in for good measure. You can even play Mars Explorer Widget against friends (or even the 18 year old developer himself) over the internet although playing them at what is not quite clear.

Mars Explorer Widget doesn't really offer any "challenge" as such, although it is fun imagining what Mars might be like to race around. It's probably most suitable for kids or those learning about planets and what to get a general idea of Mars' landscape. As a game though, it really doesn't hold any interest at all. It simply extends itself to a few races and chasing other players around the planet.

Mars Explorer Widget is a fun and educational trip round Mars, although to call it a game is stretching it a bit much.

Download Mars Explorer Widget 1.7a in Softonic

iGadget allows you to realize the full potential of your iPod. With iGadget, you'll be able to transform your iPod into much more than a simple music player. Here are the features you'll get with the purchase of iGadget:

Songs and Playlists

Transfer songs and playlists from your iPod to your computer and/or into iTunes while preserving play counts, user ratings and last played dates

Driving Directions

Never get lost again! Put driving directions right onto your iPod

Outlook

Get rid of your PDA and put all your Microsoft Outlook data onto it including email, appointments, contacts, tasks and notes

Weather Forecasts

Never get caught without your raincoat by keeping your local weather forecasts on your iPod

Movie Showtimes

Get the movie showtimes for your local theaters stored onto your iPod

RSS News Feeds

Get the latest news headlines on your iPod for reading at your leisure

Backup

Backup any set of files and/or folders from your computer onto your iPod for safe keeping

Daily Horoscope

Get your daily horoscope readings on your iPod

Music Listings

Create listings of the music on your iPod in various formats (HTML, CSV, plain text). This could then be used to post on a website or to print out a listing of all your songs

Library

Keep a library of text files on your iPod for reading on-the-go - these could be e-books, recipes, bible verses, anything

Download iGadget 2.5.2 in Softonic

Although with the advent of podcasts, listening to online radio isn't as popular anymore, you can still find many stations on the web. FStream is the ideal tool to enjoy them as it focuses on playing and recording radio streams. Offering a discreet and functional interface, the unobtrusive FStream can play any online radio stations without ever interfering with your other applications. The program uses up very little memory and can be switched on or off very quickly. Both the player and recorder functions are very easy to use yet lack any advanced functions, such as an equalizer.

Thanks to recent improvements, it's now much easier to add and organize new streams. The preset view allows you to see stations by lists, whether ShoutCast or SourceMac and you can easily import new streams straight from iTunes. The only downside is that FStream doesn't allow you to browse for new streams.

An unobtrusive yet functional application, FStream is great to listen to your favorite online radio streams.

Download FStream 1.3.9 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 favorite 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 favorite blogs.

The other big draw of FireANT is that the media player is incredibly versatile - rivaling 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 favorite 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

iTunes is the best music player out there, but don't you wish you could control it without interrupting your task at hand? Now you can. Control iTunes. Whether it's to pause the player, adjust the volume, skip a track or rate a song, you can do all that and more with simple customizable keystrokes.

Why bring up iTunes just to see what track is playing? SizzlingKeys features a floating window that shows you the current song name, artist and more. Place it anywhere you wish on the screen by simply dragging it. Having all the features you can imagine is useless if the app is difficult and confusing to use. That's why we make ease-of-use our top priority. Customizing SizzlingKeys cannot be easier.

What SizzlingKeys lets you do:

• Control iTunes player
• Rate songs
• Select a playlist (searchable!)
• Search for songs
• Shows you the current song

Download SizzlingKeys 3.2.6 in Softonic

I'm a sucker for any game that features 3D graphics (it goes back to the days of Stunt Car Racer on the Amiga) and especially those that are free.

Marble Arena ticks both boxes and while it's not exactly the most spectacular or exciting game around (certainly not a patch on Stunt Car Racer) Marble Arena is a lot of fun. Basically, Marble Arena requires you to roll your marble around a 3D obstacle course going up and down slippery slopes, mastering air vents, jump-zones and even vortexes.

The more obstacles you successfully navigate in Marble Arena, the further you get and the more points you score. You can face a variety of surfaces such as sand, water, glass, ice and tarmac and if you get through them all, you're rewarded with upgrade points which you can use to improve your marble or change your skin.

It can be a bit boring on your own after a while although you do quite attached to the ball's plight. However, I imagine the real fun starts when you add more balls and more players who can roll against each other at the same time.

Marble Arena will either make you roll over and go to sleep after a few levels or lose your marbles trying to navigate it's many challenges.

Download Marble Arena 1.4 in Softonic

Headline is a small desktop RSS reader with a chat client-like interface and loads of smart features.

The application comes with a large choice of feeds, but you can easily add your own and remove the ones you don't want. Instead of previewing items in the interface, a preview window pops up, in a Quick Look fashion. Headline includes its very own video player, so you watch videos and listen to audio items in the preview window.

The search box at the top is particularly responsive and useful if you don't want to scroll down your list of items. You'll also find a button at the bottom left which lets you switch between feeds and entries. You can mark items you like as favorites and share them via email or iChat.

The compact size comes at a cost, which is no browser view. However it's worth sacrificing it for an interface that stands out from other typical desktop RSS readers.

Headline is a compact desktop RSS reader with a good video player and sharing features.

Download Headline 1.0 in Softonic

With Last.fm, music fans have found a place to congregate and share musical tastes. The Last.fm player places the “social music revolution” onto your desktop, giving you access to thousands of tracks from all musical genres.

The beauty of the application is that it encourages you to find similar artists to the ones you’re accustomed to and also pushes you to interact with users who share the same tastes. Search results appear as a tag cloud, with the biggest elements being the most popular. With thousands of songs available on Last.fm, it’s pretty unlikely that you’ll listen to the same thing twice. The player is streaming and you’ll have to be connected to the internet and have a Last.fm account for it to work.

Although slightly bulky, the Last.fm player interface is sleek and accessible. We like the shiny control icons and the “now playing” window. This is where you’ll find all artist information like album cover, a small description of the artist, related tags and artists and top listeners. The menu bar on the left includes your recently played tracks, recently loved and recently banned, although to listen to these you’ll need to upgrade your Last.fm account (€2.50/month). The last 10 stations you’ve listened to are automatically saved in your history file.

The social experience is central to Last.fm and becomes pretty addictive. By listening to tracks you create a profile of yourself, the music you listen to and the artists you like. Last.fm then connects you to other users that have similar tastes, whom it calls neighbours. In the Last.fm player, you can connect to neighbours' stations and listen to their tunes. The lists of the friends you made on Last.fm will also appear in your player. If you have the Audioscrobbler plug-in installed, Last.fm can also track all the songs you play in your favourite desktop music app (like iTunes) and connect you with even more neighbours.

Most of us here at Softonic have Last.fm connected all day, simply because it doesn’t require you to have your own music library, it’s free and provides an endless flow of new tunes. In line with modern evolutions in online music, this web music application mixes streaming and social tools to give you an exciting music player. No music fan with access to Internet should be caught dead without it.

Download Last.fm player 1.5.3.45507 in Softonic

Reelbean offers you a converter, an exporter and a media player all in one friendly interface.

Converting movies is a very common thing to do nowadays, especially with all the different devices you can play a video on. The video iPod in particular has been extremely successful, given how easy it makes it store and watch videos anywhere.

If you are the lucky owner of such a device then you surely have had to convert videos to play them properly on it. It can be a little difficult to find the right application to do the job though. We like Reelbean, because it lets you convert and export in many format, including the iPod friendly MPEG4 and 3GPP for other mobile devices. The process is easy and fairly quick.

Reelbean doesn't limit itself to converting though, and since it handles so many formats, you can also preview and play them from it. Video quality is good and you can use the slider at the bottom to move forward and backwards in the movie. Reelbean also plays any streaming media.

The limitations in the trial version are the only things that we found disappointing. You won't be able to convert, extract or export videos, so you're pretty much left with the playback functions of the software.

Despite the limitations in the trial version, Reelbean is an excellent application to convert, export and play all sorts of video formats.

Download ReelBean 3.8.2 in Softonic

Breakaway offers a little feature that you won't find in iTunes: it will automatically pause the media player when the jack of your haedphone is plugged out. This will prevent you from embarassing situations, especially if your music is on really loud.

Breakaway only takes a few seconds to set up. Make sure you check 'headphones mode' to make it work and 'resume play on reinsert' to automatically restart your music once you plug your headphones back in. You can also set a mute key and have it force open iTunes.

Breakaway is what we like to call a niche application. It those one specific thing, but does it well. If you find yourself listening to your music with your headphones most of the time and don't want to find yourself in the unpleasant situation of having it blaring out of your Mac when you remove your headphones then this is for you.

Breakaway is a niche program to pause your iTunes music when your headphones are removed.

Download Breakaway 1.75b in Softonic