Aperture could be defined as 'iPhoto on steroids'. It's a complete photo organizer and viewer, easy enough for the amateur, but with the powerful tools that any advanced user would need. Plus it features a comfortable interface that hardly takes a few minutes to get used to.

Aperture lets you import images from various resources (including your photo camera), organize them in an intuitive way and optimize or fix them if necessary. When ready, sit back and enjoy them in a fullscreen slideshow, or use them in various creative projects such as a book, an album or a web gallery.

When I said Aperture was a bit like iPhoto, I wasn't exaggerating. This new version includes Faces, the popular facial recognition technology implemented in the last version of iPhoto. But Aperture goes a step beyond and also includes Places, another special technology that geolocates your images using the information stored in metadata by some cameras. However, I have to say that this feature wasn't working properly: the map took ages to load and controls were over-sensitive – which made map navigation a real pain. It even caused a program crash while testing it.

Besides these organizational features, Aperture includes a bunch of interesting tools to enhance your pics. You can tweak the image's balance, exposure, color and light values, levels and more with easy-to-use slides. The so-called Adjustment presets let you apply quick, frequent fixes to images in just two clicks. Finally, the all-new precision brushes help you fix the problem with extraordinary accuracy.

Other features in Aperture I found specially interesting were the possibility to share your images online in MobileMe, Facebook and Flickr right from the program, and to create printed copies of your photos – which always works as a nice present for grandma.

Aperture is an excellent photo application, there's no doubt about that. But in a way I felt disappointed when testing this new version. I expected to have more editing and drawing tools, and – why not – support for layers and masks. I found the controls uncomfortable and hard to manage, and my overall impression was one of disappointment.

Aperture is a powerful photo organizer and viewer that includes a handful of features to view, fix, optimize, enhance, share and enjoy your photos!

Download Aperture 3.4.4 in Softonic

Sweet Home 3D allows your imagination to run wild without you having to lift a finger or costing you a cent. Apart from being a very useful interior design application, it's also a hell of a lot of fun, allowing you to mix and match furniture with ease, take virtual walks around your creations, and indulge yourself in designs you'd probably never be able to do in real life.

Sweet Home 3D offers more than 50 different pieces of furniture, ranging from beds to lamps and desks tables, but you can import even more from the developer's website. To create your rooms, all you need to do is drag and drop elements into the grid view and you'll see them building up 3D in the viewing screen below. Once you've done this, use the virtual visit tool to get a 3D preview of what it looks like and talk a walk around.

The latest version adds a new level of realism to Sweet Home 3D. This includes a new ability to handle rounded walls, the possibility to store points of view, a new compass and even light and sun management to accurately show how your designs react under different conditions. They've also added a much needed auto recovery function if Sweet Home 3D crashes.

These are the basics and Sweet Home 3D is extremely easy to get to grips with. Unfortunately, the graphics are not great - many pieces of furniture look blocky, but its designed to give an idea of what an arrangement will look like rather than a perfect picture. You can take a photo of your finished design, which you can then send on to friends to view who won't need Sweet Home 3D to view it. The fact that it's based on Java shouldn't put you off either - it works very smoothly with virtually no delays in placing furniture or creating previews.

Sweet Home 3D is an excellent solution for all those that daydream about redesigning their home, or even for professionals that need a basic mock-up.

Download Sweet Home 3D 3.7 in Softonic

There's no better way to explain a project than via a diagram. OmniGraffle is an excellent application to create complex graphs, layouts or charts.

As with other Omni Group applications, OmniGraffle is very intuitive, and offers a well structured interface, with easy access to your projects, tools, styles and other menus. OmniGraffle is a great program partly due to the tools it includes like Bézier lines and shapes, stencils or connection magnets. To improve the looks of your shapes you'll have to work with visual styles and smart guides to improve the look and structure of your diagrams.

Apart from powerful tools, a good diagramming program needs to give you a clear outlook of your project, even if it is very complex. The outline view in OmniGraffle gives you a clear view of the whole diagram and comes in really handy ton control changes as you're working. You can also use the Automatic Layout inspector to arrange your project in the best way possible. In case you need to insert multiple areas in your project, OmniGraffle integrates subgraphs, to collapse more content into sections and keep your graphs clear.

OmniGraffle will also let you import Microsoft Visio VSD files, meaning you can work on diagrams with PC users and not worry about compatibility issues.

There's no doubt about it, OminiGraffle is a powerful application, replete with tools and styles to design great looking complex diagrams. It's no surprise then that the program has a price tag of $199.95, which not all users will be ready to pay.

If you're looking for a professional application to create complex diagrams and aren't worried about the price, then OmniGraflle is definitely the program for you.

Download OmniGraffle Pro 5.3.6 in Softonic

OmniOutliner allows you to create hierarchies of main headings and subpoints that can be expanded and collapsed. This makes it ideal for brainstorming tasks, drawing-up plan of actions and mapping out ideas. However, OmniOutliner isn't limited to hierarchies - it also supports multiple columns, smart checkboxes and customizable popup lists that make your notes and plans look really professional.

For students taking notes in lectures, OmniOutliner is particularly useful. Templates enable you to simply fill in the information and notes during lectures and link them easily. Linking is dynamic so that clicking one is similar to clicking a web hyperlink to an idea. You can also link directly to websites and online data if you have an internet connection. One minor drawback is that there is no PDF export support - only RTF export - but this can be easily solved by clicking Print to PDF from the Print Preferences instead.

OmniOutliner is an excellent note taking and organizational tool that will appeal to students and organizers at all levels.

Download OmniOutliner 3.10 in Softonic

OmniOutliner allows you to create hierarchies of main headings and subpoints that can be expanded and collapsed. This makes it ideal for brainstorming tasks, drawing-up plan of actions and mapping out ideas. However, OmniOutliner isn't limited to hierarchies - it also supports multiple columns, smart checkboxes and customizable popup lists that make your notes and plans look really professional.

For students taking notes in lectures, OmniOutliner is particularly useful. Templates enable you to simply fill in the information and notes during lectures and link them easily. Linking in OmniOutliner is dynamic so that clicking one is similar to clicking a web hyperlink to an idea. You can also link directly to websites and online data if you have an internet connection. One minor drawback is that there is no PDF export support - only RTF export - but this can be easily solved by clicking Print to PDF from the Print Preferences instead.

OmniOutliner is an excellent note taking and organizational tool that will appeal to students and organizers at all levels.

Download OmniOutliner Pro 3.10 in Softonic

Bookpedia is an excellent application to keep track of the books you have at home. Thanks to a clear interface, you can view all album covers and book information in one go. Using your Apple iSight camera you can scan the bar codes of your books to register them into Bookpedia. And if for some reason you don't have the bar code, Bookpedia will let you look at ten different international search sites and z39.50 library servers. We were also impressed by the Spotlight integration, which makes any piece of information quickly within reach.

The full screen mode, which shows all the album covers, is a nice way of browsing through your titles. Bookpedia also streamlines the way you can create smart collections to keep all your different books organized. We also quite liked being able to create a book wishlist or at least seeing the one you have on Amazon. Bookpedia also lets you keep a note of who has borrowed which book and can generate all sorts of statistics on your collections.

While scanning book bar codes with your iSight camera worked most of the time, it can fail every once a while. Always make sure there's sufficient light and that the bar code is clean. One other little drawback we could also point out is that Bookpedia doesn't let you sort by author last name.

Apart from that, Bookpedia is a top notch application to keep your book collection organized.

Download Bookpedia 5.1.3 in Softonic

Vector drawing is almost an art in itself, and something that takes time to master. VectorDesigner is a good program both for those looking to learn all about and others who already have some experience with the technique.

VectorDesigner offers a simple, multi-windowed interface from which you can use all sorts of tools and shapes like rectangles, stars, polygons or bezier creations. Boolean tools offered by the program are easy to work with and let you combine your different shapes in all sorts of ways. Vector drawing is perfect for creating posters, stickers, t-shirts...anything onto which you can apply a design. VectorDesigner takes this into account and lets you constrain text to any shape.

The program includes many filters and compositions, however some effects will only work if you're running Mac OS X 10.5. One element we did enjoy was the Flickr browser tool, by which you can find images in the photo sharing site.

VectorDesigner gives anybody the chance to work with vector drawings and create great looking designs thanks to powerful tools and effects.

Download VectorDesigner 1.4.12 in Softonic