As one of the mainstays of the instant messaging world, Yahoo! has finally decided to drag itself onto the VOIP bandwagon with the launch of this Voice version of its popular client. As well as offering free PC-to-PC calls and cheap PC-to-phone (landline and mobile) calls, the program throws in all the usual over-the-top gadgetry and gimmicks we've come to associate with Yahoo! Messenger.

As we've seen before from programs that try to be all things to all people, there's always a danger that things can get a little out of hand for the user, and this is the territory that Yahoo is entering with this latest incarnation of its messenger. It's true that the voice facilities in the program are top-notch, delivering crystal-clear clarity for most calls to PCs and phones. It's also true that the application boasts a bevy of interesting and innovative features, such as the ability to play games and listen to online radio together, send animated, talking emoticons, and quickly share files and photos simply by dragging and dropping them into the chat window.

Although, in the main, these features are good for a laugh, we did have a couple of things that we'd like to raise if we ever met Mr Yahoo! Firstly, we like the games but they lack instructions, so sometimes it can take a while to figure out how to play them. Also many of the so-called 'Audibles,' which are essentially animated, talking emoticons, are a little vulgar to say the least, and not really suitable for anyone with a reputation to uphold.

There are plenty of ways to customize the client to suit your mood too. The main interface is fully skinable, and you can also change the way the chat window looks by selecting from dozens of themed 'IMvironments', which certainly helps to inject some variety into your chat experiences. You can also build your own avatar – a process which can take hours as you carefully select the right haircut, clothes, sunglasses and even breed of dog to have sitting at your side in your IM profile.

Individually, these features are both innovative and compelling, but ironically they combine to contribute to the downfall of Messenger for Voice. The fact is that all of these options serve to swamp the interface and if you have a lot of the features running at the same time it's often hard to find even the text window. While it's fun and novel at first, the messenger very quickly becomes an irritant more than anything. Our advice – stick with Skype.

Download Yahoo! Messenger with Voice 9.0.0.1912 in Softonic

Following the trend of brain workout games started by the popular Brain Training on the Nintendo DS platform, here comes gBrainy, a pack of games that will challenge your brain in different ways.

This game is actually a port of a Linux-based game, but it works fine on Windows too. It includes a bunch of questions and exercises classified into three categories: Logic puzzles, Mental calculation exercises and Memory trainers. gBrainy features a simple, clear design which means you shouldn't expect bright colors or spectacular graphical effects. It's just a plain window where the game displays questions and you simply enter the correct answer (or at least the one you think is correct).

Talking about right answers, this is precisely what you may not like about gBrainy. I don't know if it was because of my personal dislike for maths, but I was a complete failure in Calculation and Logic exercises. Well, at leas I did way better at the Memory ones.

You can pause the game at any point, and when you stop it you get quite complete statistics about your performance and results, as long as some tips to improve your score next time you run the game.

gBrainy is a plainly designed game that helps you improve your logic skills with different types of exercises.

Download gBrainy 1.00 in Softonic

Pidgin (previously called Gaim) is a multi-protocol instant messaging client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X, and Windows. It is compatible with AIM (Oscar and TOC protocols), ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, and Zephyr networks. Pidgin users can log in to multiple accounts on multiple IM networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on AOL Instant Messenger, talking to a friend on Yahoo Messenger, and sitting in an IRC channel all at the same time. Pidgin supports many features of the various networks, such as file transfer (coming soon), away messages, typing notification, and MSN window closing notification.

It also goes beyond that and provides many unique features. A few popular features are Buddy Pounces, which give the ability to notify you, send a message, play a sound, or run a program when a specific buddy goes away, signs online, or returns from idle. Plugins, consist of text replacement, a buddy ticker, extended message notification, iconify on away, and more.

Download Pidgin 2.5.1 in Softonic

One of the biggest temptations when chatting on the Internet is playing a joke on the person you're talking to. And AV WebCam Morpher can be a really good help.

AV WebCam Morpher is especially designed for video chats. The program replaces your current webcam video signal with a fake video loop that shows a completely different person. This means that it'll be this character's face – and not yours – the one that will appear on the video window on whichever IM client you're using.

You can choose between different people in AV WebCam Morpher. Video loops are quite elaborate: people on them play a very credible role while pretending to be typing on a keyboard or looking at the screen. What's more, AV WebCam Morpher includes a smiley menu with which you can make them laugh, dance, grin and many other visual gestures that are part of body language.

AV WebCam Morpher is quite easy to set up, and is also compatible with popular IM clients such as Yahoo Messenger, Skype, Camfrog, PalTalk Messenger and Windows Live Messenger. On the downside, its interface could be greatly improved.

With AV WebCam Morpher you can play a funny joke on your video IM client pretending to be someone else.

Download AV Webcam Morpher 2.0.23 in Softonic

Mail PassView allows you to view detailed information on each of the email accounts you have configured on your system. Mainly, it's used for the recovery of passwords although undoubtedly, some people will use it to crack passwords. The information it reveals includes details such as account name, name and e-mail server type of application you use, user name and password. You can save all this information in a text file or copy it to the Clipboard.

The program supports the most popular email clients such as Outlook Express, Microsoft Outlook 2000 and 2002, IncrediMail, Eudora and Group Mail Free. It also reveals passwords and info for IncrediMail, Eudora, Netscape 6.x/7.x, Mozilla Thunderbird, Group Mail Free, Yahoo! Mail & Hotmail/MSN Live Mail (If the password is saved in the applications.). It can even work for Gmail if the password is saved by the Gmail Notifier application, Google Desktop, or by Google Talk.

If you've lost your passwords or just want to snoop, it's worth a try but very hit and miss in it's effectiveness.

Download Mail PassView 1.44 in Softonic

One of the easiest ways to save time and speed-up your productivity is to record your e-mails by voice.

At first this might seem like an odd idea - why not just make a phone call? However, leaving a voice e-mail message allows the recipient to pick them up when they want, forward it on to other people, and generally get a much better idea of how you are feeling based on the tone of your voice. HandyBits Voice Mail makes it incredibly easy to get going by allowing you to record and playback voice messages in literally a few clicks. It's also very good at compressing voice messages so there's no need to worry about huge files blocking your inbox or bringing down your mail sever (which can be a common problem with such programs). In fact, according to the developers, it will compress messages to less than 10 times their original size which is pretty impressive. You can drag voice mail messages any way you want so you can drop them out of the interface and onto your desktop but unfortunately not directly into the attachment of an e-mail. It does offer regular tips which can be useful depending on how familiar you are with the program but they can be annoying when they pop up all the time.

Get yourself into the world of voice e-mails with HandyBits Voice Mail and you'll be surprised at how much your productivity can increase although in my mind, nothing beats the simplicity of sending an e-mail when you don't want to talk.

Download HandyBits Voice Mail 6.0 in Softonic

Imagine a huge games arcade where thousands of dedicated game players can gather to do battle. That’s what GameSpy Arcade attempts to offer in a virtual world where game is the name and variety is the aim.

GameSpy started life by simply helping Quake users find a functioning sever to log onto but today, it has developed into a world of gaming in its own right. The developer claims that millions of gamers meet online on GameSpy to play the hundreds of online multiplayer games and free demos it’s linked to. They also claim the all-in-one interface offers the fastest game servers available – up to 60% faster than in-game browsers. Plus, it already features integrated texting, voice chat and instant messaging – eat your heart out SecondLife.

After installation, the program scans your PC for any installed games you have and lists those which are GameSpy compatible. All the major games such as Counter-Strike and Age of Empires are supported. The key feature of GameSpy is the Buddy List, which means you’re almost always guaranteed someone online to play with or against (depending on how many buddies you’ve got of course!) Using an engine called ‘PlayerSpy’, it gathers together all those friends that are online. You can see which chat room they are in and what game they are playing. If you fancy dropping in on their action, just click on their location to be instantly taken there. You can also send an instant message, start a voice conversation or send a game invite.

The other key feature of GameSpy is a searchable server filter (SmartSpy) which enables you to find the right server for the game you want in seconds. Popular dedicated-server games like Half-Life have literally thousands of game servers available and SmartSpy helps you pinpoint the best one for you in a matter of seconds. Just select the type of game you want to play and GameSpy Arcade will download data from and ping only those servers. For those that simply like to keep abreast of the latest games, GameSpy also offers DemoSpy - a daily updated list of the latest releases, supplied to them by FilePlanet which saves you registering with the latter. This also includes a handy patch section to keep your games updated.

The drawbacks can be summarised in two words – advertising and resources. From the minute you open GameSpy you are bombarded with advertising from developers hawking their latest games, which becomes rapidly tiresome. In addition, GameSpy tends to be very heavy on your CPU. If you’re playing on an older machine, forget about running anything else alongside it – it simply hogs your CPU to deal with the heavy graphics.

In summary, if you frequently find yourself without gaming companions, GameSpy Arcade is worth it for that reason alone – it’s a great way to make friends too. If however you’re dedicated to just one or two games and you regularly log on with others, the advertising and resource-hogging mean you can probably do without this.

Download GameSpy Arcade 2.05 RC1 in Softonic

BRAVIS Galaxee 4free (formerly BRAVIS Pico) allows you to conduct videoconferencing between multiple users simultaneously using just an Internet connection and a webcam and microphone.

The advantage of this program is that you do not need additional hardware or dedicated servers. It has been developed with closed groups in mind using peer to peer connections. It's especially useful when performing negotiations or interviews as you can add other users at any time. Bravis Galaxee 4free adapts the quality of the call to the type of connection you have which means that communication is usually pretty stable. In addition, you have a chat client which can also accept new additions at any time. Overall, the program is very easy to use and you never feel like you have to explain to other users how they may join and remove themselves from conversations at any time. If you need to be able to conduct video conferences with an unlimited number of users, then you'll find BRAVIS Galaxee 4free an easy to use and solid solution.

A very good multiple video conferencing app which doesn't require installation and is easy enough for anyone to use.

Download BRAVIS Galaxy 4free 1.5 in Softonic

Camtasia Studio is a complete application suite to record, edit and share your videos online, on CD or with a portable player. This highly-acclaimed program allows you to create screencasts or video tutorials, and can also be used to prepare presentations. Let’s get a run-down of all the things you can do with Camtasia Studio.

Thanks to the Camtasia Recorder, you can record and save screen captures or webcam broadcasts. We enjoyed playing around with it, adjusting the region size, highlighting cursor movement and setting elements such as time stamps and captions. Depending on what you need to record, you can also choose to hide or show the cursor and disable audio recording.

The production studio is the central piece of the application, from where you’ll be doing your editing. Drag and drop your recorded videos onto the timeline at the bottom of the interface. Camtasia embeds a player in the studio interface and you can constantly replay your production. From the menu on the left side you can choose from a selection of 18 different transitions, many call-outs (effectively bubbles to insert text into your video) or captions. The Zoom-n-Pan feature can be used to focus in on one part of the video in particular and teachers can use the Flash Quiz Survey feature to prepare multiple choice tests for their students. Camtasia Studio also includes an audio editor to simply record a voiceover directly to your video or tweak the audio in your production. Use Menu Maker and Theater to create full table of contents and credits pages.

Once you’re happy with your editing and have everything in place, you can go on to produce. Camtasia will guide you through what codecs to choose or what format to set according to your output, whether for the web, for CD, DVD or a portable player. The output format will also depend on whether your video only consists of slides and screen recordings or if you also have digital footage. Camtasia lets you choose among the industry standards like AVI, Quicktime, Real Media or Windows Media. You’ll be able to batch produce your videos and select smooth scaling to lessen quality loss while resizing videos. Production preview is a great feature to take a quick look at your video and correct mistakes before actually producing it. Finally, Camtasia integrates with Screencast.com, meaning you can post your best videos online and share them with others.

Apart from being a full video suite for your PC, it would be a mistake not to talk about the user-friendly aspect of Camtasia Studio. The program offers a number of tutorials, many of them in video format, to explain the different actions you can undertake. The process from recording to editing and producing is well structured and Camtasia Studio will guide you, even suggesting things such as the output format. Whether you’re out to make screencasts or need a friendly and complete tool to prepare presentations, Camtasia Studio is the application of choice.

Download Camtasia Studio 5.0.2 in Softonic

Smooch allows you to keep in contact with your friends, adding your contacts from Yahoo, MSN and Smooch's proprietary network, but not others (Mirc, ICQ, Libero, Google Talk, etc.), unlike its competitors.

During the first installation, the program didn't run properly, but no type of error message was displayed so there is still some work to do on the usability side. Also, once opened, the program requires you to log in, without offering you the chance to register directly from the application and without providing a direct link to an online registration form.

The design and the navigation menu are captivating with a modern, iPhone-like style, and its clear, simple look will be useful once the program includes more services.. At present, the 'Feature' menu only contains a 'coming soon' message, while the 'Smooch' page is completely white! We can forgive them because it’s still a beta version.

Smooch intends to integrate your virtual social life with your real one, organizing events and meet-ups. However, despite the developer’s good intentions, at the moment it's nothing more than a normal, multi-network instant messenger.

Smooch is an interesting concept which may well develop into a useful application but for the moment, it lacks any of the features which could make it truly interesting.

Download Smooch 2.0 beta in Softonic

Have you ever wanted to sit down and compile your family tree but were daunted by the task? Agelong Tree is a program intended for helping you do just that by storing and displaying information about your relatives and the key events in their lives. With millions of users sharing family information on the internet, tracing your family history has never been easier. Although sites such as Genes Reunited now boast over 90 million users, not everyone wants to share their family information online. Which is where Agelong Tree comes in.

The program works with a spreadsheet style interface and automatically builds the tree as you enter family members. Each box has a “mechanism of events” option which allows you to compile complex biographies, store texts, photos, sounds and even videos of your relatives. You can also export this information statistically and view it in attractive graphical presentations.

An algorithm automatically builds the interconnectedness of the family tree as you enter information about people and hit the save option to compile it. One of the key elements of the program is the event display module which highlights the major moments in a person’s life and displays them in graphical form. There are a number of standard event types such as birth, marriage, house move but you can also create your own event types which can have one or more participants. For example, there are three standard participants in the event of a birth – the newborn, the father and the mother. Along with standard participants you can add to an event an unlimited number of participants with other roles such as a witness, a midwife or even a lover (such as if the baby was conceived outside of the marriage by the milkman or something).

You can also filter your family by criteria. For example, you can select all those who lived in your home town, who were born in the 30s or all those who held certain jobs. This is one of the handiest features of this programme and it’s lacking from websites such as Genes Reunited. It’s quite interesting to be able to filter your family members’ attributes to see which ones you had the most in common with or which showed the most similar characteristics.

The drawback is that obviously, since it’s not online and you are not interconnected with other users, you can only extend your family tree as far as your knowledge goes. You also have to enter each member manually which is terribly time consuming when you are talking about biographies, events in their lives and other details. These factors are already done for you by other users on website based family trees.

Nevertheless, the attractive graphics and ease of use make this an excellent choice for anyone who would rather keep their family history to themselves.

Download Agelong Tree 3.1.1 in Softonic

An Avatar is a small image used in Forums, Mobile Phones, Instant Messenger programs (IMs), PDAs etc. to identify yourself or your contacts.

n Forums Avatars, are usually displayed to the left of your post, directly beneath your Username. In IMs, Mobile Phones, PDAs etc. Avatars are used to show your caller a graphical representation of who they are talking to and/or, as part of the phonebook/address entry.
Avatar Sizer automatically sorts out the "Aspect Ratio" of the image and uses "Smooth Resizing" to make your Avatar look as good as the original image, only smaller. Avatar Sizer produces some impressive results even when displayed at half it's normal size. There's not much more that can be done other than resizing avatars although at a push, it could be used to resize bigger pictures.

A useful little program especially for those who post regularly on forums.

Download Avatar Sizer 1.0.0.9 in Softonic

The problem with running a large network is that it can be difficult to track what each of its users are getting up to. We've all heard the stories of employees downloading lewd content on BitTorrent during work time or spending all day talking drivel on Messenger. SwitchSniffer is designed to put you, the network administrator back in charge by allowing you to monitor and control all of the communications made over a LAN.

The application provides you with lots of information about the current state of the network, revealing the number of users connected, the amount of traffic generated by each one, the type of communications being made, the IP addresses they're visiting, and lots more. There are also plenty of control options, including the ability to block a single user, to restrict in some way their communications, and analyse the files they've transmitted or received. With such an array of tools, you can ensure that all of your network's users are doing exactly as they should be.

Download SwitchSniffer 1.4.2 in Softonic

When playing multiplayer online games you usually need to communicate with your friends for different reasons: to design a strategy for your next assault or just to have a fun, relaxing chit-chat while killing enemies mercilessly. Many games feature a chat tool that allows you to exchange messages with other players, but typing a sentence while trying to stay alive in the game can be really annoying. The only solution then is using voice communication. It's easier, faster and far more comfortable than writing messages on a tiny chat window. And one of the best options for voice communications in multiplayer online games is TeamSpeak.

This piece of software comes in two separate applications, one to be used as a server and the other one as a client. You can therefore have your own private TeamSpeak server installed at home, which allows you to talk to your friends while playing with them in an absolutely private, secure way. As the server administrator, you have the right to create and delete user accounts, set different privileges for each one of them, ban any given user or password protect the access to the server, just to mention a few.

As for the client application, it's very easy to use. Just enter the required connection data (server's address, nickname and password if needed) and you're done. You can either enter the IP address of your own private server or use any of the hundreds of public TeamSpeak servers available on the Internet, which you can conveniently browse directly from your client. Both TeamSpeak server and client feature a simple, straightforward design that, in all honesty, could be improved a lot. The program's interface is just too basic: a bare window with no graphic elements at all and quite schematic menus that make you think something has been left out.

The program stays minimized in the system tray and uses few system resources. The voice quality is excellent. Also, you'll find some interesting settings in the program's configuration menu, such as the possibility to adjust its bandwidth usage or the option to activate the microphone only when you speak, though this may be a little tricky to configure at first sight.

Needless to say, you can use TeamSpeak with any online game you play, as it's a totally independent application. So next time you meet your friends online to play, forget about messy written conversations right in the middle of a crucial battle and move on to TeamSpeak. You'll enjoy the game a lot more.

Download TeamSpeak Client 2.0.33.7 in Softonic

Do you want to have a bit more fun with your VOIP applications such as Skype? DoNaut is a free VOIP and instant messenger add-on that allows you to add loads of fun effects to your voice.

Add background sounds and sound effects to your phone conversation. Share your music with your friends using you favorite music player such as iTunes, WinAmp, Microsoft media player. You can even type your responses and let DoNaut speak them for you.

DoNaut claims to be compatible with all instant messengers and PC internet phone softwares available including Skype, MSN, Google Talk, AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, TeamSpeak, Ventrilo, ICQ, Open Wengo and many more.

Download DoNaut 2.0.1 in Softonic

RoboMatic X1 is an AI chatbot, you can speak or type conversations with him. Change the face of RoboMatic, give him a new name, and command him to do different things. The RoboMatic model (X1) is a friendly character and this model is called "Operating System Assistant."

Features:

• Infinite ways to make RoboMatic respond
• RoboMatic can feel time and date
• Word database has over 8000 records
• Enjoy listening to music while you are chatting with him
• Dynamic tips to help you how to chat with RoboMatic
• See the face of RoboMatic or you can choose your preferred face to chat with it
• Talk to RoboMatic by your voice and listen to his voice
• Save your conversation and explore it later
• Explore your PC by chatting with RoboMatic
• Want to hear jokes or calculate something?, ask RoboMatic to do so
• RoboMatic can tell you the current festivals, feasts and events

Download RoboMatic X1 2.0 in Softonic

Some years ago, working environments were completely different: smaller, more familiar, with a kind of charming air surrounding desks, water coolers and meeting rooms. Internal communication was just a question of leaving your place and joining the quick chat beside the water cooler for just five minutes, before going back to your daily tasks.

However, things have changed quickly over the last few years. Companies have grown really fast, not only in financial terms, but also in number of workers. New people join the staff everyday and it's harder to make new friends. Those five-minute breaks begin to be scarcer, until one day there's not a single one during a whole working day.

When communication reaches a non-existence level, you know it's time for a change. Most office managers reject the idea of using traditional instant messaging tools such as MSN or Yahoo, mostly because workers end up chatting with friends outside the office instead of answering the dud from accounting. This is why local network based IM applications like Neos have become a more popular solution: they allow workers to exchange messages, files, even media streams... without the temptations of the outer world.

However, Neos is no walled garden. It allows you to gather all your contact lists from different messaging networks (ICQ, MSN, Yahoo and Jabber) into a single window -but that depends exclusively on the plug-ins you install on the server, so everything remains under the Administrator's control. That means you can use it just as an internal communication tool and add support for other networks as it is needed.

Despite being "local", Neos does its job, and does it pretty well. I dare say you will not miss any of the main features found in other instant messaging tools, that is, not taking into account the sometimes useless options offered lately by some of them. You can reach out by one-to-one chat, chat room, VoIP, video conference or even share a whiteboard to have a laugh at your artistic abilities. Neos also allows you to share files, though this functionality may still need some work, because transfers are unsuccessful too often. One little detail I like is the fact that Neos shows you when your chat partner is typing, so you know that they are in the process of responding.

Managing your contacts is really easy: split them into groups, block them if they become a pest, or even rename them to whatever you want (but be careful not to let your boss see his politically incorrect office nickname on your list).

However, Neos is not flawless. Apart from the small bugs which get fixed version after version, the developers need to improve the tool's design. The interface is fine and so is the menu system, but the problem is the default emoticon pack. My goodness, they look so ugly! I’m simply not able to express my feelings with such a limited repertoire. At least you can download new packs from their webpage, but still, this is something they really need to improve since emoticons are a staple of any good IM program.

In short, Neos is a great tool for inner office messaging, which can be adapted to other external IM networks, and also a nice way of going back to those good old chats next to the water cooler, taking a break from work and gossiping a little for five minutes (just five minutes, I promise!).

Download Neos 1.2.1 in Softonic

If you're bored of playing the same bingo software simply at different sites - try Bingo Liner. Bingo Liner is completely different to any thing else in the online bingo world at the moment. Bingo Liner offers 'virtual reality bingo' - it's just like a real life bingo hall. Your 'virtual self' walks around, chooses a table to sit at, talks to other players at the table. We have selected times where you are able to play up to 99 cards! TOP game prizes and jackpots, 3 types of progressive pots, 24/7 table games and many daily promotions.

Download Bingo Liner 3.5 in Softonic

Speaker is a program that lets people with a speech impediment or those who would like to learn English, generate a voice to say whatever they want. Using the text box, you can type your message and hit the talk button or use any of the pre-defined command to quickly say common phrases.

Download Speaker 2.3.1 in Softonic

If you would ever like to surprise your friend or acquaintance with a talking animated message, you should take a look at IncrediMail. IncrediMail is surprisingly colorful program for creating animated e-mail messages. Besides, it has one more unquestionable advantage: it's free. If you are lucky to have this program and you happen to forget your mailbox password, do not worry. IncrediMail Password Recovery is a small utility that recovers IncrediMail lost passwords. IMPR supports all versions of this popular program and all types of passwords it saves, including Identity passwords.

Download IncrediMail Password Recovery 1.0.1 in Softonic