Automatic translators sometimes are real life-saviors, as they help us understand any text, no matter what language it's written in.

Multitranse is one of those translating applications, and one of the most completes I've seen – in terms of supported languages. Multitranse supports a total of twenty languages that you can freely combine with each other as source or target languages.

The first time you run the program you're presented with a short tutorial that shows you how easy is to use Multitranse. Then the only thing you have to do is writing the source text (or copying it from another app), selecting both the source and target languages and you're good to go.

However there's a bid downside to Multitranse and that is precisely translations themselves. I know automatic translators are far from good, but I've seen much better translations than these ones – and they're also generated by automatic apps.

Multitranse can be helpful when you need to understand the general meaning of a text written in a foreign language, but you shouldn't trust it much.

Download MultiTranse 5.0 in Softonic

As a worldwide network, you can find many different languages on the Web, but you may not speak all of them. In this case, you better count on Business Translator.

With Business Translator you'll be able to translate selected text strings – no matter how long - and complete websites as well. The way the program translates web content in fact is very interesting: it loads the selected website on its own built-in browser and displays it in the target language, although keeping the same design.

Being an automated translating machine, you shouldn't expect perfect results in Business Translator. But in any case you'll be able to get a rough idea of what any foreign text is about.

Business Translator features a simple interface with a few customization options, plus some other tools such as the possibility to print or save the translated text right away. The program also includes what it seems to be a fairly complete dictionary. And I say "seems to be" because it was so painfully slow I didn't have enough patience to wait for the definition I was looking up.

Business Translator puts an end to language barriers by providing you with a handy translating application.

Download Business Translator 9.02 in Softonic

Are you a real Softonic fan? If so, this toolbar has been especially developed for you.

The Softonic Toolbar brings the latest reviews, updates, blog posts and software apps published on Softonic right to your web browser. You'll be able to read all the new content published on the site with a single click and you'll always be up to date with the latest program versions and software news.

What's more, this toolbar also features a series of online services, such as local weather forecast, an embedded search engine, an email notifier, a translation service powered by Babylon and a radio player with support for streaming radio stations, although you may need to download a separate plug-in to make it work properly. I found the email notifier particularly useful, as it supports multiple Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo and POP3 accounts.

The Softonic Toolbar also includes a configuration menu where you can customize it by choosing the elements you want to be displayed.

A web browser toolbar that brings you all the best from the web: a variety of online services and all the latest news on Softonic and insideTonic.

Download Softonic Toolbar in Softonic

CCleaner is a small utility that will take care of a few of the important maintenance tasks that every computer user should carry out as regularly as possible to keep their systems in top shape. Fast, reliable and easy to use - CCleaner it's one of the best cleaning systems out there.

For me, the beauty of CCleaner is the speed at which it carries out the various scans and fixes. Its main purpose is to clean any unnecessary files from your hard-drive and on opening the program you see the various aspects of Windows that you can search through and clear. CCleaner will also detect your installed applications that may hold on to files which are no longer any use, such as Google Earth histories or Flash Player configurations.

The interface in CCleaner is very easy to navigate and before taking any action, you will always be asked to confirm that you are sure about what you want to do. There is a useful registry checker that will quickly check its integrity, and let you fix bad entries after making a backup. CCleaner uninstall and startup tools are handy to have and simply add to the usability of this very rounded little maintenance assistant.

The most recent release of CCleaner now works on Vista with Admin permissions where available and features various bug fixes and improvements to the translated versions.

CCleaner makes keeping your PC clean easy for beginners and experts alike. It's small, fast, comprehensive, and free to download it - get cleaning now!

Download CCleaner 2.11.636 in Softonic

If you're planning to have a tattoo done, you should choose the design very carefully because it's something that will stay with you forever. Maybe Chinese Symbol Studio can help you here.

Chinese Symbol Studio includes more than 100,000 tattoo designs, all created with Chinese ideograms. They're conveniently organized in several different categories, including man and woman names, horoscope symbols, numbers, animal names and more.

Chinese Symbol Studio has a clearly designed interface where you can comfortably browse symbols. Plus you can customize some settings like font color, size and shadow effect, among others, and also check the tattoo's meaning and pronunciation.

Which I didn't find that comfortable was the way Chinese Symbol Studio handles menus (Translation, Settings and Symbol library) which are displayed on panels that hide automatically. Also, the program saves tattoos only in EPS, BMP and PNG.

If you're looking for a nice Chinese symbol to tattoo, take a look at Chinese Symbol Studio as it includes more than 100,000 Chinese words.

Download Chinese Symbol Studio 3.3 in Softonic

Esmas Player is a truly multimedia application that provides the user with almost any tool they may need to enjoy image, music and video files on the computer.

The program's interface is suspiciously similar to that of iTunes, which makes us wonder why is it that developers weren't able to come up with a more original design. Similarities to iTunes don't end here, though: as you'll see, you can organize your library, play your favorite songs, edit tags, listen to podcasts, synchronize contents with your portable music device and even buy music online. Some people may find this resemblance somewhat uncomfortable – like a cheap imitation – but it's also a way to make the program look familiar and be easy to use from the very beginning.

Leaving comparisons aside, Esmas Player goes a step forward and also enables you to organize photos and videos, and also features extended functionality such as a disc burner, a DVD player and support for online TV channels and radio stations. During our tests, however, I had the impression that some of its functions were not properly implemented or at least not as easy to use as I expected. Also, though the program's language can be set to English, both the installer and documentation haven't been translated from Spanish yet.

In all, Esmas Player works fine as an all-in-one multimedia organizer, but it still needs some improvements in usability – as well as adding the necessary distance between iTunes and itself in order to avoid odious comparisons.

Download Esmas Player 11026 in Softonic

Remember how Messenger used to be so popular only a few years back? Now it seems most people prefer to chat with friends on social networks like Facebook. Not only can you much more things, but most of them also include a built chat tool, that replaces the need for an IM client.

Gabtastik is a site specific browser (SSB) built so you can use these online chat services in a separate window. To translate: Gabtastik lets you use online chat services just like if they were separate applications.

The interface is clean and Gabtastik lets you open up multiple chats in multiple tabs. So far it only works with Google Talk, Facebook Chat and meebo. If you use an iPhone you'll probably be interested in learning that it also handles the Hahlo iPhone Twitter webapp.

Gabtastik uses very little RAM and its nice having all these online chat services in a separate window, instead of hidden away between various tabs of your browser. Obviously it's only limited to certain services, but if you use meebo, you'll have access to many more like MSN or ICQ.

Gabtastik lets you use online chat services in your very own browser window.

Download Gabtastik 0.21 in Softonic

BookCAT is a powerful database program designed specifically to maintain an inventory of your book collection. BookCAT is used by book-lovers, schools, churches, clubs, and business libraries. Using BookCAT you can quickly catalog your books by downloading information from the Internet. BookCAT will help you track what you have in your library, where it is (including books out on loan) and the total value of your collection.

BookCAT has a comprehensive set of fields, enabling you to catalog a wide range of information: author, title, publisher, ISBN number, publish date, number of pages, editor, original title, translator, binding, edition, type of book (fiction, non-fiction, etc.), category and sub-category, purchase date and price, current value, condition, status (own, want, for sale), personal rating, owner, location, keywords, awards and nominations, comments, synopsis, reviews, and more.

You can effectively find the information you are looking for by using the powerful search and filter features. BookCAT allows you search your database with any combination of data fields and operators.

BookCAT includes a report designer that lets you create professional looking reports with exactly the layout you want. Use one of the more than 80 pre-defined reports, or create your own reports from scratch. You have full control over data fields, groups, sort order, columns, fonts, colors, paper size, margins and print orientation. BookCAT lets you preview reports on screen before printing, or save reports in virtually any file format.

You can quickly generate documents to be published on the Internet. The loan module lets you keep track of books on loan. Check the program periodically to see what is still out on loan. You will always know who has what and since when.

BookCAT uses popup menus for quick feature access and navigation. BookCAT comes with a sample database to get you started and a comprehensive context sensitive on-line help system.

Download BookCAT 8.23.4 in Softonic

Avidemux is a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks. It supports many file types, including AVI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4 and ASF, using a variety of codecs. Tasks can be automated using projects, job queue and powerful scripting capabilities.

Avidemux is available for Linux, BSD, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows under the GNU GPL license. The program was written from scratch by Mean, but code from other people and projects has been used as well. Patches, translations and even bug reports are always welcome.

Download Avidemux 2.4.3 in Softonic

From slow beginnings, BitComet has risen to become one of the most popular torrent client downloads on Softonic. For users accustomed to the often sparse interfaces of torrent apps, BitComet surprises with its flashy icons and multitude of options that give you more control over your downloads. For those that want a no-fuss client, the extra features may simply get in the way.

Once a torrent is selected for download with BitComet, a dialog pops up allowing you to determine the location to save to and select exactly which files in the torrent you want. Once downloading, the regular stop, pause, cancel, update etc options are all available plus a handy “remove torrent & all files” option which removes all trace of an unwanted torrent from your PC. Many users report the download rates are good although note no particular difference with other client speeds. The best feature however is a ‘preview media’ option, which forces the torrent to download sequentially instead of randomly thus allowing you to preview any multimedia downloads. It’s a great way to avoid broken links, but, on the downside, it will slow down your download considerably.

Another interesting feature is the ‘intelligent disk cache’ which really comes into its own on high speed connections. If you are lucky enough to get download transfer rates of 500 kb/s or higher, activating it allows BitComet to cache the data to access the disk less frequently. The result of this is that it doesn’t slow down your PC as receiving large amounts of data can sometimes do.

Forum reports from foreign users suggest that the program has not been translated properly from English, yet this doesn’t affect the capacities of BitComet. The other downside is that the uninstall procedure is not particularly clean. The application directory remains as does the registry entry although you can remove the former manually and the latter with any good registry cleaner.

There are simpler clients out there, such as uTorrent uTorrent and Azureus that offer the same download rates but with less fuss. If you have a particularly fast connection, can’t wait for your files to download before watching them and enjoy a torrent client with lots of whistles and bells, BitComet might be for you.

Download BitComet 1.03 in Softonic

For a while now, computer users have been waking up to the real threats that exist while browsing the web. Every day, more turn their back on the established vulnerabilities of Internet Explorer and opt for the hottest open source project on the net, Mozilla’s Firefox. But there are plenty of alternatives that offer great features, and one of those is Avant Browser.

Based on Internet Explorer, Avant will import all your favorites automatically and also keep your settings intact. As such it makes a good alternative to the popular Firefox browser, which shuns all things IE, and may seem slightly too foreign from the conventions that many users have built up while using Microsoft’s browser. Although Avant Browser is based on the Internet Explorer engine, it doesn’t fall victim to the same security vulnerabilities (although no-one is claiming that it’s invulnerable), and while it’s at it, adds some great tools designed to enhance your browsing experience.

The Flash blocker is an effective way to keep memory usage of the browser to a minimum or to simply cut out those over-elaborate ads that invade and take over many web sites. To appeal to a wider audience, there are quick links that let you quickly translate pages to a wide selection of languages, or you can customize the look of the browser using the many skins that are included by default. Of course, no modern browser could claim to be complete without tabbed browsing and Avant really delivers the goods with a system that allows you to even reload tabs after you’ve closed them.

In fact, this browser has some of the best extras that we’ve seen to date, in particular the system whereby tabs can be resized like normal program windows letting you display multiple site windows side-by-side, within one browser window. There‘s also a useful toolbar item that displays tags describing the page that you’re on. Click on a tag and you open a list of site that result from a search using that tag or keyword; brilliant! And the piece de résistance is an automatic session saver that lets you open up all the sites you were browsing when you last closed the program.

Avant Browser is relatively unknown as a mainstream browser and as such is not restricted from experimenting and taking the best ideas from the big hitters, as well as adding its own nuggets to the mix. What you get is a very impressive selection of tools in a browser that will even run your Microsoft update without objections. Definitely worth consideration if you are thinking of changing browser.

Download Avant Browser 11.6.20 in Softonic

uTorrent is one of the most popular BitTorrent clients out there, and is now providing you with the possibility to test its latest version, though still at a beta stage.

uTorrent Beta features a very similar interface to that of previous versions, with a compact, intuitive design. It also keeps the main characteristics that have made of uTorrent a fast, reliable BitTorrent: an extremely easy setup process and a very smart management of computer resources.

Despite its reduced size, uTorrent includes pretty much all the tools you need to manage your torrent files in an easy, handy way. You can easily browse between downloading, completed, active and inactive transfers, and also check out a full-featured information sheet about each file you're downloading, right on the bottom pane of the program's interface.

A couple of things uTorrent is missing, in my opinion, is a download organizer to classify your files in different categories, and also an improved built-in search tool. Other than that, this beta is definitely worth a try.

If you're an uTorrent fan, take the chance to test this beta version and start enjoying its latest improvements.

Download uTorrent (µTorrent) 1.8 RC4 in Softonic

NSIS (Nullsoft Scriptable Install System) can create Windows installers that are capable of installing, uninstalling, setting system settings, extracting files, etc. Because NSIS is based on script files, you can create both simple or advanced installers.

Small overhead size

NSIS is created to be small, fast and and efficient

Compatible with all major Windows versions

You can create a single installer that is compatible with all versions

Unique compression methods

You can choose between three different integrated compression method (ZLib, BZip2, LZMA)

Script based

NSIS has a powerful scripting language

Multiple languages in one installer

More than 40 translations are already included, but you can also create your own language files

Many features and checks for the target system

The script langauge provides commands you can use on the target system.

Custom dialogs and interfaces

You can create custom wizard pages to get user input or integrate configuration options

Plug-in system

NSIS can be extended with plug-in that can communicate with the installer.

Support for web installation, file patching

The NSIS distribution includes a set of plug-ins that allow you to download files from the internet, make internet connections, patch existing files and more

Project integration, different releases and automatic builds

The NSIS compiler features a powerful preprocessor

Easy and human readable file formats

You can edit your files with your favorite editor

Download Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS) 2.38 in Softonic

Phun is a typically Swedish invention - functional, free, educational but fun at the same time. If you're studying physics then you should get a lot of enjoyment out of this "game".

The game allows you to explore the forces of gravity and friction plus aspects of density, elasticity, viscosity and inertia in a "virtual sandbox". This basically allows you to create two-dimensional objects and then see how these react according to different physical forces. The game is hugely effective at creating realistic states and effects and forces on your objects. It's a shame that it doesn't support 3D objects although the developers say this has been done to make the interface simpler.

To think that this project was developed by a student at Umea university is quite amazing too. In this latest version, they've ironed out many of the bugs that were plaguing the program. For instance, previously water would not show behind transparent objects and water rendering in general was very poor. That's now all been fixed meaning that any effects involving water are now much more realistic. Probably the most useful enhancement however has been the added ability to pan by holding down both mouse buttons (left and right). This means you can pan anytime, anywhere: in the middle of drawing a polygon you can pan away and then continue drawing, and you can start panning without access to the background.

The developers have also added Czech, German, Spanish and Portuguese translations of the game for the first time. Note that you can watch Phun in action here.

A great little application that proves simple physical concepts in an fun and interactive way.

Download Phun 4.12 Beta in Softonic

Although P2P networking still survives as a means of downloading video, audio and software, many people are now turning to torrents as a means of getting hold of their entertainment. While BitTorrent and BitComet rule the roost in terms of on-the-fly downloads, there are a few other pretenders to the crown that are worthy of a mention. BitSprit is definitely up with the best of them, allowing you to grab hold of torrents quickly without any fuss.

The application is significantly easier to use than many of its rivals, however, BitSpirit disappoints compared with its peers when it comes to tracking active downloads. If you would like to access information on your current download then you need to access the torrent itself, rather than relying on the application to provide you with this information.

That's not to say that BitSpirit is a total failure though, and the application boasts many assets to challenge the other contenders in the market. For instance, the app uses very little PC resources, leading to quick, smooth transfers that occur without any annoying program restarts. The program is very easy to pick up and use and save for a major bug when utilising the UPNP, BitSpirit is smooth and effective.

Originally a Chinese program, the app includes some horrible menu translations, making it often difficult to select the right menu option to access your download. That said, managing file download locations and tweaking options are both really simple operations. You are furnished with plenty of flexibility for accessing your downloads, giving you a host of options for choosing the source location and destination of the file.

If you're looking for a BitTorrent client that gives you access to files quickly through a simple interface, then BitSpirit is a worthy app. However, if you want a larger selection of files with a minimal chance of file corruption or hanging then you'd be better off sticking with the more reliable uTorrent or BitComet.

Download BitSpirit 3.3.2.352 in Softonic

Though English speakers don't usually have language problems to browse the web, there are still occasions where you need to translate certain foreign words.

In that case you can use a traditional dictionary o take a faster detour by launching GoNaomi. This app works as a dictionary for 39 different languages and enables you to combine them all in search of the perfect translation. Each language contains about 1,000 entries.

GoNaomi includes popular languages as well as other ones which are not so common, like Tagalog, Ukrainian or Belorussian. You only have to select your source and target languages and enter the terms you're looking for.

On the downside, the program is not embedded into the browser in any way (which would have been easier to translate online texts) and requires a restart every time you change the language selection.

GoNaomi is a fairly complete dictionary with support for quite a high number of languages, but which unfortunately fails to integrate with the browser.

Download GoNaomi 1.66 Free in Softonic

Once upon a time computer games didn't have the luxury of fancy graphics to make them appealing to users. Instead, they had to rely a lot more on imagination and original ideas to entice gamers. I remember loads of text-based adventure games that had me gripped for longer than many of today's lavish productions.

Lost in the Pyramid recaptures the magic of those classics in the form of an imaginative quest in which you star as Indiana Bones, a famous archeologist who has a dream one night about a pyramid. After waking up, you must go to consult a psychic who reveals where to start your mission, then it's off into the wild unknown to explore the mythical building of your dreams.

Along the way you'll need to make decisions based on the information presented to you on screen and your responses determine whether you score points and progress to the next stage, lose points, or even lose one of your five lives. The control system is akin to most text-based adventure games, where you need to respond to a statement (e.g. 'Open the door?', 'Go to Africa?', 'Pay the psychic?') by clicking Yes or No (or 'What' to repeat the question).

The responses to your answers can be hilarious at times and this makes the Lost in the Pyramid great fun to play. Some of the put-downs and one-liners delivered by the computer are worthy of a Chris Rock stand-up show. Despite its humorous nature, progressing through the levels in no laughing matter, and some of the puzzles will take you quite some time to complete.

Graphically, the game isn't anyway near as bad as those famous text-based games of old on on the Commodore or Spectrum. There are colorful cartoon pictures along the way that illustrate what is happening, although I felt there could have been more of these, as some stay on the screen for a long time.

Overall though, Lost in the Pyramid is really good fun, and is a big enough adventure to keep you captivated for ages.

Download Lost in the Pyramid 1.2 in Softonic

The productivity suite market is generally dominated by two main options: you either use the proprietary Microsoft Office suite or its open source alternative, Open Office. But if you don't like any of them, I'm glad to inform you there's a third choice.

Kingsoft Office is a fully featured, completely free office suite you can use for your daily work tasks. It includes three main applications: Writer, Presentation and Spreadsheets, to create DOC, PPT and XLS files respectively. The three of them are installed and launched separately – unlike Lotus Symphony, which uses a common interface. There are no apps for databases, email, or web publications.

I must admit these three apps are almost identical to their Microsoft Office equivalents, so identical in fact I'm beginning to wonder if it's just a copy. Whatever the Kingsoft developers thought about when creating the suite, I'm happy to be able to use a complete suite without having to pay for it. Also, the fact that it's so similar to other suites you may have been using up to know makes the learning curve practically non-existent.

Kingsoft includes interesting options such as the ability to export any document to PDF format and support for document encryption. On the downside, the suite felt a bit unstable during our tests: the Spreadsheets app, for example, crashed on one of our machines but worked perfectly well on a different one.

In any case, Kingsoft Office 2007 is a great free alternative for productivity suite users who don’t want to tie themselves to the same old choices.

Download Kingsoft Office 2007 6.3.0.1371 in Softonic

As you might have noticed, the web is a very big place. However, due to the fact that many pages aren't written in our native language it's difficult to appreciate the sheer amount of useful and interesting information on there. FoxLingo is a Firefox add-on that ensures that your ignorance of a language is never a barrier to understanding a web page.

Through the use of a neat customisable toolbar, FoxLingo puts you in a position to instantly translate web pages with the click of a mouse. The application supports a massive range of languages, and you can pick those that are most useful to you, adding a flag for each in the toolbar. Like many online translation tools, the results are far from perfect, but you'll be able to get the general gist of the web page.

Download FoxLingo 2.2.3 in Softonic

My memory has always been like a sieve and it seems to be getting worse so I was more than intrigued to try out Teach2000.

Teach2000 is like a personal tutor that helps you memorize a foreign language, topography or even important historical facts and dates. It's aimed at students mainly who want to get ahead in their exams or classwork. The program has a quick start wizard that takes you through everything from scratch. It sets you a number of texts based on what you want to remember such as symbols, text or statistics. The program tests your memory by asking you to repeat whatever you've read several times until the number or words are drilled into your head. One good thing is that the program is not limited by language - it can handle phrases and texts in twelve different languages. It's also a very good way to improve your grammar (at least in English anyway) as it tests your ability to remember grammatical rules with a multiple choice test. The program is completely free and very fast at administration tests and changing from one to another. In case you want to use the tests outside of your PC, you can also print out tests and flashcards which could be useful in a classroom environment too.

A fast and innovative way to try and improve your memory although I bet I still forget my keys at least once this week even after using this.

Download Teach2000 8.25 in Softonic