OpenOffice 3.0 is already here, at least in beta version. The most popular alternative to the almighty Microsoft suite has released its first public beta to allow users to provide feedback and help fine-tune the final product. So here's our two cents.

First, though the OpenOffice site displays a warning about possible instability issues in this beta, fear them not. The complete suite was perfectly stable during our tests, with all its applications running as smoothly as expected. This new OpenOffice is compatible with all file formats from Microsoft Office, including the latest docx, xlsx, pptx and so on from Office 2008.

All OpenOffice tools, along with your more recent documents, are easily accessible from a launcher ("Start Centre") with freshly designed icons, which is one of the main new features in this version. The launcher includes a handy template manager as well, though it's quite empty at the moment.

The suite's applications met our expectations in every aspect: they're easy to use (especially if you're used to working with Microsoft's suite) and feature all the necessary tools to create complete documents, spreadsheets, presentations and databases. I particularly liked the wizard-style interface in Impress (the "Power-Point" app) which enables you to create presentations in no time.

OpenOffice 3.0 left a very good taste in our mouths. In spite of being labeled as Beta, the whole suite works perfectly fine and enables you to enjoy all of its new features right now.

Download OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta 2 in Softonic

Listen to music, watch videos, tune in to radio, burn CDs and more from one convenient player! AMP is an application that works outside of the AOL client, and can be used to play audio and video content on your computer when you are not connected to the Internet.

Download AOL Media Player 0.6.1.7 Beta in Softonic

Harmony Assistant is a all-in-one software product with digital audio capabilities. Its harmonizing capabilities enable the composer to build quickly and efficiently tunes that include accompaniment, multiple instruments and drum patterns. Its full page edit and engraver modes will ease editing and page setup of your scores.

A wide range of music symbols will enable to edit scores of great quality: notation capabilities are immense. Using the page mode, you will edit the score just as it will be printed on paper. The Engraver mode will make look it nice. Score input can be performed through the mouse, computer keyboard or an external MIDI keyboard.

Harmony Assistant comes with its own embedded software synthesizer (SoftSynth), which provides high quality output on basic sound cards, even without any external MIDI device, and includes hundreds of different instruments. Harmony Assistant can load and save in many formats (MIDI, WAV, AIFF, MP3, OGG, TAB, ABC...).

With MyrScript, the embedded programming language, you can add your own features to the program

More features:

• Complete score editor, with unlimited number of staves
• Page mode editing
• Automatic harmonizer
• Accompaniments & drum patterns in a few clicks
• Tablature calculation for miscellaneous string instrument
• Tablature calculation for Harmonica, diatonic accordion, wind instruments...
• Completely scriptable application. Many open-source scripts are available.
• Embedded softsynth : does not need any hardware other than a sound card.
• Midi, Kar, MOD, S3M... import
• Digital tracks (possible to import WAV, AIFF, MP3, OGG...)
• Wav-to-note pitch tracker, noise reduction, formant-compliant pitch change, ...
• Gregorian notation
• Chord diagram library for various instruments
• Enables to build custom instruments from digital recordings
• Lute tablatures
• Street organ card printing
• Karaoke and multi-voices lyrics are actually sung.
• Enable visitors of your Web site to view, transpose, play or print your scores

Download Harmony Assistant 9.4.6 in Softonic

Often the file you like to download is available on several different hosts. Phex will request different segments of the file from each host in parallel. After successfully downloading a segment Phex will merge it with the other segments of that file. This results in a much higher download speed. If a host is too slow the segment is split during download and given to another host. To make sure you never run out of hosts Phex is able to find new download hosts by itself with the automatic search functionality and features the Download Mesh.

You can choose for each download whether the segments should be chosen according to their availability (rarest first, BitTorrent-Style), their place in the file (earlier segments first, useful for previewing the file) or for previewing (the first 10MB according to their place in the file, after that according to their availability).

Phex offers very advanced configuration options. Much more than many other clients can offer. Especially advanced user can configure Phex according to their needs and are able to tune and see the effect of different settings.

With the passive search functionality Phex is able to constantly monitor the traffic that goes through the network and collect search results that match your passive search term. Also Phex snoops the traffic for new download candidates you need to finish your downloads faster. This type of searching is useful for longtime monitoring of available files on the network.

Other features include:

• Multiple searches
• Ultrapeer and compression technology for reduced bandwidth
• Integrated chat
• Browse host support
• Bitzi metadata lookup
• MAGMA support

Download Phex 3.2.6.106 in Softonic

Few can dispute the fact that Apple created a flawless product when it built the iPod. However, the company did omit to include one feature that still bothers me. The legally-aware developer made it so that you couldn't copy tunes from your iPod onto another computer. OK, so it means everything is above board, but it also means that if you get a new computer or your hard drive fails, you have to build up your MP3 collection all over again. Luckily, there are now several programs available that let you copy your iPod tunes to any machine, and CopyTrans is a good example of one of these.

The process of synchronising your music with CopyTrans is a simple one and you can choose to archive your collection or import it into a new iTunes library. All you need to do is connect your iPod, wait for the program to scan the device, choose your transfer settings then wait for CopyTrans to work its magic.

It does take quite a long time to copy across the music, but the operation works very well and I experienced no problems other than that it didn't reproduce all of the album art I had. The program boasts some nice features such as selective transfers, incremental back-ups, and repair to damaged iPod databases.

If you're scared of losing all your iPod data then install CopyTrans and erase your worries with ease.

Download CopyTrans 2.37 in Softonic

Vista Manager is a powerful software tool to tweak, optimize, maintain and tune up your Windows Vista, it bundles more than 20 different utilities in one. It will help your system to be stable, fast, secure and personal.

Information

Get detailed system and all hardware information on your system; show all detailed information of running processes and threads on your machine; Vista Manager offers 1-clicking and cleans your system automatically.

Optimizer

Tweak your system to improve windows startup and shutdown speed; tweak your hardware to increase system speed and performance.

Cleaner

Find out which files or folders engross your disk space and shown with chart; Find and clean junk files to increase Hard Disk space; Duplicate Files Finder can scan your computer for files with the same size, name and modification time; Registry Cleaner can easily checks your registry and repair incorrectly linked registry entries, automatically remove invalid entries; Registry Defrag rebuilds and re-indexs your registry to reduce application response time and registry access time.

Customization

Control what is started on Windows startup; edit context menus of mouse Right-Clicking; customize system desktop, menus, toolbar and notifications settings; automatically change your desktop wallpaper on background.

Security

You can improve desktop, menus, Windows logon securities, and enable numerous hidden performance options of system, disable system updates and error reports; hide and restrict to access drives, specify which applications are not allowed to be executed on your computer; encrypt/decrypt and shred files, change the location of system folders; Privacy Protector can maintain your personal privacy by eliminating the tracks that you leave behind; create lots of randomization password once.

Network

Optimize your Internet connection speed, manage all shares items; tweak your Internet Explorer easily.

Download Vista Manager 1.5.4 in Softonic

ALSong is a Live Song Lyrics MP3 player with everything you expect in a modern MP3 player, as well as some extras that make ALSong more than just "yet another mp3 player".

Live Song Lyrics let you listen to your favorite tunes and read the lyrics in time to the music.

Find Music Fast in the ALSong Playlist. More than just a list, you can easily organize music inside your playlist, on disk, in special albums, in ZIP files, and in virtual folders. You can quickly browse and search your music your way because everything is setup to make playing your music as easy and fast as it should be.

Create Music Albums to organize your music or easily take with you. ALSong albums have a special customizable interface for you to decorate your favorite music with images and pictures however you like. And since ALSong music albums are portable, you can take them with you on any USB key or other portable storage.

Download ALSong 1.53 in Softonic

With Create Ringtone it is easy to load into phone memory music, ringtones, podcasts, video, MS Office documents and PDF files. Any new content can be sent directly to the phone via WAP protocol. If the computer is connected to the Internet, any other physical link to the phone becomes redundant.

Using data exchange protocols, Create Ringtone sends the newly made content directly to the phone. A new ringtone or wallpaper can become a present for relatives and friends. By just choosing a global operator and typing the phone number you can forward both greetings and presents. IrDA, Bluetooth, and USB connectivity are equally supported. Automatic conversion and file transfer take a minute or so.

The program's intuitive interface makes the job of creating a new tune or a background a real pleasure. Create Ringtone saves both time and money that might have been spent with a content provider. It gives independence for creative thoughts and means to apply them in custom phone profiles. With wide range of supported audio formats one can convert any audio file into a trendy ringtone with a few mouse clicks.

Download Create Ringtone 4.98 in Softonic

If you miss those good ol' arcade titles you used to play in your Nintendo Entertainment System, whine no more: NES is back on your favorite web browser!

FireNes is a Firefox add-on that lets you play more than 2,500 NES titles of all times, covering all sorts of interests and styles. Games appear listed in alphabetic order on a sidebar to the left of your screen (if you don't see it, open it with Tools > FireNes), from which this list you can choose the one you want to play and run it with a double click. The sidebar also includes two other tabs (Top and Favorites) to manage games in a different way. It would have been great to have some kind of search tool to quickly locate certain games though.

When launched, games appear on a small-sized window that runs independently from Firefox. Controls are limited to arrow keys, Enter, Ctrl, Z and X, though sometimes the game does take a while to react to them. Also, I noticed that some games are a bit buggy, but you can always let the author know by filling in a small form. In any case, FireNes features such a huge collection of games that you'll surely find that one title you were hooked on a few years ago.

With FireNes you can use Firefox for more than browsing webpages: play more than 2,5000 NES games and remember gaming prehistory!

Download FireNes 1.1 in Softonic

Writing PHP code and testing it on-the-fly can be a real hassle but this offering from DzSoft promises to ease the pain of coding by acting as a virtual server that can process code and display the results.

DzSoft PHP Editor is primarily a code editor, and includes the majority of features that you’d expect from this type of software. However, while most rival code editors tend to generalize, offering syntax highlighting for a multitude of languages PHP Editor is specifically tuned to the needs of web programmers who are working with the Hypertext Preprocessor language. Evidence of this can be found in the inclusion of common code and functions libraries and the ability to run and preview your work.

At first glance the program doesn’t appear to have a particularly intuitive interface. The design wouldn’t be out of place in Windows 95 and the main editor window is a typical reproduction of Notepad with each line numbered for easy reference. What appears to be a navigation bar on the left offers some hope of functionality, and once you get stuck in to coding it really delivers. The explorer bar tracks everything and records the location of each include, function, variable, and class you use. Should you wish to specifically save a reference point you can add up to nine bookmarks, although you can’t assign names to them - an addition that would have helped clarify what function each snippet serves.

To use the run and preview feature you must install PHP on your PC, a simple operation when compared to setting up your computer as a server that can process PHP. With a syntax check also included, this tool comes highly recommended to anyone that will be writing significant bodies of PHP. DzSoft PHP Editor may be a little rough around the edges, but with its outstanding functionality, that can be forgiven.

Download DzSoft PHP Editor 4.2.0.0 in Softonic

NewsLeecher is a tool made for fetching and managing articles from Usenet. It downloads Usenet articles in a snap, and uses its inline engine to assemble and decode all the downloads.

It boasts the following features:

NZB download files

NewsLeecher has full support for the NZB file format.

Ultra fast Usenet super search engine

Search *all* the binary usenet groups for a specific keyword or keystring at once

Full privacy - spyware & adware free

NewsLeecher does *not* contain any spyware or adware

Advanced multiserver support

NewsLeecher has advanced support for leeching from multiple servers at the same time

Top tuned yEnc support

Besides supporting the "old" encoding formats, such as uuEncode, NewsLeecher also supports the brand new encoding format called yEnc.

Multithreaded server downloading

Besides being able to download from several servers at the same time, NewsLeecher can also use up to 99 simultaneous download threads per server.

Filter system

Enables one to find certain posts without going through all received headers. Filter by subject, size, age and more.

Automatic downloading

The built-in automatic multipart posts processing removes the hassle from combining binary post parts one by one. NewsLeecher detects and combine parts by itself!

Fastest group caching in the world

Fast group caching enables much faster group viewing by only receiving the latest available post headers and caching the old ones.

Top todern user interface

State of the art user interface with support for XP themes and many options for tweaking the usability and the interface!

Advanced feature support

NewsLeecher supports many advanced features that make it easy to use your usenet membership to the fullest. Such features include smart article highlighting, a built in group noteblock and much much more!

Download NewsLeecher 3.9 in Softonic

GIF Animation has changed the face of the Web, and all you need to build these GIF "movies" is GIF Movie Gear, a professional quality, award-winning, powerful and easy-to-use tool for building, perfecting and optimizing GIF animations.

By relying on substance instead of hype, GIF Movie Gear makes GIF animation building quick and easy. It is not a bloated, slow, complicated app that is a chore to use. What it is is small, fast, and efficient. It gives you the tools you need to get the job done cleanly and effectively. The superior interface shows all the frames of the animation at once, making it easy to see what you are working on. Top quality optimization and color reduction functions keep your file sizes down. Fine-tuning of timing, transparency, cropping, sizing and color palettes is trivial. A variety of import/export options, including GIF, AVI, BMP, JPEG, ICO, PNG and layered Photoshop PSD files, support most common image formats. And the built-in tutorial helps you get started in no time.

Download gamani Gif Movie Gear 4.2 in Softonic

Forget those expensive and complicated programs that take a long time to set up and even longer to run. System Cleaner is lightning-fast. Just download the self-installer, click a few times, and your PC will be in tip-top shape before you know it.

System Cleaner takes care of all the common PC headaches that slow your system down and puts your data at risk from disk failure. It also takes care of many of the of the PC problems that other so-called tune-up programs ignore.

System Cleaner also includes a comprehensive "secrets eraser" that scrubs all of your computer and internet activity files and removes every last trace of where you have been and what you did while you were there.

Download System Cleaner 5.60c in Softonic

Is your PC slow in boot-up and operation? Magic Speed will make your PC faster and more efficient in five simple steps. The software package includes startup management, fixing registry errors, Disk clean-up, and memory management. It is free of charge and does not require special PC knowledge.

Magic Speed will analyze the applications that are loaded with your PC boot-up. Are you sure that you really need these applications? Being loaded, they occupy PC memory and slow down PC operation. A check-up will also include virus and spyware tests thanks to a new anti-virus engine updated on a daily basis.

Registry errors also negatively affect PC efficiency. By deleting temporary files, you will increase free space on your hard drive and speed up its operation. Make use of the unique Boost Windows option - by adding it to the startup you will experience real improvement of your PC operation.

Download Magic Speed 3.2 in Softonic

If you'd like to see what TV and radio are like in other countries, the best option is to take a look at channels that broadcast content online, with an application like InteresTV.

This app, whose name seems to have been misspelled, lets you browse radio and TV channels from all over the world. It features an original interface designed like a TV set, but unfortunately loaded with ads from Google.

The most striking feature about InteresTV is the huge number of channels it includes - more than 3,200 – from dozens of countries all over the world. Of course, this doesn't mean they're all perfectly working, but having such a wide range to choose from makes up for the odd malfunctioning channel. On the downside, the channels are listed on a never-ending drop-down menu on top of the interface, which makes the list quite uncomfortable to use, and the program lacks advanced options you can find in similar tools such as support for bookmarks or the ability to record channels.

InteresTV lets you take a sneak peek at TV and radio channels from all over the world, though is not as complete as other similar programs.

Download InteresTV 1.0 in Softonic

Music Makers fall into two categories for me - inspirational and a pleasure to use or cluttered and down right depressing.

Music Maker 14 is one of the better efforts on the market containing so many features that it's almost impossible to go through them in depth. However, this is no bad thing because many of the features are a little overkill but the basics are so easy to get to grips with, you'll be making sweet music in minutes. The program works with sixteen tracks laid out at the top of the screen although you can only see six at one time. You can drag and drop music samples from the soundbar into any track, and building a basic tune is simply a matter of picking out some drum, guitar, bass and keyboard samples. Then just add some special effects and the tunes you create will really impress. To get the mix and pitch of your composition right, there's a list of pitches labelled one to seven from where you can experiment and make it sound pitch perfect. On the left of the track, you'll find a panel which allows you to adjust the overall beats per and apply effects such as those simulated by a guitar pedal.

Overall, this one of the most powerful and fun music makers out there and if you can't make decent music on it, then try another hobby.

Download MAGIX Music Maker 14 (UK) in Softonic

According to some happy users, Spider Player is so good that it could even rival Winamp in the popularity stakes for basic players one day. It's certainly a very good looking player and not only that, it makes life easy where listening to music is concerned.

The look is obviously a key part for the developers and they've even included a "tuning" bar in the skin which allows you to change the tone of it according to the mood you are in. As with Winamp, I like the fact that you can also divide-up the player as you like. For example, when you open it, the main playback window, equaliser and playlist are all joined together. But you can split these up as you like and place them in various parts of your desktop for easy access. To control playback, you can simply drag and drop the status bar and it responds very quickly. There's also a pitchshifter, echo and reverb bar to play with.

One nice added little extra us that Spider Player also has a built-in ID3 tag editor and CD ripper that can burn in MP3, WAV, OGG and WMA formats. Once minimised, the player also sits neatly in your system tray so it's well integrated into your OS. This is one of the best Mp3 players I've tried outside of Winamp although it lacks the plugins of the former.

Download Spider Player 2.3.5 in Softonic

If you're tired of always listening to the same songs in your music library, what about some live online radio stations for a change?

With Phonostar you can now tune in to more than 7,000 radio stations that stream their contents on the Internet for free. What's more, you can also use it to subscribe to your favorite podcasts. The program features a nice-easy-to-use interface, similar to any other music player, from which you can listen to your favorite online radio stations. The interface also displays an extra window where you can search for any radio station according to different parameters (language, genre, quality, etc.) though its reduced size makes search a bit uncomfortable.

But that's not all. Phonostar still keeps an ace up its sleeve with its built-in recording tool, which enables you to record your favorite songs right to your hard drive – in WAV or MP3 - with just a single mouse click.

Phonostar is a great online radio player and recorder. A bit of improvement in the way it displays search results and it'll be nearly perfect!

Download phonostar-Player 2.0.1.2 in Softonic

Searching in Windows has always been painfully slow but Microsofts launch of Windows Search 4 aims to bring searching up to speed with applications such as Google Desktop.

Windows Search 4 uses the same indexing style approach that Google Desktop does meaning that your data is always indexed and instantly searchable. Search results are now returned in seconds rather than minutes under Windows older search tool. You can preview information that's returned in results including information within e-mail messages. The search tool is much more easily accessible too in Vista from the Start menu and XP is equipped with a deskbar for instant searches. Be warned however - the indexing file can be huge especially if you have a large amount of data on your PC so make sure you have plenty of disk space free before installing Windows Search 4 otherwise you’ll find it locks up your system before finally warning you that your disk space is low. In this release, Microsoft have finally ensured that you can also index and search encrypted files which was something missing from previous versions. This is something that should have already been included in Vista and is yet another area where Microsoft are adding and completing aspects of the system that should have been ready before it was released.

Google Desktop and Copernic Desktop Search have been on the market for years now and yet Microsoft have only just been able to implement such a basic feature into their operating system but it's definitely a vast improvement on previous Windows search tools.

Download Windows Search 4 Vista SP1 & Server 2008 in Softonic

Searching in Windows has always been painfully slow but Microsofts launch of Windows Search 4 aims to bring searching up to speed with applications such as Google Desktop.

Windows Search 4 uses the same indexing style approach that Google Desktop does meaning that your data is always indexed and instantly searchable. Search results are now returned in seconds rather than minutes under Windows older search tool. You can preview information that's returned in results including information within e-mail messages. The search tool is much more easily accessible too in Vista from the Start menu and XP is equipped with a deskbar for instant searches. Be warned however - the indexing file can be huge especially if you have a large amount of data on your PC so make sure you have plenty of disk space free before installing Windows Search 4 otherwise you’ll find it locks up your system before finally warning you that your disk space is low. In this release, Microsoft have finally ensured that you can also index and search encrypted files which was something missing from previous versions. This is something that should have already been included in Vista and is yet another area where Microsoft are adding and completing aspects of the system that should have been ready before it was released.

Google Desktop and Copernic Desktop Search have been on the market for years now and yet Microsoft have only just been able to implement such a basic feature into their operating system but it's definitely a vast improvement on previous Windows search tools.

Download Windows Search 4 XP & Server 2003 in Softonic