Like many people, since YouTube came along I've stopped watching TV and now spend all my evenings looking at people making an idiot out of themselves or watching old episodes of Transformers. As I'm sure you're aware of by now, you don't even need to be logged on to the YouTube site to watch these vids because there are now scores of programs that let you download the movies for playing back at any time or transferring to your mobile phone or the PSP so you can watch them on the bus.

Flash Video Downloader is one of the easiest to use video downloaders available for the Mac, and does its job almost automatically. There are loads of options for batch downloading and you can even set the program to shut down your Mac for you once it's finished doing its business. I can think of some other features I'd like to see, such as the ability to auto-download videos based on your interests, but nevertheless Flash Video Downloader is a great way to pilfer YouTube and other social video sites without any fuss.

Download Flash Video Downloader 2.1 in Softonic

For me, the feature which best sums up the PlayStation's impressive multimedia capabilities is its membership of the DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance). This means that the PS3 can communicate and share content with a large number of other networked devices. And although Apple aren't members of the DLNA, several companies have been working to enable streaming of multimedia content from Macs to the PS3. Nullriver's MediaLink is the newest kid on the block.

MediaLink works in a similar way to its competitors, acting as a file server which allows you to stream multimedia files, including your iTunes and iPhoto libraries across your home network. Your PS3 detects the server, connects and the shared content shows up in the XMB (PS3 menu).

When compared with its competitors, notably Elgato's EyeConnect, MediaLink performs very well. I experienced no cuts in transmission or delays, and I was impressed to see better handling of iTunes artwork as well as video previews. Some DivX files which worked with other media servers weren't detected by MediaLink, which was disappointing. I think this was due to the files having the '.divx' format and I expect that this issue will fixed in time. That said, video playback generally works without issues, though image quality was not always as good as when using EyeConnect.

Browsing photo and music libraries is a breeze with MediaLink, though there are some interesting differences with competitors in the way that it presents the iTunes library. I noticed that EyeConnect always displays the iTunes library exactly as iTunes would (select an artist, then an album and you'll see tracks by that artist which feature on that album), while MediaLink seems to use a different indexing system (select an artist and then an album and you'll see all the tracks on that album, irrespective of artist) - this suggests that MediaLink is building its own index of files rather than relying on your iTunes library file.

MediaLink is a robust, reliable media server option for sharing content from your Mac to your PS3, and compares well to other apps in its class. Recommended.

Download MediaLink 1.59 in Softonic

Managing files with the Finder in Mac OS X is pretty damn good in my opinion (certainly better than Windows) although that's not to say it can't be improved.

File Sheriff aims to do this by making file management easier and quicker than normal. For instance, it allows you to easily generate icon previews, rename your MP3 files based on their ID3 tags, batch-apply file attributes, edit hidden file options, amongst many other functions.

One of the simplest tasks it will help you with is renaming. File Sheriff is especially useful when it comes to renaming MP3 files that have not been labeled correctly. File Sheriff can automatically rename MP3s based on their ID3 tags (basically the name that appears in iTunes) so that the file name corresponds with the tag. In addition, it's excellent for finding and replacing files and folders which have been labeled wrongly or have gone missing (although Spotlight is as good as anything out there where this is concerned in my opinion).

In addition to all this, File Sheriff also allows you to create your own icons - you can take images and use them to represent your video, photo and other related files. The editor isn't exactly extensive but it allows basic icons to be made.

File Sheriff is an excellent tool for those Mac users who feel that Mac OS doesn't go far enough in helping them manage files.

Download File Sheriff 1.2 in Softonic

Though your iPhone or iPod can be synchronized with iTunes, you can have problems if you try to use it with more than one copy of iTunes or on more than one computer. TuneAid helps you easily solve that issue.

TuneAid connects to your device and displays its content (namely music and video) organized in a similar way to that of iTunes: a list of audio and video files you can sort by artist, song, album and more. You can then select certain songs (or simply all of them) and copy them straight away from TuneAid to your Mac.

TuneAid can copy the content to any folder on Finder or directly to your iTunes library. It comes really handy not only to transfer songs from one computer to another, but also as a backup copy.

Just make sure your device is not protected by an access code: my iPhone was and it took me ages to figure out why TuneAid wasn't detecting it.

With TuneAid you can easily copy and transfer the content of your iPhone or iPod between different computers.

Download TuneAid 3.03 in Softonic

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

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

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

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

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

Download Headline 1.0 in Softonic

With the multiplication of Apple devices, which allow you to enjoy your media pretty much anywhere, you need to be able to convert and play your media files to any format. Roxio Crunch lets you do just this. Most users will probably be interested in converting unprotected DVDs and VIDEO_TS files to play on their Apple TVs or iPods, but Crunch also allows you to make video files playable on Sony PSP, DivX or 3GP formats. Just drag and drop any video file on the interface to convert it. Roxio Crunch has custom settings to quickly find the format you need.

More advanced users will be disappointed that Roxio Crunch does not actually allow you to convert encrypted DVDs. In terms of performances, Roxio Crunch is on par with similar applications, which means that some users might prefer going with free alternatives instead, like HandBrake or MacTheRipper. Similarly, converting media files to the iPod format is not exclusive to Roxio Crunch as you can easily do that with iTunes or QuickTime.

One the whole, Roxio Crunch is a good tool to convert a wide variety of media files to any format. While some users will be frustrated by the lack of advanced features, a simple drag and drop interface and DVD conversion make this an attractive Mac application.

Try out Roxio Crunch if you're looking for a simple tool to play your media on any support.

Download Roxio Crunch 1.0 in Softonic

File Juicer helps you extract anything you want from a file, whether it be an image, a video, sound or text. Just drag and drop your file or folder on the File Juicer interface and the application will get to work.

File Juicer organizes extracted files in clean folders and the application will open up a new Finder window once the extraction process is done, so you can reach those files immediately. I've noticed that File Juicer tends to create a text file every time you extract something, although it's not always necessary.

You don't need to limit your use of File Juicer to simple extraction though. The program can also be used to examine cache files, turn PDFs into Word documents or recover text from corrupt files. If used well, it can be a really handy tool to have around.

If there's something you need to extract from a file or folder, File Juicer can get it for you.

Download File Juicer 4.9.9 in Softonic

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

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

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

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

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

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

Download ReelBean 3.8.2 in Softonic

Limewire, one of the world’s most popular peer-to-peer filesharing applications, has received a lawsuit from the RIAA, who are demanding $115 million in damages, claiming the application promotes the infringement of copyright. Similar applications like Grokster and Kazaa have been forced to go legal and speculation goes as to when Limewire will have to buckle and pay up. The existence of the popular P2P application is not under threat, but if you haven’t given it a try yet, here’s just what makes it a standout program.

In terms of file sharing, Limewire is the cream of the crop, offering the essential peer-to- peer tools in what is probably the friendliest interface of applications in its class. Beginners will appreciate the search bar, which allows you to select the type of file you’re looking for, video, image, audio, or program. Limewire has a “what’s new” button to check out what popular files users have recently exchanged. We also enjoyed the direct connect option. If you know the IP address of one of your friends, type it in the box and Limewire will browse that user’s files. This is a quick way of sharing files with someone else and can come in handy when working on a project and exchanging documents. The only little snag we have with direct connect is that it doesn’t let you enter the username, much simpler than looking for your friend’s IP address.

Downloading with Limewire is very intuitive. After you’ve searched and found the file you are looking for, double-click on it to start the downloading process. The speed of your download depends firstly on the quality of your connection (broadband is a minimum), if you’ve correctly opened your router’s ports and whether you’re downloading a popular file or not. We would like to point out the effort that Limewire takes to make itself accessible to beginners. Not only does a tip pop up every time you launch the application, the help option also leads you to Limewire’s support centre, FAQs and a forum to get in contact with other users.

The lawsuit carried out by the RIAA is all the more surprising because of the measures Limewire takes to keep you in the realms of legality. If you decide to download Limewire from its website, you will first have to agree you will not use it for copyright infringement. When you’re configuring the application, you can set content filters, to avoid downloading files that copyright owners do not want you to share. To avoid embarrassing situations, make sure you tick the “block adult content” box, which will filter out any pornographic files from your searches.

The best way of checking the quality of the audio or video you’re downloading is via Limewire’s mini player. It’s fairly basic and to par with the players you find in similar filesharing applications, but we appreciated the way it was integrated in the program.

If there’s one thing that we’re still expecting from the Limewire team, it’s that it finally decides to jump on the BitTorrent bandwagon. Torrents are the way forward when it comes to peer to peer file sharing because of the speed, the security and freshness of downloads. Large files like movies or complete seasons of TV series are much easier to download via BitTorrent. We were also annoyed by the “buy the PRO version” window that popped up every time we started Limewire.

For its wealth of possibilities and huge base of users, (more than 4 million simultaneously on the Gnutella network) we encourage you to give Limewire a test drive. Because of the controversial nature of the application, you should always make sure that you aren’t using Limewire for illegal activities like copyright infringement. However don’t be scared off by the legality issue. Limewire, like most P2P applications is one of the most exciting possibilities that the internet gives us. It would be a shame not to give it a try. You should also check out Frostwire, the not-for-profit project of the Limewire development team.

Download LimeWire 4.18.6 in Softonic

Everybody knows that MSN Messenger on Mac is never as polished as it is on the PC. Still, that doesn't mean you should give up chat clients altogether, as the Mac offers excellent alternatives, like Adium X.

This messaging client is the perfect example of an excellent open source program. It's very regularly updated and has a strong and active community. Adium X works with almost all the IM services you'll find out there, including Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger.

The interface is simple yet colorful and multiple chats can be tabbed all into one window. If you want to engage in a private conversation with another user, Adium X support Off The Record (OTR) encrypted messaging.

As I said before, Adium X has generated an active community, which generates all sorts of extras for the client like icons, sounds, plugins or applescripts.

True, file transfer is a little flaky, and Adium X still doesn't offer voice or video chat, but it's very enjoyable to use and extremely flexible.

Adium X is a free and highly customizable IM client, that allows you to connect to almost any online chat service and engage in multiple conversations simultaneously.

Download Adium X 1.3 in Softonic

ProPresenter is a presentation system that utilizes two screens, empowering users to quickly and easily present slides on one screen, while controlling the presentation with another screen.

For example, churches that display song lyrics on a big screen while a song is being performed live on stage can dynamically change the slide order for a worship song. Depending on the reaction of the audience, the band leader may choose to sing another verse, end the song early, or repeat the chorus several times. Typically these lyrics are presented through linear slide shows, but the limited flexibility of these programs make them very unpopular because of their inability to function dynamically.

This program allows an operator to click on a slide in our "Control Panel", at which point the projector screen immediately transitions to the new slide. What's more, the program supports QuickTime, and can synch slides with an audio track for canned music presentations. ProPresenter also allows you to change your backgrounds dynamically and, of course, you can integrate ProPresenter with your video production system to key the words over live or taped video.

Download ProPresenter 3.4.1 in Softonic

I hate watching dubbed movies. Except on rare occasions, the translation is never quite as good as the original dialogue. That's why I always watch movies in their original language, although with subtitles to be able to follow the story.

Submerge does a great job at merging subtitle files with your movies. It handles most of the subtitle formats, like SubRip or MicroDVD and automatically syncs them to your videos, with very little work on your part.

If you want to watch your movie just to check that the subtitles were added properly, Submerge offers basic playback functions and can display videos in full screen. Remember that it's first and foremost a subtitle merger, so don't expect any advanced features.

After your video and subtitle have been properly, Submerge can seamlessly transfer the video to either your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV. Once again here Submerge will do the hard work for you. All you will have to do is make sure that your Apple device is well connected.

If like me you really enjoy watching files in their main language, then Submerge is the tool for you. Seamless subtitle integration.

Download Submerge 1.5.3 in Softonic

I can already hear you complaining at yet another batch converter. It's true there probably are way too many converters out there, with the majority of them pretty much identical too each other. Dragoman is all around pretty good though and stands out thanks to its versatility.

I've found Dragoman very easy to use: just drag and drop your file onto the interface, select the format you want to convert it to and let it work its magic. Dragoman's real strength is that it handles all sorts of formats, from images to audio, text and archive. You'll find only video is missing to turn it into a complete batch converter. For each category, Dragoman offers a wide choice of formats, although you will probably notice that some of these, such as MP3 or RAR, are read-only.

Batch converting with Dragoman is as simple as working with one file. You just drag are your files onto Dragoman, select the output format and let Dragoman do the hard work.

Dragoman is a good batch converter handling multiple file formats.

Download Dragoman 1.3.1 in Softonic

Most multimedia publishing programs only allow you to publish one type of format be it photos, video or audio - Gallery Designer allows you to publish all 3 at once and does all the HTML coding for you.

Everything is explained and taken step by step until your gallery is online with no further effort required on your part. To get going, first of all you're asked which image files you want to upload. Secondly, you're asked what title you want to give the album and the layout parameters - how big, what style etc. Then, you simply click "Build" and the software whizzes into action building a perfect HTML gallery, complete with thumbnails, for publishing on the net.

Once ready, you are given detailed control over exactly how you want the gallery to look such as by changing the thumbnails to full image size, the titles, layout gallery style, border colors etc. If you see another gallery online that you like developed using Gallery Designer, you can even borrow that template or alternatively, design your own.

With support for for a wide range of video and photo formats and even support for text files, Gallery Designer takes the pain out of coding your own online gallery.

Download Gallery Designer 1.0.9 in Softonic

EvoCam is the program to turn to if you're looking to have better control on your Mac's webcam. Working equally well with iSight as with other external webcams for Mac, EvoCam lets you record, view and stream videos straight from your webcam to an external server.

EvoCam comes with a number of filters to spice up your videos and you can choose whether to include or not the audio. The program also features more than two dozen animations to slip into your window. EvoCam features motion sensor recording, so that the app only records when the webcam identifies movements.

You'll be able to export to a normal FTP, but EvoCam also gives you the choices of both passive and secure FTP. Note that your videos can be compressed and the quality adjusted according to your needs.

If you're looking for a great solution to record, view and stream videos taken with your Mac's webcam then EvoCam is what you need.

Download EvoCam 3.6.2 in Softonic

Slideshows are one of the best ways to add colour and life to a photo collection no matter what the subject matter.

Slideshow Magic is aimed at both home users and business professionals who want to impress friends or colleagues with their photo slideshow creations. Best of all, it doesn't require the viewer to have the program installed as all slideshows can be saved in any QuickTime compatible format.

The easy to use interface is somewhat like that of a video editor allowing you to add music or audio tracks either for the whole slideshow or just specific segments. You can add some impressive transitions and titles much in the same way as you do with Windows Movie Maker for example. The program also features a useful guide to help you get your photos online or burnt to DVD. However, unfortunately the program doesn't provide either it's own webspace or burner for uploading and saving photos. For uploading, you'll need an FTP client and web host and for burning, a third party burner such as Nero.

In addition, although it's a cross platform application, sharing with other platforms requires some form of network solution between clients (although this needn't be something complicated - a program like MSN Live Messenger is enough

Slideshow Magic is a relatively cheap but powerful way to get your photos either online or burnt to DVD.

Download Slideshow Magic 5.0.5 in Softonic

Following the release of new versions of both Internet Explorer and Firefox, the infamous 'browser wars' are flaring up again. Despite both Firefox 1.5 and the Beta of IE7 making significant strides, it would be be foolish to think this was a two-horse race. While gaining a good reputation with geeks and power users, Opera has long been a bit-part player among the big boys of the browser world. However, if this preview release is anything to go by, the Norwegian-built browser could finally be ready to punch with the heavyweights.

Opera has been pioneering new ways of browsing the web for some time. It has had tabbed browsing since the days before tabbed browsing was cool and developed the innovative 'mouse gestures' control system, where you navigate through the web just by holding the mouse button and flicking your wrist. The developers even dabbled with a multi-pane interface for viewing several pages within one interface.

The good news is that Opera has lost none of its appetite for innovation, and version 9 is packed with new goodies that will have the programmers at Mozilla and Microsoft choking on their doughnuts. For starters the app runs much quicker than the previous release, making it arguably the quickest browser around (except perhaps for Safari) at rendering pages. Incredibly, despite this boost in performance, the program appears to use less memory than version 8.5, making it far less draining on system resources than Firefox and IE.

In terms of features Opera is the gift that keeps on giving. New to the program comes OSX Tiger-style 'widgets', allowing you to check news, convert currency, view the weather and so on through a series of draggable pop-ups which anchor themselves in front of the browser. Although there aren’t many widgets to choose from at present, this is sure to change once the tech-minded Opera fans start developing more.

Another great addition to Opera 9 is BitTorrent support, allowing you to download torrents directly within the browser – a feature that amazingly no one had thought of before. This system works very smoothly, which makes us wonder why RSS feed reading support in Opera is still so poor.

Among the other new treats within the program is a nifty new search feature which lets you add any search engine to the search bar in the main toolbar. This means you can instantly access searches within your favorite online destinations (Softonic, for instance).

Tabbed browsing remains, although some users may be annoyed to discover that Opera has added close tab buttons to the tabs themselves rather than as a separate button. Having said this, the new web page preview thumbnails that appear when you rollover a tab are a real masterstroke. Mouse gestures are still there too, along with the addition of Total Recall-style voice commands – another example of how cutting-edge this browser is.

Opera's developers have been keen to ramp up security features too, and although they aren't highly original, the new content blocking and pop-up blocking functions serve their purpose effectively. What's more, it's refreshing to see a browser that embraces the latest web standards so freely, with the latest release boasting support for CSS 2.1 and CSS 3 tags.

The browser is remarkably stable and is far better behaved than Internet Explorer 7. Combined with its speed, innovative features and standards support, Opera is undoubtedly web software's best-kept secret, and the final release may prove to be even better than Firefox. Don't say anything though, or everyone will want it.

Download Opera 9.52 in Softonic

Have you ever wanted to keep a video you find on the web and play it on your iPod?

If so, you'll enjoy Cosmopod. This effective little plugin lets you download and convert web videos in seconds. The addon supports all sorts of web formats, including FLV and Divx and can convert them into high quality iPod-ready videos thanks to H.264 and MPEG4 encoding. You can even drag and drop videos from your Mac and convert them with Cosmopod.

The plugin features an embedded player, so you can preview your encoded video and make sure it's what you want and that the quality is OK. Although it's a shame that Cosmopod only works with Safari, the plugin integrates perfectly with the Apple browser, thanks to a cleverly designed interface. You can also activate Growl support to get notified when conversions are finished.

Cosmopod is a little Safari plugin that will allow you to download any encode any web video to an iPod ready format.

Download CosmoPod 2.7 in Softonic

This is an application utility for concatenating several files into one single Quicktime movie. It supports various input file formats, including, of course, Quicktime movies. It's useful if you've downloaded a movie into various clips and want to have it into one, to burn it on disc, for example.

Download AddMovie 1.5.5 in Softonic

If you like to watch YouTube and Google Video regularly but are worried about them being taken offline then Videobox can help.

Videobox allows you to quickly and easily download Flash video from most popular video sites on the internet. Videobox will convert the video into a native Quicktime format so it's ready to view on your Mac, iPod, iPhone or iTunes. Videobox is a simple widget that uses keywords to search for Google Video and YouTube videos from your desktop. The immediate problem with Videobox is that because both these services hare gradually being merged, you often get the same results for both but still, the search works pretty well.

Simply enter your search terms into the Videobox searchbox and hit the magnifying glass. The results in Videobox take a little longer than using the video sites directly but you'll soon be presented with a list of results from both YouTube and Google Video that match your criteria including title, description and in the case of YouTube, tags. The disadvantage is that you don't benefit from the comments.

Videobox is a useful alternative to searching for videos via YouTube and Google Video when you don't have the time or inclination to read the comments.

Download Videobox 2.7.2 in Softonic