Bienvenue, OnSoftware France!
Today sees the arrival of another edition of Softonic’s software blog, OnSoftware. That’s right: onsoftware.softonic.fr has launched!
Tom Clarke
219 articles
Latest articles
Apple Tablet rumor & prediction roundup
In case you hadn’t heard, rumor has it that Apple will release a new ‘tablet’ on Wednesday. Here at OnSoftware, we decided that rather than add to the echo chamber, we’d stay out of any debate on the putative features and software of this alleged device. We’ll be offering our thoughts when we know how the machine looks and feels, which version of OS X it runs and what software-enhancing goodies it has packed into its super-thin body.
Ask OnSoftware: The best free DVD authoring tools
This Ask OnSoftware topic is a hardy perennial which we’ve received lots of emails about. Most recently, reader Alvas wrote to ask:
Happy Holidays from Softonic and OnSoftware
This is just a quick post to let our readers know that nearly everyone at OnSoftware will be in holiday between now and the new year. We’ll publish a few posts but not as many as we would normally.
Jolicloud Express pre-beta now available to download
The developers of eagerly awaited netbook OS, Jolicloud, have just announced that the new pre-beta release of the OS is available to download. The OS comes in two downloadable versions: Jolicloud Express, a Windows .exe file which will install Jolicloud directly from your Windows desktop; or an ISO for those experienced in such dark arts as partitioning.
My top 10 free apps of the decade – Tom
It’s a pretty tall order picking 10 pieces of software from the last 10 years. This has, after all, been a decade increasingly described – and even shaped – by the software we’ve been using. While Nick focused on free downloads for his selection last week, mine will include more web apps, reflecting the huge shift to online and social software that has taken place over the decade. So please forgive me if there are a couple of Google applications that make it into my top ten.
10 invites for the netbook OS Jolicloud Alpha
Update: I sent invites to the first 10 people to comment. However, anyone can now download the pre-beta for Jolicloud here. Enjoy!
QQ: The MSN killer that’s made in China
Every now and then, you come across a piece of software that genuinely surprises. Normally, the thing that surprises us about such pieces of software is what it does: features and functionalities. QQ Messenger doesn’t really do anything new. It doesn’t contain any particularly ground breaking features. It’s an instant messaging client. What’s surprising about QQ is that its network has over 1 billion registered accounts… and unless you’re in contact with China, you probably never heard of it.
Firefox at 5: remembering Phoenix
As you may have read elsewhere, today marks the 5th anniversary of the release of Mozilla Firefox 1.0. The browser, intended as a direct attack on the market dominance (and abysmal build quality) of Internet Explorer, has gone from strength to strength in those five years, proving that the software we use to view the web can be as important as the content we’re viewing.
Why are you still using that email client?
One of the most widespread problems people had with Snow Leopard when it launched was a compatibility issue in Mail.app (aka Apple Mail) which prevented messages being sent and even crashed the program in some cases. Nick wrote a guide to fixing these issues, so this obvious failing in Apple’s QA testing needn’t be too much of a hindrance.
Poll: How excited are you about Windows 7?
This week will see the release of Windows 7, Microsoft’s latest push for control of your PC. As the launch date approaches, we’ll be posting lots of helpful articles, reviews and videos all about the brand new edition of Windows. To kick things off, here’s our first ever OnSoftware poll. Yeah, I can’t believe it either! So how do you feel about the new OS’s imminent arrival?
Review: Mozy Online Backup for Mac disappoints
The more digital content we store on our computers, the more important reliable backup solutions become. For example, my iMac has about 50GB of music and photos on its primary disk drive. While much of the music could probably be replaced, any photo not yet uploaded to Flickr would be lost forever if that disk failed. So, like many other Mac users, I use Time Machine to maintain a secure copy of all my files, albeit on a potentially unstable portable hard disk in the same room as my Mac.