Month: December 2009

Day nine of our advent calendar features one of Jon’s favorite PC games from 2009. Kudos to anyone who can guess this one.

R*****n is a little yellow dude who’s only passion is running as fast as possible, and in xxx he’ll do exactly that. With crayon-like ‘crude’ (in the developer’s words) graphics, great old music that has lapsed into the public domain and a completely silly story, xxx is irreverent and tons of fun. The controls are really simple, but the way the protagonist interacts with the environment adds layers of complexity to the levels – Jon

Choosing the best 10 applications of the past decade is certainly a hard task – especially if you work as a software editor and test hundreds of them every month! But this experience is precisely what helps us identify outstanding programs right on the spot: programs that are more than just simple lines of code compiled into functional software; they’re tools that can improve our lives. Tom and Nick have already selected their Top 10 apps of the decade, so now it’s my turn. I’ve introduced a small variation though: I’ve included two paid apps (both games) in my list. Being a hopeless gamer, I simply couldn’t resist it!

Firefox – Released 2004. Firefox is always the first app I install on any computer. I adopted it as web browser when it was still version 1.5, and never thought about using Internet Explorer again. Though it can be a resource hogger sometimes, the incredible amount of add-ons and themes you can use to customize it makes up for it.

Spotify – Released 2008. It has only been on the market for a year, but Spotify has already changed the way we listen to music. The first time I tried it I was shocked by its ease of use, its quick response – streaming music as if it was on your hard drive! – and above all, its amazing collection of music. Spotify will surely create lots of buzz in the months to come.

Twitter – Launched 2006. I must confess I didn’t like Twitter at first, but after using it for some time and making the first Twitter contacts, I quickly saw all the potential in this simple yet great online app. 140-character messages have proved to be enough for social interaction, blog promotion, latest news and event streaming. Impressive!

VLC Media Player – Released 2001. An easy media player with support for ALL those formats (including DVD), subtitles, audio and video effects, all for free? It does look like a dream, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not: it’s VLC Media Player, the best media player out there – especially for video. It’s fast, flexible, super-light and very stable. You couldn’t ask for more.

Google Maps – Launched 2005. If I had been told ten years ago that one day I’d be able to fly around the whole world, or walk the streets of many important cities as if I was right there, I wouldn’t have believed it. But this – and more –  is what Google Maps lets you do, with your own computer, on your standard web browser. Think about it. Ain’t that amazing?

Skype – Released 2003. The first time I heard about the possibility to make free phone calls from your PC I was simply amazed. Skype made the dream of thousands of people come true: a great app to keep in touch with your loved ones, no matter how far they are, in a cheap, easy way. Support for video chats in its latest versions have made it even better!

iTunes – Released 2001. I’m not a big fan of iTunes as music player, but I do think it’s the best music manager you can find, especially if you own an iPod. Plus the iTunes Store has shown the industry that legal music downloads are possible, and that if you offer good music at a competitive price, people will pay for it – even if they can also get it for free.

World of Warcraft – Released 2004. The release of WoW set a turning point in the history of MMORPGs. This epic adventure has captivated more than 10 million players worldwide in just five years. WoW has not only become an incredible source of revenue for Blizzard, but also a true phenomenon that has gone beyond the limits of videogaming. ‘It’s not a game, it’s a world!’

The Sims – Released 2000. Almost ten years after its release, The Sims is still the best-selling PC game in history: a never-ending story created by the developer of SimCity, and a source of endless expansion packs. The Sims is one of those games you either love or hate, but it deserves to be acknowledged as one of the greatest hits in the gaming industry.

Shazam – Released 2002. The first time I saw this app in action I was truly awestruck: I could finally find out the title and artist of all those unknown songs playing in the radio! I always had Shazam on my iPhone, and I have it now on my Android as well. It’s a small great app for a very specific purpose, but I personally think it’s simply awesome.

Welcome to day eight of the OnSoftware advent calendar. I wonder what awesome software is behind today’s window?

Despite the fact that many choose Firefox for its speed, it can get a little sluggish at times. There are lots of tools in the arsenal against Firefox flop, but one of the easiest to implement has got to be xxx. Simple is definitely one of the best ways to describe xxx, a one-window, no options tool to optimize the performance of everyone’s favorite browser – Niamh

Today’s advent calendar features one of Nick’s favorite Mac apps of 2009. See if you can guess what it is before clicking the picture to open the window and reveal the program review.

Why xxx has taken so long to reach the Mac is anyone’s guess but after more than a couple of years being available on Windows, one of the best P2P TV apps is finally here. What I’ve always liked about the program is the number of channels available, the fact that it’s in English (unlike some P2P efforts), and that the streaming is generally reliable – Nick

Windows: A good antivirus doesn’t necessarily have to be a system resources hogger. With Panda Cloud Antivirus your computer will be protected while keeping its performance intact. This popular antivirus has reached version 1.0 and remains a lightweight, easy security tool that does its job without nagging you with constant updates or desktop notifications.

iPhone: Ever hear a song you like on the radio, on TV or at a party but don’t know what it’s called? Install Shazam on your iPhone and you can find out. Whenever you hear a tune you dig, simply hold your iPhone’s microphone to the speaker. Shortly after, as if by magic details of the song will appear in the Shazam interface, including the name of the song, the singer, and the album it appears on.

Mac: You may have already switched from Safari to Mozilla’s Firefox. But are you ready to ditch Mail and try the developer’s Thunderbird mail client? Mozilla Thunderbird is Mozilla’s award winning and free solution to manage your mail more efficiently. And there are many advantages of switching to it too. Unlike Mail, it can handle virtual identities, create on-the-fly addresses and has one of the best spam filters out there.

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.

Firefox – released 2004. The ‘noughties’ could appropriately be split into two eras: before and after Firefox. Since 1998, when AOL announced their purchase of Netscape, hopes that a web browser could ever again compete with Internet Explorer had faded. Mozilla issued a statement of intent with Phoenix in 2002 and fired a broadside with Firefox two years later. The market is now more competitive than ever.

Gmail – launched (in beta) 2004.  My first email account was with Hotmail, before that company was bought by Microsoft in 1997. In between then and 2004, I had five or six different accounts with various providers. Google’s reinvention of email, introducing smart conversations, tags, search that works, massive storage… fixed a system that was broken and forced more established providers to pick up their game.

Last.fm – launched 2002. The first great social app that was about something other than socializing. Combining data about what music each user listens to with social features has allowed the website to develop into a powerful recommendation engine, allowing users to discover new music, and make friends with people who share their tastes. The addition of an events section in 2006 made Last.fm’s offering to music fans complete.

Twitter – launched 2006. It remains to be seen whether Twitter can maintain its position as the most cutting edge real-time social/communication tool on the web. Intuition and previous experience suggest that this will be impossible. Over the last 2 years, Twitter has grown to become one of the most popular websites out there, as well as playing an important role in world events.

Google Maps Navigation for Android – released 2009. The Android edition of Google’s popular maps and directions software is a perfect marriage of hardware and software. As all Android devices feature high-speed data connections, GPS and a digital compass, Google found it could produce a real-time navigation app that would have been unthinkably expensive just a couple of years ago.

Skype – released 2003. If there’s one piece of software that has benefited from the global spread of broadband internet, it’s Skype. While VoIP wasn’t exactly a new idea, Skype launched to a fast-expanding at exactly the right moment. Used by millions around the world to stay in touch with loved ones, Skype revolutionized an industry – and improved our lives.

iTunes – released 2001. Now, iTunes isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I think it should be. As a music manager, nothing beats iTunes for ease of use and functionality. And the iTunes Music Store taught the record industry that it could embrace digital downloads, a strategic move that may just have saved that industry.

WordPress – released 2003. As blogging exploded in popularity at the beginning of the decade, there weren’t that many platforms to choose between for budding amateur writers. Those options that existed were typically closed, lacked customization options, or cost money. WordPress made blogs easy to use and personalizable, as well as adhering to a creed of simple, clean code. One of the great open source projects of the decade.

Transmission – released 2006. If the beginning of this decade saw us downloading files with such awful programs as Napster and Shareaza, the latter half has been dominated by BitTorrent. Transmission has become something of a classic OS X application: its simple design, reliability and ease of use all make it the perfect Mac torrent client.

SimGolf – released 2002. OK so SimGolf was never free. And it wasn’t that popular. And no one has ever heard of it except for me. But it’s a great little game and well worth trying out, even 7 years after its release. SimGolf lets you design your own golf course and then play tournaments on it. I know that sounds impossibly exciting but the reality of the game is so much more… try it today and you’ll see.

Day six of our OnSoftware advent calendar. See if you can guess which new release from this year that Elena is talking about…

With xxx you can create screencasts and video tutorials in a friendly working environment, including sound, transitions, video effects and a customized intro menu. Plus the latest version of the recording suite takes advantage of the new high-definition video formats to produce high-quality material for the Web – Elena

We’ve arrived on day five of our advent calendar. Have a guess at what this game is then click the window to reveal what it is. It’s a tough one today due to Jon’s penchant for obscure indie games.

Floating islands, trees, water, elephants. Put them all together and you have the wonderfully relaxing xxx. You play an elephant who awakes in a fairly desolate world, with a dying tree. Water the tree, by sucking up raindrops and spraying the tree, and the world begins to transform – Jon