May, 2012 - Softonic English

Epic Games celebrates 20 year anniversary with free music

Epic Games has a long history in game development. The company has a wide variety of games on a host of platforms. Starting with PC and moving into consoles and iOS, Epic Games has been on the front of development tools with its Unreal Engine and illustrating the ability of fostering talented developers.

Since Epic Games is a development studio with games and also creates game development tools, they have had impressive insight about how to make games for a variety of hardware.

Celebrating their 20 year anniversary, Epic Games released a free soundtrack with music from their games over that span of time. Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (1998) illustrates the company’s beginnings while Infinity Blade II (2011) really shows how far Epic Games has come, as well as their open mind to new possibilities.

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How to: manage cookies in Internet Explorer 8

Internet Explorer 9 is a big improvement over its predecessor. Unfortunately, the newest version of Microsoft’s popular browser isn’t compatible with Windows XP. For that, you’ll need to use Internet Explorer 8, which is still a solid browser by anyone’s estimation.

Cookies are pieces of information stored on your computer that personalize your experience every time you visit a website. If cookies are disabled on IE 8, you will often encounter problems such as being unable to complete an online purchase, among other important actions.

Fortunately, managing cookies in IE 8 is a relatively simple process. I’ll show you how to enable, disable and even delete your cookies entirely in a few simple steps! Continue reading “How to: manage cookies in Internet Explorer 8”

How to: set a password with Winrar

Setting a password on a .RAR file couldn’t be easier, and it’s a great way to keep almost any type of file safe from prying eyes. Here’s how:

1. Open Winrar and browse to the files you want. If they’re saved all over the place, it might be an idea to move them all to one folder, and compress that. Give the folder an informative name so you can easily identify it later.

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TU Me – disappointing new voice and messages app

Do we really need another app for staying in touch with friends and family? Telefónica certainly seems to think so. Today, it launched TU Me, which bundles free messaging, voice calls, photo sharing, and more together in a simple-ish iPhone app.

TU Me’s main advantage over similar WhatsApp is its voice calling, apparently based on Jajah which Telefónica bought in 2010. Photo sharing, location sharing, audio messages – these all feature in both apps. But WhatsApp also offers video sharing, contact sharing and it’s multi-platform.

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Klout is FarmVille for grown-ups

Klout is a social app that aggregates your social media/network data and gives you a score based on your activity. You can connect with your Twitter or Facebook account, and then link other networks to your account. The higher your score, the more ‘influential’ you are.

In June 2011 I was re-tweeted once by @Wired – my Klout score rocketed as my account was exposed to all the people who follow Wired on Twitter, and I got some follow on re-tweets. I was famous! Well, not quite, but this boost was short-lived, and a month later my Klout score had dive-bombed back to normal levels, leaving a gaping hole in my ego. Silly competition with friends and coworkers has seen me increase my score steadily – but the cost has been my online life turning into a giant game of FarmVille.

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GIMP updates to version 2.8

gimp icon GIMP has been one of my favorite image editing tools for years because of its price (free) and powerful feature set. Still, GIMP drew plenty of criticism for having a confusing interface. The developers of GIMP are well aware of these issues and have targeted this issue in the latest release of GIMP. Besides some interface tweaks, GIMP also comes with slew of technical improvements. Let’s take a look at some of the major changes in version 2.8 of GIMP. Continue reading “GIMP updates to version 2.8”

DiRT Showdown is Destruction Derby for a new generation

Codemaster’s have excellent pedigree for racing games, and with DiRT Showdown, they’ve resurrected the ghost of 1995’s classic Destruction Derby. You can play the demo now on Windows via Steam, which features one race and a multiplayer arena event.

DiRT Showdown comes out 24th May and as well as the derby events featuring fictional old bangers, there will be Gymkhana events like those seen in DiRT 3. I’m not sure if these will fit with the rough and tumble of the derby events, but we already know how much fun they are.

Check out some gameplay from the multiplayer mode ‘Rampage’ after the break below – it’s a demo and still need some polishing, but you’ll see how much fun it is. I think DiRT Showdown could be the multiplayer racing game of the year:

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What is Twitter?

New to Twitter? Wondering what all the fuss is about? Never fear! Our simple guide will explain all the Twitter basics so you get started with the popular social network.

So what is Twitter?

Twitter is an online network that lets you post news, updates, links and pictures. You can use it on the web in your browser and you can use it as an app on your phone, PC or Mac. Each time you share an item it’s called a Tweet or an update.

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Does Adobe Flash even matter on mobile?

When the first iPhone released, the lack of support for Adobe Flash was a big deal. Desktop versions of website wouldn’t be able to display all the content available and the experience would be “incomplete.”

Android announced the operating system would support Flash, it was originally seen as an attack against Apple’s closed operating system and how Android was a “step-up” against iOS.

Now with iOS at version 5.1 and Android 4.0 in the wild, does having Adobe Flash even matter?

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