Cyril Roger - Softonic English

Travel the globe with World of Where

If you have trouble getting your kids to learn their geography or you just want to test your knowledge, World of Where may be of interest to you. The program is extremely easy to use. Once you launch it, a world map appears and you can choose which continent you want to be quizzed on. Good to know however, the trial version only lets you navigate to Europe.

There are three types of quizzes: cities, countries and flags. You have no time limit and can skip a question if you don’t know the answer. And if you’re feeling really smart, you can decide to take on the world and have questions coming from any continent. World of Where seems particularly directed for US users as it can also quiz you on American States. Try it out and see how much you know about geography.

7-Zip: a quality file compressor

To extract and compress your files, 7-Zip is a perfectly viable alternative to the better known WinZip or WinRAR. The application works exactly like its main competitors yet manages to mix in WinZip’s selection of tools with WinRAR’s versatility.

The 7-Zip interface is similar to that of its competitors, with a main file manager and a command line to search and select files to extract or compress. The control panel is comprised of the essential buttons like extract, add and test, but also features copy, move and delete functions to allow you to manage your files. 7-Zip extracts and compresses files as fast as WinZip and WinRAR and handles the main archive formats like ZIP, TAR, RAR and ISO.

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Get hold of codecs with afreeCodecVT

Anybody who’s watched AVI movies has had to use a codec, yet few people really understand what they are or how they work. To make things clear, codecs encode (and decode) your media file so that your media player can read it. AfreeCodecVT will avoid all the hassle by helping you choose the right codec according to the media file you have and will provide all sorts of information on all the codecs that exist out there.

A simple one-stop interface makes afreeCodecVT a reliable and easy to use gateway for the codec hungry crowd. AfreeCodecVT is first and foremost a huge database with every imaginable resource on codecs and the ways they’re used. The codec wizard will answer your doubts and the codec search will link you to the regularly updated codec library from the afreeCodecVT website. There’s a good chance the one you need is among the ones most downloaded by other users.

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Edit tracks with FL Studio

Since its first release in 1998 Fruity Loops has done much more than changing its name to FL Studio. From a good midi pattern sequencer it has evolved into a powerful music editing studio for your PC. We’ve therefore decided to cover the features in this latest release.

Let’s first take a look at the interface. Users familiar with FL Studio will instantly recognize the dark green tone and rounded windows of past versions. However, the structure of the program can be difficult for a first-time user to grasp. The browser window on the left is your resource for any file you will need, from presets to projects and scores. Clicking on an item will open up a drop down selection of specific elements. This library can be filled with more of your own loops and samples and carries an impressive amount of plug-ins like DirectWave, EQUO or Fruity Squeeze. FLStudio has a smart search function to quickly find any track, tool or effect.

To edit your tracks you can use the original pattern window, which contains all the instruments you have selected. You will have to create the pattern desired for each instrument. You can also use the playlist window, divided into patterns at the top and audio tracks at the bottom. The playlist view features a handy paintbrush tool to color in your pattern. You can also decide to edit your tracks with the piano roll view, quite handy if you have a midi keyboard plugged in. Continue reading “Edit tracks with FL Studio”

eMule vs Limewire

Today we’re going to take a look at eMule and Limewire, two of the biggest free P2P filesharing programs around. We will compare them according to a certain amount of factors like version, network, downloading process, search function and extra features.

First of all, let us remind you that both programs are at very different levels of development. While eMule is known to be one of the most popular P2P applications, it is still only at version 0.47c. Limewire is now 4.12 and offers a PRO (but not free) version with advanced features. However there are loads of moded versions of eMule, like MorphXT, Plus or Xtreme with different skins or performance enhancements.

Concerning networks, eMule and Limewire are in two different ball parks. eMule connects to the eDonkey and Kad networks while Limewire connects to Gnutella. These are probably the most popular around, and yield excellent results, whatever you may be looking for. When setting up Limewire, if your router is UPnP enabled it will automatically forward a port for you. This is because Limewire supports UPnP port mapping. With eMule you will have to choose and forward a port yourself.

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BBC to launch on-demand videos

The BBC Trust today approved the BBC’s on-demand project, with a final consultation to be held May 2, 2007. The service will allow users to view or download popular programs like Doctor Who, 7 days after their original broadcast. The BBC then plans on releasing its iPlayer application, which will let users play a program 30 days after it has been downloaded or 7 days after it has been watched. The original plan was to let users keep downloaded programs 13 weeks on their hard drives but had to be brought down to 30 days because of Ofcom’s (the UK communications industry regulator) worry that the iPlayer would have a “negative effect” on competitors. But users will still be able to use the “series stacking” feature to keep watched series more than 7 days.

In a sense, the BBC breaks off from the traditional model seen in the majority of broadcast companies. According to WebTVWire, the reason is that the British network is only interested in ratings and doesn’t have to worry about advertising. Other stations are tied to a model where advertising space can be sold at extremely lucrative prices. Joost, the new P2P TV project, should prove traditional channels wrong by embedding advertising into their on-demand service.

It’s interesting to see how the BBC justifies cutting down storage time for episodes. Chris Woolard, head of finance, economics and strategy at the Trust says that “if (users) don’t look at (content) within 48 hours, they don’t look at it at all”. Kind of an easy way of justifying putting more control on content. While the on-demand service is an exciting way of broadcasting episodes it’s clear that management is making sure they keep a tight grip on it.

10 weirdest programs you’ll find on Softonic

The Home and Hobbies category at Softonic is filled with all sorts of applications, from online auction managers and lottery calculators to diet and sports programs which monitor your health. There’s also a fair amount of prank programs and more esoteric apps for fans of astrology and biorhythm analysis. If you’re looking for a good time-waster or a program that steps away from the norm, there’s a good chance you’ll find it here. We conjured up a list of 10 programs which we consider out of the ordinary, and that you might find you like.

Crazy Talk : make your own walking and talking avatar
Auction Sentry : win online auctions at the last minute
Pepakura Designer : if you’re an origami fan
Hair Pro 2006 Light : test out crazy haircuts on your PC
Room Arranger : redecorate your whole room without breaking your back
Lucky Days : pick the right day to play the lottery
Paper Airplane Factory : ever made a 747 out of paper?
Dr. Windows : set prank error messages on your PC
Everything I Own! : type up a complete inventory of your belongings
Funny Voice : play on the pitch of your voice

Let us know if there’s a particular curiosity you’re fond of…

Thunderbird: the open source mail client

So you’ve taken the leap and installed the versatile internet browser, Firefox, but are you ready to trade in your Outlook Express for Mozilla’s open source mail application? Thunderbird is Mozilla’s award winning and free solution to manage your mail more efficiently.

Thunderbird woos users with its flurry of options and the benefits of an open source application. Automatic updates ensure that you have the latest version of Thunderbird, preventing any security threats and offering you new features as soon as they’re available.

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Musestorm talks about Widgets

Musestorm is an exciting company working in the fields of dynamic web data, like RSS feeds, web APIs and widgets. It helps developers by aggregating data and creating solid data-driven AJAX applications. Through its MuseStorm analytics service it also provides publishers statistics to analyze the impact of their widgets. Musestorm recently launched a new product, the Widget Syndication Service allowing users to very easily create and distribute widgets to websites, blogs, social networks and mobile phones. We asked Yishay Schwerd, its VP R&D and co-founder, a few questions about Musestorm.

Can you give us an idea of your background and what got you into widgets?
Our background is actually from Mobile related companies and technologies. We actually started with the developer SDK – allowing developers to easily access data on the Web. We developed the ability to aggregate and cache data, reformat data (for AJAX, Flash and JSON apps originally) and distribute the data, to applications. Later we understood that the same technology can be easily used to produce widgets and in June 2006 we’ve launched “Widget Central”.

Can you explain the technology behind Musestorm?
The technology behind the MuseStorm service enables aggregation and caching of XML based data, re-formatting of data into new formats (e.g. web widgets, desktop widgets), distribution of reformatted data and tracking and analysis of distribution. MuseStorm uses mostly open-source software such as Linux, mySQL, and Java. Our servers are Java based.

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A peek at Netscape 9

Netscape 9 is in the works and should include a large number of improvements. Now, Netscape has definitely been outrun by IE, Firefox and even Opera, so we’re curious as to how the new version will attract users. According to the announcement, the web browser will “contain support for newsfeeds” and will handle Netscape.com extensions.

According to Kurt Cagle, chief architect for Netscape 9, the browser will also handle Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) support so we’re guessing there’ll be some sort of online map, (could an app like Google Maps be in the works?) or a good number of web apps included in the browser.

On his blog, Jason Calacanis, ex General Manager at Netscape, speculates that Netscape 9 will incorporate “social bookmarking, voting, commenting, friends activity”. Can we then expect something similar to Flock? What’s for sure is that the new Netscape 9 will focus on the user and appears to place a lot of importance on social tools.

Will Netscape 9 be a worthy rival for the dominant browsers? Does it believe that its new features will be sufficient to give it a significant share of the browser market? Let’s not forget that traffic to Netscape.com dropped significantly after the new redesign. Hopefully the new version will not scare away users. New announcements will be posted every Tuesday on the Netscape community site, giving us details on this new version of the venerable browser.