Cyril Roger - Softonic English

Trillian: the customizable IM client

Trillian is an exciting and innovative Messenger application ideal for those who are connected to multiple IM networks and like to customize their programs.

The installation process is a bit lengthy, but once set up, Trillian loads quickly. A set-up wizard guides you through the installation process, like choosing your picture, typing an alias and selecting the different networks you will connect to. One of the most versatile IM clients out there, Trillian allows you to connect to Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, ICQ, AIM and mIRC. To manage your status on each different network you have little round icons at the bottom of the messenger. You can set different states of availability for different accounts. Your IM chats are made secure so you don’t have to worry about anybody eavesdropping on your conversations.

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Sneak preview of the new Trillian Astra

Trillian Astra is in the works and it’s looking like an exciting piece of software. For those of you that don’t know Trillian, it’s a standalone messenger client with which you can use ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger and AIM. What sets it apart from those popular chat clients is that it really lets you customize the interface with a huge amount of different skins and emoticons.

Let’s take a quick peek at what the new Trillian Astra will have on offer. According to its developers, performance has been improved and the client will use up much less CPU. With IMCore, Trillian hopes to avoid the little connection bugs that occur when you support more than 5 different IMs. Those of you with slow bandwidth will be glad to learn that it will also offer optimized connections to IM services. Trillian will support Google Talk and My Space IM and will bulk files into a ZIP file to speed up your transfer.

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Ares- An exciting alternative P2P client

Bittorrent and Gnutella might be hogging the headlines of the peer to peer (P2P) world, but close behind comes Ares, a successful P2P application that boasts of having its own decentralized network and a simple, quick access interface. Ares spun-off from Gnutella in 2002, and since then has been building a strong and dedicated community of users.

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Fresh, crystal clear P2P filesharing

Frostwire is a hidden gem among Peer to Peer (P2P) applications. Built on the Limewire code but free of any advertising, Frostwire is one of the most accessible and reliable P2P applications you will find, and it doesn’t annoy you with pop ups or ads asking you to buy stuff.The simple search bar, divided by category, makes it a breeze to browse for a file, whether it is a video, image, audio, or program. Frostwire 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 Frostwire will browse that user’s files. This is a quick way of sharing files with someone else. It 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.

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Convert WMA to MP3

Free WMA MP3 Converter transforms annoying WMA audio files to Mp3 format so you can play them in iTunes. You’ll appreciate how easy it is to search for WMA files, select the bitrate, one of the 3 sample rates available and start converting. The whole process is fairly quick and is presented to you in a little pop up window, which can be minimized to tray. The tag editor is where you can add information such as title, artist or genre. You can batch convert as many files as you want. Once the operation is complete you can check file size and duration of the file and make sure the conversion has been successful.

The majority of audio file converters support all audio file types and can convert to dozens of audio formats in a large range of bitrates and sample rates. Free WMA MP3 Converter is only useful for one type of conversion. This program is great if you have loads of music files in the Windows Media format and are looking for a quick way of converting them to the more common MP3 format. If you’re looking for a versatile audio converter however you should turn to Xilisoft Audio Converter, Switch Free or AudioConvert. And Free WMA MP3 Converter only works one way, so if you’re looking to turn MP3s into WMA, check out Free MP3 WMA Converter.

Hasta la Vista, XP!

After a couple of setbacks, Microsoft’s new operating system, Vista, should be available, if we’re lucky, in January. Testers of the latest Release Candidate have been giving back promising feedback, especially with regard to stability and speed. But what if you can’t wait a couple more months for it?

We’ve selected a few programs that you can mix and match to create your very own hybrid Vista. Freshen up the appearance of your desktop with the Vista Customization Pack or the Vista Transformation Pack. If you’re not ready to go for a full makeover give the Vista touch to your icons via Software Icons Vista 2.0. A cool feature of Microsoft’s new operating system will be the Vista Sidebar, which provides you with all sorts of handy tools, more commonly known as widgets. A relatively unknown, yet clever application is the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor, a quick way of scanning your PC to verify that it is compatible with Vista.

Of course, the keenest of you out there will be looking for the real deal. The closest you’ll get to it is Windows Vista Beta 2, yet you’ll have to be prepared to suffer the occasional bug or crash that comes with a development version. Whether you choose to go for a cosmetic change or the full Beta tryout, it’s a good idea to get acquainted, for free, to the operating system that Microsoft will ambitiously launch in a few months.

MP3Producer converts your audio files

If you like to listen to your music anywhere and on anything, be it an iPod, a phone or a PC, you’re going to need to change your tracks to different formats. MP3Producer works in the same way as most converters, in that you select your audio files from a CD or from a folder and then select the new format and bitrate. MP3Producer converts your files fairly quickly and can handle more than one track simultaneously.

MP3Producer’s interface is divided into two windows, making it easily understandable. The left side is composed of four tabs: Track List, ID3 Tag, Filename and MP3 Settings. Depending on the tab you have selected MP3Producer will provide explanations on the right side to help you go through the conversion process. The application also offers more flexibility than other audio converters by allowing you to select a segment of a track to be modified.

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AOL goes fishing for new users

Forget the search data spill, which gave away the browsing habits of nearly 65,000 users in August. AOL is trying to woo users by offering its online services for free. This means you get access to AOL video, a free email account, more than 200 internet radio stations and use of AOL’s security tools. Those of you that already use AOL Explorer, AOL Media Player, or Triton and trust the AOL platform will be glad to see the company making some effort.

Jeffrey Bewkes, chief operating officer of Time Warner, is optimistic and believes that going free has also brought new types of people to AOL. He revealed that “40 percent of new users were not former subscribers” but still hoped that old users who had gone off to other internet providers would be encouraged to “come back and reclaim old email addresses”. After what happened in August, I doubt ex-customers will confidently flock back to AOL though.

Become Google Earth-conscious

The latest Beta version of Google’s digital imagery app, available for PC and Mac, offers notable improvements, among which exciting support for HDTV, to record your “Earth fly-overs”, in case that’s how you get your kicks. Car owners, you won’t fumble for the next page of driving directions just as you come across an intersection anymore. In this new version of Google Earth you can print out your directions in a turn by turn layout. But the real improvement comes in the form of various overlays to add to the Google Earth experience. Whether you’re environmentally-conscious or a real traveler you’ll take a real liking to these.

Thanks to the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), and in a real effort of raising public awareness, “extreme environmental degradation” zones around the globe have been mapped out. I checked out a digital imagery comparison of Mexico City from 1973 to 1999. It’s impressive to see how much the city has sprawled out. The Discovery Networks World Tour is great for getting information on your future travel destinations. I watched videos on the Amalfi Coast in Italy and jotted down a few places that I might check out. National Park Service information is particularly useful if you decide to go trekking, say in Yosemite National Park and want to find out what trails you can take. The Jane Goodall Institute overlay will probably attract wildlife lovers. It picks out chimpanzee preserves around the world. If you’re just curious in general, the National Geographic overlay should satisfy your curiosity with hundreds of locations and landmarks pinpointed on the globe. But my favorite function is the Turn Here overlay because you can view short videos of cool spots in many cities. Anybody can submit a video to Google Earth thus sharing what’s cool with the rest of the world.

New features in iTunes 7

At its September 12 media event, Apple introduced new iPods, its future iTV release and a shiny new iTunes 7. According to some, this announcement was altogether disappointing and a sign of slowing down in Apple’s spectacular growth. We still couldn’t help getting all excited about the new version of iTunes, and here a few of its features.

The interface has been polished and, apart from the logo having swapped green for blue, there are plenty of cosmetic and under-the-hood tweaks. When you’re playing music, you get to choose between three different views: the classic list, Grouped Artwork view (a list revealing all album covers) and the cool CoverFlow view, great for skimming through your albums. The iTunes Store has lost the Music label because, true innovation, it will now offer movies and games for your iPod on sale. You also get a download manager, where you can organize the podcasts, audiobooks, movies and albums you download.

But the real buzz is in iTunes’ simplified iPod music management. It is now much simpler to organize the media on your portable MP3 player and you can sync your files downloaded from the iTunes store from one PC to another. Personally I like the restructuring of the player and the download manager works great when you’re getting loads of podcasts. I was disappointed when I realized though that CoverFlow doesn’t work with podcasts, even if you have the artwork. A great improvement is the chance to snatch artwork from the store, so no more endless hours spent on Amazon looking for all my album sleeves. iTunes 7 is getting better and I can’t really see any other media player/manager getting close to it.