Free Software Central – Free Software Downloads

Is your iTunes library a mess? Do you have badly or mislabeled tracks? Rewriting tags yourself can take forever, so TuneUp Companion has been created to help you out.

TuneUp Companion sits next to your iTunes window, and has four functions. First is ‘Clean’, which searches for possible fits to your mislabeled tracks, and then automatically changes the file’s tag. You can also search for cover art in the same way. Drag any album missing artwork into the TuneUp Companion box, and it will find suitable matches, then update your files. If you like the ‘cover flow’ feature on iTunes, this is a great way to make it look good.

‘Now Playing’ finds YouTube videos, Amazon recommendations, Google news and ticket information relating to the music you’re listening to. ‘Concerts’ will list any performances in your area.

TuneUp Companion allows you to clean 500 songs and find 50 album covers, so once you’ve used them up you have to subscribe to do more. The unlimited ‘Now Playing’ and ‘Concerts’ functions might be useful to you, and the YouTube videos are a nice touch.

TuneUp Companion is a nice idea, although the subscription is not cheap for a service you might not need a great deal. I found the program to be a little slow and clunky, and unfortunately its design doesn’t fit that well with iTunes.

If you have lots of files in your iTunes library that need organizing, TuneUp Companion is for you. However, the other features don’t make this a program you’ll want to run all the time, as it is a little ugly and sometimes slow.

Download TuneUp Companion 1.59 in Softonic

Kindle for Mac is a free app you lets you read ebooks on your computer and is designed to sync with your Kindle device, so if you’re reading an ebook on your Mac, you can pick right up where you left off when you’re reading from your Kindle on the train.
Kindle for [...]

If you’ve got more than one Gmail account and can’t keep up with each one individually, then Notify is a handy menu bar extension.

Notify allows you to keep track of several accounts at once within an elegant tabbed user interface. Notify allows easy access of your mail accounts – in a single click of the account you will be taken straight to your inbox. It is limited to four accounts although this should be enough for most people. Each account can be manged using the ‘tabs on top’ interface and you’ll receive a Growl alert for newly received mail.

However, the typical problem remains with Notify that is common too many such Gmail apps. When you click on more than one account, Gmail will only allow you to view the inbox of one account at a time. There’s nothing more annoying than going to check your mail and then getting automatically logged-out because you have another Gmail account open.

To prevent this, it would be better if Notify displayed more than just a preview of messages – it would be handy if you could see mail in more detail in each tab and even compose and reply to messages in the tabs.

Overall though, if you’re a big Gmail fan and only have one account, Notify is a much quicker way of keeping tabs of your mail.

Download Notify 1.0.5 in Softonic

Imagine being able to access your iTunes music collection from wherever you are in the world. It may sound impossible and complicated but it’s not with pulpTunes.

pulpTunes works by providing a web server through which you can access all of your music. pulpTunes supports MP3 and AAC (M4A) files and allows you to either stream them onto your computer or download them. It will even display cover art if you’ve got any linked to your albums. In addition, you can even generate links to your collection that you can then forward onto friends so that they can share specific tracks any time.

Unfortunately pulpTunes does require some router configuration knowledge. You need to be able to open a port in order for pulpTunes to allow others to access your collection directly. In my case this was port 5000. You’re then given an IP address which others can then enter into their browser to access the music on your computer.

Obviously, you don’t want the whole world being able to access your music which is why pulpTunes allows you to configure a username and password to limit access to your collection. You can create user groups for different levels of access or just allow full access to your collection.

The effectiveness of pulpTunes is limited somewhat by your connection speed. However, even those on slow connections can enjoy it because there is a buffer level adjustment bar that allows you to increase buffering for slow connections so that your music doesn’t get interrupted.

For a free application, pulpTunes is a brilliant and simple solution to those that need to take their music wherever they go.

Download pulpTunes 1.1.2 in Softonic

What better way to spice up your video chats than with a couple of effects? This is where a program like CamTwist comes into play.

The sofware package offers all sorts of original effects to add live to your webcam videos. It is a little difficult to set up, but once installed works with most video chat services like Skype, Yahoo! Messenger or uStream. However it won’t work with Apple’s very own iChat service.

CamTwist includes a Studio section, which will allow you to do a bit of live mixing, like adding overlays, switching cameras, or creating a live slideshow. This coupled with the effects on hand let you really get creative, without having to dish out a single penny, simply because CamTwist is completely free. If you like tweaking around with your Mac, you’ll also be glad to know that CamTwist offers AppleScript support, which opens the application up to all sorts of customizations.

Despite being a little difficult to set up and lacking iChat support, CamTwist is a very good free tool to add fun effects to your video chats.

Download CamTwist 2.1 in Softonic

Since Google Reader came along, choosing which app to use to handle my RSS feeds has been a no brainer.

RSSOwl is however a very decent offering which I’d consider using if it Google hadn’t trumped the market. RSSOwl is all about organization – organizing your RSS feeds so that they’re easy to read manage and access. Although Google Reader now offers offline reading via Google Apps, RSSOwl has long allowed it’s users to read feeds offline. In addition, it’s a great solution for those that use both Macs and PC’s as it works across platforms.

The latest version of it incorporates many new important features that enhance it such as a full screen mode, support for searches and improved notifier and multi-tabbed browsing. You can now add a password to your feeds although this is hardly the most essential thing you need in an RSS reader. The overall look of RSSOwl is very basic but it keeps things simple in order to make feeds easy to find and navigate.

I still won’t be changing to RSSOwl but as a lightweight cross platform solution, it’s a very well developed RSS reader.

Download RSSOwl 2.0 RC1 in Softonic

Mercury Messenger, also known as MM or dMSN, is a free alternative to MSN Messenger offering almost all the same features.

The IM client allows you to connect to your live or hotmail account and chat with your contacts. You can organize them by groups, use emoticons, send files and activate your webcam during chats. The interface itself is highly similar to that of MSN Messenger albeit a much less attractive one. I found that the different elements are placed a little clumsily here and there, making Mercury Messenger slightly unintuitive. Luckily the interface is interchangeable so if you find a good skin you can use that instead.

A big difference with MSN Messenger is RSS support. Mercury allows you to add and preview RSS feeds. I was a little skeptic of the idea at first, as I much prefer previewing RSS feeds on a whole screen, however I found it very similar to feed reading on a mobile device, which works in some way. Mercury Messenger has a tabbed interface which allows you to open and work with multiple accounts. Beware that having too many open simply ends up confusing though.

Although missing the most recent features of MSN Messengers and despite a weaker interface, Mercury Messenger is a good alternative with RSS and multiple account support.

Download Mercury Messenger 1.9.5 in Softonic

Valve software’s Portal is one of the most influential and enigmatic titles of the last decade, and ASCIIpOrtal is a retro style game that takes it as a major influence.

The basis of both games is the same. For an unexplained reason, you find yourself in a strange environment, with only a sarcastic robot directing you, and a portal gun, which allows you to shoot two portals at walls. These portals are connected, so when you enter one, you will exit where the second is placed.

This makes for some fascinating puzzles, which require you to learn a new way of thinking about movement – the portal way, or in this case, the ASCIIpOrtal way! This ASCII based action puzzler is really well done, with atmospheric sound effects and music. The robot voice, that both instructs you and makes sardonic remarks about you is also good – the speech is written in text, but accompanied by a spooky voice like sound effect.

There’s tons of game here, it’s tough and long. There’s a level editor, and you can download user created maps too. The keyboard controls are easy to learn, although movement in the game is so basic it feels strange in 2009! If you’re looking for fast paced high definition gaming, this is not it. There is no reason for a game like ASCIIpOrtal to exist today, and it only does so because some people will enjoy the retro aesthetic.

If you’re a retro gamer, this is one of the best releases this year. Other gamers might wonder why anyone would play such an archaic looking game!

Download ASCIIpOrtal in Softonic

Mac users are often said to be the most loyal customers in the computer market, but that’s because they have very good reasons, such as iTunes, to stick to Apple products.

iTunes has become one of the most widely spread music managers today. The release of the iPhone and the new iPod models has only contributed to increase this popularity, thanks to the seamless synchronization of contents between the computer and your device.

Now with iTunes 9, Apple continues to develop and improve this music software masterpiece with fresh new features that enable users to make the most of their multimedia library.

Managing your iTunes library is a piece of cake. You can view extended information about each track, edit their tags and rate them. Also, iTunes lets you comfortably browse through your library with the amazing Cover Flow system or the newly implemented grid view, which displays cover artwork sorted by album, artist, genre or composer. And for those of you who work in a LAN environment, the great news is that you can share your music libraries with your network mates. If your family at home all have iTunes, you can activate Home Sharing, which allows you to combine your libraries, and keep them all up to date with new purchases and added music.

One thing I particularly like of iTunes as music manager is its ability to create playlists. The Smart Playlist tool enables you to create almost any kind of playlist based on just about any criteria you set: artist, genre, date added, star rating or even the number of times you’ve played each song. Another great playlist is the so called Party Shuffle, which comes in very handy when you invite some friends over to your place. You can then leave iTunes working as a DJ and play music on its own, but if you drop by the PC at any time, you can freely add more songs to the list or rearrange them in any way.

Regarding playlists, iTunes 8 includes now an exciting new feature called Genius. Just like other popular music sharing tools, Genius learns from the tracks you play on iTunes and recommends you similar songs, either from your own library or from the iTunes Store. In this way you can easily build thematic playlists by grouping similar songs, and also meet new bands you may not know about. The only drawback is that Genius needs to gather information about your music library and send it over to Apple in order to work, something that privacy freaks won’t be happy about.

If you have multiple computers in your house, you can turn on
However, if there’s something where iTunes is not perfect yet, that’s the player function. You may disagree here, but I think the iTunes player falls too short, especially when compared to its music manager side. It does have some interesting features, like the Smart shuffle function and crossfading playback, but I still find it too simple. I also missed the ability to control the player from anywhere with global hotkeys, which is great if you listen to music while you’re working on the PC with other apps. Fortunately there are some plug-ins that cover this need.

In all, despite these slight flaws, iTunes is probably the best choice to manage your music collection on your Mac.

Download iTunes 9.0.1 in Softonic

It’s finally here – Picasa has arrived for Mac and about time too. From this day forth, you can do away with iPhoto and its flimsy Picasa uploader extension and do it all from Google’s glorious photo app.

All the accolades that apply to the Windows version apply to Picasa for Mac except of course, Picasa for Mac has all the polish and classy touches you’d expect from a Mac interface. Once you open Picasa, it will perform a full scan of images on your Mac which it then loads into the viewer quickly and efficiently. All images are instantly organised in chronological order.

Everything that’s included in the Windows version is here including simple editing functions, slide shows, and online photo and video publishing as long as you have a Google account (and if you haven’t got one by now, where have you been for the past 5 years!?).

Slick, polished, quick, logical and easy to use, Picasa makes viewing and publishing photos and videos a dream – I’ll never go back to iPhoto again.

Download Picasa 3.5 in Softonic

We’ve all come across problems playing media for one reason or another. Thankfully, the open source community came up with a solution in the form of VideoLAN VLC Media Player.

Version 1.0.0 (codenamed ‘Goldeneye’) doesn’t actually look that much different from previous versions of VLC but it does introduce many new features, formats and codecs to the VLC multimedia framework. It also fixes several major bugs that were in earlier versions.

Firstly, don’t be fooled by appearances. VLC Media Player may look basic, but it’s this simplicity and power to play anything that makes VLC Media Player so good. This includes downloading streams from the web. Indeed, I’ve often found that where other media players have failed, VLC Media Player has always allowed me to stream content quickly and reliably. This is because VLC Media Player is so lightweight and doesn’t spend as much time processing images as some players do. If you want to stream your own audio or video, there’s also a useful streaming wizard to help get you going.

If VLC Player doesn’t recognize the file type it will often try playing it anyway and will display the scrambled video in its raw form. As regards control, VLC Media Player offers superb hotkey support allowing you to define a key to do anything from taking video snapshots to skipping tracks. It features subtitle support for all major subtitle formats and even allows you to switch languages in the click of a button.

There’s very little to fault with VLC Media Player. It’s a superb lightweight media player that will successfully play the most stubborn files where other players fail.

Download VLC Media Player 1.0.2 in Softonic

Imagine if you could open different applications in different languages. Normally this requires reinstalling OS X in another language but not so with Language Switcher.

Language Switcher allows you to choose different languages for different applications. So for example, if you want Adium to open in French, and Address Book to open in German, no problem. If a program is available in multiple languages, chances are that Language Switcher can change the language of it.

Language Switcher uses a Dock-style interface that allows you to scroll through applications, see exactly how many languages each is available in, and select the language from the drop-down menu. That’s all there is to the interface except for a search box that allows you to search through applications. The only problem is that you have to launch the applications from the Language Switcher interface to see them in the language of your choice – you can’t launch them directly from the Dock.

The practical use of Language Switcher is questionable because having applications in different languages isn’t really useful. However, if you are studying a language or prefer using an application in a certain language, Language Switcher is an excellent solution.

Download Language Switcher 1.1.1 in Softonic

If you’re a programmer then you need a good installer to deliver your applications to the World.

BitRock InstallBuilder tries to make that as easy as possible. It is a tool for creating cross-platform installers for both desktop and server software. BitRock InstallBuilder allows you to create installers for Linux, Windows, OS X, and even Solaris. Even better, it allows you to create an updater which automatically installs updates every time you issue one for your program.

BitRock InstallBuilder is also flexible when it comes to languages – Java, PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, C/C++ and .NET/Mono are all supported, but this doesn’t mean having to rely on a slow Java installer. You can also choose whether you want your installers to run in GUI, text, or unattended modes. You’ll need to be a fairly seasoned programmer to use it, however – BitRock InstallBuilder isn’t particularly suitable for beginners courtesy of the fact that it takes ages to understand how to compact a package.

BitRock InstallBuilder is a flexible and powerful cross platform installer that ensures your programs have the greatest chance of reaching their audience.

Download BitRock InstallBuilder 6.2.2 in Softonic

Download Photo to Movie 4.2.5 in Softonic

Coming from the highly creative people at Plasq, Skitch is an innovative screen capture and image sharing program. The canvas like interface can be moved around anywhere on your screen and becomes a great focal point for working on images.

Skitch lets you take snapshots of your screen, mostly with the crosshairs, which make for the simples way of capturing exactly what you want. However you take also take videos using your iSight camera.

Although the editing tools in Skitch are fairly limited (you won’t find a wide choice of pens and brushes) they’re fun to work with. You can apply the typical text, paint, lines, shapes and arrows in any color. The size tool is a little imprecise though.

When you install Skitch you are also given a Skitch account. Now this comes to be very handy once you decide to share your pictures with others. Just click the little “webpost” button on the bottom right to upload them.

Although fairly basic, Skitch makes for an innovative screen capture and image sharing program.

Download Skitch 1.0 b8.3 in Softonic