iPhone: Ever thought about using your iPhone as a musical instrument? Well, now you can thanks to MiniPiano. The app includes just one octave of a keyboard, which you can play simply by touching the keys on the screen. The keys have been gorgeously recreated and the full-screen keyboard is very easy to play (in the sense that the keys are touch-friendly, not that it will make you sound like Beethoven).

Mac: Tools like iPhoto and Picasa have their place but they are somewhat bloated, and can slow down your viewing experience. CocoaSlideShow is a simple, free and fast program for viewing your photos on Mac. Simply fire it up, enter a time interval you want between each slide and sit back to enjoy your photos. You can watch slideshows in full screen and also edit EXIF and IPTC metadata.

Windows: Armalyte is a great update of an old Commodore 64 shoot ‘em up. Sideways scrolling through space, facing an onslaught of enemy wave, punctuated by boss fights. It’s been done hundreds of times before, but Armalyte is a particularly good example of the genre. May make older gamers seriously nostalgic!

Windows: Are you a Firefox user? If so, you’ll be happy to know your favorite browser has been updated. Firefox 3.5 includes exciting new features such as a private browsing mode, an enhanced Awesome bar, better support for embedded videos, more powerful tools to manage your browsing history and a new engine that makes websites load even faster.

Symbian: There are plenty of applications for taking screen captures on your PC, but what happens if you want to grab an image of your phone’s displa? Well, grab a copy Best Screen Snap and your problems will be solved. Best Screen Snap is specifically designed to take screenshots of applications installed on your phone, which you can then send to your PC.

Mac: Ask anyone who’s used a Mac for a long period of time and they’ll tell you that Cocktail (now updated to version 4.4)  still remains one of the best all round admin tools out there. Cocktail can do all your essential maintenance tasks from clearing your cache to controlling sleep times. There’s nothing new in Cocktail that you can’t do in Terminal but Cocktail makes it so much easier through its GUI.

iPhone: If you’re a fan of console soccer games and have been waiting for a decent one to come to iPhone then get straight to the App Store because X2 Football 2009 is here. This excellent football game looks and plays a lot like Pro Evolution Soccer and FIFA. It contains loads of international teams, all with real players, and a control system that is as intuitive as a console.

Windows:  Being safe online requires a few different applications: anti-virus, firewall, email filter and more. But you can also have them all together in a single app with Norton 360. This comprehensive security suite protects youfrom any possible online threats, while keeping your system fully optimized and your data safe thanks to automatic backup copies.

Mac: Fed up of trying to bring all your video content together? Miro (formerly known as Democracy Player and now updated to version 2.0.5) is one of the best internet TV apps out there aggregating content from Hulu to YouTube. Miro means you don’t have to visit separate sites to keep-up with your favorite content.

Firefox 3.5 finally released [Softonic review]

China delays launch of new Internet censorship program [Guardian]

Firefox and other apps possible on Android [Read Write Web]

China (again!) bans ‘gold farming’ sweatshops [Information Week]

Pirate Bay changes hands [TorrentFreak]

Microsoft to charge more for Windows 7 in Europe [ComputerWorld]

Mac: As the popularity of the Mac platform increases, so too does the risk of malicious attacks. Doorstop X offers a reliable solution, providing an extra layer of protection for your Mac. The firewall has been specifically designed with Leopard users in mind, and features an easy-to-use interface, which displays security information and settings in a series of window panes.

iPhone: TweetDeck is one of the most popular desktop Twitter clients out there - and at long last an iPhone version of the app has arrived. It hasn’t half bad either. TweetDeck for iPhone displays everything that’s going on on Twitter in a highly organized way. As with the PC and Mac versions, TweetDeck for iPhone uses a system of columns to make it easy for you to track who’s doing what.

Windows: Singing along to your favorite bands is fun, provided you know the lyrics. And if you don’t, let LyricsFetcher do the hard work for you. This app scans your music library in iTunes or Windows Media Player, finds the lyrics to all your songs in the blink of an eye, and pastes the information directly into the files’s ID tags.

Symbian: Whatever you think of the limited overs format, I defy you not to enjoy Cricket 20-20, one of the slickest mobile simulations of the sport I’ve ever seen. Cricket 20-20 allows you to play one-off limited overs matches and 20-20 tournaments. You can choose to play as any of the so-called ‘test playing’ international teams, and have total control over batting, bowling, and fielding.

Mac: The DivX Corporation was the pioneer of DivX and has always produced sleek and effective video players. DivX Web Player lets you watch DivX videos directly in your web browser without resorting to the standalone player. DivX Web Player allows you to play videos in full screen with navigation controls, or in a separate window so you can continue browsing other sites without losing the video.

Windows: If laziness is the only reason why don’t back up, here’s a way to avoid it: install PureSync and you’ll be able to create backup copies of your important data and sync content between different folders in a snap. You can manage multiple syncing tasks and schedule them to work automatically, according to a specific period of time.

BlackBerry: Not all of us have the memory of an elephant, and if you’re the kind of person who always forgets what you should be doing or where you’re supposed to be going then it’s high time you did something about it. Evernote is an application and web service that lets you capture, store and synchronize all manner of information on your BlackBerry, PC and online, all at the same time.

Mac: If you’re a fan of stunt car games then Crash3D widget provides a good fix of dare-devil fun directly on your Dashboard. Crash3D sees you take control of a stunt car as you race around a desert landscape hitting as many ramps and loop-the-loops as possible in an attempt to get your name on the high score table. You can play just for fun, or compete with players across the net and it’s 100% free.

Windows: As we reported yesterday, Opera’s latest build features Unite, a new technology that lets you turn your browser into a content server, sharing whichever files you like with other clients. Designed so that even novice users can enjoy it, Opera beta build 10.0.1589 has been the buzz of the week on software blogs. Give it a spin today!

Pocket PC: Generally speaking, tennis sims for mobile devices are pretty lame. Fiddly controls and jerky animation are often the main culprits in the failings of these titles. Not so in VT Pocket Tennis though, which proves to be one the most enjoyable games of its kind on the Pocket PC. It has a wonderfully realistic feel to it, with well-rendered 3D players, authentic shadow effects and motion blur.

Mac: If you’ve gone crazy for the iPhone then why not bring the iPhone look to your Mac? Spiffy Icon Pack provides over 50 iPhone style icons that give your Mac a unique flavor. All of the icons are beautifully illustrated featuring most major Mac program icons including Adobe Dreamweaver, Excel, iChat, iDVD, iTunes and Skype to name just a few.

Windows: After a short invite-only beta stage, Trillian has now launched as an open beta, which means you can freely download this powerful, sleek multi-platform IM client and give it a try. The new Trillian Astra Beta 4.0.0.109 features support for a dozen IM protocols and has an extensive settings menu to fully customize it.

Windows: are you tired of always listening to the same MP3 libraries and local radio stations? Then give Internet radio a try! RadioSure is a lightweight yet powerful online radio player that lets you listen to thousands of free online radio stations worldwide. Plus it lets you add your own radio stations and record streaming music to your hard drive in MP3 format.

BlackBerry: If you ever wished you were around when the industrial revolution kicked off, then Sid Meier’s Railroad Tycoon will give you the chance to revisit history. This BlackBerry version of the popular PC-based Railroad Tycoon game allows you to build your very own transportation empire. Your aim is to master supply and demand and use your tactical know-how to expand your rail network.

Mac: There aren’t half as many video conversion tools available for Mac as there are for Windows, so when one comes along which is quick, easy to use and most importantly, completely free, you take note. Evom ticks all of the above boxes and will even upload your conversions directly to YouTube. Everything is clearly presented, it handles all major formats and using Evom is a breeze.

One of the worst nightmares I’ve had lately is about my precious Android-powered phone being stolen. It would be a complete disaster, no only because of the money value, but also because of all my personal information stored in that small device. So I started looking for a way to protect my HTC Magic in case it got stolen, and finally found this application in the Android Market: SimChecker.

With SimChecker you can configure your phone to send the coordinates for its current location, both by GPS and WiFi network positioning, as soon as the device detects a new, unknown SIM card. The coordinates can be sent either by text message to another phone number, or by e-mail to a predefined address. You can also check both options to be on the safe side.

In this way, as soon as somebody else tries to use your phone with a different SIM card, you’ll get an immediate report about its location. What’s more, if you enable text message alerts, you’ll also get the actual phone number that SIM card is linked to, which may help you trace the phone back to the person who has it now. Another feature I’d like to see would be the possibility to automatically erase all your personal data from the phone in case it’s stolen, but SimChecker doesn’t include it - yet.

In any case, remember that the best way to keep your phone safe is taking proper care of it: don’t leave it lying around, always use a blocking code and jot down the IMEI code in case you need to block it.

Windows: Looking for a nice, clean RSS reader to check your favorite news every morning? ShareFire may be the program you need. This sleek AIR-based app lets you access your RSS feeds in a comfortable interface, organize them by folders, see the selected item on its original website and easily share the most interesting posts in Facebook, Delicious, MySpace, Digg, Twitter and more.

Symbian: Living in a castle is great but it does have its downsides. One of the main ones being that you’re prone to attacks by invaders who want to get into your castle, as you’ll witness in Defender. An interesting mobile strategy game, Defender charges you with the task of defending your citadel from waves of attacks by nasty monsters.

Mac: Sick of Internet Explorer and tired of Firefox? Safari is Apple’s iconic browser, and as you’d expect, it’s a delight to use and easy on the eye. Version 4 (now out of beta) sees some exciting introductions such as Top Pages to instantly see your most visited pages, tabs on top for easier management and Cover Flow to flip through your bookmarked sites iTunes style.

Windows: After a few months in alpha stage, Opera 10 has finally reached the beta milestone in its development. The new Opera 10 Beta web browser has a 40% faster engine and flawless support for Web standards, as well as a customizable speed dial, inline spell-check, automated crash reporting, and the so called Opera Turbo for fast browsing on slow connections.

Mac: If you don’t trust Keychain on the Mac, then take a look at the newly updated 1Password. This tiny but powerful application allows you to store and manage multiple identities and passwords for use in all sorts of programs, websites or browsers. 1Password works with most major browsers and includes an extension to quickly access your credentials while you’re surfing the net.

iPhone: Personally, whenever I go to a theme park I’m usually the one who volunteers to stay at the bottom and look after the bags. I did manage to pluck up the courage to install Rollercoaster Rush on my iPhone though. The aim of the game is to get your carriage from the start of the track to the finish without derailing it. Your only means of doing this is by tapping the right side of the iPhone to accelerate and the left side to brake.

I’m more than a little excited about the launch of the Palm Pre this weekend. However, I’ve just watched the commercial for the new wonder phone and it’s almost made me not want to buy the device on principle. It’s got to be one of the corniest ads I’ve ever seen - it says nothing of the benefits of the Palm Pre and looks more like a shampoo advert than a pitch for a piece of cutting-edge technology. Then I started thinking though, that this isn’t the first awful commercial for a tech product. In fact, there’s been some real doozies throughout history, and many that were far worse than the wishy washy Palm Pre spot. Here are some of the worst:

10.  Pole Position - I suspect Atari’s ad for its cutting edge racer from 1982 was a designed to be a little tongue-in-cheek. But it took some guts for them to mix in-game footage with shots of a family racing around a go-kart track. See if you can spot which is real and which is computerized:

9. X-Box 360 Rock Band 2 - Truly one of the strangest adverts I’ve ever seen, I’m not sure what the thinking was behind this one. We see a shot of a woman with a moronic grin spread across her face then the camera pans around to reveal the back of her head has been hollowed out and a band is playing rock in her brain. Very weird. See it (and loads more) after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »

BlackBerry: If you like puzzle games and own a BlackBerry then be sure to try out Crazysoft Paintball II. Your goal is to join three or more balls of the same colour and ensure they are next to a pipe. Once in place, you select them then splat them with paint using the action key. The balls will then change colour and get sucked into the pipe, leaving more space on the board for you to make your next batch.

Windows: If you’d like to use the extensive iTunes library on your home PC while you’re somewhere else, you can either carry your entire music collection with you or simply use pulpTunes. This easy tool lets you remotely access your iTunes library via a web browser, and listen to your favorite music wherever you are.

Mac: With broadband speeds and processing power increasing all the time, desktop sharing is becoming an increasingly competitive area in the software field. Mikogo has been available on Windows for well over a year but only now has it finally been released for Mac. It’s a free, simple and extremely easy to use application that allows you to switch from host to presenter in a click.

iTunes 8.2 released [Softonic]

China blocks access to Twitter and Flickr [Blog Herald]

Acer Android netbooks coming this autumn [BetaNews]

Nokia N97 on sale worldwide this month [Nokia Conversations]

Google working on ‘Wave’ communications tool [Google]