Windows: Do you need to convert any audio or video file? Oxelon Media Converter is the perfect tool for the task. This simple app can convert multiple media files simultaneously, and it works surprisingly fast! Oxelon Media Converter supports dozens of formats and is perfectly embedded with Windows Explorer, which enables you to convert files with one click.

iPhone: Halloween is upon us once again, but if you haven’t got the money or the inclination to go trick or treating this year then check out Spooky Photo Free. This app allows you to make scary scenes out of your photographs. For example, you could put a zombie into a wedding picture, make bats appear in the sky above your house, or add a menacing pumpkin head onto an image of your dog.

Mac: Keychain on Mac does a pretty good job of managing passwords but once you’ve tried 1Password you’ll probably never look back. If you’re tired of making up passwords to access sites or worried that your passwords are not secure enough, it really is invaluable. 1Password creates strong, unique passwords for you, then remembers and restores them all within your web browser.

Windows: The quintessential optimization suite for Windows is back! The all-new TuneUp Utilities 2010 has a new redesigned interface and a bunch of new features and improvements that make it even better: Turbo mode, Live optimization, TuneUp desktop gadget, Optimization report and support for Windows 7 in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

iPhone: Aside from a jellyfish attack or a sudden downpour, another guaranteed thing to a ruin a day at the beach is an attack by the entire Japanese Imperial Navy. Blood Beach puts you in the unenviable position of a soldier who must take down the entire Japanese WWII fleet alone. You’re holed up on a thin stretch of beach in the Solomon Islands and must take down the waves of planes, boats and foot soldiers landing on the beach.

Mac: Renaming huge numbers of files can be a real pain, especially when you only need to make a few minor changes. Renamer (formerly known as Renamer4Mac) makes it easy to rename a huge number of files at once, in several different ways. One possibility is to search and replace certain components or words, much like using a word processor. Alternatively, you can simply insert or copy over a chunk of text to multiple files.

Windows: The most annoying part of getting a new computer is backing up and import browser bookmarks, but now there’s a tool that can make the task much easier! Recently updated FavBackup 2.0.0 backs up and imports bookmarks and user preferences in the most popular web browsers. The new version features a ribbon-style interface, support multiple profiles and consumes less RAM memory.

Mac: Do you hate watching dubbed movies? Prefer to enjoy films in original language with subtitles? Then install Submerge, which does a great job at merging subtitle files with your movies. It handles most of the subtitle formats, like SubRip or MicroDVD and automatically syncs them to your videos, with very little work on your part.

iPhone: Facebook has grown very quickly to become one of the most popular sites on the Web. Now you can access the service from your Apple mobile thanks to Facebook for iPhone. Adding pictures, comments and mood states can all be done easily through Facebook for iPhone. The application provides four different views of your essential data, namely: your own profile, your friends, recent changes in friends’ status and recently received messages.

Windows: Do you like Skype? Then you’re going to love Skype Portable! This is a special version of the popular VoIP client that doesn’t require installation and can be taken anywhere on a USB pendrive. Skype Portable works just like its desktop brother, features great audio and video quality, and has everything you need to keep in touch with your beloved ones!

iPhone: It’s been a long time coming but iPhone gamers at last got a decent driving sim. Firemint Real Racing GTI is a Volkswagen-sponsored racing game which makes wonderful use of the iPhone’s hardware to deliver a high-octane, realistic driving experience. The control system is probably the most refined, yet simple you’ll find anywhere on the iPhone platform.

Mac: The ability to run Windows on Macs has massively increased the reach and popularity of Apple computers. But you need a virtual environment to do so and the choice usually comes down to either Parallels or VMware Fusion. For developers this ability is absolutely essential, allowing you to run Ubuntu, WinXP and now even Windows 7 (in fact this latest release 3.0 has been optimized for it) all at the same time.

iPhone: What do the three comedy greats Homer Simpson, Fred Flintstone and The Dude from The Big Lebowski have in common? The answer, of course, is that they all love bowling. Guys, if any of you are reading this and have an iPhone then make sure you check out iBowl. This game is perhaps the closest you’re going to get to bowling without actually getting out of the house and going to the lanes.

Windows: If you already have uTorrent as your favorite torrent client, wait until you see its portable version! uTorrent Portable features the same characteristics as its desktop counterpart (clean interface, fast connection, easy to use), only that it doesn’t require installation and you can take it anywhere with you on a USB memory device.

Mac: Grappling hooks have often played a big part in comic book fiction and games like Bionic Commando, but they have never caught on in real life. Grappling Hook is a novel 3D first person game where the excellent device is essential. It starts with little explanation, but a computer communicates to you along the way that you are in some kind of test, and all you have to do if find the right teleporter to finish.

Windows: It’s finally here. Windows 7 has hit shelves worldwide! Generally considered as the true heir to XP, Windows 7 brings many new features and enhancements to your computer that make it faster, more stable and easier to use. Take a look at our review and video, and follow our full coverage on the blog about Windows 7.

iPhone: Boulder Dash is one of the oldest franchises around, and surprisingly the basic format hasn’t changed for 25 years! Boulder Dash - ROCKS! is the latest addition to the family, this time on your iPhone. This Lite version only has 8 levels, but is fun never the less. You control Rockwell as always, and he’s trying to collect all the jewels he can find.

Mac: It’s no surprise then that Altitude has been developed by two self confessed nostalgics for the good old days of computer games when everything was so much simpler. Altitude is a beautifully put together shoot ‘em up where you take control of World War II biplanes and blow the enemy out of the skies. It’s a frenetic game with lots of levels and a breakneck pace.

Windows: Are you worried about spyware and rootkits entering your computer? Ad-Aware Free 8.1 is here to protect your system from unwanted malware. This new version features faster scans, improved detection technology, a community-based defense against the most recent online threats and a new Simple/Advanced interface to suit everyone’s tech skills.

iPhone: Tired of your old music collection? With Spotify (new version 0.3.20) you can have access to thousands of songs, bands and music styles anywhere, anytime. This awesome app streams high quality music to your computer for free, includes bio data about your favorite bands and lets you share playlists online with your friends.

Mac: If you’re looking for a twitter client with a distinctly Mac feel, then look no further than Tweetie (new version 1.2.4). Tweetie features a delicious interface and the overall presentation throughout is first class. All of Tweetie’s main functions can be found in the navigation bar along the left-hand side. This includes the search box, personal mail and a shortcut to your timeline.

iPhone: The default battery indicator on the iPhone looks pretty, but it doesn’t really give you much information other than a general idea of how much juice you have left. About Battery delivers a more powerful and advanced way of monitoring battery life on your iPhone. Rather than just give you an overview of the remaining power, the program breaks it down into calculations of the remaining time you have left for certain tasks.

Windows: There are a few apps to listen to music in streaming, but what if you’d like to buy or download a certain MP3 to your hard drive? With Songr you can search the Web for selected MP3 files and download or buy them from within the program in seconds! Songr uses ten different MP3 search engines and also lets you locate songs by their lyrics.

Mac: With so many mobile devices available nowadays, it’s handy to have some way of syncing your data across them all. doubleTwist is aimed at the media side of this issue, allowing you to synchronize video and music across portable devices, including mobile phones, smartphones, PDAs, PSP, cameras, and MP3 players. It’s ideal for syncing iTunes playlists across your mobile devices as well as many other media-syncing needs.

Windows: Some people need to be constantly twittering about what they do. If you’re among them, this extension is for you! The all new Echofon (previously known as Twitterfox) integrates perfectly in Firefox and lets you check your twitter, send messages and see what your followers are up to, all from within your favorite browser. The new version features a complete redesign and the same great functionality.

iPhone: If you’re a Photoshop addict then why not try out the new iPhone version of the app, Photoshop.com Mobile. It’s by no means a fully-featured editing suite, but what it does do is to allow you to quickly and easily tweak photos on the move, through an excellent interface based around touch gestures. It has some great sharing options, too.

Mac: Making backups should be an easy process, and SuperDuper! (new version 2.62) understands that perfectly. SuperDuper! creates perfect clones of your Mac volume so you have a full backup of all your data, including permissions, user profiles and private settings. SuperDuper! is incredibly easy to use: just select the drives to copy from and to and start backing up.

Windows: Are you the kind of person who has a shortcut-ridden Windows desktop? Then you need an app like Stardock Fences. This handy icon organizer creates customizable areas on your desktop to store and categorize folders, files and icons. The program just hit version 1.0, so it’s time for you to try it out!

Mac: CoverFlow is great for browsing and playing back music in iTunes, but CoverSutra might just change your musical habits. First of all, it serves as a player for your iTunes library, with your list appearing in a sleek dark interface and playback buttons present in a floating dark window. Secondly, every time you play a track from a new album, the cover will discreetly appear on your desktop, with its rating.

iPhone: Reckon you’ve got a steady hand? Well you’re about to find out if you install Marine Sharpshooter on your iPhone. This popular game sees you assume the role of a sniper who is part of an elite American military force. Your objective is to abate a global war of terror by going in behind enemy lines and taking down terrorists from a distance.

It’s been a long time coming, but finally there’s now a clutch of decent soccer games to choose from on the iPhone. I recently tested FIFA 10, which brings the realism of the console game to the small screen with some aplomb. The great thing about the title is undoubtedly its vast licensing agreements, meaning you can play as real players in real teams in real leagues across the World. There’s even a management option that lets you take command of a team and guide them to success.

While FIFA 10 has the plush presentation and full licenses, X2 Soccer 2009 has arguably the better gameplay. You could almost describe X2 as the Pro Evolution Soccer of the iPhone world. The game isn’t packaged quite as neatly but boy does it play well. The graphics and animation feel more fluid than FIFA, and the fact that there are three action buttons rather than two makes it feel like you have more control over the players. The sound effects and the commentary are also something to be admired in X2 Soccerl 2009. Read the rest of this entry »

Windows: If you need to edit several photos in a row, either you spend a long time with the PC working on each one of them, or you use Modi. This program lets you apply basic changes (rotate, resize, adjust levels, add frames, insert watermark and more) to multiple photos simultaneously, saving you time and work. There are 12 different filters to choose from, and you can even customize some of them.

Mac: PDFs are the best way to distribute documents on the Net, particularly if you’ve scanned one. It’s much better than sending a generic JPEG scan. PDF Studio is easy to use, yet powerful enough to allow you a whole host of editing options that enable you to annotate and edit documents. You can use it with existing PDF documents or directly using the tailor made scan-to-PDF feature

iPhone: iPhone users can relax - finally they don’t have to access the site through Safari any more, and can stay photo-connected with this official Flickr application. You can view your photostream, add comments, search for users and view your contacts. There’s a tab that gives you your recent activity and uploads on Flickr too. The app’s user interface is smooth, fast and intuitive.

Windows: Forget about spending two hours in front of your computer to rename a hundred files. Batch File Rename Utility can do the job for you in a much faster, more comfortable way. All you have to do is select the files and folders you want to rename, apply as many custom renaming rules as you need and you’re good to go!

iPhone: Looking at the screenshots you’re probably thinking that Parachute Panic Lite is an 11-year-old’s homework assignment. In actual fact, it’s an entertaining and engrossing iPhone game. The object of Parachute Panic Lite is to guide the falling stickmen parachutists onto the boats. You do this by tapping on them as they fall in order to open their chutes.

Mac: Not satisfied with your download manager? Then try Folx which can handle any file size and will download via HTTP, HTTPS and FTP. It supports auto-resuming and most importantly, offers high-speed downloads thanks to ‘multi-threading’, which seeks more than one source for a file. Even better though is that Folx allows you to manage torrents too.

iPhone: In my experience, if there’s anything worth than an invasion of aliens, it’s an invasion of paper aliens. And that’s exactly what happens in Inkvaders, an original and fun side-scrolling, Martian-blasting adventure game. The object of Inkvaders is to rid the World of aliens by blasting them with your gun. In order to help you, you also have a jet pack which lets you fly over the Martians.

Mac: 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. It allows easy access of your mail accounts - in a single click of the account you will be taken straight to your inbox and you’ll receive a Growl alert for newly received mail.

Windows: Massive graphic suites are not always the best option. Lighter, smaller image editors are the most adequate tool for quick image optimization and retouch. One of them is Paint.NET, a free photo editor with support for layers and a bunch of special filters and effects that includes all the key features you’ll need for quick image editing.

Windows: If you missed the opportunity to download Windows 7 RC, don’t worry: Microsoft has launched a 90-day trial version of Windows 7 Enterprise, a special version for IT professionals that you can also download and try out if you like. Hurry up because download is only available for a limited period of time!

Mac: Every productivity geek’s dream, Quicksilver (now updated to version 1.0 b56) has become one of the essential applications on Mac. For those of you not familiar with it, it’s an application that lets you reach any program, folder or file in a few keystrokes. You don’t have to go searching through your files and you don’t have to worry about how your folders are arranged.

iPhone: Skype for iPhone successfully carries the principles of quick and easy communication across from the desktop to the mobile, allowing users to make free or cheap calls anywhere in the World. You can use it to make free calls over Skype only over WiFi, and SkypeOut calls on 3G to cellphones and landlines using Skype.