Windows: After a few betas and release candidates, our favorite torrent client has finally made it. uTorrent 2.0 is now available for download with the same speed, ease of use and simple interface we’ve grown to love. The new version also features support for UDP tracker and a completely overhauled setup menu, among other new features.

iPhone: Want a Kindle but can’t afford one? Then try Stanza. It’s ebook reader and library for your iPhone, offering commercial titles, which can be bought through bookstores in the app, and free titles from providers like the Gutenberg project. This is a really good application. It’s well organized, easy to use and makes reading on the iPhone as comfortable as possible on such a small screen.

Mac: Imagine if you could access your iTunes collection from any Mac, anywhere in the world. MyTunesRSS allows you to do exactly this by accessing your iTunes folder over a local network or the internet. Initial setup involves setting up a server using the IP address of the computer that contains your music. Once connected, the user interface is like a stripped down version of iTunes showing you your tracks and categories.

Windows: With the All-in-One Sidebar extension you can access a bunch of tools and features in Firefox in a much easier, more comfortable way. This add-on displays your bookmarks, downloads, history, add-on updates and more on a handy, customizable sidebar. All the information you’re interested in, just a glance away!

iPhone: Tumblr is a great micro blogging service, where you can share all sorts of media, from text to quotes and audio and video. Now you can blog from your iPhone with this great Tumblr app. Pretty much everything you can do on the website you can do with this app, including adding text, video, photos and audio.

Mac: If you’re both a Firefox user and a soccer fan, then this plug-in combines the best of both worlds into a great little plug-in. Footiefox allows you to keep up with the latest results and scorelines without changing a page or even leaving your desktop. Once installed, the plug-in sits discreetly at the bottom of Firefox in the status bar. You can configure it to follow the games of your choice so you’ll always know the score.

It’s amazing how quickly Super Bowl Sunday seems to come around. This weekend sees the Colts take on the Saints in a game which could be one of the most exciting ever given the offensive nature of both teams. Super Bowl night is always special, but to make it even more enjoyable, why not grab a hold of some football apps for your iPhone? Here are some choices that will help make this Super Bowl Sunday the best ever, regardless of what happens in the match. Note that many of these apps are only available on the US App Store.

Experience the magic with Madden NFL 10

EA’s John Madden series is one of the longest running in the history of sports games. For seven dollars you can experience the thrills and spills of an NFL season on your iPhone. With great graphics and real teams, players and stadiums, this is the most realistic football game you’ll find. The in-depth gameplay includes almost 300 different plays, and an Action Time Control slo-mo mode to help you perfect the.

Get closer to the action with NFL 2010

Although it lacks the ability to trade players like you can do in Madden, Gameloft’s NFL 2010 is an altogether more polished game. The 3D graphics are slicker than those in Madden, and the fact that there are three difficulty levels means that it’s a lot tougher. It’s also pretty addictive, so make sure you keep NFL 2010 well away from you during the game, or you’ll end up missing the whole thing!

Order food with the Pizza Hut app

Pizza is a key ingredient in the recipe for a good Super Bowl Sunday. Don’t even think about getting up out of your chair to get one though. Just install the Pizza Hut app on your iPhone and you’ll be able to order food from your local Pizza Hut without even speaking to anyone! Choosing what to order is as simple as spinning a wheel and tapping the item you want.

Get some virtual booze down you with iBeer

Drinking beer on Super Bowl night is great fun. However, drinking a virtual beer from your iPhone will make you look cooler. So, grab hold of iBeer, tilt back your phone and watch as the succulent amber nectar froths and disappears slowly just like a real beer. There are five drinks to choose from, and you can refill your glass as many times as you like - all for just 99 cents. How many bars offer a promotion like that?

Learn your trivia with Super Bowl Winners

Now it’s time to bone up on your Super Bowl trivia. Install Super Bowl Winners, and you’ll have an at-a-glance reference to the outcome of every final, since Super Bowl I in 1967. Besides listing the winners, the app arms you with enough stats and data to be impressing your buddies all night with your “knowledge” of this great competition.

Scope out the teams with Pro Football Indianapolis/New Orleans Fan

The Colts and Saints versions of Pro Football’s series of fan apps for iPhone are perfect for brushing up on your knowledge of the finalists. They do cost two dollars a piece, but they provide so much information that they’re worth downloading even if you don’t support either team. You get all the latest news, player profiles, stadium plans, standings, plus detailed team histories.

Follow the action with Pro Football Live

Once all the hype is over and the game has started, you can follow all the action with Pro Football Live. The free app will provide live coverage of Super Bowl XLIV, offering end-zone to end-zone updates and impressive game time visuals. It’s packed with social networking elements too, so you can interact with other fans.

Listen live with ESPN Radio

Of course, you’ll almost certainly be watching the game on TV, but what happens if you need to go to the toilet or dash out for more popcorn? Well, just make sure you’ve got the ESPN Radio app installed and you won’t miss a second of the action. The station will be offering live commentary of the Colts v Saints, and the only costs three dollars then it’s yours forever.

Make some noise with Air Horn

The atmosphere is sure to be exciting in Miami come 7pm E.S.T. You can bring a taste of this excitement into to your home by installing Air Horn. Press down the horn and it will release a sound from your iPhone that’s just like the real thing. It’s guaranteed to provide endless amusement during the course of the game. Either that, or it will annoy the hell out of your buddies.

Make your point with 3D Foam Finger

If you forgot to buy the most crucial Super Bowl accessory of them all - the foam finger - then stop fretting because, naturally, there’s an app for that too. 3D Foam Finger places a giant hand on your screen which you can wave around to show your support. You can even change the color! It does cost 99 cents, but I guess you can’t put a price on fun.

Bored of your blog? All tweeted out? This week I’ve been having a second look at Tumblr, which sits somewhere between those two. When I first played with it over a year ago I wasn’t very excited. I don’t know what’s exactly happened since then, but Tumblr looks great now!

You’re not limited to 140 characters, but like Twitter the social aspects are central and built into Tumblr. Posts are split by category - text, photo, quote, link, chat, audio and video - and sharing any of these things is a breeze. The site gives you a Dashboard, which shows you a news stream of posts by you and the people you follow, like Twitter, but as it supports rich media, your Tumblr dashboard will be full of audio, video and images.

Go to the website to set up your account with an email address, and then off you go. The site looks good and is very usable, but even simpler is the Firefox add-on Tumblr Post. If you want to share something, simply drag it to the little icon in the status bar, and it will post on your Tumbleblog automatically! Until computers achieve sentience, I’m not sure blogging could be easier!

When away from your computer, that’s no excuse as there are Android and iPhone apps that allow you to blog just as easily on the move. The free iPhone app Tumblr is especially well designed, allowing you to record audio, photos and video on your phone and upload them, as well as use all the other Tumblr features.

While I love Twitter for keeping up with news, Tumblr seems much more fun. It doesn’t have the huge user base of Twitter but I’m sure it will grow as more people try it, as it’s so easy to get into. Come on, join in: Facebook and Twitter are so last decade!

iPhone: Guitar Hero and Rock Band are two of the most innovative console games of the last ten years. Now you can enjoy the wonders of virtual instruments on the go, by installing Rock Band on your iPhone. The Lite version lets you choose from four different instruments - bass, guitar, drums, and vocals - and all of them are excellently presented. From the animations above the game board to the vibrant neon colors, the graphics are almost worthy of a console - and the sound is superb too.

Windows:  Chrome users worldwide, rejoice! The latest stable version of Google’s web browser is already here. Google Chrome 4.0.249.78 includes a bunch of new features, such as enhanced developer tools, support for HTML5, performance improvements, full Acid3 pas and above all, support for extensions and bookmark syncing.

Mac: Mac fans have been able to try Google Chrome for themselves for quite some time now but this is the first unofficial portable version available that you can take anywhere. However, since it is still a beta version, Google Chrome Portable may be prone to bugs and instability but it’s enough to give you a good idea as to what the finished product will look and feel like. Note, it only works on Intel Macs.

Windows: Download managers may not be as necessary as they were in the modem era, but they’re undoubtedly a handy tool for download addicts. FlashGet proves to be one of the best download managers out there, with great features such as support for Torrent an eMule files, scheduled downloads, and clipboard and web browser monitoring, among others.

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. This latest update adds support for video playback.

Mac: kJams (formerly known as kTunes) can Rip, Mix, Play and Burn CD+G format discs in a very easy to use iTunes style interface. kJams allows you to create playlists, sort tracks by name, artist, album etc and much more. If you’ve already ripped some MP3+G files, kJams allows you to import them along with standard formats such as QuickTime, KAR, MIDI and Vorbis.

Today’s Symbian smartphones are more like digital swiss army knives. They arm you with tools for listening to music, browsing the web, watching videos, and managing your files. However, as you’ve probably noticed to your frustration before, not all Symbian phones support all formats. This means you can have all manner of problems opening multimedia, accessing web content, or viewing files you’ve transferred from your computer. Help is at hand though, and there are a few crucial add-ons you should download and install in order to improve your smartphone experience. Here’s a quick run-through of what you need.

Video

If you have downloaded movies in DivX format then you might be wondering how to watch them on your phone. The answer is simple: install DivX Player Mobile. The program lets you watch DivX, AVI or MPEG movies in the player window or in full-screen mode. Control elements such as Play, Pause, Stop, Fast Forward and Rewind, as well as the volume can be controlled easily via buttons.

Another very popular video add-on is SmartMovie. It’s getting a bit long in the tooth now, and the interface looks very dated. However, it’s perfect for cropping and shrinking movie files to be stored and played on your phone. It also helps you install codecs onto your device that let you play video files you wouldn’t otherwise be able to.

Nokia Video Converter is also a massively popular app, and is designed to take care of all your video conversion needs. The app is designed to convert movies from popular files formats and DVDs in just a few clicks, preserving picture and sound quality as best it can. The application’s interface is very clearly labeled with large buttons for adding video, adding DVD, playing, and converting.

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Windows: Firefox releases are something we always look forward to. The all new Firefox 3.6 brings a handful of new features and enhancements that will improve your user experience and web browsing: support for full screen HTML5 videos, better Javascript performance, the latest Gecko engine and seamless integration with Personas.

iPhone: Exchanging contact details with someone is a notoriously annoying process. It normally involves rummaging around for business cards or frantically trying to remember your own phone number. Thanks to Bump these days could soon be behind us. This innovative app (which, incidentally was the billionth app downloaded from the App Store) allows you to exchange contact information simply by bumping into another iPhone.

Mac: Virtual DJ is a complete music mixing application for your desktop, allowing you to dump your vinyl turntables for a laptop. Looking like a classic DJ set-up, with a mixer and two decks, Virtual DJ will be instantly accessible to DJs and newcomers alike. There’s a BPM counter to help you judge transitions between tracks, and the visual wave display also helps to cue up your music so that you sound like a pro.

Windows: Some years ago ICQ used to be the world’s most famous IM client… until MSN Messenger arrived. Today ICQ is still a popular app that keeps on launching new releases. The latest version, ICQ 7, features a redesigned interface with tabs, works faster, is lighter on system resources and supports integration with social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

iPhone: Touch DJ is the first serious mixing app for the iPhone. It makes excellent use of the touchscreen to create a DJ-ing tool unlike any other. As there is only one stereo output on the iPhone, Touch DJ uses a novel way of beat-matching called visual mixing. This means the wave display flashes in time to the bass drum when you’re playing a track, and using this you can alter the pitch so two tracks have the same pitch.

Mac: While most video recording tools are limited to the major video sites such as YouTube or DailyMotion, iTube Grabber promises to capture almost any audio and/or video stream. iTube Grabber also instantly converts from standard FLV formats used by sites such as YouTube to several formats of your choosing such as iPod, iPhone, MP4, MPEG and even Matroska.

If you made one of those ‘new year, new you’ resolutions and vowed to keep in shape in 2010, then the chances are that your appetite for exercise has already waned and you’re back on the chips again. Don’t lose hope though, because with a bit of help from your iPhone you can rejuvenate your fitness plan and have some fun too. I’ve picked out ten essential free apps for anyone who wants to lose that unsightly bulge that built up over the Holidays and won’t go away. Clicking any of the links will take you to that program on the App Store, via iTunes.

Watch what you eat with Lose it!

Counting calories is a classic weight loss tactic, but it only works if you’re vigilant. Lose It! makes it much easier to track exactly what’s going into your mouth. It allows you to set up a daily ‘calorie budget’ and then helps you to meet this by offering a tool that keeps count of the calories in everything you it. Simply select whatever you eat, from the extensive food database in the app, and Lose It! will keep a daily tally of your calorie intake.

Get trim and toned with Virtual Trainer

Unfortunately, diet alone isn’t going to make you fit, and you’ve got to put a bit of physical effort in too. Virtual Trainer is a great tool for getting into shape, be it general fitness, weight loss, or muscle development. The app comes with more than 120 fitness programs of between 6 and 60 minutes each. Each has its own detailed 3D video animation, along with detailed descriptions of what you should be doing.

Train like an athlete with NikeWomen Training Club

The NikeWomen Training Club app is a tool to accompany your training program on the site of the same name. It lets you create customized workouts and training drills to focus on five key fitness areas, namely: cardio, core, strength, balance, and flexibility. It contains instructional videos from professional trainers, and uses a unique points system for a bit of added incentive. You can even invite your friends and ‘compete’ against them.

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Windows: Computers are gradually becoming a multimedia center where you can share and enjoy photos, music and video, and one of the best apps to manage this content is Boxee. This awesome media center has just launched its first public beta, including nice new features: revamped interface, new global menu, a bookmarklet to add videos and performance improvements.

iPhone: Echofon is a popular Firefox extension and OSX application, and this iPhone version will sync with both of them, while offering the same functionality and good design. The free version is still packed with features. You can have multiple accounts, tweet photos or videos, link to a bit.ly account so you can follow your stats, choose your image service and more.

Mac: One problem with creating podcasts is getting the sound levels right. Professional DJs have sound engineers to make sure everything runs smoothly for them but for those operating on their own, it can be a real pain. The Levelator is a simple way of adjusting sound levels across all of your broadcasts so that they are the same. It adjusts audio levels within your podcast or just about any other audio file you like.

Imagine being able to access and control your computer from anywhere on Earth using your iPhone. Sounds pretty futuristic, right? Actually, it’s not because there are apps  available already that let you tap into your PC or Mac on your phone. And these remote control apps do a lot more that just allowing you to view your files and folders. In fact, they actually let you use your operating system interface, running apps, carrying out commands, and even typing. Essentially this means you can turn your iPhone into a PC!

1. The creme de la creme of remote access apps is LogMeIn Ignition. To use the service, you first need to sign up for a free LogMeIn account on the developer’s web site.

2. Now you should download the LogMeIn desktop client when prompted and run the installer. Once it’s running, you’re ready to starting accessing this machine. If you like, you can install multiple clients on multiple computers, then you can access all of these on your iPhone. Read the rest of this entry »

Windows: If you’re one of those who prefer functionality over design, foobar2000 is the perfect audio player for you. Having just reached version 1.0, this player has the simplest interface ever, while offering interesting features such as gapless playback, advanced tagging functionality, additional tools to rip CDs and convert files and support for a dozen audio formats.

iPhone: Location-based apps are set to be the next big thing, and Gowalla is one of the front-runners in this exciting field.In essence, Gowalla uses your GPS location to show where you are, and what’s near you. The spots around you are all created by the Gowalla community, and you can also create spots yourself.

Mac: Geotagging is one of the more exciting recent developments in cataloging your photos. Thanks to the latitude and longitude data of your photos you can locate them precisely on a map. Maperture is a free nifty Aperture plugin which harnesses the geotagging features in Google Maps. It will automatically tag pictures that already have the necessary EXIF data.

Windows: It’s never too late to start using a password manager, and SplashID is probably one of the best alternatives. This awesome tool will take care of all passwords, PIN numbers, web logins and any other secret codes you may use. The database is conveniently organized in categories and encrypted for maximum protection.

iPhone: Family Feud (or Family Fortunes, as it’s called in the UK) is one of those game shows whose format never seems to tire. This iPhone version of Family Feud is perfect for fans of the show. Featuring the silky voice of presenter John O’Hurley and staged in a set true to the original show, the game sees you try to lead your family to glory against other families and scoop the $20,000 (fictional) prize money.

Mac: Retro platform games are nothing new, but with VVVVVV, developer Terry Cavanagh has created a game that is truly special, and that easily stands alongside any of the early gaming greats. There is a story to VVVVVV - you’re a space captain, who has lost his crew in an accident. Teleported to a strange space craft, you must find your crew and escape. By pressing “V”, gravity is reversed and that’s where the real fun begins.

GPS based social-location apps are set to be this years breakout services. Currently it seems that foursquare and Gowalla are the main contenders. Both offer similar, free, services.

Like Facebook, you need to invite friends who can use the service. Then you’ll have a community of people whose location you can see. Wherever you are, you’ll be able to see the places other users have visited and created on the service. When there, you can ‘check in’, which gives you points, or wins you a virtual gift or achievement.

With Gowalla, you collect stamps when you visit a spot, and can collect items other users have left around. This is all added to your Gowalla Passport. You can follow what your friends are doing too. There are also ‘trips’, which are like missions - visit all the places in a trip and you can win virtual pins for your passport. I love the design of Gowalla’s interface, but the community is still a bit small, so the experience is a bit cold. I have to convince all my iPhone owning friends to use it too.

Foursquare isn’t as nice to look at, but its community is more developed. Having said that, here in Barcelona there aren’t many users of either service yet! The competitive nature of foursquare is more obvious - it offers stats on your friends and you, so you can see who has the most points. Visit a place more than your friends and you’ll be crowned ‘Mayor’ of that place! Check into wherever you are, and your friends will see and be able to recommend stuff for you to do. You can also learn about their habit, and maybe places you didn’t know about.

Both Gowalla and foursquare are promising services, but its difficult to recommend one over the other! Gowalla is more fun, foursquare feels more functional. If Facebook is a model for success, then foursquare is most likely to be the service people choose. The best one will be the one with lots of users, and importantly, the one most popular in your circle of friends.