As Jon already pointed out, today is Clean Out Your Computer Day, which makes it the perfect time to review some useful applications and routines for spring cleaning your Windows computer. That said, I hope you don’t limit these routines to one single day every year; all computers can benefit largely from frequent cleaning sessions, in terms of drive space, speed and performance. Here we go!

1. If you install new software apps quite often, you should probably check the list of installed programs on your system and start cleaning there. Ask yourself whether you still need that 500 MB program you haven’t used lately, and don’t be afraid to uninstall anything you don’t need anymore.

2. After months browsing the web, your browser history files and cache memory will have surely reached a huge size. Trim those down the easy way by using the browser’s own history manager (Tools > Clear Recent History in Firefox) or using a third-party app such as Free Windows Sweeper.

3. Check the folder where you save all the files you download from the web, and make sure you clean them up. Keeping a program’s executable file after it’s been installed is just a waste of space!

4. Use disk analysis tools like SpaceSniffer to locate the largest files and folders on your system, and decide whether you need to keep them or not. Maybe it would be a good idea to store those gigabytes of old photos somewhere else…

5. Last but not least, use your favorite cleaning tool to get rid of any other additional junk data your computer has been storing in the background, such as Windows temporary files, recent document lists, log files and more.

These are by no means the only tips we’ve we’ve got about computer spring cleaning. If all this isn’t enough for you, check our previous posts about how to recover hard drive space, five tools to clean up your computer, cleaning tips for a faster PC, how to free up disk space with Scanner, how to use a USB memory device to clean your PC and how to configure advanced options in CCleaner.

What about you? Do you have any other personal routines for computer maintenance?

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.

I was surprised to learn that the new version of Firefox is 15% faster than the previous version. When I say surprised I actually mean I didn’t believe a word of it. I decided to challenge this figure by putting Firefox 3.5 and Firefox 3.6 up against each other in a series of three benchmarking tests. I also included comparisons with the latest versions of Chrome, Opera and Internet Explorer. In the name of transparency, I’ve decided to explain the benchmarking process for each of the three tests I applied. Why not try it for yourself and see which of your web browsers runs the best?

Test One:  Peacekeeper Browser Benchmark

Peacekeeper is a free service that puts your browser through its paces in a series of thorough tests. It checks performance in the following areas: rendering, social networking, complex graphics, data, Document Object Model operations, and text parsing. Each test takes about five minutes and simple involves hitting a button on the Peacekeeper site in the browser you want to test. To make a fair test you should ensure that you just have one tab or window open, and disable or uninstall any extensions you have running.

Peacemaker gives each browser an overall performance score, and you can view a more detailed breakdown of how that score was arrived at by clicking the ‘Details’ link on the graph. Here’s the graph generated by the browser tests I performed:

Test Two: SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark

The second test I performed was the same one run by Computerworld in its tests on Firefox 3.5 and 3.6. The SunSpider JavaScript benchmark is a utility that tests the speed of a browser by running a series of JavaScripts and measuring the speed at which the software process them. It breaks the results down into a series of different categories based on the scripts it ran. These results are a little harder to interpret than the Peacekeeper test, but you can look at the total time and use this as your benchmark for comparing the browsers. Here are the overall times (fastest first) for the browsers I tested:

• Chrome 4.0 - 649.4ms

• Firefox 3.6 - 1415ms

• Firefox 3.5 - 1700ms

• Opera 10.10 - 3051ms

• Internet Explorer 8 - 6346.2ms

Test Three: The Acid 3 Test

The third and final test is much quicker and simpler than the previous two. The Acid 3 Test is used to measure a browser’s compliance with web standards, particularly relating to the Document Object Model and JavaScript. To pass the test a browser needs to attain a score of 100/100 and the final image it displays must match the reference image.

Of the five browsers we tested, only Google Chrome and Opera attained the maximum 100 out of 100. Firefox 3.6 (94) and Firefox 3.5 (93) both almost made the grade. Microsoft should hang its head in shame though, because IE8 only scored a measely 20 out of 100, meaning it falls way short of standards compliance.

Analyzing the results

Our benchmarking supports Computerworld’s claim that Firefox 3.6 is much faster than version 3.5. In fact, according to the SunSpider test we ran, the newer release comes out 17% quicker than the previous version. It’s still not as speedy as Chrome though, which was more than twice as fast as Firefox, and way ahead of Opera and IE.

What’s more, the Mozilla browser performs very well against its competitors in the Peacekeeper benchmark. Again, it’s only Chrome that pips the latest version of Firefox. And again, Internet Explorer is left floundering in final place, this time in a test than examines the overall capabilities of the browser.

So, my advice based on these results is to upgrade to Firefox 3.6 if you haven’t already done so. Better still, install Chrome and use that to browse the web instead. Having said this, ut’s definitely worth running the benchmark tests on your own browsers because the results can vary considerably depending on your setup, the amount of extensions that you have installed, the OS you’re using, etc.

I guess it was Nintendo who invented ice levels in platformers, and since then it’s become a video game standard. Whatever you’re playing, you can bet at some point you’ll be asked to continue what you have been doing for the last few hours, but on slippery surfaces. I’m not a fan, possibly with the exception of the snowy levels in Mario 64.

I Hate Ice Levels is an ode to everything we dislike about these staple levels. It’s unbelievably tricky - I got cramps in my fingers after ten minutes playing! It’s meant to be a satire of ice levels, and as such it works well. It’s also a tough challenge for anyone who thinks they’ve got skills when it comes to platforming. Play it here - requires Flash.

We’re big fans of Twitter here at Softonic, so I was surprised when I realized that we haven’t actually written a post about the best clients for PC. Well, fret no more, because I’m about to remedy the situation. Read on…

Echofon is a great option for serious tweeters. Although it seems to get uglier with every release, it’s still the OnSoftware team’s first choice. It integrates into Firefox, doesn’t take up much room, and makes it easy to post and switch between Twitter accounts. Try it!

Saezuri is equally light and flexible, but this app operates from your desktop, not the browser. It has pretty much the same features as Echofon, so if you like the sound of the add-on but don’t use Firefox, this is the client for you.

DestroyTwitter is guaranteed to make an impact. Scary name aside, it’s also a powerful Twitter client. A member of the AIR family, this sleek black app uses tabs to keep your tweets, contacts and messages under control.

Twhirl is the perfect solution if you want something even lighter. Fast, easy to use, but fully-featured, this AIR application is a great option. It also allows you to customize the interface and update frequency, as well as having support for various accounts.

TweetDeck is probably the most popular Twitter app on Softonic. It’s quite a looker and has lots of features, making it almost as good as using Twitter directly. It also integrates into Facebook and MySpace, but it isn’t weighed down by the extra functionality.

Seesmic Desktop is a tool you often see on twitter rankings, but it doesn’t make my top ten. Although it is a perfectly useful Twitter client, it also has a lot of additional non-Twitter related features. If you do want one app for all your social media needs, check out Sobees, AlertThingy or Yoono Desktop. They all do a similar job, but are more streamlined and nicer to use.

Once 3D took hold of gaming, one of the early Nineties most popular types of game, the
point-and-click adventure, started to disappear. In some ways, that’s hardly surprising. The games were generally dialog driven stories with puzzles in them, and just the occasional action point - all of these things can be found in newer adventure games, which usually have much more action in them.

Nevertheless, the relaxed, quirky point and clicks were never forgotten, and the rise of downloadable and indie games on all platforms has seen a resurgence. And that’s fantastic: point-and-click is the ideal choice for the casual gamer who wants a deeper experience. They don’t require dexterity or learning complicated controls - if you can use a computer at all you can play these adventures. Currently, there’s a great mix of updated classics and new games available to play, and here are a few ways to get started.

Machinarium: One of last year’s prettiest games, the puzzle element is pushed to the fore in Machinarium, but even when it gets hard it’s cute enough to keep you motivated. There are demos available for Windows and Mac.

LucasArts Adventure Pack: This collection of four classic games from the early Nineties may look outdated, but they are fantastic. There are two Indiana Jones titles, plus LOOM and The Dig - The Indiana Jones adventures have held up especially well, with excellent writing, puzzles and humor. Windows only.

Zombie Cow Studios: This is a two man team, who’ve created two excellent adventures - Ben There, Dan That and sequel Time Gentlemen, please! They are full of jokes, definitely not for children or the easily startled, and the stories are excellently off the wall. The first game is free, too so check it out!

Broken Sword/Beneath a Steel Sky: Touchscreens are ideal for point-and-click games, which is good news for iPhone users. Two of the greatest ever adventures, from Revolution Software, have been remastered and updated with a brilliant control scheme. Both are gripping stories, and Broken Sword looks especially fantastic. You can still play the original Beneath a Steel Sky on your Windows PC.

Telltale Games: This team have brought back both the Sam & Max and Monkey Island franchises in 3D to great success in episodic content, and continued with new series featuring Strong Bad and Wallace and Grommit. These are all excellent adventures, and they bring high production values back to point-and-click games - great if you can’t stand lo-fi retro graphics!

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.

I’m planning to visit Japan this year, and as part of my preparations for the trip I’d like to learn a bit of Japanese – at least some basic words and sentences to move around the country. Before starting with vocabulary though, you must learn the two Japanese alphabets, hiragana and katakana; luckily there are dozens of online resources that can help you with this task. The only thing you need to do is configuring your computer to display Japanese characters, and you’ll be ready to go!

Setting up Windows XP to display Japanese – and other Asian languages – properly involves a bit of tweaking, and requires the Windows XP CD as well. Simply follow these steps:

1. Open the Control Panel (Start menu > Control Panel)

2. Click the Regional and Language Options icon and go to the Languages tab. Tick the Install files for East Asian Languages option and hit OK. Follow on-screen instructions and insert the Windows XP CD when prompted.

3. Once the installation is finished, and after the correspondent system restart, go back to the same dialog window mentioned before and in the Languages tab, click the Details button. Read the rest of this entry »

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!

When you install Windows XP for the first time – or perform a clean reinstallation from scratch – you usually get a bunch of default icons on your desktop, namely My Computer, My Documents, My Network Places, Internet Explorer and the Recycle Bin. These are special system shortcuts, different from standard desktop shortcuts, and have their own tweaking options to hide them or bring them back in case they’re lost.

If you want to recover those lost system icons, right click anywhere on the desktop to open the Display Properties window, select the Desktop tab and click the Customize Desktop button. This will open the Desktop Items window, where you can see a box containing all these special system icons, and small checkboxes to enable or disable them. Now simply select which icons should be displayed and which ones should be kept hidden, or hit the Restore Default button to go back to the standard configuration.

Incidentally, the Desktop Items window also lets you change the icon in these special system shortcuts. It’s as easy as selecting the icon you want to customize, click Change Icon and select a new one.

If you’re looking for PDF utilities, you’ve got plenty of choice if you want to open and view without paying a fortune. What’s not so easy is creating and editing them, a problem that leads lots of users to avoid this handy file format altogether.

Just remember: creating PDFs may not be as easy as creating other types of document, but there are still lots of tools that will help you get the job done!

Creating PDFs is most easily achieved by using a PDF ‘printer’ like PDFCreator. Once installed, this program appears like another printer on your printer list. You create the document in your usual Windows application and once you are ready to turn it into a PDF, send it to the PDFCreator printer. This tool will convert your document into a portable, professional PDF, while PdfFactory Pro and Bullzip PDF Printer will do the same job.

What if you have a PDF that you’d like to edit or a form you need to fill in? This one’s a bit harder, as there are very few free apps that do the job well. Obviously there are master programs designed specifically for the purpose, but unless you have a spare $500, you can kiss that option goodbye.

If you have just one document that you want to modify, the trial versions of programs like PDFill PDF Editor and PDF Suite will do the job. If you need a less limiting - and free - option, PDF-XChange Viewer will give you plenty of editing powers. Also bear in mind that some office suites, such as OpenOffice, have PDF functionality built in.

As a final option, you could give online editors like PDF Hammer and PDFescape a try. Just remember that these tools get mixed reviews and only offer basic editing tools, especially in the case of PDF Hammer.

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.

The context menu is usually a shorter and quicker way to access specific system tasks, like copying and pasting, deleting, renaming or checking the file’s properties. It’s also used by many programs to insert shortcuts to their main functions, and while this comes handy for most people, it may also end up turning Windows context menu into a real mess.

If your context menu is already so long that it takes you a few seconds to show it up, it’s time to jump into action. Here’s a list of apps that will help you clean messy context menus by removing obsolete entries, and also make them more useful with new functionality.

• JDContextMenu - This app adds twelve handy new features to your context menu, and lets you freely arrange them to suit your needs.
• Mmm Free - Easily get rid of all the options in the context menu you rarely or never use. It’ll make context menus faster to load and easier to use.
• Context Magic - Adds new commands to the context menu in Windows that make file management more comfortable. Perfect for heavy mouse users!
• Context Menu Editor - Remove all context menu entries you don’t need in just two clicks. Bear in mind you’re just deleting the menu entry, not the program it links to.
• FileMenu Tools - Create a sub-list to the context menu with a bunch of handy utilities. You can remove the ones you don’t use, rearrange them and create submenus and separators to adapt the context menu to your neeeds.

It’s taken us just over six months but we’ve finally got our hands on one of the hottest download tickets in town - an invite to test Voddler. In July we had an exclusive interview with Voddler co-founder Mathias Hjelmstedt and couldn’t wait to give it a go. Now, we’ve finally had the chance to try it for ourselves and can safely say, Voddler looks like a genuine contender for the future of movie distribution in the same way as Spotify is for music. From a huge selection of films and documentaries to an easy to use interface and stunning video/audio, Voddler is all I expected and more.

Unfortunately for most, at the moment its still only available in Sweden but we’ve been able to give it a proper test run for you.

If you’re lucky enough to receive an invite, you can install the beta client for Voddler on Windows or the Alpha client on Mac. I installed the Mac client but it works exactly the same on both platforms.

When you install Voddler, it takes you through a quick setup wizard which checks the suitability of your connection. The test takes a few minutes but if you’ve got a 2.5Mbit connection or more, you’re good to go.

When Voddler launches for the first time, it goes straight into full-screen mode. I would prefer to have been prompted whether I wanted to open in windowed or full-screen mode but you can revert back to windowed mode (so that you can access the rest of your Mac normally) by pressing Command+F.

The first thing to note is that you can’t use your mouse when Voddler has started. Everything is controlled via the keyboard - mainly the Cursor, Enter and Esc keys - which is a bit disorientating and awkward at first. Alternatively, you can use an Apple remote instead which is a bit easier.

The reason for this is that in future, Voddler plan to launch a box that connects to your TV without a computer (known as a Voddler box) and presumably you’ll be able to use a virtual keyboard. However, I think it would still have made more sense at this stage to have allowed users on a computer to use a mouse.

Once you setup a profile and log-in:

You are presented with three options in front of a scrolling background displaying iconic movie stills. The options are Settings, Movies and Quit. Use the left and right arrow keys to scroll through them: Read the rest of this entry »

Though they were already included in a developer build a few weeks ago, it wasn’t until today that Google made it official: Chrome now supports extensions! Thanks to this long-awaited feature, Chrome users can now expand the capabilities of their browser with small plug-ins that add diverse functionality to the program.

You can find and download Chrome extensions in a special online gallery that organizes them by popularity, date and rating. Right now there are about 1,800 extensions available, many of which are exact copies of Firefox’s popular add-ons – which undoubtedly helps a lot in browser switching. Every extension has its own page, featuring a description, some screenshots, user reviews and links to the developer’s site and the documentation, if any.

Installing a Chrome extension is really easy. Simply browse the gallery to find the extension you’re interested in, click the big blue Install button, accept the confirmation message and you’re done. Unlike Firefox, you don’t even need to restart the browser.

If you want to check your installed extensions, open Chrome’s configuration menu (the wrench icon) and select Extensions. The browser will open a new tab with the list of installed extensions, as well as links to disable and uninstall them, and direct access to the extension’s options – if available.

Finally, if you’re a developer and would like to publish a Chrome extension, you can do so from the gallery itself. Click the Publish your extensions link on the left side of the gallery interface and fill in all the details. The extension will be immediately be ready for download.