Soft4Boost Photo Studio 5.4.9.403

An intuitive and powerful program that helps you apply special effects, perform red-eye correction operations, crop pictures, and embed watermarks

Soft4Boost Photo Studio is a software application whose purpose is to help you enhance the quality of your images by applying several editing operations.

Although it comes bundled with many dedicated parameters, it boasts a clean and intuitive layout.

The tool offers quick access to the files and folders stored in your computer, so you can quickly select the photo to be processed.

It works with the following file formats: JPEG, BMP, ICO, WMF, EMF, GIF, PNG, TIFF, PCX, TGA, RAS, and RAW.

Soft4Boost Photo Studio gives you the possibility to zoom in or out, view file information (e.g. size, creation date, resolution), rotate the picture to different angles, undo or redo your actions, as well as enable the auto-correction feature.

When it comes to editing operations, you can apply special effects (e.g. black and white high contrast, sharp details, sepia tone), adjust the levels of white balance, contrast, tone, brightness and contrast, and RGB, as well as set up the vignetting parameters.

Other important features worth mentioning enable you to perform red-eye correction operations, embed watermarks by uploading an image from the computer and adding text messages, retouch the selected areas, use a brush, as well as crop pictures.

What’s more, you can switch to a full screen mode for a better focus on your work, compare the original and edited photos in a dual panel, view a histogram, and print or save the edited images to the same formats as the input ones.

During our testing we have noticed that Soft4Boost Photo Studio carries out a task quickly, provides excellent image quality, and no errors showed up throughout the entire process. It is quite friendly with system resources, so the overall performance of the computer is not burdened.

All in all, Soft4Boost Photo Studio proves to be a reliable graphic editor that offers a complete suite of tools for helping you edit your images, and can be mastered by beginners and professionals alike.

Program Information

 Developer: Sorentio Systems Ltd

Price and Added Date

DEMO .10-11-2015

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StudioLine Photo Basic 4.2.13

Edit and organize your pictures, create and publish photo galleries, make image adjustments and corrections, apply effects, and more

Maybe you have a powerful artistic streak and want a proper tool to customize your pictures, or maybe you just want to be able to add a few effects to your images. Whatever the case may be, StudioLine Photo Basic is a software app that provides several options to help you get the desired results.

Not just a photo editor, but also a manager

It isn't just a simple image editing application, but also a powerful manager for photo collections. Thus, you can organize your files into various categories, and add keywords and descriptions so that it's easier to track them down rapidly. Furthermore, you can print and email the pictures, burn them to CDs and DVDs, as well as upload them as web galleries.

A wide range of editing tools

The software application comes loaded with a wide range of tools for multiple jobs. For example, you can crop and rotate your pics and even remove the red eye effect. Other correction functions are designed to help you adjust the auto tone levels, hue, saturation and brightness values, modify the color balance, as well as to sharpen or blur your pictures.

Image enhancements and effects

StudioLine Photo Basic also hosts over a dozen effects. Among these are sepia, black and white or smoked glass layers. Plus, you can overlay text messages, adjust the transparency levels, and create slideshows. It is possible to look for images in multiple folders, choose the succession order, and apply one of the many available transition effects. As far as supported image extensions are concerned, JPG, TIF, GIF, PNG and BMP are just some of them.

Conclusion

All in all, StudioLine Photo Basic is a complex image editor that has a bunch of extra features. On the downside, the interface is very crowded and difficult to work with until you’ve had some practice. Beginners might need some time to become familiar with all the functions and the path to getting the desired effects. However, those with a little experience are likely to find it exciting and resourceful.

Program Information

 Developer: H&M Systems Software Inc

Price and Added Date

Freeware .06-11-2015

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FastPictureViewer 1.9.350.0

Simple-to-handle application that enables you to open and view images, as well as bring up a long list of information pertaining to them

FastPictureViewer is a useful application that allows you to open and to view image files in order to sort them and mark the ones that are usable for certain projects. The program also includes a lot of powerful features that makes it suitable to replace the default Windows viewer.

Simple-to-handle environment

The program displays a lot of information about the images and enables you to customize the interface in order to get the data that is important to you. You can open a single image or select a folder with multiple pictures directly from the program’s interface.

View data regarding pictures

Picture information (histogram, GPS data, rating etc.) is displayed in small translucent windows that are placed over the image, while their opacity can be changed from the context menu in order to increase the visibility.

It is possible to create your own workspace by arranging the panels as you wish and select the ones that are displayed. The program remembers the layout for the next usage. Among the information displayed in the program you can view the image RGB Histogram, the XMP and EXIF metadata, the GPS information and the filters applied to the images.

Zoom in and out of photos and support for hotkeys

The program allows you to quickly zoom in the image by simply clicking it. Navigating an image using this method can be a little inaccurate yet it provides you with a loupe tool that you can use to inspect certain parts of an uploaded item. The aforementioned item can be linked with the histogram in order to view the color information at the same time.

The goal of this program is to allow you to inspect a large number of images and to mark the ones that can be published. If you need to view over one hundred images you need to be fast and FastPictureViewer allows you to do that. All the options and commands from the main menu have a keyboard shortcut so you can get a lot of information from one look at the screen and select an image with one button.

Performance and conclusion

The program does not have a significant impact on the computer performance, yet you should know that this also depends on the image are viewing. However, the program’s response was very good and we did not notice any problems during our tests.

FastPictureViewer is a flexible tool that allows you to view all the popular image formats yet also supports professional formats such as RAW, MPO or TDI.

Program Information

 Developer: Axel Rietschin Software Developements

Price and Added Date

TRIAL .06-11-2015

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Video2Webcam 3.5.8.8

Display videos or images from your computer as a virtual webcam during video calls with friends or family, thanks to this handy tool

Video2Webcam is an app that creates a virtual webcam on a Windows computer, allowing users to show videos during any video chat.

Especially designed to work with the most popular instant messengers on the market, Video2Webcam is more like a fake webcam application, providing just a few tools for a user-friendly approach.

Once installed, the application allows you to pick the instant messaging programs you plan to use from the get-go, with supported names including Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Skype, Paltalk, ICQ, AIM, Camfrog and many others.

The interface is the one that makes everything easy as pie because it only asks you to pick the video to be shown on webcam and start broadcast. Video2Webcam supports all multimedia files, regardless if we’re thinking about videos or photos, including AVI, MP4, FLV, MPG, WMV, RM, RMVB, JPG, GIF, BMP and PNG.

The video can be played in a loop, while Video2Webcam lets you adjust the volume straight from the main window.

There are a few settings to play with in a dedicated options screen, allowing you to configure the webcam source rate, webcam source size and apply the settings either to all users or just to a specific account.

As you can see, Video2Webcam is not at all difficult to use and the lack of a help manual shouldn’t bother you too much.

All in all, Video2Webcam is one of the best tools of its kind that provides support not only for an impressive list of instant messengers, but also for most video and image formats out there.

Program Information

 Developer: Video2Webcam Inc

Price and Added Date

TRIAL.22-10-2015

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StudioLine Photo Classic 4.2.12

Organize your photos, perform various image editing tasks, create web galleries and collages, with this comprehensive piece of software

StudioLine Photo Classic is a professional software application designed to help users perform photo editing operations.

Clean feature lineup

Although it comes packed with a multitude of dedicated parameters, it sports a clean and straightforward interface that gives users the possibility to import images from cameras, scanners, or from the computer.

Editing operations

StudioLine Photo Classic allows you to alter metadata (e.g. name, description, copyright, file type, camera details) and use several editing tools in order to crop and rotate the photos, and enable the red eye removal feature.

Additionally, there's support for photo correction options, such as auto-tone levels, white balance, gradation, image enhancement, exposure correction, colour balance, sharpness.

What’s more, you can select between various special effects (e.g. colorize, RGB mixer, black and white, sepia), embed text messages, adjust the transparency level, and rotate the photos to different angles. When it comes to exporting options, you can save the edited items to an image file format, burn them on DVDs and CDs, create KML files, or print them.

Last but not least, the program features backup options, and you can undo or redo your actions, sort images by name, camera or file date, rate photos, import GPS data, create archives, as well as design slideshows.

Performance

During our testing we have noticed that StudioLine Photo Classic offers excellent image quality, and no errors showed up throughout the entire process. It doesn’t eat up a lot of CPU and memory, so the overall performance of the computer is not affected.

Bottom line

All things considered, StudioLine Photo Classic provides a complete suite of tools for helping you edit your photos.

Program Information

 Developer: H&M Systems Software Inc

Price and Added Date

TRIAL.22-10-2015

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FastStone Capture 8.3

A reliable and user-friendly software solution that helps you take customizable snapshots, then rotate, resize, watermark or add them effects

astStone Capture is a tool that you can use to take snapshots, record the screen, as well as view and edit images.

The interface of the program is based on a small toolbar from which you can capture the active window, window or object, rectangular or freehand region, full screen, scrolling window or fixed region.

When it comes to recording the screen, you can set the recording area to window or object, rectangular region or full screen (optionally without the taskbar).

In addition, you can configure settings when it comes to video (e.g. set the frame rate, enable compact mode), audio (record audio and mouse click sounds), the hotkey (to stop the recording) and output files (e.g. set the file name template).

Furthermore, you can set FastStone Capture to copy the output image to the editor, clipboard, file, printer, email, Word, PowerPoint or FTP, as well as enable auto caption, auto edge or watermark and to include the mouse pointer.

In the Editor you can rotate, flip or resize the image, expand the canvas or set its size, draw lines or text, enter a caption, adjust colors (e.g. brightness, contrast, gamma), use a color picker, apply filters (e.g. grayscale, sepia, oil painting, sketch, sharpen, blur), edit with external editors, and more.

The program uses a very low amount of system resources. includes a comprehensive help file with snapshots and didn't cause us any problems during our tests. Excluding the interface which could use some minor improvements, we strongly recommend FastStone Capture to all users.

Program Information

 Developer: FastStone Soft

Price and Added Date

TRIAL .22-10-2015

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My Screen Capture 1.65

Replace the "Print Screen" button on your keyboard with this straightforward little utility that lets you capture any area on your desktop

Taking a screenshot at the right moment can be the winning argument or one of the key elements in software and games testing. Besides your default keyboard button you can use various applications with more post processing options, one of which being My Screen Capture.

Stealthy and easy to use

Launching the application might leave you wondering when the main window is going to show up. This is because it does not have one, hiding in the system tray from the beginning.

Opening it from there brings up an adjustable box you can drag around the screen until reaching the area you want to capture. A large camera button acts like a trigger for the process, after which a notification pop up informs you that the screenshot was taken.

Only a few options to work with

Aside from the basic function mentioned above, there is little else you can do. The only output file types are BMP or JPG formats, with quality selector for the last one. By default, the grabber window minimizes after a screenshot is taken, which is helpful if only one picture is needed, but you can set it to remain on your desktop until you decide it is no longer of use.

Unfortunately, there is no implemented hotkey support, which would have been useful considering it mostly spends time in the system tray and images are automatically saved to file. Speaking of which, the default directory where captures are placed, cannot be set, but there is an option that lets you quickly bring up the specific folder.

To end with

Taking everything into consideration, we can say that My Screen Capture is a straightforward forward tool to use when you had enough of the “Print Screen” button on your keyboard. It's fairly easy to use, but the lack of hotkey support and no post processing options make it seem like a one night stand.

Program Information

 Developer: My Portable Software

Price and Added Date

DONATIONWARE .22-10-2015

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PicPick 4.0.8

An all-included imaging software that features a powerful capture tool, image editor, color picker, color palette

PicPick is an all-in-one software for graphic designers, home users and software developers. It has an intuitive interface and simple, elegant operation.

After starting the software, you simply select one of the tool from the PicPick Tools trayicon menu when you want. It features a powerful capture tool, image editor, color picker, color palette, pixel ruler, protractor, crosshair, whiteboard and etc.

Here are some key features of "PicPick":

Screen Capture:
· Auto-scroll, dual monitors and sound effect are supported
· Various output to File, Printer, Office programs, External program
· Sharing to FTP, Web, E-mail, Facebook and Twitter are supported as well
· Full Screen
· Active Window
· Window Control
· Scrolling Window
· Region, Fixed Region
· FreeHand
· Repeat Last Capture

Image Editor:
· Intuitive User Interface
· Windows 7 Ribbon style
· Standard drawing, shapes, arrows, lines, text, and etc.
· Blur, sharpen, hue, contrast, brightness, pixelate, rotate, flip, frame effect and etc.

Color Picker and Color Palette:
· various color code type (RGB, HTML, C++, Delphi)
· Photoshop style RGB/HSV conversion is supported.
· Pick and Save your favorite color!

Screen Pixel Ruler:
· horizontal and vertical orientation
· various units (Pixels, Inches, Centimeters)
· DPI setting (72, 96, 120, 300)
· colorful gradient skins
· You don't have to install any other screen ruler softwares.

Screen Magnifier:
· Zoom 2x to 10x option
· Stay on top, smooth display, and sizeable window

Screen Protractor:
· Have you seen any screen protractor functions?

Screen Crosshair:
· For aligning objects in graphics or design applications
· For calculating relative coordinates on screen

Whiteboard:
· For giving a presentation or just drawing something on screen

Requirements:

· 1.0 GHz processor
· 512 MB of RAM
· 15 MB space for installation

What's New in This Release:

• Improved Scrolling capture
• Improved Whiteboard
• Fixed an issue of google chrome scrolling capture
• Language updates
• Minor bugs are fixed

Users are advised to pay attention while installing this ad-supported application:

· Offers to change the homepage for web browsers installed in the system
· Offers to change the default search engine for web browsers installed in the system
· Offers to download or install software or components (such as browser toolbars) that the program does not require to fully function

Program Information

 Developer: NTeWORKS

Price and Added Date

Freeware .22-10-2015

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Face Off Max 3.7.3.6

Swap your face with someone else's in photos then share them with the help of this streamlined and easy to use software solution

Face-swapping pictures are always fun to see, but this can be a cumbersome process if you do not have the right tool by your side. Face Off Max is a tool specifically created for this sort of job.

The software comes with a step-by-step wizard to help you create new photos. Thanks to this tool, getting your face on the cover of a magazine or replacing a well-known star at a movie gala is quite easy.

Face Off Max comes with a complex gallery of body pictures, but you can also use photos from your own archive. The app provides plenty of options, so you can place your face on the bodies of famous actors such as Megan Fox, Natalie Portman, Johnny Depp, Jay-Z and Eva Longoria. You can also see how you’d look like in a bridal gown, getting your mug shot taken or replacing Shrek, Superman or even the Statue of Liberty.

You can attach one of the faces in the app’s gallery, choose one from your own computer (JPG or PNG) or take a new photo via webcam.

You can also use a brush to unmask the parts of the face you want revealed in the photo, adjust the size and position of the head and do some final modifications. Thus, you can rotate, flip or move the image around until you get the perfect fit.

Face Off Max further lets you adjust the skin coloration to match that of the body in a few steps by using three color masks. You can also add text or speech balloons as final touches to your photos.

Your projects can be saved as such or as individual images, emailed to your friends or shared on Facebook. The software only supports the JPG as output format.

All in all, Face Off Max is a fun program that gives you plenty of options to create the perfect face swap. The software is easy to use and inexperienced users should have no problems figuring out how it works.

Program Information

 Developer: CoolwareMax

Price and Added Date

DEMO .16-10-2015

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ACDSee 19.0 Build 405

Well-rounded piece of software which aids you in viewing, managing, editing and sharing your photographs, without putting a strain on your system

ACDSee is a complex, multi-purpose application that serves for viewing, organizing and editing digital photos. Furthermore, images can be shared on social websites or your own space on the developer’s website.

Clear-cut environment

The interface of ACDSee is quite well-organized and clean. Navigating and editing pictures is so much easier now, and its response time is much faster. You are welcomed by multiple panels which enable you to view a folder structure, selected pictures and metadata, as well as preview images. There are also some buttons, a menu bar and a few tabs which enable you to easily access all available options with ease, namely “Mange,” “View,” “Edit” and “365.”

Manage, label, import and convert pics

In the Manage tab you can select the images you want to view and edit. Labeling them is also possible, in order to prioritize files and easily spot them in folders. If you select an image without a label and switch to View mode, this program will throw in all images found in the same folder as the one selected by you.

You can also import image files from external drives, batch convert, rotate or resize them, instantly create a slideshow, rate images, and others.

Enhance your images, view and share them with others via Facebook

The Edit section is the one that encourages your creativity. Here you can perform photo corrections, such as red-eye and blemish removal and color adjustments for a natural look. Special effects include a wide selection of artistic filters that you can instantly test on the image, thanks to thumbnail preview. You can give your images a special touch with the aid of the built-in frames and borders.

The View panel is pretty self-explanatory, while the last tab enables you to log in to your ACDsee365 account and share your work here or to other social networking platforms, such as Facebook or Twitter.

Conclusion and performance

All in all, ACDSee makes quite the image enhancer. There are upsides such as the image displaying speed (it’s outstanding for large files), but there are downsides as well, such as the complicated sharing process.

Nevertheless, the interface is suitable to all types of users, the computer’s performance is not going to be hampered at all, and the utility did not freeze or crash in our tests.

Program Information

 Developer: ACD Systems

Price and Added Date

TRIAL .16-10-2015

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Ashampoo Photo Commander 14.0.1

Preview your photos, enhance them using various tools and effects, organize and share them with ease using a feature-rich application

Ashampoo Photo Commander is a software application that enables you to create, edit and manage pictures with a minimal amount of effort.

Support for multimedia tracks and view their metadata

It's wrapped in a user-friendly interface that lets you use a tree view to locate files and the content area to select them. These are organized according to month and year. In addition to that, you can view images, audio tracks or videos, as well as filter items by rating, age, format, and others.

The EXIF information of an image file can be brought up, ID3 tags for a song can be displayed and edited, while you can also view properties pertaining to a video (e.g. size, color depth, memory size, aspect ratio).

Adjust and enhance images

You can write an image description, save photos as PDF documents or view them in a full screen mode, create slideshows, edit JPG comments, change file dates, and others.

Furthermore, you can quickly fix images by changing the contrast, brightness and color temperature, resizing, rotating or cropping them, removing red eye, adjusting horizontal misalignment and applying various effects (e.g. blur, sharpen, grayscale, sepia, pencil drawing, psychedelic).

Some drawing options and creating slideshows

Plus, you can draw text, pen, lines and shapes (rectangle, ellipse), insert objects or a bitmap from a file, draw hints and callouts, scan an image, capture a window or desktop, use the “undo” and “redo” functions, as well as batch rename files.

Once you are satisfied with the results, you can create a slideshow, HTML album, calendar, collage, panorama, frame or card, contact sheet, photo mix or TIF multi-page.

Performance and conclusion

It used a moderate-to-high amount of system resources in our tests and includes a well-drawn help file with snapshots. Unfortunately, it crashed a couple of times while playing videos. Otherwise, Ashampoo Photo Commander comes loaded with a rich set of options for managing images.

Program Information

 Developer: ashampoo GmbH and Co KG

Price and Added Date

TRIAL .16-10-2015

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Aladin 8.040

A comprehensive application which is designed to retrieve sky atlases, astronomical images or catalogs, for visualizing and analysing

Aladin is a reliable program that allows you to acquire sky maps from dedicated services and analyze star properties, distances or coordinates. This astronomical analyzer allows you to associate images to coordinates, match object luminosity, create cross references, as well as draw shapes or contours.

Sky atlas analyzer

Aladin is a simple to use application for viewing and analyzing digitized star maps and sky atlases. You can open astronomical images, surveys, or superimpose data from astronomical catalogues. The application is capable of retrieving a multitude of data collections, information sheets, from Simbad databases, SkyBoT, NED, or missions and surveys from the VizieR service.

The astronomical images you can load and analyze can be acquired from servers such as SkyView+, UKIDSS, SDSS, VLA, DSS or other archives. Aladin offers a series of tools for selection, cross-reference creation or filter applying. Moreover, you can view several images in parallel, by switching to a multi-view split screen. You can use the mouse wheel to zoom in or out on an image.

Advanced analysis tools

Aladin displays some of the analysis tools in the panel on the right of the window. You may easily calculate distances, measure overplot photometry, draw contours, create tags, cross references or associate images to any point on the map. Moreover, you can adjust the contrast of the selected image by modifying the RGB layers, draw isocontours or ellipses.

The software supports adding filters to the astronomical images, such as mark brightest and faintest stars, draw proper motion of the celestial bodies or the dimensions of the galaxy. Additionally, you can overlay the contours of the selected image onto another one of your choice.

Image viewer

Aladin also allows you to work with advanced tools for astronomy analysis, such as specific Simbad and VizieR photometry pointers, automatic distance measurer or spectrum analyzers. The application allows you to export the data to EPS files, FITS documents, TSV or VoTables and the images to FITS, JPEG, PNG formats.

Program Information

 Developer: Pierre FERNIQUE

Price and Added Date

Freeware .15-10-2015

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Media Player Classic - Home Cinema 1.7.9

Leave worries aside whether or not you can play a specific media file format because this powerful application might just be the solution

The Internet is home to nearly all forms of entertainment, but is also one of the largest markets, available to the whole world. Amongst virtual items that serve various purposes, you manage to find specialized applications needed to play movies and songs. Media Player Classic – Home Cinema is one of them, trying to be a simple, but powerful player.

Lightweight and easy to use

Running the application brings up an interface you might be familiar with. This is not bad, because it lets you quickly accommodate and just enjoy desired items. These are easily added by dragging them over the main window, as well as through a dedicated menu for individual files or the whole content of a directory.

Playback options are clearly visible, as well as the progress and volume sliders. By default, you only gain access to the previously mentioned elements and a preview sections, with the possibility to bring up other available features.

Create and manage playlists

One of the features that is a must for any media player is also found here. A playlist manager can be brought up so that you can create a list with various selections you can later load. The application lets you import other playlist formats, as well as from Windows Media Player.

In addition, you are able to set files you frequently play as favorites so you don't have to bring up an entire playlist for one element, or browse through your computer.

Supports a large variety of formats

Probably the application's main advantage and what keeps it at the top is that it is capable of rendering nearly all available media file formats. From video types like AVI, MPG, MOV, SWF to audio formats MP3, OGG, FLAC and several playlist types, you need only sit back and enjoy whatever file you provide.

In conclusion

Taking everything into consideration, we can say that Media Player Classic – Home Cinema is a suitable application you might want to keep around for both its simplicity and amount of supported formats. It gets the job done well, deserving its seat at the pro table.

Program Information

 Developer: Casimir666

Price and Added Date

GPLV3 .15-10-2015

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Gom Player 2.2.71.5231

An all-purpose media player equipped with its own codec system that features support for the majority of audio and video formats

Even though the Internet is home to nearly any media of interest, regardless of content, quality is superior when media files are played using a proper application. Gom Player is one of them and comes equipped with a handful of features that assure you it means business.

Visually appealing and easy to use

Upon installation, be advised that unless carefully going through each step, you might end up with a different homepage for your default web browser. The process finishes in a matter of seconds, unveiling a simple, yet intuitive and pretty interface. You may anytime change the default skin from the 'Preferences' menu.

One of the most useful aspects in terms of visuals, is that you can carefully place the main window on the desktop due to its sticky borders that get a grip of other windows as well. The same can be said for the playlist and control panel, which can be pinned to the player and moved along as a whole.

Organize files into playlists

In order to be a veritable media player, an application shouldn't be missing some basic features. Gom Player makes no exception, one of the most important being a playlist manager. It is brought up in a separate window and desired items can easily be dragged over it. Moreover, you are also able to import existing playlists in case you only want to change your default multimedia application.

Enhance video and sound

Furthermore, the application puts a small, but powerful control panel at your disposal with which your overall audio and video experience is enhanced. A 12-band equalizer makes sure sound reaches your ears clean, offering you a decent variety of presets, but also the possibility to save custom configurations.

In addition, you can adjust color sliders to correct any flaws in the image, as well as capture a specific frame you might want to use in other projects. Subtitles can be loaded for greater ease of access and positioned by adjusting several sliders.

To end with

Taking everything into consideration, we can say that Gom Player certainly lives up to expectations, holding a seat at the table of giants. It lets you instantly accommodate due to the intuitive and design, while the amount of formats it can render leave nothing more to be desired, except popcorn to go with the movie.

Program Information

 Developer: Gretech

Price and Added Date

AD-SUPPORTED .15-10-2015

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PotPlayer 1.6.56209

Sit back and enjoy all of your favorite movies or songs in an extremely intuitive and good looking media player that can render nearly any file out there

Diversity is a word that can be attached next to anything, from living beings, objects to virtual items. When referring to media files, these are found in an astonishing large variety of quality settings and formats. Luckily, specialized applications such as PotPlayer give you the possibility to enjoy your favorite songs and videos without worrying about compatibility issues.

Visually appealing and easy to use

The setup process guides you through a series of steps, which take very little of your time. Additional codecs are installed only if these are missing from your computer and not without your consent.

Running it unveils a pretty interface, with elements reduced to a minimum, yet managing to include all necessary playback options, volume slider and a decent, resizable preview section. A playlist can be toggled on, as well as a control panel, with the possibility to stick them to the main window and move around the desktop as a group.

Supporting a large variety of formats

Adding a media file is no rocket science, and barely requires you to drag desired items either over the playlist or the preview section. Lists can be easily saved and loaded when needed, as well as importing already existing ones.

You need not worry whether or not the application is capable of opening a certain file, as it supports nearly all available formats. Ranging from AVI, WMV, MP4, 3GP, FLV, MKV in the video category, to MP3, WAV, FLAC, AAC, APE for music, and even commonly used playlists, tha application is sure to satisfy any requirement. The actual list of supported formats is considerably larger than the few mentioned examples.

Enhance audio and video experience

The application puts several tools at your disposal in order to fully enjoy clips or songs. A control panel lets you carefully adjust several frequency sliders or put presets to good use, to get the most out of the audio. Moreover, your custom configurations can be saved for later use.

Furthermore, you can adjust a few color related sliders to correct any errors in a video or make it suitable to your liking. Subtitles can also be inserted and placed at a custom position, while an integrated function lets you take snapshots of desired frames.

In conclusion

Taking everything into consideration, we can say that PotPlayer is worth at least a try. The interface is extremely minimalistic, letting even the most inexperienced accommodate in a jiffy. However, it's packed with rich features under the hood, coming in handy even to pro users. It might just convince you to keep it around for a long time.

Program Information

 Developer: Daum Communications

Price and Added Date

Freeware .15-10-2015

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Zoom Player MAX 11.0.0

Play desired motion pictures or favorite songs in a highly customizable and intuitive interface provided by this powerful application

With the advancement in technology, media has evolved to flawless qualities that are found in a large variety of formats. In order to properly enjoy them, you need to put applications such as Zoom Player MAX to good use. It is a powerful media workstation capable of running nearly any media file out there.

Create and manage playlists

In terms of visuals, the applications does not strongly differ from similar media players. Its interface is appealing, with a decent preview section, playback options clearly visible and customizable skin colors, as well as support for downloadable content.

Loading desired items is easily done by dragging them over the main window, or through the dedicated explorer. A playlist manager can be brought up that is home to all inserted elements, giving you the possibility to save and load already existing lists.

Multiple dedicated playback modes

Zoom Player MAX tries to bring a little variety to media rendering. It can switch to several modes in order to become more accessible, depending on the intended purpose. By default, you run in the media mode, which basically represents a basic look and feel.

For music usage, you can toggle the audio mode, which turns off the preview section so that it does not take up necessary space on your desktop. Furthermore, the application lets you take advantage of a DVD mode, providing a set of dedicated content navigation options.

All commands at your fingertips

Fortunately, all features the application puts at your disposal can be attributed a custom combination of keys. Seeing how you can work with quite a lot of provided content, this comes in handy as it saves a great deal of time, and makes everything more comfortable.

Furthermore, you can enhance the sound that reaches your ears to make it clean or fine-tune it. This is done with the help of an integrated equalizer that gives you access to several presets, but also the possibility to save your own configurations.

The same can be said for videos, as a few color correction sliders can completely transform the clip. Additionally, you can switch to fullscreen for a clearer view, create chapters in videos or carefully have them trimmed.

To end with

Taking everything into consideration, we can say that Zoom Player MAX is a handy application you can use as an alternative to the already existing giants. It comes fully equipped with all it needs to be able to render media files flawlessly, doing its job well overall.

Program Information

 Developer: DDDDDDDDDDD

Price and Added Date

TRIAL .15-10-2015

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SMPlayer 15.9.0

Enjoy watching videos and music in nearly all available formats, as well as YouTube clips directly from the main window of this intuitive application

Media files, clips and songs come in an abundance of formats. With the available media players racing for greatest compatibility, choosing an application to enjoy movies is now just something related to visual preferences and ease of access. SMPlayer is one such media player, based on the popular MPlayer which is known to play nearly all available formats.

Lightweight and easy to use

When going through the setup process, take caution with each step, because you might end up with a different default search engine, as well as other potentially unwanted software installed. However, all of these offers can easily be declined in order to get just a fresh setup of SMPlayer.

Once the application runs you find no difficulty to accommodate. The interface is cleverly designed to feature both a modern and minimalistic look. Necessary playback options are clearly visible, as well as the volume and progress sliders, with the possibility to enhance the interface with several more elements.

Create and manage playlists

One of them is the playlist manager, which should not be missing from any basic or top of the line media player. It is brought up at the press of a button, floating on your desktop or docked to the main window for a compact overall interface.

The application gives you the possibility to load existing playlists to enjoy in the newly installed media player, as well as having one created from scratch and populated with some of the most commonly used audio and video formats, if not all available.

Enhance your audio and video experience

Since SMPlayer means business, it comes equipped with all it needs to be a respectable media player, as well as a bit more. Several enhancement tools are put at your disposal, such as an equalizer for sound and various video effects.

One of the most useful features when playing a movie, is an integrated subtitle finder which looks up desired items over Internet subtitle databases making sure it does not come back empty-handed. Additionally, you can also watch clips on YouTube without having to bring up a web browser.

In conclusion

Taking everything into consideration, we can say that SMPlayer is a suitable competitor in the race for media formats compatibility. It takes little of your system's resources, thus becoming available to a wide variety of configurations, while the friendly and modern interface gets you instantly up and running.

Program Information

 Developer: Ricardo Villalba

Price and Added Date

GPL .15-10-2015

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Picasa 3.9.141 Build 255

Manage, edit and share your photos with ease, as well as create backups and synchronize data with your online account using this well-rounded and powerful tool

Managing and organizing our digital photos can be a hassle sometimes, especially if a software that is designed solely for this purpose is not installed on our system. If you find that this is your situation, you can try one of the applications that is most widespread nowadays - Picasa.

This tool can be very well used without an Internet connection, although you can fully enjoy all its features only when you are online. Basically, Picasa is especially tailored to help keep all photos organized, regardless if you would like to sort them by album, date or some other type of information.

Ad-riddled setup and simple-to-handle GUI

Installation is pretty easy, yet you should pay an extra bit of attention because the setup package comes with third-party software that can change the settings of your web browser.

The interface is pleasant as well as easy to use, enabling you to browse through your photos in an instant. Picasa automatically scans your computer for pictures and organizes them in folders, showing you thumbnails for instant browsing.

Edit multiple items, back up data and create a collage

Aside from the fact that it is such a powerful photo manager, this software utility also provides some nice editing functions. It enables you to resize and crop pictures and also add various effects to improve image quality.

Picasa can automatically synchronize your library with a Picasa online account, so you can share and show photos to your friends with just a few clicks. Also included in the feature pack are a backup function, a picture collage creator, a batch editing script, a folder manager and many other goodies that can make your life a lot easier.

A last evaluation

All things considered, Picasa holds its own very well and given its popularity this may be one of the top choices for any user who needs effortless photo sharing and management. The system’s performance is not going to be burdened at all, the response time is quite good and there are sufficient features included to keep you busy for quite a while.

Program Information

 Developer: Google

Price and Added Date

Freeware .13-10-2015

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Zoom Player Home Free11.0.0

Get control over your media viewing experience!
Zoom Player is an application which allows you to play your favorite media files. It can be easily used by individuals of any level of experience.

The interface of the tool is clean and intuitive. You can import files by using either the file browser or the "drag and drop" method.

So, you can use basic media player tools, such as pause and stop, adjust the volume, navigate back and forth within the track and switch to full screen mode.

Furthermore, you can enable Zoom Player to deinterlace videos and to stay on top of other processes, configure an audio equalizer, toggle audio and video mode, jump to a particular frame, adjust the brightness and contrast of the image and toggle the control bar.

In addition, you can create playlists and a contact sheet, edit chapters, change the aspect ratio, switch to DVD mode, enable Zoom Player to place an icon the system tray, make file associations, disable the screen saver and power management while playing, and more.

The media player takes up a moderate amount of system resources, supports numerous keyboard shortcuts and includes a comprehensive help file (too bad it doesn't have a snapshots). We haven't come across any kind of issues during our tests, since Zoom Player did not freeze, crash or display errors. We strongly recommend this software to all users.

Program Information

 Developer: InMatrix

Price and Added Date

AD-SUPPORTED .12-10-2015

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