Download Skype for Mac 10.6 8 Updated

Download Skype for Mac 10.6 8

There'south something heady about buying a new piece of software, unwrapping the packaging and slipping the disc into your Mac ready to install your new goodies. And, of grade, the new Mac App Store has made the process of obtaining new software by a digital download just a few elementary mouse clicks.

Whichever method you prefer, the biggest drawback is the money you have to hand over. Forking out for your appurtenances is a necessary evil, and the price of things is commonly a good indicator of its quality. But the good news is information technology's not e'er that way, specially when it comes to Mac software.

Every bit we will show yous, there are many apps available for free that have all the polish and avant-garde features you would await from a premium paid-for version, but without the nasty price tag. There are apps that will clean upward your hard drive or organise your day-to-twenty-four hour period activities. Some even work on your iPhone and iPad, too.

We've presented the best ones below – they're all really fantastic and, best of all, they're all free.

A number of these applications, while withal bully as a gratis version, also have more fully featured pro versions. And then if y'all actually enjoy ane, you can consider spending the extra money.

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Best costless Mac media tools

1. Boxee Online

Television receiver channels put a lot of their content online for free, but you usually accept to go to their websites to find out what's bachelor. Not with Boxee.

This app lets you lot browse through episodes of shows from sources such equally YouTube, among many others. It too pulls in media from your Mac. The interface can be controlled via the keyboard, an Apple remote or the complimentary Boxee app bachelor for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

It'southward a doddle to navigate, enabling you to quickly find sports, movies, music or photos to enjoy on your computer. For entertainment on your Mac, Boxee is hard to beat.

2. Vuze

BitTorrent clients have received a bad rap over the years for enabling users to download copyrighted textile for gratis. Vuze is no dissimilar in this respect. That said, downloading via BitTorrent is not illegal and, should you be accessing legal material, you're fine.

Even better than that, Vuze volition act as a media histrion for most formats and even convert files for playback on your devices, including iPads and games consoles. Y'all can even stream video from Vuze via Wi-Fi to compatible devices such equally the Xbox 360, making it more than of an ideal media viewing solution than a nuisance to society.

3. Flip4Mac

There'south been little honey lost between Apple and Microsoft over the years, and the same extends to their media formats. The dreaded .WMV (Windows Media Video) file is the scourge of the Mac Os X operating system and will non run natively in QuickTime.

Fortunately, the costless Flip4Mac software will eradicate this headache and, once installed, lets you forget about formats and enjoy the video you lot are afterwards. The WMV player too allows for Windows Media files to play back in Safari equally well to help you enjoy a more complete browsing feel. A must-take install to convalesce format folly.

4. HandBrake

Those looking to bring their flick collection into the modern world should certainly consider HandBrake for all their ripping needs. This uncomplicated app tin can grab a movie from DVD and encode it into a variety of formats for playback on your Mac, iPhone or iPad.

Those with the new Apple TV volition too be able to create compatible files from their movie discs and add them to iTunes without having to fiddle effectually with DVD players and tons of cases. The app tin fifty-fifty retain the affiliate selection features and subtitles of your original disc.

While ripping a DVD to your Mac can take some time (and please respect copyright) if handled right, the outcome makes accessing your entertainment a keen bargain easier. The latest version of HandBrake introduces a alive preview feature that allows you to check the quality of your rip before committing to hours of encoding besides. You can also use HandBrake to convert video files into different formats.

five. Spotify

Spotify came from out of nowhere and took the music lovers of Europe by tempest. This is streaming music washed right. This service is free to those who can handle an advertizing every iii songs or so. It offers a catalogue of more than x million songs of all genres, which stream instantly through the Spotify app.

It can also link to your iTunes library so all of your favourite tracks are in one place. You tin log in from multiple Macs using your Spotify account, create playlists, share music with friends and more.

One of our favourite features is the innovative collaborative playlist, where your friends tin add tracks over the internet for y'all to listen to. If yous wish, you lot can pay to upgrade Spotify to a premium business relationship, at which point you become ad-costless.

And for £9.99 per month you lot can fifty-fifty have the same service on your iPhone with music stored for offline playback.

6. VLC

VLC is one of those apps you lot can plow to if QuickTime and other media-playing apps won't work with a media format y'all want to employ. Initially, you might wonder why you'll ever need this app, but if you always devious beyond the bounds of the iTunes Shop and download video from some other online source, you're more than than likely to come across a problem – that is, it's non playing properly in iTunes or QuickTime.

Converting the video with HandBrake is ever an option, but, to be honest, using VLC is but quicker. The app can handle DVD playback besides as more obscure formats that crop upward from time to fourth dimension.

Files that are missing pieces or broken tin however be played in VLC to the best of its ability and it provides a wealth of codecs to assistance your Mac handle all kinds of media file formats.

VLC is an application that every Mac user should accept installed for when their media won't bear.

Social apps for Mac

7. AddressBookSync

The Address Book app on your Mac is peachy for organising contacts and syncing them to your iPhone. Yet, the trouble is with then many contacts held, continually adding information and profile pictures tin go a fourth dimension-consuming task.

AddressBookSync is an ingenious tool that connects to your Facebook account to pull in your friends' birthday info besides as images from their accounts into your Mac'south Accost Book. This is specially handy for iPhone users with images appearing on screen when a contact is calling.

8. Adium

The chances are yous accept an account for more one instant messaging client. With so many available from iChat to Windows Messenger through Google Chat and Yahoo! information technology's not surprising.

So, do y'all leave all of these clients open and consuming memory or exercise you observe an all-in-1 solution? If you want the latter, Adium is your app.

Uniform with more IM clients than you probably knew existed, Adium combines all your accounts into one like shooting fish in a barrel-to-use solution so you tin can proceed in touch with all your contacts regardless of the service they are using.

9. Twitter

This is the official Twitter app for Mac. It was launched at the same time as the new Mac App Store, and speedily became the most popular download there. To go it you'll need to have the Mac App Shop installed (which ways you'll need to be running Os X ten.six and accept installed the latest organisation updates).

Unlike other Twitter clients, Twitter offers a very Os Ten-friendly surround without skimping on the features you lot need to relish your 140-graphic symbol fix.

A specially great feature is that y'all can view all tweets in a chat only past double-clicking on the main tweet. You can as well search for trending topics and use multiple accounts within the same app.

Composing a new tweet is now fabricated far easier with the Compose window that floats outside the interface, set up for you lot to type your thoughts. If you lot want to add an image to your tweet simply drag and drop it into the new tweet window.

You tin can select which prototype hosting service y'all use from the Preferences pane, and also which URL-shortening service the Twitter app will use. Yous can also go the official Twitter app for iPad and iPhone to complete your Twitter experience wherever you lot are in the world.

10. Skype

Skype isn't a new service only the manner information technology has developed over the years keeps it incredibly useful. The premise is simple, with an net connection and a copy of the free software installed, y'all tin talk to anyone on Skype via audio or video conversation. And you tin even swap files, create conference calls or simply conversation via instant messaging.

For an additional fee, you tin add voicemail to your account and even call mobiles and landlines if you lot wish.

Handy utilities

11. Evernote

Whatever yous're doing in life there are things you need to recollect, be they pictures, notes, websites or sounds. Evernote provides a identify to store your ideas, plans and reminders.

Using cloud-based storage, the Mac app syncs with your iPhone and iPad, too as any other computer to proceed your notes close to hand whenever you need them. Unique search features permit y'all to dig out annihilation you've stored and it tin even recognise handwritten docs.

This app not only organises your notes, photos, screenshots and more than, simply you can add custom tags to brand things easier to search.

12. r-name

Have you always had a bunch of files in a folder and then discovered y'all demand to rename each 1? For a renaming chore that comprises more than x files or more than it can become a very wearisome and repetitive task.

And that's where r-name comes in. It's a simple, free app that allows files and folders to be dropped in and renamed in any way you require. Platonic for photos or television set series, this app will save a great deal of fourth dimension.

thirteen. Burn

While it's piece of cake to burn a CD or DVD from within Mac OS X, Burn brings simplicity, also equally advanced options to the task. For example, it allows you lot to set which file system your disc volition use so Windows owners can access files.

Information technology can create audio CDs and MP3 discs, and caters for DVD, VideoCD and DivX discs. An Inspector tool allows y'all to change settings on your disc such every bit file permissions, dates and the icon.

14. Carbon Copy Cloner

Everyone talks about backing up their calculator files, only how many of us are committed to doing it properly?

Carbon Copy Cloner makes it easy to back up your system but to motility it to another Mac or larger difficult drive without having to reinstall the Os. Information technology fifty-fifty offers incremental backups, which only updates files that have changed since you concluding ran the software.

Considering this is a free application, information technology's an absolute powerhouse for any Mac user who wants security for their system and flexibility for their hardware.