Many new services and technologies are emerging on the net. Wireless applications are becoming commonplace and an increasing number of people have access to broadband. Chatting and filesharing are just two ways to enhance your internet experience. How about podcasting, news feeds and web monitoring? Instead of surfing to a website to check for new stuff, these tools will notify you whenever there's an update available. Another cool new technology is Voice Over IP (VOIP), which lets you use your computer as a phone.
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HomepageMozilla Thunderbird is a free email, newsgroup and newsfeed client, developed by the same guys that created Firefox. It can handle multiple accounts for multiple identities and features an automated spam filter, message tagging and real-time spell checking, to name a few. You can even view your mails as a threaded conversation, so you never lose track of their context. Thunderbird is extensible through add-ons, such as the Lightning calendar add-on. If you're still using Microsoft Outlook, you should seriously consider switching to Thunderbird.
My second choices include Pegasus Mail and Foxmail. Foxmail is an excellent Chinese program with close to ten million users and an eager fanbase. An English translation is included.
Online chatting is one of those technologies that took the world by storm. Most people use either AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ or MSN Messenger, with each one using its own network. But none of these "usual suspects" enable you to communicate with someone on another network. So if you've got one friend on ICQ and another on MSN, you'd need to run both tools simultaneously. And what about AIM, IRC, Yahoo, SMS, IAX, Gadu-Gadu, Jabber or Netsend? The answer is a client that can handle multiple protocols.
One such multi-protocol messenger, Miranda IM, turns out to be a true gem. Open-source and capable of connecting to most (if not all) protocols/networks out there, it uses less memory than any of its competitors and is extremely fast and stable. A plugin system even allows you to extend its functionality to your heart's desire, ranging from extra protocols and skins to elaborate encryption libraries. Miranda is Windows software, though, so if you're looking for a decent unix/linux client, have a look at Pidgin.
It's hard to get Internet Telephony to "just work" on every PC without problems. Skype is pretty much the only program that's got almost everything right: It nearly always works out-of-the-box, uses encrypted communication and is kind of free. That's right, you'll have to pay for some advanced features. But since these tend to include connectivity to commercial telephone networks, a fee could be expected. For example, if you want to place/receive calls to/from regular phones or send SMS messages. Free features include Skype-to-Skype calls, video calls and conferencing.
If you're looking for an alternative to Skype, Google Talk and Gizmo Project make great candidates. But keep in mind Google Talk is still in development and doesn't allow calling cell- or regular phones. I'm keeping an eye on this one, though, since I have high expectations for future releases. Gizmo Project, another promising VOIP client, does offer landlines/cellphone connectivity and applies a Skype-like model: while charging similar fees for non-Gizmo connections, its free features allow Gizmo-to-Gizmo calls. But, unlike Skype, calling Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk or Windows Live users is also free. Gizmo Project is used by many universities, but can't beat Skype's ease of installation and use.
It's hard to get Internet Telephony to "just work" on every PC without problems. Skype is pretty much the only program that's got almost everything right: It nearly always works out-of-the-box, uses encrypted communication and is kind of free. That's right, you'll have to pay for some advanced features. But since these tend to include connectivity to commercial telephone networks, a fee could be expected. For example, if you want to place/receive calls to/from regular phones or send SMS messages. Free features include Skype-to-Skype calls, video calls and conferencing.
If you're looking for an alternative to Skype, Google Talk and Gizmo Project make great candidates. But keep in mind Google Talk is still in development and doesn't allow calling cell- or regular phones. I'm keeping an eye on this one, though, since I have high expectations for future releases. Gizmo Project, another promising VOIP client, does offer landlines/cellphone connectivity and applies a Skype-like model: while charging similar fees for non-Gizmo connections, its free features allow Gizmo-to-Gizmo calls. But, unlike Skype, calling Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk or Windows Live users is also free. Gizmo Project is used by many universities, but can't beat Skype's ease of installation and use.
A review will appear soon.
A review will appear soon.