Judging by the user comments I've read in the program's review and blog post, I'd say Windows Live Messenger 2011 hasn't been very successful among users. Whether the problem is the integration with Facebook or the new "social" interface, I can't tell. What I know for sure is that many people want to get rid of it and go back to a previous, lighter and more friendly version of Live Messenger. So here's a short tutorial I wrote on how to downgrade to Windows Live Messenger 2009 in just a few easy steps.

1. First of all, you need to remove Windows Live Messenger from your computer. Go to Control Panel > Programs and Features, scroll down to Windows Live Essentials 2011, right click on it and start the uninstalling wizard.

2. In the first screen of the wizard, select the "Remove one or more Windows Live programs".

While half the world was celebrating Halloween, the other half was adjusting their clocks to the new daylight saving time for winter, starting effectively Sunday October 31st at 3:00 AM. But the iPhone didn't seem to notice, and though the device switches hours automatically, a bug in iOS4 prevented many of them from working it out successfully. Time was adjusted, but the built-in alarm failed. This resulted in thousands of iPhone users being woken up an hour late!

The daylight savings time is coming to the US on Sunday 7 November, so if you want to avoid having trouble with your alarms, you have two options: either you buy a standard alarm clock for your bedside table, or you use any of the dozen alarm apps you can find in the App Store. Here are some of them:

Nightstand Central - This complete alarm clock includes a sleep timer, weather info and customizable backgrounds. You can listen to your favorite music or audiobooks while going to sleep, set up various alarms with different configuration options and make use of the app's convenient flashlight if you need to get up in the middle of the night.

Alarm Clock Free - A nicely designed alarm clock for the iPhone that includes a gorgeous LCD-style display, support for multiple alarms, 11 built-in alarm sounds and customizable snooze function, among other features. The Pro version lets you use your favorite songs or playlists as alarm sound, includes more themes and also has a built-in flashlight.

Clock Pro - More than just an alarm app, Clock Pro combines many clock and timer functions in one program. You can use it as an alarm clock with regular sounds or with your favorite music, and also as a timer for different purposes: a world clock to display the time around the globe, a chess clock, a stop watch, a sleep timer, a metronome, even an egg timer!

Goodnite - A fully customizable alarm clock that uses different LED displays, screen orientations and personal backgrounds images. You can have it play your favorite songs at night when going to sleep, and play an alarm sound - or iPod playlist - in the morning at an increasing volume to wake up without any rush.

TimeTuner Radio  - A powerful app that wakes you up not only with its own alarm sounds or your favorite iPod songs and playlists, but also with any of the 30,000 online radio stations the program can tune in to. Other interesting features are support for unlimited, customizable alarms, dual time zone (perfect for travelers), and night mode (to adjust brightness).

Google can help you discover great new places if you know how to use it - like combining Google Search and Maps to find a sushi restaurant nearby. Now Google has made this function even easier to use with Google Place Search, a new local-oriented search feature.

The idea behind Google Place Search is simple, and so is the way it works. Whenever you type a local search in Google (like “sushi restaurant Barcelona”) the website will display results as a Place search, with extended information about each item. Of course, you can also use Google Place Search from the very beginning if you click on the Place logo on the left sidebar. Google will use either the name of the location you entered, or an estimate of your current location.

Each place listed in results includes relevant information such as the complete address and phone number, pictures and even reviews from other users posted on different sites across the web, all neatly presented and organized. Definitely much better than combining Google Search, Google Maps, TripAdvisor, 411 and more!

Google Place will be slowly rolled out to all Google users in more than 40 languages over the next few days. If you don’t see it yet, you can use this special link to have a sneak peek at the new results.

Things are quite hectic at the moment at Mozilla's headquarters. Not only are they working on new releases of Firefox 3 (with version 3.6.12 released just today) but also on the next major milestone in the history of this web browser: Firefox 4.

However it seems that the schedule for the launch of this new version was too optimistic and had to be revised in order to adapt it to the actual amount of work. Development on Firefox 4 has not been slowed down, but completing all the tasks and solving all the bugs is taking longer than expected. And as Mozilla won't approve the release of its flagship before it's completely ready, the final release has been delayed until 2011.

Taking into account new time estimates and the pending work to get Firefox 4 ready for its final release, Mozilla developers have come up with a new beta and release candidate schedule that includes the release of frequent beta versions - up to four in the next few weeks - and a first release candidate in early 2011. The final release date, according to Mozilla, will be soon after that RC.

A quick look at iTunes is enough to tell that we’re just a few days away from Halloween: pumpkins, bats, witches and ghosts wander around the App Store in a bunch of Halloween-themed apps of all sorts. You get countdown clocks, photo editors, costume creators and creepy sound generators, among others.

But there’s also another type of Halloween apps on iTunes – those that are released as special Halloween editions instead of having been created from scratch just for the holiday. They’re usually very popular apps already, and having a special Halloween edition makes them even more enjoyable. Let’s take a look at some examples:

Angry Birds Halloween HD – One of the most downloaded games of all times on the App Store, Angry Birds, has released a Halloween special edition for iPad with spooky night backgrounds, smashable pumpkins and grizzly sound effects. The game won't scare the hell out of you but is as fun and addictive as the original edition.

Mosaic Photo Halloween - While the original Mpsaid Photo app enables you to create original image mosaics with your photos, the Halloween version will boost your creativity with new Halloween-themed pictures. Like in the standard version, you can also import photos and share your creations on Facebook and Flickr.

Doodle Jump Halloween -The latest version of this popular game is entirely devoted to Halloween. A new haunted game theme and lots of creepy creatures such as vampires, witches and zombies are the most outstanding new elements in this special version, where the main character has evolved from being just Doodle to becoming a scary Doodlestein.

Mozilla Labs have announced their latest experiment, Open Web Apps. According to Mozilla, this new type of application sits somewhere between traditional desktop software and standard online tools, providing the user with the best features of both worlds: they're as handy and fully interactive as desktop apps, but also feed on Web technologies like HTML, Javascript and CSS.

The Open Web Apps can be used on both desktop and mobile environments, have a free or paid license, work on any browser and can be freely distributed by developers directly to users, or through other online stores - maybe a reference to the recently announced Mac App Store?

Mozilla Labs are currently working on all the key elements in the main infrastructure to make Open Web Apps available as soon as possible, but you can already sneak a look at the experiment with the App Store demo.The demo includes three simple test web apps you can download to see how the whole system works. And if you want to know more about Mozilla's Open Web Apps project, check out this video:

A few days ago Skype, the most popular and reliable VoIP app in the world, was updated to version 5. I already had a sneak peek at the new version thanks to the beta released weeks ago, but Skype 5 Final brings more new features: a refreshed interface design that makes the program easier to use, and integration with your Facebook profile – though that might not be such a good idea after all.

After a fairly quick installation, you can login with your username and password, or create a new Skype user right on the spot. You’ll immediately notice the new interface with a cleaner, more streamlined design. The app feels clearer and easier to use.

The new Skype interface is divided into two main sections. The left sidebar displays your contacts and your most recent calls, while the area on the right is divided into several tabs:  Skype Home (which is basically Skype advertising its own products), your Skype user profile and another tab to give feedback about the program.

If you’re around your thirties, you probably heard about Audiogalaxy – or even used it in the early days of P2P. Audiogalaxy was a peer-to-peer music sharing app that became very popular between 1998 and 2001. In 2002, however, their developers had to face a lawsuit from the RIAA for allowing exchange of copyrighted material. It was the beginning of the end: later that year Audiogalaxy blocked its P2P functions altogether and rebranded a paid streaming service called Rhapsody.

The big news is that Audiogalaxy is back, though in a different shape. The program has reinvented itself and is now a music streaming – or more accurately, placeshifting – application with which you can listen to the music stored in your computer at any time, no matter where you are.

The new Audiogalaxy has nothing to do with its ancestor. Instead of sharing music with people over the Internet, you just listen to your own music, stored in your own hard drive, thanks to Audiogalaxy’s mobile apps for iPhone, iPod, iPad and Android-based devices.

As I write these words, you should all be enjoying the new Twitter design. According to the app's official blog, 100% of their 160 million users have now access to the new Twitter, whether they've been using the tool for years or signed up for it only yesterday.

Either way - and whether you like the new design or not - I thought it would be a good idea to make a list of the most useful shortcuts for using the new Twitter without taking your hands off the keyboard. It makes the web app even easier to use. Who knows, maybe it'll help you to learn to love it, if you're reluctant to accept change. So, here we go:

• To tweet a new message, press the N key.

• To see your Favorite tweets, press G and then F.

• To see your mentions, press G and then R.

• To scroll down the timeline, press the spacebar.

• To reply to a message, press the R key after selecting the message.

• To retweet a message, press the T key. Remember that first you must select the message you want to share with your followers.

• To visit someone's profile, press G and then U, and start entering the user's name in the floating window. Twitter will complete the text as you type.

Despite the odd name, Kindle Singles is not a new dating service on Amazon's ebook reader. It's a new format released by the popular online store, which has been especially created for shorter ebooks.

Kindle Singles is aimed at books between 10,000 and 30,000 words (roughly 30 to 90 pages, or a few chapters of a standard book). It's perfect for those stories that were too long to be published as a featured article on a newspaper, but also maybe too short to be worth the costs of a typical book marketing and distribution campaign.

According to Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content:

Ideas and the words to deliver them should be crafted to their natural length, not to an artificial marketing length that justifies a particular price or a certain format. With Kindle Singles, we're reaching out to publishers and accomplished writers and we're excited to see what they create.

This new ebook format will have its own section in the Kindle Store on Amazon, and will also benefit from the "Buy Once, Read Everywhere" feature that characterizes all Kindle content. Once you buy your Kindle Singles, they'll be available for download on your Kindle, as well as any other device where you have installed the Kindle application. They'll be also automatically synced across all your devices, and archived online for future download. One difference though is that they'll be much cheaper than regular books.

Only 11 months after its official presentation, rumor has it that the first final version of Chromium OS (also known as Chrome OS) will be launched next month. The news was unveiled by TechCrunch, after spotting references to the project reaching the Release Candidate development stage - usually the final debugging and beta-testing phase, right before the official final release.

According to these references, included in bug comments on the Google Code site, Chromium's most recent build is 0.9.78.1, so we can expect the first final version of Google's operating system as soon as that version hits "1".

There are several possible dates for this release. Some blogs bet on November 11th, mainly due to a Google employee mentioning this date in a thread over at Google Code site. 'We will push this after November 11', he replies to a request about a certain feature. Another possible release date, on the other hand, would be November 19th - the first anniversary of their presentation event last year.

Whatever the final launch date is, Google Chromium OS will be one of the most important software events of the year, and I'm sure the hype will keep on growing until we can finally lay our hands on it.

When I first learned about MobileMe, I wondered who would be willing to pay $99 a year for services (email, photo gallery, online storage) that you could get cheaper elsewhere, if not totally free. But now that I have an iPhone 4, I see a powerful reason to sign up for MobileMe: the Find My iPhone utility.

Besides its most common usage as backup and syncing tool, MobileMe has an incredible added value - at least for me: it includes the so called Find My iPhone, a feature that enables you to locate a missing or stolen iPhone, display messages on its screen and what's more, even lock it or wipe its contents remotely. This awesome feature needs a bit of set-up, but nothing you can't do by yourself if you follow these easy steps:

1. First of all, you obviously need to sign up for MobileMe. If the $99/year fee is still too much for you, don't worry: you've got a 2-month trial period before the first payment is due.

Halloween is just around the corner, and I'm already getting in the mood for it. Not only have I downloaded a few Halloween wallpapers, but I've also had lots of fun with the special Halloween effects recently featured in Picnik, the online photo editor.

According to the announcement in Google's official blog (remember Google bought Picnick in March 2010), the popular photo editor has launched a new special collection of Halloween imagery to make your photos look as spooky as possible - without losing Picnik's traditional ease of use. All you need to do is upload a photo and start applying the Halloween eyecandy, available in the sidebar on the left side of your screen.

I hope Alma, our dear Softonic Executive Assistant, doesn't get mad at me for this.

The Picnik Halloween special pack includes different types of material to give your photos a Halloween look:

• Halloween effects - From bloody fangs to scary yellow eyes, here's everything you need to quickly turn anyone into a vampire, a zombie, a ghost or any other creature of the night. No biting necessary!

• Halloween text - Add a message from beyond the grave with these spooky text fonts. My personal advice: use a brilliant, blood-inspired red as the text color.

• Halloween stickers - Give a final touch to your creation with Picnik's selection of stickers: jack-o-lanterns, bats, tombstones, ghosts, spider webs and other creepy decorative items.

Not all of the Halloween effects are available for free - some of them can only be used with a Picnik Premium account - but still, it's a fun way to start celebrating Halloween 2010.

Since I bought an iPad last a few months ago, one of the ways I've been using it is as a small extension of my iMac's screen. The iPad is great to watch a couple of episodes of your favorite TV show, lying on the couch or in bed, right before going to sleep, when you don't want to sit in front of the computer or set up video streaming on your console.

You can use the iPad as a small portable video player in two ways: one is using a program to convert video files (like HandBrake) and then syncing them with the device via iTunes, and the other is using a streaming app like ZumoCast. With ZumoCast you can stream content from your computer (documents, photos, videos and music) to the iPad or the iPhone - no need to convert and sync anything. Plus, it's really easy to use!

The first thing you need to do is install ZumoCast in the computer you want to stream content from. ZumoCast is available for both Windows and Mac, so simply choose your version and follow the instructions. As part of the installation process, you'll need to create a free ZumoCast user account.

Think about it: how many times have you opened up Facebook 'just for a quick check', and ended up spending a couple of hours looking at photos or planting more strawberries in Farmville? Procrastination is a dangerous habit that can seriously affect your productivity, especially if you work on the web and have access to all sorts of distractions.

The only way to avoid this waste of time is to make use of your willpower and avoid giving in to those temptations until you've finished with your work. Luckily for the weakest, there are also special tools to block certain programs and websites, thus preventing them from distracting you at the worst moment.

One of these special programs is ManicTime, a complete tool that logs the amount of time you spend on each program, document or even website. Thanks to a colorful report, which uses bars to represent time, a quick glance is enough to see how you’ve spent a whole day in front of the computer, and what are the programs you’ve spent most time on.