If the advent of Widgets (and now, Gadgets for Vista) has proven anything, it is that the customization and extensibility of popular applications represent a huge market: everyone seems to demand a slightly different experience from these ubiquitous, monolithic programs and operating systems. IE, the world's most popular web browser, has long been a base onto which toolbars, mods and skins have been tacked but Microsoft only seems to have embraced this market with the launch of its much-improved version 7.

The cunningly titled 'ieaddons.com' serves as a dedicated home for Internet Explorer add ons, from where users can download, review and purchase extensions for their browser (it's worth noting that many of the extensions here are for sale, in stark contrast to Mozilla's offering). Among our favourites are the astoundingly good FoxyTunes - which allows you to control most desktop media players from your browser window and the essential Google Toolbar which adds a lot of functionality to your IE.

While there are many more free extensions available for Mozilla browsers (such as Firefox), it's worth remembering that many of them are also available for Internet Explorer, where they'll work just as well. As something of an added bonus: Microsoft are offering a cash prize and trip to Mix07 in Las Vegas to the developer who creates the best IE add on before February 9th! Rumour has it that the Pussycat Dolls might be in attendance.

The big buzz in software currently surrounds peer-to-peer and streaming television. TV is big business and companies like Microsoft have spent years trying to get us to watch it on our computers. For a while, it looked as if the public were resolutely committed to a separation of TV and PC but with the advent of YouTube, BitTorrent and the iTunes store, more and more users seem to be happy watching TV shows on the smaller screen. Clearly, though, with the exception of Apple's deals with various TV networks and movie studios, the popular, viral content distribution model is far from what Microsoft envisioned 10 years ago.

For those of you who haven't heard of The Venice Project, we've already prepared a brief summary of what it does. Since then, we've finally had an opportunity to try the program and we were really impressed by what we saw. Bound by the confines of a seriously strict non-disclosure agreement, we have to be pretty careful with what we say... but there are some aspects of the program we couldn't resist sharing with you.

On starting TVP, it's immediately obvious that this is a member of that new generation of applications: the hybrid between old fashioned desktop apps and modern 'web 2.0' software. The stylish, minimal-yet-chunky design makes excellent use of transparencies and overlays to provide a very modern web feel to the program. The main menus can be hidden or shown with ease and are a snap to navigate.

Ranking at number 9 in Microsoft's own Top Ten Tips & Tricks, ReadyBoost is on first sight an interesting way to speed up your Vista PC's performance without buying more RAM:

Windows Vista introduces a new concept for adding additional performance to a running system. Windows ReadyBoost™ lets people use flash memory on a USB 2.0 drive, SD Card, Compact Flash, or other memory form factor to provide additional memory cache—memory that the computer can access much more quickly than it can access data on the hard drive. Insert a USB 2.0 memory drive with at least 512 MB capacity. When prompted, click use this device to speed up my computer.

Microsoft is clearly keen to talk ReadyBoost up as an innovation. Like Paul Thurrott, though, we were left wondering about a couple of things. For example: what is the net gain in performance when using a 1GB thumbdrive as cache rather than your traditional hard-disk which might well have in excess of 100GB free space? Isn't this just a fancy name for moving the pagefile to a USB device? Matt Ayers responds succinctly in this useful Q&A session:

Once upon a time, Palm OS was the pre-eminent mobile computing platform. Synonymous with professional gadgetry, Palm had a range of devices to match most budgets and an impressive network of software developers, large and small, constantly releasing new titles for every imaginable use. Then, amid strong competition from Microsoft's Pocket PC and Windows Mobile platforms, as well as a confusing series of buy-outs, mergers and de-mergers, Palm seemed to have lost its way. News, two years ago, that PalmOne would be releasing Windows Mobile compatible handsets seemed to confirm the inevitable: palm's operating system was dead.

But there's life in the old dog yet. The recently released Treo 680 has received strong reviews despite using an operating system which hasn't changed significantly in years. Palm has a broad customer base and a huge back catalogue of compatible software which is arguably unrivalled by even Microsoft's strong presence in the market. The release of Palm handhelds featuring version 6 of the operating system (named 'Cobalt') may still be some time away but the OS - and its family of independent shareware developers - seems to be doing just fine.

If you're lucky (and wise) enough to own one of Nokia's newer handsets, you can now upgrade your phone's firmware with Nokia's Software Updater application. This smart, simple tool automatically detects your the model and firmware version of your phone, checks online for new versions of its system software, downloads and installs updates as and when needed.

Simply follow the on-screen prompts as the app guides you through connecting your phone, detecting the current software version and installing or reinstalling any available firmware editions. The whole process takes between five and ten minutes.

With all the curent debate about the browser wars and Firefox versus Internet Explorer, some of the smaller, more innovative browsers on the market have struggled somewhat to win the column inches they so clearly deserve. And no, I'm not talking about the 'so Scandanavianally good it's just boring' Opera.

The two web browsers which have grabbed my attention come from the same root. Both Flock and Songbird are based on the Mozilla browser and are therefore cousins of the ever-more-popular Firefox. From there, however, the similarities end. Flock is based on the very futuristic concept of the 'social browser', or perhaps that should be 'internet interactor'. The whole idea behind this smart all-rounder is that you use one program to do everything.

Most mobile phone networks now recognise that the next big leap in phone functionality will be towards instant messaging, Push-To-Talk and VoIP internet calls. Programs like Talkonaut give you the opportunity to try these next generation features even if your phone isn’t the latest model.

Talkonaut includes several ways of staying in touch with your contacts. You can chat with buddies on MSN, Google Talk or Jabber, send SMS to Skype or other VoIP contacts or make VoIP calls. It is these last two features which are perhaps the most exciting as they bring some seriously new and interesting features to that mobile phone you may have been thinking about replacing.

Technically speaking, Talkonaut does not offer true ‘Voice Over IP’ calling. That is to say, because of network-related problems, any VoIP call made with the program is not conducted entirely over the internet. What happens when you choose to call a Google Talk contact is that Talkonaut’s network calls your phone, and then connects via the internet with your contact’s Google Talk client. You pay the price of one ‘leg’ of the call (the call-back which Talkonaut’s network establishes with your phone).

This all sounds very complicated but in fact the technology behind this feature is very simple. What’s more, Talkonaut is really easy to use, making all these different steps into a single, seamless process. We did encounter a couple of issues while testing the VoIP feature but saw enough of it working to be pretty impressed. The other features of Talkonaut worked perfectly, making traditional IM chats with your buddies a piece of cake.

Despite our slight problems making all of its features perform as expected, Talkonaut is a well designed and robust application. We’re impressed that it works on such a large number of phones and look forward to even more features as the program evolves.

One of our favourite mobile software developers, SBSH has just updated its Facade for Smartphone app with some cool new features. Facade allows you to customise your Smartphone’s Today screen with a whole bunch of extra little gadgets (such as viewing 30 days’ appointments without needing to open your agenda).

While this is a pretty common field for WinMobile developers, SBSH has succeeded at achieving what so many other developers are aiming for: true added value in terms of functions, while preserving the integrity of individual components on the Today screen. Where so many similar programs end up making your Today screen look incredibly complex and cluttered, SBSH Facade keeps things clean… but stays full of detail.

There are quite a few new features in Facade but out favourite is the sharp, professional design they’ve gone for – making the seemingly small 1.1 to 1.2 version change really very significant.

Given that phones have had cameras built-in for a number of years now, it can be pretty disappointing that when you first fire your camera up, it'll more likely than not be lacking in anything beyond the most basic features. That's where programs like Camera Magica come in. Camera Magica is capable of using bigger zoom, higher contrast and larger image sizes as well as being able to create new types of images such as seamless panoramas and 'joke' pictures.

While opening up the possibilities of your phone's camera, programs like this are actually using some pretty clever technology. When creating panoramas, Camera Magica automatically detects the edge of the last image you took and looks for it as you slowly move the camera. When lined up, it takes the next shot, making it easy for the program to blend the edges of your images for that seamless effect!

PhotoFusion, from Scalado, has similar features. Along with its panorama tools (which use transparent overlays to help the user line up image edges), PhotoFusion allows you to create 'Photo Strips' (one image made up of nine others, in grid format), and warped images. Its developer, Scalado is recognised as being at the forefront of phone camera software development so we can expect more to come from them in the future.

Separating these two programs on anything other than price is pointless: they're both well designed, fun programs which will help you get the most out of your smart camera phone. Camera Magica is true Freeware and is thus our favourite but PhotoFusion certainly deserves a test run for its novel approach to user-interface and attractive output.

As Sony Ericsson's latest offering (the CyberShot Phone) makes clear, portable telephony and photography are now inextricably linked. What may have seemed like a fad has become a major feature - one which is improved and enhanced by programs like CameraMagica and PhotoFusion.

After the huge success of portable MP3 players, it was only ever going to be a matter of time until mobile video took off in the same way. As portable movie players become more and more popular, the temptation to buy one of these sleek, spanking new devices becomes almost unbearable! But wait! As the proud owner of a Pocket PC or Palm PDA, you probably already have the hardware necessary to enjoy video on-the-hop. All you need now is a piece of reliable, free software to convert and optimise your movie files for mobile use. PocketDivXEncoder is that piece of software.

The installation procedure for this application was a breeze, mainly because there wasn’t one! It was refreshing to see that a simple program didn’t need to touch the registry in order to run, let alone force us to restart the computer (as all Nokia’s apps do). So as soon as you download the program, you’re ready to go. The program itself was pretty easy to use, with controls and settings which should be familiar to anyone who’s even come close to thinking about video compression in the last five years. For those who haven’t, all you really need to do is tell the program which device you’ll be using and it’ll do all the work for you.

Have you ever dreamt of flying a Top Gun jet when you’re sat on the bus? The new game, Sky Striker aims to provide you with just that experience: a complete combat flight simulator with good graphics, tricky physics and multiple weapon options.

Having managed to get the game to run (by deleting everything else from our test phone’s memory – Sky Striker’s a real resource hog), the first thing we noticed was that it overrides your phone’s profile settings. Even on a phone set to silent, the game starts with full volume music. This irritation isn’t unique to Sky Striker but it’s an irritation all the same. Developers ought to design games which work with your phone’s current set of options, rather than completely ignoring them.