Usually, whenever I hear about a new free SMS texting service I tend to be very skeptical. In my experience they either never work, are not available in my country, are limited to a handful of messages or require extensive registration which later involves getting my own mobile bombarded by messages, horoscopes and other junk that I don't want.

Jaxtr, I was pleasantly surprised to find, falls into none of the above categories and allows you to send an unlimited number of SMS messages to people in 38 countries. The setup process is really easy - just enter a name, user-name, password and e-mail address and you can start sending immediately without any verification required. Jaxtr is mainly designed as a VoIP app but it allows sending texts to mobiles via a small interface on the right of the screen. Even better, you can receive responses on your own mobile phone although this involves verifying your mobile number with the Jaxtr website.

The other good thing about Jaxtr is that it seems to work independently of mobile operators so you don't have to worry about them intercepting your free messages or putting a stop to it all like has happened in the past to such services. It's also an interesting alternative to Skype because Jaxtr works with any phone, both mobile and landline. When a member adds their Jaxtr link to their email signature, friends and family can call them from their regular phone from anywhere in the world without paying expensive international toll charges. Family and friends simply click on the member's Jaxtr link to generate a local number in their own country. By saving this permanent, direct-dial number on their phone, people can call friends and family abroad at the same cost and with the same convenience as calling a friend down the street.

I'm still to meet another person who uses this service despite the developers claiming that over 10 million people in 220 countries use Jaxtr to receive calls from people visiting their social networking pages, to make calls to their friends and family worldwide and to get to know fellow Jaxtr members on café Jaxtr, the world's largest talk network. Now that they've launched free mobile texting however, maybe it will give the site the profile boost it needs.

Do you ever get the feeling that developers are sometimes stretching the truth somewhat when they claim their software is still in "beta phase", in some cases, years after it was originally released? Are users just being rather sneakily used by developers as continual guinea pigs for their products with little for them to show for it in return?

There is no strict time limit for software in the beta testing but it's generally agreed that it's a limited time period where the program is open to a closed number of users or the wider public in order for them to report any bugs or problems that need fixing before the final version is released. However, as Tim O'Reilly argues, this concept is becoming increasingly stretched. So much so in fact, that a new term, "Perpetual beta", is a more accurate term to describe the status of many newly released programs:

Users must be treated as co-developers, in a reflection of open source development practices (even if the software in question is unlikely to be released under an open source license.) The open source dictum, "release early and release often" in fact has morphed into an even more radical position, "the perpetual beta," in which the product is developed in the open, with new features slipstreamed in on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis. It's no accident that services such as Gmail, Google Maps, Flickr, del.icio.us, and the like may be expected to bear a "Beta" logo for years at a time.

As O'Reilly points out, it is often web based apps and especially newly emerging Web 2.0 applications that are being developed under this status. But this rather vague definition of beta wasn't always like this. As Gary Barnett of developers Ovum explains in The Guardian, the grounds of beta testing were clearly understood:

It was a deal you did with a vendor. They would give you access to something for free, and a very low upgrade fee for the final version, in return for you being patient with them and taking time to report on any issues.

Nowadays it seems, there's not much benefit to dedicated beta testers at all and Barnett claims that this is due to the grubby hands of marketing which has "hijacked" the term for its own agenda:

Would you like to transfer your favorite videos and movies to your mobile phone so that you can take them anywhere with you? Now you can with MediaCoder Mobile Phone Edition, an easy-to-use video converter which supports the most popular formats for mobile audio and video. Select the file, choose the appropriate format for your mobile and you're done!

If you're the sort of person who was fascinated with bouncy balls as a kid then you're going to love JumpyBall. This fun game for Pocket PC and Windows Mobile Smartphone devices features realistic 3D graphics and slick animation and charges you with the task of bouncing your ball over countless obstacles at breakneck speed. Just keep off the grass!

As unexciting as it may sound, you can't overlook backups, even if you have a Mac. With BackityMac you can store all your important files and even restore them at the click of your mouse. The application makes it really easy to select the files that matter most to you and save them somewhere where they'll be safe. It's also much easier to use than other advanced backup programs.

As you may already know, iTunes not only sells songs but also ringtones you can use in your iPhone if you pay the correspondent tax, which is $1 apart from the $1 for each song. However, some of us still think that's too much for a simple ringtone. So if you prefer to save those two bucks for something else, keep on reading and learn how to create free customized ringtones for the iPhone.

First you'll need to download ToneShop: this program enables you to select the best fragment from your favorite song and convert it to several mobile phone audio formats – including iPhone. Use ToneShop to create the ringtone, select the iPhone profile and save the resulting M4R file in any folder on your hard drive.

Now double click the M4R file and it'll launch iTunes, creating the Ringtones area in your library right away if this is the first time you work with M4R files in iTunes. If not, the new ringtone will simply be added to your collection.

Are you sick of the Nokia Tune - or any other standard mobile phone ringtone? Then download ToneShop and start creating your own personalized ringtones right away! You can use your favorite MP3 songs (plus other audio formats) and create ringtones that are compatible with many different phone makes and models, including the iPhone.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for Mac is any photographer's dream application come true. The application allows both professional and advanced photographers to import, store, organize, edit and export thousands of pictures from one uncluttered interface. Top of the range editing tools, multiple ways to view your images, and advanced printing, web publishing and slide show creation. What more could you ask for?

Fancy turning back the clock by playing a Super Nintendo classic on the train or the bus? Then download Zelda for your Java phone. This faithful remake sees you explore vast lands looking for objects, solving puzzles and defeating enemies. Be warned though, it's highly addictive and guaranteed to make you miss your stop!

Some more great news for our readers from around the world: we're pleased to announce the launch of yet another new edition of OnSoftware, this time in German! As you might have guessed, the German edition of OnSoftware has been in the pipeline for quite some time, so the blog's already packed with handy tips and software reviews, completely auf Deutsch.

So if you're a German-speaking software lover, check out our new German blog now! Even if you don't speak German, this is good news for all our readers as it means that we've got an even bigger team of writers working to make OnSoftware a great software blog.

As usual, there are loads more features and announcements on the way, but to tell you about them now would ruin the fun! In the meantime, why not drop by and say "Hallo" to our new sister blog, OnSoftware in German?

Even as far back as 2000, there were reports that people were increasingly suffering from "e-mail stress". Anyone who uses e-mail regularly for work will know what this is - the tyranny of the inbox that seems to keep filling-up with more questions, requests, meeting arrangements and orders whether you are at your desktop or not. In the worst cases, being away from your desktop for just a few minutes can leave you feeling like you've been hit by an avalanche on your return.

Nowadays, e-mail is ever more ubiquitous (think increasing numbers of laptops, Blackberries, WiFi connections and mobile devices) and e-mail stress is as big a problem as ever. As The Guardian reports:

Workers are suffering from the growing problem of 'email stress' as they struggle to cope with an unending tide of messages, new research reveals. Employees are becoming tired, frustrated and unproductive after constantly monitoring the electronic messages that keep interrupting them as they try to concentrate at work.

Although increasing quantities and the ubiquity of e-mail nowadays are major factors in stress, the study found that it is the breaks in concentration that e-mails regularly cause that do the real damage. Karen Renaud of the study said:

Email is the thing that now causes us the most problems in our working lives. It's an amazing tool, but it's got out of hand. Email harries you. You want to know what's in there, especially if it's from a family member or friends, or your boss, so you break off what you are doing to read the email. The problem is that when you go back to what you were doing, you've lost your chain of thought and, of course, you are less productive. People's brains get tired from breaking off from something every few minutes to check emails. The more distracted you are by distractions, including email, then you are going to be more tired and less productive.

This is an interesting perspective. Of course, most employers think that the more e-mail employees have to deal with, the more productive they will be but these findings suggest that actually the opposite can be true.

So are there any tools out there that can help make your e-mailing just a little bit less stressful? Assuming that most people work with Outlook, one of the best things you can do, before you try anything, is simply backup your mails with Genie Outlook Backup. Once you've done this, now feel free to experiment with some Outlook extensions and add-ons to improve your e-mail management such as Bells and Whistles for Outlook. This extension includes up to 20 organisational tools to help you better manage your mail such as an auto-responder, templates and attachment reminder. If it's duplicate e-mails that are driving you mad, then try Duplicate Killer Merger for Outlook which removes and merges duplicated e-mails in one go.

The best tips to reduce e-mail stress are always the simple ones however. Some of my favourite have been put together by Web Worker Daily and Psychcentral. Their advice includes filtering important e-mail, setting aside time per day to deal with e-mails and my favourite, stop checking it all the time (or all together depending on how far you want to go!).

Pong is the quintessential arcade classic - simple, addictive and fun, the game was launched by Atari in 1972 and still to this day it lives on, mainly on mobile phones and via emulators. It has also been given a new lease of life by developers who have adapted it for the 21st century creating variations of the game. A while back, Cyril explained how to play Pong within Firefox using a cool extension but if you don't use the browser or want something a bit more exciting, try one of these:

Plamsa Pong - Superb version of the game where you play within a Plasma filled environment 3D UltraPong - Take an air hockey table, make it 3D, add some colour and you get 3D UltraPong

Bank Shot - Four player Pong action with multiple paddles instead of just one

Pong Evolution - Not so much an evolution as simply a free version for phones

SimplePong Generic - Slightly more flashy Pong game for Java phones

Admit it, if you're at school and have an iPod, you've probably been caught watching a video, showing off your photos or just playing a tune instead of actually listening to a boring lecture.

Well, if you want to redeem yourself in the eyes of your parents and teachers, and show them that your iPod can actually contribute to your education, take a look at this list of 100 iPod education resources from The Online Education Database (OEDB). It includes study guides, podcasts, tutorials, applications, and more. Everything to become the brightest element of the class.

Let's start with study guides and podcast lessons. To prepare for an exam anywhere, anytime, read up from guides like Spark Notes or Raybook and listen to the SAT Vocabulary Builder's hip hop session to learn tricky words. For foreign students, ESL Podcasts are a great way to learn the language of Shakespeare on the way to University. iPod Spanish to Go will teach you all the secrets of the Latin tongue. If you prefer listening to lively discussion between experts and professors, listen up on both NPR Science Friday and the Philosophy Talk.

iPod applications abound, but finding the ones only useful for studying can be a little difficult. Use CopyTrans to backup and sync all the guides, flash cards and notes you've crammed into your iPod back onto your computer. If you want to do just the opposite, iGadget is what you need. This program prepares everything into an iPod friendly format. Looking for a place to study which offers a WiFi connection? Use WiPod to find it.

Finally, those of you wanting to get a head start at college can start studying lessons and lectures from many universities, like Stanford, Berkeley, Northeastern or Queen's University, which are among a few to offer their lectures in podcast format on iTunes ready to download.

Regular readers may well have noticed some changes going on around here recently, so we're really happy to finally share our big news with you: insideTonic is now OnSoftware!

We've changed the name of our blog for a variety of reasons, the main one being that we thought 'OnSoftware' says a lot more about what we're writing about and what we're interested in (I'm talking about software, in case you didn't cotton on). Also, as we already have a sister blog in Spanish, along with more to come in other languages (keep your eyes peeled!) - we figure that OnSoftware is generally a little clearer and easier to follow for our readers from all over the world.

Along with the new name, we've taken on an updated design and we'll continue to add great new features over the weeks and months to come.

Remember to update your subscription to the blog so you don't miss out on a single post.

Podcasts are one of the best ways of communicating with large audiences very cheaply but the problem is that most people want to listen to them while they are on the move rather than on their desktop PC. Unless you are downloading Podcasts directly onto your mobile device, you'll need to transfer them regularly from your PC. To help you do this, you can use a number of utilities dedicated to the task.

Probably the best of them all is PodPlus which is designed especially for transfers to iPods. In actual fact, this is the ultimate iPod management tool because it transfers everything from e-mails to images to your iPod but the Podcast manager allows you to easily see what you've downloaded, what genre it is and whether you've listened to it yet or not. Of course, the ideal scenario would be to have Podcasts delivered directy to your mobile device. jsiPodFetch doesn't exactly fulfill this role but it comes close. It automatically downloads Podcasts that you've added to it's RSS lists and then as soon as you connect your mobile device, it transfers them automatically without prompting - this includes devices other than the iPod too.

For something simple, although not as automated as jsiPodFetch, take a look at Juice (iPodder) which again, focuses on the iPod by automatically downloading Podcasts but requires you to manually transfer them once done. Finally, iPod2PC is designed with iTunes in mind. It enables you to transfer and replace Podcasts downloaded in iTunes in a slightly more sophisiticated way than iTunes itself allowing you to sort Podcasts by many different criteria and batch transferring several at once.

If you want to monitor your PC when you're on the move or if you want to keep an eye on your house whilst you are away, one way is to connect your mobile to your webcam. Several programs allow you to view your webcam's point of view directly to your mobile or can send regular snapshots and images to your device depending on your needs and bandwidth.

If it's just a few photos of yourself or your home you want to send to someone, then Photo sMs enables you to send photos taken by your webcam directly to a mobile phone. Ever forgotten to send a birthday or greetings card? You can always make one yourself by taking a picture with your webcam and sending the finished card to the person's mobile phone with Webcam Greetings Studio. Or, an even nicer treat is to make them a video message with your webcam and send it to their mobile device with Video SMS.

Of course, probably the most useful thing you'd want to connect your mobile with your webcam for is security. In which case, the only solution is LiveStream Broadcaster which gives you full control over your webcam from your mobile. This is great if you need to pan around your house or a room whilst you are away to check for intruders. The downside however is that it is subject to frequent crashes in full stream mode, in which case it's better just to use it in snapshot mode.

Imagine if you could watch your TV, or the saved contents of your SkyPlus, Tivo or HD hard drive anywhere in the world and even on your phone. That's exactly what SlingPlayer offers, meaning you'll never be far away from your favourite programs. For anyone who lives abroad, or is going to be away from home this Christmas, this player is an absolute dream. Elegant, simple to use and offering superb image and sound quality, it's a giant leap forward in broadcasting.

However, you will need to make sure that you have a Slingbox. A Slingbox is basically a slim device that sells for around $130 in the US (and approximately 200 pounds in the UK) that attaches to your digital TV's hard drive. It assigns an IP address to it thus allowing anyone with an internet connection to access it at any time (as long as it is switched on of course). The user simply has to download SlingPlayer which takes you through a very simple setup process. First, you are shown a series of simultaneous video images running in parallel and you have to choose which one appears to be the best quality on your screen. This optimises the image quality for your connection. Then you simply need to enter the ID of your Slingbox plus a password. Simply click "Watch" and within seconds, depending on your connection, you'll be watching your TV as if you were in your lounge!

The program features a big chunky remote control too which allows you to control your TV hard drive as if you were at home. This includes access to your saved and recorded programs and even pay per view programming. The only downside is that only one user at a time may be connected to the Slingbox at one time and I suspect this may be due to broadcasting restrictions. Even if you don't buy one yourself, it's worth making a friend in another country who has one, and then you can share your TV with them and vice versa. Even in full screen mode though, image and sound quality are excellent with virtually no blips in reproduction or streaming.

Note that, the download featured here is for the US player but if your Slingbox is in the UK, or another country, you'll have to download the appropriate player for that Slingbox from the developer download page.

As many of you will already know, insideTonic is produced by the same people who test and review software at Softonic, the world's second largest software download site. Based in Barcelona, Softonic is originally a Spanish-language site that has grown to offer German, English, French and soon Italian and Brazilian versions.

We launched this blog in English at the beginning of January with the intention of providing the same high-quality, independent software criticism and advice in a completely new format. In recognition of our success, Softonic Spanish (the largest site in our network) has now launched its own software blog, in Spanish. It's called OnSoftware (nice name, huh?) and it's packed with insight and knowledge from Softonic Spain's crack team of software experts.

Spanish speakers should definitely check out the new blog, but the rest of you won't lose out. At insideTonic, we're going to make sure that the best tips, reviews and advice from OnSoftware are translated into the Queen's English and reproduced here - everyone's a winner.

There are a lot more developments on the way, but we'll let you know about them later. For now, why not take a look at OnSoftware and say "Hi" to our new sister blog!

Have you ever seen those people wandering the streets with their laptops in the desperate search for an open wireless network. Apart from looking like a tightwad, you also run the risk of having your equipment stolen or damaged by doing so. A better way is to use your Pocket PC to sniff-out WiFi hotspots. Sniffi is a small application that allows you to literally 'sniff-out' WiFi hotspots in your neighbourhood or working area. Sniffi is an advanced WiFi networks manager which may be used to search for hotspots, as a connection manager or as a network parameter monitor.

The application works in a very similar way to Windows WiFi network manager. The list of available networks is clearly displayed together with their ID, protection status and signal strength. There's a day/night color profile, full-screen switch and you can switch it from vertical to horizontal mode easily. You can even perform pings on available networks and view TCP/IP stats for each one.