A couple of weeks ago we presented you with a Top 10 list featuring the most addictive and fun online games on the Internet. I'm sure many of you tried them out and got hooked on at least one or two.

Well, if you think that was all, you're wrong. Today we bring another free online game pack for you to test and enjoy during the weekend. This time they all belong to the same author, Ferry Halim, and they're all conveniently organized under a single page: the Orisinal game collection.

From platform-based scrolling adventures to simple ability tests to prove your speed with the mouse, you'll find many different types of game to play and have fun with. You'll find the necessary information (objective of the game, keys for movement and hints for higher scores) at the beginning of each game. All of them are tastefully designed and display cute graphics – indeed, Ferry Halim is a professional digital designer.

Ever thought about starting a blog? Many people do. According to Technorati, more than 175,000 new blogs are started every day, but they don't say how many of those actually keep on being updated a couple of weeks after the first post. The hassle of maintaining a blog and finding new topics to talk about is what hinders most people from joining the blogosphere. But, we'd like to encourage you to give it a try. Blogging is fun and easy, and we'll show you why.

First, note that there are two main options for blog publishing: you can either host the blog in your own web server or let it be hosted by the blogging service you use. The latter is probably the best option for beginners, as it doesn't involve dealing with FTP transfers and server configuration.

We're pleased to announce that we've launched a major redesign of our program pages at Softonic. The biggest new features are a much-improved user rating interface, and a swish new 'lightbox' mode for program screenshots. Our new rating system makes it easier than ever to say what you think about a program, as well as allowing you to check out and rate other users' reviews.

Our new screenshot viewer lets you take a better look at a program before downloading. Simply click the thumbnail and you'll get an instant peek at the full size image. What's more, we've given the page a generous lick of paint, to give it a bolder, clearer look.

So come on in and have a look around. And don't forget to let us know what you think of the new design!

Adobe have staked their claim on the Web 2.0 revolution by announcing alpha testing of its new Apollo project is due to start this week. Apollo will enable users to run and create what they call Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) on and offline although the initial release will be aimed mainly at programmers and developers. The free download will include a software development kit and runtime environment for Apollo with the first beta version expected later this year.

Programs created in the Apollo project will appear as an icon on your desktop which will light-up when an internet connection is detected. Users who wish to use the programs will need the Apollo runtime environment in the same way that you need to download Flash player to watch Flash videos.

The alpha release will be available on both Windows and Macintosh and eventually Linux. The alpha release will support HTML, Javascript, Flash and Adobe’s own PDF format. Adobe have also confirmed that the soon to be released Creative Studio 3 will be able to create content for Apollo.

There is huge anticipation over this project. While many are proclaiming Web 2.0 will kill the desktop, Apollo promises to regain ground for the desktop by synthesizing on and offline applications more closely. By merging the two, the project offers up a realm of new and exciting commercial possibilities for those who can work out how to exploit them such as Adwords on your desktop. This reduction of the barriers between the web and users desktops however does raise various security concerns that will only become apparent once its up and running.

To see a demo of Apollo in action, click here.

It’s sometimes strange to think that phones were once intended for speaking into. Now that so many people use their mobiles to text, access the Net or play games, it’s refreshing to see a new technology that embraces your own voice. Braincast is designed to allow you to manage your thoughts by adding voice notes to an online service.

The web app is free to use, allowing you to sign up via a relatively painless registration process, before enrolling up to three of your telephone numbers with Braincast and assigning an email address to each one. The service then assigns your own toll free number and your own RSS feed for you to check your saved messages at any time. For instance if you’re in the city, and a thought crosses your mind that you want to remember for later, speed-dial the Braincast number and leave yourself a message. By the time you get home, you’ll find an email and an RSS item waiting for you. Both will have a link back to a recording of your message (in .wav format) on the BrainCast site.

The service also provides you with a web page for managing your messages. Features include the ability to tag messages, take notes on them, send copies to any email address and remove those you don’t wish to keep. You can even schedule delayed delivery to any phone number you like, allowing you to set up voice reminders on your own phone.

It’s an interesting take on a note-making application, but it’s difficult to see the service really taking off. After all, most new mobile phones allow you to record voice messages and store them on the device itself, meaning there’s no need to access an additional source. What’s more, there are plenty of notes programs that help you keep your tasks, ideas and appointments organized with ease, many of which allow you to synchronize your thoughts via the web.

I can imagine you right now: sitting in front of your computer, drifting from website to website, not knowing exactly what to do. Enough! We have the perfect solution for you. Get on the move and have a look at our games category, where you'll find plenty of game demos and full versions you can download and play on your computer. But if you're looking for something simpler, check this list of 10 online game we've prepared for you. Ranging from logical puzzles to absolutely absurd time wasters, you're sure to find your perfect pastime for the weekend. Don't forget to post your highest score in comments!

1. Ball of Bastards : soccer seen from a hilarious perspetive
2. McDonald's Video Game : a mixture of fun and criticism
3. Linerider : a simple yet addictive physics toy
4. Dots : who hasn't played this classic pastime during a boring lesson?
5. Mr Picasso Head : make your own cubist self-portrait
6. Hewitt : a nice point and click adventure
7. Sobics Brick Game : simple addictive color puzzle
8. CatchThirtyThree : how fast can you click on 33 numbers?
9. QWERTY Warriors : the faster you type, the more enemies you kill
10. Throw Paper : a true time waster

When we first took a look at Quintura Search a few months back, we touted the program as a potential revolutionary in the Internet search world. Since then, we’ve seen a rise in tag-based ‘cloud’ searching technology (including, incidentally, our very own Softonic hot search facility), where popular searches appear in a larger font and spawn related keywords, taking you down a particular avenue of enquiry.

While we were impressed by Quintura’s desktop search, the application never really captured the public’s imagination on a major scale. In an effort to have another stab at the likes of Google and Yahoo!, the developer has decided to jump aboard the Web 2.0 bandwagon by launching an online version of its app.

The new version certainly represents a step forward for Quintura, and the visual interface is a lot clearer than in the previous release. We miss the way you can reduce the scope of the search using a scroll bar, although this option is still available through a settings dialog. Although some searches still take you down some strange and random routes, the engine seems to have improved thanks to the integration of Yahoo XML.

The application provides a unique way of searching the web, giving you the flexibility to manipulate and change results before displaying them in a variety. Admittedly, it will tough for Quintura to lure users away from traditional engines but by putting the service online it broadens the scope for accessing the service.

If you think web apps are just a simple, stripped-down version of real desktop programs, you'd better change your mind - and soon! After Google's first steps on the online software world with tools like Google Docs and Google Spreadsheets, here comes another bigwig: Adobe Photoshop.

According to Bruce Chizen, the company's CEO, Adobe is planning to launch an ad-supported online version of the popular photo editing software within six months.

The announcement takes place only a few weeks after Adobe signed a deal with Photobucket to provide its users with an online photo and video mixing tool, known as Adobe Remix.

In Chizen's words:

That is new (for Adobe). It's something we are sensitive to because we are watching folks like Google do it in different categories, and we want to make sure that we are there before they are, in areas of our franchises.

This is clearly a giant's step in webware. It seems that big companies are taking web apps more and more seriously, in anticipation of what may happen in the next few years. The so-called Web 2.0 is putting users on the spotlight and challenging coders to go one step ahead in the creation of software.

The Internet is not just a source of information anymore. It's a living being, a breathing creature in constant development where websites have turned into user-fed communities and interactive tools. If you can create documents, edit photos or mix video online, what will be next? We're eager to see!

Despite being regarded as the work of the devil by employers across the world, instant messaging clients are increasingly being used to improve productivity. We’ve all been guilty of wasting the odd hour or three chatting drivel to friends via instant messaging, but you can now use the technology to improve the way you work and manage your tasks more effectively.

IMified is a neat new web application that lets you use your favourite messenger to add notes, reminders, and blog entries to a site or a supported service. There’s no sign-up required and using the service is as simple as sending a message to a designated IM account before accessing the special menu to execute a variety of commands.

Using Yahoo! Messenger, I managed to access and post to Basecamp, Google Calendars and Backpack without so much as looking at a browser icon. IMified also lets you add blog entries to services such as Blogger, Moveable Type, TypePad and WordPress through your IM client, and it’s all surprisingly simple too, walking you through a series of menu options for one-off configuration.

It seems that the IMified team have had some teething problems getting their software to work smoothly with MSN but that aside, I was pretty impressed with IMified. It’s difficult to see it become adopted on a wide scale for blogging, as its editing capabilities are pretty limited. That said, the developer promises a paid-for service if the service takes off, which may signal the start of a shift in what we do with our instant messengers.

That's the message that appeared on Bittorrent's website this morning. In a few hours, Bittorrent will launch its very own legal download store, the Bittorrent Entertainment Network, with 3,000 movies, 1,000 games and around 1,000 music videos made available. Bittorrent struck deals with 34 major studios like Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures. 20th Century Fox and MGM to distribute their content on the store. Thanks to the Bittorrent technology downloads should prove to be relatively fast. The store will offer up a "self pub capability" where independent artists can publish and showcase their videos.

However, the service does have some restrictions. Users will only be able to enjoy content 24 hours following its download. Movies will be offered at a starting price of $3.99 and TV shows at $1.99. All downloaded content will have Windows Media DRM protection, which means it will only open up with Windows Media Player. So much for Mac and Linux users. Bram Cohen, founder of Bittorrent was actually against having DRM:

We are not happy with the user interface implications of digital rights management, or DRM... it’s an unfortunate thing. We would really like to strip it all away.

It was introduced, probably under the pressure of the big content providers and probably to safeguard the rental model of the Bittorrent Entertainment Network. That way Bittorrent can offer cheaper content and control what users download.

What Bittorrent is doing is entering the legal download market, where heavyweights such as the iTunes Store, Amazon or Wal Mart already rule. Yet the biggest competitor to the Bittorrent store might still be piracy itself. According to PC World, Bittorrent expects a third of its users to give up piracy and embrace the new store but a quick look around the blogosphere this morning shows that skepticism was high among bloggers. Why would anybody who can get the same content for free want to pay $3.99 for it? We'll have to wait till the store opens up to give you the full low down and our first impressions.

Google has finally opened Gmail to the public, which means that you no longer need an invitation to open up an account. Gmail has thus become one of the largest webmail services in the world, not only in terms of users, but also in terms of storage space. Starting at 1 GB per user during its first year, Gmail is now constantly increasing its storage space by the second. Google say they plan to keep on doing so as long as they have enough space left on their servers.

However, more long in the tooth Internet users know email wasn't always so advanced. There was a time when webmail didn't even exist and messages were managed through classic email clients like Eudora or Outlook Express. Email was physically downloaded and stored on your PC, so that you could only check it from home unless you left copies on the mail server. Besides, limited-bandwidth connections made it very difficult, not to say impossible, to send or receive oversized email messages.

Then, web-based email finally appeared, with Hotmail as one of its biggest representatives. Hard to believe though it sounds, Hotmail offered only 2 MB of storage space which were increased up to 250 MB in July 2004, only three months after Gmail's launch. Nowadays, following the fashionable web apps trend, there's a large variety of webmail services you can choose from, with online access from anywhere, large numbers in storage space, spam filters and a lot more of features.

Email has naturally evolved from being a somewhat useful desktop application to one of the fastest, most effective online communication tools. It's totally integrated in our daily lives, to such an extent that it feels just natural to ask your friends for their email address instead of their phone number. After more than 40 years of history, we're eager to see what email has to offer in the following decades.

By the way, in case you're wondering, we'll remain faithful to our Gmail accounts.

For those of you lucky enough to be registered to beta-test the impressive Joost, you may be interested to know that there's now a MacOS (Intel) version available for download. Initial responses to this latest version suggest that despite a small number of font-rendering issues, the Mac version of Joost is just as good as the Windows version. Indeed, according to some Mac users, it's even better... just because it's running on a Mac.

Of course, the only way to be sure is to test both versions so you can be sure that insideTonic will have a complete comparison online within a couple of days. We're also planning a special giveaway of invitations to the beta project! In the meantime, you can always apply for the beta at the Joost homepage.

During the last few months we've witnessed the progressive development of web applications as a perfectly valid alternative to traditional desktop software. Online bookmark managers, photo organizers, word processors and so on have entered the flow of our daily tasks to such an extent that some people have definitely switched to them and forgotten about downloading and installing apps.

Whilst it's positive to have different alternatives when deciding which software to use, we always run the risk of getting too involved with those eye-catching Web 2.0 style web apps. And then, if our Internet connection goes down, we'll have nothing to do except wait for the router lights to turn green again.

While we're still connected, here's a list of ten online applications we thought you might find useful. Feel free to try them and decide if they're good enough to replace your current desktop tool.

1. Helipad: flexible web notepad
2. Traineo: online weight loss and fitness tracker
3. Picnik: edit photos online in your browser
4. Extratasty: share cocktail recipes online
5. Comeeko: create your own comic photo strips
6. Bubbl.us: mind mapping online application
7. Meebo: instant messaging everywhere
8. Ninjawords: ultra-fast dictionary
9. Imagination at work: free-hand drawing
10. Buxfer: track shared expenses online

While we still maintain that Flickr is probably the best way to handle your photos online, the service is starting to annoy people as Yahoo! tightens its grip on the Web-based app. If you’ve managed to build up more than 3,000 contacts or 75 tags using the program then prepare to be disappointed – you’re no longer welcome.

According to Flickr’s owner, Yahoo!: “In our ongoing efforts to make Flickr better, we’re introducing two additional limits: the new maximum number of contacts is 3,000 contacts (good luck with that), and each photo on Flickr can have a maximum of 75 tags. We love your freedom, but, in this particular case, limiting these things will actually improve the system performance, making pages load faster across the site for everyone and cut out some unwelcome spammy behaviors. Both of these new limits apply equally to free and pro account members.”

While we can appreciate the case for reducing spam and increasing download times, it seems that the company is penalizing Flickr’s hardcore users just for the fact they’re enjoying the site and the community it has to offer. Instead of applying restrictions to the user perhaps Yahoo! could improve its file sharing system to allow everyone to share their photos without worrying about limits.

We all know that Skype provides a great way to make calls across the world for next to nothing, and it’s merits as a communications tool are clear to see. I’ve always been a big fan of the app but am becoming increasingly wary of the amount of bandwidth it hogs, even when it’s just running in the background. It’s still a slick program but it’s starting to become a little too swamped with features for those who literally just want to make calls and don’t need access to chatrooms, file transfer and the like.

Step in Gizmo Call, a new Web 2.0 program that offers a very simple way to call anywhere in the world for free. Amazingly it’s as easy as typing a phone number onto the Gizmo Call home page and hitting ‘Call’. You can even create a ‘Call Me’ link and insert it into a web page or send it via email so others can ring you for nothing.

As for the drawbacks, you need to download a plug-in in order to use the service and, more importantly, you’re limited to a maximum free call length of ten minutes per day, after which you’ll almost certainly be reaching for that ‘S’ icon again. Nevertheless, Gizmo Call represents an interesting new model in the Internet telecoms sphere and once the service has been refined a little we can expect to see clones springing up everywhere.