Sohail Ahmed's Website

VLC Media Player is the most popular and robust multi format, free media player available. The open source media player was publically released in 2001 by non-profit organization VideoLAN Project. VLC Media Player quickly became very popular thanks to its versatile multi-format playback capabilities. It was aided by compatibility and codec issues which rendered competitor media players like QuickTime, Windows and Real Media Player useless to many popular video and music file formats. The easy, basic UI and huge array of customization options have enforced VLC Media Player’s position at the top of the free media players.

Flexibility

VLC plays almost any video or music file format you can find. At its launch this was a revolution compared to the default media players most people were using that often crashed or displayed “codecs missing” error messages when trying to play media files. VLC can play MPEG, AVI, RMBV, FLV, QuickTime, WMV, MP4 and a shed load of other media file formats. For a full list of compatible file formats please click here. Not only can VLC Media Player handle loads of different formats, VLC can also playback partial or incomplete media files so you can preview downloads before they finish.

Easy to Use

VLC’s UI is definitely a case of function over beauty. The basic look does however make the player extremely easy to use. Simply drag and drop files to play or open them using files and folders then use the classic media navigation buttons to play, pause, stop, skip, edit playback speed, change the volume, brightness, etc. A huge variety of skins and customization options mean the standard appearance shouldn’t be enough to prevent you choosing VLC as your default media player.

Advanced Options

Don’t let VLC Media Player’s simple interface fool you, within the playback, audio, video, tools and view tabs are a huge variety of player options. You can play with synchronization settings including a graphic equalizer with multiple pre-sets, overlays, special effects, AtmoLight video effects, audio spatializer and customizable range compression settings. You can even add subtitles to videos by adding the SRT file to the video’s folder.

Summary

VLC Media Player is quite simply the most versatile, stable and high quality free media player available. It has rightly dominated the free media player market for over 10 years now and looks like it may for another 10 years thanks to the constant development and improvement by VideoLAN Org.

Google’s game changing browser Chrome combines sophisticated technology with a simple UI, to create a faster, safer and easier browsing experience. Launched in 2008, Google Chrome quickly dominated the browser market to become the most used browser globally within 4 years of its public release. Google’s rapid and continuous development cycle ensures the browser continues to compete with the other most popular and advanced web browsers available.

Speed

Perhaps the area Google invested most of its development time to differentiate from other browsers. Google Chrome launches extremely quickly from your desktop, runs applications at speed thanks to a powerful JavaScript engine and loads pages rapidly using the WebKit open source rendering engine. Add to this quicker search and navigation options from the simplified UI and you have a browser that is pretty hard to beat on speed, especially if gaming is your thing.

Clean, simple UI

Google Chrome’s most striking feature and a substantial factor in its popularity - the simple UI hasn’t changed much since the beta launch in 2008. Google focused on trimming down unnecessary toolbar space to maximise browsing real estate. The browser is made up of 3 rows of tools, the top layer horizontally stacks automatically adjusting tabs, next to a simple new tabs icon and the standard minimize, expand & close windows controls. The middle row includes 3 navigation controls (Back, Forward & Stop/Refresh), a URL box which also allows direct Google web searching and a star bookmarking icon. Extensions and browser settings icons line up to the right of the URL box. The third row is made up of bookmark folders and installed apps. Easily overlooked now, this clean UI was a breath of fresh air compared to the overcrowded toolbars of popular browsers pre-2008.

Privacy

Another hugely popular feature, Incognito mode allows you to browse privately by disabling history recording, reducing traceable breadcrumbs and removing tracking cookies on shutdown. Chrome’s settings also allow you to customize regular browsing privacy preferences.

Security

Chrome’s Sandboxing prevents malware automatically installing on your computer or affecting other browser tabs. Chrome also has Safe Browsing technology built in with malware and phishing protection that warns you if you encounter a website suspected of containing malicious software/activity. Regular automatic updates ensure security features are up to date and effective.

Customization

A vast selection of apps, extensions, themes and settings make your browsing experience unique to you. Improve productivity, security, navigation speed, pretty much anything you can think of with apps and extensions from the Google Chrome Store. Install themes created by top artists or make your own using mychrometheme.com. Sign in with your Google Account to back up your contacts, preferences, history as well as access all your Google tools with a single login.

Adobe Reader is the most popular program in the world for viewing, creating, managing and manipulating PDF (Portable Document Format) files. It is the standard that all other PDF readers are judged against. Publically released in 1993, Adobe Reader was originally priced at $50 per user before Adobe separated its product range to offer Adobe Reader freeware and their professional Adobe Acrobat versions. PDF became the file format of choice for businesses thanks to its cross platform flexibility and security capabilities.

Simple UI

Adobe Reader’s UI is simple and intuitive. Classic tools (text selection, zoom, snapshots, find, etc.) can be accessed from the top navigation menu and buttons. The latest version also includes advanced Tools (create, export, send and store options), Sign and Comment features. You can share iterations, comments and signatures by email or using the Adobe SendNow service.

Security

Adobe Reader XI is the safest version Adobe have released. This is mainly due the new Protected Mode which loads potentially hazardous items and code in a sandboxed area, isolated from the rest of your system.

Speed

There have been some criticisms over Adobe Reader’s speed compared to other lightweight PDF readers. It’s true; Adobe Reader does have more plugins and extensions than most PDF readers which can slow operation. That being said the difference for the average user is negligible and those add-ons can be disabled if they are not required. In terms of general operation, Adobe Reader renders documents with high detail and true colour reproduction quickly. Later editions have also had work done to improve Adobe Reader’s impact on memory usage so you should find multitasking takes less strain on your system.