Friday, December 19, 2014

Software : Download of the day: Steam

Software : Download of the day: Steam


Download of the day: Steam

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Download of the day: Steam

Steam is the ideal software to enjoy your games and socialise with your friends. With a thriving community and tons of mods for all your favourite games, it's a great all-round game management app.

Why you need it

Steam is a standalone client that lets you download and play games, chat with your friends and store your save progress in the cloud. Around 70% of all PC games bought online are downloaded through Steam, and with more than 3,700 games available for download and over 100 million active users, to call it popular would be something of an understatement.

But it wouldn't do it justice to leave it to that. There's a store packed with superb games from big name publishers, as well as plugins and mods from a whole range of independent creators and fans in the Steam Workshop. There's also a lively community, and you can chat with your friends while you game, useful for coordinating raids or planning your team's next move.

You can add games from rival clients to your library (such as EA's Origin client), use Steam to update your graphics drivers, install games remotely and even stream games to other computers and Windows tablets on your network.

Steam is more than just a conduit through which you can play games; it aims to be the complete gaming hub for you and your friends, and it does that very well indeed.

Key features

  • Works on: PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android
  • Versions: Free
  • Download: Buy, download and play games from a wide range of publishers
  • Extend: The Steam store is full of fan-made mods and plugins for thousands of games
  • Community: With over 100 million users, Steam lets you connect with people from all over the world and chat with your friends while you game

You'll also like

  • Origin
  • Game Booster
  • Bandicam
  • Camtasia
  • CamStudio

Christmas crackers: Evernote

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Christmas crackers: Evernote

Evernote is the Swiss Army knife of data collection programs. There are versions available not only for Windows but also for phones and tablets, so you can take the information with you wherever you go, and the sharing options mean that you can work on things with friends and family.

The possibilities with the program are just about endless; you can use it to store and organise all manner of things you need to keep track of. You could use it to record recipes you find online and build up a shopping list, or you could maintain a list of people you need to write thank you letters to.

There's a web clipping tool available that can be used to save text and pictures from websites – great if you're looking around for things to buy in the January sales. Evernote is an excellent planning tool, so you can easily put together ideas for things you want to do, resolutions you want to make and so on.

Evernote is available to download and use completely free of charge, but paid-for premium accounts gain access to extra features – but for day-to-day use, a free account is more than enough for most people.

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