Software : Round up: The best free software for writing

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• Round up: The best free software for writing
• The best apps and games for Euro 2016
• Updated: Top 10 web design packages for small business
• Round up: The best free antivirus software 2016
• Round up: The best free YouTube to MP3 converters 2016
• Round up: The best free YouTube video downloaders 2016
• What Apple's App Store changes mean for you

Round up: The best free software for writing Posted: The best free writing software Free tools for writers Writers tend to make a very big deal of their tools, whether those tools are delicate pens or ancient typewriters. Increasingly, though, they'll talk about their software. Even the most genteel literary event can soon devolve into a fist-fight between fans of Scrivener and Ulysses (both of which cost around £27, US$40, AU$54). Word is the default tool for many writers, but the latest version – Microsoft Word 2016 – will set you back £109.99 (US$109.99, AU$149) for the non-commercial edition. That's almost as much as the full Microsoft Office 2016 suite, and a hefty price for cash-strapped wordsmiths. There's often a better option for those of us starving in garrets: free apps. Come with us as we discover the best free apps to turn your talent into something tangible. 1. FocusWriter Block out distractions and get on with some serious writing Available for Linux, Windows and OS X, FocusWriter is designed to eliminate distractions so you can actually get on with the job of writing. To that effect it enables you to hide other apps, customize the way your text appears on screen and keep track of your progress. If you're feeling particularly old-school you can even add typewriter sound effects. It isn't for everyone - it looks pretty daft on a 27-inch monitor, for example - but it's a lovely little app with a very modest footprint that stops you keeping an eye on Twitter all day. 2. WriteMonkey A text editor that cuts down on distractions, not features We're big fans of Markdown, the text-editing language that enables you to format, annotate, classify and link as you type with the minimum of fuss, and the superb WriteMonkey makes good use of it. This free program delivers an incredibly stripped-down user interface that's considerably more powerful than it looks. There's an excellent outliner, automatic syntax highlighting and file organisation, and although Markdown takes a bit of getting used to, you'll be very glad you made the effort. Once you've mastered it, you can use it to create blog posts, print publications and anything else that needs words in it. 3. Celtx Scriptwriting made simple - ideal for solo writers or small teams Hollywood scriptwriters swear by the famous Final Draft software, but if you're yet to sell a script then you might prefer an option that doesn't cost any money. Say hello to Celtx, an online scriptwriting platform that's designed for small creative teams and includes a solo screenwriting package - all for the excellent price of zero. You don't get the extensive collaboration tools of the paid-for products, but for straightforward scriptwriting it's well worth a look before considering a scriptwriting tool that costs real money. Take a look at Trelby too - more on that in a moment. 4. LibreOffice Writer A fully-featured alternative to Microsoft Word, completely free LibreOffice is a free, open source alternative to Microsoft Office, and that means its Writer word processing app has many of the power features of Microsoft Word without the accompanying price tag. One of its most useful features is the LibreOffice Template Center, where you'll find templates for all kinds of content. If you're interested in more full office suites, see our guide to the best free Microsoft Office alternatives. 5. Sigil Designed specifically for creating your own ebooks ready to publish online Many writing apps concentrate on print, but of course we're Kindle kids now and many authors publish direct to ebooks. There are lots of ways to do that, including exporting from your favourite word processor, but Sigil is designed specifically for ebook editing; it isn't something that's been bolted onto an existing print-focused app. It offers WYSIWYG editing, runs on Windows, Mac and (some) Linux, enables you to check imported documents against the EPUB standard and can sort out formatting and fix your editing too. It's also expandable via plugins to add even more features. 6. Trelby A powerful multi-platform screenwriting tool for budding playwrights Trelby is available for Windows and for Linux, and it offers a very powerful screenwriting tool for free. It enforces standardized layouts, includes a character name database to avoid calling your hero Shooty McShootface, imports and exports in all the formats you could need, and has a built-in PDF generator You can compare different versions of the same script, create scene, location, character and dialog reports, and work in draft, WYSIWYG or fullscreen mode to suit the way you work. Don't even think about buying Final Draft without checking Trelby out first. 7. Scribus Write and design great-looking magazines and books If your words' appearance is as important as their meaning, give Scribus a go: it's a free, highly-rated desktop publishing application for Linux, OS X and Windows that's capable of producing entire magazines (a little like a cut-down version of Adobe InDesign). It's been kicking around - and regularly updated - since 2001, and while it's a little tricky to use at first it offers professional-grade publishing with layered, multi-page documents and good colour management support. We wouldn't want to make a 400-page book in it, but for shorter works it's very clever. 8. Hemingway A streamlined text editor in your web browser In addition to paid-for desktop software for Mac and Windows, Hemingway is available as a free web app. It's well worth bookmarking: it's designed to highlight long, complex sentences and common grammatical errors, and its use of colours makes it abundantly clear how clear or otherwise your text has become. It'll spot excessive use of unnecessary adverbs, and it can ensure that instances of the passive voice have been marked to alert you to their use. Hemingway is a really good tool for anyone who needs to communicate with maximum clarity. And we deliberately wrote this paragraph this way to annoy it. 9. Evernote Gather ideas together throughout the day so they're ready to use later Evernote isn't much cop as a writing app, but it's an absolutely superb research tool. We've used to organise all kinds of content including old photos of locations, snippets of overheard dialog, PDFs of scanned documents and all the little ideas that pop up when we're out and about. The basic Evernote app is free on Windows, Mac and mobile and offers cross-platform syncing and up to 60MB of new uploads per month; if that's not enough the Plus service is a very reasonable £19.99 (about US$28.95, AU$39.95) per year. Don't forget about other note-taking apps either: Microsoft's free OneNote is superb, and if you're a Mac/iOS fan Apple's Notes app is handy to have, especially when you can get Siri to add notes for you. 10. Freemind Organise your ideas and defeat writer's block before it can strike Here's another app for writers that isn't strictly for putting your words on the screen: Freemind is all about mind mapping, and it enables you to record all the leaps and bounds your imagination makes whether you're plotting a potboiler or trying to organise complex threads of an investigation. It's not something we'd necessarily recommend for mind mapping beginners - it looks a bit like a desktop publishing app having some kind of breakdown - but if you're an experienced intellectual explorer it's a lot tidier than a wall full of index cards and sticky notes.

The best apps and games for Euro 2016 Posted: The best apps and games for Euro 2016 Euro 2016 is mere moments away and whether you're jetting off to France or planning on watching the matches from the comfort of your own home, there are a huge selection of apps to help you stay up to date, get in the spirit and get the most out of the tournament. From scores, news and highlights, to tables and analysis, we've collected the ultimate selection of apps and games that will serve you well before, during and after the matches have kicked off - whether you managed to watch them or not. But we haven't stopped there, as we've also highlighted some of the best apps to help you out if you're attending the matches in person and even thrown in a few games for good measure to help you through the horrendous times when there are no international stars trying to kick balls at one another. Most of these apps are free and they're all available for both iOS and Android, so click through, get downloading and get ready for one of the biggest sporting events of the summer. UEFA Euro 2016 official app Free | Android | iOS The official UEFA Euro 2016 app is an obvious choice if you want to keep up to date with all the tournament action - despite the fact we're loathe to advocate the app of 'the man'. Wherever you plan to watch the games this app is a near-essential companion, providing full details of teams, players, matches, fixtures and standings. The MatchCentre area will provide live information during the games, making the UEFA Euro 2016 app an ideal second screen experience and the portal promises video, audio, official statistics and the latest news throughout the championship. UEFA Euro 2016 Fan Guide Free | Android | iOS While the UEFA Euro 2016 Official app is an easy recommendation for all football fans, the UEFA Euro 2016 Fan Guide is tailored specifically for those attending matches in person. Along with a match calendar and information on line-ups, results and other news, the app also provides details of the host cities, including things to see and do between games. Plus, it provides help on finding accommodation and getting around, along with an online store, in case you want some mementos from your trip. BBC iPlayer Free | Android | iOS You can't see all the Euro 2016 matches in one place, but, as long as you're in the UK you can see them without paying a penny and BBC iPlayer will get you halfway there. From the app you'll be able to see a selection of the matches live on your smartphone or tablet, including England's clash against Wales on June 16, so whether you're at work or on the bus you'll have no excuse to miss it. But if your loyalties lie further afield iPlayer has you covered there too, with other matches such as Belgium v Italy and Germany v Ukraine also being broadcast. LiveScore Euro 2016 Free | Android | iOS As the name suggests, LiveScore Euro 2016 is all about scores, or more specifically live scores, as the app is constantly updated with the latest goals and results. While it primarily acts as a fast, easy way to keep up to date with scores during Euro 2016, the LiveScore app has plenty more going for it too. It also offers detailed match information, statistics, team sheets, news and even information on the stadiums. If you want an all-round tournament companion it's not quite as comprehensive as the official UEFA app promises to be, but for something that sells itself on scores there's a surprising amount here. LiveSoccer - Football Scores Free | Android | iOS With a similar name and similar focus to LiveScore, LiveSoccer – Football Scores is primarily designed to be a fast and simple way to get scores in real time. To help with that the app offers customisable push notifications, so you never miss a goal. But you can also use them to get alerted to final results, red and yellow cards, substitutions and more for any team. If for any reason you can't watch a match you can also use LiveSoccer's Match Visualisation tool to see the flow of game events in real time. Add to that news, statistics and match analysis, plus a comments section for each match, where you can chat to other fans, and this is a full-featured app. It even has a risk-free betting component, allowing you to predict match results and get points if you're right. It's not specifically for Euro 2016 either; in fact LiveSoccer lets you track matches from more than 350 worldwide football leagues, so it won't stop being useful after the championship. ITV Hub Free | Android | iOS Alongside iPlayer you'll also want ITV Hub if you plan to catch all the action live, as ITV is showing half the games, including England v Russia, England v Slovakia and Russia v Wales in the group stage. Both apps will be showing the final, so you can pick your favourite for that. In between matches you can use ITV Hub to pass the time with everything from Family Guy to Coronation Street, and the app offers both live and catch-up content. So whatever your non-sporting tastes you should be able to find something to fill the emptiness after extra time - unless you're planning to spend your time researching the next wave of stats to be the king of your office's Euro Prediction league. Onefootball Euro 2016 Free | Android | iOS If you want an easy way to keep track of when each game is Onefootball Euro 2016 has you covered, with clearly laid out fixtures and calendars. But you can also get push notifications for live scores and results, so even if you're busy with something else you can stay in the loop. Plus, it offers match statistics and predictions, news, lineups, team and player profiles and analysis of matches, so whether you catch a game or not you'll know exactly how it played out. Airbnb Free | Android | iOS If you're lucky enough to have snagged tickets for some of the games, or just plan to head over to France to get engulfed in the atmosphere, you're going to need somewhere to stay and if you haven't already booked a place you'll probably find most hotels are full up. But in the age of Airbnb they're as dated as the dodo anyway. Grab the app and find crash space with locals, or even rent out a whole apartment, house or château. The app has thousands of listings, offering a wider variety of accommodation types than a standard hotel and often at lower prices. It's also image-filled and gorgeously laid out for sofa-surfing. FotMob Euro 2016 Free | Android | iOS FotMob Euro 2016 is another slick scores app that goes well beyond just tracking the latest goals. You'll get live scores, sure, but you'll also get full match statistics, including lineups, goals, red and yellow cards, penalties both made and missed, assists and substitutions. There are also tables and fixtures, so you can see at a glance how the tournament is playing out and when the next matches are. You'll also find a news section and the whole thing has a simple layout, with tabs taking you between sections and easily digestible information. AroundMe Free | Android | iOS If you're venturing to any of the matches in person you'll find yourself in likely unfamiliar French cities, but with AroundMe you can feel like a local. The app uses your location data to point you to the nearest bank, bar, petrol station, supermarket, taxi rank and more, so you'll never have to feel lost and can quickly make your way to the game – or stock up on supplies. The app will show the location of whatever you're after on a map and even provide additional details, such as opening times, reviews and contact information. Sky Sports Live Football SC Free | Android | iOS Sky Sports Live Football SC (the SC is for Score Centre) is yet another scores app, but coming from Sky you can rely on it being polished and packing the most up to date information. Covering all European and UK cups and championships it takes you way beyond just Euro 2016, but with live scores, headlines, highlights, fixtures, tables and standings it offers all the key information. And while it could end up cluttered the ability to set up notifications for specific teams and follow specific matches means the information you actually want is never far away. Plus, with match reports and previews Sky Sports Live Football SC is useful before and after games too. Football Manager Mobile 2016 £6.99 | Android | iOS Think you could lead a team to Euro victory? Well, you can prove it with Football Manager Mobile 2016. Pick a team and take control, choosing who plays and who doesn't, deciding on tactics and building your players skills with coaching staff. You can choose teams from 14 different nations and play through a whole season, or get into the Euro spirit by taking charge of your home country. Football Manager 2016 is a deep, addictive management game and the mobile version is perfect on tablets or larger phones. Just try not to get so absorbed in it that you forget to tune into the real Euro 2016 matches. Super Scores Free | Android | iOS Super Scores has a comprehensive list of different things that you can track, throughout Euro 2016 and beyond. Scores are obviously key to it, but you can also view statistics, lineups, injuries, match analysis, transfers, both league and live tables, fixtures, top scorers, top assists, red and yellow cards, betting statistics and more, with unlimited push notifications available for many of them where applicable. Super Scores also delivers the latest news and live match commentary, along with analysis after the final whistle has blown. Score! Hero Free | Android | iOS Score! Hero is the complete opposite of Football Manager, in that rather than managing a whole team you take direct control of a single player. You can customise their appearance to make them your own and get playing for some of the biggest teams in the world, including European nations. With simple swipe controls it's built from the ground up for mobile and feels intuitive to play. But there's a surprising amount of depth too, which rewards well thought-out decisions. There are over 380 levels to beat as you build your player from teenage upstart to a football legend, so there's a lot of content to keep you going throughout the tournament. FIFA 16 Ultimate Team Free | Android | iOS Want to manage a whole team rather than just a single player - but get more hands on than Football Manager allows? Then FIFA 16 Ultimate Team is your game. Build and manage a team, choosing formation, kits, play style and more, choosing from over 10,000 players and 500 teams, then take direct control in matches and put your skills to the test. For even more of a challenge you can face off against other players and with detailed graphics too FIFA 16 Ultimate Team is just about the closest thing you can get to a real game of football on your phone.

Updated: Top 10 web design packages for small business Posted: Introduction Note: Our top 10 web design packages round-up has been fully updated. This feature was first published in August 2012. Whether you're a sole trader or a multinational corporation, just about every business needs a website. Even if you don't sell products online a site can help people find you, learn more about your skills and services, and provide a way share your details with other potential customers. Getting started can be very easy. Cloud-based website builders can help you build anything from a simple single-page site to a professional web store, even if you've no design or HTML experience at all. More experienced users can customise and fine-tune the design to suit their own needs, or perhaps install a more traditional web design package that allows them to build the perfect site from scratch. There are free options, but these often have major restrictions, including limits on the size of the site and the lack of any option to use your own domain. Fortunately, the commercial options are very reasonably priced, from around £5/$5 to £10/$10 a month, with hosting included. To help you decide which option is best for your needs here are – in no particular order – techradar pro's top 10 web design tools for small business. 10 things you need to know to build a small business website Weebly Price: Free to £17 per month Creating your first business website can seem like an intimidating task, especially if you're a web design novice, but online site builders like Weebly provide a very easy way to get started. The service offers hundreds of professionally-designed web templates, covering just about any site type. Choose whatever catches your eye, then use the drag-and-drop editor to add text blocks, images, galleries, videos, maps and whatever else you need. Experienced users can go even further, taking full HTML and CSS control to customise every aspect of the site. Weebly's free service allows you to get a basic idea of how this works, but has some major issues: a 500MB storage limit, no custom domain support (yoursite.weebly.com instead of yoursite.com), Weebly branding on the footer, and no e-commerce support at all. The £8 per month Pro package removes all those restrictions, and adds important extras like HD video and audio players, site search, password protected pages and more. If you're going to sell online then spending £17 per month on the Pro package also gets you full and unrestricted e-commerce features, including a shopping cart on your domain, shipping and tax calculators, coupon codes and more. Jimdo Price: Free to £180 per year Jimdo's web-based site creator is priced much the same as Weebly, but it's important to read the small print, especially for the free account – it's better than you think. A standard list of limitations includes ads, a 500MB storage limit, no custom domain, and very limited SEO. But there are also a few features you won't get in other free plans, like a password protected area, and there's also very basic e-commerce support for up to 5 products. Site building isn't as impressive as with some of the competition. There aren't as many templates, you can't add quite as many functions or features, and the modules you do get aren't as configurable. Still, the templates are more than adequate for most purposes (and you can switch them whenever you like), the editor isn't difficult to use, and there's support for all the content you'd expect (text, images, galleries, maps, videos, downloads, and forms). If you'd like to experiment with a simple web store without spending anything, Jimdo should be on your shortlist. Wix Price: Free to £10.10 per month Wix is a popular online website creator, similar to Weebly, which offers a range of plans and products. The free version has Wix branding, limited storage space and bandwidth, but the Unlimited plan (£7.76 per month) removes those restrictions and includes a free domain, while the e-commerce plan adds an online store for a reasonable £10.10 per month. An excellent collection of 500 plus templates gets the design process off to a quick start. The drag-and-drop editor gives you all kinds of tools and features to explore – the image editor, video backgrounds, password protected pages, social buttons, an integrated site blog – and just about everything can be tweaked, tuned and restyled. Wix can't quite match Weebly in a couple of areas. You don't get the same low-level HTML and CSS control, and there's no way to switch templates after you've customised a site; you can only start again. But if you're a web-building novice, Wix's great templates and design flexibility makes it a good first choice. Squarespace Price: $60/£41 per year to $480/£330 per year While most online site builders offer a simple, free account, Squarespace's most basic plan costs $5 a month (billed annually, so that's $60 per year, or £41), and the prices climb steeply from there. But don't be put off, you can start a trial without using a credit card, and there's better value here than you might expect. Squarespace's $60 per year Cover Page account may only get you a single-page site, but that could be enough for some businesses, and there are none of the restrictions you get with other companies: no ads, no bandwidth or storage limits, plus you even get a free domain. There isn't the choice of templates you'll get with Wix, but Squarespace's designs generally look better to us. The editor offers lots of modules to customise them further: galleries, social networking integration, forms, charts, e-commerce, integrated blogging, a comments system, and more. You're able to make changes at the CSS/HTML level, or switch templates at any time if you change your mind. Squarespace isn't the best choice for beginners, but the single-page sites are good value and there's a lot of expert-level functionality. Just check the complete feature list to see for yourself. Shopify Price: $29/£20 per month to $299/£205 per month As you'll probably guess from the name, Shopify is a specialist website builder which focuses on building professional, feature-packed online stores. The design process seems to be much like other tools: choose from 100 plus templates, adjust and tweak the colours, style and layout, then add your own content. But the e-commerce features are so much better, with a great-looking and supremely configurable product catalogue, a comprehensive shopping cart (allowing for the acceptance of credit cards, and offering free shipping, along with automatic tax handling for many countries), advanced store management, and lots of marketing tools (social media integration, discount codes and coupons, customer product reviews, and more). Shopify is also reasonable value, with even the basic $29 per month account supporting custom domains, unlimited products and storage, and there's a free SSL certificate. But if your budget is tiny, check out the separate $9 (just over £6) per month Shopify Lite product which allows selling from Facebook. WebEasy Professional 10 Price: £81.70 Cloud-based site builders are perfect for design newbies or anyone in a hurry, but they can also be very inflexible, and may not provide the control you need. WebEasy Professional 10 is a Windows package which you install locally, and use offline. You get complete control over the site code – you can edit it manually, and use other software to inspect or amend it, if you like – and the results can be uploaded to WebEasy's own hosting service (there's a year bundled for free) or your preferred provider. This doesn't mean the program is any more complex, in fact it's simpler than some online designers. There are hundreds of templates to choose from, a drag-and-drop editor, various content types (text, images, Google Maps, YouTube videos, social media integration, and more) along with support for building an online store. The downside with WebEasy is it hasn't been updated since 2014, and as a result the templates are looking tired, they're not responsive, and there simply isn't the same level of functionality you'll get with Wix or Squarespace. But if you need simplicity and an offline designer, this product may still appeal. CoffeeCup HTML Editor 15.3 Price: $69/£48 CoffeeCup HTML Editor is a powerful coding tool for more experienced web developers, which gives complete control over every aspect of your site. While that sounds intimidating – and beginners should definitely look elsewhere – CoffeeCup is much easier to use than many similar packages. There are 13 Responsive Themes to help you get started, for instance. You can view the code to see how it works, tweak and change it as required, and immediately see the results in a preview pane. The Components Library is a great timesaver. Use it to store reusable objects like menus or headers, edit them in the library, and they'll immediately be updated right across your site. Elsewhere, smart code completion automatically suggests appropriate tags as you type, a comprehensive Tag Reference is available, a built-in validation tool checks your code for references, and you can open your site in up to 10 browsers from within the program. Factor in the low price – which won't even cover you for a year on some basic online builder plans – and CoffeeCup HTML Editor is a good pick for more knowledgeable users. Mobirise Web Builder 2.11.1 Price: Free Mobirise Web Builder is a free tool which brings some of the simplicity and content of online web designers to the Windows desktop. It's certainly easy to use. After you launch the program, a default theme appears, and you can customise text, images and site behaviour with a click. There are also a few good-looking content blocks – images, text, videos, carousels, sliders, social network buttons, contact forms, PayPal shopping cart, Twitter feed, plus Facebook comments – and adding them only takes a drag and a drop. Your proto-site automatically rearranges itself to fit your tablet, phone or desktop's screen. You can check this at any time, preview the results in your browser as a final confirmation, then publish it locally, to Google Drive or FTP. This is all very basic. There's a grand total of two free themes, only a fraction of the content types available on sites like Wix, and with far less configurability and control. But what you do get looks good and works well, and if your needs are simple, and your budget non-existent, Mobirise deserves a closer look. ToWeb 6.12 Price: Free to £155 Many desktop applications have tried to match the abilities of the online site builders, but ToWebprobably gets closest. You'll find more than 100 templates to start your site; the quality is average but you're sure to spot something you like. A wizard creates a few initial pages for you, and these can be customised with text, images, galleries, videos, maps, polls, forms, even a complete online store with your own shopping cart if you buy the E-Commerce or Studio versions (£78 or £155 respectively). Advanced features include password protection for as many pages as you need (no limits), an integrated site search engine, image editor, watermarking, Captcha verification for forms, and a complete CSS editor to customise every element of the page. Creating pages isn't as straightforward as some of the competition, and the help isn't immediately helpful, either. But explore the menus and dialogs and you'll soon have a good-looking site, ready to publish locally or to any FTP server. Xara Web Designer Premium Price: £69.99 Xara Web Designer Premium is an excellent website builder, easy to use but with plenty of options, and enough supporting extras to get you up and running quickly. The package includes a host of stylish templates, both general and themed around specific businesses. Each one has common pages included by default, speeding up the development process, and the results are immediately impressive. (Don't take our word for it – browse through those templates here). As usual, you can customise each page with videos, maps, forms, social networking buttons, and so on. But Xara Web Designer Premium also has plenty of more business-oriented features, including interactive charts, graphs, and a tool for building web-based presentations, complete with animated transitions. E-commerce features are relatively limited (there's a PayPal widget), but there's still a lot here for your money, especially as the package includes 2GB of hosting space, free for a year. If you don't need a big web store, give it a try. How to improve your website's Google ranking

Round up: The best free antivirus software 2016 Posted: Download the best free antivirus software The best free antivirus software for your PC The internet is a dangerous place. Leave your PC unprotected and, no matter how careful you are, it's only a matter of time before a malicious program slips through your defences. All it takes is one accidental visit to a compromised page, and you're in for a world of trouble. There's a wealth of free antivirus software there to protect you from such disasters, but not all such security packages are created equal. We've rounded up nine of the best free downloads to keep you safe online, looking at their effectiveness, speed and ease of use. Have we missed your favourite? Let us know in the comments below. 1. Avira Free Antivirus Fast, friendly and effective, with added online tracking protection Fancy benefiting from the experience of 477 million people? That's the number of times Avira Free Antivirus has been installed, and its cloud-based security pools their history of virus exposure: if a user on the other side of the planet encounters a new nasty, all of Avira's users get the ability to detect it. It's fast, friendly, doesn't give you too many prompts and alerts, can identify unwanted apps inside legitimate applications and most importantly of all, achieved 100 per cent malware detection in tests - a score shared with BitDefender and Kaspersky, but significantly ahead of many of its rivals. It also comes with an optional browser extension that can prevent sites from tracking you online. This impressive set of functions makes Avira Free Antivirus our top-rated free security program. Read on to discover eight more of the best free antivirus tools available right now. Have we missed your favorite? Let us know in the comments below. 2. Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition One of the best free antivirus tools around, offering fast, discreet protection Some antivirus programs want to know all about you and pop up excitedly to tell you about new updates or every potential threat they've stopped. Not BitDefender Antivirus Free Edition. It's the ninja of antivirus software, lurking silently until it needs to unleash its skills. It's ad-free and nag-free, maintenance-free and lightweight in operation: it doesn't slow down your PC or interrupt your working day for no good reason. If you like to fiddle then you might find other apps more to your liking, but for those of us who prefer a little peace and quiet BitDefender is hard to beat. 3. AVG AntiVirus Free 2016 Feature-packed, with a user-friendly interface and remote-activated scans We've been using AVG AntiVirus Free for years, and it's a very good antivirus program - albeit a little too keen to inform us about things we don't really need to know. The dashboard is user-friendly, the scanner checks links as well as downloaded files, and there's a clever tool that enables you to scan your PC from your mobile phone if you think it's become infected. The paid-for versions attempt to lure you with promises even more robust download protection, data encryption and firewalls to make online threats redundant, but the standard free edition of AVG offers a great deal of protection for no money. 4. Avast Free Anti-Virus 2016 Malware and virus protection, with added security for your home network Avast Free Anti-Virus 2016 is an impressive offering. It protects against malware and viruses, can identify weaknesses in your home Wi-Fi and includes a well-implemented password manager to keep your complex login details safe and easy to access. As with most free products you get even more features if you're willing to pay - there's no anti-phishing protection or spam filtering in Avast Free - but it's nonetheless perfectly respectable and keeps you safe from the most common online attacks. 5. Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+ A comprehensive online security toolkit that covers all the essentials As the name suggests, Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+ started life as an anti-adware program, and it was a very good one. Over the years it's evolved to address more threats, so today it's a fully-fledged security suite that scans downloaded files, keeps an eye out for spyware, enables you to compare web addresses against known offenders and won't interrupt you when you're playing a game. It doesn't have the features of its paid-for siblings - if you want anti-phishing email protection, parental controls and file destruction you'll need to pay for it - but the core product covers the essentials very well. 6. 360 Total Security 2016 Combines four antivirus tools in one, but not the fastest package around Why take one virus detection engine onto the internet when you can take four? 360 Total Security 2016 from Qihoo combines Avira, BitDefender, 360 Cloud Scan Engine and 360 QVMII AI Engine, so in theory it should probably detect threats before they've even been invented, let alone released. But can you trust it? In some circles Qihoo is seen as the Volkswagen of security software, tweaking its programs to gain artificially inflated scores in tests - and the BitDefender engine is switched by default, so you aren't getting quite the protection you might think until you adjust some settings. It's powerful if a little slow, but lingering trust issues aren't great when you're deciding which firm can keep your stuff safe. 7. Panda 2016 Free Antivirus Antivirus that uses cloud processing power to take the weight off your PC Panda Free Antivirus has headed for the clouds with this version, which does all the heavy lifting on Panda's servers to reduce the load on your PC. As we've come to expect from free programs there are lots of optional features that you only get if you pay - Wi-Fi scanning, password management, file encryption and parental controls - but the basics are covered well and Panda scores well in independent virus detection tests. It isn't quite up there with Avast, AVG or BitDefender, but it's still very good. 8. Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows Defender Microsoft's tools are easy to use, but not as effective as third-party software Who better to protect your PC than the company whose operating system facilitated all the security issues in the first place? We kid, of course - Windows is more secure than it's ever been, and Microsoft has invested massive sums in system protection in the form of Microsoft Security Essentials for Windows 7 and Vista, and Windows Defender, which is built into Windows 8 and 10. The result, as you'd expect, integrates very well with Windows, but it consistently lagged behind the likes of BitDefender in independent testing. While the 2015 version was pretty hopeless in detection tests, the 2016 one is a vast improvement - but Microsoft is still on the back foot and rival programs offer better protection. It's much, much better than nothing, but it's not the best. 9. Your bank Find out what services your bank offers to keep online transactions secure To keep your account details safe online, many banks offer free licences for security software you'd normally expect to pay for. McAfee subscriptions are free to MBNA card and HSBC bank customers, saving you £40 (about US$57, AU$79), while users of Barclays online banking can get a free 12-month subscription to Kaspersky Internet Security worth £30 (about US$43, AU$59).

Round up: The best free YouTube to MP3 converters 2016 Posted: Download the best free YouTube to MP3 converters Convert YouTube videos to MP3 YouTube is a great site, packed with amazing content, and it's easy to spend hours just browsing from one video to another. But sometimes, when you're out and about, driving, maybe running, that's just not possible. The solution? Download your favourite videos, maybe convert them to MP3, then burn them to CD or listen to them anywhere with your favourite music app. There are websites that can help you do this, but they're often slow, packed with ads, and only able to download one file at a time. Specialist YouTube to MP3 converters deliver much better results. They're easy to use, just paste your file URL and it's usually downloaded and converted with a single click. The top programs add support for other video and music-sharing sites, and can download complete playlists as well as individual files, yet still won't cost you anything at all. Isn't freeware great? 1. YouTube Song Downloader 2016 Download, convert and listen to music from YouTube with just one program Despite the name, YouTube Song Downloader isn't just another simple converter. It's a complete YouTube client with everything you need to find, hear and download your favourite tunes. Smart search tool helps track down the songs you need, both individual tracks and entire albums. If you're not sure whether you've found the right version, no problem - a built-in player means you can watch the video right now. Once you're ready, single tracks can be downloaded with a click, or you can select multiple files and grab them all at once. And if you're still not convinced, YouTube Song Downloader 2016 has another big advantage over most of the competition: it can download the source video, as well as a converted MP3. The free edition does have ads, and a nag screen when you close the program, but they're not annoying, and upgrading for around £8 (about US$12, AU$16) will get you a version free of both. Read on to discover four more of our favourite YouTube to MP3 converters. 2. Free YouTube to MP3 Converter Download music from YouTube quickly and easily, complete with artwork Video conversion tools can be complex, but Free YouTube to MP3 Converter shows they don't have to be that way. The program really couldn't be much easier to use. Copy your source YouTube link to the clipboard, click 'Paste', and the video name, quality and a tiny thumbnail appear to confirm your choice. Choose a different quality setting if you prefer, otherwise simply click 'Download' and wait as the video is downloaded and converted. A progress bar keeps you up to date with what's happening, and once it's finished, there are buttons to play the MP3 or open its folder in Explorer. The file even has its YouTube frame embedded as sort of 'cover art', which means you'll see it in Explorer's Preview pane, or when viewing a folder as icons. All this is entirely free, but a US$29 per year (about £20, AU$40) premium subscription extends the package with playlist downloads, improved speed and quality, and no ads at all. 3. MediaHuman YouTube to MP3 Converter Not just YouTube - this downloader works with Vevo, Vimeo and more At first glance, MediaHuman YouTube to MP3 Converter seems a little basic, limited, too short on features to be really useful. But start to explore and you might be surprised. Choosing a file can be as easy as dragging and dropping the URL, for instance, or pasting it from the clipboard. The program doesn't just fetch YouTube files: it also works with Vevo.com, Vimeo, DailyMotion, Soundcloud, Bandcamp & Hype Machine. MP3 tag support enables entering the correct artist and album name from within the program, and you can start the download with a click. That's good, but the real highlights are hidden away in a tiny toolbar. MediaHuman YouTube to MP3 Converter can also download entire playlists, use a 'speed limit' mode to prevent it hogging your bandwidth, add music to iTunes, or - for really big jobs - automatically sleep or shut down your PC when the downloads have finished. 4. 4K YouTube to MP3 Stress-free MP3 downloading from whole YouTube playlists or channels 4K YouTube to MP3 is a straightforward converter which aims to download your chosen music with the absolute minimum of hassle. The program works with individual videos, full YouTube playlists or channels (up to 25 videos in the free version), and accepts links from other sites including SoundCloud, Vimeo, Flickr and DailyMotion. It's all very simple to use. Paste in a link and you don't have to consider options, or click a separate 'Download' button, as with some of the competition. 4K YouTube to MP3 just downloads and converts your files immediately. But there's also real power here, when you need it. You're able to download files using multiple threads, for example, use your preferred quality settings, and choose from several output formats (MP3, M4A, OGG). And if you're downloading a complete YouTube playlist, good news: M3U file generation means you can use that playlist in most media players immediately, no extra steps required. 5. Lacey Search dozens of video sites to find exactly what you want If you're tired of adware-infested 'freeware' then Lacey should appeal right away. There's no registration, no sneaky setup program, in fact no installer at all: just unzip the download and run Lacey.exe. The program opens with a simple search box. Type the name of your favourite artist, a song, album, whatever you like, and matches are displayed in seconds. Other tools do something similar, but Lacey stands out because it's not restricted to YouTube. If you can't find your track there, it's also able to search Baidu, BandCamp, MP3Fusion, VEVO, Vimeo, SoundCloud, XMusic.Me, and a lengthy list of other sites. There's no detailed preview of your search results, and often all you'll see is the title, artist and duration. But if the program locates songs that others miss then you probably won't care much, and Lacey can download whatever you like in a couple of clicks. Have we missed your favorite YouTube to MP3 converter? Let us know in the comments below.

Round up: The best free YouTube video downloaders 2016 Posted: Download YouTube videos The best free YouTube video downloaders YouTube's streaming is superb, offering the best quality for your current connection. But what happens if you're going somewhere where connectivity is weak or non-existent? Have no fear; with the right YouTube video downloader you can save streams for offline viewing. Before we proceed it's important to note that you should only download videos for criticism, review or when you have the copyright owner's permission to do so. YouTube's terms of service explicitly prohibit unauthorised downloading. It's also important to note that many of these programs will install bundled software ­toolbars, default search engines and so on ­ if you're not careful with their installers' 'Next' and 'Accept' buttons. None of these apps currently include malware or non-removable adware, but many of their rivals do. Be careful out there. Have we missed any of your favourite YouTube video downloader? Let us know in the comments below. 1. Freemake Video Converter Download YouTube videos and convert them to a format suitable for any device Freemake is much more than a simple YouTube video downloader. It supports more than 500 audio and video formats, which helps explain why it has so many users: 93 million and counting. The formats are organised in profiles for specific devices, so for example you can tell the app that you're making a clip for your Xbox 360 or for a PSP and it'll pick the appropriate format. It burns to DVD and Blu-ray too if you've got the appropriate hardware. If you're looking for a do-everything video app, this should definitely be on your shortlist. This flexibility makes Freemake Video Converter our top YouTube downloader. Read on to discover nine more of our favourite programs for saving videos to your PC, smartphone or other devices. 2. Any Video Converter A speedy free downloader with format conversion and special effects Any Video Converter aims to be a kind of Swiss Army Knife for video: not only does it download YouTube videos, but it can burn DVDs and record video, convert audio and video to and from more than 60 different file formats and even add effects. It isn't the fastest converter around (the free version isn't optimised for multi-core processors) but as a downloader it's fast enough. If you don't pony up £37 (about US$53, AU$72) for the Pro version you're limited to one download at a time, but it's a particularly useful program for getting YouTube clips onto devices such as PSPs and smartphones. 3. aTube Catcher Download, convert, merge and even record videos as they're playing Like Any Video Converter, aTube Catcher can do lots of things: in addition to video downloading it can create and convert all kinds of video, find clips you've watched from your internet history and merge multiple files together. There's even a screen recorder which can grab video as it's playing, which is handy for making screencasts. It's very quick and offers a huge range of output options, and it's nice to have parallel downloading and multi-core processing in a freeware program. Not only that, but its requirements are modest: it works with operating systems as old as Windows 98. 4. Free YouTube Download Download multiple videos at once, in resolutions up to 8K The installer is a little too keen on adding bundled software, but Free YouTube Download is very good and completely free. Its focus is on the downloading rather than converting files from one format to another, so you get a good multi-stream download manager for grabbing several clips simultaneously. It can download files of up to 8K resolution (in MKV) and convert to AVI and MP4. If you're in a hurry, there's also an online YouTube to MP3/MP4 converter on the developer's website. 5. Ummy Video Downloader A simple, slimline downloader that won't stress your PC Ummy Video Downloader is designed to do just one thing, and that's download YouTube videos and save them as video or audio files. There are no fancy bells or whistles, making it a slim package that puts minimal demands on your PC. The interface is clean and good-looking, and in a nice touch it grabs the video's main image to use as a backdrop while the clip downloads. It can save as FLV, MKV, MOV, AVI, MP3 and MPG, it doesn't gobble up system resources and it's completely free. It doesn't have the extensive file conversion options of some other YouTube download apps, but it covers the basics perfectly well. 6. YTD Video Downloader Download videos from more than 60 sites, including YouTube and Vimeo YTD Video Downloader comes in two flavors: Basic, which is free, and Pro, which costs £18.90 (about AU$36, US$28) per year. Basic doesn't get multiple simultaneous downloads, download acceleration or an ad-free interface but it does cover the fundamentals: it downloads from YouTube and more than 60 other video sites, it can convert to WMV, AVI, MP3 and iPhone, and it can resume failed downloads if your connection drops mid-download. The free version's installer is very keen on giving you bundled software you almost certainly don't want, so make sure you read each step carefully and uncheck the boxes beside anything you'd rather not install, but the app itself isn't too ad-heavy. 7. Clip Converter Leave this downloader to do its work, and it'll let you know when it's done Clip Converter is a website rather than an app. Simply paste your URL, pick a format - MP4, 3GP, AVI or MOV for video, or MP3, M4A or AAC for audio - and then choose the quality. For YouTube, you can download HD up to 1080p and 4K if it's available, and the process couldn't be simpler. File conversion can be slow at times, so the email notification option is a nice thing to have; it pings you when the conversion is complete and ready for download. If you're simply looking for a quick, clean, single-video downloader Clip Converter is one to bookmark. 8. VideoGrabby A simple but effective web app for downloading videos and music Sometimes you don't want too many options; you just want to paste and go. That's clearly the thinking behind VideoGrabby, which gives you just two options: download video or download music. The downloads are MP4 for video and MP3 for music, and if there's a high quality version of the clip an extra HQ button will appear at the bottom of the page. It works with other sites too, such as Vimeo and Soundcloud, and it's very, very fast. If you don't go for the HQ option, your download appears almost instantly. 9. Keepvid A fast online-only downloader, but watch out for the cunningly-placed ads Another online YouTube downloader, KeepVid is both very good and very bad: good in that it offers a decent range of download options (MP4, 3GP, WebM, audio) and bad because it has those ads with fake download buttons in the centre of the screen in what looks like a deliberate attempt to get you to click on them. We're not anti-advertising - developers have to eat - but that's rather deceptive. Ignore the fake buttons, however, and you've got a fast and friendly YouTube downloader that's useful for grabbing things quickly. 10. SaveFromNet An online-only downloader with an optional browser add-on for convenience Downloading YouTube videos doesn't get much simpler than SaveFromNet. Copy your clip's address, paste it into the box and choose your download format. And that's pretty much it. It's nice to see the option to include subtitles (where available), and you can download in MP4, WebM, FLV, 3GP and audio. If you like the service there's a browser helper extension that adds a SaveFromNet download button to YouTube itself for even easier downloading. The helper extension also works for Facebook video and various international video sites.

What Apple's App Store changes mean for you Posted: We've been anticipating big changes for Apple's iOS App Store for some time, and now the Cupertino company is set to reveal all at its WWDC event next week. In an interview with The Verge, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller discussed how Apple will be opening its App Store subscription model, currently implemented in news and magazine apps, to all product categories. "And that includes games, which is a huge category," said Schiller. The company's plans for the App Store's future also include a new revenue-sharing model, which will keep the current 70/30 split, but will see Apple's 30 percent cut drop down to just 15 percent once a developer has had a customer subscribed for longer than a year. Apple adds App Store ads Display ads will also be making their way into App Store search results, which will provide prominent placement for app developers that are willing to front the cash. Schiller stated that the system will be "fair to developers and fair for indie developers, too." The App Review process is also getting faster. Apple claims that 50 percent of apps submitted are now reviewed within the first 24 hours, with that number reaching 90 percent by the 48 hour mark. Share functionality will also be built into every app's 3D Touch menu, allowing users to shoot off a link to their recommended app on social media channels. What about me? Subscription models in iOS games and apps will surely please developers, who'll now have the option of using a brand new, recurring revenue stream to bring in the big bucks. As for the consumer, they may be left with tough decisions on which apps they're willing to pay a monthly fee for. Juggling multiple app subscriptions could also be a headache, as being charged for several different subscriptions each month will start to add up. Consumers may need to become more selective about the apps they invest their time and money in. That said, this could also lead to the cream rising to the top, forcing developers to up their game when it comes to putting out a product that's actually worth sticking with. If the latter holds true, that can only be good news for consumers. If implemented well, it could act as a way to resuscitate waning interest in many apps — it may even inspire users to properly commit to apps rather than abandon them after a few days. We're less enthused about display ads appearing in search results. However, we're willing to wait until see some examples before completely writing them off — they could make it easier for customers to get their eyes on apps and games they may have missed otherwise. We'll find out more next week at WWDC 2016.

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