Then I discovered Parallels and it was almost like having an affair with two operating systems at the same time – I was having my cake and eating it – like some sort of operating system love triangle. Parallels for me is the final nail in the coffin for Windows. It runs any version of Windows embarrassingly effortlessly within the Mac OS environment and it leaves you almost pitying Windows in a way. It’s like the Mac is saying, “You’re so weak and insignificant now that I can run you like I would a Commodore 64 emulator” or something. Using Windows in Parallels is very much like that – the Parallels window is like a tunnel to an ancient universe when the whole world used an archaic old system called “Windows”.

Like everything else on the Mac, setting up Windows in Parallels is insanely easy. The equivalent on a PC laptop involves creating a partition which can’t be reversed, is time consuming, and can cause a whole world of pain if it goes wrong. Installing Windows in Parallels is fast, simple and if you don’t like it, you can rid of it in a few clicks of the mouse. Even better, you can install as many versions of Windows as you want – Windows XP, Vista or even 98 and 95 if you so want and access them instantly at any time. No more Shmore Shut Downs either – you can simply stop the Parallels virtual machine and restart it when you want and be returned to exactly the same screen with all your applications opened as you left them.

But leaving productivity aside, the main question I had was how to manage wallpapers on a dual monitor system. Can you have a different image on each one of them? How do you stretch a single photo between both screens? The answer is DisplayFusion, an excellent wallpaper manager that’s been specifically developed to work with two screens.

With DisplayFusion you can choose between having a single background image stretched over the two monitors or using a different image for each one of them. You can also set the alignment and the background color for each monitor. The program features a preview window where you can see how the selected image or images will look on the two monitors.

DisplayFusion also includes a built-in photo search tool that retrieves images from Flickr according to your Dual Screen Wallpaper for a excellent collection of desktop wallpapers designed for dual monitor systems.

Not all of us have the memory of an Elephant, and if you’re the kind of person who always forgets what you should be doing or where you’re supposed to be going then it’s high time you did something about it.

Evernote is an application and web service that lets you capture, store and synchronize all manner of information on your BlackBerry, PC and online, all at the same time. It allows you to store all manner of items, including text notes, voice notes, images and files.

Once you’ve installed the program on your device, you’ll need to sign up for a free Evernote account. After this short registration process you’ll be presented with a very clear and touch-friendly interface. From here, you’re just a tap away from adding a text note, a handwritten ink note, taking a snapshot on your camera, recording an audio note, or uploading a file. The Settings menu in Evernote allows you to view your current monthly usage, and tweak things such as the camera resolution and the way the notes are displayed on screen.

Now, whenever you don’t have your BlackBerry to hand you’ll be able to access any notes or files you’ve added in Evernote from any web browser. These can then be edited, deleted, printed or emailed at your leisure. Personally, I found the layout of the online interface quite uncomfortable – unlike the handheld version of Evernote, the text is very small, and the strange menu system makes browsing through your items overly complicated.

From the browser-based version of Evernote you can add notes and files like with the device version. There’s also a ‘web clipping’ tool, available as a Firefox plug-in, which lets you quickly grab web pages as you browse and save them to Evernote.

All in all, Evernote is a powerful productivity app that ensures you’re never far away from your important information.

Download Evernote 3.0.249 in Softonic

When I was younger (in fact, it still applies now) I always wanted to have James Bond’s Miss Moneypenny as my secretary. As I grow older, I realise this is becoming less and less likely to happen. However, I’ve just stumbled across a mobile app that will give me almost the next best thing.

Agendus is an excellent personal information manager designed to make you more you a more productive human being through your BlackBerry. The application combines the different standard applications such as address book, notepad, tasks and email, and supports data synchronization with your desktop.

It’s incredible to be able to manage and access so much information from one place, and it’s even better than the built-in productivity tools in the BlackBerry OS. The program centralizes a huge range of tasks, including managing contacts, appointments, tasks, notes, SMS and emails.

There’s a whole bunch of stuff you can do with this information using Agendus, such as displaying data in daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly views, grouping, editing and deleting. A powerful built-in full-text search ensures that whatever you need is always close at hand. Everything is very simple to synchronize too, using BlackBerry Desktop Manager.

Thanks to an intuitive centralized interface and some slick integration with Outlook, this really is a product you can’t afford to be without if you have a busy personal or professional life.

Download Agendus 2.01 (BB) in Softonic

Not all of us have the memory of an Elephant, and if you’re the kind of person who always forgets what you should be doing or where you’re supposed to be going then it’s high time you did something about it.

Evernote is an application and web service that lets you capture, store and synchronize all manner of information on your iPhone, PC and online, all at the same time. It allows you to store all manner of items, including text notes, voice notes, images and files.

Once you’ve installed the program on your iPhone, you’ll need to sign up for a free Evernote account. After this short registration process you’ll be presented with a very clear and touch-friendly interface. From here, you’re just a tap away from adding a text note, a handwritten ink note, taking a snapshot on your camera, recording an audio note, or uploading a file. The Settings menu in Evernote allows you to view your current monthly usage, and tweak things such as the camera resolution and the way the notes are displayed on screen.

Now, whenever you don’t have your iPhone to hand you’ll be able to access any notes or files you’ve added in Evernote from any web browser. These can then be edited, deleted, printed or emailed at your leisure. Personally, I found the layout of the online interface quite uncomfortable – unlike the handheld version of Evernote, the text is very small, and the strange menu system makes browsing through your items overly complicated.

From the browser-based version of Evernote you can add notes and files like with the device version. There’s also a ‘web clipping’ tool, available as a Firefox plug-in, which lets you quickly grab web pages as you browse and save them to Evernote.

All in all, Evernote is a powerful productivity app that ensures you’re never far away from your important information.

Download Evernote 3.1.1 in Softonic

Not all of us have the memory of an Elephant, and if you’re the kind of person who always forgets what you should be doing or where you’re supposed to be going then it’s high time you did something about it.

Evernote is an application and web service that lets you capture, store and synchronize all manner of information on your PDA, PC and online, all at the same time. It allows you to store all manner of items, including text notes, voice notes, images and files.

Once you’ve installed the program on your Windows Mobile device, you’ll need to sign up for a free Evernote account. After this short registration process you’ll be presented with a very clear and touch-friendly interface. From here, you’re just a tap away from adding a text note, a handwritten ink note, taking a snapshot on your camera, recording an audio note, or uploading a file. The Settings menu in Evernote allows you to view your current monthly usage, and tweak things such as the camera resolution and the way the notes are displayed on screen.

Now, whenever you don’t have your Smartphone to hand you’ll be able to access any notes or files you’ve added in Evernote from any web browser. These can then be edited, deleted, printed or emailed at your leisure. Personally, I found the layout of the online interface quite uncomfortable – unlike the handheld version of Evernote, the text is very small, and the strange menu system makes browsing through your items overly complicated.

From the browser-based version of Evernote you can add notes and files like with the device version. There’s also a ‘web clipping’ tool, available as a Firefox plug-in, which lets you quickly grab web pages as you browse and save them to Evernote.

All in all, Evernote is a powerful productivity app that ensures you’re never far away from your important information.

Download Evernote 3.3.48164 in Softonic

Microsoft Office 2010 is meant to represent quite a revolution in comparison to previous versions of Office. While still keeping the same ribbon-style interface, some Office applications will feature important improvements, such as the possibility for multiple users to to edit a document in Word 2010 simultaneously, enhanced photo editing tools and new transitions for PowerPoint 2010, and the much awaited improved search function in Outlook 2010 (I’m particularly looking forward to this one).

However the most important new feature in Microsoft Office 2010 will undoubtedly be the new online versions of Word,  PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote. After a few years of delay, it seems that Microsoft have finally decided to launch their own alternative to Zoho,Google Docs, OpenGoo, ThinkFree and many other online productivity suites. The online Office 2010 will probably be a light version of the suite, but it will enable you to work anytime, anywhere.

We’ll surely learn a lot more about Microsoft Office 2010 in the next few days. Meanwhile, you can take a look at the videos (published on the Microsoft website by mistake, and now kindly hosted by istartedsomething), check out the detailed guide written by Leena Rao at TechCrunch and subscribe to the Microsoft Technical Preview waiting list which, with a bit of luck, might grant you access to a pre-release version of Office 2010.

If you use your phone a lot then you probably sometimes wish you had a secretary, or at the very least, a switchboard operator to manage all your calls and contacts. You could hire one, but a much cheaper option is to install PhonePilot onto your device. The program delivers a wide range of functions for the management and control of calls from the same environment.

Among the productivity-enhancing treats in the program are a set of filters that can limit or deflect an incoming call, an answering machine with the resources needed to save your own voice messages, advanced call logs, SMS manager and a tool for recording conversations.

You can also create groups of contacts facilitating the configuration of filters, preset up to seven different SMS messages (one per group), save voice messages and create endless completely customisable profiles.

Ultimately, PhonePilot is a powerful program to expand the number of features in your phone.

Download PhonePilot 2.52 (S60 3rd) in Softonic