COVER FEATURE
Software doesn’t have to cost a fortune. You can get all sorts of apps for free, covering all manner of uses. There are free word processors, graphics editors, games, media players, utilities and more.
Don’t assume that because an app is free, it’s less capable than a paid-for piece of software. In many cases, the free app is the best one for the job. Some are coded by programmers that work for the love of their art, others are released by professional software publishers but released without charge, alongside their paid-for apps.
In this feature, we take a look at some of the best free software available for all your gear. Whether it’s for Windows and Mac, Android smartphones and iPhones, tablets and iPads or the Apple Watch, if it’s both free and good, it’s likely covered here.
The criteria for inclusion is very simple; it just has to be free. We’ve avoided demo versions for paid apps, but if a free app with paid-for premium features (or IAPs) is capable enough, it’s made the cut.
The best free desktop apps
It’s amazing what you can get without paying a single cent.
iWork Apps
FROM apple.com/au/iwork
FOR iPad, iPhone
If you don’t have these yet, take a trip to the Mac App Store and download them now. They’re among the most important apps on the Mac, and although they previously cost money, they’re now completely free. Pages is an awesome word processor that can handle pictures and videos as well as text. Numbers is a very capable spreadsheet with full formula support, and Keynote is the Mac’s best presentation app; it’s the one Tim Cook and the team use at Apple events.
All three apps come with a comprehensive range of templates to get you started. With the iWork apps, you can create impressive documents within minutes, and tackle even more impressive projects as you learn more about them. They all support collaboration, and you can export your work in Microsoft Office’s formats for greater compatibility.
Handbrake
FROM handbrake.fr
FOR Windows, Mac, Linux
If you regularly It can convert movie footage between formats, compile it for playback on specific devices such as Amazon Fire tablets, Android phones and games consoles, and can flip and/or crop videos as it converts. If you really want to take your encoding to the next level, bypass the presets and customise your output to suit your requirements. Handbrake is as easy or as complicated as you want it to be. If you’ve a lot of videos to encode, you can queue them and leave it running overnight so they’ll be ready for you in the morning too. It’s an amazing app.
