Corel Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Video editing is not simple and projects place the most severe demands on your PC. When you move to HD, the demands increase exponentially. Ulead VideoStudio 11, like any editor, does have a learning curve, so be patient. Be certain to read the manual that comes with the box or download it from their site in pdf and take it with you on your laptop or pda.
If you are just starting out as a video editor, you have some surprises ahead because it is a tedious job; not only to learn, but to produce. It is far more difficult than working with photos. If you are just looking to produce a short DVD movie from your camera, it is easy. But, adding titles, overlays, and audio tracks does take time.
I have had several months experience comparing the Ulead VideoStudio to Pinnacle Studio Plus 11. I find the features and reliablity of the Ulead suite to be superior to any of the consumer level Pinnacle softwares. In fact, my experiences with Pinnacle have been less than satisfactory and their support is non-existent. I would stay far away.
What is particularly nice about this product is that when you install and register, it is fully functional. There are no gimmicks requiring you to activate other features. Also, it doesn't seem to overtax your processor. With Pinnacle, my processor fan was on high the entire time and I experienced numerous hangups and crashes with the CPU @ 100%. Ulead doesn't do that. It does, however, pause in an inactive mode for a while when performing certain tasks like splitting scenes from your movie. These pauses appear to be hangups and provide no "...please wait", but eventually it comes back. Get another cup of coffee. Will you experience crashes? Probably, but fewer.
While I do like Pinnacle's editor a lot, I spent three weeks editing a series of digitized 8mm family movies into a one hour project. Pinnacle would only produce 41 minutes of the project either to disk or DVD. That was a lot of wasted time and their "support" could not solve the problem. If only Ulead would import Pinnacle projects; that would be a coup.
So, this review seems to be mostly what I don't like about Pinnacle Studio Plus 11, but for the reader's satisfaction I moved from that product to Ulead VideoStudio 11 and found some welcome relief as well as full features. I did spend three wasted weeks with Pinnacle and that is a sore point with me. The moral to my story is start with Ulead VideoStudio and when you get good at it, perhaps move along to high-end products like Adobe. My jury is still out for a while on this product, but so far it looks good.
I hope this was helpful.
Amended...just finished my one hour movie using Ulead VideoStudio 11. Completed the project over three days without one computer hang up or crash. The program is great and deserves five stars.

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VideoStudio 11 Plus is video editing and DVD authoring software for anyone who wantsto easily produce professional-looking videos, slideshows and DVDs. Capture video from the latest HD camcorders and create amazing High-Definition HD DVDs. Work quickly with timesaving template-based Wizards, or express your creativity with powerful hands-on tools. Fix common video problems with one-click corrective filters, generate Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround audio tracks, and add pro-quality titles and transitions. Share your movies everywhere, from iPod to DVD to YouTube to the latest Home Theater systems. Award-winning VideoStudio sets the standard for powerful features and ease of use.

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Apple iLife '08 Review

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(More customer reviews)I purchased iLife mostly for the improved organization of iPhoto. While I like the concept and presentation of events, bugs in importing, sorting, selection, and organizing have made the program an enormous waste of time. Twice in two days, large chunks of photos and events have simply disappeared, requiring reimporting and reorganizing (I was fortunate that I had backed up my library before installing 08). iPhoto often adds photos to a selection on its own (I suspect this is behind some of the mystery deletions) and when emptying the trash seems to also discard related photos still in the library. It's to the point where I dare not delete anything for fear of what else will be discarded. Some events display the wrong dates for the photos within and so are placed out of order. iPhoto08 continues iPhoto06's tradition of importing multiple duplicate files despite instructions not to import duplicates.
A program which should have been a big improvement in organization and convenience is instead a frustrating mess. I have many Apple products, and this is the first time I have regretted a purchase.

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Never has it been so simple to get so much out of your photos, video, and music - and to share your memories with friends and family. The powerful new Events feature works the same way your memory does, automatically organizing your photos and video by the events where they were taken. The completely reinvented iMovie collects all your video clips in one library where you can make movies in seconds with drag-and-drop ease. GarageBand makes it simple to produce great music, whether you're an accomplished musician or you've never played a note. You can showcase photos and movies online with a few clicks in a .Mac Web Gallery, create stunning websites, photo books, calendars, DVDs, and much more. All with iLife '08.

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Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Video editing on the PC is more voodoo than artisty - almost every "consumer level" editing program on the market has compatibility problems, the software that comes with the hardware tends to be next to useless (if you can get it to work at all), and customer support is TERRIBLE. Most of what is to be found is geared towards either 1) encoding low-quality video either from TV or cell phones or 2) "dummy-editing" for those that want to get poorly-edited YouTube video on the air. Consumers that want to do high-quality video editing but aren't professionals (read: can't spend thousands on one piece of software) are, for the most part, ignored.
Having messed with numerous products including Pinnacle Studio (very buggy and contains huge compatibility issues), WinTV's Win2000 (comes with their card - lacks usefulness), VirtualDub (free and having huge potential with numerous features, but unless you're willing to spend a tremendous amount of time working with it, have the exact hardware the fan-community is using, and have superior knowledge of the technology, you won't find it useful), etc... in the end, Premiere is the best. It is professionally done, VERY compatible compared to other software packages, powerful, easy to use, and easy to understand. If you want to do video editing on the PC, this is where you should start - everything else just creates too many headaches.
So, what can you do with Premiere Elements 3.0? You can combine multiple video clips into a movie; you can narrate a video; you can create video for your blog (if you have a camera); you can burn professional-looking DVDs with full menus that will blow people away. Whether you are making home movies of your kids, compiling a highlight reel of your best sporting moments, or making a movie on an extremely tight budget, this is the best software out there in the price range.
As to what 3.0 improves from 2.0: To the casual user not a lot. There are a few more minor options, but the big advantage comes when burning DVDs - in 2.0, my sports DVDs looked terrible with a great deal of "jumping" (I'm assuming this was caused by the software not using enough compression keyframes, but don't quote me on that) - in 3.0, everything is extremely clear and smooth. There are also more exporting options and more useable codecs, though the software still lacks the ability to switch to any installed codecs (a major flaw, IMO, but one most other programs at this level share).
Note: In order to make DVD templates (DVD Menus) for 3.0, you need Photoshop Elements 5.0 - earlier versions do not seem to work (or, at least, I can't get them to work properly). While you can make very good DVD menus within Premiere, you can't save them from Premiere for use in other projects. If that is something you might want to do (and, quite honestly, it may not be for many users), pick up the "bundled" version of Premiere and Photoshop and save yourself some money.
Now, a few things that Premiere Elements can't do/doesn't do very well:
- Capture video from "legacy" devices like VCRs. Premiere can capture video from some devices, but it doesn't work particularly well with many capture cards (nor is it really designed to). Either send your VCR feed through a digital camcorder or use another recording method ("Tivo" or a capture card with useful capture software).
- "Mega" special effects. Premiere Elements has numerous effects like dissolve, fade, time-stretching (slow motion), and distortion - it does not, however, do major CGI-effects. You might be able to pull of a Star Trek "beam in" effect, but you'll need another program for most others.
- Post-capture video improvement. Premiere Elements can do some video enhancement, but it is more of a timeline editing tool - if you want to significantly improve the quality of your captured video (removing major noise, massive high-quality zooming, etc..) you'll need another program.
To address a few other negative reviews...
"Just a quick warning: trying to deal with Adobe is a nightmare. I spent 45 minutes on their customer service line today, waiting for someone to answer. Twice, I was disconnected and had to call back."
I've never had to deal with Adobe's customer support, so I don't know whether or not this is true - I do know, however, that CS in other retail companies in this market is terrible."I imported some video from a DVD that I made myself, and the program shut down. It said I had to go to a website and type in a 20-digit "encoder activation" and the site would give me another number that I could use to activate the MPEG2 part of the product. But the site won't take the number. I keep getting an invalid code message when I type it in."
This situation is true - you will need an internet connection AND you'll have to register a code to enable certain compressors. However, all you need to do is copy and paste the code from the software window and into your web browser (there's even a button that will copy the code - you just have to paste it in). No one I know has ever had the problem described above - though it could occur.
"No web support or patches on Adobe site to date. "
There are numerous plugins available on the Adobe website and a patch - just go to the updates section of their webpage.
In conclusion: Premiere Elements is the best software out there for most users. Other reviewers should feel free to post if there is a better software package available.

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Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 software makes creating and sharing impressive home videos a snap. Burn your footage to DVD in two simple steps, complete with a DVD menu and scene index, or quickly assemble your movie in the new Sceneline, where you can drag and drop to arrange clips and add effects and enhancements. You can even edit and preview your movie in one convenient window. When your movie is ready, share it on the web, on mobile phones, and virtually anywhere else.

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Photo Album 7 Deluxe Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I had little photo editing experience when I used "Corel Photo Album 7 Deluxe". I found this software suite to be an excellent digital photo editing tool for basic users. It allows novice users to perform complex or seemingly impossible editing tasks with little more than intuition and this tool. It is not a resource designed for the advanced user or photographer who needs more sensitive and professional tools.
It allows the user to easily organize, sort, edit, share, retouch, and, in general, explore creatively with your digital photo file. It guides the user in linking music with slide shows and video presentations, including song selection and music synchronization.
This suite is simple and intuitve for any user in my estimation. It loads easily and its features can be addressed through drag and drop icons in a fairly user friendly manner. I found the retouching tools to be the most useful as well as the most fun element for me in my explorations. All the standard retouching tools are available including erasing blemishes, whitening teeth, eliminating red eye, and even a painting on a suntan tool.
The intuitive interface allows easy organiztion of your photos from sort, find, search by various identifiers (name, text, date, etc.)to editing and sending. There are a large number of project templates (calendars, scrapbooks, collages, etc.) that I did not explore. Lastly, the working with videos section seems equally simple and self-explanatory but I have not done any video editing yet.
All in all, many of the features of "Corel Photo Album 7 Deluxe" can be found in freeware or among resident tools on some computers. But this software suite has combined a large number of useful digital photo and video editing tools into one simple user friendly package. Believe me when I say I enjoyed several hours exploring many of its features and I am definitely a novice at photo editing. I recommend this product for what it does and how it does it.

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Corel Photo Album 7 Deluxe is your complete digital photo editing suite! Enhance your photos in an instant with easy photo-fixes and effects. Use powerful editing tools to remove blemishes, whiten teeth and paint on a suntan, so everyone looks their best! Make scrapbooks, greeting cards, calendars, collages and more using hundreds of professionally designed templates. Email, print or save your photos on DVDs. Download, view, trim and show off video clips. You can even combine photos, video clips and music to make an amazing slide show you can burn to DVD to play on your TV. Photo Album gives you all the tools you need to make the most of your photos and videos.

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Adobe Flash Pro CS5 Student & Teacher Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)Before using Flash I have had no exposure to animation programs. Having learned how to use flash I wish the interface was more user friendly, by that I mean I wish it was setup more like Illustrator. Fairly often I found myself wishing it would rotate something or align something like in Illustrator, there is the option of importing but I heard that takes up more memory. I read the review about crashes, on the Mac I have had zero crashes and have not had to fuss about anything like that. So in general I have read this version adds some stuff but it's all new to me, I would recommend this to anyone starting out. Though I am looking into similar programs and might consider switching.

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Adobe Flash Professional CS5 software is the industry-leading environment for interactive authoring and delivery of immersive experiences that are presented consistently across personal computers, mobile devices, and screens of virtually any size and resolution. Design expressive content with professional typography and pixel-precise drawing tools, write code precisely and efficiently with code completion and customizable code snippets, and deliver superior-quality video to audiences practically everywhere.




Create and deliver rich interactive content
New text engine Take control over your text with print-quality typography via the new Text Layout Framework. Work with columns and bidirectional text, and maintain layout and formatting with greater fidelity when importing from other Adobe products.

XML-based FLA source files Manage and modify projects using source control systems and collaborate on files more easily. An XML-based nonbinary implementation of the FLA format allows projects and associated assets to function as items in a directory or folder.

Improved Adobe Creative Suite integration Enhance your productivity and workflow when using Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Flash Builder. Leverage the FXG graphics file format and integration with Adobe Mini Bridge for digital asset management.

Code Snippets panel Reduce the ActionScript 3.0 learning curve and promote greater creativity by injecting prebuilt code into projects. Quickly include functional code for timeline navigation, actions, animation, audio and video, and event handlers.

Enhanced ActionScript editor Increase development speed with an improved ActionScript editor, including custom class code hinting and code completion. Use Adobe Flash Builder software as your primary ActionScript editor for Flash Professional projects.

Object-based animation model Use object-based animation and visually achieve granular control over motion attributes with the Motion Editor. Develop interactive content more efficiently with the Motion Preset panel, which offers prebuilt motion effects and lets you create, save, and share your own.

Inverse kinematics Take advantage of advanced motion capabilities and visually add realistic physics effects with new strength and damping settings for the Bones tool. Easily create natural, chain-like motion with a simple and familiar user interface.

Advanced native drawing tools Author expressive interactive content with easy-to-use tools. Draw stylized shapes and transform them into complex patterns and effects, and animate 2D objects through 3D space with 3D transformation tools.

Video improvements Streamline video embedding and encoding processes with on-stage video scrubbing and a new cue points property inspector. See and play back FLV components directly on the stage.

Support across devices Deliver interactive content consistently for more runtimes across personal computers, mobile devices, and screens of virtually any size and resolution, and leverage integration with Adobe Device Central for enhanced testing and debugging.

Top new features of Adobe Flash Professional CS5
New text engine Flash Professional CS5 adds support for the new Text Layout Framework built into Flash Player 10, enabling you to use print-quality typographic functionality and take the experiences you create to new heights. Support for the Text Layout Framework provides rich, multilingual typographic control that previously was not available in Flash Professional, as well as a comprehensive set of APIs to manipulate text content, layout, and markup. The new text engine in Flash Professional CS5 also maintains layout and text formatting with greater fidelity when importing content from Adobe InDesign software and other Adobe products.

Print-quality typographic control Designers have come to expect rich typographic control in applications like InDesign and Illustrator. However, it's been extremely difficult or even impossible to set professional-level typography on the web--until now. With the Text Layout Framework support in Flash Professional CS5, designers can take advantage of rich typographical controls, including:

Advanced text styling such as kerning, ligatures, tracking, leading, superscript, subscript, discretionary hyphens, margins, hypertext, baseline shift, typographic case, digit case (oldstyle/lining figures), and digit width (proportional/tabular figures).
Advanced text-layout controls including threaded text blocks; the selection, editing and flowing of text across multiple columns; linked images; text wrap; and inline images (supporting PNG, JPG, SWF, or any Flash Player DisplayObject). Tab stops and CSS anti-aliasing are also supported.

Global language support The Text Layout Framework brings advanced multilingual typographic and layout features to Flash Professional CS5. This support includes the ability to display and edit not only right-to-left scripts, but also top-to-bottom scripts, and those that often use a mixture of left-to-right and right-to-left scripts such as Arabic and Hebrew.

The new text engine offers additional features for East Asian typography, including an East Asian justifier, vertical text support, and Tate-Chu-Yoko, or blocks of horizontal text embedded into vertical runs of text.

Advanced inline text editing Working with text inside of Flash Professional is now a far more efficient and productive experience. In addition to cut, copy, paste, find, replace, and spell-check functionality and standard keyboard and mouse gestures for editing (Ctrl/Command, Home/End, double-click), a new Selection mode allows text to be treated as read-only, read-select, or read-write.

Advanced rendering support While offering advanced typographic control to designers is important, you want to know that what you see on your screen matches your viewers' experience as well. The Text Layout Framework builds on the history of consistent high-quality playback and display across multiple devices in Flash Player by adding support for transparency and for device and embedded fonts (including anti-aliasing of embedded fonts). A new embedded font format (DefineFont4) provides improved typography features, international support, and reduced file sizes.

Ability to distribute content virtually anywhere Deliver consistently across screens of virtually any size and use Adobe Device Central for enhanced device testing. The Distribution service available separately through Adobe Flash Platform Services offers free and paid methods for distributing applications to social networks, mobile devices, and desktops. It also enables developers and businesses to track the distribution of and user engagement with their applications, and enables monetization of applications through ad hosting.

Deliver to mobile and consumer devices. Deliver content that plays back on millions of devices worldwide. Packager for iPhone preview, included with Flash Professional CS5, compiles ActionScript bytecode into native iPhone application code. iPhone applications are distributed as iPhone application installer (IPA) files, via the iTunes store.
Deliver to desktop computers. Take advantage of the ubiquity of Flash Player within browsers and Adobe AIR for extended support on the desktop. Content displays with a consistent look and feel across operating systems and browsers.

XML-based FLA source files Flash Professional CS5 uses an XML-based implementation of the FLA file format called XFL, offering improved cross-product integration and workflow productivity. This compact and efficient file format both accurately maintains data in a Flash document and makes the individual elements easier to manage and use.

For example, an image that is currently used in a Flash project could be checked out of a source control system, updated, and checked back in. The next time you open the FLA project file, you would instantly see the updated image without having to manually import it into the project.

With better support for multiuser environments and cross-product compatibility, the XML-based format in Flash Professional offers the following benefits:

The uncompressed format allows several users on a team to work on the same project simultaneously--no more having to split the project into multiple FLA files.
Integration with source control systems is now possible because each team member can work on separate assets in the XFL package, eliminating the need to resolve differences.
Mobile developers can work on the same files as other developers. (In the past, mobile content could not load other SWF files.)

Using XML-based FLA source files, Flash Professional CS5 provides a richer environment in which to exchange data with other key Adobe Creative Suite tools, including After Effects, InDesign, Illustrator, Adobe Encore, and Flash Catalyst.

Code Snippets panel Flash Professional CS5 provides a new way to quickly include code for things like timeline navigation, actions, animation, audio and video, and event handlers with the Code Snippets panel. By injecting prebuilt code into projects, you can work faster, freeing up more time for creativity.

For example, the sample code snippets allow you to create interactive buttons without extensive code experience. Code snippets also contain helpful comments and clear instructions right in the code and can greatly reduce the ActionScript 3.0 learning curve by helping new users learn how the ActionScript language works. In addition, because the panel is extensible, you can create and share snippets with others, helping to reduce overall production time.

Enhanced ActionScript editor Increase development speed with an improved ActionScript editor, including custom class code hinting and code completion, and reference your own code or external code libraries more efficiently. Novice developers can start projects and have code hinting assist them as they try to grasp the fundamentals of the ActionScript language. Flash Professional CS5 can automatically write the import statement for libraries, and more experienced and advanced developers can more quickly reference their own code or any external code libraries they are using.

Improved Creative Suite integration Flash Professional is an integral part of all Creative Suite 5 Premium editions. Flash Professional CS5 adds more ways to work directly with other Creative Suite 5 components for a more efficient workflow, including:

Edit bitmaps in Photoshop using the new Edit With Photoshop CS5 command
Export complex graphics via the FXG format, which you can open in Illustrator
Place finished SWF files into Flash Catalyst projects
Use Flash Builder as your ActionScript code-authoring environment
Open content from InDesign with greater text fidelity
Import FXG files from Fireworks
Open content from After Effects and retain editing flexibility

Flash Builder integration Adobe Flash Builder (formerly Adobe Flex Builder) is a professional Eclipse-based developer tool that enables intelligent coding, interactive step-through debugging, and visual design of the user interface and behavior for Flex applications. Rather than having to choose between one integrated development environment (IDE) and another, you can now write your ActionScript code in Flash Builder and then test, debug, and publish your content in Flash Professional.

Test Movie and Debug Movie. When invoked, these commands bring up Flash Professional CS5, open the FLA file that has been set in the properties of the current project, and test or debug the movie. Once the SWF window is closed (or the debug session is ended, in the case of Debug Movie), focus is returned to Flash Builder (and the FLA file remains open). You can also set breakpoints in Flash Builder that work in the Flash Professional debugger.
Publish Movie. When invoked, this command brings up Flash Professional CS5 and publishes the target FLA file. Once the export is complete, if compiler errors were found, Flash Professional is brought to the front with its Compiler Errors panel open and the errors listed. If no errors were found, a dialog box in Flash Builder indicates that the Publish request was successful.

Spring for Bones With Flash Professional CS5, Adobe integrates the power of a dynamic physics engine into the Inverse Kinematics (IK) system. This engine allows new users to create lifelike animation with ease, and gives expert users powerful functionality that is supported for both runtime and authortime. Spring gives IK animation movement that is 100% configurable, so you can now get realistic multi-object interactions that don't look robotic and rigid. Spring, a property of an IK Bone element, consists of two attributes: Strength and Damping.

Strength sets the amount of spring. When the value is greater than zero, the bone reacts with a physical movement that is proportional to the Strength value and the overall movement.
Damping adds resistance to the Strength value. This affects the rate of decay of the spring, which in turn determines the duration between the initial movement and the time when the IK Bone returns to its rest position.

Video improvements With integrated support for content created with Adobe Premiere Pro or Adobe After Effects software, it's easy to work with video content directly in Flash Professional CS5. Streamline embedding and encoding processes with on-stage video scrubbing and the ability to define cue points directly in the Properties panel. Now, when you have an FLV playback component on the stage, you can see the video on the stage, whereas previously you had to test the movie. Flash Professional CS5 also includes Adobe Media Encoder, enabling you to convert just about any file format to FLV or F4V.

New Deco drawing tools Flash Professional CS5 extends the functionality of the dynamic Deco brush tools, enabling you to easily draw shapes and add advanced animation effects. These new brushes include:

Particle System. Quickly create movement for particle phenomena like clouds or rain.
3D, Decorated, and new Grid brushes. Draw stylized lines or create patterns with multiple objects at once.
Tree, Flame, Lightning, and Building brushes. Use specialized tools to add and customize these stylized shapes.

Adobe Flash authoring tools With Creative Suite 5, Adobe delivers a variety of tools with the capability to author interactive content for the Adobe Flash Platform. Each project you work on is unique, presenting various requirements and specifications regarding design, development, and deployment. This comparison chart is a quick reference that will help you choose the best tool or tools for what you want to accomplish.

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Aperture 3 Upgrade Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Before I start the review I need to add a few caveats. The first is I have not really used Adobe Lightroom so I will not be comparing Aperture 3 to Lightroom. (Lightroom is the biggest competitor to Aperture and from what I have read owns the majority of the market). I have tried Lightroom 3 and I could not get past the restrictive module system and the small editing space. I thought I was going to have to slog through learning how to used Lightroom 3 when Apple surprised and delighted me by releasing Aperture 3. Also, I haven't really used iPhoto that much since I got Aperture 2. So I will only be making passing remarks about those programs. The other caveat is that this is a massive program with massive upgrades and there is no way I can cover everything so I will be covering how this program handles my workflow.
Bottom Line Up Front: Aperture 3 is an amazing Photographic Workflow System that fits all of my professional and personal needs. Apple has implemented so many amazing features into this program that it is an absolute must upgrade from Aperture 2. For anyone interested in taking their photography up from the casual (iPhoto) to enthusiast level, Aperture 3 is a great tool to help you accomplish that. For anyone using Lightroom who hates being restricted by what module you are in, Aperture 3 offers amazing new professional features especially concerning showcasing your work. (Still+Video slideshoes, GraphiSutdio, Queensberry, Leather Craftsmen, and Couture Books are just some of the outstanding new features.)
One thing you need to know up front is that Aperture 3 has some stability issues. I have been using Aperture 3 for about 16 hours and have had about 8 crashes. One thing to note is that because of how Aperture works you do not lose any work. You just need to restart the program. I am sure we will be seeing a patch released relatively quickly. Aperture 2 was always the crashiest program I own (most Apple programs never crash but Aperture 2 crashed about 1 time every 8 hours). Unfortunately it looks right now that Aperture 3 will continue that tradition. I will say that Aperture 3 plays a lot better with Snow Leopard than Aperture 2 did. For me these crashes are irritating and I hope they get worked out. However, this is still a truly amazing upgrade over Aperture 2.
My basic digital workflow is to Organize, Edit and Showcase so this is how I will structure the review.
Organize
For Aperture 3, apple has added 2 new ways to organize you photos; Faces and Places. I have read some people disregarding these features as amateurish (You can switch them off if you don't want to use them. Also, faces slows Aperture down right after import as it scans for faces). I, for one, use Aperture 3 for professional and personal purposes. So even if these features were not professionally useful, I still like them (I do find them useful professionally also). These features are nice for allowing photos to stay together in the group in which they were shot. I used to have to pull photos out, especially of people, to relocate to another folder or project. Or I would have to add the person's name as a key word. Either way it was tedious and often required a compromise. Now I can leave all of the photos from a shoot in one location and find a person. Or I don't have to remember when I was shooting at a particular location. I can go to the map and find the photos that way. I think this is awesome from an organizational standpoint. A note on the faces feature. It does a fantastic job finding even the blurriest or off angle faces in a photo. However, it is not as good at recognizing people as I think it should be as it asked me to name some in-focus straight-on shots of people I had already named. This is still a great feature just don't expect miracles.
Aperture 2 used to really bog down once your library got over 10,000 photos. For this reason, I started creating a new library every quarter of the year. I don't know if Aperture 3 has fixed this 10,000 photo slowdown but what they have done is make Library management much better. First off you can change libraries on the fly without having to restart the program. You can also merge and export libraries from inside the program. This library management was one of the biggest things on my Aperture 3 wish list. Aperture 3 is a native 64 bit program so on the newer machines with Snow Leopard I am sure the limit will be higher than 10,000. However, because of Aperture's free-form design and differences between hard drive memory and the relatively small physical memory your computer has there will still be a point where large Aperture libraries will bog your computer down.
The final thing I will talk about concerning Organize are color labels, flags and a new sort option; sort by Orientation. I was just about to go through and hand sort by orientation so this feature will save me a ton of time. You can flag a photo by clicking the top right of the photo. You assign color labels by hitting the option key and 0-7 or by right clicking and selecting the color. The flag and color labels give you more options to quickly organize your photos. As an example, I used to sort my photos according to people, scenic nature, and abstract. Now I can leave the photos in their imported projects and just assign purple to people, green to nature, and yellow to abstract. Then I can make a smart album that sorts for green or yellow, etc. Sweet. Many times I have transition photos as I am processing the photos. Those photos can get in the way. Now I can flag them. Also, externally edited photos return to Aperture as TIFFs. These files get huge (try 60 MB per photo--ouch). Unfortunately, Aperture does not have a file type converter so after I get finished with the TIFFs I export them out as JPEGs and then import them back in as JPEGs. Then I delete the TIFFs. A laborious process but the flags can be used to help me keep track of the TIFF photos so when I get to the export process I can easily find them.
Edit
There have been many many upgrades to the photo editing abilities of Aperture 3. The two major categories are Presets and Adjustments. The Presets are quick fixes, color, white balance, Black and White, and adjustments. You even have the option to create your own presets. These Presets allow you to make quick adjustments without having to fiddle with the sliders. For example if the white balance is not quite right on your photo and you know you shot in tungsten light then just pick that preset and it adjusts the white balance for you. From what I have seen so far this even works well on JPEGs. You can do similar things with exposure and other parameters.
The Adjustments section has far too much to cover here in this already lengthy review. However, the quick brushes are a powerful new feature that I will try to cover. One example of these brushes is Dodge. This used to be a plug-in in Aperture 2 now it is in the program (If you are used to this from Aperture, all of the brushes work in the same way). The reason this is significant is that all of the in Aperture edits are non-destructive. That means you can always go back to where you started. All plug-in changes, one, create a new copy and permanently change that copy and, two, are TIFFs which take up a tremendous amount of space. All of the quick brushes allow you to resize the brush, change the amount of fall off around the edges, and strength of the brush. Additionally, all of the brushes have an overlay to show you where you have applied the change. Some of the other brushes included are dodge, burn, saturate, reduce noise, sharpen, etc. This is an incredibly powerful editing tool that allows you to non-destructively enhance your photos in some dramatic ways.
I had quite a few plug-ins with Aperture 2. The good news is that they work with Aperture 3. The bad news is they are 32 bit while Aperture 3 is 64 bit. The way Aperture 3 handles this is to close and then reboot into a 32 bit mode. Slightly annoying but I am glad my plug-ins still work.
My favorite plug-ins for Aperture are the Nik Effects programs. Even the new Aperture 3 editing tools do not render those plug-ins obsolete. However, I like to layer 3 to 4 filters over a photo. Since Aperture exports the photo out to the plug-in I can only layer 1 at a time and that means more transition photographs. Aperture needs to allow plug-ins to work inside of Aperture for non-destructive edits.
Finally, Aperture needs and in-program file type converter. The export/import routine is crazy and it is made worse by the fact that you lose rating, key words, etc.
Showcase
This is another area where Aperture 3 has really made amazing improvements. When I first got Aperture 2, I had a book printed and to me it wasn't even acceptable for home use, let alone professional use. Well that has changed with Aperture 3. You can download plug-ins from GraphiSutdio, Queensberry, Leather Craftsmen, and Couture Books.(Note you need to be a partner photographer or verified business to get the Queensberry or Leather Craftsmen plug-ins). Take a look at these books and you will be astounded by the quality. (For home users, the price will probably astound you but now you can see why wedding albums cost so much.)
Aperture 3 has also added a slide show function. What is cool about this feature is the ability to use both still and video in the slide show. Many believe this hybrid style is the future of publishing. With cheap electronic paper only a short way off, the day of stills only is coming to a close. Overall, the slide show creator is very good but falls short in a few areas. The first is the limited number of...Read more›

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Aperture 3 combines powerful performance with iPhoto simplicity to help you refine images, showcase your photography, and manage massive libraries on your Mac. With more than 200 new features and enhancements, it can help you take your photography to the next level. Now you can perfect your images with brushes. Apply adjustment presets to instantly create a custom look. And when you import your pictures from iPhoto, all name and location data is preserved.

Upgrade Version
Requires Aperture 1.0 or later or academic version of Aperture 2.0 or later.


Taking photos. Further.
Organize photos by faces and places.
Aperture 3 advances the Faces and Places technology in iPhoto. It features new ways to organize your photos by the people in them and more robust GPS tools for mapping images.
Now you can group your photos by the people in them. Even within individual projects.

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PaintShop Photo Pro X3 Limited Edition Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have used Paint Shop Pro for years and I love it, but it is getting kind of old. So when I saw this new version, I was delighted. I installed it and tried it out, and it worked great. It does all the things Paint Shop Pro does, and lots more besides. It is clean and intuitive, and I can see how I would use it to get a lot done. It works great for cleaning up digital photos, and I especially like the "thinify" tool, which makes me look more attractive than I actually am. So why am I giving it 1 star?
Unfortunately, I had to delete this fine software from my system. I simply can not agree to the license agreement. Here is the part I can't agree with:
1.19.3 You hereby acknowledge and consent to Corel: monitoring your Use of the Product, authenticating and periodically verifying your licensing rights in the Product, collecting, transmitting, using and sharing with Corel's third party marketing partners, data relating to you and your Use of the Product for advertising, marketing, operational and other purposes, accessing, utilizing and altering the existing functionality, including any default settings, of the computer system on which you Use the Product, and receiving in-Product messages from Corel and its third party marketing partners, all in accordance with Corel's Privacy Policy located at [...].
My privacy is important to me. This license agreement goes too far.

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Get everything you need to create fantastic photos--plus $250 in extra value in Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 Limited Edition. An Amazon.com exclusive, Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 Limited Edition combines the outstanding photo-editing capabilities of PaintShop Photo Pro X3 with bonus software for creating unique photo effects, digital paintings and photo back up and encryption, plus a free USB stick! Ideal for owners of DSLR cameras.
Work with even more RAW camera formats

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Your Shape Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I just got Your Shape for the PC a couple of days ago. You do need a lot of space for this game. Ubisoft recommends 8-10 feet. I have a laptop, so I can move around if I need to. If you have a computer, it would be harded. Your clothes should stand out from your background otherwise the camera may not recognize you. You do have to do exactly what Jenny Mccarthy does on the game otherwise it will tell you to watch your arms, legs, or just to keep moving. I was waiting for a review but since I couldn't find a review, I bought it to try it. The only place that I could find it at a store was at BestBuy. Amazon, Target, and BestBuy.com has Your Shape for the PC online. I would recommend this product.

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Your Shape is fitness that's fun and focused on you. Developed in collaboration with fitness experts, Your Shape personalizes a fitness program to your body type, goals and schedule. The game comes with a motion-tracking camera in the package. Plug the camera into your PC and you're ready to go! The camera scans your body so your every move can be detected and guided. Jenny McCarthy is your in-game workout buddy – she will motivate, inspire, and guide you as you work to reach your goals, while keeping things fun (and funny) along the way. Since the game detects your movements, Jenny can coach you as you work out to ensure you're doing the exercises correctly. Fitness has never been this personalized or this much fun!
Personalized to You: First, you take a fitness test so the game knows your current fitness level. Then, you tell the game what you're trying to achieve (slimming your stomach, strengthening your arms, etc.). Based on that, the game designs a program specifically for you based on your fitness level, goals and schedule.

Constant Guidance to Ensure You're Doing the Exercises Correctly The camera projects your image onto your TV next to your in-game workout buddy, Jenny McCarthy. Jenny is in the game, motivating you and coaching you to success. The camera tracks your movements so Jenny can tell you what you're doing right and correct any mistakes. That way you know you're not wasting time.


Exercise Controller-Free The camera sees you, so it works without requiring any additional hardware, leaving your hands free to focus on the exercises.




Fun and Motivational Jenny McCarthy is your workout buddy - always by your side, entertaining and inspiring you. As you exercise, the game regularly displays how many calories you're burning and your accuracy percentage so you can always strive to beat your high score!


Exercise Anywhere Play the game on your laptop and discover the convenience of exercising anywhere – from any room in your home, to hotel rooms when you travel, Your Shape's portability lets you workout anywhere there's a PC


Fully Functional Webcam When you're not working out, use the Your Shape camera as a webcam


More Exercises Than Any Other Game More than 400 exercises ensures that your routine is working to meet your goals, plus, you'll never do the same workout twice


Compatible With Your Own Fitness Equipment The game works without requiring any extra equipment, but if you have free weights, a balance ball, a step bench and/or a heart rate monitor, Jenny will include them in your personalized routine


Challenge Yourself Test your fitness level with the physical challenge, a test designed as a check-in for you to see how much your fitness level has improved. Take it any time!


Play in English, Spanish, or French

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Photo Explosion 4.0 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have been using Adobe Elements 4 to improve my pictures but I was forced to make a change when I recently purchased a new PC running Windows 7. Upgrading my Adobe Elements would have cost $100 so I looked for alternatives. I was a bit suspicious of Photo Explosion. After all, its price was $30 with a $10 mail-in rebate. However, it turns out to be a great package. Easy to use and far more capability that I will probably ever use. And, the software comes with a very useful manual. I haven't had a decent manual in years from anyone else. I recommend, without any reservations that you buy Photo Explosion.

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Photo Explosion 4.0 Easily transform a series of photos into 360-degree or wide-angle panoramas.View larger.

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Photo Explosion Deluxe 4.0 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I used 3.0 all the time to open up a photo, add some quick text for a logo on top of my photo. I would then add a frame around the photo (there were several different options of cool effects), to block out some of the background stuff in the photo.
The new version, does not have a simple Insert Text feature like 3.0 did. 3.0 allowed you to insert text, and grab the selection bar windows to easily move it around, rotate it, make the text bigger, etc.
With 4.0, you first have to select the text tool, then increase your font (and change it if you wish). If you want to move the text, you have to then select the move tool (another step). If you want to rotate it, you then have to go to the menu, and go through a couple of steps before you manually have to put in what degree angle you want to rotate it. It was much simpler and easier in the old version because you could do it all from one place.
I used the magic effects and frame features all the time in 3.0, there was alot of cool black and white effects that you can make a pic look really elegant (I'm a cake decorator so I used it to block out the background so the cake would be focused better). In 4.0, you can't do it in the Image Editor.
The step in 4.O:
1. Create a new project in Project Studio
2. Add your photo.
3. Add your border (which are horrible,theres no magic effects anymore, and no elegant black and white effects to place around your pic).
4. If you find one you like, you then have to save your project.
5. Then you have to export it to a jpg.
I'm really surprised they took out some functionality of 3.0 and made everything more difficult. I'm now searching for a software that will allow me to quickly add text and some elegant photo effects around the edges.

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ClickArt 1.5 Million (2008) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I shopped around quite a bit before I got this one and I am happy with my purchase. This has tons of photo objects, photos, and vector art. A good portion the contents is of good quality if you are not looking for large pictures. I do a lot of web design and it is perfect for me. The search capabilities are impressive. When typing in a word or two you can search most of the collection in seconds. It uses hemera's search program and probably contains most of hemera's photo objects. In fact, it has just about anything you are looking for. This is both good and bad and is the only reason why I marked it 4 stars instead of 5. This collection is so extensive it also has stuff in it I don't want to see. Beware of women dressed very immodestly. I haven't looked to see how immodest they might get, but I don't plan on it either. Nevertheless, if you're thinking about children using this or if you have problems with porn, you probably should proceed with extreme caution. Nevertheless, if you have enough self control or don't care about that kind of stuff then this product is pretty useful. For the most part if you are not searching for something bad you won't come across it. In addition, all the pictures are fairly small when you're searching and you have to put in the right dvd and click on the image in order to make it large. So if you are trying to avoid seeing something inappropriate, it is somewhat possible.
This product comes with quite a few fonts, several leave more than to be desired, many are nice. If you want to install all the fonts you will be in for a treat. They are all in separate folders and it forces you to install them one at a time...unless, you know what your doing... I downloaded a program named FileMonkey from download.com and used it to exact all the files from each folder and place them in one folder on my desktop. Then I merely copied all the fonts and pasted them into my font folder inside of my control panel. Nevertheless, this will slow down some programs that use these fonts, because having over two thousand fonts on your computer is a little more than normal.
Also on a different note...
If your a stickler for copyrights, there are some copyright issues associated with this package. Nevertheless, most of it boils down to that you can't sell the pictures inside of the package to other people. You can make something with the images and then let other people display your design, but you can't sell your design. I don't believe this mean that you can't charge people a fee for the creation and ability to display the design, but you can't sell your design to them and allow them to in turn market your design to others. At least, this was my understanding after reading their rights of use.
For those who are concerned about Vista compatibility... it works great. I have been using on Vista for a little over a month and haven't had a problem yet.
Overall the product is quite nice for web designers and for graphic artists who don't need large picts. The downfalls it posses are probably shared by most other competing products.


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Corel Photo & Video Pro X3 Bundle Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Check online reviews also. No improvement over X2's slow performance. Lot's of crashes, eats up system resources. Corel very slow in responding with fixes. This is another "not ready for prime time " release.

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Get the total photo- and video-editing solution with Corel's Photo & Video Pro X3 Bundle. With incredible power and ease of use, it includes everything you need to create professional-quality photos and videos, including PaintShop Photo Pro X3 and VideoStudio Pro X3, plus valuable extras like Painter Photo Essentials 4, DVD Movie Factory Pro 2010 and Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4--all for a great value.

Overview The new Photo & Video Pro X3 Bundle brings photo, video, DVD and Blu-ray authoring software together so you can create your best-ever photos and videos--all in one place. Easily organize and manage your photo and video collections. Make your photos look extraordinary, then show them off in photo books, HD slideshows, cards and more. Create polished movies with studio-quality effects, titles, transitions and sound, then share them everywhere, from YouTube to Blu-ray Disc and everything in between. The bundle also includes a variety of powerful and creative plug-ins, templates and extras, giving you the complete photo and video package.
Organize your entire photo and video collection
Fix photos and videos fast or go deep with advanced editing
Create HD slideshows, photo books, cards and more
Produce polished movies with studio-quality effects
Share everywhere--print, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, mobile device and more

What's Included
PaintShop Photo Pro X3:Advanced Photo-Editing
Enhanced--Photo Organizer
New--Camera RAW Lab
New--Easy batch processing
Enhanced--Express and Advanced editing modes
New--Integrated photo projects
Enhanced--Online sharing and easy backup
VideoStudio Pro X3

VideoStudio Pro X3:Powerful Video-Editing Software
New--Faster HD editing and rendering
New--Professional HD-quality templates
New--Studio-quality effects and filters
New--Express and Advanced editing modes
New--Blu-ray authoring and burning
Enhanced--Online and mobile sharing

Valuable Extras
Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4
DVD Movie Factory 2010
Over $500 worth of RevoStock templates
NewBlueFX filters
KPT plug-in filters
Royalty-free music from SmartSound

PaintShop Photo Pro X3
Simplify your digital workflow
Enhanced--Photo Organizer Load, find, view and edit photos faster with the integrated Organizer. New photo management capabilities let you customize your workflow with tools for rating, tagging, locating and quickly touching up image files. Select photos fast using both thumbnails and previews.
New--Easy Batch Processing Capture changes made to one image and easily apply those edits to multiple photos, removing the tedium of making the same changes over and over again.
Enhanced--Express Lab Quickly access the most-used photo-editing tools all in one place and make quick fixes to common flaws. The Express Lab now includes Color Balance, Local Tone Mapping, Contrast/Brightness, Sharpen and One Step Noise Removal.
Camera RAW Support Make RAW adjustments during the loading process and work with the latest RAW camera formats.
Do more with advanced photo-editing tools
New--Smart Carver Achieve impressive results quickly by seamlessly and realistically removing objects and scaling without distorting the image.
New--Vibrancy Boost color in the least saturated areas of a photo without affecting the rest of the image.
New--Object Extractor The integrated Object Extractor isolates an object--even challenging cases such as flyaway hair and fuzzy pet fur--so it can be copied to a new background or a new background can be pasted behind it.
Depth of Field Effect Create effects that you can't do with a camera lense alone. Draw attention to a specific area of an image by focusing on one region and applying an out-of-focus blur to the rest of the image.
New--On-Image Text Editing Adjust font, color, placement, position, size and wrapping of the text on an image. Reselect the text on the image and continue typing, or apply text on a path.
HDR Photo Merge Quickly merge photos of the same scene taken at different exposures, or with different brightness and contrast settings, to create a final image that features the full range of detail in the highlights and the shadows.
Layers and Adjustment Layers Adjust the color or tone of your images without actually modifying the pixels on each layer.
Adjust Levels & Curves Precisely adjust tone, color balance and exposure with exceptional control.
Fix it fast in Express Lab
Learning Center The award-winning Learning Center empowers anyone to harness the power of advanced photo editing, helping you complete tasks within seconds of launching PaintShop Pro Photo.
Makeover Tools Make sure the people in your photos look their best with tools that are fun and easy to use. Help your subjects look thinner in seconds, whiten bloodshot eyes, smooth wrinkles and more.
Enhanced--Remove Digital Camera Noise Remove noise artifacts that interfere with the clarity of your digital image--faster than ever!
Get creative with projects and photo sharing
Enhanced--Built-in Creative Projects The new Project Creator is a fast and simple way to make a great-looking photo book, collages, cards and more--all in addition to PaintShop's easy online sharing options.
New--Easy Photo Sharing Share photos and videos where and how you want, using email, Flickr, Facebook and YouTube. Print at home, order prints online*, email or quickly burn a DVD to enjoy on your TV.
Layer Styles Easily apply artistic effects to individual layers, such as drop shadows, embossing and reflections.

VideoStudio Pro X3
More speed across the board
New--Launcher From one convenient location, start express editing, more advanced video editing, DV-to-DVD conversion, or launch DVD Movie Factory 2010.
New--GPU and CPU Acceleration Dramatically speed up your entire movie making process with NVIDIA CUDA and Intel Core i7 optimization.
New--VideoStudio Express Make quick edits, and combine video clips, photos, music and voiceover to create a professional-looking movie in just minutes.
Enhanced--User Interface The redesigned interface keeps all your tools within easy reach so you never have to interrupt your creative flow.
New--High-Speed Filters Accelerate the video-editing process by previewing your effects in real time. Less time waiting means more time creating!
Smart Proxy Editing Edit HD content faster, even on basic PCs. Smart Proxy lets you work quickly in a lower resolution until you're ready to render your project in HD.
Studio-quality templates and effects
New--Movie Templates VideoStudio Pro X3 includes over $500 US worth of high-quality templates from RevoStock. Turn video clips into polished movies in an instant, with Hollywood-style titles, transitions, pans and zooms, credits and more.
New--RotoSketch Transform videos, video frames and photos into animated clips and hand-sketched drawings in a few clicks.
Enhanced--Title Effects Create stunning titles in seconds by adding multiple title tracks and effects, then customize your work to get the perfect look.
New--Multi-track Overlay Effects Apply filters on overlay tracks, including titles and images.
New--NewBlueFX Filters The NewBlueFX Pack includes a variety of animated effects, including the Detail Enhancer for strengthening edges and bringing out detail in a dull or foggy scene, and the Active Camera for simulating every variety of camera jitter.
New--Mood Music from SmartSound Load a multi-layered audio track as background to a video, then fine-tune individual instruments to ensure that the music complements your movie, not distracts from it. Add even more music and sound effects with two new audio tracks.
End-to-end HD video production
Enhanced--HD Capture and Import Import HD video from anywhere, including HDV, AVCHD, Blu-ray Disc and JVC HD camcorders. Import standard video from DV, analog camcorders, the Web, USB and still image cameras.
Enhanced--Blu-ray Authoring and Burning Create your own Blu-ray titles, and author menus for DVDs and Blu-ray Discs, including BD-J menus.
New--H.264 Compression Get HD quality in smaller files by creating HD MPEG-4 files with the H.264 codec.
Unlimited video sharing
Enhanced--Online sharing Upload your videos and slideshows directly to YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and Flickr.
Enhanced--Format Flexibility Save movies to AVI, FLV, MP3 encode, AC3 5.1, AVCHD, HD MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and more.
Enhanced--Copy, Convert and Burn Copy movies to your device of choice, including iPod, iPhone, MP3 players (USB) and PlayStation Portable (PSP). Burn CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray and AVCHD discs.

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Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate & VideoStudio Pro X2 Bundle Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have used adobe products in the past, full versions and essentials. The main difference Ive seen between this and them (the industries so called leaders) is useability. Anyone can sit down to Corel and use it. Very straight forward, and delievers alot of proffesinal quality features.
The biggest seller for me came from VideoStudio. Making full dvds with menus couldnt be easier. Ive made dics with mulitple layers of menus, just like real movie dvds and Ive only opened the manual a few times.
Paint Shop Pro Photo has a very nice layout and ease of use. Some more advanced users in photo editing will find a few missing features, or more likely a little less freedom to do some things. But for anyone who takes photos for fun, or as an ametuer hobby, this is more than powerfull enough.
Painter Essential Photo - takes pictures and turns them into paintings. A good easy to use program, but it will take time to master. Each photo will behave differently, so you have to "repaint" the photo many times to get the outcome you want. Still a nice throw in.
Recover- I dont know if this is even listed, but it comes with a memory card recovery program. So if you accidently delete, or in the case of my parents, format, your camera's memory card, you can still get your pictures. My dad accidently formatted his 4gb SD card with about 1gb of photos on it. I was able to not only pull off the 1gb of photos, but the program found another 2gb of photos they had deleted months earlier.

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The Corel Photo & Video Bundle gives you everything you need to edit photos and videos like a pro. Remove flaws, organize and enhance your photos, and turn your favorite shots into creative projects for sharing with Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate. Turn video clips you capture from handheld devices, digital cameras and HDV, AVCHD, Blu-ray Disc and JVC HD camcorders into stunning movies, complete with animated menus, music and special effects, with VideoStudio Pro X2. You can even edit photos with Paint Shop Pro and then import them into VideoStudio to create stunning slide shows and custom menus!Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate: Ease of use with full professional power Download pictures from your camera automatically Instantly fix common problems such as red eye, color and sharpness Add special effects to photos, text and projects with a few simple clicks Use advanced editing tools like HDR Photo Merge and Levels and Curves to fine-tune images Print, email and share photosVideoStudio Pro X2: Professional-quality video solution Capture, edit, author, burn and view the latest high-definition video Create montages and picture-in-picture effects with multiple video, audio and title tracks Turn stereo audio into immersive Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound with one click Improve video with Auto Color & Tone correction Create a polished video in 3 easy steps with the Movie Wizard

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The Print Shop Zoom Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I was very disappointed in this software. It's not really good for anything and I still haven't figure out why this was even released. I own Printmaster 15, American Greetings Creata Card 8, and an few other photo and scrapbook programs. This software has templates to make banners, cards, invitations, and all that stuff. The templates are few compared to other programs and then to customize them, well you really can't. If you try to start out with a blank template and add your own photos you are limited to what you can do. No borders, edging, font manipulating. It's just insert the photo, do some basic photo touch ups and that is pretty much it. I wanted to add shadows, edges, frames to my pictures and couldn't. The fonts could only be made in single color. You could not add outlines or drop shadows, NOTHING. Add the font, pick your size, pick your style, and that was it. You can only save to their 1 file format which of course only works with zoom. No e-mailing or file converting. What good is this program I have yet to find out. I spend time to make a birthday invitation from my own pictures. Well guess what, I couldn't e-mail it to my guests. Print is all it does. Complete waste of money. This is the first software I ever purchased that I will be returning. Spend a few extra bucks and get something like Print Master, Print Shop, or something comparible.
UPDATE: I returned this software and received a full refund.

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The Print Shop Zoom offers the best in total photography and desktop publishing creativity. Easily edit, enhance and transform your photos into inspirational print projects. Insert your most cherished photographs into ready-made greeting cards, calendars and more to share with friends and family. Microsoft Windows Vista Certified. All new software - faster and easier-to-use than ever before. Powerful photo editing tools enable one-click fixes for common photo flaws, red-eye removal and image cropping. 1000+ project templates, 40,000+ graphics and images, PLUS 400+ premium fonts. Apply sensational photo effects to any project – the possibilities are endless. All content is in-box.

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The Print Shop Photo Projects Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've tried installing this program on 3 of our computers and it made each one crash so it had to be uninstalled.

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ACDsee 8.0 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)ACDSee 8 is a great file-level manager, and easily surpasses most, if not all, of its competitors at the file-level manipulation and organizational functions that are the basis for creating an efficiently structured and effectively manageable digital photograph library of thousands of photographs in size, and larger. ACDSee 8 also sports a basic image editor, a slideshow and screensaver module, and a backup module. Compared to Corel Photo Album 6, ACDSee is missing a creative projects module, which ACDSystems sells in a separate product, as PhotoSlate 4. ACDsee is a great choice for those who need to manipulate a massive number of files regularly. However, ACDSee 8's cumbersome implementation of metadata management features -- the meat of a digital photograph manager -- makes the program difficult to recommend the program to mainstream users.
What makes metadata support so important? A photograph may be worth a thousand words, but not always. Without aid, the casual viewer may not understand or remember a picture's content or context. (E.g., When and where was this picture taken? What is this a picture of? Who are these people? Why did I take this picture?) Even the photographer himself may not remember these things one or five years later. In an analog photograph, one could write a description on back of the print itself. With digital photos, this sort of information is kept as metadata. Without metadata, that interesting digital photograph (Holiday Party 2005: Roy and Ciara with Mayor Mike. Unbeknownst to Mayor Mike, Roy and Ciara rose to power by wasting hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars.) is just another anonymous picture. It is metadata that imbues digital photographs with their context and meaning, and that enables digital photograph collections to be quickly organized or synthesized in a wide variety of ways - by timeline, event, location, person, etc.
ACDSee 8 uses three separately maintained subsystems to support image metadata - a proprietary internal database that stores thumbnail images, ratings and category information; and two other subsystems to support the EXIF and IPTC metadata standards. IPTC is the preferred standard for storing picture descriptions; EXIF is the standard for camera information (picture timestamp, exposure settings, etc.). Support for EXIF and IPTC metadata is important, because these two standards enable photograph descriptions (complete memory = photograph + metadata) to be accessible seamlessly:
- outside of ACDSee, relegating product lock-in to the past;
-across online photo sharing sites (such as Fokti and Flickr);
-by family, friends, or other users who don't use ACDSee;
-by posterity, if ACDSee were ever to be discontinued.
While ACDSee 8 has the most complete metadata support of any consumer-grade digital image manager, it is quite cumbersome to use. Searching for a picture or music file? It isn't easy to do in ACDSee. ACDSee has Google-like simplicity only when searching for information in its internal database. To look for data stored in EXIF, IPTC, or ID3 (for music files) metadata, you'll need to specify the field(s) to search, a Boolean condition for the search (is, starts with, contains, etc.), and the data you're looking for. It's as painful as it sounds.
ACDSee's IPTC metadata subsystem is new to Version 8, and is not as developed as the ACDSee internal database and EXIF subsystems. While the program supports batch operations (working on multiple files simultaneously, e.g., assigning the description Grandpa's Birthday to a collection of photographs) for ACDSee's internal database and EXIF subsystems, batch operations are not supported for IPTC metadata. IPTC metadata entries must be painstakingly made on a per picture basis in ACDSee. Experienced users may look to PixVue, a free Windows Explorer extension, for a full IPTC/XMP metadata editor that supports batch operations, so at worst ACDSee users will find it burdensome to transfer information from ACDSee's internal database or EXIF metadata subsystem to IPTC. ACDSee does not support Unicode, so foreign language support (for recording foreign toponyms and friends in your photographs without the need for Romanize them) is limited.

ACDSee 8 continues to be a great file-level digital image library manager, best for those with thousands of pictures and those who don't care about metadata. With improvements to its search and IPTC metadata features, ACDSee could be a standout product for everyone. Interestingly, since ACDSee 8 supports searching through ID3 metadata (albeit painfully), future versions of ACDSee may potentially be good music managers, too.

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ACDSee 9 Photo Manager Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)ACDSee photo management absolutely beats most (if not all?) of the photo management utilities typically shipped with digital cameras, hands down. However, free applications such as irfanview are really beginning to come together where this program is falling apart--namely ease of use and functionality.
ACDSee has become a feature monster. The program does a tremendous amount of background processing and is constantly cataloguing and indexing your images. This is a problem if you work with a large number of new images on a regular basis. There is no obvious way to stop the database from cataloguing everything it encounters, and as time goes on this too easily corrupted database brings the program to its knees. The number of system errors and program crashes I've encountered with version 9 is absolutely pathetic for such an established name in this business. Multimedia is not handled well, best advice if you have an assortment of media types is to turn video previews OFF and just leave multimedia functionality alone.
PDF "photo albums", highly configurable contact sheets, exportable file indexes and lists, descript.ion generation, HTML photo albums, simple slide shows, these are all great features I love to use with ACDSee. They don't seem to hinder normal operations of the browser so no harm done. The ease of using the conversion tools and lossless JPEG operations, as well as the excellent EXIF tools and batch renaming by EXIF data also just can't be beat. The interface is very flexible and anything can go just about anywhere, or go away, also a huge plus. The program has definite qualities.
ACDSee needs to scale down the browsing app a LOT and get back to basics. I don't need a complex database when I'm rotating and deleting a thousand images I won't likely need again and using the browser to examinine EXIF data. I resent the fact that the search feature has become so highly dependent on building this consumer-oriented proprietary database (how many stars did you give your image and was it a pretty picture of puppies or babies or gramma's birthday?) it is barely functional for raw file searches. I have learned not to trust centralized absolute-file-location-dependent databases, particularly when tied to specific applications. I prefer organizing by files and folders and maintaining flexibility, and this program no longer caters to my methods. Unfortunately basic file management (cut/copy/paste) through ACDSee is extremely slow with a large database, but use any other app to move or rename a file and your database info relative to those images is orphaned and lost.
(Nitpicking: The font viewer needs work, it would be very useful if it could be configured to display characters other than "FONT". Unfortunately de-selecting the font extensions did not restore the original associations to Windows Font Viewer so I had to do that manually. I'd also really like it if ACDSee didn't keep reminding me of other "great ACDSee products", I've clicked most of the "do not show this again" boxes but still see things from time to time.)
For basic image browsing and pre-photoshop operations such as organization, elimination, and lossless exif rotation I have almost fully converted to irfanview. Because of the instability as your database grows, the constant indexing and cataloguing (think infinitely spinning hourglasses and delayed blank file listings when you'd rather just be viewing images) add all the junk features pros don't need and can't remove--and this has become a potentially annoying application.


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