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Oil and water not mixing is a popular conception that I would be surprised if you had not heard many times before. Some might even apply the same though with regards to the operating systems developed by Microsoft and Apple. However those inventive people at Parallels headquarters, based in Seattle, would certainly not agree with this point of view.
It is welcome back to an old friend as the latest version of one of my favourite products arrives in its version 20 guise.
Corel has a number of products for the creation and editing of graphics including one that is perhaps not as high-profile as some others
Along with the recently purchased PC Tuneup software, AVG has added software for the Mac and Android devices to offer an all-round performance boost.
As users now own different devices capable of Internet access with its associated dangers, companies are now offering protection covering a range of devices.
Ensuring your computer is protected from outside attacks is your responsibility. This next product provides one way of adding this protection.
Abbyy's effective OCR
Published in Software
by adrianmorant
on 7 Dec 2015
ABBYY FineReader 12 Professional is an extremely accurate and versatile optical character recognition (OCR) package. It is easy to use for run-of-the-mill jobs with good, clean text but can also deal with less than perfect text as well as complex documents which include tables and images.
It is up to you to make sure your computer is protected from malicious threats with appropriate software.
While not as high profile as some of the other products from the Corel stable, Pinnacle Studio is well established and comes with numerous bonus offerings.
Since its first appearance, many years ago, as the software of choice for many users when it came to burning content to disc, Nero has developed into a HD Multimedia Software Suite of tools. Nero is now available in its 2016 version with Classic and Platinum flavours depending upon your needs. I have been looking at the Premium product which comes with a Content Pack that is made up of video effects and themes for use to enhance your own project
New from MAGIX is the latest version of the companys video editing software. This 2016 version of MAGIX Movie Edit Pro is available in Standard, Plus and Premium editions. My review is based on the basic Standard offering.
Dragon Professional Individual
Published in Software
by paul_smart
on 4 Nov 2015
This is another very mature product. When it first came out it was a new way of working by speaking to your computer, now many imitators are available, even Microsoft spawn Cortana. Here however is a product that requires almost no correction.
While computers have recently been given the ability to talk to use through the use of applications such as Siri and Cortana, we have been able to talk to our computers for a number of years and have our spoken words transformed into editable text using specialist software. A leading product in this particular area is Dragon Naturally Speaking with the latest version of this speech recognition software package being available in Professional Individual and
NERO 2016 Platinum
Published in Software
by paul_smart
on 25 Oct 2015
I have used Nero for many years it is something that gets added very quickly to any new PC. This started as a CD burning program but now although that can still be done very efficiently it is now so much more as for this feature to not even merit a mention.
As another year passes by, so the latest version of a popular backup package makes an appearance.
Originally developed as a kitchen-table product by a jet plane enthusiast, this next title is a popular member of the Corel family and a long term favourite of mine.
Spotify Premium
Published in Software
by paul_smart
on 11 Oct 2015
Most people will have heard of Spotify, the majority of them will have tried Spotify, the reason I am looking at the Premium version of Spotify is because I have recently reviewed another streaming product and its been a while since I last tested what Spotify has to offer.
Acronis 2016
Published in Software
by paul_smart
on 7 Oct 2015
Everyone needs backups, no ifs no buts no maybes, backups are essential. If you have gone through life without needing one so far you are lucky, very lucky. In fact maybe you would like to go halves on a lottery ticket, but one day you will need a backup.
Corel PaintShop Pro X8 Ultimate
Published in Software
by paul_smart
on 2 Oct 2015
In a previous life this was one of the first really useful products. Corel came out with their excellent CorelDRAW product and made the purchase of PaintShop Pro an early capture and now this is a very mature product at version 18 (X8).
Panda Global Protection 2016
Published in Software
by paul_smart
on 30 Sep 2015
The days of this being just an Anti-Virus product are long gone. In fact the only products that seem to have only Anti-Virus are the free ones and even then when you update them you have to be careful to click the correct box or you get the whole package and then you will start paying.
Nero TuneIt Up
Published in Software
by paul_smart
on 9 Sep 2015
This is a piece of software that in its basic form anyone can download for FREE. I tend to be rather suspicious of any software that claims to speed up your PC, in fact hardly a month goes by without me being offered such items, normally from an unknown source.
Not to be confused with a similarly entitled graphics product from the same company, Xara Photo & Graphics Designer 11 combines elements of creative design and photo editing software within a single package.
Upgrading to Windows 10
Published in Software
by paul_smart
on 29 Jul 2015
A few days before the 29th July I was send a USB with a late build of Windows 10. As with all major alterations I approached this with more than a little trepidation, below is the story of what happened on Monday 27th July 2015.
The de facto standard for electronic documents is PDF. Software for the creation and working with such files can cost from £400 downwards. This review is based on a product costing under £60.
Computer databases have come a long way since those of early days of the D-Base products developed by Aston Tate with libraries of instructional books written on the subject. While the ability to store and correlate different types of data might not be the sexiest task, it still serves an important role for both the home and office user.
Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra 15
Published in Software
by paul_smart
on 15 June 2015
Like several Cyberlink products this is very mature and so you should not expect mind blowing new features, however you do get increased speed and slicker functionality with tweaks and improvements to what was already a powerful product.
Ever since it was founded in 1996, CyberLink Corp has built up a reputation as a world leading consumer multimedia software company. A recent release from the company is its PowerDVD product which is now at version 15.
It is good bye and hello to a software application that has formed a regular part of my computer system for a number of years now.
Power2Go 10 Platinum
Published in Software
by paul_smart
on 5 Apr 2015
This is the latest version of a product from Cyberlink it is called Power2Go and it burns and backs up, yes I know the latter is a bore but if you have not got a current working backup and the worst happens then your digital life ends.
Nero 2015 Platinum
Published in Software
by paul_smart
on 25 Jan 2015
I first came across a crippled version of Nero tied to a CD-Writer. I have used various versions ever since and I still do to write CDs, I know how it works and it has one very useful function that other writing software does not have.
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