Software

After years of going head-to-head with the Roxio Creator package, Nero now faces a different challenge following Corel’s buyout of Roxio.

Once regarded as an upstart as it offered graphics software at prices well below the accepted standards of the day, Serif is now an established software developer with a range of offerings such as this next title.

In the past I have looked at a number of Doro products of which the greatest majority were handset designed specifically for the older generation. These handsets, whether of the candy bar, slider or clamshell variety, feature an easy to use interface combined with large style buttons with a useful emergency facility.

This is the current latest version of Microsoft Office, it has a very new and somewhat sinister edge to it in that it is now a item that comes with a licence to allow its use for 12 months after that you need to pay to keep using it.

As part of its range of software titles designed specifically for the less experienced user, MAGIX has released Photostory Easy. This product, as it titles might suggest, allows the user to combine various photo images, transitions and a sound track into a slideshow. Boxed and downloadable versions of the software are available with my preview copy being of the latter type.

Corel has never been afraid to open its purse strings to purchase software companies especially when it concerns graphics offerings. One of its latest purchases was ROXIO.

It is not just celebrities who can benefit from a digital make-over. Now you can use a software package to tidy up your own image.

There is one product in the CAD market that people think of even if they never use CAD. However providing certain rules are adhered to there is no reason why others cannot work in the same arena here an offering from Corel.

As regular as clockwork, Serif brings out upgraded versions of its graphics software aimed at the budget conscious user.

This is another of the recent releases that I waited for a working copy of Windows 8 to review. If you are serious about editing your videos then this software can do it, transform, add, delete, modify and more then this can do it.

While you may not always be looking your best when a photo is taken, this next product could help smarten your appearance.

I have a long memory - it’s just yesterday that’s a problem sometimes – and I remember a shareware product that easily fitted on a floppy disc. That was long before JASC was purchased by Corel the current version fills a CD-ROM.

Storing your documents, images and music in digital format on your computer is now the de facto choice of many. But how would you manage if this data became corrupted especially if you did not have a backup?

Starting life as a basic compression tool available as Shareware, WinZip has developed over the years to encompass a wider range of functionality as can be seen with version 17.

When CD’s first came out the need to copy or backup started and there were two major players in the market. Nero was one of those but now it is so much more than CD backup software, one of the few things it refuses to do is make the tea.

While most new PCs come with Anti Virus software it is normally only a trial lasting for 90 or 60 days. Most of these are from Norton or McAfee and while they work and these days do not slow the PC down that much there are options.

When you have multiple products covering different aspects of media editing and creation, it make sense to combine some of them together in a bundle. This is the approach taken by Cyberlink with its Director Suite offering.

A bit like an insurance policy, your computer protection needs regular updates as circumstanced change. Offering to help provide protection against a range of issues is the latest version of Kaspersky’s flagship product.

It is that time of year when the latest edition of Bitdefender Total Security software makes an appearance just as emails start to arrive advising you that your current subscription is about to expire. Following the general pattern established over the years, this latest version of the product is identified by the appendage of next year’s date. So we have Bitdefender Total Security 2013.

With the amount of malware and types of scams trying to take control of your computer, it makes sense to install protection software such as Norton Internet Security.

With an indication that it is an all round product, the latest version of Norton 360 is now available and comes with the claim of providing “ultimate protection for you and your PC”.

Many more years ago than I care to remember, I installed a Shareware product on my Windows 3.1 system - I told you it was many years ago. This product was the JASC developed Paint Shop Pro. Designed to convert images between different file formats and capture screen grabs, the software could easily fit on a floppy disk of the 360K variety. There was still room left over for other files of that period. I was reminded of this compact piece of coding wh

It was Peter Norton who first revealed that deleted files were not actually deleted. Instead their disk presence in the FAT (File Allocation File) was marked as being available for use by other data. This meant it was possible, with the appropriate tools, to resurrect a file if it had not been over-written by subsequent data.

While you might feel that Adobe’s market-leading professional graphics product, Photoshop, is priced well beyond your current budget restrictions, there is a possible alternative that has also been developed by Adobe. This is Photoshop Elements which is now up to version 11. This product costs approximately one tenth the price of its much bigger sibling.

While you may not fancy holding a conversation with your computer, it can handle your dictation with the help of appropriate software.

Are dedicated Satnav devices are on the decline. Smartphones and other mobile devices seem to be encroaching on their territory with mapping and directional offerings.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 12 is the latest incarnation of a long established speech recognition program. In step with increases in PC power, its speed and accuracy has been steadily improving. In fact, it can be argued that the performance is now such that even touch typists could find it worthwhile.

There are numerous products offering to protect your computer from malware. One such offering is ESET Smart Security.

I can remember when photos used to end up stored in boxes or the occasional album if they were particularly precious. This was the time when photos were predominately black and white and were printed on photographic paper rather than the digital variety we have today.

While a new version of an OS (Operating System), such as Windows, might take a number of years to make a commercial appearance, utilities designed to keep the OS running smoothly operate on a short gestation period.