The most recent Software Reviews from VNU Business Publications

Review: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 Xbox 360 game

Paul Allen — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 09:03:38 GMT

Paul Allen, Computeract!ve, Saturday 11 October 2008 at 10:00:00

Golf: now more exciting than ever

Golf fans have been waiting for this update to the Xbox's best-known gold game with apprehension after the largely disappointing reception given to its predecessor.

The 2008 version failed to build on the success of the 2007 original, but PGA Tour 09 gets the series back to par.

Among the new features is a training mode, in which Tiger's coach highlights aspects of the player's game that could be improved based on shots in previous games and challenges.

In truth, these are little more than extended practice sessions of specific shots but they do provide a skills boost that applies to the next game.

Unlike previous games in the Tiger Woods franchise, the skills gained are not static – your rating in areas such as shot power and accuracy improve as you complete training challenges, compete on the tour and purchase improved kit at the pro store with your winnings. But play badly in the next game – for instance taking more putts to finish than on previous courses – and the rating goes down. This means concentrating on game basics and not just relying on previous achievements.

Another useful new tool is the club tuner, which analyses your natural swing using the analogue stick and suggests tweaks to aspects such as the degree of elevation on the face of specific clubs and a natural bias towards drawing or fading shots. You can then practice shots using the new settings, which we found to be of greater value than the actual training challenges.

The appeal of this title lies in its gameplay and this is an area where EA rules supreme. The analogue swing stick takes some practice but gives a fine degree of control over shot power. The application of draw and fade has been transferred to the bumper buttons, which if anything makes this subtle control a little too easy.

The biggest change has been made to the putting preview, which is more realistic than previous versions, taking account of the fact that the ball will deviate from the predicted line if less than 100 per cent power is applied.

The preview line itself is easier to read, though, and because of this can be used only once when weighing up a putt. As you get only one shot at using the tool, this encourages you to read the contours and elevation of the green, giving a better and more realistic understanding of how the green plays.

Our sole complaint is that measuring out swing strength with the analogue stick is far less precise than it should be, with a swing of only a fraction of a pull-back providing far more oomph than it should. You can make allowance for this, but it seems a glaring error in a title that gets so much of the basic gameplay spot on.

The online side of the game has been speeded up by simultaneous drives so you don't have to wait for each player connected to your game to take shots in sequence. Instead, different coloured lines show the trajectory of each ball as it is played.

There are some new courses, with a wider range of terrains to freshen up the look and an even more detailed game face application so you can style your golfer's appearance to meet tour standards. On the commentary side, Scotland's Sam Torrance has been added to the otherwise transatlantic team. There's not as much humour as in PGA Tour 08 – they could do worse than getting Peter Alliss in for the next update.

First Look: VMware Workstation 6.5

Dave Bailey — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:34:51 GMT

Dave Bailey, vnunet.com, Friday 10 October 2008 at 15:05:00

Latest version supports more guest and host operating systems and integrates with VMware's ACE

Version 6.5 of VMware's popular Workstation package has lots of new features packed in despite not being a full jump to version 7.0.

Launched last week, the headline new features are enhanced VMware Assured Computing Environment (ACE) authoring, and a so-called Unity mode whereby users can better integrate their favourite guest applications with the host system.

Workstation lets users install and run so-called 'guest' operating systems on desktops and laptops which run Windows or Linux as the main operating system.

There are many advantages to this. Firms can run older unsupported operating systems with legacy applications not supported on newer operating systems, while security can be tightened with a 'snapshot' capability which allows users to roll back quickly to a previously safe state.

VMware's ACE system gives IT managers the ability to build a virtual OS, which can be locked down and then distributed to end users, subject to certain licensing constraints.

With Workstation 6.5 VMware claims that ACE's authoring features are now fully integrated and that "no special ACE Edition is required".

Companies using Workstation in a test and development environment will probably use a high-end system with over 2GB of system memory and multiple processors.

As an example, when running Workstation 6.5 on systems with 512MB or less we were constantly having to reduce the memory usable by our guest operating system, which on several occasions with Linux operating systems meant that we ended up with the command line interface rather than the standard GUI.

Guest OS installs are limited to two processors, a maximum of 8GB of system memory and a maximum of 10 network adapters. Compatibility with VMware's ESX server is limited to version 4.xx and below of Workstation.

We installed Workstation 6.5 on a desktop system running Windows Vista Enterprise and a laptop running XP Professional.

Version 6.5 is just as easy to use as earlier versions, and we installed a variety of Windows operating systems (2000, XP, Vista) and several Linux distributions, like Oracle's Enterprise Linux v5.2 and the Community ENTerprise Operating System 5.2, with no unsolvable problems.

Other new features include accelerated 3D graphics using DirectX 9 shaders when using Windows XP Professional guest operating systems, and Linux or Windows 2000, XP and Vista host operating systems.

VMware has now made it possible for users to stream a virtual machine from a web server and power it on before the download completes.

There is also a Linux version of Workstation 6.5 which we'll be looking at later in the full review.

Review: Speed Up My PC 2009 optimser

Paul Lester — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:28:38 GMT

Paul Lester, Computeract!ve, Thursday 18 September 2008 at 17:17:00

A fast and easy way to improve Windows performance

The Speed Up My PC series is one of the best known computer optimisers around.

The idea is that it will improve the computer by removing unwanted or unnecessary files and that it offers better control than the similar tools found in Windows itself.

Thanks to the straightforward and intuitive interface of the new version, Speed Up My PC 2009, this process is very simple, allowing the user to perform an initial scan after installing the program to automatically streamline processor, memory and network settings to improve performance.

Users have the option of choosing which areas to correct based on the scan results, and there's a good degree of straightforward customisation here that allows inclusion or exclusion of various parts of the computer.

Most users, particularly beginners, will be happy to let the software do its thing and stick with the automatic settings, even though in truth many of the more detailed aspects of the software are tweakable through Windows by those who know where to find the right tools.

The way Speed Up My PC provides information on all aspects of the operating system – and makes it easy both to adjust things and to revert back to previous settings if need be – is very impressive. If you're not comfortable using the advanced tools in Windows you'll find that the way they work in this program is much more friendly.

After running all of the suggested scans and corrections we did notice a difference in performance on the rather cluttered PC we used to test the software, particularly in how quickly it started up.

In addition to the main interface there's also a mini-view that appears from the Notification Area that'll inform you of current processor, memory and network usage, which is a useful indication of whether the computer might need more power in the form of an upgrade.

The help files provided are extremely comprehensive and not only walk through how to use the software but also offer some background on how computers use their resources, which those new to computers will find useful.

While there's not really enough here for advanced users to justify paying for a dedicated package, beginners or those who don't want to bother with manually tweaking and adjusting settings to improve performance will find Speed Up My PC 2009 both easy to use and very effective at what it does.

Review: VMware ThinApp 4.0

Dave Bailey — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:25:05 GMT

Dave Bailey, vnunet.com, Thursday 9 October 2008 at 11:45:00

VMware's ThinApp acquisition saves time for IT managers rolling out virtualised apps

VMware acquired application virtualisation vendor ThinApp in January and ThinApp 4.0, launched in June, is the first fruit of that takeover.

Securing Windows applications for mobile professionals, as well as allowing network access by onsite contractors, partners and just ordinary guests, is an age-old problem that application virtualisation using ThinApp neatly solves.

Application virtualisation decouples the application from the operating system (OS), unlike hardware virtualisation which merely decouples the OS from the hardware. This means that applications can run on exotic hardware providing the OS has the requisite drivers.

The upshot is that, in theory, IT managers can rollout conflict-free applications packaged into what VMware says is a "virtual bubble" containing the application as a standalone executable or Microsoft Installer file extension.

User data is stored in an application embedded sandbox, or one which resides on a network drive, and is renewed after each application deployment.

To review ThinApp we downloaded a trial evaluation of the ThinApp Virtualisation Suite, which has the latest release copy of VMware Workstation 6.0.4 included, along with ThinApp 4.0.

VMware Workstation is included in the suite because it allows the required application to be virtualised on a clean system. The snapshot function of Workstation can keep it clean through its ability to roll back to a desired state, which would be fully patched but with no third-party applications installed.

The alternative way was to create a clean, fully patched operating system, and back up the system image using either Windows Vista's built-in tools or something like Symantec's Ghost imaging utility on Windows 2000 and XP Professional systems, to create an OS image on a separate disk partition or external hard drive.

ThinApp can then be run on a shared drive and, after the virtualised application has been created, the OS can be re-imaged back to a clean state.

New features like Application Link and Application Sync solve the problem IT managers had in building virtual applications that would automatically update when application security updates came out. Before, each security update or service pack release necessitated a rebuilding of the application.

Installing both ThinApp 4.0 and VMware Workstation was quick and easy, and we created fully patched virtual machines for Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP Professional and Windows Vista Ultimate.

To create a packaged application deployable to a USB stick, ThinApp was first used to scan the clean operating system. We then installed Microsoft Office Word Professional 2003, and rescanned the system with ThinApp.

The second ThinApp scan captures file system and registry changes, which define an application installation. We then built the application and rolled out to both a USB stick and a network drive on a separate system.

We could install the virtualised application using the USB stick or by executing the MSI on the network drive with no problems.

After this we set up ThinApp to work with Active Directory. We installed VMware Workstation on a desktop connected to our vnunet.com domain, and we could build applications configured to be run only by certain Active Directory groups and store them on our file server.

Because ThinApp decouples the application from the OS we could run applications on Windows 2000 Professional systems and log-on to our Active Directory domain and run the same applications on Windows XP Professional or Windows Vista systems.

The ThinApp manual says that "this functionality allows most applications to instantly migrate to newer or older operating systems". IT managers will still have to check whether this is the case, though, and certify that the application runs properly on specific operating systems.

One of the new features of ThinApp 4.0 is Application Sync, which we could use to build a Microsoft Office 2003 Word application. This allowed us to pick up later Office service packs off the web without having to rebuild the entire application.

The other key new feature is Application Link, which gives IT managers the ability to build applications that have interdependencies on other applications.

Integrating ThinApp with Active Directory, and Application Link and Sync, gives IT managers better control through group policy. However, building applications using the system is not trivial, a fact emphasised by the two-day and five-day workshops VMware has set up to advise enterprises using application virtualisation.

VMware has also released the ThinApp Application Packaging Framework, a best practice guide for application conversion.

Review: PC Tools Spyware Doctor With Antivirus 6

Paul Lester — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:25:05 GMT

Paul Lester, Personal Computer World, Tuesday 7 October 2008 at 16:19:00

Fast and efficient online security suite, but it’s not cheap

Released just before Symantec agreed to acquire PC Tools, the latest version of Spyware Doctor aims to protect you and up to three of your PCs from spyware and virus attacks.

The software offers manual scanning that gives you a choice of targeting critical system resources or entire drives, with a custom mode available to help you select between the range of scanners available.

These scanners are also used for real-time protection through PC Tool’s Intelliguard suite, which is designed to shield against threats such as keyloggers, email attacks, malicious processes and more.

They can be controlled individually, but in most cases you’re simply given the option of choosing to use them or not, so we can see most users sticking to the default settings and letting Spyware Doctor take care of the rest.

This is something it does particularly well, with most threats handled with a minimum of user intervention. There are also some useful extras here that allow you to schedule scans for specific times and create a global action list that allows specific websites or files to be automatically denied or permitted access.

During testing, Spyware Doctor quickly identified and cleaned a variety of threats. We were also impressed by the information provided on the nature of the malicious files, which included a comprehensive history and quarantine details.

Version 6 of Spyware Doctor doesn’t have any additional tools of note, but it has been refined in terms of both the speed and efficiency at which it identifies and removes threats.

We were very impressed by how easy the software was to use, the comprehensive degree of protection and the minimal negative effect on performance. The only real downside is that it’s relatively expensive, although it does come with three licences. Verdict

First Look: Sage ACT! 2009

Dave Bailey — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:25:05 GMT

Dave Bailey, vnunet.com, Friday 3 October 2008 at 17:29:00

Sage smartens up its ACT and adds a host of new features to the popular CRM package

One of the problems with upgraded software packages is finding out whether the new features are worth the extra cost, or that the vendor, having such a mature product, tinkers at the edge, codes in a few insignificant bells and whistles, and bumps up the price, a business model that is replicated across the entire software industry.

Customer relationship management (CRM) was one of those areas targeted years ago by software vendors seeking to help sales and marketing staff move from Excel spreadsheets, which were impossible to manage, to a package which dramatically shortcuts contacts information processing.

Sage ACT! has been such a product for many years, serving smaller firms whose budgets tend to get personal scrutiny more often than the larger enterprises.

We looked at two versions, the standalone one and the Premium version targeted at small to medium businesses. The standalone version install took under 15 minutes including a small amount of configuration for email accounts, and setting up a password protected SQL database which we allowed others to share, i.e. they could connect concurrently to check contact information.

All contact and customer records are sorted by the free redistributable SQL Server Express database, which can handle 4GB of data. For larger firms, which ACT! Premium targets, system administrators may wish to put in an SQL Server 2005 Workgroup Edition database, but that bumps up the price to more than the Premium Edition of ACT! 2009.

Pricing hasn't changed from the last version at £180 + VAT, however there is a gotcha. If your database is an old one and you upgrade it with Sage ACT! 2009, other users who want to connect to this new database will have to upgrade to Sage ACT! 2009 too. The upgrade price from the previous version is £90 + VAT.

New features abound, some of which do move productivity up a gear. Users can now automate database backups, as well as choose what, if anything, they need to exclude.

There's also increased integration with Microsoft Outlook, such as allowing multiple Outlook emails to be attached to contacts. More Lotus Notes support has been included, and there's better calendar management and quicker search capabilities.

Anybody who's used Mindjet's MindManager may appreciate the way in which CRM software is starting to move. It's not nearly as far as Mindjet's innovative package, but in that direction.

Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2008 are now supported, and for XP Home and Vista Home Basic, concurrent user limits are five, while Microsoft's business-focused operating systems allow 10.

A full review of Act! Premium will appear later.

Bitdefender Total Security 2009 security software

Paul Lester — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:25:05 GMT

Paul Lester, Computeract!ve, Friday 3 October 2008 at 12:52:00

A comprehensive security, optimisation and backup program

Once installed, Bitdefender 2009 uses a nine-step wizard to configure various aspects of the package.

This includes identity control to safeguard information such as credit card details and passwords, parental controls, and automatic updates before running a full scan for viruses and spyware.

When the initial scan is complete the main program fires up with an initial report on any problems that have been found.

The user is given a choice of basic or advanced views here, with the former particularly suited to beginners.

If any holes in security are detected there's an option to fix them with a single mouse-click and the tabbed interface will explain whether the problem lies with security, optimisation or the file manager.

This is a nice structure because it allows new users to correct issues easily but still offers the amount of information required to find out more if that's required.

Browsing through the range of categories reveals a series of tick-boxes designed to enable or disable various parts of the software, depending on how comprehensively you want it to monitor the computer. This is quite different to the approach taken by most other security suites but we liked the straightforward way in which the tools can be controlled.

The advanced view is more traditional as far as security programs go, offering specific access to the various components. These include security protection in the form of virus and spyware scanners, a firewall, spam remover and checks on general vulnerability.

There are also optimisation tools that include a disk defragmenter and registry scanner as well as backup, either to a disk or over the internet to round off what is an extremely impressive array of features. Everything is tied together very well and even in advanced mode it's fairly straightforward to adjust settings and configure the firewall and protection levels for your PC.

Bitdefender works quite differently, then, to many other security suites on the market but is an extremely effective way of combining the wide range of tools on offer. There was very little effect on performance and the unobtrusive approach manages to be refreshing while still providing peace of mind that the computer is effectively secured.

Review: Norton Internet Security 2009 security software

Cliff Joseph — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:25:05 GMT

Cliff Joseph, Computeract!ve, Friday 3 October 2008 at 12:43:00

The veteran security program goes turbo

Norton Internet Security (NIS) is one of the best-known names in anti-virus and security software.

However, we’ve often heard complaints from users who have been annoyed by the fact that it was prone to slowing down the computer when running its scans, and by the messages that pop up offering warnings or advice.

So for the new 2009 edition, Norton's maker Symantec has primarily concentrated on performance, rather than simply adding new features. We wouldn’t go so far as to say that NIS 2009 is ‘zero impact’, as Symantec claims, but we did find it a lot less intrusive than previous versions of the program.

The improvements start from the installation, which took us just one minute to perform on our test notebook (it actually took us longer to complete the online registration). When it’s running, NIS 2009 only uses 7MB of memory, so it doesn’t take up a lot of resources that might be needed by other programs.

And if you’re playing games or watching video and don’t want to be interrupted for a while you can right-click on the Norton icon in the Taskbar and activate the new silent mode. This temporarily stops messages from appearing on screen and tells the program not to download any new updates.

In addition to the regular four-hourly checks for information about new viruses, there are new so-called ‘pulse’ updates that can perform a quick check every few minutes just to make sure there have been no recent updates that need to be installed.

If you’re worried that your PC might have been infected, NIS 2009 includes a new module that performs a very quick scan just to check that everything is OK, which on our PC took only 43 seconds.

The quick-scan option uses a new feature called Insight that checks the files on the computer against an online database of known and trusted files. Files that are a normal part of Windows are included on this list, so NIS skips past these to save time and only check files that it doesn’t recognise.

There's still the option of running a full scan for maximum security, and such scans can also be set to automatically run when you’re not using the computer.

So while Norton Internet Security 2009 doesn’t provide many new features, its focus on improving performance and minimising distractions is very welcome.

Our main complaint is that there’s no printed manual, and we sometimes struggled to find our way through the online Help files to locate specific features. However, with 24-hour online chat and telephone support now available, there is the comfort of knowing that there’s someone ready to help when you need it.

Review: Reallusion iClone 3 design software

Cliff Joseph — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:25:05 GMT

Cliff Joseph, Computeract!ve, Thursday 2 October 2008 at 18:14:00

A powerful yet affordable 3D animation program

There’s a popular trend that’s taken off in the last couple of years called machinima, which is about using games or low-cost 3D software to create short 3D films on ordinary home computers (it's a combination of 'machine' and 'animate').

There are lots of machinima clips available on Youtube and there was even a recent soft drink advert done in machinima as a spoof of the Grand Theft Auto computer game.

The problem with machinima is that most 3D computer graphics programs are pretty complicated – even the less expensive ones such as iClone, which is specifically aimed at home users and amateur filmmakers. We’ve looked at iClone in the past, and while it does provide genuinely impressive 3D graphics tools at a very attractive price, it was then complicated to use.

Creating 3D graphics is simple enough, as the program provides an extensive selection of ready-made graphics that can be used, including models of male and female characters as well as props such as cars, animals and trees that can be used to populate 3D scenes. However, the process of animating 3D characters was rather laborious and time-consuming – and matters weren’t helped by some basic flaws such as the lack of undo and redo commands.

Thankfully, iClone 3 rectifies some of those flaws, starting with a multiple-undo command that makes it much easier to correct mistakes as you go along.

There are some bigger changes as well, such as the new twin-mode approach to animation. If you want really precise control over the animation process you can use the program’s standard Edit mode to adjust details such as the movement of a hand or even very fine facial expressions.

However, for quick and easy animation users can now switch to Director mode, which allows them to move their characters around using the W, A, S, and D keys on the keyboard. These are the same keys used to play most computer games, which makes it easy to move characters around the screen, and iClone will automatically record the animation sequence.

One other change is that there are now Standard and Pro versions of iClone. The Standard version costs just £65 (down from £99), while the Pro version costs about £140 and provides more powerful animation controls. To be honest, iClone is still a fairly complex program that will take some time to master, but the Standard edition makes sophisticated 3D graphics and animation accessible even to cash-strapped students and bedroom filmmakers.

First Look: Sophos Endpoint Security and Control 8.0

Dave Bailey — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:25:05 GMT

Dave Bailey, vnunet.com, Wednesday 1 October 2008 at 12:58:00

Upgrade adds integrated endpoint security, malicious script detection and anti-rootkit functions

Sophos Endpoint Security and Control is an integrated endpoint security system aimed at small and large enterprises needing to secure the desktops and laptops of employees, contractors, partners and guest visitors.

The package was updated in September to incorporate malicious script and rootkit detection, and consists of Enterprise Console, Anti-Virus, Client Firewall and Network Admission Control.

Sophos says that Enterprise Console can manage "tens of thousands" of desktop systems, all from a single console. The system can be used to manage Linux, Mac OS X, NetApp Storage Systems, Netware, Unix, Windows and Windows Mobile.

Users can be prevented from attaching removable storage devices or installing applications which IT managers do not want running on their networks, such as games, instant messaging and VoIP clients.

Email and Simple Network Management Protocol messages can be displayed on systems which have malware, or any administrator-defined unwanted applications installed or running on the network.

We looked at version 8.0 installed on a Windows Server 2003 R2 system running Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, Domain Name Services and Active Directory.

Installation was quick and easy, and loading the Enterprise Console allows you to create what Sophos calls a 'library' which stores and deploys software and security updates from the Sophos web site.

If your network is a large one, so-called 'child' libraries can be set up to bridge subnets and take the strain off your main 'central installation directory'.

Storing all the data used for reporting from Sophos' scanning engines requires an SQL Server database. For small firms the standard Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine should suffice, but larger firms will probably want to hold data in an enterprise SQL Server database version 2000 or 2005.

We could create a group to contain the desktop systems which were members of our Active Directory domain, and then scan the network by specifying an IP address range for Endpoint Security and Control to use, or simply synchronising with Active Directory.

After the group was set up it was simple to scan for problems, such as the lack of security updates or the presence of any malware.

This quick look at the Sophos system showed it as easy to manage and likely to replace a lot of point products in enterprises. The full review later will have details on how the system can lock down devices and how the Sophos' Network Admission Control server performs.

Review: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 photo management

Ken McMahon — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:25:05 GMT

Ken McMahon, Personal Computer World, Tuesday 30 September 2008 at 15:10:00

Better integration with Photoshop improves this management and editing software

Following a four-month public beta, Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 2, the second version of its advanced photo-management application.

If you’re a Lightroom 1.4 user, the major benefits an upgrade will confer include local adjustment brushes allowing exposure and other adjustments to be applied to parts of the image, improved volume management which simplifies and enhances handling of offline image files, more flexible output options and tighter Photoshop integration.

Until now there has been a line in the sand defining the respective functions of management applications such as Lightroom and editing applications such as Photoshop, restricting the former’s editing tools to global adjustments such as exposure, colour control and sharpening. Lightroom’s new Adjustment brush crosses that line and will no doubt be part of a continuing trend.

Eight effects can be applied with the brush, including exposure, saturation, clarity and colour. A ‘soften skin’ preset combines clarity and sharpness adjustments in a custom brush – you can also define and save your own custom brush presets. An ‘auto mask’ option intelligently masks parts of the image as you paint, restricting the adjustment to colours sampled from under the brush, to apply adjustments to individual elements.

Another new tool that is likely to replace more involved Photoshop retouching is the graduated filter, which applies the same adjustments as the brush using a linear gradient mask. In most cases this is going to be used as a digital graduated neutral density filter, darkening and adding saturation to skies without affecting foreground detail in landscape shots.

The Library module has been redesigned with a cleaner workspace that offers more information about your images than the old layout. The folders panel displays online and offline volumes and can be configured to display used/available disk space, number of photos or online status. A new filter bar displayed in the Library grid view allows you to whittle down a folder of images on the basis of a text, attribute or metadata filter. The filter bar is both immensely powerful and easy to use. You can text search any metadata field, or confine it to specific data, keywords, or captions for example.

The metadata search provides four configurable columns in which all available metadata from the image selection is listed. You then just select the criteria you want – photos shot on Wednesday 4 April with your EOS 20D using a 70-200mm zoom for example.

Getting images to and from Photoshop is another area where big improvements have been made. It’s no longer necessary to create a TIFF or PSD file for opening in Photoshop. Images can be opened as Photoshop Smart Objects, and multiple images can be opened for panorama stitching or merging to produce a high dynamic range composite.

A new picture package layout engine for printing multiple copies of the same image has been added to the existing enhanced print module, (renamed contact sheet/grid). As well as 16-bit printing, adaptive output sharpening can be applied on the basis of image resolution as well as output media.

Other additions and enhancements include dual monitor output, 64-bit OS support for Windows Vista and Mac OS 10.5, and plug-in support. The plug-in SDK is limited to export and web gallery plug-ins, edit plug-ins of the kind introduced in Aperture 2.1 don’t appear to be part of Adobe’s plan for Lightroom, at least not for now.

Review: Webroot Secure Backup utility software

Anthony Dhanendran — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:25:05 GMT

Anthony Dhanendran, Computeract!ve, Monday 29 September 2008 at 15:37:00

Make sure your files are safely duplicated

Instead of backing up your files to a disk connected to the computer, online backup software such as Webroot Secure Backup copies the files to a computer on the internet.

These servers are themselves duplicated, so that if the worst does happen to your computer, your files and documents can be easily restored.

Of course, the disadvantage is speed. While backing up to a local disk is quick, doing the same over the internet is much slower simply because it takes time to move the data from one place to another. It took 10 minutes to copy our 25MB of test files, compared with a couple of seconds to copy the same to a USB memory key.

It uses a step-by-step process to do the backup – once you've logged in (you need to set up an account when you download the software) it offers the choice of backing up locally or online, or restoring from a local or online backup. The user can choose between a menu of preset files to copy (such as pictures or internet favourites) or choose specific files or folders.

When restoring, the program displays a calendar on which backup dates are circled, and clicking one shows the backups made on that day, from which specific files or folders, or entire disks, can be chosen to be brought back.

As you might expect from the name, everything is done securely. The data is scrambled before it leaves the computer and again at the remote end. Users can even request a secure password (although this can't be recovered by Webroot so if you lose it you're stuck).

It costs £15 per year for 2GB of files, but most people will want more than that – 10GB costs £10 and 25GB £50. That's slightly more than rival software Carbonite, but Webroot Secure Backup's ease of use just about has the edge here.

One qualm is that you need to be logged in, with an active internet connection, even to make a local backup to USB key or hard disk, which could be a pain for notebook users. Still, this is a good choice of backup software.

Review: Mindjet MindManager Pro 7.2

Dave Bailey — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:25:05 GMT

Dave Bailey, vnunet.com, Friday 26 September 2008 at 15:18:00

Freeform planning and project management in a neat and simple-to-use package

Version 7.2 of Mindjet's MindManager package, launched in June, has been upgraded since the 7.0 release in 2007, the main thrust being improved remote collaboration support with the ability to access MindManager map files from a Web-based Distributed, Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) server.

WebDAV lets users work on documents on remote servers as if they were local, but there are major restrictions on how maps are saved.

MindManager's help files say that WebDAV cannot save new unnamed maps to the server or export a map as a file stored on the server. Local maps cannot be saved to the server, or maps saved to the server with a new name.

Unfortunately a SharePoint client/plug-in is not currently available for MindManager Pro version 7, and Mindjet is unsure as to when this will be released.

In addition users could sign up for the software-as-a-service version of MindManager, MindManager Connect, released in July. This allows Connect users to work on MindManager maps simultaneously, exchange text messages with other online Connect users and share maps through online workspaces, or just share screens.

More support for collaboration over the internet will be available in the future with the planned introduction of MindManager Web, currently in beta, which will allow firms to host web conferences using desktop sharing, chat and whiteboards. However, Mindjet does not yet have a definitive date for general availability.

The MindManager package brings with it a different way of thinking, not just about project management, but other forms of planning which may have difficulty being represented on the venerable Gantt chart.

However, Mindjet rethought MindManager's lack of Gannt chart support and acquired project management application JCVGantt from Gannt Solution in May, releasing JCVGannt Pro 3, a separate tool for users who need project management through this type of chart.

We reviewed MindManager Professional 7.2 running under Windows XP Professional and Vista Ultimate, although there is MindManager 7 Mac, specifically targeting Macintosh systems which requires Mac OS X 10.4.X (Tiger) or later to run.

Using MindManager is relatively simple. We could create a main topic and add sub-topics as branches. We could easily add task information like duration, who the task was assigned to and how much of the task has been completed.

Comments can be added, and other files such as PDFs, Word documents and images can be attached, as well as a large selection of information icons, bookmarks, URLs and Mindjet RSS news feeds.

As well as having an Office 2007-like interface which gives a similar look and feel, MindManager 7.2 also has a significant degree of integration with Microsoft's Office 2007 productivity suite.

The Office applications from which MindManager can pass and take data are Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Project, Visio and Word. Exporting a test MindManager map to Word resulted in the creation of a Word file which, on opening, showed an image of our map, together with a bulleted list of the topics and subtopics making up the map.

Exporting to Adobe's PDF format only gives an image of the map. MindManager can import Word files, but not PDF files.

With PowerPoint we could export our map as separate slides or as a presentation for further enhancement if users are presenting to an audience.

We could also import multiple Excel spreadsheets into MindManager, but we could not expand them to see the information contained inside; we had to invoke the Excel application itself to see the data on the spreadsheet.

Further Office-based functionality is available if users have Office Project and Office Visio installed. We could export our maps as a Visio flowchart or org-chart straight into Visio, and import and export tasks from a map to a Project file or visa versa.

As a competitor to Microsoft Office Project, MindManager does lack the a bility to fire up an IP phone conversation directly from the application.

The basic productivity boost theoretically achievable by deploying MindManager is that employees thinking visually allows them to collaborate better if they have a centralised repository containing all the documents, prioritised schedules and thoughts around the goals they are trying to achieve, rather than a linear track and documents distributed all over the place.

This linking and layering of multi-dimensional information, combined with employees' ability to see the whole plan and be able to drill down to pick up any related documents, again, in theory, should lead to more efficient task management and better project collaboration.

In conclusion, although MindManager requires a different approach to project and planning management, it could give a productivity boost to organisations, especially if employees are able to think beyond the constraints of traditional project and planning applications.

Review: Spore strategy game

Jonathan Parkyn — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:25:05 GMT

Jonathan Parkyn, Computeract!ve, Friday 26 September 2008 at 11:23:00

A God game, but one in which God has been replaced by Darwinian theory

You’ve got to respect the creators of Spore for the scope of their ambition alone.

The game allows users to build their own unique creatures and take them on an astonishing evolutionary journey from the simplest of single-celled beings right up to a full-blown civilisation and, ultimately, domination of an entire galaxy.

Spore is divided into five distinct phases, with each phase representing a different rung on the evolutionary ladder. Each phase also consists of a slightly different gameplay style to the last. At first the objectives are extremely simple: swim around and eat lots of stuff, while avoiding anything bigger than yourself (which, initially, means avoiding everything).

Just when you’re getting used to life in the primordial soup, things shift to dry land and Spore becomes more like an action game, where the aim is to develop your creature’s primitive communication and combat skills. The next stage sees gameplay mutate into something approximating real-time strategy, as your creation develops into a tribal race.

Construction, resource-gathering and relations with neighbouring tribes become your major concerns at this point. The strategy aspect is refined in the subsequent Civilisation-like phase and, once you have conquered your own world and advanced enough technologically, the action shifts once again – this time into space, where players can explore new planets, get involved in cosmic battles and encounter a seemingly limitless supply of alien species.

Indeed, if you play Spore while connected to the internet, your unique homemade creations join potentially millions of other user-generated oddities, all of which can be shared among fellow players. The Spore Creator interfaces allow you to play at putting together all manner of wild and wacky creatures, vehicles and structures from basic building blocks. At times it’s like having a giant organic Lego kit at your fingertips.

Spore is never frantic or frustratingly hard, always colourful and manages to strike a good balance between familiarity and variety. It’s imaginative, amusing – even relaxing – and is sure to appeal to even the most casual of gamers.

That anyone even contemplated creating a gaming canvas so broad is, in itself, something of a marvel. The fact that Spore is also accessible, creative, educational and great fun to play makes it an essential purchase.

First Look: Adobe Creative Suite 4

Tim Anderson — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:25:05 GMT

Tim Anderson, vnunet.com, Tuesday 23 September 2008 at 12:37:00

A new look and feel along with compelling new features make Adobe's CS4 a winner

Adobe's Creative Suite 4, which was officially unveiled today, is huge. There are actually six suites: Master Collection, Design Premium and Standard, Web Premium and Standard, and Production Premium, each offering a different selection from around 20 individual applications; the Master Collection has the lot.

So what's new? The first thing you'll notice is a new look and feel across all the main applications, making them more attractive and more consistent than before.

Tabbed documents in applications like Flash and Dreamweaver are great to work with. The 2005 merger, which brought Adobe's Photoshop, Acrobat and InDesign together with Macromedia's Flash, Fireworks and Dreamweaver, is now mature and there is deep integration.

You can see this in the new Photoshop Smart Objects in Dreamweaver, which lets you insert a Photoshop image and have it stay up-to-date if the source changes, and in the way Acrobat PDFs can natively host Flash content.

The second thing to note is that most web and design professionals will need some parts of CS4, if only to keep up with the growing use of standards like H.264 high-definition video (and its consumer variant AVCHD), which is supported in Flash 10 and in Adobe Media Encoder, or authoring for Acrobat 9.

Improved 3D support is another theme, as with the 3D translation and rotation tools in Flash, and the new 3D engine and compositing tools in Photoshop.

There is no shortage of compelling new features. In Dreamweaver, an embedded web browser based on WebKit, which is getting everywhere these days, enables a live view without needing to open a page in a web browser.

The new code navigator is a great way to inspect elements, see where attribute settings come from, and move around the document. CSS support is improved both in Dreamweaver and Fireworks.

InDesign has several important new abilities, including better long document support with auto-updating cross-references, the ability to export documents to Flash, and yet another XML language for documents, IDML or InDesign Markup Language.

It is all hugely impressive, and beats the competition, but there are a few reservations. First, the tight integration between Adobe's products means there is a constant push to use runtimes like Flash and Acrobat, which is not so good if you want to do without them or use alternatives.

It is interesting that Dreamweaver has dropped support for server behaviors for Microsoft ASP.NET or JSP (Java Server Pages).

Second, the sheer size and complexity of the suite will be overwhelming for new users.

Third, there is the usual price hike for UK customers versus those in the US: the Master Collection is £1,969 versus $2,499 before tax, around 45 per cent more expensive at today's rates.

Still, after using CS4 for a couple of weeks, even in beta form, it is hard to go back to CS3.

There are many more features not mentioned above and it is worth checking out the information at Adobe's web site and downloading the trial when it is released along with the full version sometime next month.

Review: VMWare Thinapp 4.0 application virtualisation software

Alan Stevens — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:25:05 GMT

Alan Stevens, Personal Computer World, Wednesday 24 September 2008 at 13:00:00

Manage applications easily across your business

Thinapp is VMWare’s first stab at application virtualisation, following its acquisition of specialist developer Thinstall. Like similar tools, it allows you to package files and settings needed to run an application into one executable, which in turn runs in its own, self-contained environment.

Nothing needs to be installed and there’s no impact on other software. Nor is there any need for an agent to be installed first. VMWare has also added unique new application linking and update facilities.

Thinapp 4.0 is part of a suite of tools that includes a copy of VMWare Workstation. This isn’t essential, but allows you to build a virtual machine running a ‘clean’ install of Windows to avoid compatibility issues when creating applications.

Any version of Windows - from NT onwards - can be used here, and the finished Thinapp application runs on almost any other, although we got the best results if the two were the same.

The procedure itself is pretty straightforward. To start, simply run the Thinapp Setup Capture tool on the clean VM to take a snapshot of the base system, then after you’ve installed and configured the application you want to run, take another of the modified environment.

By analysing the differences between the two, the Thinapp program then builds the packaged executable and an msi file. Either can be used to distribute and run the application with runtime settings stored in a sandbox, held either locally or on a server or network share.

No changes are made to the host PC when the application runs, with the Thinapp software emulating the required Registry entries, dll dependencies and so on to fool the application into ‘thinking’ it’s fully installed. Applications start working as soon as enough code has been loaded, rather than waiting for the entire package to be downloaded, with no need for a server to manage the streaming process.

Another advantage is the ability to run applications in user mode even where administrator rights would normally be required for installation. Add the ability to work on a wide range of platforms, and users can be left to install applications themselves and even download and run them on demand, if required.

Among other features added by VMWare in this release is the ability to update already distributed applications via an HTTP/S server (Application Sync), the applications pulling down and applying updates themselves. Another, Application Link, gives the ability to link the virtual environments in which applications run to - for example, to allow programs dependent on the .Net framework or Java to make use of a virtual deployment of that code.

We used Thinapp to package a number of applications, including Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Office, and found the process both quick and simple. However, you still have to conform to licensing requirements and shouldn’t use Thinapp to circumvent them.

Some applications can’t be handled, such as those requiring special device drivers, and others such as virus scanners, which work at a low level. There’s no support for 64-bit applications either, and the more advanced options require manual configuration, which can be quite complex.

Lastly, although user licences start at £17.50 ex Vat, the full suite needed to capture applications is a little pricey for the smaller business. Still, by taking a lot of the hassle out of deploying and managing applications, it might just be worth it.

Review: Adobe Premiere Elements 7 video editing software

Cliff Joseph — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:25:05 GMT

Cliff Joseph, Personal Computer World, Monday 22 September 2008 at 10:16:00

Powerful video-editing program with improved ease of use

Premiere Elements has always been one of the most powerful video-editing programs available in the sub-£100 category.

However, rivals such as Pinnacle Studio have often scored more highly for beginners without much experience of video-editing work. Adobe seems to have taken note of this, as Premiere Elements 7 has added features that allow you to create video projects more quickly and easily.

Most photo-editing programs allow you to add 'tags' to your photos so that you can quickly organise them into categories such as 'family' or 'friends'. Premiere Elements has taken this idea and applied it to video clips. The program's new Smart Tags feature allows it to automatically analyse video clips and determine if they are blurry or out of focus, brightly lit or dark and under-exposed. Like many digital cameras, it can also detect faces within a scene, allowing it to tag a clip as a 'single face' or 'group shot'.

Once the Smart Tags process is complete, Premiere Elements can use the new Instant Movie feature to sort through your clips and locate the most suitable ones. You could set it to discard blurry or dark shots, or to concentrate on using group shots for a video of a skiing holiday. The program will then edit those clips together, automatically applying transitions and other effects. This upgrade also simplifies other tasks such as creating ëblue screení effects where you superimpose one video clip over another.

Pinnacle Studio still gives Premiere Elements a run for its money by combining powerful editing features with admirable ease of use. However, this latest version of Premiere Elements can definitely be recommended to beginners, as well as to more experienced users who know how to make the most of its powerful special effects and editing tools.

Review: Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 image editing software

Cliff Joseph — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:25:05 GMT

Cliff Joseph, Personal Computer World, Friday 19 September 2008 at 11:26:00

The latest Elements upgrade puts its focus on special effects

There's no shortage of photo-editing programs on the market, but Photoshop Elements has retained a big advantage over its rivals thanks to its ability to borrow powerful features from its big brother – the full, professional-level version of Photoshop.

Photoshop Elements 7 continues this trend. More important, though, is the fact that it also manages to present new features in an accessible manner that allows non-professional users to experiment with them quite easily.

A good example of this is the new Scene Cleaner feature, which allows you to quickly remove elements from a scene, such as a pedestrian walking across the frame as you're about to take a picture. You'll need to take two or more pictures of the same scene so the program can compare the details within each scene; Elements places the pictures side-by-side on-screen, allowing you to mark up the details to be removed.

There's also a selection of new special effects, such as the line art effect that makes photos look like hand-drawn sketches. However, the most powerful addition is the new Smartbrush.

Most special effects – such as a sepia tone or turning a photo black and white – are simply applied to an entire photo in one go. However, the Smartbrush allows you to selectively 'paint' a wide range of special effects onto specific areas of a photo. You could, for instance, use the Smartbrush to turn the background of a portrait photo into black and white, while leaving the person in the foreground in colour, or perhaps change the colour of the personís clothing simply by painting onto their clothes.

Some of these tools and effects wonít be required by most amateur photographers, but Photoshop Elements remains the standard against which rival editing programs have to compete.

test software review

Orson — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 11:46:02 GMT

Orson, Accountancy Age, Tuesday 30 September 2008 at 12:39:00

test

no paragraph at all

Review: Firefox 3 internet browser

Anthony Dhanendran — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 18:42:28 GMT

Anthony Dhanendran, Computeract!ve, Wednesday 10 September 2008 at 14:00:00

Firefox gets a facelift that offers a stable, streamlined browser

Firefox, which used to be the brash young upstart to Internet Explorer's mainstream, is now distinctly mainstream itself. Used by up to 20 per cent of internet surfers (it varies...

Review: WinZip 12.0 Professional

Dave Bailey — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 18:42:27 GMT

Dave Bailey, vnunet.com, Thursday 18 September 2008 at 11:08:00

WinZip targets digital content through new compression algorithms

With version 12.0 of its popular file compression package, Corel-owned WinZip Computing says it is targeting digital media users, and has added new compression algorithms, as well as support for...