Adobe Photoshop Elements 7

Adobe Photoshop Elements v7.0 for Windows

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Great product
I have been using an old version of photoshop but with the purchase of a new Vista PC I was forced to purchase Elements. I’m glad I did.

1 Star Horrible-I am removing till there is a fix if ever.
Incredibly useless! had to buy it to work with Vista 64bit as 5 won’t work. 7 will import the catalog but will not associate any of the pictures with the catalog- It can find the pictures but then you have to redo your entire catalog - this abominable software will cost me 30 hours to redo my catalog not to mention the 3 days spent trying to get the software to recognize my old catalog- this is a nightmare! Even MS OUTLOOK with several email and excange accounts to switch over was a piece of cake compared to this disaster of a program. have no Idea if the software edits photos well- can’t get that far. I enjoyed PSE5 but this new 7 is garbage- I’m half tempted to go with the windows software that came with the computer so I don’t have to ever go through this nightmare again. incedentally; support? or pertinent information?…non-existent.

5 Stars Fantastic Program for Amateurs
I love redoing old photo’s and this is just the program I needed. The best part is of course the new brush; Spot Healing Tool. I do a lot of taking people out of photos and inserting them into a new background, and this is a much better program than the one I had; Photoshop 6.0.

I would defiantly recomend this program to anyone that loves to work with photos.

SMC from Georgia

4 Stars Adobe Photoshop Elements 7
I really have enjoyed using Photoshop and it arrived in a timely fashion. I was disappointed that the ad promised a $20 rebate, but when I received the item I realized that I did not qualify for it, so I paid $20 more than I expected to pay.

4 Stars My First Adobe Photo Editing Software
This was my first time using Adobe Photoshop Elements, as I am typically a Corel user. This is excellent for those professional shots, unlike with Paint Shop Pro. I haven’t been a huge fan of Photoshop, probably because it was a little intimidating, but I do love Elements. It’s a great program with everything necessary to do my edits. Nice!

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Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition

Homework and Home Work will be easier than ever with Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition. Get better results faster and create high-quality documents you can be proud of, with less frustration and more enjoyment.

Simplify Your Work
Your presentation will make an impact. Your documents will be professional. Your analysis will be insightful. And Office 2008 will be there.
The latest version of the industry standard for productivity software on the Macintosh platform, Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac is more powerful and easier to use. Office 2008 combines Microsoft Word for Mac, Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac, Microsoft Excel for Mac, Microsoft Entourage for Mac, and Microsoft Messenger for Mac and lets you easily create high-impact documents and seamlessly share your ideas with others, whether they are on the Mac or Windows platform.

What’s New in Office for Mac?

• Universal versions of the most popular productivity applications on the Macintosh platform (Universal applications run natively on Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs.)
• Microsoft Office for Mac natively supports the Open XML file formats for compatibility with Windows-based 2007 Microsoft Office products.
• A redesigned user interface and powerful new tools for simplifying work, creating great looking documents, and exchanging ideas and information with others.

Highlights of Office 2008 for Mac

• Office 2008 is a Universal Binary, was built by Mac users for Mac users, and includes many features which take advantage of underlying technologies of the Macintosh platform.
• Office 2008 uses Open XML file formats for compatibility with Windows-based 2007 Microsoft Office products. XML file formats help reduce the risk of lost information due to damaged or corrupted files and also result in smaller file sizes–up to 75 percent smaller than comparable binary documents. Office 2008 for Mac is backward-compatible with earlier file formats and users can continue to use the older .doc, .xls, and .ppt binary formats.
• Elements Gallery is the foundation of the new user interface, and gives easy access to the most commonly used tools and templates. With the new UI, you’ll harness the capabilities of Office for Mac more easily than ever before.
• Office 2008 includes OfficeArt, the powerful graphics engine also used in the Windows-based Office 2007 products. You get great cross-platform file fidelity and easy access to stunning visual and graphic effects.
• Your words will make an impact with the modern styling of SmartArt graphics, which makes transforming text and bulleted lists into professional diagrams and graphics one-click easy.
• A new Themes capability simplifies the process of applying a consistent look and feel across documents. Easily apply a complete set of colors, fonts, and effects to your Office 2008 documents, and change them as easily as changing your mind.
• Automator Actions for Workflows in Microsoft Office enables you to automate Office 2008 with more than 70 pre-defined actions built to simplify your work and extend your productivity. (Available in Office 2008 for Mac and Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition.)

Entourage 2008, the hub of Office 2008, helps it to happen, one task at a time.

Enjoy powerful new tools, over 100 designer templates, rich themes, and an intuitive user interface in Word 2008.

Entourage 2008
Your e-mails will spark ideas, you’ll schedule meetings where creativity abounds. Entourage 2008, the hub of Office 2008, helps it to happen, one task at a time.

• My Day keeps you connected to the action. Schedules, tasks, and priorities in one easy, standalone interface. Time will have no choice but to be well-managed.
• Use color-coded categories, status indicators, and flexible To-Do list management humble even the most hectic schedules.
• Office 2008 for Mac and Office 2008 Special Media Edition enable users to access their Microsoft Exchange server accounts with Entourage.
• Improved Junk E-Mail filtering capabilities and phishing protection tools help shield your inbox from the scourge of junk. Your inbox will breathe a sigh of relief.
• Projects submit to your superior management skills when you unleash the power of Project Center, With project details like e-mail messages, documents, schedules, and contacts in one convenient place, Project Center helps keep your information–and your stress–under control.

Word 2008
Powerful new tools, over 100 designer templates, rich themes, and an intuitive user interface in Word 2008 will help you to make your ideas look as good as they are.

• When you turn blah into brilliant, Publishing Layout View will elevate the way you think about Word 2008. This new specialized and customizable workspace lets users create incredibly rich documents such as newletters, flyers and brochures without a degree in design.
• Great looking document construction won’t require a hard hat. New Templates, Themes, and Document Elements like cover pages and bibliographies make creating professional-looking output a snap.
• Your words will make an impact with the modern styling of SmartArt, which makes transforming text into high-quality graphics and diagrams as easy as one click.
• Dynamic Guides will help you keep all of your words and graphics in line and on point.
• Mass mailings will have a personal touch and Word 2008 Mail Merge Manager will guide you step by easy step.

Inspire your audience’s imagination with compelling visuals and engaging layout in PowerPoint 2008.

Analyze, share, and manage your data, and easily create persuasive charts and thought-provoking graphs for powerful results with Excel 2008.

PowerPoint 2008
Your presentation is a story. PowerPoint 2008 will illustrate it. Inspire your audience’s imagination with compelling visuals and engaging layout.

• Great ideas will get their graphic due with SmartArt graphics in PowerPoint 2008. Start with a blank slide or a bulleted list, and, with a click of a button, you’ll have a stunning chart, table, map, or diagram.
• Designer Themes help you give your presentation a creative look, simply and quickly.
• The new Object Palette allows quick access to all your shapes, art, symbols, and pictures–including iPhoto files–in one easy-to-access space.
• Dynamic Guides will help you place and resize your graphic element to create professional-looking presentations in a snap.
• You’ll lay out custom designs to showcase your unique content with custom layout capabilities in PowerPoint 2008.
• PowerPoint 2008 integration with Apple Remote Control lets you concentrate on your words, not your keyboard. Now control your presentation and engage your audience unleashed from the podium.

  Excel 2008
  It’s a numbers game. With Excel 2008, analyze, share, and manage your data, and easily create persuasive charts and thought-provoking graphs for powerful results.

  • Ledger Sheets in Excel 2008 make tracking finances, inventories, even invoices and portfolios easy with preformulated spreadsheets and automatic calculations.
  • Charting improvements artfully convey the message your data is telling. You’ll see your numbers in a whole new way.
  • The new prebuilt functions tackle the most common tasks and make creating error-free complex conditional formulas easier.
  • Quick access to formulas makes functions more functional with Formula Builder in Excel 2008.
  • Your data will know virtually no limits. Excel 2008 now supports over 16,000 columns and over 1 million rows.
  • Whether you’re an Excel expert or a complete novice, Excel 2008 Formula AutoComplete simplifies your calculations by providing a dynamic pop-up menu so you can select and complete your formula.

  Messenger for Mac
  Convenience is the name of the game for Mac users who want to communicate instantly with family, friends and colleagues from one convenient place. Messenger for Mac is now a Universal application, and gives you more ways to share what’s on your mind or on your plate.

  Use Messenger for Mac to instantly check the status of project team members, streamline workflow by sending documents directly from Word, or offer questions or comments on document changes instantly.

  • Yahoo! Interoperability will allow personal users to connect and message with Yahoo! Messenger for Mac users.
  • Your intentions will never again be in doubt when you create your own custom emoticons in Messenger for Mac.
  • Spelling Checker is now included in Messenger for Mac.
  • Let the world know your tastes when you display your iTunes selection with the new “What I’m listening to now” feature.

  User Ratings and Reviews

  4 Stars Does Everything it’s Meant to Do.
  I attend UNC-Chapel Hill, and bought this online a while ago. But then realized that most college campuses offer discounts on software such as this. i.e. When I purchased this item, it was around 95$ with free shipping. My school sells it to students for 26$ with taxes, no shipping or waiting required. I suggest if you are a college student, check with your tech support or student store and ask if they have software for discount.
  
  Pros:
  
  Word, Spreadsheet, Powerpoint.
  
  Ease of use
  
  Easy to install
  
  Easily converts papers and projects into the program from downloads and such

  Cons:
  
  Microsoft made it

  5 Stars In my opinion….
  This product is amazing. There are so many cool features that are not on the PC version. It is super easy to install and runs great.

  4 Stars Works well, but a huge shift from Windows
  I’m excited about switching to a MAC, but the interface for similar products on a PC are drastically different. Similar layout would help for those making the paradigm shift.

  1 Star Painfully slow on a PowerPC iBook
  I agree with the improvements/deletions and generally unenthusiastic comments in most of the reviews here.

  I wanted to post a word (no pun intended) of warning to old iBook G4 users like myself — this new version was written for the newer Intel-based machines and is significantly slower than Mac Office 2004. Like 3 times longer to boot, 2 or 3 times longer to open a document (of any length), even significantly slower to quit. It may be just my machine/configuration, but it also seems like everything else I run with Word open also runs much slower than it does when Word is not open.

  It’s gotten to point I wish I hadn’t made the “upgrade” from 2004.

  5 Stars PC Owners Should Be Jealous!
  We bought our Macbook Pro last year, then just added MS Office 2008 to it. I use PC’s at work with Office 2007. The Mac version is just superior, I wish my PC version worked like this. Everything is just simpler, the menus more intuitive.

  Perhaps Microsoft is updating their PC version to look like the Mac one, but for now Mac’s are running the best version.

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Microsoft Office Standard 2007 FULL VERSION

Microsoft Office Standard 2007 has the key tools and features that users have wanted, to make their computing experience easier. With its improved menus and toolbars, enhanced graphics and formatting, time and e-mail management tools & enhanced security, you’ll be so impressed that you’ll wonder how you got along without it. Office 2007 makes it easier and more enjoyable to get things done. New calendar views and appointment tools help you organize your time and communications Simple signup to RSS feeds Outlook 2007 has a new Instant Search tool helping you find any information you need — e-mail, calendars, tasks and more Enhanced security features protect against junk e-mail and phishing Share documents securely with Document Inspector — detect & remove unwanted comments, hidden text & other information

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Office
Have used 03 office and probably should have just purchased upgrade but read several bad reviews on the upgrade…so went for this instead. It has several different quirks than the older version but is easy for me to figure it out.

5 Stars Great savings on quailty product
Great savings when ordering through Amazon. Microsoft Office was new in packaged and worked for what we needed it for. We saved about half compared to where we lived and got all the extras we needed in this version.

1 Star Poor
the Co. sent old used product and insist that it is new Microsoft Office 2007, the sticker of sereal number fell off and so many scrstches on the CD Rome, Cheat the customer.

5 Stars Best Version Yet
This is truly the best version of Office yet. It is much more faster and much more stable than any version.

The new Ribbon interface makes everything nice and easy to find. No more digging through all the annoying nested menus. You want formatting options, click the formatting tab. All the formatting possibilities are there.

I say grats to MS for finally starting to get things right. Keep it up.

5 Stars Microsoft Office Standard 2007 FULL VERSION
This is an upgrade from Microsoft Office Student Edition. I needed Outlook and the new version of Student Edition did not have it so I needed the Standard Edition.

I’m very happy with the product. You’ll need to work with it to understand the changes but the help section is user friendly.

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Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Upgrade

Adobe Lightroom V2 Upgrade for Windows and Mac. Lightroom provides an efficient way to import, select, develop, and showcase large volumes of digital images.

User Ratings and Reviews

2 Stars Yawn
I guess I just don’t get it, I don’t see why you need this if you use CS3 or CS4 with Bridge. It’s just a different workflow. I actually find the fact that edits made in lightroom dictate certain options not being available in CS4 (mainly save as JPEG comes to mind) very annoying. I have pretty much ditched this thing and use CS4 and Bridge together. I know I must be missing something because alot of photographers swear by this tool.

5 Stars Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Upgrade
So far I really enjoy using this program. I was currently using only the program that came with my camera (Digital Photo Professional) from Canon. I feel I have much more control using Lightroom 2. Looking forward to finding a good tutorial book or tape on Lightroom 2 to help me further my skills and to help me take advantage of the complete program.

5 Stars Excellent Product
I bought Lightroom mainly to help me organize pictures and to touch pictures up before printing and framing. LR did not let me down in those respects. LR is very flexible, providing the functionality for you, but allowing you to customize it to fit your own work flow.

I organized over 8000 photos that had no organization prior to this in only a few hours time. LR automatically sorted the photos for me into the folder arrangement I wanted. So, those few hours were spent tagging the 8000 photos with people, subjects and locations. LR made the process very easy.

From a photo touch-up perspective, LR’s capabilities are unparalleled. Non-destructive edits, local edits and tweaks for every last thing you could want to tweak in a photo, make it easy for amateurs to get great looking photos.

3 Stars lightroom
It is good software ,however it does not go far enough.As a prepress professional I would like to see a ruler in the develop module,also there is no provision to “dim” your photo it’s all scale to fit which I believe simply resamples thereby losing quality.I now go directly to photoshop dim to size I want then return to Lightroom to

continue. I need to have specific sizes so I don’t spend a fortune at a framing shop buying custom matts and or frames.For example 8 x 12 frames can be bought premade inexpensively 13 x 19 can’t.Or put an 8×12 photo in 11×14 frame.Staying with traditional sizes to save money.I also don’t like to crop, as a photographer you should compose using the entire format if possible for maximun quality.

5 Stars Great Upgrade!
Adobe Lightroom 2 is a great upgrade. Don’t even think about hesitating to get this product if you have version 1!

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Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 Mac

Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 software combines power and simplicity so you can make your photos look their best, share them in imaginative ways, and easily find and view all your photos and video clips. Get tips and tricks, download video tutorials, and a free issue of the Photoshop Elements Techniques newsletter. Register online for free eSeminars that help you get the most out of Photoshop Elements 6. Easily order prints, share photos on the web or on CEIVA Digital Photo Frames, and more. See a full list of books, DVDs, and other materials that will help you get the most out of Adobe Photoshop Elements. Express your ideas in customizable layouts Create photo books with greater ease and flexibility Entertain friends with custom slide shows and interactive web galleries Share with family and friends using a variety of fun options Instantly download photos from your camera Categorize photos and video clips with easy-to-use visual tags Group photos into convenient Albums Develop creations more quickly by gathering the photos you need for a specific project in one place View and organize your photos quickly, even when your library grows to include thousands of photos System requirements - PowerPC G4 or G5 or multicore Intel processor, Mac OS X v10.4.8 through 10.5, 512MB RAM minimum, 64MB RAM, 1GB free space, 1,024×768 display resolution, DVD-ROM drive, QuickTime 7 software required for multimedia features, and Internet connection required for Internet-based services

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Excellent for basic image editing
I find PSE a great option when either budget, or need leans away from it’s full featured relative. For most people looking for basic image editing options, it has more than enough punch, at a reasonable price point.

1 Star Buggy, buggy, buggy
This software would not install at all on my Intel-based Aluminum iMac running Leopard 10.5.6. I was able to get it to install on a PowerPC G5 running Leopard 10.5.6, however, it is barely usable due to constant crashes. I’m very disappointed.

4 Stars Wish it came with a users manual
Photoshop Elements is a great tool for editing your photos …once you get the hang of it. I wish it came with a users manual or quick reference guide. You can purchase books, but they cost about as much as I paid for the software!

5 Stars Works fine for me with Mac OS 10.5.6
For those who are hesitant (as was I) to buy this product because of the comments about it not working with Mac OS 10.5.5 or later, I’ve been using the free demo version of Photoshop Elements 6 for a few hours now on an Intel Mac with both Mac OS 10.5.5 and Mac OS 10.5.6, and everything seems to work just fine. The only thing that made me a bit nervous at first is that it seemed that layer styles (and effects) were not working. It took me several minutes to notice the small ‘Apply’ button (unlike Elements 4); once I clicked on that, the effect took effect. I definitely plan on buying this (from Amazon, of course).

2 Stars Elemnts for Mac, thumbs down
Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 (Mac)I’m not nearly the Adobe basher you’ll find in most reviews. For years I was actually an Adobe supporter and in fact gave a five star review for elements on windows. I recently converted to a mac. It claims to work with iPhoto. If it does I never found the connection as opposed to other products like Aperture. Reluctantly I gave up and went a different direction. It’s not up to par on Mac as it’s Windows counterpart. I’d look elsewhere for a photo editing product. It wasn’t without it’s attributes, some of the tools still worked well but if you’re on a Mac, iPhoto is the best organizer and Elements doesn’t work and play well with it.

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X Rite EODIS2 Eye One Display 2

Reliable and affordable color starts here. The Eye-One Display 2, the next generation for monitor profiling, is a brand new, easy-to use powerful, solution that provides the best monitor profile quality ever! With enhancements to both hardware and software, you’ll achieve consistent, predictable color on all types of monitors - both LCD and CRT. The newest Eye-One Match 3.0 software’s easy-to-use interface provides an Easy Mode for great results with a few simple clicks, plus an Advanced Mode for experienced users to achieve individual and best possible monitor calibration. Ideal for photographers, creative directors, publishers and designers working in ad agencies and corporations. Easily attaches to both LCD and CRT monitors with built-in counterweight and suction cups Use at multiple workstations - no additional licensing fee Mac and PC compatible - OS X, Windows 98 / 2000 / ME / XP USB powered When you need additional color profiling functionality, use your upgrade voucher included in every Eye-One Display2 package, towards the purchase of any other Eye-One package

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars great product–worth the money.
easy to use and calibrated my Samsung LCD monitor fairly quickly. I would recommend this product!

5 Stars Great for home picture use and scrapbooking
I was becoming frustrated because when I sent my digital photos out to print at my local store I never knew if the color and exposure would turn out correct. I would have to re-edit them and sent them out for print again because my monitor was an unreliable reflection of the printed picture. The X-Rite EODIS2 Eye-one display 2 changed all that. It was really easy to use and my pictures turn out perfect. This device does not calibrate your printer so my pictures still do not look right when printed out on my printer. However, I use my pictures for scrapbooking so it is a must that they do not fade so I have to send them out to be professionally printed (For example: Kodak, Snap Fish, CVS, Walgreens). So for me, it really didn’t matter that my printer was not calibrated with my monitor .

Just remember to install the software before plugging the device or your computer will think it is a storage device and you will have to restore settings to previous date to get the Eye-one to work.

I wish I got the Eye-one years ago it would have saved me a lot of money in re-printed pictures.

4 Stars Excellent results despite clumsy user interface
The Eye-One Display 2 (designed by Gretag-MacBeth and now sold by X-Rite) gets only 4 stars because the user interface is clumsy, but it gets that many stars because it does exactly what it’s supposed to do. It calibrated my photo/graphics quality HP LP2475W monitor so that the photos on the screen matched the photos coming off the printer. I hadn’t been able to do that with an old Spyder calibration device I’d used previously on another monitor. Although there wasn’t a huge difference between the color balance settings I got with the Eye One vs. the Spyder, the Spyder couldn’t set luminance (brightness). The Eye One 2 can do that and it was critical in getting the prints to match the screen.

There are two adjusting modes - an automatic one and an advanced one. The automatic mode is very straightforward to use, but the software did not properly adjust luminance. The “advanced” mode is what you should use. But there’s one issue you need to be aware of. The printed instructions are so brief as to be useless, and the on-screen instructions for the advanced mode are not at all intuitive.

There are three linked modules in the advanced mode, one for adjusting contrast, one for adjusting color/white point and one for adjusting luminance/brightness. You have to page through the directions for each module by clicking on an arrow at the upper right of the program window, and then you start the module by clicking elsewhere, on a “start” arrow on the lower right. Once the module starts you open your monitor controls and adjust contrast to match the bar graph on the screen. Each time you make a small adjustment, it takes the software a few seconds to recalibrate the bar graph, so you need a bit of patience. When you have a match, click on Stop to return to the beginning of the next module. You then read the next set of instructions, one short page at a time, and find the start button to begin the color module. Repeat for the luminance mondule. This is very clumsy. The on-screen instruction should take you from the instructions directly to the first step of the actual calibration routine. When the first module is done, the interfact shoudl take you back to the instructions for the next module without having to jump back & forth between an instruction window, a separate start button, and the adjustment process. (If you start a module without finding the instructions, the software will run in an endless loop while it waits for you to open up your monitor controls and adjust the settings for each stage.)

When the “advanced” calibration process finishes you get a report on screen with a chart showing the color gamut of the monitor as it’s been calibrated. It takes about 20 minutes to complete. You can name and save the monitor settings and set a reminder to recalibrate in a week or a month, etc. (It’s a good idea to recalibrate often as monitors shift their output as they age. In fact that’s the reason why you buy one of these devices for yourself rather than passing it from friend to friend.)

To sum up, the Eye-One Display 2 is a very competent device with a non-intuitive, clumsy user interface for the adavanced mode. Buy it for its competence, not its elegance. The ability to calibrate luminance/brightness is a critically important ingredient and its not available on the less expensive “LT” version of this product.

3 Stars Good but not great
Firstly, this product shipped with basically no documentation on how (and what) SW to install — and no obvious installers to launch upon inserting the CD into your computer. Basically, the critical piece of software you need to install is the “Eye-One Match 3″. Recommend visiting xrite.com to get the latest version of the Match software and install that.

After I got the software all installed, I got started calibrating my Apple Cinema Display monitor - I’m on a Mac OSX computer. The software offers two modes - easy and advanced. Since I know about color, I thought I’d head straight for the advanced mode first. The software itself does provide instructions to walk you through the calibration process, so that was nice to see — given the absence of documentation. After following the on-screen instructions to the letter, my “advanced mode” calibration resulted in a very cold/harsh (heavy on the blues) color profile that was just obviously off. Figuring I had made some mistake, I tried it again — in advanced mode. Same result. Next time I tried the “easy mode” - which produced much better results. The only problem is that you’re stuck with the program’s defaults for gamma, white point, etc. In any case, the easy mode appeared to produce much better results — at least for me. In the end, due to the drastic differences between the easy and advanced mode, and essentially being stuck with the easy mode — I’m rating this product as three stars. Honestly, I think there are better products out there for this kind of cash.

4 Stars Good for non-pro level
This is a fine device for what it is. Using it in “easy” mode couldn’t be, well - easier. And, the difference will likely startle those who haven’t ever calibrated a monitor or laptop before.

But don’t get carried away with references to higher level systems. It’s true that the Blue Eye (which is just a re-branding of NEC’s pro displays) uses this as their measuring device (I’ve got one), but that’s the end of the similarity. The NEC/Blue Eye system is a two-way communication between the measuring device and the electronics in the display. During the calibration, the two devices do a great deal of sophisticated measuring and actual adjustment of the monitor itself, rather than just creating a passive profile for the computer to read. After the process is conmplete, the monitor then makes ongoing adjustments between calibrations to compensate for the inevitable color “drift” that happens on all monitors.

(This is the reason for the reminders to re-calibrate, by the way, and why, if you don’t do it at least monthly (regardless of brand), you’ll have wasted your investment.)

So by all means get one of these and move up a giant step towards “what you see is what you get”, but know that this is a prosumer level device.

By the way, this alone will only make your screen look better (realistic flesh tones, etc.). For printing, you’ll need to learn about and use printing paper profiles. This is part of “color management”, which is a whole topic by itself.

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Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2

Adobe Lightroom V2 for Windows and Mac. Lightroom provides an efficient way to import, select, develop, and showcase large volumes of digital images.

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars WONDERFUL program. SERIOUS bug
Lightroom is a 5-star product, with a serious bug in this version. Hence the 3-star rating. I will definitely buy version 2.3, which Adobe says should correct this bug.

I am a Mac user — I don’t know if this bug also exists in the PC version.

First, the great product:

I have thousands of photos (including many duplicates) in disorganized folders all over my disk After using the trial versions of both Lightroom 2 and and Aperture for several weeks, Lightroom was my clear winner.

Big reasons:

1) Lightroom’s internal catalog corresponds directly to the Finder’s folder/file structure. You can change the name of a file, or move it to a new folder, all within Lightroom.

2) Lightroom can keep several edited versions of one master photo. These are stored as edits, which saves space, and makes it easy to keep several versions for special purposes (e.g., web postings, email, printing).

3) The photo editing is awesome. I suspect I’ll have very little need for PhotoShop.

Now the problem: Version 2.2 has a very serious bug (for me).

If you mistakenly import non-standard files, in particular the “shapeimage..” files Mac uses in websites, Lightroom crashes and cannot be restarted without deleting the entire catalog and reimporting all the photos.

When I called Adobe they were very helpful. I quickly reached a knowledgeable person, who says this is a known bug, to be corrected in version 2.3, out in a few months they hope.

5 Stars Great for a photographer
Lightroom (why do we need the photoshop in front?) is great software for moving through images rapidly and making darkroom style adjustments. Its perfect for my needs

5 Stars Software with much depth
Lightroom 2 represents a significant set up from version 1. Version 1 on the Mac suffered from too much. Primarily too much comparison to Aperature. But with this release and the 2.2 upgrade Lightwave finally comes into it’s own.

Unlike a photo editor, Lightroom2 focuses on the management of your photo portfolio. After installation, you tell it where you store your photos and it imports the photos into Lightroom. This is a major improvement from version 1, although this will take a bit of time (about 45 minutes for approximately 13,000 photos). It will then monitor your photo directories for change, although this is not as quick as google’s editor

But those are minor quibbles. Lightwave adopts an assembly line like approach to dealing with photos and it does so very effectively.

Starting with your photo library, you move on to “develop” for a photo or a group of photos. Develop allows you to adjust parameters of the photos ranging from exposure to overlays to layout. This really is the heart of program and what makes it so powerful. This is not at all like photoshop; these aren’t at all competing products, rather they complement each other.

If that’s all Lightwave had to offer, it would a pretty good product, but Adobe has created the ability to develop plug-ins that allow Lightwave to interact with both other programs (such as DxO) to websites (Flickr, Facebook). Don’t consider this an exhaustive list; rather, just search the web for “Lightroom Plugins” to understand the breadth of these plugins.

In summary, this product is valuable tool for people who care about their photos. It’s powerful, intuitive (well, for an Adobe product), and is not a product that you will easily outgrow.

5 Stars Best Thing to Happen to My Workflow…since I 1st Heard the Word “Workflow”
Before discovering this program, I had files all over the map, a terribly disorganzied disaster area of jpgs mixed with RAW mixed with Lord knows what. Additionally, my post-processing routine was anything but. Hours of tedious and frustrating work.

Along comes Lightroom and cleaves my workflow in half! It also has streamlined my archives in such a way that I can find images from several years ago that under normal circumstances would have been buried in a mountain of kilobytes, never to be seen again.

My present day operation is a genuine joy. I have not had a need to even glance at Photoshop CS3 except for the more complicated retouching operations or major projects (movie posters, promos, composites, etc.).

This is a clear winner in comparison to Aperture as well. I’m a die hard Mac guy for my photo work, don’t get me wrong. Aperture is clever and solid, but lacks something in intuition that Lightroom has in spades.

LOVE this software…and can’t fathom life in the studio without it now.

4 Stars Almost Perfect Photo Tool
Lightroom 2, can’t help you with Aunt Lucy’s photo, if you want flames shooting out of her head…. that would be Photoshop. However, what Lightroom 2 offers is a full-range of editing tools to make the photo of Aunt Lucy look fantastic. As a professional nature/wildlife photographer, it has everything I would expect from a top-of-the-line photo editing product, and everything I need (almost) to review, select, store, convert, edit and print a large number of RAW photo files. The one thing I would like to see added, perhaps in the next upgrade, is a watermarking tool. It’s also a very speedy and solid performer, which is absolutely required for a professional workflow.

I struggled with other photo storage, conversion and editing tools for several years. Often, having to use multiple tools to perform various workflow functions I needed. I’m very happy to have discovered one tool that does it all…. Lightroom 2.

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Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007

Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 is the essential software suite for home computer users that enables you to quickly and easily create great-looking documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, and organize your notes and information in one place, making it easier and more enjoyable for you to get things done. The latest version features a new Microsoft Office Fluent user interface that exposes commonly used commands, enhanced graphics, and formatting capabilities that enable you to create high-quality documents, plus a powerful note and information organization tool, and more reliability and security with the Document Inspector tool and improved automatic document recovery. With these enhancements, Office Home and Student 2007 makes it easier and more enjoyable for you to get tasks done at home. Office Home and Student 2007 is the essential software suite that enables home computer users to quickly and easily create great-looking documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, and organize their notes and information in one place. With the new Office Fluent user interface, enhanced graphics and formatting, and more reliability and security, it will be easier and more enjoyable for home users to get things done. Document recovery tool - Retrieve Microsoft Office system documents after a system failure Document Themes make it easy for you to preserve a consistent look for tables and text across Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents Publish to PDF or XPS format Office Online Help and How-to offers articles and training that can help you use Microsoft Office at home

User Ratings and Reviews

2 Stars Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007
The program was not down loaded from the disk in a matter that was explain in the instruction. No way to find out what went wrong. No one to contact. Still not sure if completed correctly. Bad information makes bad input.

5 Stars Microsoft Office and Student 2007
I recently purchased the Microsoft Office & Student 2007 for my laptop and it has worked perfectly. It was a new one and it was listed here for about half price compaired to other places that I looked. I am very pleased!

5 Stars Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007
I ordered this item and got in the mail in no time at all! I have installed the product and it was so easy to do. I also saved $$ on buying this item from Amazon!!

Thank you Amazon

Paulette

2 Stars Microsoft office Home and Student 2007
Shipping is fast, but the sticker of the product box has been opened. There’re two scrathes on the cd disk cause cd disk isn’t stuck on it’s box, free-moving in it’s box……….refurbishment??

5 Stars microsoft office 2007
I had the older version and needed the 2007. it is just what I needed, I knew if I got it from Amazon the price would be fair and the service is great.

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Ear Force X1 Stereo Headset with Chat

Ear Force X1 amplified headphones give serious gamers the ultimate competitive edge by combining Xbox Live chat and stereo game audio into an immersive sound experience.X1’s integrated design overcomes the limitation of communicator headsets that block game sound from one ear and eliminates voice chat interference caused by the headset microphone picking up sound from external speakers.Pump up the volume without disturbing friends, family or neighbors. Hear every nuance of the game - from an opponent sneaking up behind you to your teammate’s voice right next to you.Trash talk online. Block out distractions. It’s everything you need for an amazing gaming experience.

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars Ear Force X1 wired headphones works great with XBox 360, but not at all with my Vista laptop
Positive:

- Very long cords

- Works great with my XBox 360

- Has inline hookups so that you can still play audio through your speakers and headphones at the same time. This is only a benefit if you are playing alone because if you playing with others on XBox Live, you will have the headphones on.

Negative

- Doesn’t work at all with my Vista laptop (Dell Precision M90). I thought I might be able to get rid of my USB Logitech headphones and use only this product, but that didn’t work out. Now, I still have two sets of headphones.

4 Stars good
I love the headset, but the long cord is easy to trip over. Ours is broken already it pulled loose from the headset and now have trouble hearing.

3 Stars Awesome sound quality, Great mic, but still has a couple major flaws.
Got this great headset for christmas, and was amazed. First of all, these are the most comfortable speakers of any kind i have ever worn on my head. padding everywhere, everything just fits perfectly. Now for sound. Left 4 Dead, (by the way, a fantastic must-have) was taken to a new level with constant, loud surround sound. Bose over-ear headphones, you know, the $300 ones? this thing kicks Bose’s @$$. Seriously.

>2 days later<

After a while of playing, i drop the headset from about 1 foot off my carpet flooring, and it hits my spare xbox controller. no biggie with the cheap little one-speaker mic the xbox comes with, but with the beefy $50 dollar X1s? THE LEFT SPEAKER FREAKIN FALLS OFF!! That should NOT HAPPEN!!

In summary, here we have the..

Pros:

-extremely comfortable, even through hours of playing

-perfectly tuned sound

-crystal clear mic

-runs on power from the xbox (no replacing batteries)

Cons:

-can be hard to hear voice chat on xbox live when game volume is loud

Really important cons:

-NOT FOR USE WITH THE PLUG AND PLAY CHARGE KIT THING!!!! USE WIRED CONTROLLER, AAs, OR ALWAYS HAVE A BATTERY CHARGED AND READY!!!! (theres a loud, annoying buzzing noise unless you do that)

-BREAKS EASILY!!!! 2, 2mm plastic prongs hold each speaker on to the rest of the headset, and the whole thing is useless with a speaker just dangling from the side!! BE CAREFUL!!!

and by the way, turtle beach’s help and support service is… pretty much nonexistent.

–[...]

edit: ps: if the speaker falls off yours, (and the wiring is still good) strong superglue over the entire joint there fixes it very well. Still, though, that should NOT HAPPEN!!!

4 Stars sweet
For its price these are especially amazing. You can hear everything in the game, and it helps you position enemies so much better. Must have for hardcore gamers.

4 Stars Great headset for the price
This is definetely one of the best headsets you can get for the xbox 360 and pc. Yes, it can work for both your xbox and your computer games. I love to play call of duty 4 with this headset because it allows you to hear your enemies way before they can see or hear you. Great advantage for those contests where every edge counts. The only nusiance is the wire its only one really long wire. Sometimes it gets tangled up and annoys me but it definetely worth it because there are reports that the wireless ones make a buzzing sound and they require batteries. I highly recommend this headset to everyone looking to play with an edge and without disturbing others like you parents in my case.

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Saitek Pro Flight Yoke with Three Lever Throttle PZ44

Precision. Realism. Control. The Saitek Pro Flight Yoke System is highly engineered to meet the exacting needs of the true flight simulation enthusiast. Stainless steel shaft, ergonomic controls, integrated chronograph and separate throttle quadrant ensure a smooth, accurate and totally realistic flying experience.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Good yoke and throttle quadrant
Good product, worth the money. Had a small ‘dead zone’ in the middle of the yoke when it first arrived in the mail, but that seems to have pretty much disappeared now. The advanced programming of the buttons does not appear to be too simple, but basic setup in FSX is pretty straight forward. Would definitely buy again.

5 Stars Helps secure the illusion
If you really want your flight sim to be realistic, here is a great place to start.

4 Stars phantom button pressing resolved!!!
this yoke is great, its a touch insensitive but will serve the avid flight sim operator greatly… i just got mine and logged over fifteen hours of flight time and no phantom buttons here!!! they must’ve worked hard to resolve it after so many bad reviews. good product for the money buy it!!!

5 Stars YES..!
This is a great product. I also purchased the extra throttle and the peddles. I love it all..!!! I didn’t have any issues with it at all. I installed them with my MS XP then reinstalled with Vista 64 and with both OS’s not a problem.. I have tried to program them yet but I am still happy.

4 Stars The best on the market!!!
Very realistic, lots of features. Almost no installation required. It could be perfected if the aircraft would move back to the center after you make a turn. Must be able to adjust the yoke’s mixture & rpm for the flaps, spoilers, landing gears. Overall a good product.

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