With digital still cameras and digital video now becoming commonplace, some major software publishers have met the demand for editing and manipulating these images and video.
JASC, a specialized software publisher (www.jasc.com), recently came out with version 8.1 of its popular Paint Shop Pro. This powerful and reasonably priced software can easily edit, crop, enhance, and otherwise improve digital photos and other graphic components. Paint Shop Pro can also create an impressive array of attractive frames and special effects with digital images. Paint Shop Pro is readily available locally at the office supply, electronics, and discount stores, occasionally on sale with a large rebate. JASC is also offering a $30 rebate for users of competitive products; details and the rebate form are available online at www.jasc.com/products/paintshoppro. JASC's Photo Album is an inexpensive utility that can easily sort, catalog, label, store, and enhance digital photographs. Other JASC products can also add hundreds of special effects and enhancements. For the serious digital photographer, JASC has published Paint Shop Power Suite with almost all of its products in a single bundle, at a reasonable price. The suite includes full versions of Paint Shop Pro, Photo Album, Xtras Creative Editions 1 and 2, Animation Shop, and a variety of other resources. This suite is possibly the most comprehensive set of digital photo editing and creative software available on the market. JASC offers excellent free technical support for all of its products, as well as free download trial versions from jasc.com.
Adobe (www.adobe.com), the well know creator of the popular PDF file, is also considered by many to be the grandfather of digital image technology. Adobe has a stable of image editing products ranging from its inexpensive Adobe Photoshop Elements to the professional grade and premium priced Photoshop ES. Ancillary products from Adobe include Photoshop Album, an inexpensive utility that can enhance, store, catalog, and edit digital photos, as well as create slide shows and greeting cards, print in a variety of formats, burn images to a CD, email photos, and a variety of other tasks. A free Photoshop Album Starter Edition, with limited functionality, is available for download at www.adobe.com/products/photoshopalbum.
Examples of the proliferation of digital video cameras were abundant at Digital Focus, and on the main floor of COMDEX, with several being available for as little as $199. Adobe also offers an extensive selection of digital editing and recording software; software of this genre is necessary to edit and improve the digital video which has become so common. A list of Adobe video editing software is available at www.adobe.com/motion.
Of course Microsoft wants to be a part of the digital image revolution, and it scored with its low priced Plus! Digital Media Edition for Windows XP. Priced at less than $20, and simple to use, this suite of software contains several cute utilities to utilize digital photos, music and videos, as well as other functions. Plus! Photo Story allows the user to add music and narration to the photos, creating a multimedia slide show. Using a proprietary Microsoft compression algorithm, several photos along with their audio can be compressed into a file small enough to be easily sent via email. In a live demonstration, Microsoft took several 3 megapixel photos, added music and narration, and saved it as a self-executable file (no reader needed) that was around 1 mb in size. Another utility, Plus! Party Mode turns the computer into a juke box and karaoke, complete with play lists and a guest book. For those that want to digitize old records and tapes, Plus! Analog Recorder can record those sources, reducing the hiss and pops so common in analog music. Some users like animations on their screens while working on their computers; Plus! Dancer will have lifelike dancers perform onscreen to the beat of Hip Hop, Disco, Salsa, and other themes. Most of us are now burning our own CDs, and use a marker to write on the CD; Plus! CD Label Maker can create detailed labels, as well as booklets and jewel box inserts. The Plus! Audio Converter does as the name says, and simply converts audio files between popular formats. A sleep timer and an alarm clock, with full multimedia capabilities, are also included in the package. Digital video editing is provided with Plus! Effects and Transitions. Users of Pocket PCs will find the Plus! Sync & Go useful to load audio and video on the Pocket PC.
AMD, Intel's major competitor, demonstrated their new 64bit microprocessors, and the hardware and Windows software designed to utilize its power. Pentium 4 and AMD Athlon chips are 32bit processors, meaning that the new AMD 64bit processors have the speed and ability to better process digital video. In one demonstration, a digital video was recorded of the surrounding audience, and within minutes a game creator used our images in the game. What is unusual was that unlike the current generation of video games that look like animations, this looked like we were playing parts in a movie on a DVD!
It is difficult to include five days of amazement and wonder on a single newspaper page, so watch for more interesting new items in the future.
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