No comments about Surething Full-Faced Matte: CD Label Refills.

1 comments about PowerDVD 8 Deluxe.

1. I've used PowerDVD for many years. It works quite well and supports the wide variety of media that I want to play. This new version is no exception. It supports formats like MPEG-4 AVC and DivX Pro, the HD detail is quite satisfying.
   
   
   
   Audio-wise, PowerDVD works fine on 7.1 ch and 5.1 ch. No complaints.
   
   
   
   The thing I like particularly is the feature called "Do It Smart" with which I can move subtitles and repeat dialogs.
   
   
   
   As for the new "Remix" function. It might be fun but I don't find any time to try it yet.

No comments about Adobe InDesign CS4 Upsell from Pagemaker.

1 comments about Turbocad Deluxe V14 Precision 2D Drafting 3D Modeling.

1. As a hobbyist who is interested in home design and construction I have been using CAD software since the days of DOS.
   
   For many years I had used QuickCAD from Autodesk, the makers of AutoCAD but when I moved to Vista (probably a mistake) I was forced to find an alternative CAD program as Autodesk apparently no longer offers low end drafting software.
   
   I first tried ViaCAD from Punch and found that it was simply not to my liking. Kudos to Punch for promptly honoring their 90 day money back guarantee.
   
   So I ordered TurboCAD with fairly low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. Kudos here also to Amazon. Somehow I accidentally ordered two copies. When I contacted Amazon, they said simply refuse shipment on the second order and we'll issue a refund. I did and they did.
   
   With any drafting software, it takes a while to get a sense of what you are trying to accomplish and how to best go about it. I had a bit of difficulty switching from the QuickCAD paradigm to TurboCAD's but I'm happy that I made the switch.
   
   The one frustration I have with TurboCAD Deluxe us that many of the features found in TurboCAD Pro are not available. Two that I have found missing that cause frustration are the inability to import an image and the inability to modify a line style or a cross hatch style.
   
   IMSI does give you several line and crosshatch styles but I find that I need more dense (closer together dashes etc) styles to accurately represent my ideas.
   
   In general, the ability to snap to a variety of objects or positions on objects is very good as is the ability to modify objects by trimming, etc.
   
   I've yet to learn how to position construction lines accurately and I miss the ability to trim to the extent of a non-adjoining line.
   
   I would like to see IMSI re-think their choice of what is and is not available in Turbo Cad Deluxe, or to offer Turbo-CAD pro at a more reasonable price for non-commercial use, but all in all I think that TurboCAD provides one heck of a lot for a very reasonable price.
   
   Highly recommended if you don't mind a fairly steep learning curve (as with any decent CAD pakage).

5 comments about Line 6 GuitarPort XT.

1. i will never have to buy another pedal or phaser or anything for that matter i have it all in this product its great



2. OK, the positives everyone already knows. Its a nice little device. Great tone, etc etc.
   
   The bads:
   I sometimes get this 'clicking' noise, its as if the signal is disconnected and immediately reconnects. The Line 6 help forum didnt help either. Sometimes it happens a lot, and sometimes it doesnt happen at all.
   
   A couple of months ago I went to the website to find some help about this and honestly wat they suggested didnt help much. My concerns were shared by many users too, as there were many negative comments there. I've just rechecked the same page just now, all the negative (yet true) comments have been deleted... Ouch!! Secrets out.
   
   So i guess, some who got lucky and dont get this problems are.... mmm lucky!!???
   
   All in all its a great item, but its also got its flaws. but on the good side, its CHEAP!! thats y i bought it hehe... on ebay :P
   
   Oh yeah the Guitar Port Online is cool!!... if u live in UK or the USA that is... coz the only way to cancel the subscription is to call the UK and the USA Line 6 offices, no online cancellation... And if you want to connect your Line 6 Pod XT to the same online subscription... you cant, you will have to make another subscription for your Pod XT, you cant use your Guitar Port account.
   
   But as i said, its cheap! and its got an array of very very very cool noises.
   
   3 stars for me



3. This is a wonderful and CHEAP addition to anyones electric guitar equipment arsenal. Every single guitarist with a computer should own this, as it enhances the simplicity of recording and practicing guitar riffs for only 100 bucks. I've done a bit of recording in my past, and I've found that it is SO much easier to lay down a nice sounding guitar track using the Guitarport as opposed to recording a real amplifier. It's quick, and sounds as good - in some instances (depending on your microphone, amp, mixer/effects, and room acoustics) it sounds BETTER than anything you could do otherwise.
   
   For those who just want a good practice tool, the Guitarport is a great way to learn the sound of different types of amplifiers, how to work with tone control (equalization), and the sounds of different effects. There simply is no cheaper and practical way to do this than with a Guitarport. Also, since jamming along with good song mp3's is a must for learning guitar, using the jam-along feature in Guitarport is excellent. Or you can do what I do - play from my itunes playlist while Guitarport software is running.
   
   It seems that there is now a "Toneport" that may be a better buy than this (I don't know much about it), but I must say that besides buying the Guitar itself, this Guitarport was the most worthwhile purchase I made as a learning guitarplayer. I would recommend it to anyone who plays the electric guitar.



4. Absolutely love it. The instantaneous tones are incredible sounding and easy to select, the tracks are great and plentiful, with new ones added seemingly every week. Lessons, master classes with master shredders, Riffworks add-on for recording (separate purchase), new tones, AND the setup was painless.
   
   The only thing I find irritating, is Windows Vista's driver support. If I flood the system with extra I/O, I get a lot of static bursts. I'm sure it will be fixed eventually, Service Pack, or updated motherboard drivers, but it's worth noting. Either way, if you're aware of it, and have a decent rig, it'll be your new jamming home.
   
   The GuitarPort is just too damn simple and sexy to not own. It really is everything they say it is.



5. I really enjoy this product. I recently graduated from college and don't have a large amount of money to spend on EFX pedals and amps, so I bought this.
   
   I have decent computer speakers so it works well for me, otherwise you could use headphones if your speakers aren't that great.
   
   I would purchase again! Great for a beginner with no gear, but not the same quality and power as an amp.

No comments about Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 with Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0.

No comments about Adobe Contribute CS4 [Mac].

5 comments about Apple iLife '06 (Mac DVD) [OLD VERSION].

1. I'm joining the other 5 star people. It's a fantastic product. I wasted my money buying an instruction manual. It was never needed. I bought it for iWeb, and yes, you can have sites on the web in mere hours. One glitch is that you don't get to choose your own domain name, so I bought a name and set it up to forward to the name that .Mac assigned me. Fine, but the forwarding doesn't work for 10-20% of the people I've asked to check out my website. I have to then give them the "awkward" assigned name. Since I'm using it for my small business, this isn't good. So far, I haven't found a solution. All first generation products have issues however, and I still love it (iphoto, iTunes, iDVD, as well).



2. I purchased iLife '06 ONLY because iPhoto was maxed out (even though '05 states it supports 25,000 photos and we only have 14,000+). Well, the new iPhoto does work great and is fast, however... the way it organizes the photos on your hard drive is a nightmare. No longer are the photos stored in yearly folders, with month and day sub-folders. Now it stores everything by roll number - which is created when you upload the photos. So if you upload two photos that's a roll if you upload 2-weeks of photos, that's a roll, etc. If you post a lot of photos to the internet, you'll know why this is a HUGE pain. Their solution: save copies of the photos you want to upload into a new folder on your computer. How does that SAVE time?? I'm pretty disappointed and HOPE this is an issue they revisit going forward. As it is, it's screwed up the prior folders also so it's a good thing I have it all backed up on an external hard drive up to the point of installing the new version.



3. Apple has created a new version of iWork, and they provide no upgrade pricing, effectively sticking it to customers and vendors. If you buy this product, you will be stuck with the old version and have to pay FULL PRICE for the new version that contains a spreadsheet application.
   
   And, yes, Apple deleted any comments complaining about the upgrade policy on their discussion boards.



4. Apple iLife 06. I had iLife 05 working well on an eMac, and then upgraded the operating system to Mac OS 10.5. That seemed to kill iLife 05. Version 06 is doing all that I expected and wanted, as I work on editing slide shows and videos. A good piece of software that is easy to use.



5. I am not going to buy any more iLifes, I believe they are just about useless and cost too much. My other software applications take care of everything, so iLife is useless. Apple is making some big bucks off of these things. Wake up people! There are better applications out there for the MAC.

5 comments about Manga Studio EX Professional.

1. This is a great manga program. Really makes your manga look like "manga" with all their tone options and the 3D models are great if you can't figure out how to draw a certain pose.
   
   One problem though: Does not properly work with Windows Vista. Lots of missing strokes. I'm stuck having to now draw my manga in Photoshop and import PSD files into MS in order to be able to get anything accomplished. Very upset about this, I hope they release a patch for this or a fix or something. :(



2. I bought Manga Studio 3.0 EX, not really expecting to do much more than be able to publish comix. But if you want to extend its value it is on par with a desktop graphics studio for advertising or logo design as well! With the supplemental tones disc and all the controls one has to work with,.. I was initially overwhelmed. And now that I have Adobe Flash CS3 Pro as well, my use for Manga Studio is integrated into a full desktop production studio. It iterfaces with Flash, The GIMP, PhotoShop and Illustrator (Haven't tried it in PaintShopPro, yet..). And my Wacom Intuos3 tablet works seamlessly with it as well! I would suggest putting the manual (which comes with the software) on the desktop for easy access during the initial try-outs. I also did myself a favor and purchased "Manga Studio for Dummies"[[ISBN-10: 0470129867 ISBN-13: 978-0470129869 Manga Studio for Dummies (Paperback)]]... it never hurts to have another view by a user of the software. This app. just blew me away! I am so glad I got this! (I hear Waashuu's voice "I'M SO HAPPY!") No you cannot color in it, but the specialty of this software is that it is for inking and desktop OR printshop production of fine manga art reproduction, bar none (you can do the coloring in other venues such as PhotoShop)! So you want to produce your own comix? Get this software and start drawing! NOW!



3. I hesitated at plunking down $200 for this program, but the online reviews (not just here) were just too hard to ignore, as well as the demo version I had on my PC.
   
   I've been using Manga Studio EX for almost a year, and It's been exactly what I was looking for in digital art production. I'll never go back to paper & pen again for drawing or even sketching; why bother when I can do the entire thing right on my computer screen? The 'rough' layout and final layout versions make the idea of mistakes laughable. I actually learn much more from them and are thus able to quickly correct them than if I'd done the sketching on paper.
   
   While it's true that MS Ex doesn't employ colorization, I don't feel this takes away from the software's appeal at all. The conversion to .jpeg & other file formats easily recognized by Photoshop (my personal choice) & other editing programs will make it appear quite seamless. Also, the ability to put in captions & balloons so easily was a great Plus for me. With Manga Studio I'm actually able to see a comic page from the blank white screen to colored completion with minimal fuss.
   
   My only warning would be to watch the file sizes as your comic pages get more detailed; my PC isn't new, but I have plenty of free space & adequate RAM (512) but saw some slowing in response time as the pages were filled w/ detailed drawings.
   
   The best part about buying this from Amazon (as another reviewer posted) is that you get BOTH versions on a single disc; once I can afford a Mac station, you better believe Manga Studio EX is gonna be the 1st program installed!



4. Ive been drawing with this software off and on for about a year now.I have some small gripes with the interface but nothing major.... just small quirks I have to put up with.
   
   There are no major issues that I have experienced that should prevent anyone from drawing professional quality work with this software. Aside from one.... the complete and total lack of any capability to make use of colour. But thats to be expected, as anyone who is familiar with manga knows that most manga is all in B&W and screen tones. The only way I can see to apply colour to work created in Manga Studio, is to transfer your drawings made in MS to another program.
   
   At its core MS is sound, reliable and relatively intuitive software for a program of this calibre. I would highly recommend this software for anyone interested in this type of program.



5. Manga Studio EX is a great software product. All up and coming artists will find the amount of customization to be thrilling. Even a novice could create professional works with this program.
   Let me layout the advantages of this software.
   -Time Reduction: It allows an faster more efficient production
   -Cost cutting: especially if you use screen tones (which I believe are hard to find without the internet), paints, or specialty pencils. Obviously because it is digital it can not run out so create all you want.
   Editing: Once again digital media can be edited freely, unlike traditional pen and paper methods
   Customization: Highly customizable tools and it even allows the traditional hand draw art to be scanned.
   Ease: Almost right out of the box it is easy to use and to make things better even has preset standard paper sizes and templates such as B4.
   
   If you are hesitant to plunk down the green for this product, just think about the total cost of replacing all your paints and pencils and tones on a regular basis
   
   I got my copy for $143 (which is a bargain)
   Shipped in no time and was in prime condition
   
   My only grievance is that the program is a little old (it even looks it),
   but a new version may be coming out soon. I definitely be getting the upgrade.

No comments about Adobe Creative Suite 3.3 Design Standard Upgrade [Mac] [OLD VERSION].