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Sony Creative Software Sound Forge Audio Studio 10 - 2011 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I downloaded the trial version of this, and was pretty happy with how it worked. However, after installing the actual version, I get beeps inserted into the recording when I use audio restoration. I submitted a support request, and have heard nothing back in two weeks. I tried following directions I found on their website for a clean uninstall and reinstall (minus the steps involving removing the .NET versions - really? do I want EVERYTHING on my computer to be broken, and have to reinstall?) I purchased this primarily for digitizing old audio recordings (cassette), and I really need the audio restoration feature. This would get 4 or 5 stars without this issue - it's easy to use and worked pretty well. How frustrating that the demo version worked and the actual products doesn't!

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Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This version is identical to the product purchased directly from Microsoft, I have no idea why the earlier reviewer suggested otherwise. You may want to plan for someone to be at home since the package will be shipped with signature required because of the value.

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Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN Subscription is an integrated environment that simplifies creating, debugging and deploying applications. Unleash your creativity and bring your vision to life with powerful design surfaces and innovative collaboration methods for developers and designers. Work within a personalized environment, targeting a growing number of platforms, including Microsoft SharePoint and cloud applications and accelerate the coding process by using your existing skills. Integrated support for Test-First Development and new debugging tools let you find and fix bugs quickly and easily to ensure high quality solutions.

† Azure benefit includes 250 compute hrs/mo, 7.5 GB storage, 3 GB SQL Server database capacity, 1M .NET messages/month †† Azure benefit includes 100 compute hrs/mo, 5 GB storage, 2 GB SQL Server database capacity, 500k .NET messages/month††† Azure benefit includes 50 compute hrs/mo, 3 GB/mo storage, 1GB SQL Server database capacity, 300k .NET messages/month 1. May require one or more Microsoft Visual Studio Load Test Virtual User Pack 2010 2. Requires Team Foundation Server and a Team Foundation Server CAL 3. Requires Microsoft Visual Studio Team Lab Management 2010 4. Per-user license allows unlimited installations and use for designing, developing, testing, and demonstrating applications. UML is a registered trademark of Object Management Group, Inc. Windows is either a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

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Peachtree by Sage Professional Accounting 2009 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I got this because it advertised that it could import Quickbooks data and I was trying to avoid spending the $$$$ for Quickbooks. I also didn't like the trial version of Quickbooks 2009.
Well, this does import from Quickbooks but the little piece of information Peachtree Sage left out was that it only imports the chart of accounts etc. and not the transactions. Complete waste of time and $$$$ unless you want to spend hours entering all your past years figures.
It does have some great information about the details of accounting and I probably would use it if I didn't care about having all my past years transactions available to view reports I value like YTD compared to previous years. Peachtree suggests starting the new year with their software and entering just the totals from previous years. For me, it's the details that give me the information to see exactly where my business needs tweaking and where it is flourishing. Perhaps the automakers could have used this information on their business practices to their benefit.
Anyway, this is a good accounting program if you want something that doesn't cost much, you don't want to import transaction details from previous years, and you need more information about specific accounting practices.
In addition, I was initially impressed with the emails from Peachtree asking if I had any questions when I requested their trial software. I actually found such a great price on the full software that I ordered it before even trying the trial version...my mistake. However, as soon as I stated that I had purchased the full version, I got NO response with my questions about where is the detailed transaction information on the conversion from Quickbooks 2005.
I ended up getting Quickbooks 2008 and it is fantastic and absolutely no issues importing old data completely and working with Vista 64-bit.

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QuickBooks Pro 2001 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)In the quest to find a decent accounting solution for my sole-proprietorship (start-up), I tried and evaluated several trial versions of accounting software packages (QuickBooks Pro 2001, gnucash, gACC, MYOB, and Peachtree Accounting).
The good: Hands down, QuickBooks Pro is the easiest and most intuitive accounting package aimed at small businesses, on the market. I was able to setup the books, generate purchase orders, sales receipts, deposits, checks, with a minimum of effort. The only difficulty is figuring out the QuickBooks way of doing things, but once you do, things fly. I was surprised to find that it will even print out deposit slips (nice feature, especially if you take in a lot of checks).
The bad: Unfortunately it is also the most expensive software package in this class. Peachtree Accounting is about half the cost (but much more difficult to use [double-entry accounting]).
The ugly: Also, beware that the features included in this software package are a little misleading: Setting up payroll requires you to use their payroll update service ($). Setting up a "professional website" requires you to use their service ($). From the trial, I got the feeling that accepting credit cards also requires you to use an Intuit-affiliated merchant account ($?). I never went any further to investigate. Several "marketplace features" were discontinued.
Simply stated, QuickBooks is an intuitive, easy to use accounting solution for small businesses. However, I was disappointed in the QuickBooks Pro version, which charged a premium for features that either contained ongoing hidden charges, or are not likely to be used by most people. My advise: get QuickBooks 2001, not QuickBooks Pro.

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Intuit QuickBooks 2001 Pro is a complete accounting and payroll product for small businesses. Extensive tools allow you to manage all financial aspects of your business. Store and track checking accounts, credit cards, and accounts payable/receivable. Bank and pay bills online, create customized invoices and statements, print forms such as 1099s and W2s, and more. Over 100 customizable instant reports and graphs provide an overview of your business at any time. Advanced project reports include job administration; job profitability; job estimates vs. actuals; progress billing; and time reports by name, item, and activity. Organize your memorized reports into groups that make the most sense to you. Keep your place on reports with new QuickZoom, which allows you to go back to exactly where you were in the report, instead of to the top. QuickBooks 2001 Pro online billing lets you e-mail invoices and get paid online, which saves your customers time and allows you to get paid faster. You also can e-mail and fax invoices and estimates directly from QuickBooks. Create up to 20 different price levels for products and services, such as assigning default prices for wholesale, retail, or best customers. Customize reports to look the way that you want. Sort the information in any column or change the order of columns in most reports. QuickBooks 2001 Pro offers improved time-sheet printing, advanced job costing, and time tracking. These and many other features make QuickBooks 2001 Pro a fast and easy way to manage your business.

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Adobe Premiere Elements 9 (Win/Mac) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I'll start off by stating that I am just an everyday dad who wants to take the HD videos he shoots of family vacations, kids' birthdays, fishing trips, etc and transfer them to DVD without any loss in quality. I am not out to produce the next "Citizen Kane" nor am I out to challenge Steven Spielberg to a directorial throwdown.
I do not want to have to convert files, combine files, or compress files. I just want to transfer my family memories to disc for future viewing. If I can also chop out those moments when I forgot to turn the camcorder off and you get a good view of what footwear everyone was wearing that day, even better. If I can also include a title screen, with a neat little visual of what's on that disc, with an area where you click "play" to start the video, better still.
This sounds like a fairly simple request, no? Nevertheless, I have had trouble finding video editing software that will do this in a straightforward and simple fashion. I have bought Corel Ulead VideoStudio 11.5 Plus and Corel VideoStudio Express 2010. I have also tried Windows Movie Maker and have downloaded trials of PowerDirector 8 Ultra and Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum. They all either produced bad images, required video conversions, froze up, locked up, or spit up. As far as my hardware, my PC consists of a Quad Core i7 chip with six GB of RAM and with Windows 7 64-bit.
I was scanning Amazon one day and noticed that Adobe Premier had among the highest reviews when compared to the other options and was decently priced (with a rebate). After my other experiences, I decided to download their trial version before I made the purchase. I was elated with the results.
Finding the files (which were raw, .mts files that I had transferred from an SD card to my hard drive) and loading them into the workspace was simple. Arranging them was equally simple (oldest to newest, which I chose, or newest to oldest). Burning them to Blu-ray disc (I have both a Blu-ray disc burner and a standard disc burner on my PC) was also an easy process. In no time I had the disc produced and was watching video with stunning clarity on my 67-inch HD television.
Here are some things to note:
1. Processing time for 45 minutes of HD video took about two hours. The software has to process the files prior to burning, which takes a while. It seems like slow going sometimes, but just leave it alone and be patient.
2. When it actually starts burning the disc, for some reason the process bar for this activity stays at 1 percent. Just ignore this...it is actually making progress, although it doesn't show it on the screen.
3. If you load the trial version, the disc you make will have an ugly black bar across the middle of the entire video, indicating that it was made from a trial version of Adobe Premiere. I found this annoying, but understandable. The other trial versions I tried did not do this.
4. I saved my trial project, and then opened it with the Premiere version that I bought. The full-version software retrieved it and the black bar was gone. So, if you do a project with the trial version and later buy the software, save your project to avoid re-work.
5. On my second DVD, I managed to put in a title screen and insert captions (e.g. "On our way camping," "Arriving at our hotel in Naples) just by fumbling around. This software is especially easy to navigate.
6. I like the fact that Adobe Premier has so many resources...some online, that I have not yet explored, and some in book form, including this one that was just released. Adobe Premiere Elements 9 Classroom in a Book I may end up getting more involved in this as a hobby than I thought I ever would or could. I am optimistic about this since thus far the fundamentals have proven so user friendly.
In summary, I highly recommend this product against all others. It is great for the novice, the "point-and-shoot" user, and apparently will allow you to gain more expertise with practice. Time will tell.
Lastly, I apologize for the lengthy review, but after trying so many editing software choices out there I am really pleased I finally found one that works, works well, and is so user friendly. My only gripe at this point is that by the time I downloaded the trial version and tested it, the price had increased by $10 when I went to make the purchase! Even at that, though, I still consider it a good value.
If my opinion changes (for better or worse) as I continue to work my way through this software, I will update the review.

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Incredible movies, effortlessly! Adobe Premiere Elements 9--the newest version of the #1 selling video-editing software--delivers powerful, automated moviemaking options, professional-quality effects, and optimized HD and SD editing. Share quickly via convenient web DVD viewing experiences and on disc, mobile devices, Facebook, and YouTube. Automatically organize and help protect all your video clips and photos. And now enjoy a complete solution for videos whether you use Microsoft Windows or Mac OS.
Quickly find, view, and protect your clips and photos in a powerful media-management hub.

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Simply Accounting Pro 8.5 (2-user) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is an excellent accounting software by an excellent software company. AccPac has been in the accounting software business for over 10 years. They are the makers of the famous AccPac for Windows and DOS.
Simply Accounting does a very good job for small businesses that need to do their own invoicing, track inventory, sales tax, and especially projects. Project accounting can get complex, but it can be handeled very well with Simply Accounting. In fact, if you like to call your projects something else like, events, cases, sites, or anything else that makes sense to your own business, you can do that. That usually comes in handy for small attorney firms that track accounting by each case. Other types of businesses that would need that feature would be any type of general contrator, plumber, gardner, pools, or anything else.
I highly recommend this product and if you have any questions, just let me know.

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Simply Accounting Pro allows you to automate everything from making purchases to making sales, plus paying your staff, managing your projects, and more. The advanced functionality delivers support for online banking and electronic payments, support of more than 3,000 currencies, and the ability to create and customize an unlimited number of reports.
Simply Accounting Pro contains more than 100 predefined reports. With a click of a button, you can view in-depth transaction details behind the reports. Reports can also be customized so you can decide what information is important to your business and how it should be presented. In addition, you can create an unlimited number of your own reports using Microsoft Word and Excel, and Crystal Reports. The software integrates with Microsoft Word and Excel to consolidate your reports and data and is built on the Microsoft Access database platform.
Note: This version is for up to two users.

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Apple Final Cut Pro 4.1 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have been editing for 20 years. FCP on a Dual 2.0 Ghz G5 is the best editing solution for the money I have ever seen. It blows away the $75k+ systems that I have used for less than a tenth of the price. FCP at less than $1,000 and a G5 at $$$$$$$ is all you need other than a camera. You can make broadcast quality video with this simple setup. $$$$$$$ for computer and software plus $$$$$$ for a camera that will hold up to a $$$$$$$Betacam... give me a break!!

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