Adobe Photoshop Elements 10

At the heart of Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 is the ability to edit ordinary photographs in ways that make them works of art. This application offers both new and enhanced capabilities to show off your inner artist. Whether you're fixing flaws in new or old photos to take advantage of the latest enhancement technologies or creating your own images digitally, Photoshop Elements 10 likely has a tool that's perfect for you.
A side effect of digital photography is that most people take far more pictures than ever before. Since there's no need to worry about running up a huge bill for film, numerous shots of the same thing are commonplace. Photoshop Elements 10's upgraded organizing functionality allows you to get rid of duplicates you don't want and to organize related photos in the way that best suits your needs.
Finally, Photoshop Elements 10 provides easy ways for you to share your creative genius. Whether you're creating impressive photobooks or uploading your masterpieces to the internet, you'll find the task easier and more versatile than ever before.

Ease of Use  

   

At first blush, photo editing software can be intimidating. That's true for Photoshop Elements 10 and any of the other products in the category. Modern photo editing software has numerous capabilities that can make you look like a photographic genius. The good news is that there's no need learn everything at once. Any given operation is easy to accomplish and can be mastered in a relatively short time with just a bit of practice. You also don't have to worry about spoiling your original photograph because Photoshop Elements 10 applies nondestructive changes to your pictures so that, even if you do something dreadful, you can undo the alterations, and the original file remains intact. The key to becoming an expert is to master individual tasks one by one and to allow your knowledge to build upon itself.
Among the most valuable features of Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 are the Guided Edits. They offer simple ways to start with a good photo and make it great by following step-by-step, on-screen directions. Even with the prescribed process, you always retain the ability to make custom edits to your exacting standards based on other processes you learn along the journey.

Importing    

Photoshop Elements 10 imports photos directly into a separate application known as Elements Organizer. It's a standalone media management hub that houses video clips as well as still images. As such, there can be some confusion because a particular functionality that seems to be part of Photoshop Elements may actually reside in Elements Organizer. In general, the two applications run seamlessly together. Furthermore, since many digital cameras can record video as well as still photography, Elements Organizer is ideally suited for both. The catch is that opening a video clip automatically opens another Adobe product, Premier Elements. If you don't happen to have that application installed on your computer, you'll be asked to install it. Adobe offers a 30-day free trial of Premier Elements to give you the opportunity to see if it's something you want to purchase.
You can import photos from your camera's memory card or from scans, and they'll be separated according to your designated preferences. The importer automatically separates them by date, and it can group related photos can by subject matter such as people, pets, travel or objects based on your customized settings.

Editing    

Although Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 has a broad feature set, the main reason you'll likely want to use the application is for photo editing. Using PSE 10, you can accomplish any editing task, from fixing defects in cherished heirlooms to showing off your creative side with the newest image-manipulation techniques. The most common single edit that people use is cropping an image to emphasize important subject and eliminate superfluous content. This product features crop guides, including the Golden Ratio and Rule of Thirds, to help your edits look even more aesthetically pleasing.
We particularly like the addition of Guided Edits to Photoshop Elements 10. This is a set of three different editing techniques that help create great photographic effects. These three functions are known as the Orton effect, Picture Stack effect and Depth of Field effect.
The Orton effect was originally created using slide photography and typically combines an in-focus image with an out-of-focus image for a unique look. You can easily use Photoshop Elements 10 to accomplish this by adjusting the blur, noise and brightness of your photograph to create an artful, impressionistic image.
The Picture Stack effect allows you to create a collage feeling to a photo. It divides pictures into eight components that you can then manipulate to get just the look you want. Finally, the Depth of Field effect allows you to add a professional touch to any snapshot by blurring or sharpening specific portions of the image.
To make the most of your photographic projects, Photoshop Elements 10 features 30 new brush effects that you can apply to your pictures, including snow, oil pastel and pencil sketch. You can also add text in curving or flowing forms.

Sharing    

These days, sharing is all about social media sites. Photoshop Elements 10 lets you tag your photos using your Facebook Friends list directly in the Elements Organizer prior to sharing them. The People Recognition feature can automatically apply your Facebook information to the photos in the organizer. You can also make scrapbook pages, photo books or cards easily using built-in templates or express your completely customized creativity.

Output Capabilities  

   

You can save images in Photoshop Elements 10 in a vast array of formats including GIF, JPEG, JPEG 2000, Photoshop EPS, Photoshop PDF, PNG and TIFF. You can also use this application to create CD or DVD labels and jackets and photo collages.

Organizing   

Because digital photography lends itself to taking multiple shots of the same thing, we often end up with huge photo libraries containing many duplicate or very similar images. The Elements Organizer can now recognize the duplicates and automatically organize or even delete them. You can also use the Visual Search function to find similar photos or photos of a specific person or object. The software also includes a feature called Auto-Analyzer that applies smart tags to photos and video clips when they're imported. You can then easily filter and sort the images to find the highest-quality photos and clips.

Help & Support    

Photoshop Elements 10 is compatible with Windows 7, Vista and XP, and with Mac OSX. Adobe offers several support options for Photoshop Elements 10. Technical support via telephone is available Monday through Friday from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Pacific Time. Your questions and concerns may also be addressed by accessing the FAQ section on the Adobe website. You can find further support in the product's user manual, online tutorials and in online, user-moderated forums.

Summary 

Photoshop Elements 10 offers a remarkable suite of photo editing, organizing and sharing tools that is tough to beat. Its automated functions allow photo hobbyists to produce professional-looking results, yet it has enough customizable features to be valuable to pros. Its basic functionality is easy to master, and you can even learn its more-advanced features quickly with a little practice. Organizing photos is more efficient than ever before, which makes sharing your photos on the internet or mobile devices very easy. This application is an all-around winner for anyone who's interested in making the most of digital photography.

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Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2012

If you’re looking for a strong and easy antivirus software, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus stands at the ready. Offering rock-solid security, simple usability, effective resource usage and an enticing price point. It is a top-tier antivirus software solution with superior protection and performance whether you’re an advanced user looking to control the whole process manually or an average user who simply wants a set-and-forget solution. This antivirus software provides protection and peace of mind without taxing your PC performance or paycheck.

The software is available as boxed software or via online download. Both are easy to install and implement. Installation is quick and includes step-by-step instructions. The process includes a pre-installation scan and doesn’t require a reboot before you’re up and running.. The user interface is elegant and minimalistic. You can drag and drop modules to perform actions directly from the main window. The application uses a feature called Autopilot to make security-related decisions without prompting you for responses. There is nothing to configure, no alerts and no pop-ups. If you choose to make any manual changes to the security settings, Autopilot shuts itself off in the same way that your car's cruise control cancels itself if you tap the brakes.

Performance

 Bitdefender Antivirus Plus is effective at successfully blocking, removing, neutralizing and preventing malware infections. Third-party industry testers and reviewers agree that Bitdefender is one of the best. It ensures security without sacrificing speed. Smart Scan technology takes advantage of PC processing power without being burdensome. Depending on what other tasks you have running and what resources are available, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus adjusts to optimize operations and maintain speed. In order to maintain the maximum performance that contributes to ease of use, the Scan Dispatcher feature discovers and uses available time slices if your system's resource utilization drops below a certain threshold.

Features

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus protects against a number of online threats, including social media threats, viruses, spyware and phishing scams. The software covers you from every angle, protecting you from threats on the internet, over email and via instant messaging. The application scans all web, IM and email traffic for malware, and it can encrypt IM chat conversations. The product includes a cross-browser module that intercepts and scans web traffic before it can touch the browser. With SEO-poisoning and targeted attacks (particularly on popular search terms), even the top results in Google can be dangerous.
The best aspect of the software is its unmatched level of security. Active Virus Control is a feature that detects and demolishes stealth threats using proactive measures to monitor all application activity. It keeps an eye on suspicious file behaviors. One minor discrepancy won’t stop the file in question (thus avoiding false-positives), but if enough malware-like actions are detected, Bitdefender Active Virus Control will lock it down. Malware has difficulty bypassing Active Virus Control because most malware functions in kernel mode. The design of Active Virus Control ensures that it does not have an undue impact on system resources.

Bitdefender also monitors privacy settings on Facebook and Twitter and blocks any threatening links that your friends send you from inside those social media networks. An Anti-fraud Filter detects fraudulent websites that are likely to scam and blocks you from fake banks, escrow scams and career/employment scams. Another way in which the product protects you from scammers is with a free credit monitoring service. The service is available within the United States and it will alert you if it discovers changes to your credit reports.
When, inevitably, threats such as rootkits breach all other defenses and burrow deeply into the operating system, you can reboot in Rescue mode, which places you into an environment where you can perform cleanup and restoration. If you pop in a CD, DVD or USB drive, the system detects the action and scans the media for threats.
A special tool worth mentioning is the secure gamer mode. Whether you’re playing a video game or in full-screen mode for a presentation or video, the gamer mode turns off any interruptions but doesn’t sacrifice security. You can even set up a list of games or other applications that require gamer mode for a completely automatic solution. A similar feature is the laptop mode, which saves resources when a laptop is unplugged.

While the proactive, heuristic detection and real-time prevention technology fight off new threats, timely virus definition updates are also an essential part of antivirus software. Bitdefender can perform updates automatically and run in the background without slowing down your computer. You don’t have to update manually (though you can if you want), and you don’t have to worry about updates slowing down your system. Furthermore, you don’t have to worry about updates causing problems or losing program files. If file damage occurs, Bitdefender automatically repairs itself with the newest working update.

Help & Support

 This antivirus application is easy to use. But for times when you need additional assistance or support with a specific problem, help is available 24/7 via phone, email or online live chat. The dedicated help section on the Bitdefender's website includes articles, a knowledgebase, help files, troubleshooting and a variety of video tutorials. Integrated help is completely searchable, helping you to locate relevant answers and information.

 

Summary 

 

We’ve been impressed with Bitdefender Antivirus for years. The publisher continues to innovate and improve year after year to maintain its premiere position. New online threats continue to emerge and target different vulnerabilities. This antivirus software beats the threats from viruses, worms, Trojans and other malware. It protects against the dangers that appear on social media networks. And it protects you from dangerous emails and malicious web sites. It is effective at what it does, as documented by the most respected third-party test labs. It is also easy to install and to use. The product contains thoughtful features that anticipate most of the situations in which you may find yourself. It behaves well if you are playing games or your laptop is unplugged. It pays attention to when you are using the computer heavily and doesn't consume system resources if they are already working hard. Bitdefender will happily update itself and function without bothering you, unless you want to be more involved in the security decisions. If something bad makes its way past Bitdefender in such a way that the product can't clean it, a Rescue Mode reboot puts you in position to isolate and terminate the problem. You can always contact the publisher for help via online chat, telephone or email on any day and at any hour.
 BitDefender Antivirus Plus delivers effective and affordable protection. Buy it and don't look back.

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