Paul Lester, Personal Computer World, Monday 5 January 2009 at 16:35:00

Recover important files and Office documents with ease

If you’re concerned about losing vital files and documents from your PC, it would be wise to invest in a file recovery application such as Undelete 2009.

The ‘Pro’ edition we tested enables you to recover files across a network, so it’s ideal for those running multiple machines with a Lan at home. For half the price you can pick up the ‘Home’ edition, which offers a similar range of features without network support.

The initial installation enables you to run an instant recovery or set up the program on your system, which replaces the Windows recycle bin with Undelete’s more powerful alternative. The former is a useful option as it prevents files being copied to your computer, which could overwrite deleted content and prevent you performing an effective recovery.

Once installed you’ll find a new recycle bin with a Windows Explorer-style interface, allowing you to browse by folder layout or perform a search for specific files or types of file on your computer’s drives.

The new version improves on previous efforts by effectively eliminating the performance overheads involved in additional monitoring processes, as well as incorporating a ‘Secure Delete’ feature that uses industrial-strength algorithms to permanently delete content from a drive.

You can also perform a ‘clean wipe’ that will do the same for an entire partition, and create a dynamic recovery bin that automatically adjusts the recoverable size limit based on how much free space you have available. Another feature of note is version recovery for Microsoft Office documents, which allows you to revert to previous versions of files even if you’ve overwritten the current one.

Undelete 2009 is very easy to use and offers an extra level of security that should offer peace of mind for home users. The unobtrusive nature of the software and its low price mean that there are very few reasons not to invest in an upgrade to the recycle bin – you’ll feel more comfortable knowing it’s there.

Dinah Greek, Personal Computer World, Thursday 1 January 2009 at 11:25:00

Plan home changes without moving a muscle

Home improvement software is not always the most intuitive type of program, and it’s certainly not for the faint-hearted. But Grand Designs 3D has placed more emphasis than most on trying to avoid the headaches often associated with redesigning a home, or even just one room.

Built on the back of the popular Channel 4 TV programme, it offers three different packages catering for different budgets and visions: Kitchen & Bathroom; Renovation & Interior; and Self Build & Development.

We reviewed Renovation & Interior, which comes with Kitchen & Bathroom included, and tried remodelling a bathroom. Most interior designers and estate agents believe this room, along with the kitchen, can make or break the sale of a house.

The package comes with plenty of hints and tips, but first you need to get to grips with the way it works - you can’t just dive in and hope your vision will enable you to use the software. If you want to take on the star of the TV programme Kevin McCloud at his own game and don’t take time to find out how this application works, you’ll quickly become frustrated.

The first step is understanding the interface and learning how to use the dialogue boxes, which allow you to adjust default settings; for example, setting the floor size and room shape.

Although the software offers a step-by-step guide, it’s probably best for newcomers to practise first with either one of the templates from the Grand Designs TV programme, or use the project assistant and basic templates.

You can toggle between a 2D floor plan and a 3D construction view using F12. To add furniture, go to the catalogue icon and drag and drop what you want into the room. However, if you stay in the perspective view it’s difficult to place furniture exactly where you want, or even to rotate it.

The application allows you to create multiple instances of an object. You can use the standard fittings and furniture provided in the catalogue, but if it doesn’t fit you can tweak the sizes. This means that if you have particular furniture in mind you’d like to buy for a room, as long as you have the measurements you can tweak the size of furniture taken from the catalogue via the dialogue box.

The database of fixtures and fittings is comprehensive, and even includes toothbrush holders and towel rails, so each project can be fully furnished and decorated. The rendered images demonstrated nicely the effects of texturing, lighting and even shadows.

At any time you can take a 3D walk through the design and examine details close up. You can even change from day to night view and add lighting for a more realistic overall impression.

If you’re planning to have the work carried out by a professional, you can print the plans you have created in the format you wish; for example, A3 landscape. If you really get stuck, the software offers some tricks of the trade to help you start again.

Once mastered, this application is straightforward to use, but we can’t stress how important it is to read the manual to make the most of it. It has received the thumbs up from professionals.

If you plan to remodel just one room, the Kitchen & Bathroom package is probably all you need. The software is complemented by the 3Darchitect website which has additional content users can download.

Cliff Joseph, Personal Computer World, Tuesday 30 December 2008 at 17:31:00

A solid upgrade for this easy-to-use Mac database program

There has never been much in the way of database software for the Mac. With no Mac version of Microsoft Access available, Mac users have been limited to Filemaker Pro, which is a powerful program but, with prices starting at more than £250, is really only suitable for corporate users.

So Filemaker’s launch last year of Bento, a low-cost alternative to Filemaker Pro, was welcomed by many Mac-based small businesses and home users who needed a simple database for tasks such as organising client lists, catalogues or club membership records.

Bento 1.0 was praised for its ease of use, but it did have some significant limitations, such as its inability to share data with spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel or Apple’s Numbers. Files imported into – or exported from – Bento 1.0 had to first be converted into .csv format, so one of the most important changes in Bento 2.0 is the simple ability to directly import and export files in Excel and Numbers formats.

When working with spreadsheet data, there’s a new Split View option that provides two views of your data at the same time. The upper-half of the screen displays data as a spreadsheet table, while the lower-half displays a form layout for each record. Working with form layouts has been simplified, too.

The original Customise mode that was used to design and edit form layouts has been removed, so you can simply click on any field in a form to resize it, or move it around on the page. We also like the ability to link records to emails from Apple’s Mail program, which is useful for keeping track of email exchanges with individual clients (though it’s a shame this option doesn’t also work with Microsoft’s Entourage mail program).

Admittedly, there’s nothing particularly eye-catching in Bento 2.0, but its new features make it a worthwhile upgrade for existing users. And, at just £29, it’s good value for Mac users who don’t need the professional-level features of Filemaker Pro.

Paul Monckton, Personal Computer World, Tuesday 30 December 2008 at 17:11:00

Turn snaps into magazine-quality portraits in just a few mouse clicks

If you were to use a tool like Adobe Photoshop, retouching a portrait could involve painstakingly removing blemishes and resculpting bones. With Portrait Professional all you need to do is wiggle a few sliders back and forth and watch the software transform the portrait before your eyes.

On loading your original image, you’re prompted to click in a few selected locations. Just follow the examples and click. You’ll be pointing out the eyes, nose and mouth but you don’t need to be particularly accurate. Next, you’ll be presented with a simple wireframe overlay which you click and drag into position over your subject’s facial features. It only takes a few moments and really doesn’t require any skill.

At this point the software takes over. After analysing the image it has a stab at retouching the picture for you. While this may not always result in a pleasing image, it’s a pretty good starting point, from which you can begin making your own adjustments.

The key to creating a convincing portrait is subtlety. Portrait Professional is so easy to use and so effective that it’s tempting to just grab the sliders and crank them up to the max. However, overdoing it with the sliders can easily transform your mother into a manga-eyed freak with a similarly cartoon-like complexion.

Thankfully the new version of the software helps you keep such tweaks in check, by colour-coding the effect sliders and dividing them into zones. If you want your results to look real, then keep within the green area. Venturing into the yellow and red zones will make far more drastic changes.

Exercise a little care and restraint and you’ll be able to achieve an utterly convincing result. Side-by-side ‘before’ and ‘after’ views help you see the effe cts of your edits in real time, allowing you to see how much you’ve altered the original image. If you’ve done your job well, the result will be an almost spookily better-looking version of your portrait that will easily pass for untouched.

Version 8 of the software offers a revamped user interface along with additional tools. These include the ability to alter the subject’s eye colour and to thicken or re-colour hair. Some tools now provide greater control and overall usability has been increased.

A selection of presets allows you to make instant changes with a single click. These include glamorous or dramatic styles as well as quickly switching between brown, green or blue eye colours. However, the best results are achieved by manipulating the individual control sliders yourself.

Some of Portrait Professional’s effects, such as colour adjustments, would be relatively easy to achieve in Photoshop, while others such as re-sculpting the face would be very difficult. In Portrait Professional everything is almost worryingly simple, be it removing spots, lengthening the nose, or changing hair colour.

To get truly professional results, you can polish off your image by using built-in masking tools to tidy up any areas that may need closer attention.

Even if your subject is beautiful to start with, you can still improve it, as many of the controls are designed to alter photographic parameters such as lighting and exposure, giving your photos a studio-like quality without the need to purchase costly equipment.

Portrait Professional is a superb piece of software at a great price.

For a little more, a high-end version is available with 16-bit colour and Raw file compatibility as well as colour profile support.

Tom Royal, Personal Computer World, Tuesday 23 December 2008 at 10:00:00

A handy tool for extracting text from photos and other images

Abbyy’s Finereader is one of the best-known OCR tools for converting scanned documents into editable ones. This new product uses the same technology to capture text from photos.

Fotoreader integrates with Word and Excel, and can create PDF files containing both converted text and images taken from the source photo. The process of converting a photo is simple: choose how you want to export it (Word, Excel, PDF or Rich Text), pick an image, and after a few seconds the document will appear. If the results aren’t good enough you can switch to the Fotoreader window to make changes.

The Fotoreader window overlays the parts of the photo it thinks contain useful content, marking them green for text, red for images and blue for tables of information. The software does a good job of calculating which types are appropriate, but a few seconds spent tweaking these usually yields better results.

We found the software impressively accurate. A half-page PCW review was converted correctly, albeit with a few unnecessary italicisations. After correcting the software, which had mistaken the product screenshot for a table, it exported a usable copy of the review as a PDF file.

A feature table taken from a PCW lab test was converted reasonably into Excel, although two rows were merged into one and a few ticks became letters. Half a page of small white text on a red background was converted with just two minor errors, but when converting photos of business cards the @ signs in email addresses often turned into zeros.

A second tool, Screenshot Reader, allows you to select an area of the screen and convert it to text. This isn’t a product for everyone, and for converting business cards only we’d recommend a dedicated scanner, but it does its job at a reasonable price.

Nigel Whitfield, Personal Computer World, Friday 5 December 2008 at 12:32:00

The interface is disappointing but this package is great value nonetheless

Along with the Navigator Preloaded reviewed here, Wayfinder also offers a version called Navigator Online; this downloads maps as it goes and uses completely different, far inferior, software – so don’t buy the wrong one.

Installation is simple and traffic and safety camera updates are included in the price. Routing and spoken directions are clear and accurate, with good information about lane changes.

Quick keys are also available to perform functions such as changing the routing mode to motorbike or pedestrian, altering the volume, or switching the display type. There’s also a speed-dial function, so at a single button-press you will be automatically routed to a saved location. However, it needs rather more fiddling with the buttons to access functions such as the search tool, which is poor compared with much of the competition. In this area at least, the software doesn’t seem to have improved over recent versions.

The PC software allows you to add your own points of interest and when you browse the map it’s easy to route to them or to visit websites and place phone calls. Another handy feature is a parking reminder that keeps track of how long you have left before you’ll get a ticket.

There is a European version available, but maps are split into countries. You have to change maps at the border, so you can’t route seamlessly from London to Amsterdam, for example.

Wayfinder Navigator is good value for money – especially the new 36-month versions that include map updates for the life of the licence, too – and with it’s good-quality routing, it’s deserves recognition. It’s a shame, though, that the interface is not quite as polished as that of the competition, and key features such as the search aren’t more easily accessible.

Nigel Whitfield, Personal Computer World, Monday 1 December 2008 at 14:58:00

Gives the impression of being a work in progress

Sygic Drive is a fairly new entrant in the sat-nav market, and its products are available for a range of platforms.

The quick-start manual is brief, but there is guidance built into the menus, with a series of guides to different aspects of the software – though it seems to have been written with touchscreens in mind, and lacks information about shortcut keys.

Although menu screens are clear, you sometimes need to work through several to find the option you want. And after we’d dismissed the quick guides when they appeared on first run, it took a while to find them again.

As well as postcode support, you can find locations on the map to navigate to, but we found this very fiddly, with poor control over the zoom level and a lack of detail at times. There’s a fairly good selection of points of interest, though.

Routing performance was pretty good on the whole, but with quirks – road numbers are read out, but not correctly. The A1199 was reported as just the A11, and after a while it seemed as if every road we were turning on to was the A112. Instructions were quite colloquial at times (‘Do a left at the roundabout’), but sometimes ambiguous, too; if a roundabout has exits at 10 and two o’clock, which one is ‘straight ahead’?

Re-routing was swift, and other good touches include the name of the road you’ll be turning into being highlighted on the map, as well as a specific volume setting for high speeds. Useful information available includes speed limits for every country, and a world clock, but traffic and safety camera information are apparently ‘coming soon’.

Sygic Drive does the job, but the overall impression is of a program that lacks polish.

Nigel Whitfield, Personal Computer World, Friday 28 November 2008 at 17:40:00

A winning combination of useful features and a highly adaptable display

Once over the installation hurdle (entering the licence code on our test phone was unnecessarily fiddly), Route 66 Mobile 8 is simple to use.

It features a highly configurable display for driving, allowing as much or as little information as you like, even changing the transparency of the info bar that overlays the map. There are Scottish and Irish voices included alongside English, and some Landmarks (favourites) we’d stored in Nokia Maps were picked up by Route 66 as well.

Other nice touches include the ability to search for points of interest near the start or end of the trip, as well as en route – so you can make sure you arrive well fed, for example. You can save the map as an image, too, or even plot a route and send the directions by email.

However, we also felt that, while the directions were largely OK and the screen display clear, there wasn’t enough spoken information to tell you which lane you should be in, which can sometimes cause problems at difficult junctions.

As well as installing onto a memory card, the desktop software includes a sync application, which makes it easy to back up information from your phone and to browse the Route 66 shop for additional mapping.

A big on-screen splash makes much of free Lonely Planet Guides that you can download, but when we looked at the one for London, it seemed superficial. There are paid-for guides, too, but the integration isn’t quite as slick as with Nokia’s offering.

With versions for both Symbian Series 60 and Windows Mobile, this is a decent package that can be recommended to most users – though if you have a Nokia phone the included software gives it a good run for the money.

Nigel Whitfield, Personal Computer World, Thursday 27 November 2008 at 10:28:00

Excellent coverage and plenty of add-ons make this a good choice for most users

If you have a GPS-capable phone, one of the good points about Nokia Maps is that you don’t have to install it – though if you’re upgrading from an earlier version, it’s very easy to do.

One of the notable things about Maps is the coverage – just about everywhere you’re likely to want to go is included – and it simply downloads map data as it’s needed.

Since that can obviously run up data bills, you can also download maps via an easy-to-use PC application.

You can browse maps and see locations with Maps free, but if you want directions you have to pay. And the pricing is a little complex, with traffic information also an extra.

On the positive side, you can pay for as short a period as a month and guidance for foot navigation will set you back around £4. Safety camera info is lacking – something Nokia tells us it is working on.

We found both pedestrian and driving directions clear and easy to follow, and the display when driving is simple and uncluttered; you can quickly change views on the display, and Maps always makes it easy to access the search facility.

One of the stand-out features is the integration with add-on guides, which show up on the map alongside the standard points of interest, and provide plenty of useful extra information. At around £8 for a city guide, these could be very useful when you’re on holiday. There’s also a satellite view; this gives you aerial photos, a little like Google Earth, which can help you to find your bearings.

Although it lacks some advanced features and the omission of safety camera information is annoying, when it comes to the important stuff – going from A to B – and providing useful information, Nokia Maps is a great application.

Nigel Whitfield, Personal Computer World, Wednesday 26 November 2008 at 10:00:00

Great-looking package but the lack of UK postcode support is a significant omission

The iGo 8 is exclusively available for Windows Mobile and has an extremely impressive display, with fairly accurate 3D-rendering of landmarks livening up the view.

We tested it on a Samsung Omnia touchscreen phone; set-up was simple and straightforward, though you do have to page through a long and tedious agreement.

By default, the software installs in ‘Basic’ mode, which hides the advanced options; a couple of taps on the screen will switch advanced mode on. We found it extremely easy to use in both modes, with a good, clear display that even showed a little diagram at the bottom of the screen with lane information for junctions – though we’d have liked that to be a bit bigger. You can even have a spoken warning when you exceed the speed limit.

It’s easy to find points of interest or browse the map, and the software detected the phone’s built-in GPS without any difficulty. We’re not totally convinced of the need for those 3D-rendered landmarks, though.

Traffic information requires additional TMC hardware, but there’s a much more significant omission for UK users – the lack of postcode support. Instead you need to pick a city, and then a street. It’s quick, but ignored the existence of our test house number, claiming it didn’t exist, and routing to number 244 instead of allowing 240.

The other annoyance, which might be the fault of Windows Mobile itself, is that we couldn’t persuade spoken directions to come through our hands-free system, which to us removes one of the great reasons for having sat nav on your mobile.

There’s a lot of potential in iGo 8, but the reliance on Windows Mobile and lack of support for UK postcodes are probably enough to rule it out for most UK-based users.

Nigel Whitfield, Personal Computer World, Monday 24 November 2008 at 17:31:00

Impressive advanced features but iffy spoken instructions are a problem

ALK’s Copilot Live was supplied on a 2GB card, making installation on our test phone (a Nokia N95) easy.

After installation you need to enter a registration key and you’re away. The main menu makes it simple to find locations and plan a trip and there’s seamless cross-border routing, too.

If the points on a trip don’t have to be visited in a particular order, you can visit them via the most efficient route – a neat trick rarely found outside desktop route-planning software.

Some thought has obviously gone into how the program will be used on a phone – most menus and the lists of results from searches have number labels for every option.

There’s a good range of POIs (points of interest), shown clearly on the map, and safety-camera updates are included. For traffic information via the net, however, you’ll have to pay a subscription – though Windows Mobile versions do also support TMC (Traffic Message Channel) receivers.

There’s a good range of options and you can choose what’s displayed on the info bar at the bottom of the screen. You can plan trips on your PC as well as play back tracks on the phone. There are also tracking options, which can be useful for businesses with multiple cars to manage.

However, when out driving the guidance wasn’t clear, especially at gyratory systems, with poor lane information and, on our test phone at least, disjointed spoken instructions. The display was clear, though, with speed limit, safety-camera information and road names all clearly shown.

The advanced features will be useful to some but at this price we would have liked better guidance at complicated junctions – something promised for version eight.

Nigel Whitfield, Personal Computer World, Monday 24 November 2008 at 17:34:00

Sat-nav package with plenty of features but re-routing is slow

This offering from Garmin has a wide range of supported platforms, adding Palm OS to the usual Windows Mobile and Symbian options.

The version we tested was a late beta of version 5, which should be on sale by the time you read this.

Considering this is a comparatively cheap sat nav, it’s pretty full of features, with a huge range of ways to find places, including intersections and POIs.

As well as basics such as the weather, there are online links that include things such as flight arrivals and departures at nearby airports. You can also call up Google Panoramio photos in the area and navigate to them.

When a search finds lots of items, each one in the list has a number, making it easy to select the right one, and the main screen – as on the company’s Nuvi range – is dominated by just two key options: ‘Where To’ and ‘View Map’.

Finding routes is easy, and directions are clear but the routing did seem a bit circuitous, and despite checking online for traffic information, sent us into a busy part of town, which could have been avoided.

Re-routing seemed sluggish, too, and we’d often moved on from a junction by the time a route had been worked out.

The display when driving is very clear and easy to follow, with speed limits clearly visible. There’s a good range of options for types of route, and even for roads that you want to avoid. And although it lacks features such as the Guides found on Nokia maps, it’s a comprehensive system at an attractive price – provided, that is, the final version performs faster than the beta we tested.

Paul Lester, Personal Computer World, Friday 21 November 2008 at 12:35:00

Webroot offers security, backup tools and more in its comprehensive suite

Webroot is the latest security suite that attempts to curry favour by offering a range of extra features. It offers basic but straightforward operation through the main interface, with a summary of component activity and system status, and each of the tools split into a categorised list.

System scans appear to be effective, though scan times took longer than we’d have liked. Custom and scheduled scans are available and there’s an impressive degree of control over which areas of your computer are covered, including archived files, rootkits and specific user account control.

A series of shields protect against threats covering the web browser, startup, network, email and system files, with a similar degree of control over the behaviour of each component. These tools work efficiently and come with certification from a number of independent sources, including Virus Bulletin’s VB100, ISCA and West Coast labs.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the firewall. Control here is quite poor, with very little in terms of application handling. Performance isn’t much better, and considering this is a fundamental part of any system security it’s a problem that threatens to undermine the entire package.

It does offer a few extras, though, such as online backup, which after registration is unlocked with 2GB of virtual drive storage. Local backups are also supported and a wizard-based approach makes these easy to configure.

The cleanup tools are efficient and cover Windows, the internet and third-party applications, with a range of detailed settings for each to control exactly what areas are scanned and cleaned. But the suite does lack some key components, such as anti-spam and parental controls.

Webroot offers quite a lot for the money, but the firewall is not effective, which to some extent defeats the point.

Kelvyn Taylor, Personal Computer World, Friday 21 November 2008 at 12:42:00

Keep your drivers bang up to date

Maintaining a PC’s drivers is one of those annoying tasks that’s dull but worthy. Although a lot of software applications products include automated checks for updates, the same isn’t true of hardware drivers, so usually you have to find and download them manually.

Uniblue’s new Driver Scanner utility promises to change all this by checking for driver updates automatically.

It does this by scanning your PC and comparing the driver versions to a database maintained on Uniblue’s servers. When it finds newer versions, it can download and install them for you.

The program’s interface is fairly uncluttered, although there are a few advertising links trying to get you to upgrade to other Uniblue products. By default, when you start the program all your PC’s drivers are scanned for updates – a process that can take several minutes.

When the scan is complete, new updates are flagged for each component, and you can choose which ones you’d like to download and install. Our only gripe is that the details of the new driver versions are never made clear to you – you simply hit the download button and it’s all done automatically.

We also found that when a driver installation fails, you’re not given much info either. You do get a chance to report problematic drivers or ignore them in future scans, however. The only other feature on offer is the ability to back up and restore all your drivers.

Driver Scanner doesn’t monitor your system constantly, and there’s no built-in scheduling, so you’ll still need to remember to run it regularly. Overall it’s a worthwhile tool with few competitors. It’s priced on a download plus annual subscription basis, although Uniblue says it will still work without program updates if you don’t renew it.

Will Stapley, Personal Computer World, Friday 7 November 2008 at 10:00:00

Quickly compress bulky Powerpoint presentations

Anyone who regularly creates or views Powerpoint presentations will know that file sizes can escalate out of control. Add in a few high-resolution images, and you’ll soon be reaching 20MB or more. It’s not a problem if the presentations never leave your hard drive, but start emailing them around and you’ll soon get complaints.

PPTminimizer is a small tool that attempts to help out by offering a quick way to reduce file sizes. Via the colourful and intuitive interface, you can either browse for a specific file or tell the program to hunt down all suitable files (Word and Open Office documents can also be compressed).

We ran a 13MB Powerpoint file through PPTminimizer, which it managed to reduce to just 232KB. It achieves this by compressing images, which won’t be a problem unless you’re planning to print the presentation out.

However, it’s worth noting that Powerpoint actually features its own built-in compression tool. We ran the same 13MB file through its compression utility and reduced the size to 294KB ­ just a fraction bigger than the PPTminimizer version. But with a 31MB presentation the difference grew ­ Powerpoint managed to shrink it to 11.6MB, while PPTminimizer got it right down to just under 7MB.

PPTminimizer has the added advantage of being able to compress multiple files in one go, plus you can tinker with options such as the level of compression.

If you only need to shrink down presentations occasionally, you’re best off sticking with Powerpoint’s built-in compression tool. However, those who regularly have to deal with multiple large presentations, PPTminimizer is a useful tool that’s incredibly ease to use.

Emil Larsen, Personal Computer World, Wednesday 5 November 2008 at 10:00:00

A parallel story to the original release that serves up excellent gameplay

Decent first-person shooters have been hard to come by this year, especially compared with the vintage collection from 2007, which included The Orange Box, Bioshock and Crysis.

So we had high hopes for Crysis Warhead ­ it’s not part of the Crysis trilogy, but instead expands on the original game by serving up a parallel storyline.

Warhead follows lovable soldier Psycho ­ the muscle-bound cockney with a sense of honour from the original game ­ as he fights North Koreans and aliens on the opposite side of the island to where the original Crysis action took place.

Most of the island scenery and frozen alien landscapes are identical to the first game, which remain the most detailed game environments we’ve ever seen. Developer Crytek claims to have optimised the graphics engine and the end result is a smoother experience on PCs with graphics cards around the £100 price point.

The plot and environment is a strictly linear affair, but you can choose different methods of dispatching enemies each time, thanks to Crysis’ Nano Muscle suit.

Just like in the original game, the Nano suit lets you choose four modes: armour, speed, strength and invisibility. You can switch between modes rapidly and take out enemies in all sorts of fun ways. Alternatively, you can choose to perfect one mode, such as bowling each enemy over by speeding into them, or using the strength mode to fling bad guys into a rock.

The unpleasantly difficult tank mission in the original game has been replaced with a gimmicky hovercraft alternative. It was only after this mission, once we were onboard a train shooting down enemy aliens using an innovative turret arrangement, that the game really started to get interesting.

It then builds up frantically to an explosive ending and, just as the original Crysis did, leaves you wanting more. We finished the game in less than seven hours and the aliens still remain a mystery; in fact, characters seem unfazed by the presence of extraterrestrials.

Paul Lester, Personal Computer World, Monday 3 November 2008 at 10:00:00

A range of tools and tweaks to tune up your PC

There are countless tools available from within Windows to help you keep your PC optimised and running smoothly. However, these aren’t always particularly accessible, so an all-in-one package such as Speed Up My PC may well come in handy.

The 2009 edition doesn’t offer any major changes over previous versions, with the majority of improvements coming in the form of refined tools to tweak and optimise your CPU, memory, network and internet connection.

There is a now a recovery console which offers the ability to undo changes that may have had a negative effect and a quarantine manager for temporarily storing suspect processes, but the majority of operation remains the same.

This is no bad thing, though, since previous versions were easy to get to grips with, offering a quick way to scan your PC and then providing you with the ability to customise the various settings with ease.

You get a good deal more information on exactly what your PC is up to compared to what Windows offers up, which makes it far easier to decide whether individual processes can be disposed of.

A startup manager and uninstall wizard offer alternatives to Windows’ default tools, while the CPU Booster tool allows you to change the priority of running processes as well as set up custom profiles, so you can quickly change how your PC behaves in various environments.

Many of the tools available within Speed Up My PC 2009 are simply shortcuts or refinements to the traditional way of doing things from within Windows. However, we did see a noticeable improvement in performance after running the automatic scan and there’s no doubt that it makes optimisation and performance of a home PC far easier to manage.

Jonathan Parkyn, Personal Computer World, Friday 31 October 2008 at 10:00:00

Video editing made simple without dumbing down

Previous versions of Movieplus have been largely well received but it’s tended to be a little unfriendly towards beginners. The latest release tackles that side of things head-on.

A fresh interface lends Movieplus the air of an older brother to Windows XP and Vista’s built-in Movie Maker.

A Storyboard mode has been included this time around, making it much simpler for video-editing newbies to drag and drop clips into the order they require.

A How To pane is also present at all times, so help with specific tasks is only ever a click or two away.

These concessions don’t make the application any less suitable for more adventurous editors, however.

With a single click, Storyboard mode can be traded up to a more complex timeline workspace, where an unlimited number of video and audio tracks are available.

Trimming clips is straightforward, yet accurate, and a selection of powerful effects and transitions is available from an old Adobe-style dropdown palette on the right-hand side of the main window.

Movieplus X3 is compatible with a wide range of video format types and is also HD-Ready, so can import and edit AVCHD files. At the other end of the process, it is capable of exporting straight to iPod and PSP formats as well as provide a means to upload your finished work to Youtube.

However, on the disc-making front, it lags behind the competition in that it can only export to standard DVD. The authoring tools are easy enough to use, but the lack of Blu-ray or even HD-on-DVD options may disqualify the program in the eyes of many more serious videographers.

Unlike many of its competitors, Movieplus is happy to run on a relatively low specification system and comes with none of the bloat that hampers some video-editing products.

Ken McMahon, Personal Computer World, Wednesday 29 October 2008 at 14:00:00

Create 3D games and interactive applications

Consisting of a DirectX real-time 3D engine and a suite of editing tools, DX Studio is a 3D games and simulation development and authoring environment.

Its main aim is to simplify and speed up the process of designing and developing 3D interactive applications.

This release includes the addition of new features as well as some tidying up.

The headline features include a new ‘live’ display system for the 2D and 3D editors, terrain generation, reusable components, the latest Nvidia Physx engine and embedded players for Firefox and Google Chrome.

DX Studio provides a visual interface that is configurable to your own preferences, with docked tabbed palettes.

In the default view, a centrally located viewport is surrounded by palettes for layers, objects and meshes on the left, and properties, meshes and an Object Properties palette the right.

Creating and manipulating models and scenes is very much a visual process. DX Studio has an integral model editor that can be used to produced and shape primitives, has tools for extrusion, lathing and edge manipulation, and supports advanced features like UV mapping. Despite all this, it’s more useful as a means of tweaking and tidying models imported from more able applications. DX Studio can import 3D models in all commonly used formats.

Producing the components from which to construct is a visual process, but adding motion and interactivity requires a working knowledge of Javascript. The included Javascript editor contains a library of event handlers and functions with context-sensitive auto-complete to aid the creation of scripts that are then attached to objects.

You don’t have to script everything, though, as DX Studio includes the open-source Bullet physics engine. Physical interactions are easy to implement; simply enter values for an object’s mass, friction, bounce, rotation and gravity properties. Physics can also be configured to use an approximating shape ­ for example, a box or sphere, rather than the object mesh.

The new terrain generator allows you to generate terrain with random shapes and texture it, but in the absence of sculpting tools (a realtime sculpting tool has been promised for the v3.1 update) and other advanced features, most users will likely create their terrain in another application and import it.

New 2D and 3D controls and modules make it easy to quickly develop more complex objects. The library contains a character control module that responds to keyboard input and has other configurable properties. Other examples are currently a bit thin on the ground, but given the vibrant DX studio community this isn’t likely to remain the case for long.

The new control makes in-position editing of objects much swifter; the three-axis handles incorporate adjusters for scale, position and rotation. You can scale the 3D Gizmo using the keyboard so that it’s an appropriate size relative to the view and the object you are manipulating. The 3D Gizmo’s appearance is owed much to the feedback of a DX Studio users forum that is well supported by Worldweaver staff.

This evolution of DX Studio has been well received by existing users and also addresses issues we had when we reviewed the previous version. For anyone looking to develop games and interactive simulations working alone, on a budget and/or to tight schedules, it remains a worthwhile proposition.

Tim Smith, Personal Computer World, Wednesday 29 October 2008 at 10:00:00

Import, edit and present all of your digital media

Most new computers come with some basic tools bundled but hardly what can be called a comprehensive collection.

If you plan on working with any kind of multimedia, Creator 2009 provides the tools to do so.

The benefit of using a suite of applications like Creator rather than buying lots of different individual programs is the consistent interface and, in the case of Creator, the Product Launcher.

Rather than having to decide which program is the best for the job, it gives suggestions based on task and theme.

The Product Launcher has changed quite a bit; the icons are larger and it is possible to use any of the different sections as the starting page rather than the more general home page. There are still links to online tutorials and products news.

Of all media, digital photos are the most commonly edited and Creator still has all the necessary tools in one place. Of particular note is the tool for resizing images for emailing and a batch process utility. Most of the effects are best applied individually, but the Autofix option is useful.

The slideshow creator is also quite powerful and doesn’t require much input to create a professional looking project. It doesn’t support FLAC files, but the Smartsound feature will generate tracks in a wide variety of styles and moods to fit the slideshow.

Sharing photos is now easier with the Roxio Online sharing service replacing the need to leave a computer connected to the internet. Videos can be uploaded directly to Youtube.

Creator can be used to copy audio from CDs or other audio sources such as vinyl or cassette tape. Tracks can be saved in all the major formats including MP3, WMA, OGG and FLAC. There’s no audio player included in the Creator suite, which is a shame since Windows Media Player doesn’t support the FLAC format. CD tracks can be quickly given track and album information via the Gracenote online service.

One new music feature is the ability to automatically create a playlist where there is not only a crossfade between the tracks of volume but also of tempo, known as beatmatching. Analysing the tracks for tempo didn’t take too long, even with several different formats. The tracks are ordered by their tempo, which avoids some of the stranger sounds that can occur when too much adjustment is applied.

Also new to Creator 2009 is better support for audio books by combining the individual chapter tracks ripped from a CD into the iTunes .m4b format.

Video is probably the most daunting area of media editing, with big files and many different formats available. One bonus for Windows Vista Home Basic owners is that it comes with a DVD player; the codecs for DVD playback are not included in the Home Basic version of Vista.

An automatic editor detects scenes from imported video and the advanced interface will import videos from .ts files. The export options are ordered into video file, DV camera, TV or VCR and email.

Some advanced features such as chroma key are missing, but that is really outside the scope of Creator. And video-editing suites that do support this feature cost around the same as this all-in-one package.

Those who own the previous version of Creator may not see enough to upgrade, but we can still wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone requiring a comprehensive editing suite.

Paul Lester, Personal Computer World, Tuesday 7 October 2008 at 16:19:00

Fast and efficient online security suite, but it’s not cheap

Released just before Symantec agreed to acquire PC Tools, the latest version of Spyware Doctor aims to protect you and up to three of your PCs from spyware and virus attacks.

The software offers manual scanning that gives you a choice of targeting critical system resources or entire drives, with a custom mode available to help you select between the range of scanners available.

These scanners are also used for real-time protection through PC Tool’s Intelliguard suite, which is designed to shield against threats such as keyloggers, email attacks, malicious processes and more.

They can be controlled individually, but in most cases you’re simply given the option of choosing to use them or not, so we can see most users sticking to the default settings and letting Spyware Doctor take care of the rest.

This is something it does particularly well, with most threats handled with a minimum of user intervention. There are also some useful extras here that allow you to schedule scans for specific times and create a global action list that allows specific websites or files to be automatically denied or permitted access.

During testing, Spyware Doctor quickly identified and cleaned a variety of threats. We were also impressed by the information provided on the nature of the malicious files, which included a comprehensive history and quarantine details.

Version 6 of Spyware Doctor doesn’t have any additional tools of note, but it has been refined in terms of both the speed and efficiency at which it identifies and removes threats.

We were very impressed by how easy the software was to use, the comprehensive degree of protection and the minimal negative effect on performance. The only real downside is that it’s relatively expensive, although it does come with three licences. Verdict

Ken McMahon, Personal Computer World, Tuesday 30 September 2008 at 15:10:00

Better integration with Photoshop improves this management and editing software

Following a four-month public beta, Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 2, the second version of its advanced photo-management application.

If you’re a Lightroom 1.4 user, the major benefits an upgrade will confer include local adjustment brushes allowing exposure and other adjustments to be applied to parts of the image, improved volume management which simplifies and enhances handling of offline image files, more flexible output options and tighter Photoshop integration.

Until now there has been a line in the sand defining the respective functions of management applications such as Lightroom and editing applications such as Photoshop, restricting the former’s editing tools to global adjustments such as exposure, colour control and sharpening. Lightroom’s new Adjustment brush crosses that line and will no doubt be part of a continuing trend.

Eight effects can be applied with the brush, including exposure, saturation, clarity and colour. A ‘soften skin’ preset combines clarity and sharpness adjustments in a custom brush – you can also define and save your own custom brush presets. An ‘auto mask’ option intelligently masks parts of the image as you paint, restricting the adjustment to colours sampled from under the brush, to apply adjustments to individual elements.

Another new tool that is likely to replace more involved Photoshop retouching is the graduated filter, which applies the same adjustments as the brush using a linear gradient mask. In most cases this is going to be used as a digital graduated neutral density filter, darkening and adding saturation to skies without affecting foreground detail in landscape shots.

The Library module has been redesigned with a cleaner workspace that offers more information about your images than the old layout. The folders panel displays online and offline volumes and can be configured to display used/available disk space, number of photos or online status. A new filter bar displayed in the Library grid view allows you to whittle down a folder of images on the basis of a text, attribute or metadata filter. The filter bar is both immensely powerful and easy to use. You can text search any metadata field, or confine it to specific data, keywords, or captions for example.

The metadata search provides four configurable columns in which all available metadata from the image selection is listed. You then just select the criteria you want – photos shot on Wednesday 4 April with your EOS 20D using a 70-200mm zoom for example.

Getting images to and from Photoshop is another area where big improvements have been made. It’s no longer necessary to create a TIFF or PSD file for opening in Photoshop. Images can be opened as Photoshop Smart Objects, and multiple images can be opened for panorama stitching or merging to produce a high dynamic range composite.

A new picture package layout engine for printing multiple copies of the same image has been added to the existing enhanced print module, (renamed contact sheet/grid). As well as 16-bit printing, adaptive output sharpening can be applied on the basis of image resolution as well as output media.

Other additions and enhancements include dual monitor output, 64-bit OS support for Windows Vista and Mac OS 10.5, and plug-in support. The plug-in SDK is limited to export and web gallery plug-ins, edit plug-ins of the kind introduced in Aperture 2.1 don’t appear to be part of Adobe’s plan for Lightroom, at least not for now.

Clive Akass, Personal Computer World, Friday 24 October 2008 at 14:00:00

xxx

Tesco has, for some time, been bundling home handsets with an O2-partnered VoIP service, charging nothing for calls between subscribers, 2p a minute to landlines in the UK and other major countries, and 10p a minute to UK mobiles.

Its new Talk Wifi service extends the offer to Wifi-enabled mobile phones – currently only Nokia’s N95, N81, E65 and E51, either your own or bought from Tesco. In either case you send a premium-rate text to download an applet. The £1 cost is credited to your account.

The service uses the SIP standard, but calls to non-Tesco SIP users incur charges.

Tom Royal, Personal Computer World, Thursday 23 October 2008 at 13:00:00

Some new tools, but not a vital upgrade

There was a time when merely burning a DVD required extra software, and Nero’s Burning ROM was one of the best tools available for that job.

These days, with Windows Vista quite happy to burn DVD discs on its own and loads of free tools available for Windows XP users, it’s easy to understand why the company has packed its flagship product full of extra tools.

The main Burning ROM tool is present, and with tools to create bootable discs and tweak burning settings it’ll appeal to expert users.

Those who don’t want to mess with the finer points of the DVD file system will feel more at home with Nero Express, which uses a simpler task-based interface where the user can choose a project then drag and drop files.

The latest version of the Backitup tool isn’t included in the suite, but there’s a copy on the DVD that can be installed separately.

Also included on the disc is a trial version of Nero’s Mediahome UPnP media server – given the significant price of the Nero 9 package we were disappointed that a full version wasn’t included. Similarly, authoring HD Blu-ray discs requires an extra plug-in that costs $10 (£6).

Most of the extra programs in the Nero suite work well. Photosnap is a simple photo-editing tool that allows non-technical users to perform the most common retouching tasks – cropping, fixing red eye, and so on – with a couple of clicks. Nero Vision has a slightly ugly interface, but it’s a capable way to edit home movies, add titles and transitions then burn the results directly onto a DVD disc.

Nero Rescueagent, which was previously able to salvage files from optical discs only, can now use other media, and we successfully used it to recover a deleted file from a USB thumb drive. The Nero Live program, which can show and record TV, seems slightly redundant given that most Vista computers will already have the excellent Media Center PVR tool.

Some of the other tools in the suite have some noticeably rough edges. Nero Recode is still a great way to squash DVD movies down so that they’ll fit onto a single-layer disc, but it also includes tools for converting video files into a format that will play on an Apple iPod or Sony PSP.

We failed to successfully convert any files using the iPod setting, which produced only an assortment of Directshow errors, and we had no luck with the Sony PSP setting either. On a related note, the task of converting video to iPod is one of a few that we found oddly absent from the otherwise helpful Nero Smartstart tool that guides users to other parts of the suite.

Also missing from Smartstart and buried in the settings for Nero Vision is the option to upload finished videos directly to the web. Myspace and Youtube are supported alongside Nero’s own My Nero service, but we were unable to successfully upload a clip to our Youtube account – after encoding and transferring, the video seemed to disappear. We encountered other annoying errors, too, such as help files that linked to nonexistent pages on the Nero website.

It’s important to note that these errors affected only peripheral areas of the Nero suite and that the main disc-burning tools, as well as the key functions of both Recode and Vision, worked fine. Nonetheless, at this price they’re annoying, so hopefully an update will smooth out these problems, and leave Nero as a good, if slightly pricey, tool. For current users of Nero 8, though, we can see little reason to upgrade.

Cliff Joseph, Personal Computer World, Wednesday 22 October 2008 at 10:00:00

New special effects features for Corel's easy-to-use video-editing program

Videostudio has never had quite the same depth or power as video-editing rivals such as Pinnacle Studio or Adobe’s Premiere Elements. It does, however, have a well-designed and easy-to-use interface that makes it a good choice for beginners who are just getting started with video-editing work.

That tradition continues with this latest version, which adds some more powerful features to its armoury. The basic interface design remains unchanged, presenting you with three different options for preparing your video projects. You can use the DVD Wizard to copy video clips straight from your camcorder onto a blank DVD, or the Movie Wizard to assemble a series of clips and then let the program automatically apply transitions and other effects for you. Alternatively, you can enter the full Editor mode, which gives you complete control over the process.

Like all upgraded video-editing programs, Videostudio Pro X2 warms up with a few new technology updates, such as preset options for quickly exporting video to an iPhone or iPod Touch, to mobile phones that use the 3GP video format, or to the Flash Video (FLV) format used by websites such as Youtube. The program also adds support for Intel’s latest quad-core processors, which should provide some quite significant performance improvements for owners of shiny new quad-core PCs.

These features are all welcome, but they’re primarily under-the-bonnet changes that don’t add anything to the program’s main editing tools. So, to speed up editing, Corel has added a new ‘single clip trim’ option. You can just right-click on any clip in the program’s Library panel to open a new editing window where you can trim a clip to the required length without having to first drag it down into the main Timeline window. And, when you do drag clips into the Timeline, you can automatically make the program add a crossfade transition effect simply by using the mouse to place the clips so that they overlap on the Timeline. If you want to change the transition you can just click on the overlapping area between the clips to see other transition options displayed in the Library panel.

Another area where Videostudio has lagged behind its rivals is with its weak selection of special effects filters. However, this version adds a new set of filters called New Blue, which allow you to simulate the effect of using a variety of old-fashioned film cameras.

There’s also a new Paint Creator that allows you to draw your own artwork and animations, and then add them to your video projects, either as self-contained video clips or as special effects that can be superimposed over other clips. This is a very powerful tool – a kind of digital update of the old-fashioned ‘rotoscoping’ technique in which artists painstakingly painted effects onto film one frame at a time. However, you’ll need a bit of time and some artistic talent to use the Paint Creator properly.

Even so, we still admire Videostudio’s ease of use, and would recommend it to people who want an easy introduction to video-editing. There’s also an ‘Ultimate’ version of Videostudio Pro X2 that costs an extra £20 and throws in a few additional utilities, such as the Steinberg audio editor and Corel’s own DVD Copy program for duplicating (non-copy-protected) DVD disks. However, more experienced or ambitious home movie buffs who want more precise editing control will probably still prefer to opt for Premiere Elements or Pinnacle Studio.