I purchased my very first iPod (Apple iPod Video) in the late 2005 with my own pocket money, and I felt proud because that was one of the most expensive items I’ve ever bought in my entire life. What’s really cool about it was: it played Video! Take that iPod Nano! (some of my friends got their iPod Nanos couple of months earlier, and it was a sucker punch when the Video iPod came out)

The iPod Video wasn’t my first MP3 player, it was this weird MP4 player my parents bought from Singapore and the way that it handled music obviously not as impressive as the iPod.

The experience of switching from an MP4 player to an iPod was quite easy for me since I only had about 50 songs in the MP4 player. Organizing them in the iTunes wasn’t a big deal for me; it was pretty easy.

The Big Problem is: what if you have 3,000 songs in your MP3 player and you are switching to an iPod.

Organizing ‘unorganized’ music library could take ages. You should take my word when I say: Once You Have an iPod you will want to make your music library as organized as possible.

Why?

Because that is the point of buying an iPod. Everybody wants Album Artwork, and 100% correct song information once you get the hands on an iPod.

I mean, come on?! No Album Artworks on an iPod? Songs badly organized? … iPod shows Can’t Buy Me Love – by Taylor Swift when it supposed to be sang by The Beatles?

So… What is the easiest way to clean up and organize your music library?

There is a software called ‘TidySongs’ that lets you do this automatically. It is pretty much an addon to help you organize your iTunes Library and it works like magic.

It is a must have software that Remove Duplicate Songs, if you happen to have duplicate songs in your iTunes Library. Another great feature that I really like is it fills in Missing Artist, Title and all that!

You can learn more about TidySongs by visiting their website, it is a paid software but you can try it for free. I will get the commission from the sales; another honorable way for you to support my technology blog. If you have any questions regarding with the product or anything at all – you can always reach me through the contact form.

Well, first of all you got to understand that there are three types of Multimedia Authoring Software which are being classified into three parts: ‘Beginner, Intermediate, and Professional’.

Beginner being something similar to ‘Turn your photo into a Painting kind of Apps‘, Intermediate would be something like Final Cut Studio or Microsoft Movie Maker, and Adobe Photoshop being professional.

To be honest; I don’t like this idea since I think ‘every software should be easy-to-use‘. However when you think about it, there isn’t really a possible way of including a billion features into a software and making it easy to use; at least not today.

Now to define ‘easy to use’ is really depending on one’s expertise in a certain area. For example if you’re good at editing photos maybe you would find Photoshop ‘easy to use’. For some people, they don’t even know what layers are in Photoshop, and until Adobe hasn’t figured something that can be ‘easier’ then layer management in Photoshop – we won’t have anything to replace ‘layers’ in Photoshop.

How Do You Make Killer Flash Presentation Without Any Knowledge of ActionScript?

The answer is simple; choose an alternative. We all know that Adobe Flash is not an easy software; certainly not for the beginners.

The closest alternative that I’d prefer to use is a software called Swish Max. It has pretty much similar user interface like you could find in Adobe Flash Professional but somehow it is easier to use. You can do all these cool animations with a click of a button. Flash Professional on the other hand would let you open few options and typing up action-scripts in order to create animation (but of course you get more options and flexibility when creating animation)

There are tons of software out there that would let you make flash presentation; look for the ones that are easy to use.

What Happen If You Don’t Have Swish Max or any easier Alternatives?

If you don’t have any other alternatives or you already owned Adobe Flash Professional, another option is to buy or download Flash Templates and work from there. It is much easier than having to develop flash presentation from scratch.

However, things will change with this new Creative Suite 5. In my honest opinion it is the first Adobe CS series in many years that is worth upgrading to.

Photoshop Creative Suite 5 from Adobe.com

One of the reasons why I feel that this is going to change the world of graphic design is this awesome new feature called ‘Content Aware’ in Photoshop CS5.

Watch this video and see Content Aware in Action:

What makes it really “a must have feature” is because of the way it works is just so simple even a 3 year old could do it! Most of so called “new features” in most authoring software are really complicated to use, but Adobe has made its Content Aware technology simple and easy to work with. That is the most important thing software developers should deliver, regardless of Photoshop being Professional Authoring software. I think Photoshop should get easier to use and there is no reason for it to get more complicated every time Adobe has to release a new CS series. Adobe is on the right track, and I hope that they will be able to deliver more interesting innovations to the world of graphic design in years to come. Thanks Adobe!

You can download a 30-day trial version of Adobe Creative Suite 5 from Adobe.com

Messing Around With Photoshop

The synonym to photo editing, Adobe Photoshop has grown to the next level in the creative suite 5 as the special tools meant to hide remnants of an edited photo are doing magic. The application that would help anyone in weaving their dreams on the web, Adobe Dreamweaver is all set to make the World Wide Web more colorful and fun with some unique features added to the latest version. Together with Flash, this application would re-define web designing. Illustrator and InDesign are also coming with some unique features that are capable of giving additional effects to everything designed. The perfect touch, a divine-like finishing is what the Creative Suite 5 is all about.

Photoshop CS5

To start with Photoshop, the intelligent tools include Content Aware Fill which would help in replacing a desired area with whatever area you wish to be there. In a broader sense, this shall be best feature in the new stuff as this would help hide any specific areas or objects with something else, while keeping the originality of the images.

The next big thing to be noted is the intelligent selection technology which is meant to make the selection process as accurate and simple as possible. In any advanced photo editing process, the perfect blend of art and technology should be appeared in the best possible way to create masterpieces, and this feature itself is a masterpiece in that sense.

May be a new venture from Adobe, but the advanced HDR processing technology is sure to make its impact in the Photoshop and related applications. This feature helps in giving HDR feel to a single image via giving complete control over the edge, pixels and color. Depending on how the selected area is changed using the controls, it gets a cartoony or funny look.

The redefined edge tool or smart radius is meant to make it easier when someone is working on the edge to make the narrow part visible or invisible. This microscopic work takes a lot of time and concentrated effort to get it completed properly and the newest version becomes an exception here.

The puppet warp is another option that is capable of handling advanced warp options on localized contents. This would help in bending and shaping pixels as much you like.

Advanced brushes are the very new tools that look cool in appearance and performance. The brush section is enhanced in such a way that a lot of built in functions are added. The mixer brush tool is a new weapon from Adobe that would assist in percentage of load, mix of color, wetness and flow from the menu bar.

Photographers are sure to love another feature of the latest version known as lens correction tool which is meant to correct the problems that arise during the photography session; yes, the designer can correct the mistakes of the photographer. This cool filter fixes many common errors such as chromatic aberrations in a couple of minute’s time.

The enhanced water mark tool and some added features in the tool options including the changes to clone tool, sharpen tool and crop tool are the other changes seen.

Five New Amazing Features in Adobe Photoshop CS5:

DreamWeaver CS5

We all know that the web is getting bigger and better everyday and the team behind that cute appearance of www, the designers is always trying their best to implement some newer features that would make the web appear more colorful and entertaining. In Dreamweaver CS5, the Live view feature and browser tab are born to give a new experience; both to designers and viewers.

The built in browser tab is there to view executed version of the page on the web, to preview if there any minor corrections are needed before setting it up to the real server.

The CSS styles panel would show the properties on hover and these will also be highlighted if configured that way.

The new inspect model is also capable of suggesting the best workplace model so that you will have them best of them all, without going for the unwanted ones to test.

The next intelligent feature added to the Dreamweaver CS5 is the dynamic discovery of related files and navigation in Live Vive.

Support to the most popular PHP based content management systems such as Drupal, Joomla and WordPress can be another footprint that would lead to great changes in future.

Other changes to be noted are lack of support to HTML5 and the removal of smart pate feature

Illustrator CS5

While the total number of features or tools is getting reduced in each advanced versions, the available features in each categories are well versed in their areas and are doing wonders with the real execution of technology and creativity. The top features that are to be noted in Illustrator CS5 include Perspective Drawing, The Width tool and the Shape Builder Tool.

The perspective drawing tools include the perspective grid tool and the perspective selection tool. While the first one adds grids to the default page that can be modified visually, the second tool helps in scaling or moving objects in perspective.

A shape builder tool makes it easy to work with shapes and merge and subtract with overlapping areas.

InDesign CS5

The professional publishing arena was completely in the hands of Adobe till the entry of some tough competitors in the field who could really provide some better solutions. Those applications might have provoked Adobe as they are back with the InDesign pack with some added features that are meant to enhance productivity while keeping the software as simple as possible.

The improved graphics and text layout are having great roles in making some real changes in the effects that the application is going to make. The mini-bridge panel and option control panel are set in such a way that it can be configured even by a newbie.

Verdict

The success and failure of any product is in the hands of users who are making use of it in the best possible way. The latest version of CS is really fun and powerful, but the acceptance among users is the real mark of success which shall be seen only after a couple of months. Let’s wait and see.

Taken from my iPhone

It’s hard to believe that I had to once again, figure out how to actually remove the virus manually since Avira Antivirus just… suck. I did some research online on Antivirus software that could let me remove these nasty ‘high-risk’ viruses and turns out there is none.

The really frustrating fact about Autorun viruses is its capability of taking control of your computer operating system (or simply Windows) What it normally does is disabling user access to Task Manager, Command Prompt and other administrative tools. Even an advance computer user will have a hard time removing the virus manually. Consequently ‘manual virus removal’ is not an option for a regular user.

However there is a way to this ‘semi-automatically‘. There are two Antivirus Solutions that are capable of removing Autorun Viruses and they are ‘Kaspersky & Bitdefender’. They are both paid Antivirus software, but go ahead and just grab the 30 day trial license, it will work just fine (at least for 30 days).

Once you’ve got rid of the Autorun Viruses, do not get too excited yet because it is not over. What you’ll have to do next is reactivate your administrative tools that were deactivated by the nasty pain-in-the-neck virus.

To do that, in Windows 7:

• click Run or simply type in Run and press enter in the Windows start menu.
• Type in GPEdit.msc and press enter
• Navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > System
• In the settings, locate the ‘Prevent Access to Registry Editing Tools’ and select the option ‘Not Configured’ or ‘Disabled’

same thing goes to Task Manager, locate the options for Task Manager and repeat the same process.

If you’re using the Operating System which the majority of people are using (Windows); virus is a common threat. Why did hackers invent them? Well, viruses are helpful in a lot of unethical digital-marketing techniques including forcing buyers to buy certain products.

A great example would be when you go to a ‘bad-website‘ or any other website that contains offensive or illegal materials. These websites stored ‘cookies’ or worse ‘viruses’ into your computer system and you’ll see dozens of pop ups claiming ‘You have been Caught’ by CIA or federal laws etc. which then forces you to buy certain software in order to stop the CSI team from arresting you.

Anyway, now that you know why people invented virus you should know that every computer system needs an Antivirus Software.

There are three common sources of Computer Virus:

1. When You Visit ‘Bad-Website’
2. Downloaded Files from the Internet
3. Pen Drives / External Mass Storage Devices

Why should you know this? Well, depending on how you use your computer, you might not need to buy Paid Antivirus; since Free Antivirus could be a reliable option.

I am currently using Avira Antivirus; a free antivirus software; which can be downloaded and registered online. I’ll be switching to paid antivirus; and you’ll know why.

There are gazillion of people coming to my house everyday and plug-in their Flash Drives into my PC and guess what; most of them contain viruses. Some of the viruses are high-risk viruses and sometimes they could bypass Avira Antivirus (especially those ‘Autoruns’ viruses – you don’t wanna mess with them) Lucky for me, I know how to manually remove them.

If you’re going to be plugging in some random flash drives or any other form of external storage devices; Free Antivirus like Avira or Avast won’t be much of help. You will need to get a better antivirus protection like Symantec or Kaspersky. This is because Free Antivirus Protection is only capable of protecting your privacy against “most” online threats. If you’re a light computer user, regularly download some random stuff from the web; I’m pretty sure you’ll be just fine with Free Antivirus Software.

One More Thing, I’d like to mention is ‘never download pirated copy of paid Anti-virus’. If you are a regular downloader, I know what’s going on your mind right now is to download one good copy of Premium Antivirus Software but trust me: IT IS NOT WORTH IT!

You will be downloading and receiving updates; this is when things get ugly. If you’re caught using cracked (pirated) version of a premium antivirus software; they won’t really ban you from using the services. They will hurt your PC by sending software updates that actually ruin your computer by making it runs slower etc. -You Have Been Warned-

Doctor’s offices, real estate businesses and even the production companies have come to use the idea of the paperless office all to their advantage. Document storage is one of the parts of the paperless office that has created quite a buzz.

No longer are there reasons to run to the file cabinets and rifle through tons and tons of documents, now you can easily fire up the computer and find exactly what you’re looking for by jus the touch of the mouse or a few key words or phrases.

Document storage is easy, fast and affordable, saving time and money as your office becomes more and more efficient with its use. The use of paperless office systems or document imaging systems will allow you to free up that extra storage space into more production related space for you. You can hire more workers, create more space and get rid of the useless hours paid to employees whose main focus was at one time just retaining and maintain your records.

You can take all of your records, have them scanned and easily stored. This will save time and expense on storage costs and transfer costs when you have to find a file that is already gone to your storage company.

What happens if there is a fire? What happens if there is a natural calamity that can not be avoided? These problems can all be averted by the simple use of document storage that is done electronically.

Think of all of the loss of time, assets, charts, files and information that was lost during hurricane Katrina, there were businesses large and small that were effected beyond repair and much of this could have been prevented with the simple use of an electronic filing system.

The physical loss can be devastating, but losing that personal database that was stored on the shelf could literally have a business struggling after just a short time. Client files, contacts and personal information can all be lost with just a simple fire and that is a reason to look into what a paperless office can do for you. Although there may never be such a thing as paperless offices, there sure are many programs and services out there that will allow you to become as paperless as possible.

The next time you have a meeting, think of all the wasted employee hours spent there, the simple use of a paperless office can have employees reading, viewing or taking a test in their down time with signature recognition so you know their jobs are being done well. There is no more need to close the office for a meeting, get the documents up in your system and let their down time turn into productivity time that is better for you and your company.

No matter if you are selling your services or products, you always need billing software that would help your business run effectively. Invoicing software is one such software that can simplify your weekly or monthly billing task making your payments very much simplified. Even if you are working as a free lancer and providing your services, it is important that you make use of a system that might handle all your billing invoice while streamlining all the important aspects of your business.

Making use of one such invoicing software for performing your daily administration tasks like invoicing, billing or printing, you can always try and improve your business or professional image in the minds of your clients. Always bear in mind that invoicing software like SliQ, can help in customizing and providing a very professional looks to your invoice just within few minutes. You can make use of a number of professional looking templates to try and create your billing invoice. So, the moment you are making use of reputable billing software like SliQ, you can always ensure that you are never lagging behind on creating your billing because this software provides you with a feature where you can always see the total number of bills that are still pending and so you can always send all the reminders to your clients on time, without much delay.

Making use of such billing software ensures that you may never miss collecting your payments from your clients and so there is no chance that you might to regret later for not collecting your payments or not sending a reminder to your clients on time. So this software is designed such that it not only helps in speeding up the process of creating bills on time, but it automates your system. Once you have managed to add a clients details to the database, then the software shall automatically convert all quotes related to that particular client into billing invoice just by a single click of the mouse. This is one software most people might enjoy making use of for creating billing invoice for your business. So the moment payment comes in on time then it is automatically updated to clients database. An important feature of this invoice software is that all details related to clients are stored in such a way that it in easy to select any details when required.

You also have to keep in mid that postal system is one reason that can in fact delay the process of billing collection, but when making use of billing software, you just don’t have to worry about waiting for the postal system. By making use of billing software you can always send the billing invoice to your clients via email. So even if you have to send the same bill to a number of clients then you certainly may never have to waste time on writing envelopes or even getting them printed. These certainly are only a few more reasons why making use of billing software is considered as better option if you have to automate the process of billing. By making use of the right billing software you can also try generating reports and maintain them for auditing. You get a clear picture of your sales and at the same time you get to maintain al your bills perfectly as soft copy.

The goal is to get one way inbound links from high ranking websites. You should focus on established directories with high Pagerank since new directories won’t give you much of the benefits. Stick to those established directories, and remember “Quality is better than Quantity”. There are two different ways of submitting a website to directories, one is to do it manually or the other is what we call automatic directory submission. This can be done through a script or software. What the software does is, it automates every single task that will be taken for submitting your website to web directories. If you’ve never done any directory submission before, you might want to give it a shot and see how long will it going to drive you nuts. It is a painful process if one is to do it manually.

Some web directories require you to enter captchas (an annoying form of web security) intended to very whether you are a human or a computer robot. If you’re using software to do this, make sure the software is capable of filling the captchas automatically or at least present the captchas so you can manually fill it up. Technically fully automated submission is quite impossible really; even powerful software couldn’t do it alone. This type of submission is also called semi-automated.

Microsoft CEO - Steve Ballmer

This isn’t a joke, previously in August 2009 Microsoft was being charged for patent violation. They thought they could win the case, but unfortunately they did not win. (Microsoft should learn that no matter how big their company is they still got to play by the rules) Microsoft was indeed in the violation of that patent. It had something to do with XML language created by a company called i4i, but seriously I’m not going to write any more details about this.

Microsoft has promised a fix for its Clients, they are somehow going to reprogram Microsoft Word so that it can become legal again. In the mean time, if your computer hasn’t got Microsoft Word, you should consider installing a copy before January 11, 2010. The sales of Microsoft Office software (which includes Microsoft Word) will be stopped beginning that date until the software giant company found a way to fix it.

If you already owned a copy of Microsoft Word, do not worry, you can still use it since Microsoft has been given the rights to continue to give support on their product.

On the other hand, this is a good news for the competitors like Apple Inc. This is the perfect time to switch Microsoft Word users to similar software like Apple iWork.