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multimedia

Fashion a Windows multimedia suite for cheap

A recent review of Corel Digital Studio 2010 got me close and personal with the consumer-oriented multimedia suite. Corel's studio excelled at providing a consistent, unified look, navigation, and toolset across its applications for editing photos and videos, making movies, burning content, and playing videos. It also copies photos, videos, and music to your mobile device, and can create photo projects like photo books and cards.

All good stuff, but it doesn't come cheap. Multimedia suites like this will put you out about $100. They're worth the price if you frequently use the tools, or if you vastly prefer the convenience and accessibility of a consumer-friendly setup. However, if you don't mind being scrappy, you can cobble together a spread of multimedia tools--your own "suite"--for next to nothing.

Edit and create

Photo editing, video editing, and making movies are the three largest focal points of multimedia suites like Corel Digital Studio 2010 and Roxio Creator 2010 (unfortunately, no download trial is available for the latter). Google's Picasa is one of my favorite freeware tools for casual users, and one of the closest direct matches to what's offered in a multimedia suite. Its uses are multifarious: organizing your photos and videos into albums, editing images and videos, sharing online, creating projects like collages and movies, and ordering prints.

The image-editing tools are serviceable, with red-eye removal, one-click lighting fixes, cropping and straightening, and finer tools for addressing blemishes and lighting. There are also 12 effects, like sepia tones and soft focus. This contrasts with Picasa's low-grade video editor, which can at least rotate videos and trim them. The movie maker has many more controls, but is basic; it doesn't build in the polished templates of a premium program. Picasa does, however, offer to sell you prints from a choice of providers (choice is good), and can help create a collage.

For standalone photo editing, the freeware applications FastStone Image Viewer, IrfanView, Paint.NET, and GIMP range in features from the accessible to the powerful. Read more about them in this resource guide.

Vista and Windows 7 users can try out Microsft's new Windows Live Movie Maker (review), freeware that can slap photos and video clips into a new movie in seconds. Deeper controls let you tweak transitions, captions, and effects after the automation. Editing tools include splitting, trimming, and applying fade points. As a point of comparison, video editors in these consumer-focused multimedia suites are better-equipped, perhaps with audio-tuning tools and features to adjust video lighting.

Creating calendars and photo books are a DIY project within your reach if you have an excellent photo printer and a home bookbinding kit. Otherwise, you can spend your energy on the editing and captioning and get a project printed somewhere else. Retail shops, like FedEx Office in the U.S., will print projects. Online photo albums and services like Shutterfly, Snapfish, and Zazzle will also gladly accept your business. The 12-month calendars run from $15 to $20; large photo books are often in the mid-$30 range (online services often charge for shipping). Corel Digital Studio is similarly priced.… Read more

MMS settings for your unlocked phone

Though unlocked phones offer you the freedom of switching carriers on a whim, they can require a bit of tinkering before you can roam around the world. In most cases, you'll have to program the phone with the necessary multimedia settings to browse the Internet and send an e-mail or multimedia message.

The settings are available from your carrier, but if you prefer not to talk to a person, there are options available online. Sony Ericsson offers a very handy tool on its Web site that lets you configure your phone in a just a few minutes. After entering … Read more

iPhone will get MMS September 25

Congratulations, iPhone, you can finally join the cell phone family. AT&T announced Thursday that the long-awaited multimedia messaging would arrive on Apple's device in the United States starting September 25. The iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G will support the service, but owners of the original iPhone will miss out since that handset lacks the proper radio.

In its brief statement, AT&T offered few reasons why it's taken so long to get such a basic cell phone feature. It only said MMS "required us to work on our network MMS architecture to carry the … Read more

Is iPhone MMS imminent?

Though AT&T customers are still waiting for multimedia messaging to arrive on the iPhone, I got a surprise last week that made me think that the feature is on its way. After upgrading to OS 3.0.1, I noticed that my MMS commands had reappeared. I originally had them when testing the beta version of OS 3.0, but they vanished after upgrading to the full release.

I still can't actually send a multimedia message, but the fact that the commands are there is noteworthy enough. At first I thought it was a direct result of … Read more

Effective Bible study aid

Word to Heart is a multifeatured program that helps users to memorize Bible verses on a variety of topics. The program contains several of customizable tools that will accommodate any learning style.

The program's interface is not the most beautiful we've ever seen, but it's fairly intuitive and allows users to access the program's major functions with ease. The Help file comes as a Word document and addresses basic use of the program. Where the program really shines is in its multiple tools for helping memorization. Users can choose from a variety of predefined topics and … Read more

Technical screensaver creator

Screen Saver Construction Set is not for novices. By allowing users to control every conceivable aspect of the screensaver they create, some will love this program and others will be frustrated.

The program's interface is so clean and sparse that a trip to the Help file is inevitable. With only a few command icons along the top, users must learn how to dig into these to extract the expansive and overwhelming number of options within. Novice users may have a difficult time managing all the options. The first step to creating a screensaver is to understand that images, text, … Read more

VLC for video victory

VLC Media Player is a long-time open-source favorite, and the latest version is also the first to be out of beta development. It's not the only option for free video playback, but it's one of the best, and the feature updates in version 1 make it well worth the upgrade.

Users can now get frame-by-frame advancement, granular speed controls allowing for on-the-fly slower or faster playback, and live recording of streaming video. The toolbars are fully customizable, so you can have only the buttons you need in the interface, there's AirTunes streaming, and there's better integration … Read more

Simple file viewer

In terms of design, this free file viewer isn't much to look at, but once you spend some time customizing the interface, you'll find it suitable to view different file formats.

Universal Viewer Free's user interface consists of a single display window. The generic menu and toolbar commands at the top of the window will look familiar to you, but it lets you customize it by adding buttons or hiding toolbars. By adding the different view modes and a few other buttons to the toolbar, we found the overall flow of the program much improved. Viewing a … Read more