Sony’s Sound Forge 9 is the latest version of the highly acclaimed sound editing software. There isn’t much competition left in this space, but, new releases and updates still keep pouring in.
The interface hasn’t changed much since the previous releases. It is still easy to use for intermediate and expert level users.
To start with, Sound Forge allows you to import from a wide range of formats – including video formats that contain more audio streams than stereo. Let your imagination run wild with number of effects Sound Forge gives you. Flange, Chorus and Reverb are just a few of them. The overwhelming number of effects and tools is what makes Sound Forge unique.
Setting up parameters for each of the effects is easy. Windows pop-up for every effect you apply where parameters can be changed, and real time previews are played back instantaneously.
It’s not all fun and games either. The Detect Clipping feature finds instances of clipping in a track and marks them so they can be treated. The plugin chainer queues up multiple effects. Several audio files can be processed and effects applied one after another automatically.
Support for script is inbuilt, as well as some presets for normalizing, cropping and fading, etc. These can be used to run automated tasks like extracting audio CDs and encoding them, for example. A script editor is provided; anyone with some understanding of programming can make his own scripts.
Sound Forge stays well under the 50MB limit while working on more than a couple of mp3s.
As it stands now, Sony’s Sound Forge has become a well refined and optimized audio editing software that performs well and manages to have as many features as you’d want. All is well, it might seem, but the price tag of $299.96 is bound to create some hesitation for prospective buyers. Professional level users already on older Sound Forge versions will have no such doubts, all thanks to support for new formats and standards – and the added effects and tools.
Newcomers to the field of audio editing would be better off starting with open source alternatives – Audacity, for example.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Norton’s latest product the 360 all in one is a complete security solution. The interface has changed a bit from the earlier software by Symantec; it now has a fancy, sleek, Vista like theme. The colorful control should suite beginning computer users.

It looks like Symantec has covered pretty much everything on the security front. You get an Antivirus and a Spyware scanner to hunt down viruses, worms and spywares. There’s a firewall, and a Transaction Security feature which is meant to safeguard the online transaction you do shopping and banking, for example. It verifies whether the sites are online scams or authentic.

The tune up feature is very basic; its task to clear out your Windows and Temporary Internet Files and defragment your disk(s). You can set the software to automatically back up important files like the stuffs in you’re My Documents folder and others. Schedules can be set for this.

You get 2 GB of online space that can be used to backup important data, once you have activated Norton 360; you register for the online space.

If Norton 360 finds anything that could hamper security, it highlights this by displaying it in the main window. For example, if the firewall is disabled, or if the software isn’t up to date, it gives out alerts. The software even reminded us that our Windows password wasn’t strong enough!

360 All In One performed quite a lot better in terms of resources consumed than what we expected having seen previous Symantec products – Like Norton Antivirus. When idle, RAM consumption was a mere 8MB. With the interface on, it went up to 17 MB, and it was 75 MB while running the barrage of scans.

All in all, Norton 360 All In One security as a complete solution does make some sense. The software’s focus is ease of use, so it cannot be compared to full fledged antivirus software or spyware detectors.

Everything is automated, so, it’s great for those who don’t want to be bothered with checking for viruses and backing up data frequently.

At the Price of $ 79.99 (1 Year Subscription) or $ 134.99 (2 Years Subscription) with three licenses per household, we strongly recommend you to give it a try.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Productivity tools are software that can help make work and planning easier and more efficient. XMIND is a mind-mapping software that runs on java. And we’ve told you in an earlier issue how mind-mapping software can help increase productivity.

We’re assuming you know a little about such software. Mind mapping software can be tiny bit confusing to start with, and XMIND is no different in this respect.

The interface, to its credit, looks pretty clean and well-laid-out. There are five templates to suit your style and the feel of your work, other the default template.

Elements such as shapes, lines, and boundaries are pretty well-designed, and go well with the templates. You can add external templates to the current list. Using the software is pretty straightforward, and the shortcuts are easy to remember and well-placed. It appears all the shortcuts used in the program can be changed to those of your choice.

When you done with your work, you can export it to PDF, image formats, a power point presentation, or a word file.

The help provided is quite detailed. There are screenshots where you need them. A feature called Dynamic Help provides quick help in a sidebar whenever you click on a particular tool or feature.

Although this software runs on java, it doesn’t feel too heavy, but uses over 120 MB of memory!

There doesn’t seem to be a lot wrong with XMIND other than price. At $ 100 for a single license, it’s quite a bit ask for a software like this. There are alternatives: Free Mind, for example, is a free, open source program that can do more less what XMIND does! The only reason you would want to go buy this software is perhaps for its fairly refined look and feel.

Popularity: 4% [?]