Kaspersky is another one of the many antivirus makers that’s gone the complete Internet Security system way - not a bad thing. It’s known to be a resources hog, so we checked if anything had improved with this edition.
The suite takes care of all your security worries.. files, mail, system network security etc. All the basic controls for the components can be accessed from the main two-pane layout window. Modifying settings means you to go to another window which houses all the settings for the components, and there are plenty of them.
The core antivirus feature is standard and allows you to

scan files and folders along with boot sectors, Registry, Memory, startup programs, etc. The Anti-Spam has a nifty training feature that learns by looking at mails in your mailbox through a wizard to provide more accurate spam protection. The firewall monitors for incoming and outgoing threats and notifies you immediately. Any attacks targeted at your computer can be set to have the attacker’s machine blocked for a set period of time.
The firewall also takes care of the blocking of ad banners and pop-ups from websites as well. The parental control is useful is not only stopping access to inappropriate sites, but also in setting limitations on time spent at the computer and on the internet. User accounts on Windows can be set to parent, teenager, Child and by default, all user are set to Child.
Strictness of all the features can be adjusted using a slider. At the same manual changes can be made. This is especially useful for spam filtering, parental control and the firewall. Heuristic scanning is available in most of the modules, but not enabled in all of them by default.
The help file doesn’t carry any screenshots, but the explanation is adequate and easy to understand.
Kaspersky’s Internet Security Suite is a pretty good choice for anyone looking for a complete security solution, its right up there with the best security suite money can buy at the price of $79.95/Year of license. There are no missing features, and everything is implemented well. New users might be a little confused by all the terms and huge list of options, though.

SpeechVibe allows complete control over one’s PC using voice commands. You first create a voice profile, which doesn’t take too long-and you can start using SpeechVibe.
SpeechVibe scans the Start Menu, and launching an installed application is straightforward-just say, “Launch (application name)”. There’s something called the Mouse Grid, pictured below. It allows even mouse movements to be controlled by voice. This translucent grid takes up the whole screen and highlights point coordinates. You use the name of the coordinate-such as 3-29, 3-30, and so on-to tell SpeechVibe which action you want performed. So, for example, if your outlook icon is under coordinate 2-23, you say “2-23″ and Outlook will be launched. You can click, move, double-click, right-click, and perform drag and drop operations using the mouse grid. It is so precise, you can even create objects in MS Paint, as we’ve done here. Not that you’d want to paint this way, but it demonstrates the power SpeechVibe brings with it.
Browser and mail client support computers inbuilt; when you say “Go to {Web site}”, SpeechVibe launches the default browser. A window filled with sorted, numbered, and continuously scrolling favorite URLs is superimposed.You then open a Web page by saying “Pick {number}”. SpeechVibe also supports speech-to-text by superposing a “dictate environment.”This allows you to correct mistakes on-the -fly. An example of this is shown below: a speaker said “Tech Freek”, and the word was recognized-and there are several alternatives that you can choose from by saying the appropriate number.
SpeechVibe is not as accurate as expensive voice recognition software, but the features are innovative. These will take some getting used to of course.At just Rs 675, you might want to consider this one if you are in the market for speech recognition software.

Xara Xtreme allows designers to create vector-based graphics and illustrations to be used in print and Web-based publishing. It primarily a vector graphics software, but it incorporates bitmap and flash editing tools. It is an alternative to Adobe Illustrator CS3 and CorelDRAW X3 for th Windows platform, and has much prove! The layout is well-organized with handy

tools and easy-to-reach menu bars-most beginners and intermediate users should be comfortable from the start. Xara Xtreme allows advanced bitmap editing options. Operations like crop, rotate, auto-enhance,etc. Can be applied to bitmap images.
Each stp in the process of editing is noted by a picture, so backtracking to earlier versions of the is possible. The flash tool is very similar to the bitmap tool; even the interface looks alike. The features available here are pretty basic, though. You get support for print and pre-press; you can set up multi-page documents and spreads. Xara Xtreme Pro documents can be exported to PDF. The is support for rich txt documents-meaning th formatting is maintained in the process. Linking to an external editor is possible: Xara automatically updates its own document when one saves changes to the file or image in an external application.
Effects are rendered very fast; memory consumption hovered around the 60 MB mark during our test-pretty good for a graphics suite.
Xara Xtreme Pro turns out to be moor thn just a vector illustration program.The Pro 3.2 edition packs in some exceptional features for print and Web designers alike. Considering that Adobe Illustrator CS3 retails at $599 and Corel DRAW X3 at $399, the pric tag of $249 is decent.
Beginners might want to try out Xara Xtreme (not to be confused with Xara Xtreme Pro). The feature set is reduced, but the price is unbeatable: $79