Poser 8: Make your Own Avatar

New interface

The new Poser 8 interface maximizes screen real estate, while offering new tools, and improved functionality of existing ones. It has less unnecessary fluff than the previous version. And the new Poser 8 interface more closely matches an updated style. Windows are now docked rather than floating or expanding, and the tabs to access other areas of the program are more condensed and efficient.

Another new aspect of the improved interface might be a difficult adjustment for existing users. The library had been quite visual with large rendered 3-D icons of the various models and props available. Poser 8 has condensed this area to more of a list view with rendered graphics.

Poser 8 also has a streamlined and more functional content management system. With places like Content Paradise offering affordable and quality third-party content for Poser, management of additional props and characters could be a chore. Poser 8's update helps identify and maintain your content.

Dependent Parameters tool

Along with a greatly enhanced interface, there's the new Dependent Parameters tool (DPT). It runs under the hood, making your posing and animation experience a little easier. In the past, trying to make objects interact was a bit challenging. This feature is still limited, compared to other 3-D applications on the market that are capable of real world dynamics with gravity, wind, collisions, and more, such as Autodesk's Maya (), NewTek's LightWave 3D, or Maxon's Cinema 4D. Yet, with Poser 8's cloth system and the new DPT, this capability is plenty strong. The cloth system allows you to add organic animation in the form of shirts, pants, or flags, to your scene.

More new stuff

The new version of Poser has a number of additional handy new features that will streamline your modeling work. Here are some highlights: Wardrobe Wizard is cool new feature that will really help visual designers. Perhaps you created a full Poser scene and would like to re-use some of the clothes and assets you've already created. This new wizard will filter these props to the new Poser 8 character set. If you really want to get the most out of this software, you'll appreciate Poser 8's new support for the Python scripting language (wxPython). This will allow third-party developers to create more advanced plug-ins, with increased usefulness, while at the same time fully integrated into the program.

Another notable improvement in Poser 8 is Physically Correct Light Falloff functionality. This allows users to control not only the quality of light, but its angle and direction better than before, resulting in better-looking renders.

There are also enhancements to OpenGL performance for better interface responsiveness and a greatly improved rigging system. Posed characters will present fewer problems in areas such as hips, shoulders, and joints.

Adobe Premiere Elements 8 – Strong Video Editing Software

Adobe Premiere Elements 8 makes significant strides over its predecessor, Premiere Elements 7. Premiere Elements 8 adds file organizing and keywording, plus greater integration with Photoshop Elements, while making it much easier to edit and use videos in style.

The most obvious (and most welcome) addition to Premiere Elements is the Organizer. Adopted from Photoshop Elements, the Organizer allows you to view, keyword-tag, and organize videos and photos; and when you have the two Elements programs installed, it acts as a conduit to both programs via a single interface.

You can back up, share, and archive the Organizer database and media files--and even sync them with your other computers--using Adobe's Photoshop.com wizard from within Premiere Elements (assuming that your other computers have an Elements 8 program installed).

The interface provides two ways to create movies from your video: Instant Movie and manual creation. However, the two aren't divided processes so much as they are a workflow continuum. In addition, Premiere Elements 8 offers more customization tools for Instant Movie, such as sliders to adjust the clip speed and/or the number of effects that will apply automatically. Like any automatic tool, Instant Movie doesn't always produce great movies. The results do tend to be pleasant, though sometimes rough, with the clip order not always logical or smooth.

Other automatic tools include Smart Fix, Smart Trim, and Smart Mix. Smart Fix attempts to automatically correct the imperfections--such as an underexposed clip--that Smart Tags has flagged. Smart Mix balances different sound sources so that the background music doesn't drown out narration or dialogue. Again, you can override Smart Mix's choices.

In Premiere Elements 8, you can now add still photos to movies, even if you don't have Photoshop Elements installed. The library of templates, effects, transitions, and graphics has expanded, and now includes animated clip art that you can drag and drop into a film clip.

A nice selection of Flash and Acrobat tutorials, categorized by the level of difficulty and the type of activity, is accessible within the interface, though the tutorials are not context-sensitive. However, only a few are available to the general user. To access Adobe's large and expanding library of lessons, you have to purchase a Plus Photoshop.com membership.

Premiere Elements 8 is an appealing upgrade for anyone interested in organizing videos, editing them, and compiling them into attractive, fun movies. With its underlying power and its significantly improved ease of use, it's a good value.

Alwil Avast Professional Edition’s Review

Though Alwil Avast Professional Edition has a speedy scan rate, it wasn't enough to offset its unimpressive protection from malware infections. With a last-place showing in our stand-alone antivirus rankings, it's clearly a less than ideal choice for your paid protection.

Avast's ability to block Trojans, worms, and other baddies in AV-Test.org's huge "zoo" of collected malware wasn't bad--its detection rate stands at 97.8 percent--and the program proved particularly adept at blocking worms with a 99.5 percent block rate. But most of the other programs outperformed it; Avast was only good enough for eighth place in signature-based malware detection.

In heuristic tests using two-week old signature files to simulate detection of newer malware, Avast was genuinely bad: A sad showing of 38.5 percent puts the program from Czech Republic-based Alwil firmly in last place among tested products. And it was unable to stop completely new and unknown malware based solely on how these invaders behaved (neither could a few other apps). Considering the short lifespan of the typical piece of malware and how quickly modern malware evolves, being able to detect these digital interlopers before a full signature is issued is more important than ever.

While Avast may not be especially thorough, it is fast. It performed automatic "on-access" scans (scans that happen when you open, save, or download a file, for instance) at a rate of 14.8MBps (megabytes per second); only Avast's AntiVir could match this scan rate. And when faced with existing infections, it proved able to get rid of all active components. However, it left many less-important system changes and malware files still in place.

Avast's performance results had ups and downs, but its interface was just a downer. As with its free program, Alwil's paid Avast Professional edition splits the interface into two entirely different sections: one for settings and one for scans. Double-clicking the system tray icon brings up a so-called "resident protection window" with settings for eight different "shields," such as the Web shield or Internet mail shield. The settings and status interface is relatively straightforward, but it lacks any context-sensitive help to take you straight to the relevant documentation for what you're looking at, forcing users to search for what they need.

Running a scan involves right-clicking the system tray icon and choosing "Start Avast! Antivirus" instead of the aforementioned settings pages. The resulting new interface mimics a music player and is entirely different than the settings window. It's telling that Avast feels it necessary to pop up a page of instructions on how to start a scan every time you open the scanning interface. The Pro version adds an enhanced interface you can use instead of this clunky player panel, but while it's somewhat less annoying, it's not a huge improvement.

It gets worse. When you do figure out how to run a scan, Avast will pop up a warning for every potential baddie it finds, requiring you to tell it what to do. And you might be forgiven for not realizing that clicking the "Continue" option will cause Avast to ignore the discovered malware and leave it in place.

Alwil says that a new version of Avast due early next year revamps both the interface and the antivirus engine. We look forward to those upgrades, but in the meantime, you're better off checking out the competition.

Choose the Right Security Software

In security software, from free antivirus programs to paid ones to full-blown, multifunction security suites，you have plenty of options. The big issue, of course, is deciding which approach is right for you.

Gary Neill

Suites: All-in-One Security

These usually include an antimalware program and a firewall, plus other features such as protection against phishing and scams, spam filtering, parental controls, and Website filtering. Some suites also bundle system tune-up tools. Prices typically run about $50 to $70 for a one-year, one-PC subscription.

Stand-Alone Antivirus Apps

These programs vary, but in general they have fewer additional security features than suites have, and most lack firewalls. For example, Norton AntiVirus protects against the various forms of malware, but has no firewall, phishing protection, or parental controls.

Many security companies offer free antivirus programs in addition to their paid products, and some are quite good. However, very few free apps come with any significant technical support options, so you're essentially on your own when you encounter a problem.

Another Consideration Many free and stand-alone antivirus products lack a capability for behavioral analysis (identifying malware based on how it acts and without relying on malware signature updates). If your current antivirus program lacks that feature, consider PC Tools' Threatfire 4.5, a free behavioral analysis­-based antivirus application that works alongside your existing protection.

Do You Need a Suite? The short answer is no. Many PC users protect their computers with different combinations of security products--but this does take some extra work.

You can use a stand-alone antivirus utility like G-Data Antivirus alongside a free firewall such as one from ZoneAlarm. Windows Vista and Windows 7 include two-way firewalls that can block incoming and outgoing network traffic. Third-party firewalls are usually more flexible than what's built in, but Windows Vista and 7 users can download the free Windows 7 Firewall Control, a third-party utility that gives you more control over the Windows firewall.

Just remember that building your own suite requires you to do some research to find the best security products for your needs. And if something goes wrong, you'll have to contact different companies depending on which program acted up; with suites you have one point of contact for all technical support issues. Still, if you're willing to do the homework, this approach may be worthwhile.

From PCWorld

Google hand out a new mobile phone to employees

Google has handed out a new mobile phone running its Android software to some employees, stirring another wave of speculation that the oft-rumored Google Phone is real.

In a blog post, Google said the phones are being distributed so that workers can experiment with new mobile features. It did not say the device will be a Google-branded phone.

Since even before Google unveiled Android, onlookers wondered if the search giant would release its own phone. Instead, it released an open source operating system that other hardware vendors can use to make phones.

"We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe," he wrote. "This means they get to test out a new technology and help improve it."

The post appeared to be a response to a Twitter message posted by a Google employee Friday evening, who said she had the phone. The post, first reported by TechCrunch, sparked the new round of speculation.

While the term "Google phone" has been used to describe a device built and branded by Google, many also use the term to refer to any phone running Android. So it was unclear if Hawthorne was talking about a device that will be branded and sold by Google.

"It was thin. Dare I say as if not a bit thinner than iPhone," he wrote. The phone used an on-screen keyboard instead of a hardware keyboard. He said Google was expected to reveal more details in the next few days.

More than 1000 iPhone Apps being Removed

Brennon Slattery

Bogus reviews have landed Chinese iPhone app developer Molinker in deep trouble, resulting in all 1000-plus of its apps being removed and banned from the App Store. This is great news for consumers who are tired of downloading subpar apps based on inflated reviews, and bad news for companies looking to shill their products with internal misdeeds.

The discovery of the phony reviews was made by a frequent reader of iPhoneography, known only as SCW, who recognized a similar erratic and poorly-written tone to many 5-star reviews of Molinker apps. SCW wrote a (long) letter to Phil Schiller, senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, revealing the major fraud. According to the e-mail, SCW "looked at 44 of the reviewers who posted reviews for this Molinker Inc app 'NightCam Pro' & EVERY Review except 2 of the 44+ are ALL FAKE 5 [star] reviews."

The phony reviews didn't stop there. SCW posits that Molinker employees obtained and redeemed promo codes in order to access the US App Store and publish an "endless slew of fake postings." (Ever an opportunist, SCW also wrote: "I think I deserve a [sic] investigations reward for unearthing this blatant attempt at misleading & stealing from the public.")

Schiller leapt to action and removed the apps. "Yes, this developer's apps have been removed from the App Store and their ratings no longer appear either," Schiller wrote to SCW and iPhoneography.

Molinker claimed ignorance in a brief statement given to the appfreak blog. "We got [an] email from Apple yesterday [Sunday 6th] which told us our contract [has] changed to pending status. Actually, we do not know what's wrong so far. We had contacted Apple for such sudden changes, hope we can get quick response and actions from Apple."

I think it's a safe assumption that Molinker's apps aren't the only ones with fake 5-star reviews. Hopefully given the size of Molinker's mishap -- the developer's apps made up almost 1 percent of the entire App Store -- Apple, and its customers, will become more diligent when it comes to exposing fraud.

From PCWorld

Notepad2: A simple and convenient syntax coloring editor

Notepad2 is a relatively simple and convenient syntax coloring editor, whose "simple" refers not only to function, but also refers to interface. Others ones, claimed as "the best editor replaced notepad", such as EmEditor, Notepad++, etc., run fast, however, the various buttons on the interface, including small window, sidebar, long menu, are totally verbose, which is usually no need for editing a text.

That is, to replace Notepad, it should at least come with a simple interface of Notepad.

Features should include a rectangular selection holding "alt" (recommended the default font width); spaces appear as red points in order to see (need to select the relevant option) and so on. General functions as unlimited withdrawal, syntax coloring will not be mentioned.

Recently the new version is added F8-for-encoding capabilities, thus it's no need to use code when open Japanese and European text, and no need to modify the source text. If there is temporary need for transcoding, just change the code and select copy all, then reopen and paste.

Although the NTLEA, WPS and a variety of browsers can also change code, it's unworthy to open these software just for that.