GenTechReview

I have been a loyal fan of my internet browser for a long time.  But the last little while things have started to change.  Some sites are not displaying as they should, occasionally the application totally goes blank and takes 30 -50 seconds before the web page shows up again.  Flash causes errors everytime it tries to load a flash based error.  It seems to have gone from a solid app to a buggy mess.  Well I have been using an alternative for about a week now and I have to say that Internet Explorer 7 is working great.  Perhaps it’s not that evil, no good, dirty, rotten browser that I read about on many sites.  Is it possible that they just are jealous of the company who makes it and so everything they produce gets critisized blindly.  I have loved firefox, and will likely go through the process of unistalling it and reinstalling it to see if that will work out the bugs, but for now IE7 is working out just fine. 

Sony Creative Software has released the newest version of their popular Vegas Video Editing software. Vegas 8 adds a few new valuable features to there already very capable base. Among the new features are multi-cam editing, 32 bit multi-point processing, pro type title, digital signage support, a new mixing console window, Blue Ray disk support (Not Really) , and a handful of other enhancements. The multi-cam feature is a great addition. It has been possible through the purchase of expensive plugins, but it is great to see that it will be a native feature. The 32-bit processing is a more under the hood kind of thing but it does enhance the picture and puts it as a solid option in the broadcast and high def market. Now whether it’s interface or reputation allows it to creep into that market remains to be seen, but it certainly has the capability. Titling in Vegas for years has been lacking. Although it was always easy to use the ability to do advanced effects with titles has been a problem. Although it doesn’t relate to me much the digital signage support is a great addition. The Vegas interface is really right down a creative marketing type of persons ally. The composting and mixed format capabilities of Vegas really make it the best option hands down for developing ads and signage. I suspect they will pick up a big chunk of market share with this move. With the addition of the mixing console I can now see myself no longer needing the audio specific software Sound Forge. Vegas started as an audio application so it has alway been strong in audio capability, but did and still does lack some of the features of Sound Forge. Now with the addition of the mixer I personally have everything in Vegas 8 that I need as an editor. A serious audio tech would probably disagree. The Blue-Ray support (Ha-Ha) was very disappointing. You can now create a Blue-Ray disk that will record a high def movie to play on a Blue-Ray player, but you have absolutely no capability to create a menu. It is simply a play only disk. Sony is the biggest player in the Blue-Ray format and I expected a little more from them than this most basic of functionality.

Aside from my gripe with the Blue-Ray Support Sony Vegas 8 is a great upgrade to a great product. It has strengthened many of it’s weak areas and is a more solid video solution than ever.

The announcement from Apple that they were reducing the price of the iPhone brought a mix of emotions. The happiness of those considering the iPhone is obvious, they can now get a great product for a reasonable cost.  The surprising reaction to me is the rage from those customers who have already purchased the popular iPhone.  They made comments to the effect that they were getting screwed by Apple because someone else was getting a better deal.  In reality this is a huge shift for Apple, and I can understand the shock that the customers had.  Apple has never really reduced the prices of their technology as it becomes outdated.  There production costs go down, as technology becomes cheaper, they make a greater profit, and the customers are happy because at least every body is paying the same price.  Rather than reducing the price on older models they quite making them and move on to the next product, at the same price.  This is very unique technology hardware industry. Just look at VCR’s, DVD Players, and Blueray Players.  No one is screaming about the fact that these technologies become easier and cheaper to produce and therefore the price went down.  I can not figure out why people are upset because for the first time in recent history Apple decided to pass the savings on to the customer.  How dare they give the customer a fair price? But I guess all of the complaints have paid off for these early adopters.  Apple is giving them a $100 Rebate on apple products.  I personally think the  early adopters of the iPhone that are complaining about the price drop are idiots, but Apple is a very touchy feely kind of a company, so I would expect a move like this to keep there customers happy.  Can’t you feel the love?  I guess they have to keep that feeing going, how else will they keep the customers paying 2-3X what they would for equivalent  PC hardware?

In a previous article I wrote regarding my pleasant surprise of the ease of use and power of Corel WordPerfect X3.  I stand behind the article and still claim that it is the best office product I have used.  But one issue with its use did put a kink in my workflow.  As an early adopter of Microsoft Office 2007 many of my files are in the new.docx format.  Corel WordPerfect X3 could not open the new Microsoft format.  The work around for me is obvious, I simply Open it in Word and save it back to the old  format.  But if I used Corel WordPerfect exclusively it could present problems if clients sent documents in the new format.  I contacted Corel regarding this issue, and they too expressed concern about this issue.    Corel made the following statement regarding support: “Corel would move to make “Open, view and edit” capabilities (Saving will be to the binary formats at first) available in WordPerfect Office for both Microsoft Office OOXML and OASIS ODF in 2007″
Although they did not give me a date of when this would be supported they said it would be soon.  I will post information as soon as it is available.
If you are not sharing files on a regular basis with MS Office users this is not really an issue, but for those actively sharing documents with office users this is an area of consideration.  My personal recommendation would be to keep using what you are now until the support is available.  If you must make a purchase now, I would still recommend Corel Word Perfect X3 because the time and effort you will save by using a better product will be well worth a few headaches until the new format is supported.

If you are a reader from my first blog EdTechReview.net you will know that I love Google Earth.  Google earth has many powerful features that make learning about and exploring our planet very fun and interesting.  I stumbled across a little hidden feature inside Google earth that takes it to a whole new level.  Google Earth has a hidden flight simulator built in.

To access the hidden flight simulator mode on a Windows PC press Ctrl + Alt + A and on a MAC press Command/Open Apple Key + Option + A (Must be capital A). After you have accessed the flight simulator mode for the first time, you can open it by going to Tools > Enter Flight Simulator.

You get the choice between an F-16 Fighter jet and a small passenger plan.  Although this is not on the same level as Microsoft Flight Simulator, it’s simple controls are easy to learn and fun to use.  The scenery is much better because it uses images from Google earth.  So instead of generic imagery between major locations you can see the real thing.

go to:  http://moon.google.com/

Zoom all the way in.

Say Cheese!!!