Smart Tech Buy

For those of you that don’t know, George Bush just recently passed a bill to get Americans to spend more and our economy back on track.  To do this, most tax payers will receive up to an additional $600 - $1,200 in their tax returns this year!  However in order to get this money, you’ll need to do your taxes first…

For those of you who think that doing their own taxes might be a little difficult, they have probably never tried using Turbo Taxbefore.  Granted my tax situation is not too difficult (I don’t own property or own a business), but using Turbo Tax makes doing your taxes a piece of cake!  What I love the most about this software is that it has a running total of how much you should expect to receive (or pay) from the government every time you input your data in.  So far in my 3 years I have used it, I have never had to pay yet!

Find the best price for Turbo Tax here:

Turbo Tax Deluxe - Federal + State
Turbo Tax Premier
Turbo Tax Home & Business

If you’re not an artist, you probably don’t know that there are programs and hardware out there that will allow you to replicate natural media on your computer. That means you will be able to create on your computer “using” chalk, pastels, ink, paint, pencil, etc. without having to worry about cleaning up a mess! And it saves money on paper and other materials making this great for aspiring artists or casual artist!

The program I am talking about is Painter X. With this program you will be able to fool most people into thinking that your were working with the real deal. You can set the texture of your paper, work with different types of brushes, blend as well as many other things. One of the features I find very useful is that you can set an image as something you want to “trace”. That means that the image you select will appear transparent on your art board so that it can be used as a base when painting or sketching. This is great for beginners or for people who just like to get straight into the work as you do not have to lay down your guides and other helpers. Also, because you can work in layers, you can have several things going on at once and try different colors or compositions in certain sections without having to re-do the whole thing or “paint over” and lose what you originally did.

Now that you know what program to use, the only problem is how you’re going to draw using your mouse right? Well, that’s no problem! You may not be aware, but there are devices out there that will allow you to use a “pen” on your screen. This means that drawing, painting, etc. takes on a more normal feel. And the good thing about this is that the pen is usually pressure sensitive with them and so you will be able to gain a finer control of your tools.

Wacom Cintiq Pen Tablets
If you are looking for the coolest tablet available, I would say it is the Wacom Cintiq line of tablets. This tablet is actually a monitor so it really replicates pen on paper feel and use. Some key features of this product are that it provies pixel-level pen accuracy for highly precise cursor control and the pen features 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity on the pen tip and eraser for precise image editing, accurate brush control, and selective application of effects and filters. Also, for this product you do not have to develop the hand-eye coordination needed to look at your screen while working with your pen. This makes it very user friendly and easy to master but because it is such cool tech it comes with a hefty price tag retailing $999 for the smallest version (12.1″ TFT display) and reaching $2499 for the largest version (23.1” TFT display). However, considering that it is a pressure sensitive monitor, it makes sense.

Wacom Intuos3 Pen Tablet
This tablet comes with all the bells and whistles but it is not a monitor. It also has 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity and it has buttons which can be preset to do certain functions. With this tablet you will be able to easily edit photos and create using the full power of over 100 leading software applications that support Wacom Pen Tablets. Sizes for this product range from 4”x6” to 12”x9” and prices for this product range from $229.95 to $749.95.

Other recommended Wacom tablets are the Graphire and Bamboo Fun tablets. These are more consumer oriented tablets, are more affordable, and come with less functions. However, with 512 levels of pressure sensitivity and programmable keys they are still powerful tools. Let’s not forget that they also come with a suite of useful programs such as Adobe Photoshop Elements, Nik Color Efex Pro, and Corel Painter Essentials.

Windows Vista users should also keep in mind that with a pen tablet, you can use the new functionalities provided for pen tablets. This includes personal note taking, email signing, handwriting recognition, as well as other functions.

All brands and models can be found by clicking here.

Memory Mixer 2 was created by developed with one thing in mind, letting the user create their personal memories in a quick and easy way, and it shows!

I am not sure if you are like me, but I bought a digital camera because I wanted to take pictures of my business trips, vacations, or just a nice sunset. Photography was a hobby of mine since high school photography class, but without my own dark room, using a digital camera to edit my photos because the next big thing. Unfortunately, I was quick to realize that doing that was not such an easy thing. Photoshop was not only expensive but difficult for me to use on my own. So now I just take pictures and save them on my PC. I might use one or two pictures for an occasional e-mail or just to reminisce, but that is all I used them for.

Memory Mixer 2 actually now gives me the tool to use these pictures or just my image collections at a much lower price than you would pay for other photo editing software. Memory Mixer’s main strength is ease-of-use. I just interested the disk and an installer screen popped up. I have the complete version of Memory Mixer V2 which includes 3 other disks containing additional layouts and objects, but all you really need is the first disk to use the program.After installing the first disk, you will be asked to register your product after entering the activation key. Most of us don’t usually register our software but there’s an added bonus here if you do register it - you will get a 30% discount code for your next order.

When you start Memory Mixer, you will be able asked to create a new album, open an existing one, or go to the website. The website actually has a tutorial at their website if you are one of those people who like to read the instructions. I, on the other hand, am one of those people who like to just jump in. I chose to use the QuickMix^TM to start off, and it illustrated how easy it was to create a photo album. Starting off you select a default template and layout. There are a select few choose from but if you install disk 2-4 of the complete version, you will be able to select form more.

After you select a template, you either chose to add your own pages or use the default pages. Adding your own pages allows you to customize the order of the default pages. After your pages are set in the album, you are asked to add pictures. You can manually ad the pictures or use the wizard. The wizard will allow you to enter pictures either in the order they are selected, alphabetically, or chronologically. After all these steps are completed, you preliminary album is done! It should take only a few minutes if you are using the wizard and the default settings.

Editing Your Album: Once your album is created, you can then edit it. The columns on the left and the icons on the top are the various options you can use. You can actually just go down line by line on the left column to complete your album. First, you select your background which can either be a default or imported. You can then apply this to all your slides or just one. After the background is selected, you can now format the photos the way you want. As you can see form the selections shown above, all the selections are in easy to understand icons. You can smooth the edges of your picture or turn it black and white among other things. You can also easily add embellishments, music, narration, videos, and other objects with a simple click.Also, after your album is finished, you can click the “Share Album” line on the left column to print a copy, get a photobook created, convert the album into a jpeg, create a movie, or even burn a CD or DVD directly. Creating a Photobook: The photobook option is one of the most interesting ones. It allows you to upload your album to the Memory Mixer website to get a soft or hard bound version.If you do not want to use the QuickMix^TM you can use the FromScratch one. This just asks you to select create your own layouts and does not use the templates. Once you go through QuickMix^TM one time, you should be able to use FromScratch with ease.

Memory Mixer’s Community:  Memory Mixer V2 is also not just a program to make photo albums it is also a community.  The website actually promotes a lot of cool community features.  First of all, you can win $200 if your upload a great template.  That helps promote community involvement as you can also see other peoples uploads.  Next, you can use these uploads to inspire yourself and make your photobooks even better!

Overall Impression: Memory Mix V2 is a great tool for people who are not technically savvy or have the time to learn all the technological knowledge need to learn other programs. It took me only 10 minutes to learn the basics and the easy to understand icons and time will help me master the rest. This program allows you do very deep editing in a very simple tool. One of the most amazing things about this program is that it can read almost every image type.  Not only can it read the basic JPEG and BMP files but it can also read more advanced image types such as TIFF and TGA as well. I am going to use Memory Mixer to turn some of my manga into movies and make album with my pictures.

The one drawback I had was some minor technical issues. For example, my version of QuickTime did not work with Memory Mix V2 but I was able to get the solution to that on the Memory Mix website. The other issue is that patches are manual not automatic, but that is more of an inconvenience than an issue.Memory Mixer 2 usually goes for $79.99 but you can find it from online stores like QVC for just $59.52. Here’s some deals on this great software: Click here.