Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended

Those looking for the much-heralded Deblur filter will be disappointed: it's far too early for inclusion this time around. In fact, those looking for big splashy show-off features in Photoshop CS6 will also be looking in vain.

The New Features

The first thing you notice about Photoshop CS6 is its new interface. You now have the choice between four base colours, from near-black to pale grey - so Photoshop can look more like Lightroom if you choose. Everything has been subtly tweaked, from the hundreds of redesigned icons (the Pen and Lasso tools now indicate their active hotspots more clearly) to a crisper, more consistent layout.

Sony Vegas Pro 12

Sony Vegas Pro 12 is now available! In this version, Sony has made quite a few vital updates that definitely improve the editing workflow. Some new audio and workflow updates and support for a handful of new video formats. Be sure to stay tuned as we’ll take a look at all the new features individually in upcoming videos.

Smart Proxy Workflow

I’ve seen many people struggle with lag or choppiness during playback. With Smart Proxy Workflow, you can create high-performance, edit- friendly Smart Proxy clips in the Project Media view, to achieve faster playback. The media will automatically and dynamically switch from original to proxy based on the Preview playback settings. Original media files will be used for the final render.

Microsoft Office 2013

The first thing you’ll see when you open Microsoft Office is a clean, new look. But the features you know and use are still there along with some new ones that are huge time savers. The new Office also works with smartphones, tablets, and in the cloud, even on PCs that don’t have Office installed. So now you can always get to your important files, no matter where you are or what you’re using.

Save and share files in the cloud

The cloud is like file storage in the sky. You can get to it anytime you’re online. No
w it’s easy to save your Office files to your own SkyDrive or your organization’s site. From there you can access and share your Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and other Office files. You can even work together with your colleagues on the same file at the same time.

Microsoft Windows 8 Professional

Windows 8 is a version of Microsoft Windows (an operating system developed by Microsoft) for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablets, and home theater PCs. Development of Windows 8 started before the release of its predecessor, Windows 7, in 2009. It was announced at CES 2011, and followed by the release of three pre-release versions from September 2011 to May 2012. The operating system was released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012, and was released for general availability on October 26, 2012.

Language and standards support

Windows 8 allows the use of a new platform, the Windows Runtime (WinRT), to create a new type of application that runs in a secure sandbox, and facilitate easier sharing of data between them, or snap to the side of a widescreen display for multi-tasking. WinRT, being a COM-based API, allows for the use of various programming languages to code apps, including C++, C++/CX, C#, Visual Basic .NET, or HTML5 and JavaScript.

Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate

Windows 7 is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, netbooks, tablet PCs, and media center PCs. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available for retail worldwide on October 22, 2009, less than three years after the release of its predecessor, Windows Vista. Windows 7's server counterpart, Windows Server 2008 R2, was released at the same time. Windows 7 is succeeded by Windows 8.

Themes

Support for themes has been extended in Windows 7. In addition to setting the colors of the window chrome, desktop background, desktop icons, mouse pointers and sound schemes, themes in Windows 7 include desktop slideshow settings. A new control panel interface, accessible through the "Personalize" context menu item on the desktop, has been introduced which provides the ability to customize and switch between themes, as well as download more themes from Microsoft's web site. Support for "theme packs" is included; theme packs are cabinet files with an extension of .themepack, and consist of a .theme as well as any number of image, sound, icon, and mouse cursor files.

Adobe After Effects CS6

Adobe After Effects has a huge user base in the motion graphics and animation sectors, so any update to the power of this venerable compositing workhorse will be eagerly scrutinised by those working in broadcast and cross-media applications. Luckily for those artists (and Adobe), After Effects CS6 will do nothing to tarnish its status and appeal.

Accurate Tracking in After Effects CS6

Another highly useful tool is the new 3D camera tracker. As the name suggests, this builds a virtual 3D camera within a piece of imported footage, automatically determining the movements of the camera in the original footage and its relationship to the planes in the scene. It's thus much quicker than previous versions to place new 3D layers in your scene more faithfully in your scene.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS6

Until recently Adobe Premiere Pro has failed to make much of an impression on a broadcast market dominated by Avid and Apple. That all changed with the introduction of the Mercury Playback Engine, and Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 takes the app to the next level.

Over 50 enhancements

With over 50 enhancements in this release, Adobe has a chance to cut further into the high-end market it's been striving for, but it remains to be seen if Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 will be enough to knock Avid off the broadcast throne. It's in that light then that we peel back the (virtual) wrapping of the latest edition. Virtual is the operative word in this case, because as well as being able to buy Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 as a standalone desktop application or boxed copy of Production Premium, you can also use it as part of an Adobe Creative Cloud membership