Wize Blog

Photoshop CS4--No 64-Bit for Mac

Windows gets it and Macs don't. The former will have a 64-bit version of Photoshop CS4 and the later won't.

The 64 bit version of Photoshop  offers users an easier way to use more than 4GB of memory when using the program.

The functionality of the program also depends on the kind of chip you have. The 64-bit Intel and AMDx86 have more registers (areas to store data) that effects the speed at which the program operates. Photoshop CS4 will be able to operate at 64 bits with these chips.

It really isn't a big deal which version of Photoshop--64-bit or 32-bit-- you have, not yet anyway. None of the 64-bit designs are not used in the real world because the files haven't grown that big.

But they will, and soon.

Over the next two years when 8GB of memory will be commonplace, the differences in speed between the 64-bit and 32-bit versions of Photoshop CS4 will become substantial. That's because  as images are increasing in clarity and size, and you need more memory to handle the files.

Microsoft to Let Users Create Own Games for XBox Live

Microsoft announced today that the games made with XNA Game Studio Express, a platform that has let users create their own games for XBox 360 and Windows, will appear on XBox Live.

Users will be able to upload the games they have made to be distributed from the Microsoft XBox Live Web site.

The system for submitting games begins with the "Creator's Club,"  a place where seasoned gamers can submit their own games for review by their peers. The games are then reviewed by the gamers' peers. Games that are selected will appear on the site.

You will also be able to put the games on Zune (rated 95 at wize.com), Microsoft's portable music player.

Free Offer and Price Drop to Save the HD-DVD

Microsoft dropped it's price for the HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360 (rated 95 at wize.com) to $130 from $180.

That's not the only deal you get when you buy this dying breed of high definition DVD player; you can also get 5 free movies when you purchase one. All you do is submit your receipt with the price and date circled with a form and Toshiba/Microsoft will send you the HD-DVDs.

Matt Peckham seems to think that the next thing Microsoft will do is come out with an external Blue-ray for the Xbox 360.

Whatever happens, I believe, that in two or three years, the HD-DVD players and DVDs will be hitting the garage sale circuit.

How to Connect Windows Media Center to Your PC

Step by step instructions to make the three connections required to get your Media Center going.
Shows to set up the media center in Windows Vista and then illustrates  MyTV guide selections.

Bill Gates Farewell Speech at CES

Of interest to all is Bill Gates speech at CES, the Consumer Electronics Show on Sunday, January 6.

The streaming media has amazing sound and picture quality.   

Gates describes a future of touchable screens, high definition media and widely-used voice recognition.

Does that mean we can all toss our keyboards?

Computing, indeed, is moving away from giant desktops to affordable laptops, PDAs and mobile phones.

Two Ways to Speed Up Vista

Anyone who has Vista as an operating system on their PC knows Vista can be slow. That's just one of the annoying things about it.

According to an article in the Seattle Times, "Apple's software runs on computers with half the memory required for a Vista machine." Just goes to show you the trouble with the system as compared to that of the Mac's. The operating system's occupation of so much of the memory in the machine is going to slow down your PC.

The article also suggested two ways to speed up Vista on your PC.

1. Turning off the "view thumbnails" feature in the control panel.
2. Making sure that your machine has enough main memory to run Vista.

You can also look on the bright side of what the operating system has to offer--Vista has way less of a chance of getting a virus than XP.

Ten Questions about Vienna's Touch Screen

Microsoft's new operating system will be called Vienna, according to Microsoft test engineer Hilton Locke.

The system will include a touch screen interface like the one on the iPhone (which leaves me with the question of why Apple isn't doing this with their laptops).

"You'll be blown away by what's coming in Windows 7," Locke says in an article on macdailynews.com.

What I want to know is in the future is:

Will I be closing down down my windows by touching the red dot?
Will I be opening apps by clicking on their icons?
Will I be touching options in drop down navigation bars?
Will I be moving sliders in dialog boxes?
Will Microsoft applications follow the touch me trend?
Will other companies such as Adobe make their programs touchable?
Will the OS include the touchable options that already exist on a tablet PC?
Will you be able to play computer games by touching the characters in them?
Will you be able to touch and drag instead of click and drag?
Will you be able to "double-touch" instead of "double-click"

Is this too much future tripping?  There are endless possibilities for touch screens on laptops because the screens are so big.

What is a Dell Tablet PC?

Dell came out with their first tablet PC today, the Latitude XT Tablet PC.

Microsoft.com defines a tablet as "computers powered by the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition operating system, and equipped with a sensitive screen designed to interact with a complementary pen.  Tablet PCs are fully-functional laptop PCs.

You can use the pen directly on the screen just as you would a mouse to do things like select, drag, and open files; or in place of a keyboard to handwrite notes and communication."

The Latitude XT starts at $2,499, not cheap by any standard.

According to CNET, the Latitude XT comes with a 12.1-inch LED-backlit screen, a 1.06-gigahertz Intel Core 2 Solo processor, 1GB of memory, and a 40GB hard drive. It can run on  Windows Vista Business edition or XP Tablet Edition. The whole device weighs 3.57 pounds, and has about 5 hours of battery life.

Microsoft vs Google Online Doc Sharing

Everyone's going to Office Live Workspace today as it was released for anyone who has a Windows Live ID.

Google Docs has had a document workspace, which allows you to create new documents or allows you to edit ones that are already on your computer.

The two companies are now competing in the doc share market.

Bill Gates is calling the new service a "software-plus-services" approach.

According to PCmag.com, "Microsoft is adding choices in installed office applications for saving documents to the web, rather than starting on the web and letting you move the document to a local hard drive."

Google, on the other hand, lets you upload existing files on your desktop or create new ones and gives you the option of saving them in a variety of formats including .doc and .rtf formats. The other option for your files is that you can publish the files to the Internet. Google assigns a URL to the page(s) you create.

With Google you can get the entire service without having any office-type programs installed on your computer.

In Office Live, you edit documents from a web-based interface, in the same way you do in Google. Then Live lets you save Office documents directly to the web from the installed Microsoft Office applications.   

Fifth Anniversary of the Xbox Live Service

As of December 4, you won't need a disc to boot games like Halo (rated 97 at wize.com), Fable, Psychonauts (rated 97 at wize.com), and Crimson Skies (rated 91 at wize.com).

The next update to the firmware of the Xbox 360 offers the opportunity to download games for the original Xbox hardware.

Microsoft today announced that it will be selling those four games online, along with some others from the Xbox Live Marketplace early next month.

For the fifth anniversay of Xbox Live service, all Xbox Live gamers will get one free Xbox Live Arcade game and 500 free Microsoft Points for all members who signed up in 2002

Beware, though, any Xbox consoles only have 20 GB hard drives, which probably are already filled up. Might have to purchase a new hard drive to fit in more downloads.