June 24, 2013

7 Adobe Photoshop CC Alternatives

7 Adobe Photoshop CC Alternatives-PCMAGAZINE

Mad as hell at Adobe's recent shift to a subscription model with Creative Cloud? You're not alone! Check out these low-cost and free alternatives to Adobe Photoshop CC.

By Michael Muchmore
June 21, 2013

Let's face it: Nothing is going to completely replace Adobe's flagship Photoshop image-editing software if you need its whiz-bang, technological-marvel features. Things like content-aware fill, smart objects, and the new camera-shake correction are just not to be found in any other software. But if you just need basic, standard Photoshop features—adding text, glows, drop shadows, overlay layers, or sharpening-the actual application from Adobe is overkill. And the Adobe's recent jump to a cloud/subscription model with Adobe Photoshop CC has made many users hopping, frothing, foaming mad. Fear not: Photoshop isn't the only game in town.

Some of the lower-cost Photoshop alternatives come from Adobe itself: Serious Photographers can get most of the Photoshop features they need in the company's workflow application, Lightroom, which lists for $149. Photo enthusiasts and imaging hobbyist will get what they need from the even less-expensive Photoshop Elements, which actually simplifies creating a lot of the effects pros produce in Photoshop itself. It's available directly from Adobe for $99 standalone or $149 in a bundle with sister program Premiere Elements, an enthusiast-level video editor.

Even lower-cost Photoshop alternatives come from competitors. One of the longest-standing of these is Corel, with its similarly named Paintshop Pro ($59.99), which offers a surprising amount of Photoshop-like functionality. Another competitor is ACDSee, which offers three levels of imaging applications, the lightweight, starting with the basic ACDSee ($19.99) program, which offers brush-on edits, 20 effect filters, drawing tools, and noise reduction. At the midlevel is the $49 ACDSee Photo Editor, which gets closer to Photoshop, with object layers, tools like Red Eye and Smudge, Text, and batch editing. Along the lines of Lightroom is ACDSee Pro, which powerful app sells for a remarkable $39.99 (discounted from $99.99).
But if you really want to save money, there's a lot you can do for free, and even in some cases, in a web browser. The granddaddy of free but powerful image-editing software is "the Gimp." This extremely customizable and powerful open-source application is, however, very far from being a usability champ—expect a high learning curve. Even though it lives in your web browser, Autodesk's Pixlr Editor is an amazingly powerful web-based image editor that can even work with layers and sports toolbars and panels that will look familiar to any Photoshop user. A similar though less-polished offering is Paint.net, but deceptively, it's software you download rather than a web app.

So, as you can see, you may be able to do everything you thought you needed Photoshop for with something less expensive. Of course, there's nothing like the real thing. Read on to see if any of our suggested applications fit your needs. If not, getting Photoshop as a subscription may be gentler on your pocketbook, at $19.99 a month.

FEATURED IN THIS ROUNDUP

ACDSee

$19.99
ACDSee 14 offers fast, simple operation, nice photo organization tools, and all the standard photo-fixing basics: cropping, rotating, exposure, color correction, sharpening, red-eye reduction, and blemish removal. The app can also do several Photoshop-like tricks, including applying lots of artistic effects such as the popular lomo and Orton, as well as pencil drawing and painting effects. In all, the app offers 45 effects, but falls short of Adobe Photoshop Elements in really advanced stuff like content-aware filling and photo merging. Read the full review ››

Corel Paintshop Pro

$39.99 street
The latest version of this venerable imaging software adds some whiz-bang features like face tagging, mapping, and Instagram-like one-click photo effects. PaintShop may not be as polished and loaded with unique, mind-blowing imaging tools, but it's capable of everything a lot of users will ever need, and it's priced to sell. Read the full review ››

GIMP

Free
The name of this longstanding open source image editing project is short for GNU Image Manipulation Program. Though you can use it for free to your heart's content, the project actually does accept contributions through Bitcoin and Flattr. A lot of GIMP's capabilities are courtesy of plugins, such as its support for raw camera files and custom brushes. You get the expected layers, gradients, paths, text, curves, and levels tools. And if you're running Linux or it's your most powerful image-editing option. Read the full review ››

Paint.net

Free
Paint.net is pretty bare bones, but at least it's free, and it does give you a lot of Photoshoppy tools. It features an easy-to-use interface and an array of effects. But there's no built-in sharing tools (like every other photo editor on the planet now has), no photo-organizing tools and no Mac version. Read the full review ››

Photoshop Elements

$99.99 list
Coming from the same source as Photoshop itself, you know Elements will offer some state-of-the-art imaging software technology, and it does. Not only that, it makes a lot of effects that would take painstaking effort in Photoshop simpler, with its Guided Edits. Two other modes, Quick and Expert do as their names suggest: the first offering very basic, simple fixes and adjustments, and the latter coming closer to Photoshop itself. Read the full review ››

Pixlr
Not Rated
Free
Load the web page at http://pixlr.com and you may be amazed that you're not looking at Photoshop: You see the same toolbar running down the left, with crop, lasso, marquee, wand (alas, no "magic"), pencil, brush, eraser, bucket, gradient, clone stamp, smudge, and lots more. You even get tooltips telling you what the tools are when you hover the cursor over them. On the right, you'll see panels for layers, history, and a navigator. The app—I mean site—offers adjustments for levels and curves, and many many effects, including water swirl, kaleidoscope, night vision, selective blurs, and mimicking HDR.

Serif PhotoPlus

$89.99
With 64-bit image processing engine, Smart Selection and Edge Refinement tools, noise reduction, and a tilt-shift effect, Serif PhotoPlus is no slouch. It's just not as slick or intuitive as the competition, with no face recognition and no adjustment brushes. For your rather steep $89.99, you do however get non-destructive cropping, raw camera file support, and tools for adjusting adjust white balance and exposure, reduce noise, crop. You can even use masks to apply adjustments to specific areas of the image. Read the full review ››

Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2418674,00.asp

June 23, 2013

How To Install Windows XP Mode (XPM) on Windows 7 by Daniel Petri

By Daniel Petri, 07-20-2009 from petr.co.il
In my previous article ("Installing Virtual PC on Windows 7") I walked you through the features of the new Windows Virtual PC software that is specially designed for Windows 7. Windows Virtual PC provides the capability to run multiple Windows environments such as Windows XP Mode from your Windows 7 desktop.

What Exactly is Windows XP Mode?

Windows XP Mode (or XPM for short) is a new feature of Windows 7 (available only in the Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions) that can help businesses to upgrade their computers to Windows 7. It does so by providing a virtual Windows XP environment capable of running many Windows XP-compatible business and productivity applications. By using Windows Virtual PC you can now run many older business and productivity applications that only work in Windows XP on your Windows 7 machine. This is made possible by installing these applications inside the Windows XP virtual machine, and integrating them with your Windows 7 desktop and start menu. This way, you can launch these applications from the Windows 7 desktop or Start menu with just a single click, and have them integrate seamlessly with the Windows 7 environment.
Here are some of new features in Windows Virtual PC that make it easier for you to run your legacy applications in a virtual software environment:

The ability to use many of your USB devices from within a virtual Windows environment, such as Windows XP Mode.
Seamless launching of Windows XP applications from your Windows 7 desktop, Start Menu, or Taskbar.
Clipboard sharing, which enables you to cut, copy, and paste data between the host Windows 7 desktop and the virtual machine.
Printer sharing between the Windows 7 desktop and the virtual Windows environment.
Drive sharing, which provides easy access to all host data from within the virtual machine.
Folder integration between operating environments

Unfortunately, Virtual PC only supports 32-bit virtual machines. If you want to run any 64-bit virtual machine you'll need to either install Windows Server 2008 + Hyper-V, or use a 3rd-party virtualization program such as VMware Workstation or Sun Virtual Box (free).

How to Install Windows XPM

Important: To run Windows Virtual PC (and with it, XPM), your computer has to have the Intel VT or AMD-V features enabled in the BIOS. To find out if your PC is virtualization capable, please visit the Windows Virtual PC support page.
Another important note: XPM is a concept. Not a virtual machine. However, Microsoft has made a default Windows XP VM available to download, and has integrated it into Windows Virtual PC. Thus, when referring to XPM, in fact I am talking about what is called "Virtual Windows XP".
Note: All screenshots and procedures are based on the RC version of Windows 7, and the beta version of Virtual PC.
First, make sure you've installed Virtual PC (see my Virtual PC installation instructions) and rebooted your machine.
Next, type "virtual" in the Windows 7 Start menu, you'll get a link to Virtual PC, and another one to Virtual Windows XP.

If you click on Virtual Windows XP, you'll be prompted to download it.

You can use the following link for the download, which is 445MB in size:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx
Note: You do not need to re-download it for every PC you need to install it on, just download once and manually install it multiple times.
When the download has finished, double-click on the VirtualWindowsXP.msi file to launch the installation.

Click Run.

Click Next.

Next, accept the file location at C:\Program Files\Virtual Windows XP, and click Next.

Note: You will need quite a lot of disk space on the C:\ partition,not just because the Virtual Windows XP installation is big, but also depending on the amount, type and size of all the applications that you plan to use in the virtual XP machine. So, if you plan to use Virtual Windows XP extensively, consider changing this path. More about that in a later article on working with virtual Windows XP Disks in Windows Virtual PC and Windows 7.
You might be prompted by the Windows 7 User Account Control (UAC) prompt. Click Yes to continue the installation.
When the installation process is over click Finish.

Note: Since the current version of Virtual PC for Windows 7 is beta, you might want to remove the default Virtual Windows XP machine when the RTM version is available.

Launching the Virtual Windows XP

When you finished installing it, you were prompted to launch Virtual Windows XP.

If you did not do so then, you can always launch it from the Start menu.

You can also go to the Virtual Machines folder, you will now see a shortcut to Virtual Windows XP.

Either as the final phase of the installation process, or as a separate click, when you first launch Virtual Windows XP, you will be prompted to accept the license agreement. Select the "I accept" check-box, and then click Next.

Next, you'll be prompted to provide a password for the default user account (called "user") that the Virtual Windows XP machine will use. You can also configure Virtual PC to remember these credentials (which will make using the VM much more easier, not having to enter this information each time you're going to use it). Click Next.

Next, you'll be asked if you want to enable auto-updates for the Virtual Windows XP machine. Because this is a beta system I chose not to enable auto-updates. Click Next.

As this is the first time Virtual Windows XP is launched, it will take a few moments till it prepares the VM for first use. You will see a progress bar windows that will change for a few moments.

Finally, if you've got a sound card and speakers on your system, you'll hear the good old Windows XP starting sound, and you'll see the XP desktop ready for your usage.

Source: http://www.petri.co.il/installing-windows-xpm-on-windows-7.htm

How To Enable “Stereo Mix” in Windows 7 (to Record Audio)

Ever need to record something on your computer exactly as it comes out of your speakers? Enabling “Stereo Mix” will let you do exactly that, and here’s how to do it.
Nowadays, most sound cards have the ability to record whatever is being output. The only hang-up is accessing that recording channel, which can be done rather easily.

Enable Stereo Mix

Go down to the audio icon in your system tray, right-click it, and go to “Recording Devices” to open up the proper settings pane.

In the pane, right-click on a blank area, and make sure both “View Disabled Devices” and “View Disconnected Devices” options are checked. You should see a “Stereo Mix” option appear.

Right-click on “Stereo Mix” and click “Enable” to be able to use it.

I Still Don’t See It…

In some cases, your audio chipset drivers aren’t helping your cause. Most likely, this is because they’re outdated. In other instances, however, it’s because the newest Windows 7 drivers don’t support this feature. This was the case on my Asus Eee PC (a 1000HE), but I got around the issue by downloading and installing the older Windows XP/Vista drivers for my audio chipset. As always, before changing your drivers, make sure create a system restore point in case things don’t go as planned.

How Do I Use This?

With “Stereo Mix” enabled, you can open up your favorite recording program and select that instead of your microphone before you record. If you don’t see the option, or your program doesn’t give you the ability to change the recording device, you can disable or unplug your microphone and make “Stereo Mix” the default recording device.

This works well for when you want to capture audio for a screen-sharing session, or record audio from streaming sources – such as live web-casts – that don’t necessarily allow you to download content immediately. In order to do that, you’d open up your audio-recording application of choice (like Audacity), be sure other recording devices are muted or disabled, and click record. Be sure to check out our article, The How-To Geek Guide on Audio Editing: The Basics, to learn how to use Audacity.

Source: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/39532/how-to-enable-stereo-mix-in-windows-7-to-record-audio/

June 15, 2013

How to Add Facebook Chat to Pidgin

Add The World’s Largest Social Network & Online Game To Pidgin

With MSN (or Windows Live Messenger) being recently laid to rest and Skype not offering a protocol for us all to connect through, it’s safe to say that all-purpose messengers like Pidgin are slowly falling out of favor. Nevertheless, it’s still my all-time favorite and – although it’s ancient – I am still a firm believer in AIM as a messenger. I still use it and many of my friends still use it. Text-based IMing is all I really care for and AIM gets the job done, especially when connected through Pidgin.

Pidgin fortunately supports XMPP, and XMPP is a lot more powerful than you think. Using XMPP, you’re able to connect through a number of options that you’ve probably never considered were available through Pidgin. In this post, I’d like to show you how to connect to Facebook Chat and your League of Legends account through Pidgin.

Facebook Chat on Pidgin

Many years ago, Mark did an article venting a few frustrations with a Pidgin plugin that enabled Facebook Chat through Pidgin. It was a bit quirky and unreliable, but thankfully we’ll no longer have to turn to that. Newer versions of Pidgin actually show support for Facebook Chat as a “protocol,” although it’s the exact same setup as working with XMPP. It’s a placebo of sorts. On older versions of Pidgin (namely those that are available as portable, third-party builds), Facebook Chat isn’t offered. Let me show you how to get Facebook Chat working with Pidgin.

First off, let’s make sure you have a Facebook username. You’ll need to set one up and know yours to continue configuring your Facebook Chat account through Pidgin. If you’re unclear about Facebook usernames, check out some information on them here.

Once you’ve got your username, you want to go to the Manage Accounts option under theAccounts menu in Pidgin. From here, click to add a new account. On that screen, you should see a list of protocols.

As aforementioned, you may see an option for both Facebook and XMPP. Clicking between the two will show that they offer the exact same fields, only that the Facebook option populates the domain for you. Let’s select XMPP, just for the sake of having this guide work smoothly for those running older versions of Pidgin.

The information shown above is what you’ll want to enter in the shown fields.

Username: Your Facebook username
Domain: chat.facebook.com
Password: Your Facebook password

I strongly recommend ticking the checkbox to remember your password, also.

You’ll want to make sure that you’re using port 5222, and (if you’re client shows the option) make sure to not require SSL/TLS. Afterwards, you’re all done! Add the account and it should connect successfully.

There is a chance you may receive a window asking for an SSL verification, depending on the version of Pidgin you’re running. If you receive this window, you can safely accept it.

As shown above, you’ll also receive a courtesy IM from Facebook Chat letting you know that you’re now shown as online.

League of Legends on Pidgin

I’ve covered League of Legends pretty often here at MUO, and it’s deserving of the attention. Did you know you can actually access your League of Legends friends and chat with them through Pidgin?

Like in my last example with Facebook Chat, you’ll need to go through and add a new account, selecting XMPP as the protocol.

The information you’ll need to enter is as follows:

Username: Your League of Legends username
Domain: pvp.net
Password: AIR_password (if your password is “1234“, you’d enter “AIR_1234“)

On the Advanced tab, you have more configuring to do.

You’ll need to use port 5223 and it is very important that you have your security type set toold-style SSL. As for the server you’re connecting to, on which server is your account located?

North America: chat.na1.lol.riotgames.com
Europe West: chat.eu.lol.riotgames.com
Europe Nordic/East: chat.eun1.lol.riotgames.com

Adding this account should fill up your buddylist with categories corresponding to what you have set up on your League of Legends friends list. If you are invited to a game while connected through Pidgin, you will get an IM that informs you.

Pidgin and other multi-protocol messengers aren’t completely useless yet. I’m actually still able to connect to my Windows Live Messenger account through Pidgin, as I do believe it has officially converted my account to a Skype account. Does that mean we’ll be able to use Windows Live’s protocol to access our Skype buddylists through Pidgin? It’d be a great tweak and I’m definitely going to be looking into more of that.

Being able to connect to services like Facebook Chat and League of Legends are reason enough to give Pidgin a shot if you don’t have it installed already. Let me know what you guys think of this advice in the comments and feel free to share any other neat XMPP connection tips!

Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/add-the-worlds-largest-social-network-online-game-to-pidgin/

Everything Windows & Chromebook

June 24, 2013