There are few certainties in life. Until recently, the list was: death, taxes and the predictability of a Shortland Street storyline. Now you can add the yearly update by Apple of its iLife suite of applications

iPhoto '09 introduces two major new features in Faces and Places, and a few nice-to-haves

Like its predecessors (which bore the name Easy Media Creator), Roxio Creator 2009 is a massive suite of applications that covers nearly everything you can do with or to CDs and DVDs and their photo, audio, data, or video contents

Roxio Creator 2009 has a revamped interface that refines the centralised application launcher found in the last few incarnations. The confusing list of application names has given way to a complete task-oriented menu, with clear labels such as 'Create ...

A photo organiser and an impressive photo editor in one, Adobe's $649 Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 ($249 as an upgrade) adds new editing tools that extend the scope of Lightroom's familiar environment while keeping things simple, further reducing the need ...

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0's strength lies as much in its ability to process images as in its ability to help users organise and keep track of their ever-growing collection of photos. The Library Filter gets a makeover in Lightroom 2.0, moving to ...

Adobe's Acrobat software has evolved beyond merely reading Adobe's PDF files. With the new Acrobat 9.0, Adobe adds features that elevate Acrobat to a potential must-have application for business and individuals alike

Portfolio is one of the most useful additions to Acrobat in years. With Portfolio, you have the ability to very easily create a suite of related files and documents - complete with their own intro screen. Conceptually, this almost reminds me of how ...

Creating easy-to-use video editing software is never an easy job and yet so many people own a home video camera and would like a way to make watchable movies. Apple has done an admirable job for Mac users in the shape of the easy to use iMovie, but PC ...

High end users, on the other hand, may be interested in Sony Vegas Movie Studio 8.0 Platinum Edition's improved support for HD video editing

The biggest news about Adobe's Premiere Pro CS3 video editor is that it's Windows Vista compatible and, for the first time in years, Mac-compatible

For example, Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 accepts HDV (High Definition Video) footage, as it did in the previous version, but it still doesn't work with AVCHD (Advanced Video Codec High Definition) footage - when some other video editors that cost about an ...

Pinnacle Studio's owner, Avid, is a leader in the professional video editing industry and some of that high-end expertise has filtered down into the new Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 11

But it's worth bearing in mind that, aside from real enthusiasts, few home users are actually capturing or editing video in HD format. For most users, there's probably no need to update existing software until HD becomes more prevalent. But should you ...

Image editing software Adobe Photoshop CS3 is brimming with so many image-editing tools that the biggest challenge facing it seems to be where to stuff them all. This latest version of Photoshop adds even more tools and enhancements to the mix, but it ...

Many Photoshop users opt for dual-monitor setups just so they'll have a place to stow the application's seemingly endless array of screen-hogging palettes. Photoshop CS3, however, introduces an important interface upgrade: resizable palette buttons ...

Photo editing software The release of Adobe's $460 Lightroom follows an extended public beta program. It's an unusual approach for the Photoshop maker, but it appears to have paid off, with the final product introducing some significant changes ...

Lightroom is best described as doing for serious amateur and professional photographers what Photoshop Elements does for the casual digital photographer. It takes the high-end photography-specific tools of Photoshop and Adobe Camera RAW and distills ...

Microsoft is putting a new face on Windows Media Player, with the application's biggest overhaul in years. The beta of the updated client offers a cleaner, Vista-like interface and improved handling of large libraries and album art. MTV's Urge, a ...

Early adopters can download the beta player here. Here's a rundown of the highlights in WMP 11 and Urge