Logic Studio is Apple's most powerful and complete music software package to date. It comprises a suite of tools: Logic Pro 8, a professional sequencer; Soundtrack Pro 2, a post-production program; MainStage, a live performance application; and a selectio...

An awesomely powerful music studio, Sounds fantastic, Unbeatable value for money, Intuitive new interface, Looks good

Old users may baulk at interface

Logic Studio is an amazingly comprehensive professional music package and unbeatable value for Mac users

Despite competition from Equinux in recent years, Elgato remains the natural choice if you want to add a TV tuner to your Mac. Not only is the accompanying EyeTV software powerful, slick and flexible, but the company has a wide range of TV tuner solutions...

Can digitise analogue sources, Includes Toast 8 Basic for burning DVDs, Receives both digital and analogue, Year's subscription to tvtv.co.uk, Export to Apple TV, iPod and iPhone

Expensive

For those after a feature-rich TV tuner, this is an elegant and powerful solution

Just in case you were wondering, you haven't accidentally slept through iLife '07. Apple has decided that since 2007 is closer to its end than its start, it would skip ahead to iLife '08. With so much development time going into Leopard, the iPhone and iP...

Much better management with Events, iMovie '08 is very quick and easy to use, .Mac Web Gallery integration

No video effects in iMovie '08 any more, Can't open iMovie HD 6 files, .Mac required to get full benefit

iLife '08 stands as an excellent suite of digital tools, with some nifty improvements for iMovie and iPhoto in particular

Ever since its introduction at NAB in 1998, Final Cut Pro has come a very long way. Napoleon Dynamite, Cold Mountain, Jarhead and, more recently, 300 and Zodiac are just a few of the many feature films that have been edited in the application

Open Format Timeline, New Motion 3D multiplane environment, Professional colour grading app, Reasonable price

Needs a fast machine with loads of RAM, 59GB of space needed to install all content

Great value for money if you're a professional or amateur filmmaker. Just remember to factor in the cost of having to buy a powerful Mac if you haven't already got one

The Mac is fair starved of entry-level audio editors. While open-source freebie Audacity is popular, it's not very elegant and makes few concessions towards inexperienced users. Looking upmarket, we've Bias' Peak Pro and Adobe's Audition

Easy to use, Powerful optimisation features, Spectral-view editing, A welcome History palette

Inflexible effects rack, No PPC version

A promising piece of software that looks set to fill a gap in the market for a capable, entry-level audio editor

Ever since its first release back in 1991, Painter has been a firm favourite with digital artists. Its ability to replicate the look, and to some extent feel of real-life mediums has brought many artists' visions to life

Huge art toolset, RealBristle Painting System is excellent, Great compositional tools, Match palette effect is invaluable, Great price

Tablet needed to make the most of it

An utterly brilliant digital painting tool that just cannot be ignored if you're serious about painting on your Mac

Enlarging images in Adobe Photoshop is part art, part science. The art part is a combination of skill and accidental good fortune. The science part is more predictable: the fewer pixels an image has to begin with, the worse it will look...

Easy to use, Good image quality, Scales to extremely large sizes, Good colour handling

Slower than enlarging in Photoshop, Expensive

Blow Up goes one better than Photoshop by making tiny images bigger and bolder

Find a DJ mate who's a vinyl junkie - the sort who can beat-match and scratch as if born with a headphone earpiece clamped to his or her head. Advocate DJing on a computer, then hear the DJ rant about the superior feel of vinyl and decks.

Makes Experimentation a Breeze, Movie Support, Racks and Folders Improve Workflow, Flexible MIDI Mapping, Multi-Core/Processor Support

No Surround Sound Support

Seasoned users will find that Live retains its instant-groove appeal, while stage performers will appreciate enhancements to project organisation and MIDI control

Think of Quark and you'll think of QuarkXPress. There's a reason for that: for years, Quark has been a one-product company. That's not for the want of trying. Quark has tried numerous times to break out of its page-layout software niche...

Has XPress's Layout Power and Simplicity, No Programming Skills Required, Designers Can Work on Same Projects, Excellent Price Tag

Slightly Limited Range of Flash Features, Output Options Not Up To Latest Tech

There are a few kinks in it, something to be expected in a 1.0 release, but for anyone who knows QuarkXPress, could never get to grips with Flash and doesn't want to be a coder, QID could be just the program you're looking for.

Apple has added another program to its range of professional digital editing tools, this time aimed at pro digital photographers and their post-production needs. At the heart of Aperture is the ability to handle RAW files swiftly.

Brilliant layout, Lightbox and magnifying tool, Versioning

Poor RAW conversion, Slow importing, The price

For people with money, this is a truly world-class update for iPhoto. But the pro features need work to please the target market