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First of all, the interface in Microsoft Office is excellent. It looks great and will help you get things done quicker - but for the expensive price of even the cheapest version, you're better off settling for the free OpenOffice suite which has a more traditional interface that you are probably used to if you've used previous versions of Microsoft Office or Corel WordPerfect.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 software combines power and simplicity so you can go beyond the basics. Make your photos look their best, share them in creative ways, and easily find and view them. Photoshop Elements also works great with iPhoto.

Bring out the best in your photos

Make your photos look their best

• Create amazing composites with easy-to-use tools
• Get greater control over color and lighting
• Brush away wrinkles, unwanted objects, and other flaws
• Make selections in a snap so you can easily adjust specific areas of a photo
• Easily adjust skin tones for a more natural look

Select and adjust specific areas of a photo more quickly and easily than ever before.

Get exactly the look you envision with flexible layout options.

Do more with your photos

• Start creating quickly, no experience necessary
• Express your ideas in customizable layouts
• Share printed photos in creative scrapbook pages, cards, CD/DVD labels, and more
• Share photos with family and friends via a personal online album
• Make the most of your photo paper by printing multiple photos in flexible Picture Packages

Easily organize your photos with visual tagging options.

Create the perfect group shot Never let a frown or a closed pair of eyes ruin a group photo again. Enhanced Photomerge technology lets you easily combine the best facial expressions and body language from a series of group shots to create a single, perfect composite.

Easily find and view your photos

• Download photos from your camera to your computer in a snap
• Categorize photos with easy-to-use keyword tags
• Group related photos in convenient stacks
• View photos just the way you like, every time, by creating a custom workspace
• Easily view and rate your photos in full-screen mode

Make your photos look their best

• Experiment with easy-to-use compositing tools that let you create perfect group photos, seamless panoramas, and more.
• Easily make adjustments to color, lighting, and exposure. Convert color originals to rich black-and-whites; fine-tune color, brightness, and contrast; and get the highest quality results by editing the raw image files from your digital camera.
• Easily brush away wrinkles and unwanted objects using the Spot Healing Brush for instant results and the Healing Brush for finer control. Now when you use the Healing Brush, you can take advantage of visual guidance from an overlay that makes it easy to get the results you want.
• Make image selections in seconds so you can easily adjust specific areas of a photo. Simply brush your selection, and then use sliders to make the selection blend perfectly with the background.

Do more with your photos

• Easily make photo creations like scrapbook pages, cards, and CD/DVD labels. Simply choose the type of item you'd like to make and the appropriate tools and instructions will appear at your fingertips.
• Find inspiration in professionally designed, color-coordinated layouts that make it easy to put together great photo creations in minutes.

Or spend a little more time and customize all the elements of your chosen layout.

• Easily upload photos and order professional quality prints, photo books, and more. (Services vary worldwide.)
• Quickly and easily share your photos on the web, via e-mail, and on CD or DVD.
• Easily upload your photos to a personal online album. Friends and family can view your photos and instantly order prints.

Easily find and view your photos

• Quickly transfer photos from your digital camera's memory card to your computer so you can get back to taking photos sooner. Automatically copy photos to your preferred storage area, rename photos as they download, and even automatically tag photos with your name and copyright.
• Easily tag photos with keywords that represent people, places, or events. You can instantly view every photo you've ever taken of your family pet, for example, by simply clicking on its tag.
• Group related photos into stacks to find what you need faster and reduce clutter.
• View your photos just the way you want to by creating and saving your own custom viewing workspace.

this zune was $207 when i bought it a few weeks ago here- but anyways, I love my zune- this zune has a way bigger screen that ipod classic- all the better to view videos with- sort of like the ipod touch... but the ipod touch only goes up to 32GB! so you have to either sacrifice screen size or storage size if you go with ipod- and either way it will cost you more $$.
so i'd say the zune is an excellent choice- given its excellent quality and user friendliness. thanks microsoft!
p.s. i love the earphones that come with it- best ones i've ever had
p.p.s. i havent bought a charger yet because it charges itself automatically when you have it hooked up to your computer via USB cable.

Rosetta Stone Personal Edition contains everything you need to start learning a language. It's built around our award-winning Rosetta Stone curriculum, which has been adopted by organizations around the world including the U.S. Army, NASA, major corporations such as Deutsche Telecom, IKEA, Royal Dutch Shell, and over 10,000 schools worldwide--and is available in 31 languages spoken by over 90% of the world's population.

The Fastest, Easiest Way to Learn a New Language

Proceed at Your Own Pace
Rosetta Stone is considerate of your time. Anytime, anywhere, you can learn a new language with Rosetta Stone. You learn comfortably without feeling pressured or overwhelmed. Rosetta Stone provides guidance to make your language learning effective, fast, and enjoyable with a process that is intuitive, interactive, and visually engaging. At the end of each lesson, you are given the opportunity to test your new skills. And, since Rosetta Stone automatically records your progress, you can easily pick up where you left off, when other priorities arise.

Make Language Learning Intuitive with Dynamic Immersion
Rosetta Stone uses rich visual imagery to help you learn. You will be presented with sets of images to match correctly with a spoken or written phrase in the new language. You will advance to the next set of prompts once you've successfully matched words and images and pronounced the words correctly. With Dynamic Immersion, you learn by directly associating your new language with images--nothing is lost in translation.

The comprehensive language-learning solution that fits your life. Learn Naturally Learn your next language the same way you learned your first language. Dynamic Immersion empowers you to see, hear and comprehend without translating or memorizing. You already have this ability, Rosetta Stone simply unlocks it. Engage Interactively Get feedback to move forward. You learn best by doing, and you'll apply what you've learned to get to the next step. Rosetta Stone adapts to your individual needs and skills, because you drive the program with your progress. Speak Confidently Start speaking immediately. From the very first lesson, you'll speak. You'll begin with essential basics, which form the building blocks of the language. Soon you'll create new sentences on your own using words you've learned. Have Fun Best of all, Rosetta Stone is addictive. With every entertaining activity, you'll feel success. You'll want to use Rosetta Stone to have that next moment, that next breakthrough. So you'll keep using it, and you'll learn more!

Fun, Easy, and Immediate Reinforcement
Interactive exercises create a learning environment that is engaging and game-like--it's fun!

How It Works

As children, we gradually learned our first language through a process of associating mental images with words or phrases, accompanied by complete immersion in our environment. This approach was simple because it was natural and allowed the brain to adapt to increasing complexity.

Rosetta Stone recreated this natural way of learning by developing a method that uses a computer to mimic the environment in which we learned our first language. We call this Dynamic Immersion. A simple, intuitive interface and advanced technology confirms learning at every step of the process by prompting you to make connections between images you already understand and the new language. You receive immediate feedback, which helps you to reinforce learning. This systematic structure builds from simple nouns and verbs to more complex concepts and phrases very quickly, helping you achieve your language-learning goals faster than you ever thought possible.

Level 1, 2 & 3--Connect With the World

Connect with the world around you. Build a foundation of fundamental vocabulary and essential language structure. Quickly gain the confidence to enjoy social interactions such as greetings and introductions, travel, dining out, giving and getting directions, shopping and other recreational activities. Learn to share your ideas and opinions, express your feelings and talk about everyday life, your work, your interests, current events, and much more.

Features & Benefits

Faster and More Effective
Rosetta Stone will teach you as fast as you can learn! Leveraging your natural language-learning ability, Version 3 immerses you immediately in the new language, providing just the right context to prompt you to speak, pronounce, read and write in the very first lesson! Intuitive, sequential learning builds progressively and makes every lesson count. Our Dynamic Immersion method is so fast and so effective, it's used by the Fortune 500, the U.S. State Department, and over 10,000 schools.

Convenient
You pick the time, the place and the pace! We are ready when you are because there are no class schedules or missed lessons to make up. From your desk or your dining room, your valuable time can be turned into productive language learning that fits your lifestyle.

Enjoyable
When something is fun, it captures your attention...and holds it! The interactivity in Version 3 instantly engages you. Rich, vivid imagery, real-life context and voices of native speakers make Rosetta Stone different from any other product out there--never tedious or boring. Rosetta Stone provides a captivating, game-like experience.

Milestones
Learn and apply! Our MILESTONE feature lets you try out your new language knowledge in real-life situations.

Track Your Progress
New ADAPTIVE RECALL feature tracks your progress, reinforcing your strengths and revisiting your development areas.

New Speech Recognition Technology
State-of-the-art new speech recognition technology helps you learn to speak your new language even faster. And our new Speech Analysis Tool compares your voice to that of native speakers, helping you perfect your pronunciation.

Life-like Context
Our New CONTEXTUAL FORMATION feature uses real-life simulations and vivid imagery to give you exactly the context you need to produce new language--all on your own!

Level 1, 2 & 3 Set Includes:

The Basics
Nouns, verbs, adjectives, numbers, questions, colors, clothing.

Friends and Family
Ages, family relations, household items, introductions, landmarks, states, descriptions.

Work and School
Times of day, greetings, calendar terms, body parts, speaking, personal hygiene.

Shopping
Buying, selling and shopping; entertainment and sports; merchandise, speed and weight, comparing and contrasting.

Travel
Destinations, transportation, directions, locations, telling time, distance, cost, weather.

Past and Future
Tenses, letter writing, school subjects, signs, workplace terms, polite requests.

Friends and Social Life
Months of the year, arrivals and departures, social interaction, celebrations, meal courses, quality terms, apologies.

Dining and Vacation
Future tense; terms for art, architecture and music; emotions, places of worship, travel and lodging.

Home and Health
Terms for home, garden and backyard activities; household items and appliances; terms for strength and physical activity.

Life and World
Emotions, continents, life milestones, oceans, botanical terms, terms for animals.

Places and Events
Opinion and judgments, currency exchange and transactions; measurements, household repair tools, culinary terms.

Talking About the World
Nationalities, governmental leaders, political terms, media terms, business terms, religious terms. Doing things!

Audio Companion allows you to take Rosetta Stone anywhere: in the car, the gym or on-the-go.

Audio Companion--Taking Rosetta Stone to the Next Level

Introducing Audio Companion from Rosetta Stone, the newest enhancement to the world's #1 language-learning software! It's a great addition to the Rosetta Stone experience, allowing you to take Rosetta Stone anywhere: in the car, the gym or on-the-go!

What is Audio Companion?
Audio Companion CD-ROMs enhance language learning anytime, anyplace. You can learn new skills on the computer, and then reinforce them with Audio Companion. Play the CDs on a stereo, or download them to a MP3 Player and go!

Enhance the Rosetta Stone Learning Experience
Audio Companion activities correspond to Rosetta Stone CD-ROM software lessons. You can listen to Audio Companion and practice what you've been learning, turning travel time into productive language learning time.

Extend Study Time
Now, you don't have to stop learning when you leave your computer. Audio Companion lets you access lessons whenever and wherever you want. It empowers you, and works within your busy lifestyle!

Build Vocabulary and Pronounce Words and Phrases
Audio Companion features distinct words and shorter phrases to make them easier to hear and repeat. Build good enunciation habits by hearing native speakers pronounce them first.

Speak and Converse
The speaking portion of Audio Companion lets you listen to questions and answers, repeating them to use later. To help them build your conversation skills, first you'll listen to a conversation and then repeat phrases individually.

I had to upgrade my computer to install this program. But if you're a serious amateur photographer and not quite ready for photoshop, this is a great first step.

Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008 is a productivity suite of homework tools and trusted information designed to help students quickly and easily complete assignments in a variety of subjects and excel in school.

Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008 gives students a full set of tools to help them succeed and get homework done right the first time.

Make research entertaining. Find information on just about any topic. Thousands of articles, photos, sound clips, and links to related information from trusted sources(2)-plus political, climatic, and topographical maps of the world-make discovering new information fun!

Equation Solver. Enter a problem into the Equation Solver and get step-by-step help on how to solve it. And with free online access to Hotmath(3), students can quickly find their textbook and select the problem they're solving. They'll instantly receive step-by-step guidance on how to solve the problem and what the correct answer should be.

Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008 gives students a full set of tools to help them succeed and get homework done right the first time.

Full-featured graphing calculator
A full-featured graphing calculator that's simple to learn and use (similar to those costing more than $100!) helps visualize and solve math and science problems.

Equation Solver
Stuck on a math problem? Input your own problems into the Equation Solver and get a quick answer and step-by-step help on how to solve it.

Triangle Solver and Equation Library
Interact with a library of more than 100 equations and explore the relationships of triangles and their parts while viewing associated rules or graphs.

Learning Essentials
Get past the blank page. Learning Essentials helps students achieve better grades. Step-by-step writing tips and preformatted report and presentation templates give students a quick start in creating great-looking reports and presentations.

Foreign language help
A full-featured dictionary helps translate and conjugate verbs in Spanish, French, German, and Italian. Learning Essentials also unlocks tools in Microsoft Office that are specially designed for foreign language study, providing templates and tools for completing assignments in Spanish, French, and German.

Book summaries
Need to know more about that literary story? Includes more than 1,000 book summaries that help students understand some of the most commonly studied literary works from middle school to college level.

The easy, all-in-one homework assistant that helps students excel in school.
Designed to be easy to use and simple to learn, Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008 makes learning fun. Whether it's a math, research, or foreign language assignment, students can find the right tools and information to get homework started quickly, get fast answers to academic questions, and complete assignments that can help earn higher grades.

Find trusted content when you need it.
Complete with Encarta Premium 2008, the #1 best-selling encyclopedia software brand(1), it's content you can trust. With editorially approved content, students can use Web Links to more than 25,000 Web sites, preselected by Encarta editors for relevant and age-appropriate research material(2). Through multimedia content, Encarta Premium 2008 provides engaging visual tools to help explore and discover historical events and places. It even includes Encarta Kids, a separate encyclopedia geared to young learners ages 7 to 12!

Get questions answered fast.
With time pressures to complete assignments, it's frustrating to get stuck without knowing where to go for answers. Whether they're stumped on a math, science, or a foreign language problem, students can quickly get the answers they need. They also get helpful ideas on how to solve problems, so the next time they're more likely to figure out the answer on their own!

Includes a full suite of homework tools to help students get homework done right the first time.

Foreign language tools help complete assignments in Spanish, French, German, and Italian

Quickly grasp the plots and themes of commonly studied books.

Encarta Premium 2008
Students can fi nd the information they're looking for-quickly and easily-with Encarta Premium 2008. With trusted content that's accurate and up-to-date, Encarta has been the #1 best-selling encyclopedia software brand for the past 8 years!(1) You'll be amazed at how much time your student will spend researching-compelled by the sights and sounds of one fascinating presentation after another.

Students can easily-and quickly-access trusted information provided by world experts. And since they can automatically download updates from the Encarta Web site, they'll have up-to-date and accurate reference software when they need it.(2)

Encarta Premium 2008 comes complete with a wide range of reference tools, including a dynamic atlas, dictionary, thesaurus, and language translation dictionaries.

Microsoft Math
Microsoft Math features a large collection of tools, tutorials, and instructions designed to help students learn mathematical concepts while quickly solving math problems. In an instant, they'll see how to solve problems-step by step! Works for many grade levels-from basic math, pre-algebra, algebra (including logarithms and exponents) to trigonometry!

Need advanced help? A full-featured graphing calculator that's simple to learn and use (similar to those costing more than $100!) helps visualize and solve math and science problems.

Triangle Solver and Equation Library. Interact with a library of more than 100 equations and explore the relationships of triangles and their parts while viewing associated rules or graphs.

Templates and Tutorials
Having trouble getting started on class projects? Sometimes the hardest part about completing a project is getting started. Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008 includes the latest version of Learning Essentials.

Working with Microsoft Office Word, Office PowerPoint, and Office Excel (in either Microsoft Office XP, Office 2003, or the 2007 Microsoft Office system, sold separately), Learning Essentials helps students achieve better grades. Step-by-step writing tips and preformatted report and presentation templates give students a quick start in creating great-looking reports and presentations.

Get past the blank page. Easy-to-use tools, templates, and tutorials help students get past formatting questions to the core learning in assignments. Learning Essentials includes tips and tutorials for managing projects and creating high-quality reports, presentations, science projects, and other assignments.

Foreign Language
A full-featured dictionary helps translate and conjugate verbs in Spanish, French, German, and Italian. Learning Essentials also unlocks tools in Microsoft Office that are specially designed for foreign language study, providing templates and tools for completing assignments in Spanish, French, and German.

Literature
Need to know more about that literary story? Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008 includes more than 1,000 book summaries that help students understand some of the most commonly studied literary works from middle school to college level.

Note:

1. The NPD Group/NPD Techworld, January 2000 to February 2007. Based on total U.S. retail sales.

2. An active Internet connection is required for Math Online Help, Update Encarta, Web Links, Weather and Radio Links and Encarta Premium Online. Update Encarta and Math Online Help are available through October 2008. Access to Encarta Online Premium requires a Microsoft .NET Passport (Windows Live ID) and an Internet connection. You must be 13 years or older to create a Windows Live ID.

3. Hotmath contains primarily US-based textbook problems.

I have been trying unsuccessfully for the past 6 hours after installing Leopard to get my printer to work. This new operating system does not recognize my driver and after several uninstall install attempts I still cannot print.

The most infuriating thing is the damable alert that keeps telling me to install the printer - after I have been told the printer software has been successfully installed!!

Now here's the punchline: The only reason for this purchase was to use boot camp to clean up a problem that developed from corrupt windows files. Since the beta version had expired I had no way of reformating the hard drive and reconfiguring a windows partition. But because the printer won't print, I cannot print the instructions telling me how to do this ( a recommended procedure). So I've tried without them and, yes, without success!

If you are happy with Tiger, stay put. As noted by another reviewer there are several bugs in this os and you could be opening yourself up for many frustrating hours of trying to reconfigure some of your settings. Another thing it did was to change some of my email settings and I'm having considerable difficulty getting that mess sorted out, too.

Having used windows for many years before switching to mac last year, this is deja vu. I feel like I'm back on a windows platform - another irony since I can't get boot camp to finalize the windows xp install - then only reason for getting Leopard . . .

Welcome to JumpStart World 1st Grade, a series of 12 Adventure Packs or learning units that actually progresses in response to your child's own learning pace. It's super-personalized, wildly imaginative and really fun, but don't let that fool you--it also teaches critical skills correlated to state standards so kids get a real jumpstart in life.

The World changes with the seasons and holidays

Over 80 learning games and missions

Unique 3D design and immersive play

The Smart, Fun Way to Achieve 1st Grade Success
Your Child will make new friends, visit the learning arcades, art and music studio and complete fun missions to earn their first two Leadership Keys.

Stay Connected
As part of your JumpStart World experience, we've designed a Parents Corner where you can get additional tips and ideas to help your child enjoy learning even more.

• Get educational tips and creative ideas from our monthly gurus and experts.
• Search hundreds of Parent Tips to help turn everyday moments into learning opportunitites.
• Get instant access to tips and activities that reinforce your child's learning.

Reward Your Child
Studies show that children learn better when parents are involved. The Super Gem Reward Store allows you to reward your child's performance with customized certificates.

• Delight your child with rewards that only you can create.
• Create Rewards that your child can redeem: A Trip to the Park, Going Out for Ice Cream, Going Ice Skating, and many more.
• Use our simple tool to create your own rewards to honor your child's learning achievements.

Get Your First 2 Adventure Packs Today:

• Over 80 learning games and missions that teach more than 40 skills

Subscribe to Keep the Adventure Going:
Get a new Adventure Pack automatically downloaded to your computer for just $7.99 each. Based on your child's progress--at least one each month. 12 total Adventure Packs per grade.

Each Adventure Pack Includes:

For Kids:

• Over 40 learning games and missions
• Over 20 skills
• New areas of the world to discover
• One new badge to earn

For Parents:

• Progress report e-mails and Parent Tips
• Access to the Member's Website and online access to educational experts
• Access to the Super Gems Reward Center

See what your child can learn in JumpStart World

At the heart of the JumpStart World is the Learning Curriculum containing hundreds of lessons around key skills to help your child advance progressively.

Take a tour of the specially designed 3D world

New studies show that children who learn in rich media environments retain knowledge longer. JumpStart World surrounds your child in a 3D world with learning and fun, as it rewards and recognizes each achievement along the way.

Key Features of JumpStart World:

• Children pick a character and explore a world full of exciting places.
• Unique 3D design and immersive play make kids feel like they're inside a world of adventure and learning.
• Challenging missions teach math, reading, spelling, vocabulary, science, art and more.
• Kids can import photos to decorate their world. They can create billboards, cards and special pictures.
• New lands and new challenges open up according to your child's progress.
• Includes Sing-Along music videos in the Art and Music studio that teach phonics the karaoke way.
• Kids earn Super Gems at the Math and Reading Arcades. They can then trade in their gems for special rewards.
• Kids earn Keys on their way to becoming the Ultimate JumpScout Leader.
• The World changes with the seasons and holidays using a real-time calendar.
• Parents receive personalized progress reports and activity tips.

Ages

• 5-7 years

Skills Taught

• Math: Addition, Subtraction, Telling Time, Fractions, Picture Graphs
• Reading: Phonics, Consonants, Vowels, Sentences, Comprehension
• Critical Thinking: Problem Solving, Patterns, Attributes, Classification
• Social Skills: Friendship, Knowledge, Dedication
• And much more!

Benefits

• Empowers Children to Succeed
• Builds Confidence
• Rewards Achievements
• Enhances Social Skills
• Stimulates Creativity
• Engages Parents

Research: The Building Blocks of JumpStart World
Research has shown that children's "play" can encourage and improve their ability to learn. JumpStart World keeps children motivated to "play and to learn" because JumpStart World recognizes each achievement along the way. The result is non-stop play and learning that will involve the entire family.

	Children and Technology White Paper (.pdf - 84k)
	JumpStart World White Paper (.pdf - 124k)