Review: Magix Page & Layout Designer includes advanced tools for beginner users

Printed media may seem to be heading the way of the dinosaur, but until the proverbial meteor hits a stack of business cards, box of letterhead, or freshly-printed brochures on their way to a conference, we'll continue adding paper and ink (and the odd PDF) to our marketing cache.

MAGIX Page & Layout Designer ($150)  anticipates the needs of a growing business by providing a single source for designing anything from a single logo to business cards to a multi-page brochure. However, if you are a Xara Photo & Graphic Designer ($89) fan, you will recognize the UI instantly, and may be left feeling ripped off. It's so hard to find a difference between the two apps, it seems that MAGIX has repackaged Xara with added templates and an inflated pricetag (although Page & Layout Designer is currently on sale for $90).

About a dozen template themes are included in the MAGIX Page & Layout Designer download (you can't access or view them all in the trial). Choose a theme that suits your business, then open business card, brochure, and letterhead templates that all match the theme and are fully customizable with your own logo, text, images, etc. There are about 100 templates in total. All are royalty-free, and many verge on stylish, but organization isn't great. It can be hard to find the matching brochure to your business card design.

MAGIX Page & Layout Designer's slide-out bitmap gallery could mean you never need to hunt and gather on the server for your company's logo again.

Customizing the templates is pretty easy with MAGIX Page & Layout Designer, even if you don't have any design training or experience. For example, a snap function helps you align objects, text is set to automatically flow around your images, and you can chose to work without or without layers.

If you do have prior experience, setting up a page from scratch also is simple and intuitive. Plus, you can easily use MAGIX Page & Layout Designer to create logos and other vector drawings without too much difficulty; and use the photo tools to adjust and manipulate your images. Refer to the Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 2013 review for more detail on how drawing and image editing tools work, since these are identical.

Currently, Magix Photo Manager MX Deluxe ($59) is included in the Page & Layout Designer download for free, and also includes some additional basic photo manipulation tools as well as the ability to organize your images. On the surface, this looks like a great deal. However, you may not need Photo Manager at all, as MAGIX Page & Layout Designer includes a slide-out bitmap gallery. With it, you can save and access all of your logos, logotypes, images etc. for any of your projects. However, I wish it were easier to organize things, and would love to be able to add text boxes (so you never again have to cut and paste your mission statement and other often-used blocks of text).

It seems like MAGIX is trying to reach a new audience with Page & Layout Designer, with no mention of its powerful vector drawing tools and super-easy photo editing in their marketing of the product. But the non-sale pricetag is steep unless you were actually considering also purchasing the bundled Photo Manager MX Deluxe. If you already own Xara Photo & Graphic Designer (or Xara Designer Pro, the $299 heavy-lifter in the family) you are going to be an unhappy T-Rex who'll want to eat MAGIX for lunch.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page will download the software to your system.

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Review: Magix Page & Layout Designer includes advanced tools for beginner users

Printed media may seem to be heading the way of the dinosaur, but until the proverbial meteor hits a stack of business cards, box of letterhead, or freshly-printed brochures on their way to a conference, we'll continue adding paper and ink (and the odd PDF) to our marketing cache.

MAGIX Page & Layout Designer ($150)  anticipates the needs of a growing business by providing a single source for designing anything from a single logo to business cards to a multi-page brochure. However, if you are a Xara Photo & Graphic Designer ($89) fan, you will recognize the UI instantly, and may be left feeling ripped off. It's so hard to find a difference between the two apps, it seems that MAGIX has repackaged Xara with added templates and an inflated pricetag (although Page & Layout Designer is currently on sale for $90).

About a dozen template themes are included in the MAGIX Page & Layout Designer download (you can't access or view them all in the trial). Choose a theme that suits your business, then open business card, brochure, and letterhead templates that all match the theme and are fully customizable with your own logo, text, images, etc. There are about 100 templates in total. All are royalty-free, and many verge on stylish, but organization isn't great. It can be hard to find the matching brochure to your business card design.

MAGIX Page & Layout Designer's slide-out bitmap gallery could mean you never need to hunt and gather on the server for your company's logo again.

Customizing the templates is pretty easy with MAGIX Page & Layout Designer, even if you don't have any design training or experience. For example, a snap function helps you align objects, text is set to automatically flow around your images, and you can chose to work without or without layers.

If you do have prior experience, setting up a page from scratch also is simple and intuitive. Plus, you can easily use MAGIX Page & Layout Designer to create logos and other vector drawings without too much difficulty; and use the photo tools to adjust and manipulate your images. Refer to the Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 2013 review for more detail on how drawing and image editing tools work, since these are identical.

Currently, Magix Photo Manager MX Deluxe ($59) is included in the Page & Layout Designer download for free, and also includes some additional basic photo manipulation tools as well as the ability to organize your images. On the surface, this looks like a great deal. However, you may not need Photo Manager at all, as MAGIX Page & Layout Designer includes a slide-out bitmap gallery. With it, you can save and access all of your logos, logotypes, images etc. for any of your projects. However, I wish it were easier to organize things, and would love to be able to add text boxes (so you never again have to cut and paste your mission statement and other often-used blocks of text).

It seems like MAGIX is trying to reach a new audience with Page & Layout Designer, with no mention of its powerful vector drawing tools and super-easy photo editing in their marketing of the product. But the non-sale pricetag is steep unless you were actually considering also purchasing the bundled Photo Manager MX Deluxe. If you already own Xara Photo & Graphic Designer (or Xara Designer Pro, the $299 heavy-lifter in the family) you are going to be an unhappy T-Rex who'll want to eat MAGIX for lunch.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page will download the software to your system.

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1 in 4 Tablet Users to Pay Bills With Their Slates by 2017

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Review: PhotoPeach makes online slideshows a breeze for Picasa users

PhotoPeach is a Web-based slideshow builder that makes it easy to get started. The service directs you to upload your photos, either from your computer or an online service. But where rival PhotoSnack supports a whole host of online services, PhotoPeach is limited to Facebook and Picasa. That limitation would be acceptable if PhotoPeach’s connection with those services worked, but I had trouble accessing any photos from Facebook: PhotoPeach bounced me to that site to log in, but never let me access my photo albums. The connection with Picasa worked flawlessly, though.

If you’re using the free version of PhotoPeach, you’ll be limited to including 30 photos in your slideshow; any more and you have to subscribe to the $3-per-month Premium version. The Premium account also lets you upload your own music to accompany your slideshow, burn your slideshows to disc, and customize the transitions between photos.

Once your photos are uploaded, you can set the time interval for photos and the music you’d like to accompany your slideshow. If you haven’t opted for a premium account, you’re limited to PhotoPeach’s small selection of background music or you can opt to search YouTube for a song of your liking. PhotoPeach doesn’t offer any background templates; instead it keeps the focus right on your photos, which is a nice touch. It offers limited customization options, but casual users will find enough here to meet their needs.

Fuss-free PhotoPeach would be a true peach of a slideshow builder if its Facebook integration worked properly.

And that’s it: PhotoPeach then displays your slideshow. If you’re a Premium member, you can burn it to DVD; users of the free service can share it via email or through various Web sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.

PhotoPeach is an easy-to-use service that lets you create basic slideshows. I like how its slideshows display your photos, and nothing but your photos. If you're looking for more of an animated background, consider Smilebox. And if you'd like more customization options, consider Wondershare DVD Slideshow Builder Deluxe or PhotoSnack. If you're looking for a no-fuss slideshow solution, PhotoPeach may fit the bill. If only it worked more seamlessly with Facebook, I could recommend it without hesitation.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page takes you to the vendor's site, where you can use this Web-based software.

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Windows Users Plan Exodus to Apple

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Acclivity AccountEdge Pro 2012 for Windows: A Friendly Accounting Program for Relatively Inexperienced Business Users

AccountEdge Pro keeps things simple. You can get a single-user edition of AccountEdge Pro for $299, and each additional user for an existing installation costs $149. The upgrade price for existing customers is $159.

That makes AccountEdge Pro somewhat cheaper than Sage 50 Complete Accounting 2013 (for individuals, at least), but more expensive than QuickBooks Pro 2012--and, at this early August writing (a couple of months before Intuit's annual refresh), you can even find the higher-end QuickBooks Premier 2012 for less. However, QuickBooks' price advantage evaporates if you want to add users: You pay the same for each new QuickBooks Pro license as for the initial license, and extra Premier licenses are more expensive than the current discounted price. Also, while AccountEdge supports up to 15 simultaneous users, QuickBooks Pro and Premier support only 5.

QuickBooks gets a lot pricier with its payroll service, too. That service costs $42 a month or $504 a year, whereas Acclivity's equivalent service runs about $350, and you can save even more by opting for a basic service that does the payroll math but doesn't e-file forms.

In terms of usability, AccountEdge Pro 2012 sharply reduces the intimidation factor in setup by letting you tackle it in chunks. To create a new company file, you walk through half a dozen screens that cover entering basic company info (name, tax ID, address, and so on), making a few basic accounting choices (defining fiscal year, setting the date for your first transaction entries, specifying the number of accounting periods), creating a list of accounts (AccountEdge offers suggestions based on common business types), and specifying the location for the data file.

AccountEdge Pro's Easy Setup Assistant screen uses a wizard approach to help you get started.After that, AccountEdge Pro presents you with the Easy Setup Assistant screen, whose wizards address options in five categories: Accounts (to edit the list of accounts and enter details on starting balances), Sales (including customer and pricing information), Purchases (for vendor and expenditure data), Payroll (for employee and payroll tax numbers), and a Customization section (for miscellaneous options relating to data entry, reminders, and more). The program explains these features clearly and identifies common choices instructively, with additional details on a well-organized and thorough Help Center.

Once setup is complete, AccountEdge's newly redesigned interface presents a fairly standard lineup of sections (which it calls Command Centers) in tabular form, with bright blue rectangular buttons instead of plain text links leading to ledgers and forms. On the right, a new sidebar holds links to recently accessed features, features that you've designated as favorites, and a full array of help resources.

AccountEdge Pro reduces the intimidation factor by allowing you to handle accounting tasks in chunks. The program's redesign includes additional navigation aides at the bottom of each command center in the form of buttons for a to-do list, searching transactions, reports, analyses, syncing data, and lists. Other new features in 2012 include support for mileage tracking and multiple blling rates.

Businesses that send employees into the field will appreciate AccountEdge Pro's free iPhone/iPad app--something other packages don't offer--for entering sales, expenses, activity slips (to record time billing while in the field), and contact info, and then syncing it all with the desktop software. To encourage adoption, Acclivity also offers to give a customer's accountant a free copy of AccountEdge Pro.

Overall, AccountEdge Pro 2012 is an attractive, full-featured package that neatly balances ease of use and exposition of (and instruction for) its accounting underpinnings. It's also a bargain for businesses that want support for multiple simultaneous users.

This review is part of a roundup of accounting software. You can read the introduction to the story and find links to the other products we reviewed here.

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iPad Users Weigh In on the New Tablet

Now that Apple’s new iPad has been on the market for a few weeks, ChangeWave Research has conducted a survey to get the scoop on the good, the bad and the ugly from owners of the device.

Taking into account the opinions of 200 new iPad owners, the research service weighed overall satisfaction, key likes and dislikes and how they felt about the tablet’s much talked-about heat issue. The findings? Users are more satisfied overall with their new iPad than iPad 2 users were as of February.

With more than 4 out of 5 users stating they’re ‘very satisfied’ with their new iPad, another 16% said they’re ‘somewhat satisfied.’ No users reported that they were ‘very unsatisfied.’ Out of the iPad 2 users surveyed this February, 74% were ‘very satisfied,’ while 23% were ‘somewhat satisfied.’

The high-resolution Retina display was clearly the biggest draw of the new iPad, with 75% of owners reporting that was their favorite feature, followed by 22% citing the long battery life and 21% citing the device’s 4G LTE capability.

While users didn’t have many bones to pick with the new iPad, their biggest complaints were the high cost (26% of users) and the cost of the wireless data plan (23% of users).

And although the new iPad’s been berated for its tendency to run warm (up to 116 degrees Fahrenheit when plugged in and running a game), that doesn’t seem to bother most users. None of the owners surveyed said the heat was a very big problem, and only 4% said it was somewhat of a problem. The overwhelming majority of users (89%) said it wasn’t a problem or they haven’t experienced any problem with the heat.

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Facebook's Timeline Movie Maker Turns Users' Lives into Film

Facebook users can use Timeline, the site’s new profile layout, to turn their lives into a movie. Marketing Agency Definition 6 and Facebook have released Timeline Movie Maker, an app that automatically parses your Timeline profile to create about a 55-second movie from your memories stored in the social network.

Facebook is hoping that more companies will be encouraged to take advantage of Timeline and create more novel apps for people to view and experience their new profile. "We think there will be lots of companies that come up with fun, innovative ways for people to extend the Timeline experience," a Facebook official told PCWorld.

Of course, that may raise the hackles of privacy advocates concerned about how a Timeline app could misuse information it is allowed to access. But it's important to keep in mind that Movie Maker and any subsequent apps are completely optional and no one is forcing users to share their data with third-party companies.

If you want to give Movie Maker a try, here's how it works.

To get started, log in to Facebook and then point your browser to the Timeline Movie Maker site and press the green button that says "Make Your Movie." You'll then have to sort through two approval screens asking you for permission to access your basic information, e-mail address, other profile data such as hobbies, your posts, and your News Feed. The app does not ask for permission to post anything to your profile automatically.

After that you can just sit back and wait for the app to sort through your profile information to create your movie. Shortly thereafter, the video will start playing, showing you photographs and videos from your Timeline. If your personalized movie looks familiar, that's because the video is built on the same template as Facebook's Timeline introductory video released in September. Your video even uses the same soundtrack and even includes some generic photos from that original video when the camera is speeding past "your" Timeline.

After the movie is done, you'll have the option to replay it or you can swap out the music for one of four additional soundtrack themes including nostalgic, cinematic, romantic and playful. Once you choose a new soundtrack, you have to press the "Remake Your Movie" button at the bottom of the screen. The app will then go through the motions to rebuild your movie. But in my tests, the music was the only thing that changed.

There is also a filmstrip at the bottom of the page that lets you change any of the photos you don't like with new ones. But you can't drag and drop or easily swap out your photos from Facebook. Instead, you have to keep clicking on the photo as the app rotates through your Facebook collection until you find an image you like.

Movie Maker also has a share option after the movie is finished playing, but it's entirely disappointing. The only thing you can share is a link to Movie Maker, there is no option to post the finished product to Facebook, Twitter or your own website. There is also no way to download the finished movie.

But if you want to have a fun look at some of your profile information that is only viewable by you and the people crowding around your PC's monitor, then Movie Maker is a neat way to experience your Timeline.

Connect with Ian Paul (@ianpaul) on Twitter and Google+, and with Today@PCWorld on Twitter for the latest tech news and analysis.

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Massive Android Malware Op May Have Infected 5 Million Users

The largest-ever Android malware campaign may have duped as many as 5 million users into downloading infected apps from Google's Android Market, Symantec said today.

Dubbed "Android.Counterclank" by Symantec, the malware was packaged in 13 different apps from three different publishers, with titles ranging from "Sexy Girls Puzzle" to "Counter Strike Ground Force." Many of the infected apps were still available on the Android Market as of 3 p.m. ET Friday.

"They don't appear to be real publishers," Kevin Haley, a director with Symantec's security response team, said in an interview today. "These aren't rebundled apps, as we've seen so many times before."

Haley was referring to a common tactic by Android malware makers to repackage a legitimate app with attack code, then re-release it to the marketplace in the hope that users will confuse the fake with the real deal.

Symantec estimated the impact by combining the download totals -- which the Android Market shows as ranges -- of the 13 apps, arriving at a figure between 1 million on the low end and 5 million on the high. "Yes, this is the largest malware [outbreak] on the Android Market," said Haley.

Android.Counterclank is a Trojan horse that when installed on an Android smartphone collects a wide range of information, including copies of the bookmarks and the handset maker. It also modifies the browser's home page.

The hackers have monetized the malware by pushing unwanted advertisements to compromised Android phones.

Although the infected apps request an uncommonly large number of privileges -- something that the user must approve -- Haley argued that few people bother reading them before giving their okay.

"If you were the suspicious type, you might wonder why they're asking for permission to modify the browser or transmit GPS coordinates," said Haley. "But most people don't bother."

Android.Counterclank is a minor variation on an older Android Trojan horse called Android.Tonclank that was discovered in June 2011.

Some of the 13 apps that Symantec identified as infected have been on the Android Market for at least a month, according to the revision dates posted on the e-store. Symantec, however, discovered them only yesterday.

Users had noticed something fishy before then.

"The game is decent ... but every time you run this game, a 'search icon gets added randomly to one of your screens," said one user on Jan. 16 after downloading "Deal & Be Millionaire," one of the 13. "I keep deleting the icon, but it always reappears. If you tap the icon you get a page that looks suspiciously like the Google search page."

Android users have hammered one of the infected apps with low review scores, calling it 'crap.'

All 13 suspected apps are free for the downloading.

Symantec's researchers have told Google of their discovery, said Haley. Google, however, did not immediately reply to questions and a request for confirmation on the security firm's claims.

Haley said Symantec's researchers are still "peeling back the layers of the onion," and added that the company would publish more information on the threat as it unearthed details. "What's interesting here is that instead of taking legitimate apps, [malware authors] have created apps similar to legitimate ones," said Haley. "That, and the big numbers of downloads, of course."

Symantec has published a list of the 13 infected apps on its website.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer , on Google+ or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed . His e-mail address is gkeizer@computerworld.com.

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