Although various competitive formats have appeared since its introduction, MP3 remains the choice for many when storing their music.  It does not matter whether the original tracks were stored on vinyl, tape, CD or Internet based sites, the content generally ends up in MP3 format on a computer’s hard disk.  But once it there, what do you do with it?  Magix MP3 Maker offers a range of features designed to help you take the next steps.

Birth of America II: Wars in America 1750-1815 is not only a lengthy title for a game but also a follow up to Birth of America from the AGEOD and Ascaron Entertainment partnership.  This is a turn-based strategy game that sets the player the challenge of taking part in various battles based on historic events with authentic characters and fighting units of the period.

Xtreme PhotoStory on CD&DVD Deluxe 7 is the rather long title of Magix's latest software for burning photos to optical media so that they can be viewed on a television.  Various options are available from PhotoStory's installation routine.  These options include either accepting or changing the three different default locations used to store the program; templates and files; plus user files.

My friend Don has been a semi pro musician (keyboard player) for more than forty years. He has only a few years computing knowledge and only a few months with Broadband. He had some software by Finale -Print Music- but he always wanted more than it could give, and Sibelius will import Print Music files. So around five months ago I gave him Sibelius 5.

This week the spotlight falls on Disney Interactive Studios, the interactive entertainment affiliate of the Walt Disney Company, with its range of multi-platform video games and entertainment products for the young and young at heart.

While most companies involved in the development of graphics software tend to concentrate on a traditional approach to market their wares, even though they might also have a web-based store, Xara is an exception in that the company adopts a total web orientated strategy. If you want to purchase a Xara product, such as the company's Xtreme Pro 4.

The human mind is a wonderful thing but it can become too easily confused; it can forget things and it is selective about what it remembers.  Ask any group of people that have just come out of a meeting or a brainstorm and you would be amazed at what they remember.

PDF Converter Professional 5 sets out to allow the user to create and edit files using the ubiquitous Adobe PDF standard that dominates the electronic document market plus take a PDF file and convert it into a range of other popular common text file formats. As is standard practice with Nuance products (and it has to be said those from several other companies as well), you will need to enter a product serial number. In this case it consists of 16 characters.

Put together the names of Van Helsing and Brad Stoker in the same sentence could only result in the main subject matter being that of Dracula.  In this case Dracula is the central character in a game developed by Frogware Studios.  Entitled Dracula: Origin, this is a point and click adventure game that places the user in the role of Van Helsing as he searches for that walking one-way blood bank known as the Prince of Darkness.

Over a quarter of a century has passed during which I've written more software than I care to think about and I still have all the bad habits I started out with before that course. Nessy Fingers aims to get hold of kids they've learnt the wrong way to type and instil in them typing skills that are virtually a dying art. before With the prevalence of computers of course you have to get them very young, Nessy Fingers is aimed at 8+ years group.

When it comes to creating an investigative adventure computer game, where better to start than with the doyen of detectives, that redoubtable resident of 221B Baker Street, known as Sherlock Holmes.  Taking this premise, and adding in Arsène Lupin a French gentleman thief who features in a series of novels by Maurice Leblance, the developers Frogwares has come up with Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis.

Entitled Mystery PI: The Vegas Heist, you are cast in the role of the enigmatic, never-give-up, clue seeking private investigator who takes on the task of discovering the missing money.  This being , the recovery of the money is regarded as being far more important than apprehending those responsible for the heist.  Presumably less-savoury characters will deal out the punishment to those involved but that plays no part in this game.

When reviewing hardware I usually start with the dimensions and I suppose the equivalent for software are it's system requirements. Windows XP (Service Pack 2) or Windows Vista (either 32bit or 64bit). After that it's 512MB of Ram, 430MB of hard disc space, a 1024x768 or greater display, a mouse or tablet and a DVD drive. There are four main applications in the box all with the X4 suffix, CorelDRAW, Corel PhotoPaint, Corel PowerTrace and Corel Capture.

Although the Concise Oxford Dictionary lists definitions that include "Soul of dead person in Hades" and "bright spot or secondary image in field of telescope due to defect of lens", Symantec would like you to think of Ghost as the preferred method of protecting your computer with advanced backup and recovery technology.

Take a distinct flavour of the old Wild West, throw in some unusual, some might say gruesome elements, and then mix them with a modern computer game.  The result is CowBall, a game from URSE Games, developed by a team led by Sergey Kuzmichev and Juriy Aliev who were responsible for titles such as Gem Ball and Nuclear Ball. As already mentioned, CowBall is set in the Wild West of cowboys and Red Indians.

The concept of a circus has changed radically since my early youth.  Animal acts are considered both inappropriate and cruel while other forms of entertainment have proved more irresistible by modern day audiences.  If it is not digital or personal then you start off with a disadvantage especially when the viewing environment lacks the desired level of comfort demanded by today's paying customers.

For many the mere mention of the name Rupert Bear will bring back memories of early childhood.  This cartoon strip and annual book character was a stable diet for the young with stories and adventures based in Nutwood.  Now, as often happens, this popular paper-based character has re-emerged in digital format on CD-ROM with Rupert Bear Nutwood Games available from Avanquest Software Publishing Ltd.

By bundling together three software utilities, Avanquest has created Perfect Image 11 Backup & Protect Suite.  The titles involved in this suite are Perfect Image 11; DiskCopy & Clean; and AutoSave 2.  This collection of titles is aimed at providing the means to deal with different aspects of hard disk management.

As part of the Reload White Label, : Two Treasures is available at the (plus £2.99 shipping) Software Publishing Ltd.  As the title suggests this Ascaron developed game involves pirates and all the different types of activity normally associated with this seafaring, criminal element. Tortuga bargain basement price of £4.99 from Avanquest The game, which requires both ActiveX 9.

Bringing together three titles from the Blitzkrieg series is the appropriately named Blitzkrieg II Anthology.  This product consists of the Blitzkrieg II game and the subsequent offerings of Liberation and The Fall of the Reich as you take part in historic battles of the period. Using a front-end menu, you can select from the various games making up this anthology.