A reasonably-priced 2D animation toolset for the hobbyist. It will give you a good introduction to animation without spending a fortune on a pro-level program. You can decide if you like the results before committing to buy the pro tools. Once you have registered the software, you have the opportunity to get updates AND free add-ons. (There are paid add-ons available too.) These add-ons give you pre-designed figures to work with, or add backgrounds to your library.

Corel Painter Essentials is a wonderful entry level drawing and painting program. It is just plain fun to use. Even if you don’t have a drawing tablet, you can still create a masterpiece. Select your color, select your brush and begin. The brush tool reminded me of tempra painting in kindergarten. The full wide brush strokes. Going over an existing line again, with a different paint color, to see how the blend looks.

Corel Painter Essentials is a wonderful entry level drawing and painting program. It is just plain fun to use. Even if you don’t have a drawing tablet, you can still create a masterpiece. Select your color, select your brush and begin. The brush tool reminded me of tempra painting in kindergarten. The full wide brush strokes. Going over an existing line again, with a different paint color, to see how the blend looks.

This is pretty much the buggiest and slowest OS ever built. How on earth does one spend billions of dollars creating an OS that is a step BACKWARDS from XP? Stay on XP as long as possible, and when you need to upgrade computers, switch to Mac. It’ll be another decade before Microsoft gets around to releasing an OS that represents an improvement over XP.

This is pretty much the buggiest and slowest OS ever built. How on earth does one spend billions of dollars creating an OS that is a step BACKWARDS from XP? Stay on XP as long as possible, and when you need to upgrade computers, switch to Mac. It’ll be another decade before Microsoft gets around to releasing an OS that represents an improvement over XP.

This software makes Internet browsing slow down to a crawl because it’s so bloated and resource intensive. Stay away and use anything else but this horrible product.

Microsoft suffers from a common tech industry delusion: they think a PC is pretty much a good interface for anything. This explains the otherwise inexplicable fact that Microsoft is actually marketing this software for in-car navigation. I don’t know about you, but I have neither the space nor the intention to be running a laptop in my car while I drive. Having said that, the software still has a place on the desktop, the advent of Google Earth notwithstanding.

Navigon has left the GPS hardware business, and so far it looks like they will not be releasing maps for FreshMaps on the schedule they promised, if at all. You will also have no technical support, and many people who purchased FreshMaps and attempted to register their purchase after Navigon shut down their GPS business have not been able to do so. I highly recommend you do not purchase this product.

Navigon has left the GPS hardware business, and so far it looks like they will not be releasing maps for FreshMaps on the schedule they promised, if at all. You will also have no technical support, and many people who purchased FreshMaps and attempted to register their purchase after Navigon shut down their GPS business have not been able to do so. I highly recommend you do not purchase this product.

Outdated? Yup. Don’t let the 2004 moniker fool you. This is just the latest rehash of a product that is completely outdated and hasn’t had a real update in quite some time. They slap some new graphics on every year, but for anybody using Windows XP (or anything derived from NT or later) you’re completely wasting your money and the only thing of value will be the Antivirus software. (Don’t get me wrong, the Norton Antivirus software is slow and bloated, too, but at least it does the job well otherwise.