Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July from Wasatch Software! We look forward to another year of business with you!

Wasatch Software makes the Inc. 5000

Wasatch Software made the 2009 Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America. Being included in the Inc. 5000 list – amongst the likes of previous achievers such as Microsoft, Timberland, Jamba Juice, Oracle, and UnderArmour – is a huge honor for Wasatch Software. I’d like to give thanks to all of our dedicated customers and employees. Without you, this achievement would not be possible.

Heaven with (Microsoft) Seven

Microsoft Windows 7 (available pre-Holiday season, 2009) boasts many improvements, including advances in touch and handwriting recognition, support for virtual hard disks, improved performance on multi-core processors, and kernel improvements.

Functionality is improved with the incorporation of keyboard shortcuts. Holding down the Windows key and pressing the up arrow maximizes; pressing down the down arrow minimizes; pressing the left or right arrows snap the windows to the sides of the screen. Repeating the keyboard shortcut generally restores the window's previous size.

Library storage has also been drastically improved. Like other system, Windows 7 maintains special folders for document, image, music, and video storage. Now, however, when you fill up your hard drive – with music, for example, you don’t have to move your files to a new, larger location and re-route the music folder to the new location. Rather, the Library feature allows MP3s (or other files) to reside on any number of internal, external, and network locations while remaining in the Music folder. Even better, the new Federated Search allows the user to search libraries, allowing you to easily locate files across multiple locations. Sure makes it easier to store all of those holiday wish-lists, and just in time for the Holiday season 2009 release date!

Contact Wasatch Software to inquire about, or request your copy of, Windows 7 today!

The good, the better, and the best of Photoshop CS4 Extended

The latest edition of Adobe’s Photoshop, CS4 extended, introduces many new features… my favorite being a tabbed interface (LOVE it – I conveniently block out memories of the old ‘single-window-per-browser’ internet days. I’m pleased that this application has finally caught up with the times.). As to be expected, the tabbed interface makes the work area much easier to navigate.

Secondly, with the Adjustments panel, CS4 expedites workflow performance, reducing the time required to make nondestructive adjustments like curves, hue/saturation, levels, and much more. There’s no longer a dialogue box to navigate – simply go directly to the task at hand. The Adjustments panel also features the new Vibrance adjustment, which gives the user greater control over color saturation while preserving delicate tones, such as skin colors. Moreover, this panel features various presets for each type of modification – including over 20 pre-configured, customizable starting points.

Lastly, CS4 incorporates a fluid canvas rotation action that allows the user to exercise more control over the viewing and / or working angle of an image. The user can drag the image to turn the canvas to any orientation – a compass guide graphic is provided to help orient the image to a specific angle. The user can now zoom in and out smoothly and in un-fixed enlargement degrees (100%, 125%, 300%, etc.).

Aside from the very user-friendly incorporation of a tabbed interface, Adjustments panel, and fluid canvas rotation, Adobe has also paid significant attention to purely photographic tasks. Although not an exhaustive list, some of these new features are listed (and explained) below.

CS4 now has built-in enhanced blending actions along with new vignetting and geometric distortion corrections. This new option can create 360 degree panoramas!

There is now tighter integration between Photoshop Lightroom and Photoshop CS4… in fact; images produced in Lightroom may now be opened in Photoshop CS4 as a layered Photoshop document, high dynamic range (HDR) image, panorama, or Smart Object.

CS4 can now also enhance a scene with limited lighting and /or depth of field. Basically this feature stitches separate shots by blending their exposure variations together. Using the Auto-Blend Layers, the user can merge a series of images that partially incorporate correct focus and exposure into one ‘working’ single image.

Perhaps one of the niftiest features is Intelligent Image Scaling (Content-Aware Scaling). This feature allows the user to re-purpose pictures – i.e. a picture that is in horizontal format can be reconfigured for use in a vertical layout… without cropping the image, possible eliminating some of the most visually interesting features. Content-Aware Scaling automatically (and intelligently) recomposes images to preserve the most visually interesting areas. It doesn’t laterally squeeze the image; rather, uses an understanding of the image contents to convert the image contents to a horizontal layout to vertical.

Lastly, CS4 incorporates Intelligent Image Scaling. This feature automatically identifies and protects important elements (i.e. people) from unwanted distortion, even if the overall aspect ratio of the image has been altered.

Let Wasatch Software , and suthorized Adobe reseller, help you with your Adobe software, including Photoshop and Lightroom, needs!

System Requirements: Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with Service Pack 1 (certified for 32-bit Windows XP and Windows Vista).

Conficker-Fracken Microsoft Worm!

As some of you may already know, there is a lot of noise right now about a Conficker worm that is supposed to activate tomorrow. Well, let me put your minds to rest and tell you that any stories of doom and gloom are all unfounded. People like to say these things for the sake of propagating stress and fear.

With the proper protection, the worm is not that big of a deal. This case is not unlike most other cases of virus threats. As long as you perform windows updates regularly and have an updated virus definition in your antivirus software, there is absolutely no need to worry (Kaspersky provides an excellent antivirus and has a reputation for the most frequent definition updates in the industry).

As a note, Microsoft has known about this threat for months now and has long since released patches to correct the Conficker vulnerability. Let Wasatch Software help you protect your equipment now!

Threatpost to the Rescue!

In modern times, it has become consumer responsibility to ensure their machine stay up-to-date and protected from viruses. But in a world where computer colds are introduced faster than most anti-virus software can create proper protection, who has the time – and resources – to stay in-the-know about today’s technological terrorisms?

You do.

Yes, really… you do.

Thanks to Kaspersky’s latest little gem, Threatpost, consumers world-wide can stay updated on the latest threats and other IT news. Threatpost provides a series of tools including blogs, slideshows, podcasts, and videos – helping anyone from the solo home computer-ist to the multi-billion dollar industry, play safely in the internet jungle.

So go ahead, see for yourself -- and don’t forget to ask Wasatch Software to show you how Kaspersky can protect your machine from the 21st century’s equivalent to the bubonic plague.

Stay tuned for updates regarding the official launch of Threatpost on April 20th, 2009. In the meantime, the site is presently available for use.

All Hail Kaspersky!

The word is out! Reviewers say that Kaspersky Antivirus is the best all-around antivirus program on the market!

Amongst other desirable features, Kaspersky excels at its primary task – preventing viruses. It offers absolute protection with a 99.9% detection rate for all types of viruses including, but not limited to, script, polymorphic, and backdoors/Trojans! Kaspersky even performs regular self-checks to verify that its antivirus components have not been tampered with, ensuring fault-free, updated, reliable antivirus protection to its users.

Kaspersky also offers automatic, daily updates of their virus definition files, providing protection against both older virus threats and the latest menaces.

Kaspersky further protects the user by automatically performing real-time inquiries for viruses possibly contained in any incoming and outgoing messages – including attached (compressed) files, embedded OLE objects, and the message body. Kaspersky supports MS Outlook, MS Outlook Express, and MS Exchange, amongst other email database formats.

Kaspersky is fast and light, so it won’t slow down your computer as much as other available solutions (only 11MB of disk space and 12 MB RAM to run, although 32 MB RAM recommended for Win2000/XP).

For all this protection (and more), you might assume that Kaspersky Antivirus is more difficult to operate than a three-speed column shifter… but breathe easy my friends! Kaspersky is not only easy to install… it works right out of the box, and comes with an easy-to-read user’s manual and available customer support services!

Find I.T. here and protect yourself now!