Link via PCWorld
 Users of Snagit’s version 9 may well have wondered what else could be stuffed into a screen capture program already filled with so many features. Version 10 shows there’s plenty more–and they’re important tools, not just filler to make it look as if there’s reason to upgrade. The changes weren’t as drastic as between versions 8 and 9, but they’re still quite substantial.
The most important addition to Snagit 10 is the “All-in-One Capture” feature, which is a big time saver. Rather than setting up the type of capture ahead of time (window, full screen Web page, and so on), you can instead use the “All-in-One Capture” hotkey or icon, and then decide on the fly what to capture.
SnagIt 10 Education (boxed) Windows is available for $37.
SnagIt 10 Nonprofit/Government (boxed) Windows is available for $42.
Adobe is offering K–12 School Site Licenses for all-new Creative Suite 5 software with installation rights for up to 250 or 500 school-owned or school-leased computers regardless of school enrollment size.
Adobe K–12 School Site Licenses offer the best value for your school or district when implementing career and technical education programs.
- Integration: Adobe Creative Suite 5 is a tightly integrated solution that lets students easily move between components and take advantage of the latest feature sets.
- Industry-standard tools: Students can learn the programs used by professionals.
- Cost-effectiveness: A convenient, low-cost, single-license purchase covers student, teacher, and administrator use.
- Convenience: Each site license offers easy installation, license management, and control of license use throughout the school.
- Multiplatform use: Creative Suite 5 applications are available for both Mac OS and Windows® platforms to support individual school and district preferences.
- Home-use rights: Teachers can prepare for courses by using applications on their home computers, allowing educators to prepare for classes ahead of time (see the FAQ for more details).
- Free curriculums: Each Creative Suite 5 edition comes with a set of free software tutorials and curriculum projects to use individually or as a full-year curriculum.
Link via SolidWorks
 CONCORD, Mass., USA, May 10, 2010 – An excellent education can also be a blast.
That’s a bedrock principle at Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering, where students use SolidWorks® software in a wide range of activities that are always academically serious, and occasionally outrageous.
Take twist carts. These are low-riding vehicles powered by wiggling the hands, feet, and hips and raced throughout the hallways for bragging rights (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adx3Tu7gzTY). Students design and build them, and every cart must exhibit innovation beyond the current state-of-the-art technology.
“Dartmouth engineering students are already ravenous learners, and we strive to cultivate that passion,” says Assistant Professor Solomon G. Diamond, PhD. “Standardizing on SolidWorks has been a big part of that. Students can produce substantial designs from day one, when the tutorials get them hooked. Then we’re off to the races.”
SolidWorks Student Edition 2010-2011 is available at an education discount price of $99.95.
Link via PCWorld
 PersonalBrain (available in a Free Edition, as well as paid editions) is quite possibly most intuitive mind mapping utility on the planet. Beyond that, its user interface looks like something that came straight out of Star Trek, making it the nerdily coolest-looking mind mapping tool I’ve seen.
The primary unit of organization in the application is called a Brain (as you might expect). Each Brain is composed of thoughts–essentially, idea components, tasks, or goals–which can be created with a double-click and associated with one another freely. Thoughts connect to one another not merely in a parent-child hierarchy, but can cross-connect to other thoughts.
PersonalBrain 5.5 Pro is available from Creation Engine at an education discount price of $179.
onOne expects to have Photoshop CS5 compatible updates for the current versions of their plug-ins available for download on May 20, 2010.
Details here.
SolidWorks Student Edition 2010-2011
Save $19 when you purchase the SolidWorks Student Edition 2010-11 with the Inspirtech Training DVD together for only $149.95!
 Plug-In Suite 5 $50 mail-in rebate
Only $249.95 after mail-in rebate!
Offer good from 5/1/2010 through 5/31/2010.
 Office Professional 2010
Save $5 when you pre-order Microsoft Office Professional 2010! Normal academic price $99.
Offer good through 6/15/2010.
Link via ars technica
 It’s truly impressive that Photoshop CS5 is successful at adding a lot of useful, engineering-heavy features in CS5, all while porting over to a new and stable Cocoa 64-bit code-base on OS X. And it’s encouraging to see that a program that has no real competitors isn’t just being phoned in. Against the on-going daytime drama of “Apple vs. Flash,” Photoshop is still just a great program and CS5 is a worthwhile update for a broad cross-section of users. My complaints are about minor issues—things like the low-res preview in HDR Merge Pro or window layering with AIR filters—can be addressed in a x.1 update without really slowing people down in the meantime. Nine thumbs up.
Pros
- Stable and fast 64-bit release on OS X
- Local tone-mapping works very well
- HDR image-based lights for 3D rendering
- Wet media brushes with 3D preview
- Puppet Warp
- 3D type and path features with Repoussé
- Content-Aware Fill and Heal tools are exceptional
- New lens distortion correction with publicly updatable database
- Improved 3D texturing/mesh handling
- Finally has capable masking tools
- Camera RAW 6 and its much-improved noise reduction
Cons
- Low-res HDR Merge Pro preview is very limiting
- Ghost suppression in HDR Merge Pro has problems
- 3D workflows still very finicky
- Still has very weak OpenEXR format handling
- Lack of good multithreading for many slow operations
The Verdict
- After being thrown yet another Apple platform curveball, Adobe produces another compelling Photoshop release
More details in the 8-page review at ars technica.
Photoshop CS5 Extended Student & Teacher Edition is available at an educational discount price of $198 from Creation Engine.
Photoshop CS5 Extended Nonprofit/Education Edition is available at an educational discount price of $298 from Creation Engine.
 Final Draft 8 on sale for $125!
$44 off normal academic price $169.
Offer good through 6/30/2010.
|
Twitter Feeds
|