This is one Microsoft apps that does not seem to have got the popularity it deserves. Microsoft Pro Photo Tools 2 is a useful set of utilities, specially for professional photographers. From editing image metadata to geotagging your photos, Pro Photo Tools provides a handy set of features useful for professionals as well as amateur photographers.

Developer Description

Microsoft Pro Photo Tools provides a set of tools for photographers to perform various tasks with their images—including RAW captures. The current version enables you to quickly geotag your photos, view and edit metadata, and more, leveraging the power of Windows and Microsoft Live Local.

New in Microsoft Pro Photo Tools 2

• Support for reading and writing metadata to/from XMP side cars so that metadata will interoperate with Adobe products. This is in addition to reading and writing from the file.
• Users can convert from RAW to JPEG, TIFF, and HD Photo using "As Shot" settings. This includes the ability to resize the image.
• Users can view actual RAW image in addition to thumbnails
• Support for 64-bit Windows
• Support for international locales
• Improved UI for geotagging

Other Features

Determine location name automatically

With Pro Photo Tools, you can automatically apply the actual name of the location where a photo was taken based on the GPS coordinates. Instead of numbers, you'll have the "real" names, and that information can then be saved in the metadata for your photos.

Determine GPS coordinates from location name

Just because you haven't always had a GPS receiver doesn't mean you can't assign GPS coordinates to your photos. In fact, using the power of Microsoft Live Local you can determine the GPS coordinates where any photo was taken based on location name information in the image metadata. The GPS coordinates can then be added to the metadata for your photos and the photos plotted on a map.

Identify location on a map

For the maximum in flexibility when assigning a location to an image, you can navigate to the precise location where you took a given photo and tag the photo with that location information based on a specific position on the map.

View images on a map

As cool as it is to have GPS coordinate information connected to your images, to really get a sense of place with your photos, you need to view them on a map. Pro Photo Tools utilizes Windows Live Local to display your images on a map of the world, including the ability to view your images on a normal map or a satellite view of the world.

Edit image metadata

Metadata has become increasingly important to photographers as a way to manage and organize their images. Among the many things it enables is a rich capability to search for images. You can now update a wide range of metadata for your images using Pro Photo Tools, and that metadata gets stored in the actual image file, so wherever your photo goes, your data goes.

RAW support

By leveraging the Windows Imaging Components (WIC), we're able to provide support for any RAW file format (in addition to TIFF and JPEG) for which a codec has been developed. And that includes most RAW file formats. Not only can you view your RAW images within Pro Photo Tools, you can also update metadata—including GPS coordinates—directly in the file. The updated metadata is stored within the RAW file, not in a cumbersome "sidecar" file. (For information on obtaining codecs for your RAW images or other file formats, visit Codecs for Windows.

Extensibility

Pro Photo Tools was built with extensibility in mind. Rather than creating a one-off tool, we created a framework we can leverage for future tools. This will allow us to add additional functionality in future versions of Pro Photo Tools more efficiently. That means you'll get more features sooner.

Download

[Click Here] to Download Pro Photo Tools 2 from official download page.

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Mcafee Total Protection 2009 is a PC security suite which protects you from many different threat types. This is a major upgrade from last year’s Total Protection 2008 and includes many new and enhanced features. From an Anti-Virus engine to a web safety advisor, total protection has many different components that ensure continuous protection against both offline and online threats. I only have experience with McAfee’s anti virus products (mostly with VirusScan Enterprise) so I honestly cant say anything about the effectiveness of Total Protection 2009. As for Mcafee’s Anti Virus engine, it’s one of the better ones out there but definitely not the best. Having said that, Total Protection 2009 is much more than an Anti Virus (see below for more details) you may actually find it useful.

Developer Description

Protect yourself, your computer, your identity and your family with McAfee Total Protection 2009. With the daily emergence of new and more sophisticated Internet threats that could disrupt your digital life, you need more than a simple anti-virus program. You need McAfee Total Protection 2009 - all-you-need, feature-rich, and simple-to-use security software.

Anti-phishing?Alerts you to web sites that may try to steal your identity Identity Protection 2-way Firewall Protection SiteAdvisor?Warns about unsafe web sites SecurityCenter?A security status screen with fully customizable options SystemGuards?Warns when your computer shows specific behaviors that may signal virus, spyware, or hacker activity Stealth Mode?Makes your computer invisible to intruders online Shredder?Removes any trace of confidential files from your computer Parental Controls Data Backup Protection without Interference?Watch movies or play games uninterrupted as McAfee security service intelligently defers tasks, updates, and alerts when you're in full-screen mode

New Features in 2009

• New--Simplified Set-up
  Installation is now easier and faster with improved detection and removal of malware that tries to halt the set-up
• New--Enterprise-class Anti-spam
  Powerful industry-grade spam protection helps keep your inbox free from unwanted, fraudulent, offensive, and phishing emails.
• New--QuickScan
  Checks for threats in the areas of your computer that are most often attacked
• New--Network Monitoring
  Alerts you when intruders connect to your home network
• New--Age Appropriate Searching
  Automatically sets the proper content filtering levels of popular search engines
• New--Friendly Alerts
  Provides you with easy to understand alerts regarding your protection
• Key Product Highlights
• Anti-virus/Anti-spyware
  Detects, blocks, and removes viruses, spyware, and adware
• Anti-phishing
  Alerts you to web sites that may try to steal your identity
• Identity Protection
  Helps you to shop, bank, and trade online safely
• Two-way Firewall Protection
  Confidently use the Internet 24/7 knowing hackers can't get access to your PCs
• Web Site Safety Advisor
  A powerful web site guide and shield, McAfee SiteAdvisor Plus technology helps you to safely search and transact online by providing you with color-coded ratings to warn you about and actually prevent you from visiting risky web sites that can compromise your identity and your PC

Other Product Features

• McAfee SecurityCenter
  Provides an easy-to-read security status screen and puts you in control with fully customizable options
• McAfee SystemGuards
  Warns you when your computer shows specific behaviors that may signal virus, spyware, or hacker activity
• Stealth Mode
  Makes your computer invisible to intruders from the Internet
• Shredder
  Allows you to effectively remove any and all traces of confidential files from your computer
• Parental Controls
  Allows your children to go online safely
• Data Backup
  Automatically saves copies of your most valuable files on a CD/DVD, USB, external, or network drive
• Protection without Interference
  You can watch movies or play games uninterrupted as McAfee security service intelligently defers tasks, updates, and alerts when you're in full-screen mode

Read comments for more information.

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“Because Chuck Norris Karate Kommandoes is clearly better than that Lost shit.” – This line is quoted from the login page of TV Vault.org, a private torrent tracker specializing in old and rare television series. We posted an article about TV-Vault back in August when the site was only several days old. At the time we wrote that article, TV-Vault had a mere 364 users and 25 torrents. Now, after roughly a month and a half later, TV-Vault tracks more than 1200 torrents and has a user base in excess of 7000. This is quite an achievement but not a surprise as this site is run by the same awesome folks who run Cinemageddon.

As said above, TV-Vault specializes in older and rare Television shows and is has a quite a good number of those shows too. I was able to find torrents of Blackadder, Beavis and Butthead, Beetlejuice, The Muppet Show (1976) and a number of other TV Series torrents which even BitmeTV didn’t have. TV Vault, being one of the trackers that use Gazelle codebase, features a user friendly and a fast interface.

It’s really good to see niche trackers such as TV-Vault doing great at a time when several new general/0day trackers are launched everyday. Signups are currently open and if you are a fan of older and rare TV shows, this is the tracker for you.

Site Name: TV Vault

Signup URL: http://tv-vault.org/register.php

Categories:

• Action
• Advertising
• Animation
• Chatshow
• Comedy
• Documentary
• Drama
• Family
• Gameshow
• Music
• Sci-Fi
• Soap
• Thriller
• Other

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An R3 rip of Vin Diesel’s latest movie Babylon A.D. has leaked to BitTorrent. P2P release group AKCPE is behind the leak. According to the release .nfo, the video source is from a retail R3 DVD (DVD for region 3). The .nfo also mentions of an English audio stream and group claims that it is the studio audio from retail VCD. From the samples, the video quality seems to be somewhere between a DVD Screener and a R1 DVDRip.

In the near future, Toorop (Vin Diesel) is a mercenary who takes the job of escorting a woman named Aurora from Central Asia to New York. While he thinks this is just an ordinary mission, he gradually finds out that his guest is carrying twins that have the potential to become the next Messiahs - and everybody wants to get their hands on them.

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Some good news for Playstation 2 console owners. PS2-P tracker which specializes in PS2 games torrents is now open for signup. Speaking of the content on PS2-P, it’s a dedicated PS2 games and other related content tracker. It does not only tracks games but also game manuals, DVD Covers, Disc scans and even some of the PS2 hacks available. PS2-P currently tracks over 450 torrents and has a user base of over 750 members.

This tracker used to have a very small user cap of 777 and they seem to have increased that. But we don’t know to which amount this was increased or till when the open signups will remain open. If you are planning to get an account here we suggest you do so immediately.

Site Name: PS2-P Tracker

Signup URL: http://ps2ptt.com/signup.php

Categories:

• Bonus DVD/VID
• Cover/Disc Scans
• Extra Projects
• Manuals
• Misc
• PS2 FULL SETS J
• PS2 FULL SETS PAL
• PS2 FULL SETS U
• PS2 NTSC J
• PS2 NTSC U
• PS2 PAL
• PSP
• PSX J
• PSX J FULL SETS
• PSX PAL
• PSX PAL FULL SETS
• PSX U
• PSX U FULL SETS
• PSXPSP
• Tools
• UNDUB
• VGM
• VGM Flac

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ExDesi is a a private torrent tracker specializing in Indian/Pakistani movies and music. It tracks a lot of Hindi (Bollywood) movies as well. For more information and signups URLs please look here.

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Apple released another update for iTunes yesterday. Version 8.0.1 introduces several minor updates such as Improved syncing of spoken menus to iPod nano, improved accessibility with VoiceOVer and many others.

Developer Description

iTunes is a free application for Mac and PC. It plays all your digital music and video. It syncs content to your iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV. And it’s an entertainment superstore that stays open 24/7. Forget rifling through stacks of CDs or flipping through channels. iTunes puts your entire music and video collection a mere click away, giving you an all-access pass to thousands of hours of digital entertainment. Browse. Organize. Play. All from your Mac or PC. View your library by artist, album, episode, year, rating — any way you want. Find what you’re looking for with a quick search that reveals results as you type. Turn CDs into digital music by importing them to iTunes. Organize your entire collection with custom playlists. Shuffle songs to mix up your groove. Listen to music from other computers on your network. Play video using onscreen controls.

What’s new in iTunes 8?

• Genius Playlists
• Genius Sidebar
• Grid View
• HD TV Shows
• Enhanced Accessibility
• New Visualizer

What’s new in iTunes 8.0.1?

• Seamlessly plays the current song when creating a new Genius playlist.
• Improves syncing spoken menus to iPod nano.
• Addresses an issue of deleting HD TV episodes when downloading.
• Improves checking for updates from the App Store
• Improves accessibility with VoiceOver.
• Addresses problems syncing Genius results to iPod.

Download

[Click Here] to download iTunes 8.0.1 directly from Apple servers (58MB).

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A new build of ICQ 6 just got released. This is a minor update over the previous 6342 build but introduces quite a few bug fixes. As always, it’s recommended to update to the latest build for smooth and error free performance.

Developer Description

ICQ is a program that lets you find your friends and associates online in real time. You can create a Contact List containing only people you want to have there, you can send them messages, chat with them, send files, configure ICQ to work with external applications and more. In addition to familiar features such as chat, SMS messaging, and file-transfer capabilities, the newest version includes ICQ Xtraz, which allow you to send personalized greeting cards, apply custom icons to your buddies, play online games, and customize your shortcuts panel for one-click access to all your favorite features. The ICQ Xtraz platform enables ICQ to present users with a selection of new services as they are created, without the need for you to download a new client. Xtraz also supports the creation of new ICQ features that can be built separately from the core ICQ client and then delivered and automatically updated over time. The new interface also is clean and intuitive, so you can start chatting quickly and easily.

New features in ICQ 6

• Extra-quick IM
• A New Experience of Voice and Video
• Follow Me
• Spell Checker
• Babylon
• Tabbed Conversation View
• Multi User Chat
• 2 Way SMS
• Zlango
• Emoticons gallery
• Personal Status Manager
• Game Center
• Birthday Reminder
• History
• Advanced Search Options
• Easy Access to Unread Messages

Download

[Click Here] to download ICQ 6.0 build 7015 standalone installer directly from official servers (15MB)

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Well we have lots of good private trackers opening signup today; Bitmusic, Gfxnews, Audionews and now Libble. Libble is a popular music torrent tracker. It recently switched to the much discussed gazelle codebase with a major interface overhaul. Libble tracks over 10000 music torrents along with audiobooks, applications and some related ebooks. They also have unique mixtapes of their own which are not available anywhere other than on this tracker.

Libble does not have open signups frequently. So if you are a music fan, grab this opportunity and get yourself an account for free.

Site Name: Libble.com

Signup URL: http://libble.com/register.php

Categories:

• Music
• Libble Mixtapes
• Applications
• E-Books
• Audiobooks
• Comedy
• Music Videos

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Gfxnews is the sister site of Audionews (which is also open at the moment). Gfxnews is a community and a torrent tracker which has a lot of graphics design related content. This includes 3D content, Graphics editor apps, 3d animations and related apps, Tutorials and e-books on graphics design, fonts, templates, photostock content and the likes (see categories section below to get a better idea). In short, if you are even remotely interested in graphics editing/design or 3D animation, this tracker is a must have.

Gfxnews is a tracker based in Russia. The content however is in English. It’s a forum based tracker with over 50000 active members. Signups are currently open and if you are interested you can get in for free without an invitation.

Site Name: Gfxnews.ru

Signup URL: http://forum.gfxnews.ru/profile.php?mode=register

Categories:

• 3D CONTENT - 3D Total  , AmbientLight  , Archvision  , Arroway  , AsileFX  , Axyz Design  , Daz3D  , DoschDesign  , Evermotion  , ImageCel  , Marlin Studios 3D  , PsicoSonic
• APPS- ISO  , RIP  , CAD/CAM/CAE  , Adobe Plugins  , Archicad Plugins  , Avid Plugin  , Cinema 4D Plugin  , 3DMax Plugins  , LW Plugins  , Maya Plugins
• BOOKS
• DEVELOPMENT
• FONTS
• FOOTAGE - 12 INCH Design  , 3D Bank  , 3D Fon  , 5 THINGS  , Actionback  , Adobe Image Library Video  , Alien Box/Tommy Back  , Animation Factory  , Artbeats  , Canopus  , Capital DV Studio  , Corbis Video  , Datacraft Video  , Digital Brewery  , Digital Juice Video  , Digital Hotcakes  , Digital Preserves  , Digital Vision Video  , Dosch Video  , DV Club  , Easymotion  , Eyewire  , F4 Studio  , Film Disk  , FreedomFX  , Fuzion Films  , HyperEye  , Marlin Studios Video  , Motionloops  , MovieStock  , Prismo  , Pro-Motion  , ProCimar  , Rab-Byte  , Rhino House  , Rubberball Video  , Shiny DV  , ShowStoppers FX  , STASH  , Studio BS  , Taste Media  , Thinkstock  , Thought Equity  , TimeImage  , Ulead Pick-a-Video  , Video Copilot  , vce.com  , Video3D.RU  , Wededit.RU
• MAC
• LINUX
• PHOTOSTOCK - Apply Pictures  , Aridi  , Art Explosion  , Artbeats Photo  , Artville  , AsiaImageBank  , BackArts  , BananaStock  , Bee-Line  , Brand X  , Broderbund  , Central Stock  , Circa Art  , China Stock  , Classic PIO Partnership  , Club Scorpius  , ComStock  , Corbis RF  , Corel  , Creatas  , DAJ  , Datacraft Photo  , Dex Image  , DiAMAR  , Digigra  , Digital Juice Drops  , Digital Vision  , DigiTouch  , Discovery  , Dover  , Eyewire Photo  , Fancy  , FStop  , GlowImages  , GoodShoot  , GoMedia  , Hakata  , Health Head  , Hemera  , iDREAM stock  , Image Kit  , Image Making  , Image100  , ImageDJ  , ImageFarm  , ImageIdeas  , ImageMore  , Imagesource (Electra Vision)  , Imagestate (John Foxx)  , Ingram Publishing  , iStockPhotos  , Ivan Ivanich  , Izosoft  , Lushpix  , Medio  , MH Foto Design  , Mixa  , OdinKot  , Ojoimages  , Pepin Press  , PhotoAlto  , Photodisc  , PhotoSpin  , PixLand  , Pixtal  , Planet Art  , Rubberball  , Shibvisi  , Spotty  , StockDisc  , StockByte  , Tattoo  , Think Stock  , Ulead Pick-a-Photo  , Visual Language  , Zedcor DeskGallery  , ZZVE
• TEMPLATES - Animation Factory Photo  , Atmosphere Studio  , Boxedart  , DG Foto Art Gallerias  , DriveArt  , DreamTemplate  , Iconbase  , SPC International  , TemplateMonster
• TUTORIALS - 3D Garage  , 3D Trainer  , AsileFX Tutorial  , Autodesk / Alias  , Cartoon Smart  , CG Academy  , Desktop Images  , Digital Art  , Digital Tutors  , Digital Media  , Gnomonology  , FXphd  , KW Media Group  , Lost Pencil  , Luxology  , Lynda.com  , MacProVideo.com  , Simply Maya  , Softimage  , Technical Animation  , The Gnomon Workshop  , Total Training  , Turbo Squid  , VTC

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