Tweak 7 has been updated to v1.01, and Tweak Vista updated to v2.01.  Both applications provide enhancements for their respected Operating System by helping configure it to meet your personal need by improving performance and behavior of Windows.  They were designed for both the casual user users as well as power users to get get the most out of Windows Vista or Windows 7.

These latest updates bring:

• Added viewing details and integration for clearing cache/temp locations.
• Improved handling for process identification
• Fixes including service start/stop images and auto-logons on x64.

Existing users can download the updates via Stardock’s Impulse.  Please visit the links below to get more information about Tweak 7 and Tweak Vista, along with links to free trial versions.

https://www.stardock.com/products/tweak7/

https://www.stardock.com/products/tweakvista/

We have been waiting a while to hear about “official” news about the release of CS5, especially in regards to Adobe Photoshop.  This week Adobe has announced a countdown for the first look at the upcoming CS5.

http://cs5launch.adobe.com/

On that page you can signup to take part in the introduction. 

Adobe Labs have also released a video showing the new content-aware fill.

Multiplicity is one of the most useful and productive apps around today, and I like to share stories on how users can use MP to get more work done, and easier.  To answer the question simply, it is because Multiplicity can make your work easier by eliminating the desktop clutter of multiple hardware, and by using the power of multiple PC’s with just one mouse/keyboard combination.

I was recently speaking with a guy who had a cool setup of three 24” widescreen monitors, each hooked up to their own PC.  Of course the mess comes in because there are also three sets of keyboards and mice on the desktop making much clutter on what otherwise would be a clean, functional desktop.  After showing a quick demo of Multiplicity they were sold, and the clutter on the desktop was eliminated and now they manage their media creation across three PC’s with just one mouse and keyboard.

If you have multiple-PC’s on your desktop, then I suggest giving Multiplicity a try, I’m confident you won’t be disappointed.

For a free trial and more information, visit www.multiplicity.net.

It is just about time to strike February off the calendar, and we find ourselves getting closer and closer to summer.  In case you missed it earlier in the week, ImpulseTV which debuted last week was updated this week with a couple of new episodes so be sure to check them out.  We have also had a bunch of new releases on Impulse this week, so keep reading below to see what’s been added.

News and Articles:

• Elemental: Modding
• Unit design really demonstrates a key part of the economic system
• ImpulseTV Video Walkthrough
• Elemental Beta 1G Preview
• GamePro DRM Analysis, Interview with Brad Wardell
• Elemental BETA 1G: READ ME FIRST.
• WindowBlinds Feature Friday – Textures
• Impulse Weekly Top 10

New and Updated Releases on Impulse:

• Achtung Panzer – Kharkov 1943
• Dawn of Discovery – Gold Edition
• Dawn of Discovery – Venice
• Arsenal of Democracy: A Hearts of Iron Game
• Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
• Darkstar One
• Gratuitous Space Battles
  

Weekend Impulse Buys

I was working with an Impulse video update this morning, and in the process I also created this quick walkthrough of ImpulseTV.

Check it out!

As you might have read in my earlier post , I received an ATI 5870 video card and I had to nickname it “the beast”, because this sucker is big, and that’s just how I like it.  I’m upgrading from an ATI 4850, which is another fabulous video card, but I’m certainly not going to deny myself the opportunity to try out this latest one. 

If you are interested in all the fancy numbers, you can view the technical specs here , but here are the main features from the ATI site.

• Get unrivalled visual quality and intense gaming performance and for today and tomorrow with support for Microsoft® DirectX® 11
• With ATI Eyefinity technology get the ultimate immersive gaming experience innovative ‘wrap around’ multi-display capabilities
• Tap into the massive parallel processing power of your GPU with ATI Stream technology and tackle demanding tasks like video transcoding with incredible speed
• Feel the brute strength of more than 2 teraFLOPS plowing through the most demanding games
• Experience the speed, responsiveness and performance of ultra-high bandwidth GDDR5 memory
• ATI CrossFireX™ technology with multi-GPU support offers advanced scalability

As you can see in the images above, this is obviously a dual-slot card, meaning it’s going to take up two spots on the back of your PC.  This wasn’t a problem for me as I don’t have any other PCI cards installed, but it’s something you need to take into consideration.  Installation was quick, just make sure both slots are free, snap in the card, and hook in the power.  After making sure it was securely in, it was ready to go.  Next step was booting up and installing the latest Catalyst drivers, which is a straightforward installation and I didn’t run into any issues whatsoever.

On the card it has two DVI outputs, an HDMI output, and a DisplayPort output.  In my current setup I have two 22” widescreen monitors hooked up to the DVI ports.  I’m still contemplating on what to do with the HDMI port. Anyways, after the driver installation I had to go into the display properties and easily configure Windows 7 to setup the dual-monitors to display as I want them to which is the main monitor on the right, and the second on the left.

I just installed this a day ago, so I’m going to break it in for a bit, and then follow-up with a review on the performance of the card from a user point of view, not the super technical number crunches you often see. 

Are you ready for the weekend?  I certainly am.  Let me first mention our Impulse fleet on Star Trek Online has a great group of players, and from what I hear everyone has been having a great time playing.  Going forward, we hope to have more groups forming for our Impulse community so Stardockians and our customers can have a chance to play together more often.  Let me know what you think of that idea.

This was without a doubt a super-busy week.  We had a bunch of releases on Impulse, including our beloved Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity, and the Diplomacy expansion.  Check the links below for the list of other releases we had this week.  It’s getting to the point there’s not enough room in this article to list them all.

If you are following the development of Elemental: War of Magic, be sure to take a look at the blogs and developer journals from this week, there have been quite a few and they are all worth the read.

Lets get to the roundup!

News and Articles:

• Impulse Weekly Top 10
• Impulse Video Guided Tour
• Elemental Q&A Update with GameSpot
• Impulse enhances its top 10 list
• Sins of a Solar Empire: Diplomacy – a guided tour
• Elemental: The Tragedy of Procipinee
• Creatures of Elemental: Hordes of the Fallen

New and Updated Releases on Impulse:

• Aveyond - Lord of Twilight
• Aveyond - Gates of Night
• Bungee Jumping Simulator
• Military Life: Tank Simulator
• Tropico 3
• The Path
• Campus
• Supreme Ruler 2020 - Global Crisis
• Sins of a Solar Empire – Diplomacy
• The Sims 3: High End Loft Stuff
• Sins of a Solar Empire Expansion Bundle
• Sins of a Solar Empire – Trinity

Weekend Impulse Buys

We created this for a page on the site, but I think it’s very useful so I wanted to share it with others here as well.

Another week is wrapped up, this one being the first week in February.  It started off great with the release of Star Trek Online, which we also formed an Impulse fleet where community members are invited to join us play.  Check the article links below for more on that!  We also had lots of Sins of a Solar Empire related news this past week including a gameplay video of Diplomacy, and more info on the coming releases of Diplomacy and Sins: Trinity.

Enough chit-chat, lets get to this weeks roundup!

News and Articles to check out:

• A Look at Upcoming Games on Impulse
• Elemental Beta 1-G plans
• Gameplay Example: Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity
• Elemental February Status Report
• Join the Impulse Fleet!
• Pictures of our visit with ObjectDock 2
• Life at Stardock – the happiest place in the world
• Atari Adds New Titles to Stardock's Impulse Platform

New and Updated Releases on Impulse:

• Star Trek Online
• Sherlock Holmes Versus Arsene Lupin
• Sherlock Holmes - Nemesis
• Frontline: Fields of Thunder
• Fire Flower
• Sherlock Holmes - The Awakened
• Sherlock Holmes Versus Jack the Ripper
• Purrfect Pet Shop
• Tales of Bingwood
• Evochron Legends
• Satisfashion

Weekend Impulse Buys

This month the ObjectDock 2 beta is scheduled to begin. I got to visit with it today and took some pictures of the trip.