Audiovox A-DUO-101-AVW User Manual download pdf (Page 43)

MAY 9, 2006 PC MAGAZINE 73

LL THOSE MULTIMEDIA TOOLS

IN Windows XP? Child’s play. If

you’re serious about PC audio and

video—about watching TV, lis-

tening to music, making movies,

managing your digital photos, all

from your PC—Vista is the place to do it all. For

the ﬁ rst time, Microsoft includes a bona ﬁ de photo

manager—not the skimpy “photo viewer” you’ll ﬁ nd

in Win XP. In addition, you get beefed-up versions

of Windows Media Player and Movie Maker. And

with the Premium or Ultimate versions of the OS,

you even get an updated version of Media Center,

the home entertainment system that used to be a

separate operating system.

The moment I ﬁ rst opened

Vista’s new Photo Gallery

tool, I knew Microsoft had

gotten it right. Finally, a

single place where we can

organize, edit, and share our

digital photos. Win XP failed

to offer any editing or sharing

options, and its organizational

tools were almost an insult.

Windows Photo Gallery can’t

quite compete with free pho-

to managers like Picasa (my

favorite) and Preclick, or with

Apple’s iPhoto, but it’s still a

big step for the OS.

With Photo Gallery, you

can organize videos as well

as photos, quickly searching

and sorting them via tags,

dates, and ratings. I love the

“slider” button, which lets you

instantly resize the thumbnails on your virtual light-

table, and the default “Ken Burns” slide-show effect,

which dynamically pans and zooms each photo.

And here’s a little secret: Photo Gallery actu-

ally integrates with the updated Windows Movie

Maker, which means you can instantly, easily move

photos and videos from one to the other. You can

spice your movies up with all sorts of new effects

and transitions. Perhaps best of all, now that Movie

Maker takes advantage of your graphics processor,

it no longer limits movie previews to a tiny 320-

by-240 window. And when your movie is ﬁ nished,

you can seamlessly burn it to disc using Microsoft’s

new DVD Maker tool; you can even add chapters

and menus.

Meanwhile, Windows Media Player 11 offers a

fresh interface, making it easier to organize, ﬁ nd,

rip, and burn your audio ﬁ les. My favorite perks:

You set up songs for burning with a mere drag and

drop, and you can add cover art with a simple paste

command. I’m into browsing by album cover, too.

Media Player is also better at syncing portable de-

vices, certainly a welcome improvement. Check out

the “random sync” feature, which can turn any MP3

player into an iPod shufﬂ e. (Whether that’s a good

thing is still up for debate.) And when Vista ﬁ nally

debuts, Player will work hand in hand with URGE,

MTV’s new online music service, which will offer

more than two million digital tracks. Make no mis-

take: Vista can excite the senses.

—Cade Metz

Because It’s Loaded with

New Multimedia Tools

PHOTO GALLERY Vista adds basic photo organizing,

editing, and sharing tools to its photo viewer.

WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER 11 WMP has a fresh new interface to help users

better organize their music, as well as sync their music libraries with portable

devices and, of course, burn discs.

Vista Secrets

Want to see what Vista

looks like with Aero Glass

disabled? Press Ctrl-Shift-

F9. (This will work in beta

releases only, not produc-

tion versions.)

You can control volume

levels on an application-

by-application basis

using Vista’s new audio

control panel.

Having trouble installing a

hardware device in Vista?

Try using the Windows

XP version of the driver.

Press Windows-Tab to get

the cool “Flip 3D” view of

all your open applications.

VISTA PREVIEW

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Audiovox A-DUO-101-AVW User Manual Page 43

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