The SoftwareMedia Tribune
Find out what happened in the world of software in January 2009. The SoftwareMedia Tribune gives you all the latest software news, releases, innovations, tips, tricks and more. Sign up to keep up with the latest Software News and get exclusive discounts for SoftwareMedia.com in you inbox once a month!

Help & How To
Compare Accounting Programs
Software Licensing Guide
VMware & Virtualization Guide
Tax Filing Guide

New Software Releases
Diskeeper 2009
Corel Family Pack 2009
FileMaker 10
Apple iLife 2009
RoboHelp 8
Roxio Toast 10
Captivate 4

Briefly…

• Corel releases service pack for CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4. Click here for download.
  
• Windows 7 Beta reviewers who were critical of Vista (like Intel) are praising the OS.
• Sybase software reported fourth quarter earnings well above Wall Street’s expectations.
  
• Early numbers show Intuit’s Turbo Tax has lost market share to H&R Block’s TaxCut
• Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1 released this month. See Photos.

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Reliable sources say the outgoing CEO of Symantec John Thompson is the top candidate for the post of U.S. Commerce Secretary. His experience as CEO for a Symantec, the largest security software provider in the world, makes him an ideal candidate. Dean Garfield, president of the Information Technology Industry Council, says “His work on diversifying the corporate ranks bodes well for his willingness to think broadly about advancing our competitiveness on a global basis.” Thompson joined Symantec in 1999 and oversaw the acquisition of more than a dozen companies, including the $10.5 billion purchase of Veritas Software in 2005. While Thompson has always kept his political activities separate from business activities, he did hold several fundraisers for Obama at his California home. If chosen, he would fill the last slot in President Obama’s Cabinet. Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thompson is just one of the names under consideration and that no decision has been made.

Last month we reported that spam levels dropped by half when rogue ISP McColo was taken offline. Well it now appears that spammers have regrouped and are finding ways to send more junk mail. “At the current rates, we’ll be back at those pre-McColo takedown levels probably within the next three to five weeks,” said Adam Swidler, senior product marketing manager for Google Message Security. Almost 75% of all email this month was spam, a figure which reflects spammers’ changing tactics to ensure their messages are not blocked. They are using programs that detect a person’s ISP and then route the mail through that ISP, which avoids it getting blocked. ISPs are not currently set up to stop that kind of abuse. An interesting side note from InfoWorld about the McColo takedown: “It was the community of researchers rather than law enforcement that caused McColo’s upstream providers to disconnect it from the Internet.” See our guide on how to prevent spam.

5,000 jobs at Microsoft Corporation will be cut over the next 18 months. After the announcement earlier this month, 1,400 jobs were cut immediately. “Economic activity and IT spend slowed beyond our expectations in the quarter, and we acted quickly to reduce our cost structure and mitigate its impact,” said Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell. 5,000 jobs equates to 5% of its workforce, although overall workforce is not expected to drop that much as they continue to hire in key areas. Other expense cuts, like delayed salary increases, were also announced. The announcement also included a warning that profit and revenue will most certainly drop over the next two quarters. The news sent shock waves across financial markets. Other software companies have announced major cuts as well: SAP to cut 3,000; Autodesk to cut 750; IBM to cut 2,800.

iLifers new and old are in for a treat with the new release of Apple iLife 2009. The suite includes iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand and iWeb. Slick new features are plentiful. iPhoto users will find Faces and Places useful for face detection, face recognition and geotagging. GarageBand 2009 takes simple composition to a whole new level with its new Learn to Play feature, which includes musicians like Sting and John Fogerty. In iMovie you can use the new Precision Editor to easily advance the preview window, skim the edges of clips to resize them with the mouse, drop new clips with a simple click-and-drag, apply transitions, effects and more. iWeb ’09 features the ability to FTP from any server, new support for multiple Websites, new templates and widgets for RSS feeds, YouTube videos, photos and more. iLife is free on all new Mac purchases. And a version seeded with malware has also been making the rounds, so use caution and be aware of pirated software, even on popular BitTorrent sites.