Adobe® Fireworks® CS6

By Howard Berenbon

Fireworks® CS6 will help you quickly design graphics and animated objects for Web and mobile theme applications.  I see Adobe Fireworks as the little brother of Photoshop because you can do much of your required photo and graphics manipulation in Fireworks, and fast.  It will help you with all your Website and mobile graphics design needs (tablets and android devices, Apple iPhone, iPods and iPads, etc), including 3D graphics, and all for just $149 (upgrade from CS5). It’s available on its own, or you’ll find it bundled with some of the Adobe Create Suites intended for use with Dreamweaver with a number of Photoshop features.  It may not have all the bells and whistles of Photoshop, but it has some automated features that will make your design life a lot easier. .If you need the expanded features of Photoshop (the king of digital photography), by all means, use it. But if you’re just working with Website and mobile graphics, Fireworks is the king of that domain.

What’s New and Improved

Improved CSS support
Save time and preserve your design's integrity by cleanly extracting CSS elements and values (such as color, font, gradient, and corner radius) using the new CSS Properties panel. Once you have the code, copy and paste it directly into Adobe Dreamweaver® CS6 software or other HTML editors.

New jQuery Mobile theme skinning support
Create, modify, or update jQuery themes for mobile websites and apps, including CSS sprite images.

Quicker access to color
Quickly switch between solid, gradient, and pattern color effects. Apply opacity control separately to Fill and Stroke dialog boxes to achieve better control and precision. Change colors more quickly with the improved color swatch.

Create CSS sprites
Easily create CSS sprites from design comps. Mock up complete web pages and export layouts with external style sheets in one step.

Improved performance
Work smarter in a responsive environment with faster redraw in Mac OS. Improved memory management supports files up to four times larger on 64-bit Windows® systems.

API access
Access the API to generate extensions. Benefit from community-driven extensions.

Updated symbols and templates
New symbols for iPhone, Windows Phone 7 and other popular platforms, as well as updated templates can help boost your design workflow.

Adobe® Fireworks® CS6 sells for $299 (upgrade from CS5 for $149) and will run on any multimedia PC, Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon 64 processor, 512 RAM, 1 GB available disk space with Windows 7/8, XP/Vista/Enterprise, 1280x800 display and a DVD-ROM drive.  It will also run in the Apple Mac OS X v10.5.8 or v10.6, Multicore Intel processor with 512 MB RAM, 1.8 GB available disk space, 1280x800 display and a DVD-ROM drive. For more information, or to order, visit Amazon.com.

Adobe® Systems Incorporated
345 Park Ave
San Jose, CA 95110-2704
URL: www.adobe.com
800-833-6687

TurboTax® Home & Business 2012 Federal & State Returns plus Federal E-File

By Howard Berenbon

This year, TurboTax® did it again. It helped me file my federal and state taxes effortlessly. Yes, I did spend a day entering all the required data from all my year-end tax forms, but that was nothing compared to the weeks I’d spend on my taxes BTT (before TurboTax).  My personal and business tax situation is not simple. In fact, it can be confusing and complicated, but TurboTax helped tremendously, and once I gathered my personal and business data for 2012, and sat down with TurboTax, I was done in just one day. I mainly use their step-by-step format because it asks all the right questions needed to fill in the forms.  If you filed using TurboTax last year, it will transfer your personal and business information, including all forms entered. Then you enter the new numbers one form at a time.  It’s that simple.  And if you need more forms, they’re easily added. 

TurboTax, for me, has been mostly flawless and painless from year to year.  And this year seemed easier for me then most past years.  Once you’re done, after they thoroughly check everything you’ve entered, and offer fixes for any errors—I had none this year—you can E-File your federal return for free, up to 5 returns with any state return costing just $19.95. It seems fair you get 5, because you may have to help file your college kids’ taxes.

Electronic filing online is easier than ever.  But you'll need a pin number for identification before you can proceed. For a moment, I paused at the pin requirement, but checked TurboTax, and I already had one from the year before.  So, minutes later, I pressed the send button and the federal forms were out of my hands, traveling through Cyberspace.  I then printed the state returns, signed them, put them in a stamped envelope and I was done for the year (I mailed them the next day).  Almost immediately, I received an e-mail from TurboTax that my forms were received.  Then a few minutes later I received the acceptance e-mail from the US Treasury.  That was fast and painless. I was tempted to E-File my state returns for the convenience, but I opted for snail mail to save the $19.95. Maybe I'll take that option next year. If you are getting a refund from the state, and you need the money fast, then it’s best to E-File.

TurboTax® 2012 Home & Business retails for $99.99 ($60.08 through Amazon.com). Includes 5 federal E-Files, free audit support guarantee, and is guaranteed to get you the maximum tax refund. Will run on any multimedia PC (Windows or Macintosh), 1 GHz 32-bit or faster processor, 500 MB hard disk space, 512 MB RAM with Windows 7/8, a CD-ROM drive and Adobe Reader 8.0 or higher. Mac – PowerPC G3 or higher processor, 512 MB RAM, 300 MB hard disk space and Mac OS X v10.6.8 or higher. For more information, or to order, visit Amazon.com.

Intuit Inc.
2500 Garcia Ave.
Mountain View, CA 94043
Phone: 1-800-446-8848
URL turbotax.com

TurboTax Survey - Please Participate

Intuit offers TurboTax online preparation, where you fill out your forms using the online version of TurboTax. I was told by the PR people at Intuit that more than 60 percent of the users are choosing this method. I am curious about how many of you are willing to fill our your tax forms online, without having installed a copy of TurboTax in your computer. Please answer "Yes" or "No" by clicking the radio button.

I will post the results in May.. Thank you.

TurboTax Survey