PowerPoint 2008 integration with Apple Remote Control lets you concentrate on your words, not your keyboard. Now control your presentation and engage your audience unleashed from the podium.
Excel 2008
It’s a numbers game. With Excel 2008, analyze, share, and manage your data, and easily create persuasive charts and thought-provoking graphs for powerful results.
- Ledger Sheets in Excel 2008 make tracking finances, inventories, even invoices and portfolios easy with preformulated spreadsheets and automatic calculations.
- Charting improvements artfully convey the message your data is telling. You’ll see your numbers in a whole new way.
- The new prebuilt functions tackle the most common tasks and make creating error-free complex conditional formulas easier.
- Quick access to formulas makes functions more functional with Formula Builder in Excel 2008.
- Your data will know virtually no limits. Excel 2008 now supports over 16,000 columns and over 1 million rows.
- Whether you’re an Excel expert or a complete novice, Excel 2008 Formula AutoComplete simplifies your calculations by providing a dynamic pop-up menu so you can select and complete your formula.
Messenger for Mac
Convenience is the name of the game for Mac users who want to communicate instantly with family, friends and colleagues from one convenient place. Messenger for Mac is now a Universal application, and gives you more ways to share what’s on your mind or on your plate.
Use Messenger for Mac to instantly check the status of project team members, streamline workflow by sending documents directly from Word, or offer questions or comments on document changes instantly.
- Yahoo! Interoperability will allow personal users to connect and message with Yahoo! Messenger for Mac users.
- Your intentions will never again be in doubt when you create your own custom emoticons in Messenger for Mac.
- Spelling Checker is now included in Messenger for Mac.
- Let the world know your tastes when you display your iTunes selection with the new “What I’m listening to now” feature.
Customer Review: Office Mac 2008 Not Worth Its Cost in Packaging
Microsoft’s Mac unit did Mac users an injustice with Office 2008, bringing the package down to the functionality of Apple’s iWork ‘08. Stripping VBA and the data analysis toolpak out of Excel is inexcusable, but it’s even worse. Many of the Upgrades Microsoft made from Office XP to Office 2003, let alone Office 2007 are not included (e.g., right indent in Excel). Word and PowerPoint also seem more like Office XP as well. Sure formatting palettes are nice, but that’s just repacking functionality, not improving it.
As bad as the stripped down Office 2008 is, it gets worse. PPT, Word, and Excel crash so often on my new Leopard MacBook Pro, that I use iWork for most of my work and switch to the Windows version of Excel via VMWare Fusion when tasks demand them. I would suggest staying with Mac 2004 until Microsoft does an upgrade to the Office Suite that does more than change its packaging.
Customer Review: It’s about time Microsoft Office for Mac’s updated
this is a great product — sans microsoft outlook! it works much more seamlessly opening/reading office files than iworks!
-
Go Set with Drawers (12 inch)
Consider yourself a militaristic genius? Ready to set out for blood to gain territory and crush your opponent? Not so fast… Go, an ancient game of Chinese origin, rewards patience and concentration rather than greed and aggression. The shifting balance of territory and power can unnerve even the most disciplined and intellectual player. Like martial arts, Go is an exercise in concentration, balance, and discipline. One cannot disguise one’s personality on the Go board! Go can be learned in minutes, but it can take a lifetime to master. The large board and lack of restrictions allows great scope in strategy and expression of players’ individuality. The object of the two-player game is to gain control of territories by alternately placing black or white stones strategically across a large ruled board. While it is easy to learn, this game of beauty and intellectual challenge provides hours of entertainment for players. This is a terrific set for a beginner as well as an Insei! The wooden 12″ x 12″ board has an elegant blond veneer and two pull-out drawers for holding stones to give the player easier access to their “arsenal.” Plastic stones included. **No knobs on drawers as pictured.
Price: $39.99
Customer Review: Unsuitable
A go board that is unusable is not a good deal at any price. First of all, the merchants clearly don’t care about the game. The stones should be placed on the lines, not the spaces in between as in the photo. This shows a complete lack of clue about the game of GO. A major clue that you don’t want this. Second, Go stones for a board of this size are hard to use over the course of a long game. Kids will give up in frustration. I have several go-bans at this size, and I can attest they are unsuitable for over the board play. You can buy a roll-up board and stones kit with regulation 8mm stones for about this same price. Your fingers will thank you. Kids will actually use it.
Customer Review: Great
This is a wonderful item. I bought mine from board games superstore and it arrived several days earlier than the earliest estimated time. The product was in great shape when it arrived and everything was there. Although I wish that it was a little bigger and that it had a book to teach you how to play, but that would ruin the price. Overall this is a wonderful product and I would recommend it to anyone who likes to play go.
Saitek Maestro Travel Chess Computer from Mephisto
Saiteks sleek Maestro Travel Chess Computer makes it easy to hone your chess strategy from all angles. This pocket-sized chess companions touch-sensor screen is easy on the eyes with a backlit blue LCD display. With integrated game memory, game-time tips, and position drills, the Maestro will make you ready for any position, move, or strategy in a chess game.
Price: $141.44
Customer Review: Visiblity!
most all chess computers are strong; most all have more features than you could ever use; book openings, take backs, hints, tutors, problem solving,etc. They ALL have these great features. But, with the touch screens, the number 1 issue has been visibility. “Is that a pawn, or a knight?”. This makes the game completely ruined. I have tested many hand held games over the years and this one, hands down, is the best. The pieces are easily distinguishable and that is why it is a 5 star rating. The overall feel of the game is one of quality with some weight to it. In an age where so much plastic feels like junk, this chess set is very well made. The batteries last a long time, and there are two backlight settings, for those times where you really need better lighting. You can play the games in complete silence (no beeps to wake up your spouse). I have owned this for several years and it is really the best. Enjoy!
Chocolate Chess Set
Solid Chocolate Chess Set available is 3 colors. Completely edible and has all pieces you can play a game if you don’t eat the pieces first.
Price: $75.00
Hiarcs 10
Hiarcs has long been renowned for its human-like playing style, now Hiarcs 10 goes much further with improved chess knowledge, a more aggressive style and an ability to search very deeply for the truth of a position. New chess knowledge enables Hiarcs 10 to identify deep attacking motifs long before they become apparent especially concerning King attacks and unbalanced positions and material. Hiarcs 10 often prefers initiative and attacking options over more materialistic concerns associated with traditional chess programs. Matched to this new chess knowledge Hiarcs 10 searches much more deeply often enabling it to find new unexpected moves and ideas much faster. New enhancements mean that while playing or analyzing games, Hiarcs 10 is able to learn more about the positions. This feature is essential for all chess players who analyze chess games, studies, positions and openings as it enables Hiarcs 10 to understand deep strategic or tactical ideas while analyzing with you. With Hiarcs 10 you get an intelligent chess partner which actually learns and improves with you! The new Hiarcs 10 book is included which has been significantly enhanced with the latest GM theory and a wealth of novelties to provide a huge repertoire of finely tuned variations. This is the work of computer chess expert Eric Hallsworth and Hiarcs author Mark Uniacke who have combined to provide an exceptional new opening book. These features all add up to make Hiarcs 10 an essential tool for chess players of all strengths making the chess games you play or analyze much more interesting, unpredictable and exciting than ever before. System Requirements: Minimum: Pentium II 300 MHz, 64 MB RAM, Windows98 SE, Me, 2000, XP, DVD ROM drive, Windows Media Player9. Recommended: Pentium IV 2.2 GHz or more, 256 MB RAM, Windows XP, GeForce5 graphics card (or equivalent) with 128 MB RAM or more 100% compatible with DirectX, sound card, Windows Media Player 9, DVD ROM drive
Price: $57.95
Customer Review: An excellent human-like playing style, but for average players you can get something similar for half cost!
HIARCS 10 is an excellent chess engine with lots of flexibility and the ability to load different engines. It has the most human-like playing style of any engine I am familiar with and it’s play is very strong. As other people mention below, there are perhaps more strong engines, but if you are not competing in tournaments where chess engines compete against other chess engines or you are not interested in “centaur” or computer assisted chess, you may not need to go with the strongest engine unless you are Gary Kasparov. On the other hand, the different programming and playing styles are interesting to compare and contrast for very strong players. These folks probably buy ALL of the top three engines anyway, so I need to say any more about that! I also own DEEP FRITZ GRAND MASTER DELUXE. This is also an excellent chess engine, but it is currently half the cost of this one! If you are looking for economy, this might be the way to go because it’s playing strength is comparable and certainly adequate for even a very highly rated player. However, it’s playing style is not as human or natural. If you are buying a first chess engine, however, I think you will be thrilled. Both of the engines above include one year of free membership to http://m-w.com/which is a lot of fun! Here you can play many players from around the world 24 hours a day. You can also save, download and analyze these games in either of these two fine chess engines. Considering the technology, sophistication and hours of fun you can have with either of the two chess engines I mentioned, but are a real bargain. However, if you are on a budget, I might pick up Deep Fritz Grand Master Deluxe and then wait for the new version of Hiarcs to come out and see how it compares to the new versions of other engines. If you don’t feel like Deep Fritz is enough, you will have something brand new to play with and you can check out the reviews with a good base knowledge of the limitation of another fine product. If cost is not an issue, I prefer HIARCS 10 to Deep Fritz. Lastly, while I’m a decent chess player, I am not in the championship class and I don’t do a lot of deep book analysis at high speeds. If you are in this category then it may make sense for you to go with HIARCS or one of the other top-rated engines. There is some detail on this in other reviews, so I will not repeat it here. If you have comments about my review or suggestions of other information to include, I would sure appreciate you leaving them. I will read them and update my review based on additional feedback. I would especially like to know if anyone feels that I steered them wrong. I’ve played a lot with both engines and I feel confident I can make these suggestions from an informed stance.
Customer Review: Hiarcs or Shredder?
Or maybe even Rybka? Those are the top 3 names and every year the different developers try and upgrade with +30 or so rating on the top chess engine when they do battle at the various chess engine tournaments. As it stands at this time of writing Shredder 10 is trying to pip Hiarcs 10. Rybka currently tops both Hiarcs 10 and Shredder 9. Toga II and Fruit can also compete well (sometimes scoring higher). The problem is that Rybka, Toga II and Fruit are engines. Hiarcs 10 and Shredder 10 are engines but are both packaged with chessbase software which costs $30 for the latest edition. So for $20 extra you are getting the engines and the chess software. If you want the top of the line chess engine then Rybka is probably where you want to go if you are willing to shell out an experimental $70 for it. Shredder 10 is being tested at the moment so right now the #2 place goes to this engine, Hiarcs 10. You are going to get one of the most powerful chess engines in the world if you purchase this. At #2 it can only drop 3 places if the other 3 engines can beat it. Hiarcs 10 is also the same price as Shredder 10. Dont go here though if you are just trying to improve your game. Something like Deep Fritz 8 can be bought now for $20 if you get the “Deep Fritz: Grand Master Deluxe” software package. That has the Deep Fritz 8 chess software package that can load up all the top engines if you have them. Fritz 9 is more expensive with an updated chess software package and can load the new engines too. You don’t really need to spend all this much to have a good engine (the $20 set above is beyond 99% of us) but at the same time if you can get Hiarcs 10 then use it because it is powerful.
Total performance. A soft - but serious - track pant in Climaproof mesh with internal drawcord, elastic waist and onseam pockets at sides. Three stripe detail along legs. Lower leg zip closure. Embroidered logo at left leg. 
Whether you’re already at the top of your game or getting ready to play your first, this shoe is an unbeatable value. Classic looks and performance at a great price for players of all levels. 
In Backyard Soccer, the Backyard Bunch returns for another fun-filled season of action-packed sports. This season, the kids really use their heads as they challenge other players to a friendly pickup game. Each character brings his or her own unique soccer skills to the field, and kids can learn more about them by checking out the Backyard Soccer League’s talking trading cards. Sunny Day returns to provide entertaining play-by-play commentary, and rookie announcer Earl Grey is on hand to assist with his own brand of color commentary. Kids have a ball as they choose their team’s name, colors, and logo and then head over to the bleachers to handpick their team from the kids in the Junior Sports neighborhood. (Ages 5-10) 
