Transcripts

Gifts & Gadgets - Picking The Right Program

SUSIE GHARIB: Chances are, someone on your holiday gift list has or wants a personal computer. So that's the focus of our final "gifts and gadgets" segment tonight. Here's Scott Gurvey with some ideas on what to buy and what not to buy.

SCOTT GURVEY, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: If you're in the market for a personal computer this year, I have a suggestion. Don't do it. Wait one month, collect some interest. Then buy a PC with Windows Vista already installed. Many stores are selling computers today with the promise of free Vista upgrades. But I'd rather they do it, not me, which doesn't mean you can't have fun buying computer add-ons.

Electronic Arts has updated its usual array of first class sports games. And Microsoft has a new version of flight simulator, the all time best selling computer game. To make for an even more realistic flying experience add the yoke, throttle and pedals from CH Products and try their new multi-function panel which you can program to simulate any of the plane's instruments. If you are interested in making music, there is nothing better than Sonar from Cakewalk. The new version six is both easier to use and includes more in the way of instruments and synthesizers. There is also the new Sonar power studio which takes all the complexity out of figuring out how to attach your keyboards, microphones, speakers and other music making tools to your computer

STEVE THOMAS: Cakewalk is going into its 20th year of being in the business and you know we've worked real hard to be the leading developer of powerful and easy to use music creation products.

GURVEY: Making your own DVDs and CDs has gotten easier. Check out this light scribe drive from HP that also burns labels on the top of special discs. Ulead's (ph) DVD movie factory five- plus reduces the time required to make a DVD when it runs on a computer with one of the new multi-processor chips, while Adobe Premier Elements for video, bundled with Adobe Photoshop Elements for photos, gives you most of the functions of Adobe's professional software at a fraction of the cost. And still one of my favorites, Dragon Naturally speaking version nine, is better than ever at taking your dictation. In this version, no voice training is necessary.

ROBERT WEIDERMAN: You can actually begin using the product right out of the box. Compose emails, surf the web, do everything on your PC completely by voice.

GURVEY: I plan on using Dragon to dictate my holiday gift list in case anyone is interested. Scott Gurvey, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, New York.