January 10, 2023, was the official end of support for both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. Both operating systems have been limping along with no significant updates in recent years.

Any users still on these two operating systems won’t get any security updates, despite the severity of future issues.

We suggest upgrading to a more modern operating system and modern computing hardware to make sure you stay protected.

Windows 7 extended support is over

Windows 7 support technically ended in January 2020, but Microsoft was still releasing security updates as many large organizations needed time to switch. That grace period is now over.

Some users were also still using the volume licenses for their personal computers. Their Windows 7 install won’t grind to a halt now that support is over, but they should consider upgrading.

Windows 8 support ended in 2016. The partial successor, Windows 8.1 met its lifecycle end in 2018 but has been getting extended support since then.

That means security updates, some software updates, and even help desk support from Microsoft. All of that is now over.

Windows 8.1 didn’t get that much uptake, and Microsoft swiftly ushered in Windows 10. Any users still on Windows 8.1 started getting nag screens in July 2022 to remind them that support was ending in January 2023.

Options for upgrading

Microsoft is going to support Windows 10 until October 14, 2025. The company is suggesting that any users on Windows 7 or 8.1 upgrade to Windows 11 instead, and we agree.

The latest version of Microsoft’s operating system supports the latest hardware, has modern features, and runs smoothly.

It’ll also continue to be supported for the longest period, with mainstream support until 2028 or later.

Have any thoughts on this? Carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Microsoft is infusing Bing search with ChatGPT
• Can you downgrade Windows 11 to Windows 10?
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• Amazon Prime benefits – here’s everything you get with Prime

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Put simply, a driver is a software that allows the system to communicate and work with other devices.

However, this definition has not been covered entirely because there are many kinds of drivers, and you can divide them into two major sections.

Here is a breakdown

• Functional drivers: the most classic kind. They implement standard interfaces for accessing devices. Device manufacturers generally make these, for instance, audio-device vendors, graphics-card vendors, and more.
• Filter drivers: do not address a device directly. However, the process requests are aimed at those devices. Generally, system-to-device I/O requests get processed through a driver stack. A filter driver can log, remove access to devices, or modify it. For example, antiviruses using a file-system filter driver scan through files before letting them be opened.

What knowledge is needed?

The number one thing you must know is the basic architecture conceptions of the Windows OS. You have to understand serialization, threading, synchronization, and much more.

Coding these kinds of software is not like coding other apps because you cannot just pull out a sample and start replicating to reach what you are looking for.

Instead, you have to do a lot of work upfront to get a basic understanding. Otherwise, you are bound to have problems after problems without having any idea of how you can fix that.

To fix various PC problems, we recommend DriverFix

This software will keep your drivers up and running, thus keeping you safe from common computer errors and hardware failures. Check all your drivers now in three easy steps:

1. Download DriverFix (verified download file)
2. Click Start Scan to find all problematic driers
3. Click Update Drivers to get new versions and avoid system malfunctioning.

Running these applications will automatically install the relevant drivers, and you can further update them from the same place.

How to learn driver development?

If you have coded any sort of Linux or UNIX drivers and you know the Windows OS conceptions, you can learn what you must know by going through the documentation that comes with the WDK (Windows Driver Kit).

Install the latest version of the Windows Driver Kit, and go through the basics of Windows drivers.

This documentation is incredibly good and covers wide-ranging topics. Over the course of years, the online articles on creating Windows drivers have become so advanced that they are very understandable at this point.

Enroll in a seminar

Taking a seminar is the best way to go about coding this type of software at the highest speed. Do not get rid of this option too quickly, not even if you think you are really smart.

Of course, it requires a financial commitment. That said, Windows drivers are confusing and complicated at the same time. Therefore, they can be incredibly helpful for understanding the required insights.

What is more, if the speaker there has a lot of hands-on experience, they can save you plenty of time because you will be able to avoid some of the basic talking points and myths that float around the space.

What do you think? Interested in Windows OS development? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• How to download the Windows 11 2022 Update
• Review: EZQuest Ultimate Plus Dual HDMI USB-C hub
• 6 myths of building your own PC
• How to build a home office that doubles as a gaming setup

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

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That’s where Airgram AI comes in. Airgram is an intelligent team workspace tool that aims to enhance your virtual meeting experience. It offers meeting agenda templates, live transcription, 1080p recording, collaborative notepads, and more. 

With these features, hybrid teams can capture, collaborate and share information discussed in team meetings much more easily.

And it works with the three major virtual meeting apps: Google Meets, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. So let’s see what Airgram is all about. 

So what exactly is Airgram? 

Even though it’s a Product of the Day winner on Product Hunt, it’s not easy to tell exactly what Airgram does.

Essentially, the Airgram meeting productivity tool integrates with virtual meeting software to provide additional convenience through a suite of features that make your meetings more effective and productive.  

First, you’ll have to sign up for an Airgram account and connect it with Outlook or Google Calendar (it provides a Google Chrome extension for Google Meet) to access scheduled meetings and record meetings quickly.

Then once you’re linked, Airgram offers several different tools that you can use to make your meetings more productive. 

Live transcriptions and review

For starters, it features a live transcription option that you can use to automatically generate meeting notes for review. Alongside those transcriptions comes a 1080p recording of your entire meeting. 

Transcription is available in several languages, including English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese. 

After the meeting, you can head back to your Airgram workspace and review your transcription using its smart features. Features include:

• Make clips of certain transcription sections and share them with your colleagues.
• Play the video back at an adjustable speed and easily jump to specific parts. You can even filter out individual speakers in the meeting to better pinpoint certain topics. 
• And lastly, Airgrams is integrated with several other workspace apps. You can share the transcription and notes in other applications like Slack, Notion, and Google Docs to continue your collaborations elsewhere. 

Integrated notes and tasks

As most of us know by now, it can be extremely important to take notes during some business meetings. It can be nearly impossible to remember everything discussed in some meetings, and taking notes can help you greatly in the long run. 

That’s why Airgram included an integrated notes section for you to keep up with the topics of your meetings. Team members can use Airgram to take down notes and leave comments simultaneously, enhancing collaborative efforts in your team. 

You can even assign tasks with due dates during a meeting with Airgram. Then, whichever team member is assigned the task can head back to the meeting dashboard in the Airgram workspace and mark their task complete when they finish. 

Develop agenda before meetings

“No agenda, no attenda” is a ground rule to have effective meetings, and Airgram also goes a couple of steps further with an area for you to create a meeting agenda. 

By adding the meeting to your workspace before the meeting starts, you can add the various topics you plan on discussing and set an allotted time to help things go as smoothly as possible. 

Also, share the meeting agenda with your team members in advance, so they can put in their thoughts. Collaboration starts before the meeting begins!

How does Airgram work? 

In practice, Airgram is pretty simple to use, though it may initially seem a little complicated. After you sign up for a free account, you’ll be given an Airgram workspace on the website, where all your recordings and notes will be kept. 

After that, you’re ready to start using Airgram to record and transcribe your meetings. You can either create a new meeting from the Airgram workspace or go to your calendar, where all your scheduled meetings are automatically imported. 

A more advanced feature that many users love is that you can automatically set Airgram up to join your Zoom or Google Meet meetings even without your presence. That can be a great option for meetings you don’t have to attend.

Pricing and subscriptions

As we mentioned earlier, Airgram is free to use, and you can use nearly all features as much as possible. However, you will be limited to just five recordings while you’re using the free option. 

After that, you won’t be able to record or transcribe anymore, but you’ll still be able to use meeting notes in the Airgram dashboard. 

You’ll have to look into a monthly subscription option if you regularly hold meetings with teams. Airgram currently offers a Team plan and an Enterprise plan. 

The Team plan price varies with different amounts of available recordings, depending on your needs, and the monthly subscription price starts at $17.99. It might be a worthwhile investment as effective meetings save a lot more for you.

The Enterprise package is for your larger teams that will need more than 100 recordings per month. Airgram offers this package on a case-by-case basis, and you’ll have to contact the company’s sales team to set up an Enterprise package. 

Try Airgram out for free and see if it’s right for your team

If you and your team use virtual meeting apps regularly, then Airgram might be worth trying out. It offers live transcriptions and 1080p recordings so you can reference your meetings whenever possible. 

And the integrated notes feature will allow your team to create live, timestamped notes for topics of conversation, making it easier to take in all of the necessary information during your team meetings. 

And you can try it out completely free for your first five recordings. Since it works with the three most popular meeting apps, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom, it’s pretty easy to set up and use.

Check out the company’s website here for more information. 

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• 5 best video conferencing apps for remote meetings
• New Zoom avatars replace your face with animals during meetings
• Zoom meetings got you down? Facebook thinks VR is the answer
• 5 free Zoom alternatives without a 40-minute limit

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. KnowTechie’s opinions, reviews, and other editorial content remain objective and are not influenced by the sponsorship.

The post Airgram is an AI assistant for your Zoom, Meet, and Teams calls appeared first on KnowTechie.

While there is no way to outright prevent this from happening, there are tools that have been specifically designed to recover data from the drives that fail. ReclaiMe File Recovery Software, in particular, has been getting an increasing amount of attention.

This having been said, let’s look at it and see if the software can really help you when you’re in a pinch.

What is ReclaiMe File Recovery?

ReclaiMe File Recovery is a multipurpose data recovery tool designed to extract data from hard drives that have failed. The software works on a variety of systems and offers features for both home users, as well as professionals. More importantly, however, is that it comes with NAS recovery capabilities.

What can it do?

ReclaiMe’s File Recovery software comes in 3 forms. The company offers a free evaluation version, a standard paid license, and an ultimate one.

In terms of functionality, the standard paid license is designed only for Windows formats such as FAT, exFAT, NTFS, and ReFS. It can also only create .vhd and .vhdx files to be mounted on Windows machines.

The ultimate license offers much more functionality. This includes the ability to recover files from Mac disks ( APFS, UFS, HFS, and HFS+), and from Linux ones (ext2, ext3, ext4,

BTRFS and XFS).

However, the software itself is only designed to be run on Windows machines. To recover files from Mac and Linux drives, you will have to connect them to a computer that has Windows installed. This having been said, all paid versions can be used to recover data from internal and external hard drives that have RAW filesystems.

The interface of the software is simple and intuitive. It does not have any stylized elements and all features and commands are marked clearly. This makes it easy to use the software even if you’re not a trained specialist.

Refund Policy

The developer also offers an unconditional 30-days money back, no questions asked refund policy. These policies have become something of a standard in the industry. However, they also show how much trust a company places in the fact users will find their product useful.

One thing that needs to be mentioned is that that refund policy isn’t integrated into the software itself. It needs to be accessed by filling a form on the Assistance page.

Key takeaways

• ReclaiMe File Recovery comes in 3 versions: Evaluation, Standard, and Ultimate
• The Standard version can recover files from Windows drives while the Ultimate one also supports Mac and Linux storage media
• All paid versions recognize hard drives that have RAW filesystems
• The software offers NAS recovery capabilities
• The developer offers a 30-day money-back refund policy if you’re not happy with how the software performs

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Can you refund games on the PlayStation Store?
• Sony now offers a better refund policy on pre-ordered games from the PlayStation Store
• Retrieve lost files with the best data recovery software
• Can you refund games on the Nintendo Switch?

The post ReclaiMe File Recovery Software review: Great file recovery features for Windows, Mac, and Linux appeared first on KnowTechie.

365 Threat Monitor is a brand new security app from Hornetsecurity that gives users the tools to monitor a business’s emails for various threats that could arise. The app is specifically designed for Microsoft 365 admins, and the first 10,000 admins that sign up on the company’s website will get free email monitoring for life.

365 Threat Monitor is available on both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, but you’ll have to sign up through the company’s website with your Microsoft 365 email. Once you’ve signed up, you’ll get notifications of any types of threats coming to one of your business email addresses straight to your phone. 

So what exactly does 365 Threat Monitor protect against?

Over the years as Microsoft 365 has become more and more popular, cyber threats that find their way into the systems through email have become more common. Various types of attacks, from ransomware to spyware, threaten all kinds of businesses around the world, with small and medium-sized businesses being prime targets. 

With 365 Threat Monitor, admins have an extra tool at their disposal that will help thwart any potential attacks that come in through a company email. The app gives you real-time malware detection, notifying the admin of any potential threat as it’s received. It constantly scans for ransomware, spyware, viruses, and any other potentially threatening email that could make its way into your business’s systems. 

365 Threat Monitor also lets you delete any potentially threatening email from any address in your control with just the push of a button on your phone. This type of control could potentially help save your company millions of dollars in the future. 

So how can you sign up?

365 Threat Monitor is super simple to use. All you need to do is head over to the Hornetsecurity website and sign up with your Microsoft 365 admin email. The company will then send you an email with a link to download the app. All you have to do next is sign up with your Microsoft 365 admin account, and you’ll be set up with top-notch security for your company’s email service. 

Be sure to take advantage of this offer while it lasts. Remember, only the first 10,000 Microsoft 365 admins get access to 365 Threat Monitor for free. That’s a lifetime of security for absolutely no cost. This isn’t an offer you’ll want to miss out on. 

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• 7 benefits of using email appointment reminders
• Access a range of information from email lookup tools
• How can multiple email delivery services boost your email marketing?
• Zoom is working on an email service and a calendar app

The post 365 Threat Monitor is the perfect free email security solution Microsoft 365 admins appeared first on KnowTechie.

Yes, you read that correctly. You’re used to your security software removing crypto miners from your device, but Norton has decided that due to the popularity of mining, they’d rather you use their mining software instead of the “unvetted code” you may be tempted to install elsewhere.

I’m really conflicted here; while I’m a crypto fan, I’m not sure that preinstalling miners on consumer devices is a good play. I mean, aren’t security suites like Norton supposed to guard against cryptojacking?

READ MORE: Your Norton antivirus software can mine crypto for you, but Norton wants a 15% cut

It seems to me that all Norton has done here is opened the door to hackers, as now they don’t even have to install a crypto miner – just take over the one that’s already there.

Other outlets also voiced their concerns about this new feature. The Verge made a good point about how this opens the door for shady manufacturers to run the miner even when the PC is being used, making the computer slower overall.

Norton Crypto goes live today for “early adopters” and will be rolling out to everyone “in the coming weeks.” Or, you know, maybe they’ll see sense and abort this foolish initiative. We’ll keep you posted if anything changes.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• iM Intelligent Mining (iM) announces solar-powered blockchain mining
• The best bitcoin mining hardware for 2020
• A Bitcoin mining startup scammed people out of $720M by exploiting potential returns of investment
• You may soon have to report all cryptocurrency transfers over $10K directly to the IRS

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

The post Norton 360 is adding a crypto miner to its antivirus software because why the hell not appeared first on KnowTechie.

Now, CRM giant Salesforce is purchasing the communications platform for a staggering $27.7 billion. With $20 billion in annual revenue, Salesforce is now trying to leverage those massive gains. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says that the deal is a “match made in heaven,” and that “Together, Salesforce and Slack will shape the future of enterprise software and transform the way everyone works in the all-digital, work-from-anywhere world.”

READ MORE: Slack prices are increasing – here’s what to expect

The move makes a lot of sense for multiple reasons, but it has to be mentioned that COVID-19 pushing businesses to have its employees working from home is arguably the most relevant. Teams that were not using software like Slack for communication had to adapt and do it quickly.

With many enterprise companies looking at a more digital future that has employees working from all corners of the world, Slack has some of the best features available. This is, in part, due to how Slack offers many integrations with other software, allowing teams to get more accomplished without having to hop around different software and websites. This includes Salesforce integration.

TechCrunch also notes that the deal helps Salesforce and Slack compete with Microsoft and its Microsoft Teams communication software.

What do you think? Have you used Slack before? What do you think of it? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Slack is testing video stories and push-to-talk calls on its platform
• Skype now lets you join video calls without signing up or downloading the app – here’s how it works
• How to customize Slack’s new redesign
• Microsoft Edge is creeping up on Google Chrome in market share

The post Salesforce is buying messaging platform Slack for a whopping $27.7 billion appeared first on KnowTechie.

If you started using Adobe’s Creative Cloud subscription when it first debuted and you’ve needed three or more applications (let’s say Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign), you have spent about $4,900 so far. That’s $50/mo over 98 months, given that the service debuted in October of 2011. That should be an arresting number.

Maybe you’re like me and you were a holdout, clutching your copy of CS5.5 or CS6 close, the last editions ever offered that were one-time purchases. I’ve needed Illustrator for a long time, using it to create vector files that play nice with various machines (like a vinyl cutter and a CO2 laser) and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.

The problem is that operating systems change and you have to update eventually to stay current with whatever software it is you depend on

For me, I just had to replace my computer and I upgraded to the new MacBook Pro. The new MBP comes with macOS Catalina, however, and Catalina is the first operating system that requires all applications to be 64-bit compliant. This means that older 32-bit applications can no longer be used at all.

I couldn’t figure out what the problem was as I tried to run the installer for Adobe WebPremium CS5.5 on my new machine. According to the website, Illustrator and Photoshop and whatnot are all 64-bit compliant. Why wouldn’t they run?

The installer itself is a 32-bit application. I had two lengthy troubleshooting sessions with Adobe where I learned this was the case, then I learned that that’s intentional and there will never be a 64-bit installer for these 64-bit applications. When I learned that this lack of support wasn’t an oversight, but an intentional choice, forcing all current Mac users to subscribe or get out, I decided that was as solid of a reason as any to leave for good.

Where do you go, though? Adobe’s products are really good and they’re hard to replace. Let’s cover a few of the major options for three of the biggest Adobe applications: Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign.

What can replace Illustrator?

Illustrator is a vector-intensive application typically used for machine files, logo work, and anything that needs to be crystal clear at any size. There are only a few options that really cover all of the bases.

Affinity Designer

This one is my top choice by a long shot. Affinity Designer by Serif is an outstanding application and I’ve already made the switch and picked up the textbook to learn everything about it.

Let me start with this: Affinity Designer has infinite zoom. And truly, are you really a graphic designer if you’ve never zoomed in on something so infinitesimally small that Illustrator refused to zoom in any further and you had to squint while making micro-adjustments?

Or how about the fact that Affinity Designer is lightning fast, literally opening in half the time Illustrator takes to open? That’s not a joke. People have measured it.

What about the fact that it’s only $50 and it’s a one-time purchase? As a heavy Apple user, I also love the complete integration with the iPad and Pencil. This feature absolutely blows my mind. It even has a native, standalone iPad app.

Inkscape

Inkscape is the free, open-source workhorse for graphic design, but I personally can’t stand Inkscape. It’s free, but it’s sluggish, it feels like its features are pretty bare-bones, and the interface feels even more obtuse than Illustrator.

That said, it updates regularly, runs on Catalina, supports custom extensions, is totally free and open-source, and a lot of people love it. Don’t let my sour opinion of Inkscape stop you from giving it a try, because you might really click with it.

How do I replace Photoshop?

Photoshop’s options are a bit more varied because people use Photoshop for a number of things. Some people literally use it to workshop photos, but lots of people use it as an art application for digital painting. There are choices depending on what you’re looking for.

Affinity Photo

You’re going to be hearing a lot of glowing praise for Affinity from me in this article and Affinity Photo is no exception. Focused somewhat more on photo editing than art, Affinity Photo is Serif’s direct competitor to Adobe Photoshop.

Affinity Photo boasts the same lightning-fast performance as Affinity Designer and has support for everything from giant, 100-megapixel images to photo retouching and art brush tools. For everything that Designer is to vector art, Photo is those things for raster art.

Perhaps the most compelling feature of Affinity Photo is that almost everything you do is previewed in real-time before you do it, with non-destructive options to change it afterward. Making a new gradient? You’ll know exactly what it looks like while you’re placing it. Then once you’re done, you can just select the gradient end-points and adjust them however you want. This ideology is present in everything from layer masks to brush strokes and it’s something Photoshop doesn’t do at all.

Affinity Photo is available on Windows and Mac for a one-time price of $49.99. There is also a native iPad version, for people like me who use a whole suite of Apple products.

Procreate

So, a major caveat: Procreate is only on the iPad and iPhone. It doesn’t replace a desktop/laptop art application if that’s the machine you’re working on, but it is so good that I have to mention here (partially because I know lots of Apple users have both Apple desktops/laptops and Apple mobile devices).

Procreate is the drawing application for your iPad. It has color utilities, it has layers, it has a custom brush library, it has full Pencil support, it has tons and tons of useful features like straight line assistance, symmetry tools, and so much more. If anything, you can do so much with Procreate that it’s somewhat daunting.

All that and it’s only $9.99.

Clip Studio

If drawing is what you primarily used Photoshop for – especially if you were drawing for comics, print, board games, or anything where you needed to export directly to a print format with layouts – Clip Studio is easily your best bet.

Clip Studio (formerly Manga Studio) has so many interesting, useful features, I’m just going to list some of my favorites in bullet format:

• Smooth line stabilization
• Smart color fills, including automatic gap detection
• Built-in 3D model reference tools
• A whole suite of comic panel layout options
• Vector tools
• Powerful halftone tools
• Parallel line and symmetry tools
• Speech bubble tools
• Smart action line and decorative brush options
• Exporting directly to Kindle and EPUB formats

Lots of these are features Photoshop doesn’t have at all. Again, if drawing is your jam, Clip Studio is the way to go.

Clip Studio is available on macOS (including Catalina support) and Windows with a 30-day free trial. It is $49.99 for Pro, $219.99 for EX, there is no subscription fee, and you can upgrade from Pro to EX for just the difference between the two. There is also an iPad version.

How do I replace InDesign?

InDesign is the de-facto industrial publishing application, used for everything from receipt design to laying out a deck of cards for printing to designing an instruction manual PDF. If you need crystal clear document formatting that has a few art editing tools, that’s when you open up InDesign. How do you replace that? Like the others, it depends on what you need most and how much you want to spend.

Affinity Publisher

If you’ve been reading along the whole time, you already knew that my first recommendation was going to be Affinity Publisher by Serif, the third and final program in the Affinity trinity that’s going directly for the jugular with Adobe.

I don’t know how to say this except that Affinity Publisher does everything InDesign does, but faster. It is flat-out a better publication program in every way. If you want to know exactly what your logo will look like on a product wrapper, a billboard, a magazine cover, a promotional mailer, a business card, a jacket, and a window display simultaneously, that’s exactly where Affinity Publisher excels. It has a whole host of support for every file type you could want, built-in image processing tools, a huge array of text tools, tons of layout options, and every type of printing support you could want from CMYK tools to Pantone options.

Affinity Publisher is available for Windows and macOS (including Catalina support) for a one-time purchase of $49.99.

Scribus

If you’re looking for something simple and open-source, Scribus might get the publishing job done for you. It’s totally free, beginner-friendly, and supported on Windows, macOS, and a bunch of other niche operating systems.

It isn’t as pretty, fast, or powerful as Affinity Publisher or InDesign, but it’s free and cost is a large factor here. There really aren’t that many affordable InDesign replacements, which is why they aren’t on this list.

In fact, here are several that didn’t make the cut and here’s why:

• VivaDesigner is more geared towards enterprise software, $139 for personal use, and $399 for commercial use (which, if you’re using a publishing program, I’m pretty sure you’re using it for commercial purposes).
• PDFelement is $69/year for standard and $99/year for pro or $79/$139 for perpetual licenses, respectively. According to Wondershare, it works with Catalina, as well. Beyond all that, it just looks like a robust PDF editor, which is fine if you are doing PDFs but will fall short as soon as you need publishing options for literally anything else.
• QuarkXPress is $295 for a perpetual license, but only gets you one year of updates. Beyond that, their trailer is absolutely godawful. That sounds like a minor argument, but if you’re making design software and you give me a trailer that’s 80% stock footage and your design looks boring and bland, I don’t trust that your software is any better.

What if I want to ditch all three, but don’t want to lose the cross-app integration Adobe has?

You already know what I’m going to say: Affinity.

First, please check out this trailer. This is how you make an art software trailer.

How does Affinity challenge Adobe’s cross-app integration?

Affinity has a feature called Personas. No, it doesn’t mean you can summon modern incarnations of powerful ancient deities so you can do battle with the secret evils of the world, all while balancing the challenges of high school: It means that while using any of the Affinity applications, you can access the features of the other Affinity applications you own by activating their persona.

Okay, maybe it’s a little like the first thing I said first.

For example, let’s say you’re using Affinity Publisher, the Affinity equivalent of Adobe InDesign. You’re working on a magazine layout and you have a photo you want to edit. Inside Publisher, you can just activate the Affinity Photo persona (if you have Photo installed) and use Photo’s features as though you were inside Affinity Photo. As someone who made sure to double the RAM of my new computer so it could handle multiple applications being open at the same time, my mind is blown that I don’t have to actually do that.

For $150 you can get all three applications and ditch Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign at the same time. The only thing you’d really be missing is Illustrator’s Shape Builder tool, which Serif has already said they’re working on.

I don’t work for Serif, the makers of Affinity. Nobody asked me to write this. I have no vested interest in Affinity and I don’t know anyone who works there nor anyone on their PR or Marketing teams. I was spurred to leave Adobe, thought at best I’d find a “well, this will do I guess” option, and was utterly blown away by how cool this stuff is.

Also if you think you’re safe from the culling of 32-bit applications because you’re on Windows, it’s likely a matter of time until Microsoft does the exact same thing Apple did and cuts 32-bit support, so it would be a good idea to think ahead and make sure everything you depend on is good to go.

What do you think? Plan on trying any of these Adobe alternatives out? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Apple Mac Pro pre-orders start today so sell some organs and buy one
• Apple is reportedly working on an iPhone without any ports and it’s launching in 2021
• Photoshop for iPad sounds like a complete mess – here’s what folks are saying about it
• Tech Hangover: Amazon wants to know how unhealthy we all are

The post MacOS Catalina broke a bunch of Adobe products – here are the best alternatives to check out appeared first on KnowTechie.

Apple Music gives you a free 3-month trial, during which you can try out all the features Apple Music offers. After the trial is up you can keep this service for $9.99 a month or get a family service for $14.99 a month. There is also a discounted rate for students at $4.99 a month.

If you plan to stop subscribing, you can cancel at any time. You can now stream Apple Music songs on iPhones, Android phones, Apple Watches, Apple TV, personal computers, Carplay, Amazon Echo via iTunes or the Apple Music app.

Can Apple Music be Played on Other Devices?

Any Apple music song uses digital rights management technology, or DRM for short. Apple will use copyright restrictions to protect all of this music. If you have an Apple Music subscription account, you can download Apple Music songs for offline playback after logging in. You will find that the downloaded Apple music track is a file with a .m4p extension. Due to DRM, this encrypted M4P song cannot be played on other players such as Sony Walkman, iPod nano/classic and other MP3 players.

Can Apple Music Be Converted to MP3s?

Apple Music songs are protected by DRM so that you can only enjoy Apple music songs on limited devices. In addition, downloaded songs require subscription account authentication, which means that even if you download Apple music tracks, they don’t really belong to you. After your subscription expires, the downloaded song will become unplayable.

The best way to stream Apple music is to completely get rid of DRM protection and convert Apple music into a common format, such as MP3. After getting the DRM-free MP3s, you can play Apple Music songs and albums on any device and player.

UkeySoft Apple Music Converter for Windows and Mac

Do you want to keep Apple Music as long as you like without keeping paying? Do you want to offline play Apple Music on any devices? Looking for a way to enjoy Apple Music on iPod nano, iPod classic, Sony Walkman and other MP3 players?

UkeySoft Apple Music Converter can help you. It can be used to remove Apple Music DRM and convert Apple music(.m4p files) to DRM-free MP3, AAC, M4B, M4A, WAV, FLAC and other popular audio format, which you can play with other audio players, such as iPod nano/shuffle, PSP/PS3/PS4, Zune, Sony Walkman, MP3 players, and mobile phones.

Besides, the converter also supports converting iTunes M4P songs, Audiobooks and Audible Audiobooks to DRM free formats so that you can enjoy these songs without restrictions.

There are pros and cons to this program and the conversion process for these songs.

Features, Pros, Cons

Some features are specific to this program. This will help the user understand how it works and if it is a program that will meet their needs.

• The Apple Music Converter can be used on a Windows computer of a macOS device. Both of these versions are updated at the same time.
• This review product is UkeySoft Apple Music Converter V.6.5.3. We have tested it on macOS 6.1.2, Mojave 10.14 on MacBook Pro and Windows 10/8/7/XP.

The precious thing about this music converter is that it supports deleting DRM from encrypted audio, converting songs to MP3, AAC, AC3, M4R, AIFF, AU and MKA formats and outputting the same quality as the original audio. In the output file, all song information will be retained, including title, album, artist, composer, album and track number, type, etc.

The batch conversion feature allows you to convert the entire playlist or library at once. With just one click, UkeySoft will automatically start converting all selected songs from MP4 to MP3.

Features

Remove DRM from Apple Music Legally

• Since all Apple Music songs are protected by DRM, once the subscription is canceled many of the songs will no longer be able to be played. The smart UkeySoft Apple Music Converter is designed to remove DRM from Apple Music, so that users can keep on playing their songs after they cancel their subscription.

Convert Apple Music to Multiple Formats

• Another benefit you get here is that with UkeySoft, you can convert any DRM-protected Apple Music, iTunes M4A music, AA, AAX audiobooks to plain MP3, M4A, AAC, AC3, AIFF, AU, FLAC, M4R, and MKA for any media players. By the way, the UkeySoft lets you extract audio from iTunes movies, TV shows, MV and home videos as well.

Batch Conversion at 16X Speed

• If you are using the Windows version of the program, you can convert Apple music songs at up to 16 times faster. To avoid any errors, it is recommended to keep the speed at 5x. In addition, the batch conversion function is very convenient, you can choose all the favorite songs, albums and playlists.

Losslessly Output Quality

• With UkeySoft, you will not have to worry about anything as such since the software does offer batch conversion and it works really well. The UkeySoft converts Apple Music streams, Audible audiobooks & M4P music with 100% lossless quality. So, all your audio files will have the same file integrity.

Keep ID Tags Information

• Managing large amounts of music can be a time consuming and laborious process if you manage it manually. UkeySoft Apple Music Converter won’t make you a mess. The converted MP3 and M4A files will contain the ID tag and metadata information as the original file. Therefore, you can organize converted music or audiobooks based on title, artist, album, track ID, etc., so you can easily collect songs of your favorite artists in folders.

Keep Apple Music Forever after Unsubscribing

• Another place that appeals to me is that it makes Apple music songs work forever. Once the Apple Music Subscription Service ends, all downloaded songs cannot be played. With its help, you can not only get MP3 audio files without DRM, but you can keep Apple Music songs playable forever even after unsubscribing.

Multilingual Support

• The converter can convert songs into several languages including English, Chinese, Spanish, German, and Japanese.

Pros

• Multiple output format supported
• Preserve the original audio quality
• Adjust audio parameters like bit rate, codec, sample rate and channels
• Convert as many Apple Music songs as you like
• Fast conversion

Cons

• It’s not free
• Need to install the iTunes app, if you are using macOS 10.15 or above, you need to install the Apple Music app.

How to Remove DRM from Apple Music with UkeySoft Apple Music Converter

Next, we’ll review how to convert Apple Music songs, albums, and playlists to MP3 using UkeySoft Apple Music Converter. The whole process is very simple and can be handled easily by anyone. Before you start, you need to download and install this program to your computer.

• Step 1: Launch the UkeySoft Apple Music Converter

iTunes will also open automatically when you launch UkeySoft Apple Music Converter on your computer. iTunes will run silently throughout the conversion process. But if iTunes has been running before launching the program, you should close iTunes in advance.

UkeySoft automatically loads all the content in the iTunes library, including music, videos, home videos, movies, TV shows, podcasts, iTunes U, Apple Music playlists and audiobooks. You just need to add the files you need to convert to your iTunes library.

Tip: For macOS Catalina (10.15 or later), you need to add any Apple Music songs, playlist or albums you like to Apple Music app library. After launching UkeySoft, it will load all songs and playlist automatically.

Note: In case there are a lot of music tracks in the iTunes library, it may take a few minutes to run. If it gets stuck during loading, click the “Refresh” button.

• Step 2: Select Apple Music Songs

Select a playlist from the left panel and all song information will be displayed on the right. To select a song, click the checkbox. To select all the songs in the playlist, you need to check the box in the top bar. Also, it’s convenient to use the search tool to find any particular track you want to convert, especially if you don’t remember the song name.

• Step 3: Select MP3 as Output Format

The default output format is MP3. You can also choose M4A, AAC, AC3, AIFF, AU, FLAC, M4R, and MKA as the output format of the file. Besides, you can easily customize output song bitrate, sample rate, name format if you like.

Tip: For Windows version, you can click on the “Options” window when you need to change the conversion speed (from 1x to 16x).

Also read: How to download Apple Music at 16X Faster Speed

For Mac version, the UkeySoft application can only use 1X speed when you are using Mac 10.13 High Sierra or later. If you are still using Mac 10.12 Sierra or older OS, the conversion speed will be automatically up to 16X faster.

• Step 4: Start Apple Music to MP3 Conversion

Once you are done, click the “Convert” button to start converting M4P Apple Music songs to MP3.

During the conversion process, the application can help you remove DRM from Apple Music, the iTunes application/Apple Music app plays the Apple Music tracks in the background (muted), please do not use iTunes before the program is finished.

When the process is done click “Explore Output File” to check the converted Apple Music songs and the songs will be saved as local files.

After getting the converted MP3 Apple Music files, you are now free to control these audio files. You can transfer them to iPhones, Android phones & tablets, USB flash drives, MP3 portable players, Sony Walkman for playback, or you can burn Apple music songs to CDs or set Apple music songs as background music or alarm clocks easily.

UkeySoft Apple Music Converter is very friendly to Apple Music paid or free-trial users. Whether you have a subscription account or not, you can easily download Apple music tracks as MP3. One day you canceled the subscription service and you can still listen to Apple music tracks on your device. Currently, the free version of this app is only able to convert the first three minutes of a song. To make the entire song converted, the full version must be purchased for $39.95.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Ukeysoft Spotify music converter review: Download Spotify music for free
• You can now stream Apple Music right from your web browser
• Review: TuneFab Apple music converter – DRM free solution for all your audio needs
• Spotify beats Apple Music to 100 million paid subscribers

The post Ukeysoft Apple Music converter review: The most popular Apple Music converter appeared first on KnowTechie.

Convert Apple Music to Multiple Formats: Other than DRM decryption, you can also convert and save the once DRM-protected M4P songs, albums, playlists to a common audio format of your choice such as MP3, AC3, M4A and more.

Built-in Audiobook Converter: Yes, it also works as an audiobook converter or audiobook DRM removal software that lets you convert and then save/stream any of the purchased iTunes or Audible audiobook. 

Enjoy Music on Any Device: Using TuneFab Apple Music Converter is the easiest way for you to enjoy Apple Music on multiple devices at once without using a family plan with also support for offline play.

Batch Conversion: Select & convert multiple songs, playlists, albums and audiobooks in one click.

Customizable Settings: Customize audio parameters like Bitrate, Sample Rate, etc. and edit ID3 tags manually.

ID3 Tags Editor: Edit & save the artist name, album name, song title, album cover and other ID3 tags automatically.

16X Fast Conversion: Convert Apple Music in 16X faster speed without affecting the quality of the original music file.

Supported Input Formats

• All iTunes supported audio formats, including Apple Music M4P, Protected AAC, Purchased AAC, MP3, iTunes M4B, M4A, AIFF, WAV, and Audible AA/AAX.
• Protected iTunes M4V video.
• Unprotected M4V, MP4, MOV video

Supported Output Format

MP3,AC3,AAC,M4A,M4R,AIFF,FLA,CAU,MKA

How Does TuneFab Apple Music Work?

TuneFab Apple Music is very much user-friendly. Converting Apple Music to an audio format of your choice is a simple 3 step process.

• Step 1: Preview and select from the list of songs/Audio from the main UI

• Step 2: Select your desired output format & output folder for saving the converted songs.

• Step 3: Click on Convert to start the conversion process

Where to Get TuneFab Apple Music Converter?

You can get TuneFab Apple Music Converter from their official website. There is also a free trial version available for your test things out. It is available for both Windows and Mac. Below is the System Requirements from the official website

System Requirements

• Operating System Windows 10/8.1/8/7 (32 bit or 64 bit) OR  macOS 10.9, 10.10, 10.11, 10.12, 10.13 and 10.14
• Processor: 1G Hz processor or above
• Resolution: 1024×768 display or above
• RAM: 512MB or higher memory RAM
• iTunes: 12.2 or later version released (Latest version of iTunes is recommended)

Still not sold? Here are a few customer reviews:

“Installed quickly and easily. This is working well so far! I’ve been needing something to convert my pre-2009 iTunes purchases. Thanks to TuneFab Music Converter, I have converted all the songs to MP3 successfully. “’

“I used this program for adding Apple Music to my wedding video. It is easy to use, straight forward and does exactly what it should. You can choose M4A, MP3, M4R, FLAC, etc. as output format. Love it.”

“At this moment, many non-Apple devices still don’t support Apple Music. This software is truly helpful and because of it, I can listen to Apple Music songs freely on my iPod classic and MP3 player. PERFECT TOOL!”

So what are you waiting for? Go and Embrace the World of DRM free Music using TuneFab Apple Music Converter.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• The Mac audio converter and DRM remover you absolutely need
• DRM M4V converter for Mac: DRmare Converter review
• InsTube is a free video downloader and MP3 converter for Android
• Review: DearMob iPhone Manager – The best file management solution?

The post Review: TuneFab Apple music converter – DRM free solution for all your audio needs appeared first on KnowTechie.