Jimbo
March 7th, 2005, 10:30
Live and learn. That's what I say a lot, and I try to do it every day. Yesterday, I had a learning experience once again.
I was at the Market Pro Computer Show in Valley Forge, PA. There was a good size show, but not much to check out. The usual vendors were there, selling Bare Bones systems, used monitors, and what I consider Junk Software. When I saw one guy trying to sell Windows 98 ( yes, 98 ) for $60, I figured they were not giving anything away too cheap.
Then I came up on a couple sellers from a company based in Chicago. They were demonstrating a program called "3D-Album PicturePro". It was the standard version, but seemed to have a few features I was looking for. It can be used for creating a 3 dimensional picture show, that you can use to show pictures from your digital camera of computer. It seemed to have all the things I needed, as well as a few I might want in the future. The price was ok, at $49.95. I took the program home, and couldn't wait to dig into it.
After I was checking a few items out, I came upon a list of other programs with the same title. The others included the "commercial" version, and the "Platinum" version. I noticed that the Standard version, which I had bought, did not have a check mark on the list of features next to "absence of 3D-Album Logo". Then it hit me like a hammer. The company Logo that appeared at the top of the photo viewer was not able to be removed. I thought this was just on the sample viewers, but it was on all of them, including the new ones I created. Now I find myself considering upgrading to the platinum version, but hate to do it. I think this way of promoting their software is a little on the underhanded side. If I had known about this Logo issue, I would not have bought the software. Hindsight always being 20/20, I am beginning to write this off to a learning experience.
I can't help but to think about all the questions I asked before my purchase. I am not ashamed to admit that someone has to work pretty hard to get me to spend $50 on an impulse, but I guess nobody's perfect. If I had asked about the Logo being able to be removed, I would have had a very important item to consider before buying. It just goes to show you that you have to know exactly what you are buying, before you lay the hard earned bucks down. I'm still impressed with the software, and happy with the purchase. I am just a little less happy than I expected to be. If I had spent 2 or 3 times the amount for the software, it would sting me that much more. I'm just glad I learned a lesson that cost me $50, as opposed to hundreds.
Do yourself a big favor, and research any item you don't know about, before you buy it. Most products, including this one, have forums on their use, much like this forum you are at now. A little time researching this product would have been well worth it. As the my saying goes..."It's good to learn from your mistakes, but better and cheaper to learn form someone else's".
I was at the Market Pro Computer Show in Valley Forge, PA. There was a good size show, but not much to check out. The usual vendors were there, selling Bare Bones systems, used monitors, and what I consider Junk Software. When I saw one guy trying to sell Windows 98 ( yes, 98 ) for $60, I figured they were not giving anything away too cheap.
Then I came up on a couple sellers from a company based in Chicago. They were demonstrating a program called "3D-Album PicturePro". It was the standard version, but seemed to have a few features I was looking for. It can be used for creating a 3 dimensional picture show, that you can use to show pictures from your digital camera of computer. It seemed to have all the things I needed, as well as a few I might want in the future. The price was ok, at $49.95. I took the program home, and couldn't wait to dig into it.
After I was checking a few items out, I came upon a list of other programs with the same title. The others included the "commercial" version, and the "Platinum" version. I noticed that the Standard version, which I had bought, did not have a check mark on the list of features next to "absence of 3D-Album Logo". Then it hit me like a hammer. The company Logo that appeared at the top of the photo viewer was not able to be removed. I thought this was just on the sample viewers, but it was on all of them, including the new ones I created. Now I find myself considering upgrading to the platinum version, but hate to do it. I think this way of promoting their software is a little on the underhanded side. If I had known about this Logo issue, I would not have bought the software. Hindsight always being 20/20, I am beginning to write this off to a learning experience.
I can't help but to think about all the questions I asked before my purchase. I am not ashamed to admit that someone has to work pretty hard to get me to spend $50 on an impulse, but I guess nobody's perfect. If I had asked about the Logo being able to be removed, I would have had a very important item to consider before buying. It just goes to show you that you have to know exactly what you are buying, before you lay the hard earned bucks down. I'm still impressed with the software, and happy with the purchase. I am just a little less happy than I expected to be. If I had spent 2 or 3 times the amount for the software, it would sting me that much more. I'm just glad I learned a lesson that cost me $50, as opposed to hundreds.
Do yourself a big favor, and research any item you don't know about, before you buy it. Most products, including this one, have forums on their use, much like this forum you are at now. A little time researching this product would have been well worth it. As the my saying goes..."It's good to learn from your mistakes, but better and cheaper to learn form someone else's".