Premiere Elements 12 review: A compelling choice for video newbies

Adobe’s consumer video editing program Premiere Elements is back for the 12th round in the battle to be the home video editing champ, and this version has some powerful new features that make it a strong contender for the prize.

Premiere Elements has often been viewed as a cut-rate version of Premiere Pro, inheriting pro features a couple of versions old. That’s not a bad thing, though, as Premiere Pro is one of the most powerful professional video editing programs available. With version 12, Premiere Elements gets sound effects, a dynamic soundtrack, and a new motion-tracking feature from its big brother. The interface gets a makeover as well, with the addition of a guided mode (like its sibling Photoshop Elements) alongside the quick and expert modes.

The Elements Organizer can be accessed from within the editor to load files.

New to Premiere Elements—though old hat for on Photoshop side—Guided Mode takes you through nine common tasks such as importing a video, adding a soundtrack, and trimming clips. It does a good job for the novice video editor, highlighting the correct buttons in the interface to avoid flipping between windows. It would be nice to have even more guided tasks available, though: things like the motion tracker and saving the finished video are not covered. Other parts of the interface are mostly unchanged from Premiere Elements 11: and those users will feel right at home.

The additions to the audio features are also useful. This version adds a wider range of cartoon and other sound effects, plus a soundtrack feature that creates a custom music track from 52 scores in 7 categories that are included (the program downloads them only when you use them to save space). When you create a score from these, it is customized to the length of your video so that it starts and ends properly, and the level is adjusted for the sound in the video; a nice touch that makes a video look and sound more professional.

The new Guided Mode takes you step-by-step through several features of the program, but not some of the more complex tools.

The new motion tracking feature is also easy to use: Just drag a box around the object to track in the video, and the program tracks the object as far as it can in the clip. You can then attach an image or graphic to this track, which makes it easy to add cartoon speech bubbles or effects that follow someone on screen. It lacks the sophistication of the Premiere Pro tracker, though; there's no control over the tracking process and no ability to tweak the path after the tracking is done. If it isn’t quite right, all you can do is scrap it and start again.

In addition, there are tweaks to the video effects. These include the addition of what Adobe calls Hollywood effects, but which are mostly cheesy looking. The only ones that might find some use are the FilmLooks, which tweak colors for a motion picture style. Presumably to avoid licensing issues, these are called things like Trinity (for a Matrix green look), Sparta (a 300 muted color look), and Pandora, which turns skin tones (or ginger cats) blue. Unless you are producing an Avatar fan film, this is best left unused. The same is true of most of the included templates.

The Pandora filter turns your family (or ginger cats) into blue-skinned aliens. Will James Cameron sue? Probably not, but we doubt he will be using this on the Avatar sequels, either.

One fine feature though, is the Auto Smart Tone, a filter that tweaks the video to look better by adjusting the contrast, color, and gamma. It did a nice job on several dull and gloomy clips, boosting the color to more usable levels without overdoing it. It would be nice if you could apply this to an entire movie, but instead you have to apply it to each individual clip: a rather tiresome business for complex videos.

You can, however, apply most of the other effects to an entire movie by putting them into an adjustment video layer—like a Photoshop adjustment layer.

While generally I found this version of Premiere Elements easy to use, there were a few irritations. For example, I found that using the timeline to find a specific spot in a video was difficult: when moving through the timeline, the on-screen preview would often lag behind by a second or two, especially when effects were applied. Other programs get around this by generating previews while the computer is idle: but to get a smooth preview in Elements, you must render the preview files by clicking on the render button. Elements doesn't use the GPU to accelerate creating previews and effects the way other programs—like Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro—do.

The Auto Smart Tone feature of Premiere Elements 12 automatically corrects video, boosting brightness and tweaking colors

Adobe Premiere Elements 12 features some interesting new tools, but they aren’t compelling enough to make this version a must-have for owners of previous versions (the upgrade costs $80). But those who are just starting out in video editing, or are looking for a step-up from the lightweight iMovie will find a good home in Premiere Elements 12: this $100 program (or $150 when bundled with Photoshop Elements 12) offers a good balance of features and ease of use, providing powerful tools without overwhelming users with choices.

Richard Baguley has been writing about, testing and breaking technology for the past 20 years. He has written for Wired, Macworld, USA Today, Amiga Format and many others
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As Elop returns to Microsoft, odds shift for CEO choice

Former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has moved into a commanding position as the overwhelming favorite to win the chief executive's chair at Microsoft, according to online bookmakers.

Just over a week ago, U.K.-based Ladbrokes had Elop at 5 to 1 in its listing of potential CEO replacements for outgoing chief Steve Ballmer. As of Sunday, however, the odds had shortened dramatically: Elop, still the favorite, was at 1 to 4.

Betting $100 on Elop to get the nod would return a profit of just $25, compared to the earlier odds, which with the same $100 bet would have produced a profit of $500.

Another bookmaker, PaddyPower, had even less attractive odds for Elop. The Irish firm listed him at 1 to 12, meaning someone would have to put up $120 for the chance to earn a profit of only $10.

What changed? Microsoft's planned acquisition of Nokia, the Finnish phone maker that Elop has led since 2010.

On Tuesday, Microsoft announced it will pay $5 billion for "substantially all" of Nokia's Devices & Services business and $2.17 billion to license Nokia's patents. If the deal passes regulatory scrutiny in the U.S. and elsewhere, and closes in early 2014 as Microsoft expects, Elop and several other top Nokia executives will become Microsoft employees.

Elop, 49, will take the title of executive vice president for Devices, one of the groups under Microsoft's reworked corporate structure, and replace Julie Larson-Green, who held the spot for less than two months. Larson-Green will report to Elop after he joins Microsoft.

His return to Microsoft, the odds makers concluded, makes Elop the obvious front-runner.

Ladbrokes also trimmed its candidates list from the original 26 to just 11, and changed the odds for others as well.

Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer at Facebook, moved up from odds of 40 to 1 to 7 to 1, good enough for second place on the Ladbrokes chart. Steven Sinofsky, ousted from Microsoft last November—reportedly after clashing with Ballmer—dropped from 8 to 1 to 12 to 1, but remained in third.

Ladbroke and PaddyPower weren't the only ones betting on Elop. Many industry analysts and observers have also tapped him as the most likely replacement for Ballmer, perhaps assuming that Elop would not take a demotion unless there was a clear understanding that he would be appointed CEO of Microsoft.

Some experts, however, have put the spotlight on others that Ladbrokes touted, including Kevin Turner, Microsoft's COO (at 16 to 1); and Satya Nadella, the chief of the Cloud and Enterprise group (20 to 1).

In interviews, Ballmer has said nothing of Elop's chances, other than to state the obvious, that Elop would be an internal candidate rather than an external one. Ballmer has also said that the CEO search will continue.

LadbrokesThe latest betting line on the candidates for Microsoft's new CEO has Stephen Elop, now with Nokia but destined for Microsoft, as the overwhelming front-runner.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news.
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Toshiba PX35t review: This budget all-in-one is quick, stylish and a great choice for the student

Toshiba PX35t-A2210 $930.00 The Toshiba PX35t-A2210 is a relatively powerful all-in-one desktop machine. While it is more expensive than the rest of this field, it delivers the performance and features to back up its price tag.

If looks are your top priority, Toshiba’s PX35t-A2210 ($930 as of 8/30/13) will surely woo you with its slim, attractive design. This 23-inch AIO sports a glossy full HD touchscreen, modern-looking wireless peripherals, and a third-generation Intel Core i3-3120M processor. It also boasts 6GB of DDR3/1600 RAM, built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and a roomy 1TB, 7200rpm hard drive.

There's plenty to like about Toshiba's PX35t-A2210, but its sharply angular mouse isn't one of them.

But looks aren’t everything, and the PX35t-A2210 isn’t just a pretty centerpiece for your desk, it’s also a good all-around performer, delivering a Desktop Worldbench 8.1 score of 131. That means it’s nearly one-third faster than our baseline machine, the Acer Aspire A5600U-UB13 . You won’t mistake the PX35t-A2210 for a top-of-the-line gaming machine, but it’ll do just fine managing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations; surfing the Web and checking email; and streaming HD clips from Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube.

The PX35t-A2210 relies on the Intel HD 4000 Graphics processor integrated into its CPU, rather than a discrete graphics card, but it can still handle many graphics-related tasks without falling over and dying. It outperformed the rest of the field with our BioShock Infinite benchmark, for instance, delivering the game at 26.6 frames per second (albeit with resolution of just 1024 by 768 pixels and image quality at Low). It took a first-place finish with Dirt Showdown, too, delivering the game at 47 frames per second (here again, with resolution of 1024 by 768 pixels and image quality set to low). This PC won’t have any problem with less visually intense games, such as MMORPGs. Simpler photo- and video-editing tasks won’t be an issue, either.

The Desktop Worldbench 8.1 chart is repeated here, so you don't have to have to go back to the previous page to see an overall performance snapshot.

Toshiba outfitted the PX35t-A2210 with a glossy 23-inch multitouch screen with native resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels. It’s a very good display, but it’s not perfect. While it’s extremely bright, and images look crisp and clear on it, colors look a little dull and whites have a yellowish tint. It’s also not the most accurate touchscreen I’ve used. There were several moments in my testing when I accidentally hit the link below the one I was trying to tap. Multitouch gestures are smooth and seamless, but the glass has an ever-so-slightly tacky feeling to it, which can make gliding across its surface a little tough. But it’s a much better input device than the PX35t-A2210’s mouse, which is a modern-looking angular thing that felt uncomfortable and sharp in my hand. The keyboard, meanwhile, delivers shallow tactile feedback but accurate typing.

The Toshiba PX35t-A2210 is attractive, usable, and relatively powerful. It’s a great choice for college students looking to balance work and play, since it performs basic administrative tasks with ease and can also play streaming HD video without a hitch. It has excellent Harman/Kardon speakers (with a Sleep and Music feature that lets you play your digital media player through them), and an ample collection of other I/O ports: Four USB 3.0, two USB 2.0, and one HDMI input (so you can plug in a cable/satellite set-top box or a videogame console).

Editor's note: This all-in-one was reviewed as part of a roundup for back-to-school season. You can read that story, along with reviews of the five all-in-ones we compared it to, here.

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