Labs

The traditional present to give the geek in your life at Christmas is hardware. And, as we've seen over the past few pages, there's plenty of cool gear to choose from this year. But there's a lot to be said for software; after all, anyone lucky enough to have a PC, video camera or MP3 player under the tree is going to need something to help them make the most of it.

And the first on our list would certainly be Roxio's Easy Media Creator Suite 10. This incredible suite includes a mind-boggling array of media tools, from home-movie editing and conversion to audio editing, CD and DVD authoring, backup and a UPnP server. It's now in version 10, which adds HD DVD and Blu-ray burning, souped-up conversion tools and one-click YouTube video uploading. Put simply, if you can think of something you want to do with video, audio or photos, this package will almost certainly have a tool you can do it with.