In a combined summer/Father’s Day discount, Adobe is offering $30 off its Elements software packages. Geared for the not-quite-pro but more-advanced-than-iPhoto/iMovie, Elements takes the most popular parts of the fuller-featured Photoshop and Premiere software and makes them simpler to use for non-professional users.

Jaksta Deluxe offers the ability to capture and convert streaming media from sites like YouTube and Pandora, providing access to music, performances, and other content that may not be available anywhere else. Since AppleTell originally reviewed the app back in 2011, the company has taken the conversion capabilities of the app and spun them into their own programs, which are available as part of the Jaksta 5 Deluxe package.

Much as I love the mobility of modern computing, small size means that a sacrifice has to come somewhere, and it’s usually in audio quality. While great advances have been made in miniaturizing speakers, they still lack the range of larger speakers. The Sound Cylinder from Definitive Technology, however, gives your Bluetooth-enabled devices rich, full sound in a small, stylish package.

Humans! With their horrible, horrible human flaws! Not the ones of their personalities, of course, but the even more revolting ones: wrinkles and blemishes. Don’t they know that HD video exists? Fortunately we have a new tool to combat this blight: the Cosmo plug-in from Magic Bullet. Jokes aside, Magic Bullet Cosmo (MBC) is a simple, useful tool for smoothing out skin tones, especially in high definition.

Short and sweet, Magic Bullet Grinder is a tool that takes repetitive processes—converting Canon DSLR/HDSLR video and creating proxy copies—and automates it. Now granted, this ability is part of video editing software itself, but using Grinder means you don’t have to tie up your editor; plus, it has options to save additional steps.

When I reviewed the original Magic Bullet Looks, I was impressed by its ability to improve digital video by a combination of color correction and digital effects, making it look like camcorder footage was shot with a much more expensive camera and professionally lit to alter the mood. Now, with Magic Bullet Looks 2, Red Giant Software has kept the simple-yet-powerful software, redesigned the interface, and added some improvements on the back end to make your shoestring budget feature look professional.

Equal parts toolbox and toybox, FxFactory Pro is a collection of 176 video effects, filters, and transitions for Final Cut, Motion, After Effects, and Premiere Pro. It’s a grab-bag of software, some of which is of immediate usefulness, some of which makes a complicated process easier, and a few which are outright gimmicky and fun. Taken as a whole, they give you a range of color correction and effects similar to what you get with Adobe Photoshop.

It’s been a busy couple of days for Adobe. Yesterday they released Photoshop Touch for iPhone, but earlier in the week they also announced Lightroom 4.4 and Camera Raw 7.4 release candidates, as well as an update to their Adobe Muse web authorizing system.

iTunes update v11.0.2 is now available from Apple with a slew of enhancements and bug fixes. The update makes improvements on how iTunes handles large music files, solving the issue of some users whose purchases weren’t showing up in their iTunes library. In addition, iTune v11.0.2 comes with a new Composer view for Music.

I can grasp video, contrast, color correction, special effects, etc., but point me at a waveform and I start to shake, especially when it comes to eliminating or reducing a specific sound from a cacophony. Spectralayers Pro, new from Sony Creative Software, is a new piece of professional sound manipulation software that works in a different way to let you visualize and alter sound.

Unless you’re still in college or just have a bunch of really bored friends, it’s hard to get everyone together to write, rehearse, and act out a movie. That’s where Boinx iStopMotion comes into play. With iStopMotion, you don’t need anyone other than yourself…although some help from one or two others dedicated to the project can certainly help. This process isn’t easy, after all, but the good news is that the majority of the work will be in the hands of yourself and Boinx’s iStopMotion 3 for OS X.

2012 is coming to a close, and it’s time to take a look back at everything you accomplished: places you visited, friends you made, concerts you saw. Facebook is great for posting that soup you made (well done!), but if you really want to turn your memories into something worth watching (and sharing with others), you may want to look at software like PulpMotion.