Application Software

Chapter 8 & 9 Application Software

Application software refers to programs that enable the user to be productive when using the computer.

General Purpose application software are the applications software used by many people to accomplish frequently performed task.

Personal Productivity softwares are like Word processing i.e. Pages, spreadsheets i.e. Numbers, Calendar i.e. iCal and Address books.

Internet softwares like Web Browsers i.e. Safari and E-mail.

Multimedia or Graphics softwares like Desktop Publishing, Photo Editing and 3D Rendering.

Home and Education softwares like Personal Finance, tax preparation, reference, and games.

For multimedia or graphics, we can compress and decompress them using data compressor software like WinZip (download software here) to reduce the size of the files. Usually the reason why we want to compress them is to make them easier to upload or downloaded from internet. Lossless files will be restored with no flaws but lossy files usually eliminates information that is not perceived.

For Microsoft Windows users, Paint program is pre-installed in their computers. For Macintoshes, we have options like Paintbrush. These programs can save our files as:

Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) - lossless, simple images, solid colour.
Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) - lossy, photographs
Portable Network Graphics (PNG) - lossless
Windows Bitmap (BMP) - optional compression.

Drawing programs create vector (mathematically generated) graphics.

3D Rendering Programs add 3D effects to graphic objects.
Image Editors used to edit and transform bit-mapped images
Animation i.e. Flash simulates motion.

Audio are captured and processed sound while video can be modified then digitized using video editors.

Multimedia Authoring Systems used to create multimedia presentations i.e. montage.

Audio formats:

MP3 or MPEG3 are the most popular format for downloading and storing music. Can be compressed while maintaining good quality. I have around 8000 plus of MP3 stored in my iPod.
Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates.
AU are the small-sized of file and normally used to distribute short audio clips over the Internet.
WAV are used mainly in Windows PCs. Commonly used for storing uncompressed.
MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is an industry-standard protocol that enables electronic musical instruments (synthesizers, drum machines), computers and other electronic equipment (MIDI controllers, sound cards, samplers) to communicate and synchronize with each other.

Video formats; the popular ones....

MPEG-4 (files with extension .mp4) is method of defining compression of audio and visual (AV) digital data. It usually have a high-quality picture. I always have to convert videos from various formats with extensions like .flv, .avi, .mkv. to MPEG-4 so I can open them in my iPhone and iPod Touch.
QuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and later operating systems. A more recent version, QuickTime X is currently only available on Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
Windows Media Video (.wmv) is the Microsoft's lossy compression format for motion video. Used for both streaming and downloading content via the Internet.

Tailor-made applications are used for specialized fields. Types of this application softwares:

Billing programs i.e. electricity bills.
Inventory tracking programs (I used this while working in Nike Concept Store).
Point of Sale software (my friend used this while working as Parkson's cashier).
Custom software

Integrated Programs and Suites: The All-In-One Approach

Standalone programs are fully self-contained e.g. Microsoft Word, Excel.

Integrated programs contain modules that share the same interface e.g. Microsoft Works and for Mac users, Apple, Inc.'s iWork that contains Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. iWork is actually replacing the now-discontinued AppleWorks suite.

Software suites contain standalone programs that share resources i.e. common program code, with each other. Popular office suites offer a word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentation programs. e.g. Microsoft Office, Corel WordPerfect Office, and Lotus Smart Suite.

	Microsoft Office	WordPerfect Office 12	Lotus SmartSuite
Word processing	Microsoft Word	WordPerfect	Word Pro
Spreadsheet	Microsoft Excel	Quattro Pro	Lotus 1-2-3
Database	Microsoft Access	Paradox	Lotus Approach
Presentation Graphics	Microsoft PowerPoint	Corel Presentations	Freelance Graphics
Personal information managers	Microsoft Outlook	Corel Central	Lotus Organizer