Learn Spanish Now! 10.0 Language Tutor with Audio for iPod or MP3 Player (CD-ROM)

I have a older version 7 of French by Transparent Language and have to admit that they made progress but still are behinde "Talk to me" series. I never used any Rosetta stone programs but Learn Spanish now looks pale comparing to Talk to me.
It is very disorganised in its structure. It seems like authors tried to create too many pathways through it and it lost its structure.
Talk to me follows a much more structured path that immerses the learner in the language. It starts with theme dialog with variation, then the vocabulary and pronounciation are litterally hammered in through a series of fun exercises inculding crosswords, word searches, pronounciation training of single sounds, words and lastly whole sentences from the theme dialog. Lesson ends with a text that adds new vocabulary and promotes understanding concepts even if one does not understand every word. It is possible to stop at any point and check the meaning. Verbs are fully conjugated at your fingertips in Talk to Me while this is totally lacking in Learn Spanish Now. I would consider it the biggest shortcoming of Learn Spanish Now.
I had hard time to figure out what level of learning Learn Spanish Now is designed to aim at. It is way too hard for a beginner but too easy for intermediate student. It could serve as a review but it is not a lot of fun to work with.
Questionable advantage of Learn Spanish now is ability to downlaod flash cards on an iPod but the vocabulary is limitted and program is hard to use. Talk to me allows you to downlaod the whole content of a chosen lesson and create a CD or voice file on a player. (very simple)
Summarising - They made a progress from version 7 but it will take them probably few more versions to get it right.
It would made a superb tool if they created easier guided path to start for the beginner, built up a bigger theme oriented vocabulary and texts based on it, added better grammar explanations and conjugate all the verbs in the text.
For now if somebody does not want to spend megabucks on a Rosetta stone, I would strongly recommend Instant Immersion Talk to Me. I got mine for half price of Learn Spanish now at C O s T co and it came with a phrasebook, 4 audio CDs and Collins dictionary CDrom. The dictionary is excellent and allows you to built up your vocabulary and phraseology in addition to what is offered in Talk to Me.