Windows: The better your password practice, the harder it is to remember them! Get those passwords under control with Sticky Password, a password manager with brains and brawn. Its excellent security options are perfectly packaged in a seriously well-thought out program.

Mac: iPhoto offers fairly basic photo editing options but to really impress with your images, you can't do much better than Adobe Photoshop Elements. Adobe Photoshop Elements integrates seamlessly with Adobe Bridge CS4 software and provides instant organization of your images.

iPhone: If Forest Gump had an iPhone, then World Cup Table Tennis would surely be the first game he would download. This excellent iPhone ping pong simulation sees you take on the World in a knockout tournament, or compete for points in Arcade mode. The graphics and ball physics in World Cup Table Tennis are the best you'll find in any iPhone ping pong game

The Psystar v Apple case has brought into focus again the debate over whether Macs provide value for money. It was inevitable that at some point, a company would try and make Macs appealing to those who seek lower budget PCs as Psystar rather illegally tried to do so.

Firstly, it's important to point out that as far as portables go, there's no way that Macs can compete with lower-end PC laptops. There simply aren't any Apple Macbooks costing in the region of $600 like there are with PC laptops. However, when it comes to the higher end portable computer market and the mid-range standalone machines, Macs actually work out cheaper. The devil as they say, is usually in the detail i.e. the software.

Let's take a look at the Dell Studio XPS Studio 16 for an original retail price of $1,642 v The Macbook Pro with an original retail price of $1,699.

Both have a 15 inch screen, Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4GB RAM. The Macbook Pro has only a 250 GB Hard Drive compared to 500 GB in the Dell. The MBP has an NVIDIA GeForce 9400m graphics card while the Dell has an ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3670 Graphics Card. The MBR has a 7 hour battery while the Dell has a "6 cell" battery.

For an extra $150, we can add an extra 250GB to the MBP to bring it's specifications to exactly that of the Dell (although you can buy external 250GB external hard drives for just $60).  However, for arguments sake, lets pay Apple's rather pricey $150 online purchase upgrade so the total price comparison is MBP $1,849 v Dell XPS Studio 16 for $1,699. Total price difference means the Dell is $150 cheaper - so far.

Let's also take a look at a standalone like the Mac Mini for an original price of $599. The closest Dell equivalent is their own mini the Inspiron Zino HD for an original price of $442. The Mac Mini has a 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor compared to the Zino AMD Athlon 2850e (512K, L2, 1.8GHz). The Mac Mini has 2GB of memory compared to the Zino's 3GB. The Mac Mini has 160GB of hard drive space compared to the Zino's 320GB. Both have an 8x CD/DVD ROM drive and the Mini has an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics card compared to an Integrated ATI Radeon HD3200 Graphics card. Total price difference means the Zino is $157 cheaper than the Mini.

Now let's get onto the subject of software. Windows 7 basic is provided free with both Dells and Snow Leopard is included for free with the Macs. However, if you factor in additional software costs to the Dell such as Vista Ultimate, it adds another $130 more to the cost of a Dell and the Windows 7 Home Ultimate upgrade adds another $122 more to that. If you were to treat yourself to a copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements & Premiere Elements (broadly similar to elements of iLife) on top, that would be another $99.

This would add another $351 to the cost of the Dell XPS Studio and Dell Zino taking their total costs to $2,050 and $793. That would make the Dell XPS Studio $201 more expensive than the MacBook Pro and the Zino $194 more expensive than the Mac Mini.

In addition, Macs also come bundled with iLife which normally sells separately for a very modest $79 and includes iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb and Garageband. In my opinion, this collection of apps are worth considerably more too. You don't get anything like iLife bundled with a new PC. You do get some basic household management software in the form of Microsoft Works, but it's of pretty poor quality - and much less exciting. If we subtract this $79 from the value of the Mac, it makes the Dell $280 more expensive than the MacBook Pro and the Zino $224 more expensive than the Mac Mini.

However there is one big caveat to all this. Dell regularly run price offers on their products whereas Apple usually don't. For example, at the time of writing, Dell are offering a generous $323 off the price of the XPS Studio 16 and $93 off the Zino. This still makes the MacBook Pro only marginally more expensive than the XPS Studio and the Mini remains cheaper than the Zino.

Of course, this is a very crude price comparison. There are some things that simply won't show-up in such an exercise and that's time efficiency and usability. Time is money as they say and over the lifespan of both my Mac and PC, the Mac's superior stability and efficiency has been priceless.

In this era where every waking moment of your life seems to be captured on a digital camera, it’s a good idea to sort yourself out with a graphics editor in order to ensure that your images are in immaculate condition. There are plenty of software tools around that allow you to tweak your pictures to make them clearer, sharper and generally more lifelike than the original shot.

Aside from functioning as merely a photo optimisation tool, many graphics app are designed to get your creative juices flowing, allowing you to produce digital works of art without you needing to be an expert. Adobe’s Photoshop has been the leader of the pack for some time, but the program has now spawned a series of worthy clones that you can pick up much cheaper, or even for free. Here we round up Softonic’s top ten graphic editing packages to help you make your photographs all the more memorable.

1. Adobe Photoshop CS2 – Professional desktop imaging 2. ArcSoft PhotoImpression - Blends powerful photo editing with project templates 3. Adobe Photoshop Elements - Perfect, transform, organize, and share your photos like a pro 4. Ulead PhotoImpact – Complete digital imaging package 5. The GIMP - Create and alter photos and graphics manually or via scripting 6. CorelDRAW Graphics Suite – One of the most complete graphic editing tools 7. Paint Shop Pro X – Complete graphics editor for all levels of ability 8. Photobie - Image editor that supports layer and has a range of filters 9. Saint Paint Studio - Complete paint package for creating and editing images or animations 10. PixBuilder Studio – Graphics editor with many functions and tools

Finally taking advantage of its acquisition of Macromedia back in 2005, Adobe is set to announce the release of Fireworks CS3. The web graphics app will replace ImageReady and, not surprisingly, has been designed to better integrate with the rest of Adone’s Creative Suite, including Photoshop and Illustrator.

Besides support for sharing objects with the rest of the suite, the editor has pumped with a range of new tools lifted from Photoshop, including drop shadows, glows, overlays and layer blending effects. There’s also album creator that strings photo collections into a slideshow that uses HTML or Flash - even if the user has no experience with either.

While many fans of Fireworks will be relieved that can now combine the app with their other favourite design tools to produce slick web sites, many will argue that this is a program that simply isn’t needed – or at least it shouldn’t be needed. What it amounts to is Adobe canning its web editing tool, ImageReady, which came bundled with Photoshop, and forcing users to purchase a separate app for optimising their programs for the web.

Adobe Photoshop is any serious photographer or graphic designer’s application of choice but you’ll have to cough up quite a lot of bills to get it. Another solution is to use Photofiltre, a lesser known and more basic yet free and solid image editing application.

Photofiltre is a relatively small application and, unlike Photoshop, will install and launch very quickly. The interface, loaded with all the features and options, can be confusing at first glance, but after a short time,, you should be comfortable with it. The right side is composed of the shape and drawing tools and an optimizable color palette. The top bar has all the essential image editing and modification options. Photofiltre sadly doesn’t let you customize the interface and choose your favorite tools however.

Among all the image modification tools, we particularly liked the quick contrast/hue and saturation buttons because you can check out the effects and immediately and easily correct the image if you’re not satisfied with its quality. If you trust Photofiltre, you can also let it adjust these parameters automatically.

After turning 20 only a few weeks ago, Photoshop is again in the news thanks to the upcoming release of the Adobe Creative Suite 5, today April 12th. Photoshop has certainly changed the way we approach photo editing and manipulation, providing us with excellent tools and breaking all possible boundaries to our creativity. Let's take a look at some of the incredible new features we'll enjoy in Photoshop CS5:

New: PatchMatch

This is probably the biggest new tool in Photoshop CS5. While the previous version already included smart resizing tools, now the idea has been taken to the next level with content-aware filling and healing tools. This means that you'll be able to clone certain elements on your image with a simple selection; Photoshop's cloning algorithm will automatically search for similar samples around the selected area and blend them together to create highly realistic results. Say goodbye to repeated patterns!

Enhanced Refine Edge tool

The Refine Edge tool was introduced back in CS3 in order to make clear-cut mask selections quicker and easier. It seems that the Refine Edge dialog window in this new version of the Creative Suite is getting new features and options, which will hopefully help us create even more accurate selections, especially in complex areas such as hair or tree branches.

Colors and Brushes

The new Photoshop CS5 brings important enhancements and changes to the way we're used to working with them. First of all, you'll be able to use any image as a kind of color palette or template to paint. When you click any given color, it'll spread as if it you were dipping an actual brush into wet paint. You can also mix up colors, just like in real life. The second great enhancement is also related to this 'simulation of reality' characteristic: an animated 3D brush preview will allow you to test different painting results depending on brush position, hand pressure, rotation and so on.

Puppet Warp

As you've already seen in the previous video, Photoshop CS5 includes a new warping technology that enables you to move, bend and change the position of selected areas in your images. Once you bring up the Warping tool and define a set of control points, bending objects or changing someone's pose is as easy as dragging the selected element with the mouse.

[Via OnSoftware ES]

So, Photoshop has a new logo. I'm still not sure it really does it for me, but it's certainly much more in keeping with the modern digital world then its earlier form. Of course, the creative folk at Adobe know a little bit about design, but with a little knowledge and the right software you too can make a logo that will enforce your brand effectively. Start by reading up on the principles of logo design. Get hold of a copy of Logo Designs That Work, or check out The Thinker's article on what makes a great logo.

Once you've grasped the theory, it's time to get your hands dirty and start working up your logo. Photoshop and Illustrator are the mainstays of corporate design, and used together they contain everything you need to produce a dazzling logo. These apps can be difficult to master if you're new to them, but luckily there is plenty of software that is dedicated to the creation of logos.

Installing AAA Logo Software is a good way to start because the program contains dozens of pre-made logo templates to get you going. Tweaking these graphics to create your own branding is pretty easy and there are over 2,000 customisable logo elements to tinker with. The Logo Creator is another good app for beginners, and even helps you resell the logos you produce. Once you become a little more ambitious, Xara Xtreme provides a nice bridge between manipulating templates and drawing from scratch.

Of course, it's no good having a logo if it's just sat on your hard drive gathering cyber dust. Try using VidLogo to insert your creation into a corporate video, or have a look at Newlite Business Card Printer, which allows you to incorporate your logo into a professional looking business card.