Windows: Don't think Microsoft Office is the only option in productivity suites. Move onto Lotus Symphony, the free office suite developed by IBM: word processor, presentations and spreadsheets, all accessible from a neat, convenient single interface. The suite also includes spell checking, predefined templates, PDF export and other goodies.

Mac: Looking for an alternative to the likes of Flickr or .Mac to share photos with your friends? With JAlbum you can easily create your own photo album, choosing from a range of styles, then edit and arrange your pictures and finally upload them to internet. the interface is highly intuitive and offers a good set of editing features and a smart way of browsing for pictures. A good choice for your summer pics.

Pocket PC:  If you have a busy schedule you don't want to waste time fiddling with your mobile device. PocketToolman gives you quick access to the settings that matter, like the configuration menu, battery indicator or network manager. All the different functions are easily accessible from a clear drop down menu. A great way to be more productive with your Pocket PC.

Gimp for Mac and Gimp for Windows is one of the most popular free open source image editors around and quite rightly - it's remarkably powerful and easy to use for a free image editor. However, those Mac users used to the the luxurious surrounds of Photoshop probably have a hard time a) using a program called "Gimp" to edit their work and b) using the rather amateurish interface and weird naming conventions that Gimp uses.

If you wish you could combine the two in someway then you should definitely checkout GIMPshop for Windows or GIMPshop for Mac. GIMPshop emulates the look and feel of Photoshop remarkably well and changes all those weird Gimp labels such as "convolve" and changes it into the more familiar Adobe Photoshop term of "blur/sharpen". In fact, the program renames and reorganized almost all of GIMP’s tools, options, windows, and menus to closely resemble Adobe Photoshop’s menu structure and naming conventions. In addition, many of the menu options and even whole menus have been recreated to faithfully reproduce a Photoshop-like experience.

Of course, GIMPshop is no replacement for Photoshop in terms of functionality but it does a pretty impressive job looks wise.

We all dream of having a Porsche, a Lamborghini or a Ferrari at some point of our lives. But while we save money for those, why not creating the car of our dreams with Photoshop? Follow these easy steps and learn how to pimp your car in less than 20 minutes. It's not like the real thing of course, but it's funner and a lot cheaper.

Windows: There are many anti-malware tools, but none as popular as Ad-Aware. This powerful security app protects your system from all sorts of intrusive elements that put your privacy to risk. Its new version, Ad-Aware 2008, features enhanced threat detection tools, embedded anti-virus and a better resource management.

Mac: Today's pick is PulpMotion Advanced, a more powerful take of the program with the same name. PulpMotion Advanced offers the same sleek and intuitive interface, that allows you to make professional looking slideshows. An excellent choice of themes, perfect interaction with programs like iPhoto or Lightroom and easy exporting in all sorts of ways make this an excellent pick.

Symbian: If you’re a fan of games like Civilization and Populus and fancy playing God while you’re sat on the bus then get hold of Revival. This military-style strategy game sees you build up a community from scratch and expand in your effort to conquer the seven planets. It’s packed with great graphics and is perfect for megalomaniacs everywhere.

Windows: Despite the popularity of digital photography we all keep old photos stored somewhere at home which probably need some fixing. Retouch Pilot can help you with this task, providing you with a simple, easy-to-use tool that lets you remove scratches, spots and other small flaws without requiring a high degree of photo editing knowledge.

Mac: Mac's VoicOver is a pretty good text to speech utility, but GhostReader is certainly better. The program can play back any text file or selected text from most applications, such as your browser. It comes with a dozen different voices in American English and more in other European and American languages are available to download from the website.

Smartphone: Before you ask, no, Frosty Factory has nothing to do with the place Tony the Tiger works, rather it's a clone of Klax - and a good one at that. Instead of arranging tiles though, it's colored ice cubes that you must deal with. As they fall down from the conveyor belt you must catch them on your paddle before dropping them into piles in the tubes below.

I remember doing collages at school, when I was a kid. I liked cropping pictures, letters and patterns, and then sticking them all on a poster board to create a truly original piece of art. But times have changed and technology has evolved, which means I've replaced scissors and glue with virtual cropping tools and layers. So today, instead of a paper composition, we're going to create a polaroid collage in Photoshop.

As my workmate and friend James reminded us a couple of days ago, Euro 2008 is just around the corner. I guess he and my other colleagues in the office will be happy to have soccer games every other day and discuss over the referee's unfair decision about that borderline offside in the last minute of the match... but certainly not me.

I don't like football at all, which means that during the next couple of weeks I'll have to look for different ways to amuse myself. However I'm sure software will be very helpful in finding alternatives to Euro 2008:

• Movies or TV series - I think I'll grab hold of my Ant Movie Catalog movie database to watch a few good old classics again. And if I grow tired of cinema, I can always use TED to get the latest episodes of my favorite TV show.
• Reading - What about eBooks? There are literally thousands to choose from and plus you can easily take them anywhere with your mobile device.
• Exercising - The fact that I don't like football doesn't mean I can't enjoy other sports. This can be the perfect time to start working out and manage my results with SportsTracker.
• Traveling - High budgets only: run away from Euro 2008 with a good traveling guide like the Schmap ones, also available for the iPhone. Don't forget to check the weather forecast before leaving!
• Games - Probably the best software alternative out there! Just check out the impressive games collection at Softonic and choose the one you like most.
• Other hobbies - There are dozens to choose: from collecting stamps to sudokus, including also crafts like painting and cross-stitching.

A while back I looked at an impressive piece of software called SlingPlayer which basically allows you to watch videos stored on your hard drive, Sky Box or Tivo player anywhere in the world as long as you have access to the internet. As impressive as it was, it does require investment in a SlingBox attached to your media device so it doesn't come cheap. However, imagine if you could access literally all of your digital media and appliances at home while you are on the move - and not have to spend a cent. That's exactly what Orb offers - a simple but powerful freeware streaming software that enables users to remotely access all their personal digital media files including pictures, music, videos, webcams and television. The truly great thing is that it can be used from just about any device that has access to the internet including laptops, pocket PC, smartphones, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and video game consoles.

You simply have to sign-up for an Orb account and you can instantly access your digital devices remotely. All the available media on your device will be available for download with the use of a file explorer plug-in. Orb can be used as a replacement (a much simpler and more effective one too) for Microsoft's Windows Media Connect software for computers running Windows. So for example, you can use your PS3 or Xbox 360 to watch videos, audio, and images on any PC with the Orb installed. Orb transcodes the video files from the computer, including Windows Media Files, on the fly as as long as the computer running Orb has the correct codec.

Perhaps you want to watch TV on your smartphone? If your PC has a TV tuner, Orb can allow you to access it remotely from your phone and even control media devices such as Tivo's to access your saved recordings. The same goes for your webcam - you can use your webcam as a surveillance device and see exactly what's going on from your phone, laptop or any other mobile device simply by logging into Orb.

Finally, the Orb also allows you to share data without the need to install P2P software or upload it to another site. Simply select the files you want to share, enter the email address of the person that you want to share it with and they will receive a link providing access to the data whether it be films, music or pictures. Whether you're looking for a simpler way of sharing your data or ensuring that you can access your media at all time, the Orb is an impressive and powerful piece of software - and best of all it's completely free! Maybe it's time to sling away the SlingBox.

Windows: Got a problem with wonky photos? Do all your holiday snaps look like they've been taken standing on your head? If so, then don't panic because Rotation Pilot can straighten things out in a jiffy. With Rotation Pilot you no longer have to guess on how many degrees you should rotate your image to adjust visual slopes that often appear on amateur photographs. Set a vertical or horizontal axle and the program does the rest!

Mac: Looking for a bit of island adventure? Virtual Villagers 3 - The Secret City is a simulation game where you need to help your tribe survive and grow on a deserted island. Make use of each tribe member's qualities to develop their skills and complete the puzzles you come across. As you progress you will discover all sorts of exciting areas on the island.

Java mobile: Hallelujah for YouTube and all the clips of old TV shows we can now enjoy! What’s more, it’s now possible to access video on the move using a program such as vTap. This smart app provides a means of searching several online video sites, previewing, then watching them from one environment. You can even use it to search Wikipedia more quickly.

Now that the adventures of Indiana Jones have hit cinemas worldwide for the fourth time, I thought it would be a good idea to get in the Indy mood with a simple yet appealing Photoshop tutorial. Just follow these easy steps and you'll be able to create an Indiana Jones text effect in a snap.

1. First of all, we need some material, namely the background picture and the Indy text font. I used an old map from the free stock photo site Stock Xchng for the background, and the SF Fedora font you can download from Dafont.

2. Now it's time to work: open a blank document with transparent background and write any text you like with the Indy font. Then click on the Warp text button (see screenshot) and apply an arc effect, modifying the default parameters to make it more similar to the original movie title. In this case I used +12% Bend, -26% Horizontal distortion and +2% Vertical distortion.

Having heard of this new Flickr desktop client for Mac, flickery, I was going to try it out and see how well it fared compared to the FlickrShops, Photonics and other 1001s that already provide the same service. flickery looked pretty good: a simple interface, integrated search and access to all the normal flickr tools like uploading, creating photosets and commenting. Unfortunately the application, which is still only in public beta is not available anymore. The explanation?

A note on the developer's blog says it all:

The nice guys from flickr.com just contacted me and told me they had to suspend my API key of flickery for now, because flickery is causing them too much traffic.

It's a little surprising that an application which is still only in public beta could cause traffic problems in a website hosting billions of photos and getting easily thousands of uploads every day. Obviously though, developers wanting to use the Flickr API, which is available for non commercial use, have to abide to the terms of use, and given the explanation, flickery broke the following rule:

• Use Flickr APIs in a manner that adversely impacts the stability of Flickr.com servers or adversely impacts the behavior of other applications using the Flickr APIs.

Let's hope this is only temporary and that Flickr will help out the developer find a way of making the application less strenuous on their servers so that we can enjoy the flickery desktop client once again.

A few days ago one of my friends was really excited about having discovered a program to create panoramic photos. She didn't know such programs existed at all - you'll have to excuse her, my friends are not software junkies like me. Her discovery made me think that many other people could be in the same situation and that panoramic photos would then make a perfect topic for a blog post.

Panoramic pictures or simply panoramas are really wide images, usually from nature landscapes or city skylines, which are made of individual photos of different areas all stitched together to create the whole view. The difficulty in creating panoramas is not only in taking the right images, but also in sticking them properly to build the original view.

I'm sure there must be quite a bunch of tools with which you can create panoramic photos, but I'm also sure none of them is as simple to use as AutoStitch. This great tool was developed by a Computer Science student and it's probably the easiest way to create panoramas. Just unzip the file and run the program. Load your images and AutoStitch will automatically start working on them to create the panoramic image. Once done, you'll find the result saved in the same folder where your original photos are. The panorama may need some further cropping to erase blanked out margins, but the hardest part is already done. Easy as pie!

Looking to take better photos? if your camera supports it then the natural step up is to shoot everything in the RAW format. Whereas when your camera saves a picture as a JPEG, it adjusts the settings automatically, photos taken in RAW will include all the information, which you can adjust later.

To make it simple, a JPEG is like a print from the photo shop, while RAW is the negative. You then decide how the picture looks.

A photo taken in RAW may not look spectacular in your camera's preview, but once you've edited it, adjusted contrast and light, removed noise and dust and cleaned out unnecessary detail, you'll come up with a much nicer image, and probably better than what you would have gotten if shot in JPEG.

To be able to work with RAW you need to make sure that your camera supports it and that your memory card is large enough. RAW is much bigger than JPEG simply because it stores all the data, not just what the camera considers relevant. To edit in RAW you'll need to have the right software. This is where we come in.

If you're serious about photography and are looking for a full fledged image editor that handles RAW, whilst offering powerful organization and publishing tools, then you have to go for either Adobe Lightroom or Apple Aperture. Both are excellent choices and although true fans will have their reasons why one is much better than the other, you really have to test both out to see which one you prefer.

Let's face it: if you have an Apple Remote, Front Row is a much better way to enjoy all your media files. The media viewer has an interface that is both attractive and simple, and you can quickly reach all your tunes, videos and photo albums by the flick of your thumb. And on a big screen it really looks impressive. Front Row has become the de facto interface for anyone owning an Apple TV. Like Exposé it's also the typical application you show off to your friends who still haven't switched to Mac. That doesn't mean you should stick to it though. Here we take a quick look at three similar applications.

SofaControl

SofaControl's interface is very similar to that of Front Row, and it even includes a link to the application from its menu. However Sofa Control isn't limited to media files. The program lets you reach any file or application on your Mac. Call it a Finder with style, or a Finder for the lazy, because in the end it means you'll only need your Apple Remote to reach anything. You can also execute all sorts of specific actions in applications, like adding ratings or creating playlists in iTunes.

XHub Media Center

Maybe a bit more powerful and customizable than SofaControl, XHub Media Center gives you access to all your media, including DVDs . You can tweak its appearance, choosing from one of 21 different skins or setting the sound effects. The application is easy to set up and browsing through albums in iTunes has a cool Front Row-like feel. On the downside, you won't be able to access other files, like with Sofa Control, and the application sometimes chooses the wrong display ratio for videos. Still, a nice alternative to Front Row, with a bit more customization. Once installed XHUb is accessible from your Preferences.

iTheater

This one is the oldest of the three applications. Although it might not have such a sleek interface as Front Row, it still gives you quick access to all your media. iTheater recognizes DVDs as soon as you pop them in your drive and it will read Video_TS files stored on your Mac. You can control iTheater from your Apple Remote or simply using your keyboard. Type a letter to show all the media files who's name start with it. An added plus is the little widgets that come with iTheater, to control playback of media from your Dashboard.

Photography can be as artistic as any other discipline, such as painting. However sometimes we feel like we could transform our best shots into actual paintings, made with real brushes on a canvas. So either you hire a painter to copy your pictures or you simply follow these easy steps to convert your photos into a watercolor painting with Photoshop.