The GIMP is one of those programs that's either loved or hated by Mac users. Loved by many because it provides the power and functionality of Photoshop for free but hated by others because they find it difficult and awkward to use compared to Photoshop. I've already looked at one way of making The GIMP feel more like using Photoshop but what about if you just want something GIMP-like but simpler?

SeaShore has been developed as a simpler, easier to use photo editor based on GIMP. It's still free to use and features gradients, textures and anti-aliasing for both text and brush strokes. It also supports multiple layers, alpha channel editing and uses the same native file format as GIMP. And due to Cocoa, it sports a much slicker OS X friendly user interface that definitely looks better than The GIMP for Mac.

The main beauty of SeaShore is that it's a lot simpler than The GIMP and feels closer to Photoshop in the way the menus are laid out:

The downside of this however is that its not as powerful as GIMP and lacks certain advanced editing features. In fact, even basic features such as Color Balance and Levels are missing from SeaShore. Stability can also occasionally be an issue as the SeaShore forum illustrates but it usually manages to carry out most functions without any problems.

SeaShore feels a lot less intimidating than GIMP though and both the slick Cocoa interface and simple functionality will make it popular with anyone who has struggled with GIMP.

If you use Gmail as your primary email, you might have been worried by last night's glitch that left almost 0.08% of accounts empty. Fortunately, it's really easy to back up a Gmail account!

Here are the three most practical ways to do it:

1: Enable Offline Mail

Click the Gear tab on the top right of the Gmail interface, choose mail settings and you'll see a tab called Offline. To turn on Gmail Offline you have to install the Gears Plugin (standard in Chrome), but you are taken through this simple process as soon as you click Enable. You can configure how much and what of your email you want to download, and which folders. Once it's all downloaded you'll have offline access from your desktop.

2: Use a desktop email client.

Download Mozilla's excellent Thunderbird desktop email client, then go to Gmail settings again and check Enable POP for all mail. Run the Thunderbird installer, and it will ask you for your email address (add your Gmail address here) the first time you start the program - and unless you want to get into any complicated set-up you can then just let Thunderbird download your entire Gmail account. Easy!

3: Backup with Hotmail

It might be crushingly uncool, but Hotmail is a useful space-saving way to back up your Gmail. Simply create an account, sign in and click the options question mark on the top right then choose more options. Here you'll see a link saying Sending/receiving email from other accounts. This will allow you to add your Gmail account really easily, with no technical knowledge needed, and won't use any of your hard disk space!

There are other apps and methods of backing up your Gmail account, but I think these are the best and simplest solutions.

Here’s an early Easter present for you: a trick to unlock a new character in Doodle Jump. The latest version of the mega popular iOS game includes a hidden ‘Easter egg' that lets you play as rabbit E.B., the star of upcoming movie, HOP. The trick also adds a candy-filled Easter theme to Doodle Jump.

To get this new look and play as the mysterious bunny, you need to change your name to either “E.B.” or “HOP”  at the Game Over screen. E.B. will then replace the little green alien when you restart the game!

A couple of weeks ago blogs all over the Web covered a story about a huge mistake made by a Flickr staff member: Apparently the guy pressed the wrong button and accidentally deleted an account - a 5-year-old profile with more than 4,000 pictures stored in it - instead of an account that was violating Flickr's terms of use.

Though the story ended happily (the deleted account was restored and the user got 25 years of Flickr Pro for free), it made us all think that it could happen to us! That's why I immediately started looking for a way to backup my Flickr photos, and I found FlickrEdit - a simple, efficient tool to backup all your images in Flickr.

Using FlickrEdit is piece of cake. The program is based on Java and doesn't require installation. All you need to do when launching it for the first time is configure a new user by clicking the New User button and authorize the app from your Flickr account.

The program features a tabbed interface from which you can browse the contents of your Flickr account, either by sets or simply by listing all your images. You can also see the images you've marked as Favorites, and check the most recent uploads from your contacts.

To backup your Flickr photos, simply select the sets - or the individual images - you'd like to include in the backup copy and click the Backup Selected button. The FlickrEdit backup wizard will ask for a location for the backup. It also includes other options such as ZIP compression, backing up to removable media and backing up only new photos that were added after the last backup.

Take into account that the backup process may take a while, especially if you have lots of pictures on your Flickr account - and also because FlickrEdit downloads the largest size available for each of your images.

Spider Player has been a worthy rival to Winamp for many years now and if you haven't tried it, you've got no more excuses. Recently the developer has opted to make the Pro version available absolutely free.

The Basic version has been discontinued and replaced by a free fully functional version of the Pro version. Formerly, Spider Player Basic had some limitations such as a lack of Last.fm support, radio recordings were limited to 5 minutes, you could only rip a CD track and convert one file at a time and you couldn't use custom encoders. However, all these limitations have been removed in this latest version.

The look is a key part of Spider Player as the developers have included a "tuning" bar in the skin which allows you to change the tone of it according to the mood you are in. As with Winamp, you can also divide-up the player as you like. For example, when you open it, the main playback window, equalizer and playlist are all joined together. But you can split these up as you like and place them in various parts of your desktop for easy access.

To control playback in Spider Player, you can simply drag and drop the status bar and it responds very quickly. There's also a pitchshifter, echo and reverb bar to play with. Finally, once minimized, Spider Player also sits neatly in your system tray so it's well integrated into your OS.

Download Spider Player Pro here.

You may have not noticed it, but after a few months using Facebook on a regular basis your profile page contains valuable information about yourself: your activities, your hobbies, your friends. This is why it's not a bad idea to backup your Facebook account, just in case. Luckily Facebook has implemented a tool to easily download a complete backup copy of your profile. Simply follow these four steps:

1. Log in to your Facebook profile and go to Account > Account Settings. Then select the Download Your Information option.

2. You'll get an informative message that explains how the tool works and how to take proper care of your data once you've downloaded the file. Hit the green Download button and Facebook will start generating a backup copy of your whole  account, since you joined the network. As this process may take a long time - depending on how much information you've uploaded to your profile - just leave Facebook working on it in the background and move on to something else.

To some, the idea of connecting a Windows Phone to a Mac seems a little wrong somehow.  One eloquent colleague recently described me syncing a Windows Phone 7 device to an iMac as “like a monkey mating with a camel”. Microsoft isn’t overly keen on its products mixing with Macs either, and has yet to release its excellent Zune Windows Phone 7 management software on the Apple platform.

In my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with a beautiful mobile phone hooking up with a beautiful desktop computer and sharing themselves with each other–regardless of their different parentage. If you too, want to connect a Windows Phone 7 device to a Mac then fear not: it can be done!

All you need to do is download and install a piece of software called Windows Phone 7 Connector (developed by Microsoft itself, incidentally). This simple, free utility allows you to sync music, photos, videos and podcasts from your existing iTunes and iPhoto libraries to your Windows Phone 7.

When you plug your Windows Phone 7 handset into your Mac, you’ll be invited to set up and personalize your phone. Here you can change the name of the device, download the latest OS updates and change some of the default settings.

This year's Mobile World Congress is starting Monday February 14th in Barcelona, Spain. The location couldn't be better for us - a short ride on the red line and we're there - but for others it's a long trip that involves buying plane tickets, booking hotels, changing currency and knowing their way around the beautiful city of Barcelona. Luckily, there's an app for all that! We've compiled a list of  10 iPhone apps that will surely prove to be very useful for those of you planning to attend MWC next week. Here they are:

Kayak - The ultimate traveling app! With Kayak you can search for flights, book a hotel, rent a car, organize your itinerary and much more, all for free. The app includes information about airports and lets you track flight status as well.

Currency - If you're new to euros, this app could be a life-savior. Currency includes updated exchange rate information for more than 100 different countries and currencies. It's the perfect tool to know if they're charging you too much for the paella!

Barcelona Subway - Once you're in Barcelona, metro is by far the fastest and most efficient way to move around the city. With this app you'll have all the information you need about the Barcelona metro (maps, stations, trip planners) right on your iPhone.

Catalunya Taxi - Do you prefer taking a taxi? No worries! Catalunya Taxi helps you get one without having to call a taxi service and wait on the line. Book a taxi ride, obtain an estimated price in advance and get the booking confirmation by text message.

Mobile World Live -When you're at the Congress you probably won't have time to follow all the conferences and exhibitions going on at the same time. Use the Mobile World Congress official app to keep track of everything going on in the mobile industry!

Bump - One important activity in the MWC is networking. Forget about your old-style business cards and use Bump instea: an app that lets you share whatever you want (photos, messages, contacts, even Facebook friend requests) just by bumping two phones together.

Babelingo - Of course, networking is so much easier when you speak the same language. If you don't, Babelingo can give you a hand with its collection of more than 300 useful phrases translated into 11 languages. Just choose your desired phrase and the app will display the translation.

AroundMe - Now where's the nearest ATM? Where can I find a coffee shop for a short break? I need to buy something, is there a supermarket near the MWC? Find the answer to these and other questions in the AroundMe app - a must-have when travelling abroad!

Lonely Planet Barcelona City Guide - Work is over! It's time for tourism, and the Lonely Planet guides have all the information you need. This app will tell you about all the museums, markets, monuments and tapas bars you can't miss while you're in Barcelona!

Bus Turístic Virtual -Another great option to explore Barcelona is the Bus Turístic - three bus routes that cover all the points of interest in the city. With the help of augmented reality, this app lets you locate the most outstanding spots in Barcelona and make the most of your visit.

Recent events in Egypt have proved how powerful the internet can be at getting news out when official channels are blocked. One of the big beneficiaries has been Livestation which has seen downloads rocket over the past week. The main reason is because huge numbers of people have been searching for Al Jazeera's coverage of the drama unfolding in Egypt which you can watch on the excellent app.

Livestation has official agreements with many other major channels such as the BBC World, CNN and The Discovery Channel meaning that you're guaranteed high quality programming and images. Even better, you can interact with other users very easily via an online chat function which also gives viewers a chance to rate their favorite channels.

You can add channels by going to the developer website and simply clicking "Add to player" and you'll find that it's automatically added to your channel list in Livestation. The presentation of Livestation is superb - you can select channels in a 3D revolving list of logos in much the same way as you do albums in iTunes. The quality of the streams in terms of video and sound is usually first class (although can vary as evidenced above) and expanding it to full screen mode usually retains excellent quality.

The latest version has added several handy new features. Not only have more interesting channels been added - The United Nations TV Channel and UNHCR Channel - but you can now tweet directly from Livestation. Simply add your Twitter username and password and a special screen grab function allows you to post images of what you're watching at any time. The search function has also been significantly enhanced allowing you to filter results by Premium Partner, Viewer Added and Free Partner.

On the downside, the chat function is still sparsely populated. You might find that many channels simply have no one to chat to. There's also no way to record programs which I'd like to see in the next release. Mac PPC users are also out of luck as the latest version doesn't support them.

You get more tips on how to get the most out of it from the Livestation blog. Livestation is available for download on both Windows and Mac.

Are you constantly stuck for ideas for what to do at mealtimes? Do you always forget the excellent recipes that you've used over the years? Never have the right ingredients to make something nice? Then say hello to Say Mmm.

This easy-to-use online service allows you to organize and prepare all of your meals in advance so you don't arrive home from work to face an empty pantry and a lack of culinary imagination. Say Mmm boasts a number of tools for planning meals, adding recipes, creating shopping lists, and discovering new dishes.

Plan

Say Mmm lets you enter meal ideas into daily and weekly calendars, earmarking certain days to eat out if you wish. You can add notes and even photos to your meal ideas, and add any necessary ingredients to the shopping list section.

Last week I explained why I'm sticking with Firefox which has generated quite a bit of debate about whether it really is the best browser out there. However, I was very close to ditching Firefox altogether after a frustrating problem which seemed to appear after I first used Tor. Specifically, the problem seemed related to the Torbutton for Firefox which had effectively "broken" Firefox on my Mac.

The reason is because the Tor Button changes Firefox's proxy preferences when you toggle it on and off. Although most of the time it works quite smoothly, over time it can get "stuck" and permanently change your Firefox proxy settings even when you toggle off Torbutton. The result is that Firefox behaves very erratically sometimes taking ages to load pictures and pages and eventually, may refuse to load pages at all by returning a "Privoxy" error page as happened to me.

Last month, when the new Facebook profile was still being rolled out, I wrote a Photoshop tutorial about how to set up a group of photos to create an eye-catching composition that takes advantage of the new design. Now, for those of you who are not that much into Photoshop, there are also a couple of web apps that can help you obtain the same result with no hassle. They're PicScatter and FB Photo Magic.

PicScatter is very easy to use. Once you load the page on your web browser, click the Upload picture button on the top left side. Make sure it's big enough (at least 700 pixels wide by 540 pixels high) so that it fits the Facebook profile.

Use the zoom slider at the bottom to adjust the photo's size, and drag it around with your mouse to reposition it. The good thing about PicScatter is that you have a clear image of what the result will look like at all times.

Once you're done, click the Download pictures link at the bottom to get a ZIP file with the cropped photos. The website will then display a window with instructions to upload your pictures manually to Facebook. I must say I had problems with this link - it didn't work for me on Firefox, so I had to use Internet Explorer.

As for FB Photo Magic, it's even easier to use, as the app can upload and tag the images automatically for you. Click on the Start button and upload your photo. In this case, the image must be at least 550 x 200 pixels. Once your photo is loaded on the website, it'll be displayed with a template layered over it. The template represents the Facebook profile design, so the only thing you need to do is drag and resize it on your photo to adjust it and obtain a perfect fit.

The Preview button displays a sample Facebook profile with your photos - to check the final result before finishing - and the Save button gives you two options: either download the images to your hard drive and upload them to Facebook manually (like PicScatter) or let FB Photo Magic take care of it - for which you'll have to let the app access your Facebook profile.

Either way, the result is an original Facebook profile that won't go unnoticed among your Facebook contacts.

With the beginning of the new year, Microsoft launched Fireworks, a brand-new Windows 7 theme to celebrate the arrival of 2011. Now the Redmond company has announced the release of a bunch of new official themes for Windows 7, covering diverse topics such as nature, videgogames and Bing images.

The new Windows 7 themes released are:

• Alan Wake -Brings the dark, scary environment of Microsoft's game for the Xbox to your computer

• Arctic - Features amazing landscapes and wildlife from the frozen areas in the Arctic Circle

• Best of Bing 5 - Beautiful collection of images from around the world

• Best of Bing: China - A collection of beautiful nature images and cityscapes from China

• Snow Sports - Includes skiing and snowboarding images, set in breath-taking mountain landscapes

If you're not sure about how to install Windows 7 themes, remember to take a look at our tutorial. In a few moments you'll be enjoying these themes on your computer.

I've been using Flickr on a daily basis for a few weeks now, which means I've had enough time to explore all of its functions. And one that has been especially useful to me - and which may not be that popular - is the ability to share your pictures on Flickr in several ways. Right after uploading a picture to Flickr, go to the image's page and click the Share this button. You'll get a bunch of options to share that image online, rather than just copying and pasting the URL.

First of all, you can send the picture by email directly from Flickr. Just enter the address of the recipient and add an optional message. You can send it to several people at the same time, and they get something like this:

Two other options to share your photo are getting the image's URL - with the option to use a URL shortener, perfect for Twitter - and grabbing an HTML or BBcode snippet that will enable you to embed the image somewhere else, like a forum.

Making an app for an Android phone is much, much easier than you’d think it would be. Thanks to Google’s user friendly, App Inventor, it’s possible to build Android software with little or no previous programming experience.

The App Inventor adopts a visual approach to development, and no coding is required in order to create with it. A basic understand of computer programming is recommended though, as you will encounter the world of logic, variables and definitions. You can survive without this, however, by following the various tutorials and reference material on Google’s App Inventor site.

How does App Inventor work?

The app development system is divided into three key areas. First, you have the Designer, a browser-based tool where you design how you want the app to look, and add all the physical elements. Then there’s the Blocks Editor, which is used to define the behavior of the application and set its various functions.

You’ll also need Android device, which you’ll connect to your computer in order to test the app as you go. Don’t worry too much if you don’t have an Android phone, because it’s possible to use an emulator for testing. I would strongly recommend trying out the App Inventor tutorials to get you started. But here is a quick overview of how the whole thing works:

Choose the components of your app using the Designer

Once you’ve downloaded and installed the setup package, you’re ready to start development of your program on the App Inventor web site. Creating a new project will open the Designer, where you need to select the various components that will make up your app.

Components can include anything from buttons and images to video, speech recognition and motion sensors. All the components are divided into categories, to make them easier to find. To add a component to your app, you simply drag it into the Viewer, which represents a rough preview of how the app will look.

You can rename components in the Components section to make them easier to manage, add images and video using the Media section, and adjust the various attributes of each component in the Properties section.