Free Image Editors for Everyone--Even Experts

CLICK to read article on Yahoo! News: "You could spend hundreds of dollars on image-editing software. But before you part with your hard-earned money, consider one of these free photo-editing programs. No matter what your level of expertise, one of these eight photo editors will fit your needs and personality--as well as your budget.

Kodak EasyShare

ArcSoft Print Creations projects such as scrapbooks and calendars (ArcSoft's templates for 1/4-fold greeting cards and album pages are free). Although EasyShare is designed to support Kodak cameras and printers, it can work with pictures from any camera, and it outputs to whatever printer you have connected. The software also links to the free online Kodak Gallery for sharing or ordering prints and photo novelty items.

Download Kodak EasyShare | Price: Free

Photoscape

From the moment you launch Photoscape, the program is unusually appealing and approachable. Photo-editing tools are not extensive, but they work quickly and easily, with both auto commands and manual dialog boxes. Photoscape also includes batch processing, print package templates, RAW conversion (to JPEG), an animated-GIF maker, and other tools. Though the interface is quite nonstandard, becoming accustomed to it doesn't take long.

Download Photoscape | Price: Free

Picasa

Picasa is primarily an entry-level photo organizer, but it also has editing tools. Upon launch, Picasa makes quick work of importing all your photos from wherever you've saved them, and it groups people pictures for easy naming (to establish face recognition). The Tuning, Fixes, and Effects edit tabs are simple to navigate and use. It exports photos to a nice range of sharing options, such as creating a CD, making a movie, uploading to Picasa Web Albums, or sending to your blog on Blogger.

Download Picasa | Price: Free

Windows Live Photo Gallery

Use for making a movie, and sharing via Windows Live SkyDrive, Facebook, YouTube, or other sites.

Download Windows Live Photo Gallery | Price: Free

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Buy these smart phones

CLICK to read Tech Holiday Guide - msnbc.com

"This smart phone thing has gotten out of hand. It used to be, there were two, maybe three, and they all cost $400, and were frankly not that hot. Now every carrier has 20 smart phones, all between the price of $0 and $300, and they're all pretty cool. Or at least, they seem so in those misleadingly upbeat feature lists on every carrier's websites.

We decided this year to not beat around the bush. Here we recommend two very different, very cool smart phones for each carrier. Take them or leave them. It's the only advice you need, should you choose to accept it.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Netflix Player by Roku

Courtesy of DailyWebTip on YouTube

A tutorial on how to use Netflix's new streaming video player from Roku. The box allows you to stream Netflix movies instantly from your Netflix 'Watch Instantly' queue on netflix.com

CNET Top 5 Must-Have Holiday Gadgets

CNET's Senior Editor, Molly Woods, walks through the Top 5 must-have gadgets for the holiday season, including the $139 Kindle and Microsoft's Kinect motion detection gaming device for the XBox 360.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

HTC Surround, Pro 7, & 7 HD Windows Phone 7 Preview

Courtesy of TechliciousMedia

HTC introduced three Windows Phone 7 phones for the U.S. market today, the HTC Surround, HTC Pro 7 and HTC 7 HD. Keith Nowak of HTC takes us through the unique features of each.

ANNOUNCEMENT: The Beatles arrive on iTunes, at last!

CLICK to read article on Yahoo! News: "Yep, it's happened. A treasure trove of Beatles albums popped up on iTunes early Tuesday, a day after Apple promised an 'exciting announcement' from iTunes.

Digital versions of such classic Beatles albums as 'Abbey Road,' 'A Hard Day's Night,' 'Help!,' 'Magical Mystery Tour' and 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' were selling for $13 each, with double albums like the 'White Album' going for $20.

Also available is a massive Beatles box set for $150, while individual tracks are selling for $1.30 each.

The Beatles, of course, were one of the last remaining digital music holdouts, and rumors of the Beatles arriving on iTunes (or going digital in any way whatsoever) have been circulating for years.

Apple teased the arrival of the Beatles on its website Monday with a banner that read: 'Tomorrow is just another day. That you'll never forget.'

Speculation on what the teaser meant ran the gamut from a cloud-based version of iTunes (powered by Apple's gigantic new data center in North Carolina) to a long-rumored iTunes-based music-subscription service.

Later in the day, though, there was increasing chatter that Apple's big news could be the arrival of the Beatles catalog on iTunes, and by late afternoon, Billboard, the Wall Street Journal and other publications had confirmed that the Beatles were at last set to go digital.

Whether Tuesday's Beatles announcement actually ranks as a day we'll 'never forget,' however, is up for debate.

Many, including me, were hoping that Apple would at last announce a Web-based version of iTunes, complete with a cloud-based digital locker for all your music. For now, it looks like we'll have to keep on waiting.

So, thoughts? Is the arrival of the Beatles on iTunes truly an unforgettable event, or did Apple and the Fab Four overplay their hands?

— Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

E-mail secondary as Facebook revamps messaging

CLICK to read article on Yahoo! News: "Facebook unveiled a new messaging platform Monday that takes aim at one of the Internet's first applications, e-mail.

Although blogs had been speculating that Facebook would announce an e-mail service to rival Google Inc.'s Gmail and others, Facebook said e-mail was just one component of its plans.

Declaring e-mail past its prime in the age of texts and instant messages, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company doesn't believe e-mail is going to be a modern messaging system. The first Internet e-mail system arrived in the early 1970s.

'If we do a good job, some people will say this is the way that the future will work,' Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg dismissed notions that 'Project Titan,' as its service is called, is the 'Gmail killer' it's been dubbed as in the press. But he also said that just as high school students are forgoing e-mail in favor of shorter, more immediate chats, more people down the line will send IMs and chats because it's simpler, 'more fun' and more valuable to use.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

OPEN IMMEDIATELY: AT&T Penny Sale on Amazon.com

From 11/11/10 to 11/15/10, all AT&T cellphones (including a couple Windows Phone 7 phones) are on sale at Amazon.com for a penny (yup, 1 cent)!!!! Don't delay. Go to Amazon.com for more details.

12 Fun Hacks for Getting More Out of YouTube

CLICK to read article on Yahoo! News: "There's no doubt that plain old YouTube can be tons of fun, but when you get bored of watching clips the traditional way, there are a ton of sites that can help enhance the experience.

Whether you want to view a video with a far-away friend, compare two clips, or find more interesting ways of browsing and sharing, there are plenty of options out there. The web community is known for creating hacks that improve your surfing experience; now we've dug into some of those tools and hacks built around YouTube.

Have a look through our 10 choices and let us know of any other YouTube mashups, hacks, or similar sites and services you've used. We'd love to hear about them in the comments below.

1. TubeReplay

This site features a super-simple premise. TubeReply will play a YouTube video over and over again, until you stop it or go mad -- whichever happens first. Just enter the URL of the clip you want repeated and the site will do the rest.

2. DragonTape

DragonTape allows you to remix YouTube videos into a seamless mixtape. Search for the clips you want, drag and drop to set up the play order and then share the playlist with friends via an auto-generated URL, or embed it with the code provided.

3. YouTube Doubler

This 'mashup helper' exists 'because you have better things to do than work.' You can use it to compare two videos, or have fun mashing together two patently unsuitable videos. Simply enter the two URLs, decide on your VJ name, and you're off and away. You can share your video pairing via a generated URL.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

The first Windows Phone 7 apps you should grab

CLICK to read article on Technolog

"Today is when the first Windows Phone 7 models go on sale — the Samsung Focus at AT&T and the HTC HD7 at T-Mobile. As we've discussed, they're powerhouse phones with gorgeous screens and Microsoft's surprisingly nice 'glance and go' operating system designed in the age of Facebook. But what matters once you get the phone is what apps to download. There are currently about 1,600 apps in the Marketplace, most of them free or dirt cheap.

There's already a lot of cr'apps in there, the standard lineup of flashlights, tip calcs, stopwatches, unit converters, and of course fart emulators. And because you can read what system resources each app needs to access, you can spot some shady ones too. A 'simple and fun finger drawing tool' that needs access to 'owner identity' and 'phone calls'? I'm sure there's a plausible explanation, but I am gonna pass!

There are also a lot of things still missing. There's no Pandora. There's no Kindle, Nook or Kobo e-book readers. (Update: Amazon stated about a week ago that it would be first to WP7, available 'later this year.') There's just one instant messaging app, and it's for Windows Live Messenger. The cooking and wine categories are barren — no Epicurious or BigOven, and no wine reference databases. Kid entertainment — that is, edutainment — is totally missing. And I don't see Bank of America or any other leading American banks with apps, nor do I see Mint.com. (USAA and Geico have apps though.)

There are a ton of games, and we've reviewed many here: Windows Phone 7 games: The good, the bad and the weird

What I did was sift through most of the non-game apps, and put together a list of the ones you definitely need, plus a few premium ones that you may want to buy.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

iPhone is No. 1 phone, while Android is No. 1 OS

CLICK to read article on Technolog

"The best-selling phone in America is the iPhone, according to two different reports. But the same research shows Android is the top-selling OS, and it continues unimpeded in its march to worldwide domination. Meanwhile, BlackBerry's Research In Motion is getting stepped on, and dumb phones — those not blessed with any of the so-called 'smart phone' OSes — may well be headed for extinction. The question is, will Android keep it together at the top, or spread itself too thin?

Selling the top phone — not just smart phone but phonephone — should be good news for Apple. But compared to the quarter that ended a year ago, Apple's market share declined by 21 percent against Android. RIM's share drop is a lot worse, though: It's down 53 percent compared to a year ago.

'Much of Android's quarterly share growth came at the expense of RIM, rather than Apple,' said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD, in a press release. 'The HTC EVO 4G, Motorola Droid X and other new high-end Android devices have been gaining momentum at carriers that traditionally have been strong RIM distributors, and the recent introduction of the BlackBerry Torch has done little to stem the tide.'

With nobody excited about new BlackBerry products, the best thing RIM can do is lower prices on its older more venerated handsets. Its Curve series, the No. 2 selling phone in the U.S., is listed at several carriers for the low low price of ... free. At least, with a two-year contract.

The iPhone beat another free-ish phone, the LG Cosmos, a messaging phone. As the only non-'smart' phone in NPD's top 5, and one that only got there through heavy-duty subsidies, another message is clear: Dumb phones are dying. But that might just mean more Android-powered phones of modest IQ being handed out for free or next to nothing.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"