Software : In Depth: Best free photo editing software: 10 top image editors you should try

---

• In Depth: Best free photo editing software: 10 top image editors you should try
• Twitter takes the axe to TweetDeck apps for iPhone, Android and AIR
• How Facebook is turning employees into mobile champions
• Google Chrome snaps, crackles and pops in new system updates
• BlackBerry 10 users will have to get their Netflix fix elsewhere
• Android lock screen security flaw outed on a Galaxy Note 2
• New tablet owners go iPlayer crazy as slate-based viewing doubles

In Depth: Best free photo editing software: 10 top image editors you should try Posted: Modern cameras can make digital photography seem very easy, and even the most basic models will often produce crisp, clear photos. You'll still have occasional issues with lighting, white balance, red-eye and more, though, so it's a good idea to keep a photo editor around to help resolve them: but which one? The extremely demanding (or very wealthy) may still opt for Photoshop, and there's no doubt it's a great program. But if your finances won't stretch that, though, don't worry, there are some excellent free tools around. We've found 10 of the very best free photo editing apps, and whether you're looking for comprehensive editing power, ease of use, arty effects or just a quick way to spice up a photo before posting it on Facebook, there's something for you here. 1. GIMP for Windows GIMP (the GNU Image Manipulation Program) first appeared way back in 1996, and has been regularly updated ever since, so it's no surprise that the package is the most powerful free photo editor that you'll find anywhere. There are tools to correct colours, enhance contrast, brightness and more; sharpen or blur an image, fix perspective problems, remove red-eye; add special lighting effects, turn a photo into an oil painting, and create an animation. The paint tools alone are amazing, there's full layer support and lots of ways to extend the program. All this power does mean GIMP takes a while to learn, but don't let that put you off - if you've any previous image editing experience then you'll be doing useful work within minutes. 2. Paint.NET It may not have anything like the power of GIMP, but there's still plenty to like about Paint.NET. It's strong on image editing basics, with options to resize and rotate your photos, a good range of selection and paint tools, and some excellent special effects. Support for layers means you can apply your edits to part of an image only, and the program can be extended with plugins. Best of all, though, Paint.NET's clear and straightforward interface means it's very easy to use, even if you're a complete graphics novice. 3. PhoXo PhoXo has been around for almost 10 years now, and it's grown into a very useful editor with something for everyone. Kids can play around with the clipart, customising images with cartoon cats; practical types will enjoy options like the ability to add a custom watermark to an entire folder of images; and everyone else will appreciate the drawing and paint tools, image transformations, effects and more. 4. Funny Photo Maker Funny Photo Maker has no layer support, no smart selection tools, no paint or drawing options. But that doesn't matter, because what it does have is an amazing range of effects which you can apply in seconds. So you can add someone's face to a movie poster, magazine cover or a dollar bill; transform a still image into an animation; add rain or snow to a photo, apply some excellent frames, and turn your photos into a collage, amongst many other options. 5. Photo Pos Pro Photo Editor Its tiny toolbars and dated interface mean Photo Pos Pro doesn't look too promising, but begin to explore and you'll soon be impressed. There are plenty of selection options, a wide range of paint tools, colour corrections and more. You get reasonable support for layers and masks, lots of effects (all extremely configurable), and a scripting tool which helps you automate many editing tasks. And the program offers some fun touches, too, like a set of "Magical" effects which help you add fireworks, bubbles, stardust or similar decorations to an image. 6. PhotoScape PhotoScape won't appeal to editing experts - there's no layer support, for instance - but if you're just looking to have some quick fun with a photo then it's a very different story. There are hundreds of clipart images ready to paste into your picture, for instance. You can add custom speech bubbles to an image, apply some great special effects, even create animated GIFs. Most of these options are surprisingly configurable too. So while other tools might just have a single "turn this photo into an oil painting", for instance, PhotoScape supports 11 artistic styles (Pastel, Pencil, Cartoon, more), each of which can then be customised further. 7. IrfanView As its name suggests, IrfanView is mostly about viewing images, but the program also includes more plenty of editing power. You can rotate and resize an image, for instance; tweak its colours, brightness and contrast; add text captions or watermarks; sharpen your photo, remove red-eye, and apply a range of special effects. If that's not enough, though, IrfanView can be extended via its support for 8Bf (Photoshop), AltaLux, Filter Factory and Filters Unlimited plugins. And all in a compact free tool which requires less than 2MB of disk space. 8. PhotoFiltre While it's more an image retouching tool than a conventional editor (and it's only free for personal use), PhotoFiltre has plenty of editing features and it's capable of some spectacular results. The PhotoMask tool alone, for instance, applies stylish contour and transparency effects to your image for an impressively artistic effect (check the program website for some great examples). Elsewhere there are plenty of paint tools, colour corrections and filters, and overall the program is a great choice when you need more artistic editing options. 9. PixBuilder Studio PixBuilder Studio is a useful mid-range photo editor with a strong focus on solid, practical features. So instead of cartoon clipart and arty effects you get sensible features like crop, resize and rotate options, plenty of colour correction tools, sharpness and blur filters and some capable print tools. There's not a lot of fun here, then, but PixBuilder Studio is great it you just want to make your photos a little better (and 8BF filter support means the program can be extended if necessary). 10. Chasys Draw IES Artist Look past its odd name and Chasys Draw IES proves to be a very capable photo editor with a stack of essential features: extensive paint and drawing tools, strong layer support, lots of smart special effects, plenty of colour and lighting adjustments, Photoshop plugin support, and more. These are just some of the program's capabilities, though. You can also use it to create animations, CD or DVD labels, icons and cursors, or even capture videos of desktop activity. With a RAW file processor, image viewer and converter also included, Chasys Draw IES really is an amazingly versatile package.

Twitter takes the axe to TweetDeck apps for iPhone, Android and AIR Posted: Rest in peace TweetDeck for Android, iPhone and AIR. We'll miss you all. Twitter gave word today that in order to devote its energies towards developing the "modern, web-based versions of TweetDeck," the company is chucking support for older apps plus discontinuing Facebook integration. The news may rattle users who've grown accustomed to sending and reading tweets from the various applications, but it's not such a surprise to those who've noticed it's been years since they've been updated - which is probably everybody. The apps will say sayonara to their respective app stores in early May and will slip silently into the abyss of non-functionality shortly after. Life after apps TweetDeck will continue on as a "fast and feature-rich" web app for various browsers as well as a Chrome app. The app for Chrome features notifications, the tweet team pointed out. "In many ways, doubling down on the TweetDeck web experience and discontinuing our app support is a reflection of where our TweetDeck power-users are going," the announcement concerning the change read. "Over the past few years, we've seen a steady trend towards people using TweetDeck on their computers and Twitter on their mobile devices. This trend coincides with an increased investment in Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android..." While Twitter is going where the trends are taking it, the discontinuation of the apps won't be without hitches: the apps rely on v1.0 of Twitter's API, which is retiring starting in April. As the retirement draws near and tests take place, all three TweetDeck apps may experiences outages before they're finally shuttered. Voice for Facebook While Twitter says goodbye to some old standbys, Facebook today said hello to an update to its Messenger app on Android that introduces free voice over internet protocol (VoIP) for users in Canada. Canadians have already had their hand at VoIP on their iOS Messenger app, and it has made its way to the US, so perhaps northern Android users harangued Facebook to get the same service started on the competitive OS. Android users will find a few other features in version 2.3, including updates to group conversations and bug fixes. The free calling does steal the thunder a bit.

How Facebook is turning employees into mobile champions Posted: Remember in the 'Rocky' movies when the fabled Italian Stallion heads off to train outside of his Philadelphia comfort zone to find the inspiration necessary to overcome a terrifying, iron-fisted foe? Well that's sort of what Facebook is doing with its engineers to help them obtain the mobile "Eye of the Tiger" - except it isn't shipping coders to the mean streets of Chicago or an icy Russian log cabin to do so. Rather, it has been revealed that developers at the social network are spending five days of intensive training with The Big Nerd Ranch, tuning their focus on creating new and exciting iPhone and Android apps. Facebook's Director of Mobile Engineering Mike Shaver told Engadget that 450 employees have already completed the training as part of the company's shift from a web-centric to a mobile first enterprise. Mobile empathy Once the training - which is open to all Facebook employees, not just engineers - is complete, graduates can "start writing code for apps the very next Monday," Shaver said. Engadget reports that designers, product managers and recruiters are among the Palo Alto natives to have completed the scheme, since it began last July, as the company bids to instill "mobile empathy" in its troops. Facebook's laser-focus on mobile has been well documented in the last year or so, as access to the service via smartphones and tablets has overtaken traditional browser use. The company has yet to master the art of making money (or as much money) from its mobile offerings and, with shareholders to please, that needs to change sooner rather than later.

Google Chrome snaps, crackles and pops in new system updates Posted: Google released updates for its Chrome browser across Windows, Linux, Android and iOS on Monday, adding minor features and tweaks to all four operating systems. Chrome iPhone and iPad were updated to version 25, adding "long press" on the back button, which lets users view multiple recently visited pages, plus the ability to share web pages via messages, Google said in an announcement. For Android, Chrome received faster and more responsive scrolling. What's more, Google reported in a blog post that it had improved the browser's performance benchmark on Android by 25 percent, so "interactions within web pages in the browser are snappier." On Windows and Linux, the main, "stable" Chrome release just got bumped to version 25.0.1364.152, an incremental update that provides "security and stability improvements" and bug fixes, according to yet another announcement. Google search improving Google also mentioned today that an update to Google search within Chrome for iPhone and iPad will roll out "over the coming days." With the new search update, the omnibox at the top of the screen will display the search term instead of the search results URL, and it will be easier to "refine your search queries and view more results on the search results page." Google added that it's "continuing to add plenty of under-the-hood stability, security improvements and bug fixes" to both the iOS and Android versions of the Chrome app. Crashes on iOS? Despite the snappy updates, several users reported that the iOS version was crashing after Chrome 25 was installed. Some noted that their devices were jailbroken. TechRadar tested out the Chrome 25 update for iOS on an iPhone 4S running iOS 6.1.2, a jailbroken iPhone 4 with iOS 5.1.1, and an iPad mini on iOS 6.1. The update seemed to work fine on all three devices. We reached out to Google to determine whether the company was aware of any issues with the Chrome for iOS update, and we'll update this story if and when the company offers a response.

BlackBerry 10 users will have to get their Netflix fix elsewhere Posted: BlackBerry hinged a lot of hope on its new BlackBerry 10 operating system and new line of phones, but its users are steadily becoming subject to some serious app apprehension. Even though BlackBerry hasn't made any sales data available for its touch-touting Z10 smartphone, released in January and February in some regions, consumers who rushed into the new smartphone's arms discovered a lack of major third-party applications compared to what Android and iOS currently offer. Though there is Facebook and Twitter support, the app marketplace was dealt a big blow Monday when Netflix revealed it's not currently working on neither an Android-ported nor native app for BB10. With an ecosystem hungry for more content, the lack of one of the biggest streaming video providers puts BlackBerry at a significant disadvantage. Waiting it out BlackBerry and Netflix are still reportedly in talks to bring an app to the BB10 marketplace, but it's not quite a done deal yet. According to sources speaking to AllThingsD, Netflix isn't planning on creating an app anytime soon, but didn't rule out the possibility of appearing on BB10 sometime in the future. Like Instagram, it would appear Netflix is going to wait and see just what kind of consumer base BB10 generates before it moves forward with its own app for the OS. While Netflix and Instagram are being patient, there are still other major apps like Kindle and Dropbox that have shown love for BB10, giving users some hope the big guns will reconsider. However, Netflix's supposed plan might be a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Without major apps, consumers may look elsewhere for their smartphones, meaning Netflix may never see enough incentive to develop for BB10. For its part, BlackBerry is playing it optimistic. "We're committed to bringing top titles from around the globe to BlackBerry 10 customer," BlackBerry's Alex Kinsella said in a statement. "At this time, it's in Netflix's court to join the excitement around BlackBerry 10 — we hope they choose to bring a BlackBerry 10 experience to their customers. We'd love to have them." TechRadar asked Netflix for comment, and will update this story once we learn more.

Android lock screen security flaw outed on a Galaxy Note 2 Posted: Just what we need, another lock screen vulnerability. A self-proclaimed mobile enthusiast discovered a security vulnerability in a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 that could give anyone access to a user's home screen, including making phone calls. Terence Eden posted about the security loophole on his personal blog today, describing the method that can bypass pattern lock, PIN, passwords, and even face unlock. To bypass a user's lock screen, someone can press the emergency call button followed by the "in case of emergency" icon on the bottom left of the keypad. Then by holding the home button for a few seconds, the home screen will flash briefly before returning to the lock screen. An inefficient flaw It may be a somewhat small security flaw, since the home screen only flashes for less than a second, but Eden demonstrated that fast fingers can access any quick dial numbers a user may have set up on their home screen. YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6i-0t63wOII#! The method can also be used to launch apps on the user's home screen, though they'll only be visible for less than a second before returning to the lock screen with the app running in the background. Though an inefficient method of hacking, a persistent attacker could access a user's calendar and contacts through this method. The method was tested on a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 running Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. It's unknown if the security flaw is limited to the Note 2- Samsung's version of Android - or whether it's a wider issue in Android 4.1.2. Eden said he contacted Samsung about his discovery, but said that after five days, he's yet to hear from the South Korean company. Maybe after today's public revelation, the firm will feel prompted to issue a response.

New tablet owners go iPlayer crazy as slate-based viewing doubles Posted: The BBC has confirmed that iPlayer access via tablet devices has nearly doubled in the last two months, aided by surging tablet sales over Christmas. The Corporation said programme requests from devices like the Apple iPad mini and Google Nexus 7 shot up from 21m in November to a whopping 40m at the end of January. Tablets now account for 15 per cent of all iPlayer views including radio requests and 18 per cent of all TV show views. That's up considerably from just 6 per cent and 7 per cent at the end of January 2012. Smartphones are still leading the way for mobile consumption of hit shows like David Attenborough's Africa (which racked up 2.3m total iPlayer views), with 44m requests at the end of January. Step change in habits Naturally the Beeb is crediting the amount of tablets and smartphones gifted and purchased during the festive season, for what it called a "step change" in how users consume iPlayer content. "BBC iPlayer had a record-breaking festive period, with performance driven by new mobiles and tablets unwrapped on Christmas Day, and it looks like these devices have yet to be put down," Auntie said in a statement. Overall the iPlayer received an astonishing 272m requests during January across its various portals.

You are subscribed to email updates from TechRadar: All latest Applications news feeds To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610