You’re after a free image editor. You want a powerful one, something that gets compared favorably to the likes of Photoshop. You find Paint.NET and PixBuilder Studio intriguing, but just that little bit lacking. Ultimately, though, when you ask about a powerful, free image editor, you’re going to be pointed towards GIMP.

And that’s where the trouble begins, because while GIMP is undoubtedly the most powerful free image-editing tool there is, it’s also one that puts newcomers off because of its multi-paned floating user interface. But what if you could marry the interface of Photoshop with the power (and free price tag) of GIMP? The good news is, you can, thanks to an open-source, cross-platform program called GIMPshop.

For you Sherlock Holmes types out there, how would you like a case to crack?

As a software developer I have my own website, and l regularly track my web traffic. I check my web site stats daily. I do analysis of that data to glean everything I possibly can about those who visit my site. So to my surprise, one day recently while checking my web stats I was shocked to see the day's traffic shoot through the roof!

Managing any sort of business takes times, effort and dedication. In order to ensure that things run as smoothly as possible, whatever your line of work, it is important that you turn to the right tools to help you to keep on top of things. Revolver Office is a powerful project management suite that includes everything you need to keep track of jobs, employees, clients, and everything else that it is involved in the day to day management of your business. The latest preview version includes a raft of powerful features that place you firmly in control of your empire, but more importantly it enables people to work together.

Revolver Office is such a varied and all-encompassing tool that its list of features is a lengthy one. Available for both Mac and Windows, the software allows for very easy collaboration on a project and ensures that everyone involved has access to the tools and information they need. For some projects the built-in address book can be used to store details of every one working on the project as well as the contact information for contractors and suppliers. A team calendar is available so you can easily check to see when everyone is free for a meeting and you can ensure that no one employee is being given too heavy a workload.

Google shares took a beating overnight, following fourth-quarter's earnings report. The information and search giant was down 7.7 percent in pre-market trading -- $49.25 to $590.32. Still, that's an improvement. Yesterday, Google closed at $639.57, and shares fell more than 10 percent during after-market trading. Google opened at $590.90 this morning and fell to $588.03 within the first 30 minutes of trading -- that's $51.54 off yesterday's close. By 10:17 am ET, Google shares closed on their pre-market decrease -- 7.78 percent, or down $49.77 per share.

Google's problem is one more of expectation than performance. Wall Street expected strong ad revenues for the holiday quarter, particularly with increase in online sales and therefore supporting search-related advertising. But ad prices fell instead, overshadowing other metrics. While paid clicks rose 34 percent, the amount paid for them fell by 8 percent, contributing to Google missing Wall Street consensus -- that despite solid revenue and earnings growth.

I'm a second year doctoral student, and I've got some concern about something I heard today that I want to share with any forward-thinking university president, but also with you.

Many schools will be looking at a new e-textbook platform from Apple that will have long-lasting impact on curriculum, students, teaching and cost of education.

"The Site is under maintenance. Please expect it to be back shortly". That's the message I found at Universal Music moments ago. The US Justice Department site isn't accessible at all. You can thank hacktavist group Anonymous, which claims responsibility for these and other SOPA blackouts today in response to the Feds shutting down Megaupload.

There's a certain irony to this evening's attacks. Yesterday, tens of thousands of sites supported a voluntary blackout protesting two bills snaking through Congress -- Stop Online Piracy (SOPA) and PIPA (PROTECT IP Act). Anonymous' attacks, presumably denial-of-service, blacked out sites that either support the legislation or would be responsible for enforcing it. We've gone from voluntary blackout protests yesterday to involuntary ones today. As I write, Recording Industry Association of America is down, too.

Apple’s iPad has fairly quickly become a great tool for the workplace and in education and the company’s latest bid to revolutionize the market is with ebooks. Ebooks themselves are nothing new, but the existence of touchscreen devices such as the iPad means that the opportunities available to readers through interactive multimedia book are now greater than ever. iBooks Author is a free Mac app that can be used by anyone to create iPad friendly ebooks that can include a variety of widgets such as photo galleries, videos, KeyNote presentations, 3D objects and more.

This is more than just an ebook creation tool for Mac, it is a complete solution that enables you to work through the entire process from initial concept to design and layout before ultimately publishing and making available online. To help get you started, there are a number of different templates to choose from and then it is just a matter of dropping material in place and performing any customizations you want.

Late this afternoon, Microsoft answered a question oft-asked by investors this month: What about Windows?   Near the end of his Consumer Electronics Show keynote last week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer boomed: "There's nothing more important at Microsoft than Windows".  But at the same event, Tami Reller, Windows & Windows Live  CFO,  warned that the division's fourth-quarter results could fall below analysts' estimates, because of weak PC sales. Today's fiscal second quarter 2012 earnings results answered by just how much.

For Q2, ended December 31, Microsoft revenue was $20.89 billion, up 5 percent year over year. Operating income: $7.99 billion, a 2 percent decrease. Net income was $6.62 billion, or 78 cents a share. Both were flat year over year.

As the internet pats itself on the back for protesting SOPA and changing the minds of a handful of U.S. Senators, file-sharing site Megaupload has been brought down in one of the largest copyright infringement cases of all time.

Seven individuals and two international corporations have been charged in the United States with running an international organized crime ring dealing exclusively in piracy of copyrighted material.

Two months ago, I argued here on BetaNews that despite the ever-increasing chorus of negativity surrounding Apple, its best days are ahead. One of my reasons for my belief is the young consumer, where the Cupertino company is building a considerable amount of brand equity.

Today's education-centric announcements only strengthen that argument. While there wasn't much pomp or circumstance, the significance is not the immediate announcements but what they mean for the future.

The new Metro user interface will make Windows 8 a totally different experience for XP, Vista and 7 users, but it will especially challenge those of us who use a desktop PC. Why? Because we are accustomed to mouse input and Windows 8 emphasizes touch. Metro is much better suited to touch than the mouse.

So how can desktop users today, prepare themselves for when they later upgrade to Windows 8? I'll tell you.

Everyone needs some form of backup, but while successive versions of the Windows Backup Tool have undoubtedly got better, they’re still not quite as intuitive or as comprehensive as we’d like them to be.

If you want maximum protection for your files, settings and even Windows itself, you need a good third-party tool. A tool like Acronis True Image 2010 Personal, worth $19.95, which will be available exclusively to US and Canadian residents to download for free from the Downloadcrew Giveaway site this Friday (January 20).

Building your own portable working environment on a USB flash drive is undoubtedly convenient. Equip it with your favorite productivity software, browser, email client, graphics tools and games and it’ll always be ready for use on any nearby PC.

One issue you’ll notice straight away, though, is performance. The USB interface may be fast, but flash drive read and write speeds really aren’t, and even small applications can take quite a while to launch.

At a private event at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City on Thursday, Apple unveiled its multi-pronged approach for cracking the higher education market with iBooks 2, iBooks Author, and iTunes U. The result is an environment for creating, distributing, and consuming learning materials that is entirely contained within the Apple product ecosystem.

There were three main parts to Apple's education announcement on Thursday:

It is now over eight months since I first reported to you my experience of getting hacked on iTunes. Last June, hackers found a way into my iTunes account using Sega's Kingdom Conquest -- a game I never downloaded. I was bilked out of $95.30, which the hackers stole from my account through iOS' in-app purchase mechanism.

Within hours of posting that story, I was flooded with dozens -- if not hundreds -- of similar stories. Initially, they were similar to mine and involved Kingdom Conquest, but additional reports indicated other games are being used to break into iTunes accounts worldwide.