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Standard images editing tools are not hard to come by -- in fact Mac users are almost spoiled for choice in this field. But when it comes to vector graphics packages, the choices are slightly more limited. If you don't fancy the idea of forking out fortune on an expensive package, Artboard may be of interest. It offers an impressive range of creative tools at a fraction of the price of comparable software.

Whether you're looking for a quick and easy way to create scalable posters, or would like to design your own logos or web graphics, Artboard includes a number of templates to help get you started. The fact that the templates include designs for invitations and fliers as well as business cards and signs gives some indication of the target audience of the app.

When it comes to burning discs, the likes of Nero and Roxio have their place. However, while it is possible that you will occasionally need the features provided by such suites --if you are creating video discs or photo slideshows, for example -- it is more likely that most of your burning sessions involve little more than copying a few files or folders to disc. This is where a lightweight tool such as Tiny Burner is ideal.

Rather than overwhelming users with endless features, Tiny Burner focuses on the basics of disc burning -- the process of getting files from your computer onto CD, DVD or Blu-ray. There are no fancy extras to be found here, and if you are looking to work on complicated disc projects, this is certainly not the tool for you. However, if you have found the built-in disc burning support offered by Windows to be a little too basic, Tiny Burner may be for you.

You are? Then why are you reading this? You should be hanging out at Microsoft's Windows Experts Community.

I dunno how long this thing has been around, but Microsoft blogger Paul Donnelly calls it a "new site." Donnelly describes Windows Experts Community as "a collection of online forums geared for advanced users, enthusiasts, experts and so on -- those that are doing fantastic and amazing things with their Windows PCs and other ecosystem devices. We're also rolling out a community-driven wiki where members can create and edit articles and explainers on how they've set-up their PCs, created scenarios, or established their own best practices."

Apple on Wednesday released the iOS 4.3.3 update, the biggest of changes having to deal with the location database that has made the company a target of a good deal of criticism as of late. As part of the changes in the new software, a user can now choose to have the database deleted altogether.

"The iPhone is not logging your location. Rather, it's maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location," Apple said in a Q&A last week. It stated that a bug was causing the file to continue being maintained even after location services was turned off, and would be fixed shortly.

Just over one month after the final version of Firefox 4 was released, first beta of Firefox 5 has become available. This newest version of the iconic Web browser is the first one to go through Mozilla's new release schedule.

Previously, Mozilla staggered Firefox releases in three different channels: nightly (most frequent, no quality assurance), beta (less frequent, more stable) and final release (least frequent, most stable).

Hard-core players hate to lose games. But what happens when they're the sport -- the object of play? That increasingly is the state of PlayStation Network subscribers, following a hack that swiped personal data. If that's you, there are ways to protect you now and from future data theft anywhere on the Internet. Fun and games don't have to end when someone breaks in.

It all started so innocently. Two weeks ago, PlayStation Network went down. The next day, Sony promised the outage would last for a "day or two" to the despair of the fun-loving millions who use the service to access multiplayer games, movies, music and other downloadable entertainment. At the time, Sony raised the possibility that a hacker instigated the outage, but it took six days and outside help before it was revealed that PSN had indeed been the victim of a hack -- one that compromised the personal data of as many as 77 million customers. Today, new details emerged that, despite denials, Anonymous may have been responsible for the hack and data theft.

With the PlayStation Network expected to be back up within a matter of days, Sony's statements to a US House subcommittee seem to point the finger on responsibility back at hacktivist group Anonymous, which initially denied involvement.

PlayStation chief Kazuo Hirai told Congress in a letter that the company was a victim of a sophisticated attack. As part of the hack, a file was planted on the company's servers named "Anonymous" with the words "We Are Legion." He said the company understood the full scope of the attack by April 25, but could not rule out the compromising of credit card data.

After more than a decade in development, Intel's three dimensional "Tri-Gate" transistor design will finally be used in a mass-produced microprocessor, the company announced on Tuesday.

Transistors are perhaps the most basic element of computer hardware. They are the physical mechanism that translates the ones and zeroes into "on" and "off" for the electrical current. In a basic transistor, the electrons flow in, encounter a "gate" that can act as a resistor if it has been told to do so, and then flow out.

That's the question to ask, following Canalys' release of first quarter 2011 smartphone shipments, today. Asia has long been Nokia's stronghold but that may rapidly change during the transition from Symbian to Windows Phone -- at a time when Asia is the world's largest region for smartphones.

Smartphone shipments to Asia grew 98 percent, to 37.3 million units, during Q1, with volumes strongest in China, India and South Korea. India has been a Nokia stronghold, with as much as 70 percent overall handset market share, as well as China.

Document metadata can be very useful on your own PC. Tag yourself as the author of a report, say, or enter some relevant details in its description, and the file should be much easier to find later. When you need to share documents online, though, it's a very different story. Without knowing it, you could be giving all kinds of information away to hackers: usernames, network details, email addresses, software information and a whole lot more.

So does any of this apply to you? Manual checking is tedious, and could take a very long time, but, fortunately, it isn't necessary. FOCA Free is a simple tool that automates the process of checking any websites for metadata issues, and it's both quick and easy to use.

UK-based music and video download site 7digital on Tuesday updated its Android music player application, making its MP3 download store available to Android devices in the US, UK, Canada, and 13 other countries.

Open source software users should already be familiar with 7digital, since it powers the Ubuntu One Music Store and is the default download store for media management software Songbird. Like Amazon, it offers DRM-free music downloads from all of the "big four" record labels, and the updated Android app lets users browse and preview all of the downloadable albums and songs.

Opera has released an alpha build of Opera Next 11.50. As the name implies, this new release is a separate version of the cross-platform Opera browser. It's designed to allow users to install the latest developmental version of Opera alongside the current stable version, allowing users to road-test the latest new features without risking their current, stable installation.

Aside from introducing the Opera Next browser, which is identified by a silver grey version of the traditional red "O" icon used by Opera, version 11.50 also adds support for Speed Dial extensions, allowing developers to do more with the Speed Dial shortcuts page in Opera itself, such as delivering live news feeds, page updates or animated video in place of the static web page image or site icon.

In the light of [NAME OF NEWS EVENT] we are cautioning users to beware of Internet scams and other abuse. Be on the lookout for Facebook messages related to [NAME OF NEWS EVENT], scrutinize search engine results related to [NAME OF NEWS EVENT] and look out for new domain names using [NAME OF NEWS EVENT] to attract your attention.

Oops, sorry folks! I filed my template without filling it in first. My bad.

RSS feeds can be used to keep abreast of news headlines and the latest blog posts, and most RSS fans will have a huge number of subscriptions. Whether you have opted to use a dedicate RSS reader or use an online RSS service such as Google Reader, you'll no doubt be aware that it is all too easy to spend a great deal of time wading through endless posts when you are only likely to be interested in posts from a small number of sites. Fresh Feed enables you to keep up to date with your most important feeds so you can focus on the stories that are likely to need your attention.

In a few moments it is possible to configure the app to check some of your most frequently read feeds on a regular basis, and you will receive an audio alert whenever a new post is made. A menu bar popup displays the headlines for your configured feeds and a preview of the associated story can be viewed in a small slide out window -- anything that particularly grabs your attention can be viewed in its entirety with a quick click.

If you're looking for a way to keep a track of your Google accounts, Gmail Notifier Pro may well be the tool you have been looking for. Although the name of the program may suggest that its sole purpose is to provide notifications about the state of your Gmail inbox, the tool can be used to monitor Google Calendar and Google News.

There are free and paid-for versions of the application available, with the free version including support for up to two Gmail accounts and the Pro version allowing you to add as many accounts as you like. Mail can be checked using IMAP or Atom protocols and the notification area popups that appear when messages are received can be used to mark mail as read as well as composing replies and new emails without the need to visit the Gmail web site.