Adobe has released version 4 of its photo cataloguing and editing tool Photoshop Lightroom. This high-end tool, aimed at photography professionals and enthusiasts, debuts with new basic video-editing capabilities and more photo-editing controls, among other improvements.

Photoshop Lightroom 4 also costs 50-percent less for new users: $149 for new users, and $99 for upgraders, compared to $299 and $99, respectively, for version 3. A 30-day trial is available for download for Windows and Mac users.

Continue reading →

Sony's problems surrounding the hacking of the PlayStation Network is much worse than originally thought. The company confirmed over the weekend that hackers stole some 50,000-plus Michael Jackson tracks and music files from Sony servers. The company paid the Jackson estate $250 million last year for the rights to the unreleased material.

Reports say Sony's plans were to release the stolen music on up to ten separate albums, a strategy now in jeopardy as the tracks are now in the hands of Jackson's most avid fans. In fact, that's how Sony discovered the breach in the first place -- discussions of the tracks appeared on fan forums as they leaked to the Internet.

Continue reading →

It has been another very busy week in the world of software releases and we’ve collection together 21 of the biggest titles that you may have missed; there’s something for everyone here, no matter what you use your computer for.

This has been a big week for anyone looking to get a little creative with their computer. CyberLink Video and Photo Creative Collection 2.0 is a powerful collection of tools that includes all you need to work with your photo and video collections. Comprising PowerDirector and PhotoDirector, you can edit all of the images and footage you have capture with your digital camera ready to use in a range of projects.

Continue reading →

Swedish web album creation tool, jAlbum 10.4, is now available, boasting a number of major new features. Version 10.4 now supports building entire websites rather than simple photo albums, promises up to 40 percent faster page processing on multi-core CPUs and adds support for transparent PNG images and the ability to scale individual images to different sizes.

jAlbum, which is free for personal use and runs on Windows, Mac and Linux, makes it possible to create online photo albums quickly and easily via drag, drop and edit. Pick a template and publish -- either to jAlbum’s own online hosting service or your own website.

Continue reading →

CyberLink has released the final version of CyberLink PhotoDirector 3, a brand new version of its high-end photo management and editing tool. The new release boasts a number of powerful new editing tools, including an object removal system, a “People Beautifier” system offering skin smoothing and wrinkle removal among other retouching features, watermark editor and lens correction tools.

The final release comes two-and-a-half months after the public beta was launched, which attracted over 50,000 users and 5,000 comments, which CyberLink says led to several improvements and new features being added to this first stable release.

Continue reading →

The panic that sets in after emptying the Trash folder only to realize that it contained files you actually needed is a feeling that can only be match by the one that arises after hard drive fails and you realize you have no backup.

Losing certain files through user error, hardware failure or some other problem can cause inconvenience and lead to a great deal of work, but when it comes to photos and other images files, it is often the case that replacing files is simply not possible. EaseUS Mac Photo Recovery Free is a data recovery tool that may be able to help.

Continue reading →

There are few apps that could pull me away from Galaxy Nexus, the current Google phone, to iPhone 4S. But SmugMug's Camera Awesome is close. Real close. If you're an iPhone shutterbug, this app is for you -- or so I believe after a brief test late today.

Photo buffs can find no shortage of apps for iPhone. But Camera Awesome literally lives up to its name, improving the photo-taking process -- not just enhancing images later. The app provides tools for easing image composition, adding effects before or after taking the pic and automatically post-processing your work -- what SmugMug calls "Awesomizing".

Continue reading →

The Handbrake Project has announced an update to its open-source, cross-platform video transcoding utility. Handbrake 0.9.6 includes new and updated codecs, improved filters and demuxers, a new “Normal” preset promising faster transcoding times and improvements detecting DVD discs.

There are also a number of platform-specific changes, including various user interface tweaks spanning Windows, OS X and Linux. OS X users also lose support for DVD encryption using VLC 2.0 due to a lack of support from the latter.

Continue reading →

Multimedia specialist MAGIX has released Photo Manager MX Deluxe, the latest edition of its photo workflow package, extending the program’s already ridiculously lengthy feature list with some worthwhile new additions.

If you’re looking to create a panorama, for instance, the new montage tool will automatically combine, position and crossfade up to eight individual images, variously correcting for lens distortions, perspective and other issues to produce the best possible panorama. That’s the idea, anyway; our initial tests weren’t always successful, but did show the tool is capable of some impressive results.

Continue reading →

Screen capture can be as simple as hitting the Print Screen key on your keyboard, but if you’re slightly more demanding you’re going to have to look elsewhere for a more advanced tool than those built into your operating system.

Snagit is one such a screen capture tool that has carved out something of a name for itself on both Mac and PC, and can be used to grab entire screens, individual windows, capture on a delay and much more. The release of Snagit 11 and Snagit for Mac 2.0 sees a major new feature, the ability to capture video as well as stills, added to the Mac version, while Windows users have a number of key improvements and new features to enjoy.

Continue reading →

That was unexpected. This evening I tried out Vimeo for iOS 2.0 and much prefer the Android version released last month during Consumer Electronics Show. Conceptually, Vimeo for iOS offers more, so I expected to appreciate it more. Instead, I find the Android app to be cleaner and more intuitive on a tablet. Then, again, I'm not the target audience.

The new Vimeo app's big stand-out benefit is native, iPad support. The other explains why I'm perhaps tripping over perceived complexity: The app's approach and capabilities are more like Vimeo's website, where I have spent scant too little time over the last 12 months or so. If you frequent Vimeo on the web and often use features there, you might just love the app on iPad. You're the audience the video-sharing site wants to reach.

Continue reading →

It has been some time since Adobe announced plans to release an iPad-specific version of the image editing tool Photoshop, and that day is finally here. Adobe Photoshop Touch arrived today, joining a surprising number of software announcements coming out of Mobile World Congress.

Photoshop Touch is a latecomer to iPad. Adobe released an Android tablet version in November.

Continue reading →

The large screen of the iPad means that it is ideally suited for use as a movie player, but there is no reason that it cannot also be used to listen to music. BeatBlaster is a great looking music playing app that not only enables you to listen to your iTunes library on your iPad, but enables you to do so using a retro styled Hi-Fi.

There are few people that still make use of a traditional Hi-Fi these days, but by popping your iPad into a dock and hooking it up to a set of speakers, you can take a step back in time while benefitting from great sound quality.

Continue reading →

eRightSoft has updated its freeware media-conversion utility SUPER to version 2012.50. SUPER 2012.50 adds a handful of new features, plus extends codec and container support to include a number of industry standards, including Blu-ray, Windows 7 WTV and the open-source Speex audio codec.

SUPER, which stands for Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer, has developed a reputation for offering a wide range of conversion options for both audio and video. Although not as user-friendly as other tools, novices can still get started by choosing an output video container with the most common audio and video codecs automatically selected, while power users will also appreciate the large number of configurable options on offer.

Continue reading →

Technology is becoming something of a fight club, as competitors (and some partners) beat up one another over intellectual property rights. Apple sues seemingly everyone, while Microsoft collects royalties from most Android licensees. Motorola, holder of 17,000 patents with about 7,000 more pending, joins the foray, too, and Microsoft is big-time pushing back.

In a week where Microsoft accused Google of circumventing Internet Explorer privacy settings and posted the demeaning "Googlighting" video comes another slap down: The software giant filed antitrust complaints in Europe against Motorola and new owner Google.

Continue reading →