Nokia Beta Labs has released a new mobile app for Nokia mobile phone users. Named as Nokia Image Space, it is an application that allows Nokia mobile phone users to instantly load their photos to Flickr. Further, the application also allows users to view their photos in a spatial browsing environment.

To use this application, a Nokia mobile phone user needs to have a Flickr account. The application has been designed to link a Flickr account to a Nokia mobile phone. Nokia mobile phone user who has installed this utility can simply capture the photo with his own camera and upload the photos to their Flickr account for sharing with friends and family .

Nokia further tells that the images uploaded on Flickr using Nokia Image Space will be automatically geo-tagged and will have orientation information in their Meta data and Meta description. This description would be used to link the images together so as to create a better understanding of the place when a user browses a location.

The Nokia Image Space application has been found to work on Nokia mobile phones which have built-in compass like Nokia N 79, Nokia S 60, Nokia 6210 navigator and Nokia 6710 navigator.

The Nokia Image Space application is available as a free download from Nokia Beta Labs. Visit Nokia Image Space webpage.

If you’re looking for a service that can move your photos and pictures from one web hosting company to another, then here is a nice and handy utility. Named as Migratr, it is a nice and simple utility that can move your image files from Flickr to Picasa or from one other image hosting service to some other.

The good thing about this little app is that it preserves image Meta data, Meta description and Meta tags while moving images from one file server to another. Besides, it also allows you to keep the album organisation of your images so that you may replicate your previous image organization pattern on the new image hosting website.

I’ve not used this tool across all image hosting websites that the application guarantees to work with, but I have tried it for migrating images from Flickr to Picasa. And as far as my experiment is concerned, this app worked great.

Migratr downloads all the images from the source website in the form of images and XML file. Therefore, there is no need for you to worry about some unidentified file types that you may later forget about.

Though Migratr is a sort of tool that no one requires on a daily basis, but still it is an essential one when you are planning to dump one image hosting company and move to another one.

Migratr, as of now, allows moving of image from/to following image hosting websites – 23HQ, Flickr, Gallery2, Picasa Web, Phanfare, Photobucket, SmugMug, Zenfolio and Zoomr.

Download Migratr | Migratr Support Forum

Some people and designers may occasionally need to remove background of a picture. Here is a free and powerful background removal tool to remove backgrounds with few clicks on your mouse.

There are two marker pens present in the interface of the utility. The keep marker (green) is used to mark the object and the remove marker (red) to mark the background. The removal depends on how closely and how accurately you can mark the difference between the main object and the background.

There is also an option to preview changes before saving the image. The main advantages compared with other such background removal tools are smooth edges, robust segmentation algorithm and fast processing time (really fast).

Download InstantMask | InstantMask Demo

While just browsing through web, I found a pretty interesting web app called AccidentSketch. As the name suggests, this web app is for the purpose of depicting how your accident occurred in just few mouse clicks.

No registration is required for using AccidentSketch. Just head over to the website and start depicting how your accident occurred. This web app has a drag-n-drop layout where you can drag an object from the right and left menu and place it on the drawing canvass.

Objects included are cars, roads, traffic signs and junctions, etc. You can rotate the objects and can even scale them to suite your needs. Besides, you may also add text description to your depiction to make it easier-to-understand.

Try AccidentSketch

There are various web-based tools that can help you create signatures and logos for use on your blogs, forums, emails, business e-cards, web banners, etc. However, most of these web based apps do not provide the needed options and flexibility which are required when designing signatures for some serious use. For such serious works, Sig Maker is a nice and handy app that you should consider using.

Sig Maker is essentially a tiny executable application which allows a quick way to create custom signatures. Using Sig Maker is very easy and pretty straightforward. You do not need to have any previous knowledge of photo-editing to use this app.

Sig Maker features a very clean and simple interface with all editing tools displayed on the main window of the application. The app window has a small ‘Help’ box at the bottom right. This box tells you the functionality of each editing tool on which you place your mouse cursor. Further, Sig Maker comes with various text fonts and background templates from which you can choose one. Once you have made your signature, you can save the image file as a bitmap image (.bmp) file.

Download Sig Maker

Google Image Search is a great resource. You can get almost any of the images you desire by performing a simple search over here. What more? You do not get just one or two of relevant images but you get plenty of these. Though Google brings all of the relevant images in one spot, but manually going to each one of them and downloading them is quite time consuming, especially if you have to download many or all of those images.

Multi Image Downloader comes handy in such a situation. It is a simple app that can download original images from a Google search result page without you having to go through each website to download them one by one.

You just need to perform an image search using Google (as you normally do) and then copy the URL of the search page from your address bar on to the Multi Image Downloader application. Now just specify the number of search pages from which images have to be downloaded and begin downloading images conveniently.

Download Multi Image Downloader

The Mill, an award winning visual effect studio, is giving away a flyspeck clump of their expertise in photo effects for absolutely nothing. This is being given away in form of a wonderful iPhone app named Mill Colour. Mill Colour is a fantastic app that can customize the colors of your photos using a handful of tried and tested presets while allowing you a powerful manual color controls as well.

As already hinted, there are two options for you to add effects with. Firstly, you can go with the pre-packed effects in the Mill Colour. Secondly, you can also try the manual side of Mill Colour application. It may seem messy in the beginning but once when you go through it, you will see how powerful it is. Mill Colour can fine-tune the saturation, gamma, gain and lift of each individual RGB channel so as to give a perfect image.

Mill Colour web | Mill Colour iTunes Link

If you are an artist that loves computer and you are one of those who would like to utilize this passion for computers to create your own artistic decorations, here is a simple utility that can be of great help. Named as Livebrush, it is an easy-to-use drawing application which features an all new artistic brush that reacts to the user gestures.

Livebrush is a fantastic app that lets you create decorative flourishes and lets you stylize patterns. It can be very well used for creating graphics for websites, posters or even t-shirts. Besides, creating textured wallpapers for your computer using Livebrush is a no brainer at all.

Features of Livebrush:

1. Create your own decorations. Everything you create in Livebrush can be converted to a decoration.
2. Control the speed, angle, width, and many other parameters associated with your brush stroke.
3. Use a single color or an array of colors to create your line.
4. Draw with more than one brush at a time.
5. Export & Import styles. Share them with the community. Download more styles.
6. Export & Import other graphics.
7. Edit the lines you create.
8. Transform the objects you import.
9. Use familiar layer-based editing.

Livebrush is compatible with almost all major operating systems, including Mac, Windows XP, Windows Vista and others. Livebrush works independently without depending on other graphic editors. You can incorporate Livebrush into your existing graphic projects or create an entire new composition in Livebrush application.

Here is a working demo of Livebrush application:

Download Livebrush | Visit Livebrush website

The CS4 version of Adobe Photoshop costs $699. Thought the functionalities offered by Photoshop is almost endless, it is yet not commonly used due to its high price. The price tag of $699 is more than enough for people who won’t be using it on a regular basis. For such users, who would not like to expend money on the costly photo editing software, here is a list of 20 free and open source alternatives to Adobe Photoshop.

Though these apps are not at par to Photoshop, yet they can be very well used for image editing works. A combination of two or more of these alternatives can miraculously work out the image editing task to the Photoshop level.

1. GIMP

GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.

License: Open Source

Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux

Website: Gimp.org

2. Paint.NET

Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins.

License: Open Source

Platform: Windows

Website: GetPaint.net

3. Pixlr

Pixlr is a online image editor, that means that you can upload your images and edit them in your browser. It is built in Flash and you need to have a Flash plug in to get it to work. Pixlr is built for non-professionals, the users that have basic editing needs. It’s not for large RAW images or for printing. It is merely a tool for editing web images to be posted on blogs, news-sites, social networks like Facebook, Bebo, image sites like Flikr, Photobucket etc.

License: Free

Platform: Online

Website: Pixlr.com

4. GIMPShop

GIMPshop is essentially Gimp with some cosmetic changes. The Gimp’s menu structure and naming conventions had been a constant source of frustration for me because I was so used to Photoshop. So, I did what any hardcore graphics geek would have done. I hacked GIMPshop together. It’s a proof of concept and it’s a little buggy, so don’t expect too much.

License: Free

Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux

Website: Plasticbugs.com

5. Picnik

Picnik makes your photos fabulous with easy to use yet powerful editing tools. Tweak to your heart’s content, then get creative with oodles of effects, fonts, shapes, and frames. It’s fast, easy, and fun.

License: Free

Platform: Online

Website: Picnik.com

6. Adobe Photoshop Express

Photoshop Express is your online photo sharing, editing and hosting resource. Upload, organize, edit, store (up to 2GB free) and share your photos.

License: Free

Platform: Online

Website: Photoshop.com

7. ArtWeaver

Artweaver is a simple Freeware program for creative painting, i.e. Artweaver offers you all artistic effects which you need for your work. You can create sketches from photos and experiment with a wide range of brushes. The brush simulation is thereby as realistic as possible.

License: Free

Platform: Windows

Website: ArtWeaver.de

8. SUMOPaint

SumoPaint is a web 2.0 application which rivals Adobe’s Photoshop package. It uses cloud computing technology to relieve memory load. The application is free and accessed from any web browser that supports flash.

License: Free

Platform: Online

Website: SumoPaint.com

9. SeaShore

Seashore is an open source image editor for Mac OS X’s Cocoa framework. It features gradients, textures and anti-aliasing for both text and brush strokes. It supports multiple layers and alpha channel editing. It is based around the GIMP’s technology and uses the same native file format. However, unlike the GIMP, Seashore only aims to serve the basic image editing needs of most computer users, not to provide a replacement for professional image editing products.

License: Open Source

Platform: Mac

Website: SeaShore@SourceForge.net

10. Paint.COM

RealWorld Paint.COM is an easy to use image editor supporting image masks and layers with effects. It can modify pictures using drawing tools like Rectangle, Ellipse, Line, Curve, Polygon, Text, Retouch, Magic wand, etc. Images can be processed with built-in filters (Drop shadow, Bevel, Blur, Displace, Color adjustments, etc.), scripted filters, or with image filters compatible with Adobe Photoshop.

License: Free

Platform: Online

Website: RW-Designer.com

11. GimPhoto

GimPhoto is GIMP modification with new menu layout, great selection of plugins, and many additional resources for more professional look and feel as digital photo retouching and image editing application package.

License: Open Source

Platform: Windows, Linux

Website: GimPhoto.com

12. PhotoFiltre

PhotoFiltre is a complete image retouching program. It allows you to do simple or advanced adjustments to an image and apply a vast range of filters on it. It is simple and intuitive to use, and has an easy learning curve. The toolbar, giving you access to the standard filters with just a few clicks, gives PhotoFiltre a robust look.

License: Free (for personal use)

Platform: Windows

Website: PhotoFiltre.free.fr

13. Krita

Krita is a painting and image editing application for KOffice. Krita is part of KOffice since version 1.4. Krita contains both ease-of-use and fun features like guided painting (never before has it been so easy to airbrush a straight line!) and high-end features like support for 16 bit images, CMYK, L*a*b and even OpenEXR HDR images.

License: Open Source

Platform: Windows, Linux, Mac

Website: KOffice.org/Krita

14. QtpfsGUI

QtpfsGUI is an open source graphical user interface application that aims to provide a workflow for HDR imaging.

License: Open Source

Platform: Windows, Linux, Mac

Website: QtpfsGUI@SourceForge.net

15. Phoenix

Flash-based web-app, Aviary Phoenix is an impressive image editing tool.

License: Free

Platform: Online

Website: Aviary.com

16. Nathive

Nathive is a libre software image editor, similar to Adobe Photoshop, Corel Photo-Paint or The GIMP, but focused on usability, logic and providing a smooth learning curve for everyone.

License: Open Source

Platform: Linux

Website: Nathive.org

17. Serif PhotoPlus

Serif PhotoPlus is an image editing program for Microsoft Windows. This free photo-editing software is a cut-down version of Serif’s latest photo-editing software — PhotoPlus X3.

License: Free

Platform: Windows

Website: FreeSerifSoftware.com

18. Raw Therapee

Raw Therapee is a free RAW converter and digital photo processing software. All changes can be applied and batch processed at a convenient time.

License: Free

Platform: Windows and Linux

Website: RawTherapee.com

19. CinePaint

CinePaint is a deep paint application that edits EXR, DPX, 16-bit TIFF, JPEG, PNG and many other types of image files. CinePaint is available as a native application for Linux, Mac OS X, and BSD.

License: Open Source

Platform: Mac and Linux

Website: CinePaint.org

20. Fotografix

In addition to being totally portable, Fotografix has a ridiculously small footprint. It’s a 370Kb download and about 700Kb once extracted. Despite its size, most of the features I rely on in Photoshop are available. Fotografix supports layers, masks, and scripting, comes with a few key blur and stylization filters, and type layers are editable (unlike some other editors where text is a one-shot deal). The usual editing tools are also provided, like rectangular and elliptical marquees, magic wand, rubber stamp, eyedropper, and gradient tool.

License: Free

Platform: Windows

Website: LMadhavan.com

It may chance that you require an image to be split into multiple parts. This may be for the sake of easy printing, faster uploading onto a website, sending via email or something else. So if a thing as such chances, MapSplitter is the utility you should consider using.

MapSplitter is a Java utility designed with the sole purpose of splitting larger JPEG image files into multiple images with just a few clicks on your mouse. This utility is compatible with any operating system which supports Java. Once the file is downloaded, you just need to execute the ‘mapsplitter_fat.jar’ file. Users can split an image into as many parts as desired.

The MapSplitter download file is just around 380kB and can fit into any constraint of your hard disk memory. Interested users can download MapSplitter by visiting here.