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When it comes to dressing well at public appearances, music star Will.i.am has a pretty good track record. Just don't let him get anywhere near your iPhone.

The singer's i.am+ company is dedicated to creating consumer electronics and apps. The foto.sosho is its first iPhone accessory. It clips onto the iPhone, turning it into a much fancier camera. One model, due out next year, is supposed to have its own sensor for taking 14-megapixel images.

The camera-enhancing add-on sports interchangeable lenses. Some models include a slide-out keyboard. It will come with an app for manipulating and sharing the images. A version for iPhone 4 will be out first, with iPhone 5 options coming later.… Read more

You're probably tired of transferring your digital snapshots from your phone to your PC or laptop just to edit them or apply effects before saving and sharing them. If you have an Android device, you can fix your pics on the fly -- and fix them up with cool effects, too. The app FotoFlexer provides an easy way to crop, correct, resize, and edit your images via your camera, galleries, or Web albums. It also makes it incredibly easy to apply all kinds of special effects to your pictures; everything from negatives to sepia to neon and pop art. … Read more

Google announced that it is shutting down its photo-editing service, Picnik, much to the dismay of many Picnik users.

Once Picnik closes its doors for good on April 19, Picnik users will be forced to seek out alternative photo-editing tools. There's always the popular free desktop tools like Paint.NET or GIMP, but true alternatives to Picnik are Web-based editors. Here are a few of them to consider:

Photoshop Express Adobe's Photoshop Express has all the basic editing tools like crop, resize, red-eye, as well as more advanced editing features like fill light, sharpen, and exposure. It also … Read more

We recently reviewed the regular version of FotoSketcher, and we gave it high marks for its intuitive interface and fun features. FotoSketcher Portable is a virtually identical program in a slightly smaller package. Either one is an excellent choice for those who enjoy adding special effects to their images.

We compared FotoSketcher and FotoSketcher Portable and didn't find much in the way of differences, aside from the fact that the portable version is about 1MB smaller than the regular one and runs without installation. The header across the top of the interface labels the full version as Version 2.… Read more

Some photo-editing programs are utilitarian, concerned only with the basics of correcting images and making them look their best. Other programs, like FotoSketcher, are a bit more fun. This easy-to-use program allows you to add all kinds of artistic effects to your images, turning your photos into drawings, paintings, and more.

The program's interface is sleek and quite intuitive, with the key features represented by icons across the top. The original image and the edited version are displayed side-by-side, allowing you to easily compare your new work of art to your source material. There are a wide variety of … Read more

Uploading images is to Net newbies what parallel parking is to new drivers: it takes a lot of trial and error to get it right. And Megabyte-size snapshots hog Facebook bandwidth. Fileminimizer Pictures 3 from Balesio is a free tool that promises to help solve both issues. It resizes image files by up to 98 percent without zipping and without sacrificing quality. Its Facebook Uploader Module also makes it easy to post your pictures on Facebook.

Fileminimizer's interface is businesslike but attractive, with subtle but effective use of color and highlighting to differentiate the various icons and controls. Most … Read more

Digital imaging and graphic design software is often the victim of one of two problems: either it's too advanced for everyone but expert users, or it's too basic to do anything very useful. FotoMorph is one of the rare programs that manage to deliver impressive results with very little know-how. This fun application lets users create animations that morph one photo into another, no experience required.

The program's interface is attractive and intuitive. It does contain some advertising, but it's fairly unobtrusive. We appreciated the fact that the program comes with a sample project, allowing users … Read more

FotoMix is an intuitive photo-editing tool that allows users to create dual-layer images, making it possible to add, remove, and combine elements. Although it doesn't begin to compare to full-featured software like Photoshop, it's not a bad choice for non-professional users who need something that's quick and easy to use.

The program's interface is quite simple, with the five-step photo-editing process arranged with buttons across the top. Users simply select a background image, select a foreground image, do the necessary editing on each, tweak the settings on the final composition, and save the result. We, for … Read more

Foto-Mosaik provides users with a program that not only creates collages, but also remembers your pictures in a database. With simple layout and an intuitive design, users will leap right into this program.

The program's interface is simplified by a wizard-like layout that held our hand through each step with great onscreen instruction. We were immediately impressed by the program when we organized our photo database, which allowed us to save collections of images for future mosaics. We customized the dimensions, shape, and number of photos within a few minutes and were admiring our creation. Images were scattered at … Read more