Picasa and iPhoto have virtually made other photo management apps on the Mac redundant but if you look hard, you'll still find some nice alternatives.

JetPhoto Studio doesn't really compare with the big boys but it does offer a greater degree of control and processing power over your images in certain areas. JetPhoto Studio will import pictures from your camera as soon as you connect it. Alternatively, you can browse to albums on your Mac or allow JetPhotoStudio to perform a full scan of your system.

The main interface is well presented and allows you to browse photos by date. There is a set of basic editing tools which allows you to crop images and add a few effects such as sepia, black and white, image contrast, and auto enhancing. You can also batch resize your photos and protect them with a watermark. JetPhoto Studio also enables you to rate your own photos via a star system, as well as tag them. However, tags are not transferable from one album to another and you have to create a new one every new album you create.

One of the better aspects of JetPhoto Studio is the ability to create screensavers, wallpapers, slide-shows and Flash movies from your collections. Unfortunately, however, there ¡s very little control over the types of animations and speed of the transitions. Finally, it's worth adding that you send JetPhoto Studio images via SMS or infrared, to your friends’ mobiles, although this only works within the US. The developer has also recently added geo-tagging for GPS recognition in Google Earth. The best way to share your photos in online though and JetPhoto Studio makes this relatively easy via Flickr or the JetPhoto server.

Jet Photo Studio is a comprehensive photo management tool that's a bit bloated in areas but offers some interesting features.

Download JetPhoto Studio 5.2 in Softonic

The problems with desktop wallpapers is that they soon get boring. The unusually-named Wally attempts to make sure that you don't get bored too quickly by downloading and rotating wallpapers from different sites.

Wally is a Qt4 wallpaper changer using multiple sources like files, folders, FTP remote folders, Flickr, Yahoo!, Panoramio, Pikeo, Ipernity, Photobucket, Buzznet, Picasa, Smugmug, and Bing images. That's the theory anyway, but the reality I found is that Wally neither downloads or installs dekstop background like it should do. When you setup Wally, it places an icon in your Menu Bar. Click on this to reveal a drop-down menu and access the 'Settings' option.

The main interface is fine. Along the left side, you get a huge number of sites to choose photos from including Picasa, Bing and Flickr. However, for some reason Wally would not download any photos or images from any of the sites. The theory is that it downloads images based on search tags, install them and then rotates them to keep your desktop fresh. The only way I could load an image into Wally was to upload those stored on my hard drive.

Wally is a nice idea and the interface is fine but the functionality was very poor when I tried it.

Download Wally 2.4.2 in Softonic

CamTwist is a little difficult to set up, but once installed it works with most video chat services, such as Skype, Yahoo! Messenger and uStream. You can also stream from the desktop, or Flickr, for example. CamTwist includes a Studio section, which will allow you to do a bit of live mixing, like adding overlays, switching cameras, or creating a live slideshow. The more technically gifted can also create your own special effects!

This, coupled with the more than 50 effects available by default, let you really get creative without having to dish out a single cent, simply because CamTwist is completely free! If you like tweaking around with your Mac, you'll also be glad to know that CamTwist offers AppleScript support, which opens the application up to all sorts of customization.

Despite being a little complicated at the get-go, CamTwist is a very good free tool to add fun effects to your video chats.

Download CamTwist 2.2 in Softonic

This little app is great – it looks good and adds fun, easy effects to your photos. It’s also got basic editing tools, so with a bit of time and effort, you can really make some fantastic art out of your images.

Flare is really simple to use. Drag and drop your image into the interface, apply one of the 30 presets and, if you want to, use the tools under Edit to add more effects or customize the ones you have already applied.

Flare also offers some basic editing tools along the bottom that allow you to crop or rotate your image. When you’re done, use Flare to publish your mini work of art to Flickr, iPhoto or send in an email. If you’re dying for a taste of Instagram while you’re on your Mac, Flare is the perfect app for you!

Make your even more photos beautiful with Flare for Mac.

Download Flare 1.1 in Softonic

Cooliris (formerly PicLens) tries to bring a cinema-style viewing experience to browsing the web. It makes the most of your Mac's graphics card and RAM to provide a truly impressive experience.

Cooliris is a Firefox extension that places a button on the right-hand side of the toolbar. Pressing the button on a Cooliris-enabled site (currently not many but it does support Flickr, Yahoo!, Google and PhotoBucket) suddenly displays all of the photos it can find on a virtual wall. Using the mouse you can slide the wall left and right plus zoom in and out.

While Cooliris certainly makes browsing spectacular, it takes a lot out of your graphics card and RAM so it's not a good idea to use it with many other applications open. It's also questionable how useful it really is. Granted, the pictures and images look great but for general browsing, there's not much need for it. There are a few preferences for it, however, that allow you to customize it, although adjusting the slideshow speed is hardly the most important feature that most users would like control over.

Cooliris looks great and it's a nice idea but the fact that it's limited to a handful of websites and that it's resource-sapping mean that it won't be for everyone.

Download Cooliris 1.12.0.36605 24532 in Softonic

The term ‘widget’ has traditionally been used to describe some kind of contraption or piece of technology that improves the overall functionality of a particular product. Mac OSX and Microsoft Vista users will be all too aware of how software widgets can bring more power to your desktop, as they now come as standard on these operating systems. For the benefit of the uninitiated, a widget is basically a small application that provides you with easy access to a particular function. These applications are docked on a ‘dashboard’, and you can add as many widgets as you like, giving you instant access to anything from a simple clock to a weather forecasting tool.

Yahoo! was one of the early pioneers of widgets, and this application is likely to intrigue anyone who hasn’t come across the technology before. The package sits on your desktop and allows you to download and install widgets from the Yahoo! site. There’s a healthy range of widgets available here (almost 4,000), each of which are installed automatically as soon as they’re downloaded. Although this helps to keep things simple, it’s frustrating that you cannot change the destination folderwhich folder the widgets are stored in here.

While it all runs from the same package, each widget is actually its own application. In previous releases of the Widget Engine, this had a tendency to tie up your system resources when using multiple widgets. However, tThis issue has been better addressed in this version, and it seems much less memory-intensive than before. Having said this, it’s not a good idea to keep more than about 10 running at once, as you do start to notice it then.

In terms of the widgets themselves, it would obviously be impractical (and quite frankly, boring) for us to review all 4,000 here, but needless to say there are some very useful ones, along with some downright pointless ones. For instance, we can’t really see the benefit of having a dancing skeleton on your desktop , yet there are tools for checking stock quotes, accessing iTunes, organizing your Flickr images, checking your WiFi signal and getting the latest travel news, all directly from your desktop. Graphically, the widgets are very impressive and each of them floats over the screen without the constraints of traditional window borders, ensuring they don’t intrude on your other activities.

We like the fact that you don’t need to register a Yahoo! account in order to use widgets but Yahoo! still doesn’t allow Desktop Widgets to be included on My Yahoo! pages, overlooking something both Microsoft and Google already allow. Although the program doesn’t really add anything you won’t find in Mac's Dashboard, it’s perfect for Mac users looking for a bit of diversity.

Download Yahoo! Widgets 4.5.2 in Softonic

Photo Grabbr lets you get hold of photos found on Flickr. Know of a user who takes great pictures, or a Flickr group that you really like? Photo Grabbr can download their pictures for you.

Just check the ones you wish to have and press the download buttons. This can take a bit of time, as Photo Grabbr isn't the quickest of downloaders, and some photosets may contain a lot of pictures.

Make sure you've configured your preferences right so you know where the photos are being saved. Once done, they're all yours! Just make sure the Flickr user allows you to make use of them.

Download Photo Grabbr 1.4 in Softonic

Vector drawing is almost an art in itself, and something that takes time to master. VectorDesigner is a good program both for those looking to learn all about and others who already have some experience with the technique.

VectorDesigner offers a simple, multi-windowed interface from which you can use all sorts of tools and shapes like rectangles, stars, polygons or bezier creations. Boolean tools offered by the program are easy to work with and let you combine your different shapes in all sorts of ways. Vector drawing is perfect for creating posters, stickers, t-shirts...anything onto which you can apply a design. VectorDesigner takes this into account and lets you constrain text to any shape.

The program includes many filters and compositions, however some effects will only work if you're running Mac OS X 10.5. One element we did enjoy was the Flickr browser tool, by which you can find images in the photo sharing site.

VectorDesigner gives anybody the chance to work with vector drawings and create great looking designs thanks to powerful tools and effects.

Download VectorDesigner 1.4.12 in Softonic