The key to the success of iWeb is its simplicity. It makes web building easy, thanks to drag-and-expand templates and drag-and-drop integration with iPhoto, iMovie and other apps. So what, then, is iWeb Buddy?

We’ve recently seen a flurry of low-budget Mac-based bitmap editors, aiming to topple Photoshop from its lofty perch. Now, Illustrator’s in the firing line, with VectorDesigner seemingly positioned as a low-cost alternative.

Aperture 1.5 was great but very slow. Its RAW conversions, while decent weren't as good a Adobe's. It was expensive, too. Aperture 2 has changed all that. The database structure has been redesigned, and now Aperture is extremely fast, even on a MacBook.

Phase One Capture One 4 comes in two versions. The cheaper version, reviewed here, is simply a RAW converter for DSLR images. Capture One has long been renowned for the quality of its conversions, and version 4 adds new features.

SilkyPix Developer Studio is shipped free with the Panasonic L10 digital SLR but is also available as a standalone program. At $149, it's quite expensive so what makes it so special? Certainly there's no shortage of features. It seems able to recover extra highlight detail (via exposure adjustments) and it can correct chromatic aberration and fix distortion.

Well, the gloves are now off in round two of the fight to dominate the professional digital photography market.  Apple has launched Aperture 2 and has taken the opportunity to drop the price to a more reasonable £129 in order to compete with Adobe's Lightroom.

Adobe Lightroom is a new type of photo application, combining image editing with image management for keeping track of photos. It's more efficient than using two different programs.

Canon Digital Photo Pro 3.2 is a pretty basic application that comes free with Canon EOS SLRs. You can view, edit and convert images individually or as a batch. The tools are limited but useful.

Paint Shop Pro X is the first version to be published under the Corel banner, and there are some obvious differences straight away. The interface is now simpler, cleaner and more beginner-friendly

Many ISPs offer online Web production tools, but Mr Site goes further than most. Clearly aimed at business-minded individuals with an online project to promote, Mr Site Pro takes you from the idea stage to checking your bank balance for updates using a simple six-step program.

Apple comes up with cool technology all the time - the trouble is, it's very selective about who can use it. Front Row, for instance, is only available to Mac users with the Apple Remote Control.

Supercharge your workflow with the next generation of high-quality image editing and processing. Utilizing U PointTM technology, Advanced Nikon Capture 4 delivers you powerful tools to help you fully realize the potential of your photographic imagination.

Paint Shop Pro PHOTO XI now includes an Organiser, a window allowing easy thumbnail browsing of your photo collection. Pick an image, then choose the Learning Centre option for whatever you want to do next, whatever that might be.

As with so many of Adobe's more recent programs, the word that best sums up the Captivate 2 interface is 'stylish'. Suiting itself to both basic presentations and more interactive projects

Adobe wasn't the first software company to strip down its pro-level video editing program for a mainstream market. Sonic Foundry (now owned by Sony) did just that some years ago with Vegas Movie Studio.

Apple has added another program to its range of professional digital editing tools, this time aimed at pro digital photographers and their post-production needs. At the heart of Aperture is the ability to handle RAW files swiftly.

Acrobat is by no means a sexy product. It's an important one for anyone involved in the print or creative industries, but it doesn't carry the pizzazz of the Creative Suite products in Adobe's arsenal.

PhotoPlus is a very capable editor that's never quite escaped the shadow of Paint Shop Pro. Will version 11 be any different from its predecessors? Certainly not with regard to the interface: it's more cluttered, and not as straightforward for beginners.

With digital SLRs growing in popularity and compact cameras delivering larger image sizes, hard drives around the world are filling up with our photographic memories. File compression is one solution, of course, but it's a big negative when you're after the very best in image quality, especially with so-called "destructive" formats such as JPEG that degrade in quality the more you alter the files.

First things first; Painter does exactly what it says on the tin. Literally: our review copy of Corel Painter X came in a big paint tin. We got our mitts on the limited-edition version complete with special packaging and a glossy poster

The most obvious new feature in Bryce 6 is the tighter integration with DAZ Studio, a rival to the figure-posing application Poser. While not as powerful as Poser, it's a competent program and can import static and animated scenes from DAZ Studio directly

Adobe Photoshop CS3 is the 'king' of image-editors, the program by which all others are judged. It's also the most expensive program on test, and it's starting to find itself outstripped by cheaper rivals.

Ever since its introduction at NAB in 1998, Final Cut Pro has come a very long way. Napoleon Dynamite, Cold Mountain, Jarhead and, more recently, 300 and Zodiac are just a few of the many feature films that have been edited in the application

The reputation of Grass Valley (formerly Canopus) for rock-solid, well-designed video editing tools is second to none. But it's a reputation that has been earned more through the company's hardware development than its software.

Taking a step up from the normal world of taking photos, viewing and storing them on your computer and printing them out, professional photography demands a more 'workflow' oriented ethic.