Skitch, which is arguably the best screen shot annotation app on the Mac, is now free to all users. Thanks to Evernote, who announced that they have acquired Skitch Thursday, the highly popular image capturing and annotating app is now available for free on the Mac App Store. It was previously available for $19.99.

Evernote is a fantastic free note taking and organization application that I have mentioned before. They currently have applications available on 14 different platforms, including iOS, Android, Mac, PC, and the Web. They are now planning on expanding their service by bringing Skitch to all of those platforms, giving users of Windows and Linux the ability to use one of my favorite blogging tools.

There has been full timeline released for Evernote’s release of Skitch across its platforms. They have said that their Android app is available now in the Android Market for absolutely nothing. They also said they are working on their iOS and Windows apps, and hope to have them out as soon as possible.

They also promised deeper integration of Skitch into Evernote. In their blog post, Evernote said that Skitch represented their fulfillment of a promise to users. That promise was to bring better image editing to Evernote, and Skitch fits that bill nicely. I am looking forward to trying it out with the next versions of Evernote.

If you are a Mac user and do any kind of image annotation or screen shot work, then Skitch is an app you should defiantly pick up. I recommended it when it was $20, and now that its free I think it should come preinstalled on all Macs. Grab it form the Mac App Store today.

When HP announced the TouchPad at their press event, they also proclaimed it would be shipping with a new release of webOS their operating system based on Linux and web technologies. They’ve recently opened up their webOS 3.0 Developer Beta and are providing exclusive access to the new SDK which comes bundled with an emulator. The PreCentral blog has posted screen captures of some of the features in webOS 3.0 including a change from Google Maps to Bing Maps, a new spacious and glorious looking virtual keyboard and a very plain looking Messaging and Music interface.

Bing Maps has replaced the aging and old Google Maps app on webOS. Many webOS users complain about the slow functionality of Google Maps on their devices, hopefully this allows for the much needed faster interface as well as leveraging their existing partnerships for an overall better experience.

HP has also enabled the previously hidden virtual keyboard (all their currently available devices have physical keyboards) showing off a full 5 rows, complete with size adjustment and what looks like a button that moves the cursor to the next text field for input.

Both the Messaging and Music applications are very sparse looking, granted they are not filled up with any content. The Music player has a very minimalistic feel that provides straight forward and quick access to playback controls as well as playlist and song selection. The Messaging application uses their very popular Synergy service that integrates multiple IM services into one seamless view. Contacts on the left and content on the right, it’s very clean and concise.

The TouchPad is rumored to be available by June 2011 and coming in at a $699 price point puts it head to head with some of the competition including the Blackberry Playbook, iPad 2 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Hopefully webOS can shine through with the existing multitasking and integration features as well as building up their ecosystem and App Catalog.

[Windows Only] If you’re a regular on sites like Reddit, Digg or 4Chan, chances are high that you’ve heard of Imgur. Imgur is a free image hosting site, developed by Alan Schaaf, who was tired of the cluttered interfaces of other image hosting sites, and decided to create one of his own. Among various features of the site are galleries, on-site basic photo editing, anonymous uploads (you can also register), and a liberal photo retaining limit. A recent update also included a drag-and-drop feature for uploading pictures, following competition from new websites like min.us.

Imgur is awesome for screenshots. Well say, why? Because it provides a direct link to the image file, and the loading time is quick. Also, the service is free and there are no limits to how many images you can upload.

Last year, the screenshot application en vogue for its simplicity was tinygrab. Its working was simple. Install application. Press hotkey. Screenshot is taken, uploadeded to tinygrab’s server and a short url to the image is copied to the clipboard. But the catch was, tinygrab allowed only 10 screengrabs a day in its free plan.

Well, if there’s a problem, there’s probably an app for unsolving that problem. This time, that app happens to be Hyperdesktop. There’s no website, there’s no fee and there’s no quotas. The application works just like last year’s tinygrab, except for the fact that Hyperdesktop uploads to Imgur, and therefore, there are no limits to how many screenshots you take in a day.

Press the hotkey. Select the region (or go full screen). You’re done. Image link is on your clipboard.

Download Hyperdesktop from Imgur’s tools page.

Do you have a thing for robots? Specifically robot cuddling? No? Well, Valve does (click for more screenshots!). After releasing quite a few Portal 2 videos Valve has decided to tease gamers a bit more by releasing screenshots of the upcoming game’s cooperative gameplay-ish-ness.

While the original Portal was, simply put, a puzzle first person platformer, Portal 2 wishes to ante up the awesomeness bar as a sequel by introducing more psuedo-physics-based gadgetry and newer gaming modes to keep interest levels high. Cooperative play was a much desired addition to the Portal series and Valve has showered their fans with this goodie-goodie multiplayer mode to their much touted sequel.

The robots in question are the Personality Core endowing robot along with a Sentry Gun robot (or so it seems) and each carries one half of the Portal gun. Players take control of either one of the robots while their pal controls the other and they have to work together to leave the room. I can already see myself dying over and over and over at the hands of my co-op partner. Sigh.

So, what do you think, gamers? Will Portal 2′s cooperative multiplayer increase the longevity of the game, or will it just bring down the sequel entirely?

The free iOS4 update for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G and iPod Touch is out, you can upgrade to the latest version by using the iTunes upgrade option. If you do not know how to upgrade to iOS4, read our earlier article on How To Upgrade to iOS4 on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G and iPod Touch.

Here are some screenshots of the iOS4 running on an iPod Touch 3G. One thing is for sure, there is a huge difference between the display in iPhone OS 3.1.3 and iOS4.

More screenshots will be added shortly after I have explored the new iOS4 OS.

I recently tried the newest version of the Kubuntu Netbook Remix (KNR). As you may already know, the newest versions of Ubunutu 10.4 LTS (Lucid Lynx) and Kubuntu were recently released.

I’ve always been a bigger fan of the Gnome desktop in Ubuntu, but I still like to check out the KDE versions in Kubuntu, just to see what’s new. This release of the Kubuntu Netbook Remix, is really a great operating system for netbook users. I’ll show you what it looks like below.

Loading it onto the netbook was an easy task for me. I simply downloaded the 776mb ISO file from the download page. Then I burned it to a 2Gb SD Flash card using Unetbootin.

Here are the screenshots:

1. The Newspaper Page

This page is revealed when you click the Newspaper’ button on the top task bar. The image below is actually a screenshot of the last version of Kubuntu. Somehow, I totally missed seeing this page when I gave it my test run. As you can see, it has a task list, calendar, weather report, sticky notes and image viewer.

2. The home screen

This first screen shows you the major categories of applications and settings. At first, I had no idea why there was an Installicon at the very top, all by itself. Later I found out that this section at the top is the favoritessection. You can add your favorite apps to this section by clicking on the little star you see when you hover over an application’s launch icon.

3. The Office’ applications

Everything you need for your mobile office is included. I use the Open Office apps almost exclusively when I’m at home or on the road. Who needs the big dollar MS Office Suite when you can get the same functions for free?

4. Education software

I can’t tell you much about the applications in the educational section. I’ve never used them.

5. Games!

That’s my favorite section and I was happy to see my favorite game, Mahjongg. You might recognize some of the others as your favorites.

6. Graphics

A good selection of image viewers and editors. I think they need to put Gimp back in though.

7. Internet applications

There are tons of internet apps here. Browsers, Email, and a Blog editor are the main ones I’ve used. I was surprised to find that Firefox was not installed. However, they have a nice little launcher here that made it simple to install.

8. Multimedia apps

I have never used any of these three apps. However, I’m told that Amarok is an awesome music manager.

9. System tools

Everything you need to tweak your system is here.

10. Utilities

Several handy and must have’ utilities are included here.

11. Application switching (method 1)

The first way I found to switch the application displayed, was to click on the apps runningbutton on the top taskbar. It gives you a nice overview of the apps currently running. Just click on the one you want to use.

12. Application switching (method 2)

The second method to switch running apps, is to use the ALT + Tab keys. This takes you into the awesome looking 3d task preview. It will certainly get some attention when someone is looking over your shoulder.

Summary:

I enjoyed the few minutes I spent trying out Kubuntu Netbook Remix. I was amazed at how well it ran on the very limited resources that my netbook has. The KNR team has really put together a big winner here. However, it’s not enough to steal me away from the UNR (Ubuntu Netbook Remix) that I love even more.

Aviary is the most simple way to capture screenshots without having to use any additional software. The Aviary extension for Google Chrome adds a small toolbar icon which will allow you to quickly capture webpage screenshots and download them to your PC or share them with your friends.

In addition to that, it also provides several other shortcuts to edit image and video files.

Techie Buzz Verdict

Aviary is definitely a time saver when it comes to capturing website screenshots. The extension can come in pretty handy when you want to capture screenshots without having to launch any external software.

The Google Chrome Extension for Aviary also allows you to sign in to your Aviary account, allowing you to quickly post the screenshots to your associated Facebook or Twitter account.

Rating: 4/5 (Excellent)

Download Aviary Extension for Chrome

Google Chrome OS has finally been unveiled by Google at a press event today along with an announcement of open sourcing Chromium OS code. If you been curious about Chrome OS, here are some real screenshots, and a video which explains what Google Chrome OS is all about.

What is Chrome OS?

This is a video which explains what Chrome OS is and the idea and reasons behind creating it.

Chrome OS Screenshots

Here are some screenshots of Chrome OS in action, courtesy The Next Web and Engadget.

I usually take a lot of screenshots on twitter and share it using TwitPic. The usual process of sharing screenshots involves, taking a screenshot and uploading it using TweetDeck or using the web interface for TwitPic. Sometimes this becomes a tedious task, since it involves multiple processes to just accomplish a single task.

Also Read: Tools and Services to Share Music and Videos in Twitter

I got used to using another app called Localhostr uploader, which provided a easy way to take screenshot and upload it to the web, unfortunately using that too required to follow multiple processes, when it came to sharing those screenshots on twitter.

ScreenTweetr is a a very useful application based on Adobe Air, which will allow you to quickly take screenshots, upload it, and share it on twitter. Once you download and install the application, you will have to associate your twitter account with it.

To take a screenshot, press the print screen button on your PC or use Alt + Print Screen to capture the active window. Once you do that, the Screentweetr application will get activated, allowing you to upload the image to your chosen service along with a message that will get posted to twitter.

Screentweetr currently supports uploading images to TwitPic, TweetPhoto, Twitgoo, ScreenTweet, yFrog, MobyPicture, img.ly, Posterous, TwitrPix and TwitDoc.

Techie Buzz Verdict

This is an awesome application for Twitter users who frequently share screenshots or images on twitter. With a wide range of supported services for uploading images, this app makes it a breeze for many users.

The only sore point is that the app does not support OAUTH validation, which is the norm these days for associating an application with twitter, without having to give out your password.

In addition to that, this app does not provide an option to modify the shortcut keys used to take screenshots, and upload them to twitter. This becomes a bit of problem if you use multiple screenshot software, like in my case. I don’t want to modify the shortcut keys for my regular screenshot software, and ScreenTweetr will only work if I turn my regular screenshot software for creating blog images off. Having an option to setup custom shortcut keys for Screentweetr, is something I would like to see in the next update. Hope the developer takes note of this.

That aside, this is a highly recommended software, and will definitely save you a lot of efforts to share images on twitter.

Techie Buzz Rating: 4/5 (Excellent)

Download Screentweetr

I just got hold of a brand new 32GB  iPod Touch, and have been playing around with it, installing apps and listening to music. There have been so many things that I am discovering with it, so expect a lot of tips and tricks and how to posts in the future.

I was trying to look for an app to take screenshots on the iPod Touch/iPhone. However, I did not find one. Turns out that it is pretty easy to take screenshots on an iPod Touch/iPhone.

To Take a screenshot on a iPod Touch or iPhone, press the power button on the top and the home button simultaneously. When you do that, the phone will flicker for a second and you will hear a sound.

That’s it, the screenshot has been taken. It will be saved in a new album named as Saved Photos.