If Adobe’s move to Creative Cloud only software rentals has you seeking alternatives to Photoshop, you can get some of that functionality back with BatchPhoto v3.7. This all-in-one photo manipulation tool from Bits&Coffee allows users to edit, resize, convert, watermark, and rename every image in the group with a single operation.

While some might question spending $50.00 (substantially cheaper than that from Amazon) on a user manual for a free software application, remember that sum represents just one month’s Adobe Creative Cloud subscription fee, so another way to look at it is that you’ve saved yourself hundreds of dollars a year by opting for the GIMP instead of Photoshop.

Adobe Creative Cloud membership will be US$49.99 per month. Sorry, but I won’t be signing up. I don’t rent software, at least not if I can help it. Pixelmator sells on the App Store for 20 bucks. If you need more power than that, the GIMP is free, and you can put up with a lot of learning curve climbing to save fifty bucks a month in rental fees. Forever. Or, at least I can.

Less than two weeks ago, Adobe released the final candidate for Photoshop Lightroom 4.4 for Windows and Mac. Today, they announced availability of the Lightroom 5 beta for Windows and Mac. Fans of the photography workflow application can get a free, public preview of the new features and tools that will be offered in the final release, expected later this year.

Chengdu Everimaging Science and Technology Co. is offering its powerful new Fotor Photo Editor for OS X currently for free on the Mac App Store. Fotor competes in a crowded field of OS X photo editor apps, but it’s actually quite good if your main objective is optimization, enhancement, resizing and such of your existing images. And the price is certainly right.

Adobe has announced availability of the Lightroom 4.4 and Camera Raw 7.4 final releases. The free updates are available on Adobe.com and as an in-app update through Photoshop CS6. The releases add raw file support for 25 cameras and provide final bug fixes reported in previous releases, including a correction to the demosaic algorithms for Fujifilm cameras with the X-Trans sensor, such as the Fujifilm X-Pro1 and X-E1.

Two weeks after Apple unveiled their iBooks Author program for designing interactive e-books, template king Jumsoft was there with their first set of iBook Author templates, dubbed Book Palette. They’ve now expanded that collection to 25 with the announcement of five new designs that offer “… upmarket design quality at a reasonable price.”

Nothing beats a creative slideshow for stirring emotions with breathtaking shots and graphics to communicate a compelling story to the audience. Join me and let’s unbox Aquafadas’ PulpMotion Advanced 3 which lets you create animations with annotations and zone interests on photos to create compelling stories…and more.

MacPhun’s Snapheal v2.1 features over 20 editing tools that offer the ability to remove unwanted objects, delete objects from photos, fix skin imperfections, remove scratches and blemishes from photos, and more. Today only (January 18th), MacPhun is offering Snapheal for $7.99.

After 6 months of development, German developer BrainDistrict Software has released version 1.5 of its speedy, powerful PaintSupreme image editing and photo editor. They’ve added a lot of new features (like integration of IFX-Supreme effects and filters), enhanced the overall speed and workflow, and fixed a few bugs.