Sync your cell phone with your computer

In the era of camera phones, actually doing something with your shots is just as important as capturing them in the first place. This can be pricey if you use a carrier's data plan, but Handset Manager offers an alternative. Using the software, you can download pictures saved to your phone (but curiously not shots saved to the memory card) for safekeeping.

Begin by selecting the Album feature from the main menu; once it's open, select the download-from-handset icon on the top row of buttons. Be advised that downloads can take up to 30 seconds per picture, so if you have a lot of photos on your phone, you may be in for a long wait. To speed up the process, you can choose to download one picture at a time.

After downloading, you can edit pictures by cropping the image, adjusting the color, rotating or flipping the orientation, inserting clip art, and adding a number of effects. Sure, it's not like Photoshop, but it's still a cool option. If animation is more your style, you can select the New Animation button to create your own piece of work. The software comes with a number of preinstalled photos and animations to get you started.

Similarly, the Videos feature (sixth button down on the main menu) allows you to edit videos shot with your phone.

Unless you save the photos from your phone to your computer, it must download them again--a time-consuming process.