Keeping your passwords secure is a pretty hard thing to do, especially when you are using a bunch of different ones. If you are using a single password for all your accounts, then you'd better think again, and have as many hard-to-guess ones. Anyway, I am not going to teach you how to create secure passwords, but I will tell you about the latest version of a notorious password management software, called RoboForm, which recently took another step towards version 7.

For one's basic needs, the free(and limited) RoboForm software should be enough, but if you want to have all the power provided by the Professional version, as well as the ability to store an unlimited number of contacts, you'll have to pay $29.95 to purchase the program, but first, let me tell you a few things about it(you can skip the next paragraph if you already used RoboForm).

With RoboForm, Siber Systems developed an application with support for a wide range of Web browsers, including Palm, PocketPC and Symbian compatibility, that can store passwords and fill forms with ease.

The last version is labeled 6.9.87 and comes a few months after the last public release, 6.9.85, launched back in November. This minor update comes with support for Firefox 3.0 Beta, and a few fixes, nothing special. Being compatible with virtually any Windows OS released since 1995, AI RoboForm can be downloaded from here, as a 30-days trial version. As soon as your trial period ends, the program will continue to work in free mode, with certain limitations.

IBM and SAP have been partners for over 30 years now, but they didn't release any product as a joint effort so far. Anyway, this is going to change pretty soon, because by the end of this year("in the fourth quarter", they say), we should see the fruit of a common software developping effort, according to official sources from both companies. If they are going to meet this self-imposed deadline or not, that's what remains to be seen, but now we should find out more about what are they going to bring into the software world...

At this time, we know that the future offspring of these two IT giants is codenamed "Atlantic", and its purpose will be to allow access to SAP's Business Suite applications by using IBM's Lotus Notes desktop software as "a catalyst".

A lot of people were probably expecting IBM and SAP to merge, but it seems this is not going to happen anytime soon. Anyway, the "Atlantic" product comes as a consequence of customer feedback, because both companies received requests from their clients to provide the features that this software is going to have.

Other than the above, it's interesting to mention that SAP developed Duet together with Microsoft, to allow access to their business applications suite through the programs from Microsoft's Office package. Regarding the "Atlantic" effort, no additional info emerged so far, but be sure we'll keep you informed!

Once upon a time, there was a damn cool graphics application called TwistedBrush. Unfortunately, that application is no longer available, but it's not gone forever. Back in early December 2007, Pixarra, its producer, changed this program's name into TwistedBrush Pro Studio. To me, "TwistedBrush" alone was fine, but anyway...yesterday they just updated TwistedBrush Pro Studio, bringing the current version number up to 15.07, so I thought it would be a good idea to tell you a few things about it, as usual.

TwistedBrush is an impressive graphics tool which allows you to become a digital painter without having to follow any painting class. All you have to do is own a decent computer running Windows, grab the trial version available here, and get creative! The setup package isn't large at all, and learning to work with this program is, first of all, a lot of fun, but TwistedBrush can also offer you an extremely wide range of tools to get the job done. These being said, let's see what's new in version 15.07, considered "a minor update" by Pixarra...

Usually, minor updates only come with some bug fixes, which are also present in TwistedBrush Pro Studio 15.07, but this time, we also have a bunch of interesting additions - Anti-Alias, Adaptive, Detail and Value Blur filters, Adjust HSL and Lab filters, and a few more. Since I already gave you the link, best thing for you to do is to spare some time for having some fun with TwistedBrush on your own.

I was just about to forget about this, but since we're living in a material world, after all, you should be aware that TwistedBrush Pro Studio is priced at $119, only for the current month, down from the regular price of $129.

In the last months, it seems more and more software companies set their eyes on various open source projects, intending to buy them. Leaving the claims of the open source movement, I am sure most companies or people developing open source projects thought at least once about being paid serious amounts of money for their work, but if we leave the financial part aside, there's plenty to gain for everyone. Today, it's about AOL and Jabber...

AOL is testing Jabber with their AIM software, so you'll be able to talk with people using this communication protocol without having to install various "spooky" applications, such as Pidgin, Psi or iChat(don't get me wrong, I thing these applications are great, and I use Pidgin on a regular basis, but most people I know consider me a freak for this reason).

Obviously, there's one big question - why use Jabber? Basically, it's about security and the ability to log in from multiple locations, and then set the Jabber server to send the messages to one of these locations, according to their priority ranking (for example, you could receive messages from co-workers only on your office PC, and those from friends, on your mobile).

On the other hand, another strong point of the Jabber network is that no central server exists, and anyone could have a Jabber server, set up to fulfill the needs of its users.

At this time, it seems the AOL/ICQ test server using Jabber doesn't work without any problem, so we should see what happens with this in the coming weeks. Hopefully, the 10 years-old Jabber will finally get the recognition it deserves, and a much wider range of users will take advantage of its features.

When it comes to protecting your data, you got a lot of alternatives available, and backing it up on a regular basis may not be enough. No matter what people do, data loss happened, it happens and it will occur in the future too, and when such a disaster strikes, you need the right tool to recover the precious files lost. In other cases, when a file gets corrupted, for example, you may need to perform manual low-level editing on it, and there are also other situations when a program like WinHEX is one of the best choices...

If you didn't know that so far, WinHex is a commercial program allowing you to perform low-level disk and file editing, coming with a RAM editor too, disk cloning features, file wiping abilities, and many more. It is developed by Stefan Fleischmann, and published by the German company called X-Ways Software Technology AG.

Last version of this software, 14.7, was released about 2 days ago, and it comes in 4 different license types - Personal, Professional, Specialist and Forensic (X-Ways Forensics). Depending on the license chosen, you get access to more or less features, for example scripting & API support, "specialist" menu, access to Ext2, Ext3, CDFS & UDF file systems, as well as RAID & dynamic disks, a cloning and imaging tool for DOS, and many more.

If you think this program may be worth your money and you have the skills to use it, you can pick your version from here, or get more information to decide, on this page.