Pixlr.com sets itself apart from other online image editing applications in two distinct ways. For one, the Web site offers a similar, albeit less advanced, version of Adobe Photoshop. It is obvious that Pixlr designed many of the tools and options to mimic Photoshop, which is the vanguard of the image design industry. Secondly, Pixlr’s services are available exclusively online, i.e., there is no download requirement. Simply navigate to the website and upload an image to begin editing.

However, Pixlr’s services, currently in its Beta version, will have its growing pains. For example, larger images with higher resolutions failed to upload on Internet Explorer and Google Chrome browsers, which subsequently froze.

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ClearForest Gnosis is early example of the possibilities of semantic web searches, hinting at the facility semantic web applications will allow in the future. Gnosis, a plugin for Firefox or Internet Explorer (link currently unavailable), does a real-time semantic search of textual key words.

Gnosis effectively puts a powerful search engine right into the text of any web page you visit.  After processing the page, Gnosis offers a series of hyperlinks, each one operating like a sort of minisearch, highlighting people, organizations, medical conditions, companies, currency, city, country, or industry terms, for example. The thematically color-coded hyperlinks link to automatic searches on Google, Wikipedia, Facebook, Linked In, Reuters News, Technorati and various financial services.

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Apple, Inc. [AAPL] has filed suit against Psystar, maker of Mac clones. Originally called “OpenMac,” Psystar’s “OpenComputer” sells for as low as $399, pre-installed with Mac OS X Leopard. Apple does not permit the installation of its operating system on non-Apple products.

The Miami-based IT consulting company began selling their Mac clones in April under rather strange circumstances, including listing false addresses and being dropped by the company processing their credit-card orders. Some thought Psystar was just a hoax; others believed it was a dummy company set up by Apple. But the OpenComputer began shipping in April, benefiting from the hype and receiving generally positive reviews. OpenComputer’s initial sales exceeded company expectations. In June, Psystar began selling Xserve, an Apple-server clone.

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Staunch competition has propelled software giant Microsoft [MSFT] to unveil plans for developing more online-based software, and although it carries a fee, the plan seems like a viable solution for a serious threat from free software.

On Tuesday, Microsoft announced that it will begin selling a package of four products for consumers by the end of 2009 and the same package for business by the beginning of 2009.

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