Although it takes some familiarity with the Pixter interface, once you know your way around, it's easy to transport your models to far-off lands by changing the background of a snapshot. The person pictured now looks like he or she is at the beach or Mount Rushmore or the Leaning Tower of Pisa. There are eight backdrops to choose from. You can also easily put them in one of ten fun frames, like inside a dollar bill or a car or a TV screen. There are more complicated things you can do once you play with Pixter a while, like composite two of your own shots together, one as the backdrop of the other, or add comic-strip style thought bubbles, then fill them with text. You can save up to ten photos and illustrations, and watch them all in a slideshow. (A bit of a bummer: when you save an artistic creation based on a photo, it replaces the original photo, so you can't go back and do something else with it.)

While I found Pixter's interface a bit clumsy, it did get easier after some practice. Its stylus, like a Palm's, must be calibrated, and when pinpoint accuracy on the drawing board came into question, I would calibrate it again just to be on the safe side. The thing that I never really could get past, however, was the handling of the camera. Getting a picture worth editing was difficult, because to take a decent shot of a person, you have to stand far away. When you stand far away, every hand jitter affects the framing and focus of the shot. If there wasn't so much zoom—that is, if you could capture the whole face of someone only a foot or two away—there'd be more to work with.

Of course, if I could get all kinds of great shots, the problem I'd complain about would be not being able to save more than 10 of my digital masterpieces—or print any to hang over the mantelpiece