8 Touch-Friendly Apps for Windows 7

Corel Paint It! Touch

Call it finger-painting without the mess. This fun app lets you create original artwork using your fingertips. Users can draw, paint, and turn photos into oil paintings or watercolor sketches. Paint It! Touch supports Windows 7′s multitouch gestures, including drag, flick, move, rotate, scroll, tap, and zoom. Kids will love the digital chalk, crayon, and marker options, and artists of all ages will appreciate the realistic and moveable mixer palette.
$39.90; www.corel.com

Graphic.ly

Graphic novel and comic book fans rejoice, your eReader app has arrived. Graphic.ly combines a comic book store and reader with social media connections to Facebook, Twitter, podcasts, and RSS feeds. Choose to read a book panel by panel, page by page, or a combination of the two. The social tools in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen gives you the option of messaging, blogging, sharing or leaving in-panel notations for your friends. It’s similar to sharing a photo on your phone– take the picture and then decide how you want to disseminate the information. No official word on the titles that will be offered, but we wouldn’t be surprised to find DC and Marvel on these virtual shelves before too long.
Free; www.graphic.ly

Betty Crocker Kitchen Assistant

The Betty Crocker Kitchen Assistant has a decidedly retro-look to it, but it’s an easy way to figure out what’s for dinner. You can browse recipes or search for recipes based on the ingredients you have on hand. Once you’ve chosen up to three recipes, hit the “Cook” button and the steps are displayed in large text on screen. Tap on the red bar to go between different steps. While we wish the buttons and navigation text were a little larger, it’s easy to use the Kitchen Assistant on a tablet. You’ll probably want to clean the screen when you’re done cooking, but it’s certainly easier than trying to rid the keyboard of stray crumbs.
Free; www.bettycrocker.com

Mindjet MindManager 8 for Windows

Taking your personal productivity to the next level, MindManager 8 helps users create visual maps to better visualize their ideas, whether it’s a business plan, project strategy or organizational chart. Because the app supports multitouch gestures, you can pinch to zoom in or out on maps, touch and drag topics, and rotate to expand or collapse a given topic. MindManager 8 supports digital ink illustrations and advanced handwriting recognition.
$349; www.mindjet.com