This is definitely a new comer in the crowed photo sharing site circle but it offers something nobody else seems to have: Photo that talks!
The new site (currently in beta) lets you upload a photo and then record your voice directly through your computer to create a Fotobabble. You can then share it by e-mail, Facebook, Twitter or embed it into a blog or website. There is nothing to download or install. Just a quick registration for a free account. Read More…
Picasa is a free photo management and editing software from Google. It is well integrated with Google’s own Picasa Web Albums photo sharing site but it doesn’t have restrictions that prevent it from being used for uploading photos to other photo sharing sites. For example, we have talked about uploading photos to Flickr using Picasa.
The same can be done for Facebook as well. Here is a uploader plugin for Picasa that allows you to upload photos from Picasa to your Facebook account. Installation is a simple 1-2-3 and the usage is also straight forward. The Facebook uploader works under Windows and Mac but the Linux version of Picasa is not supported.
Do you have an idea how popular the iPhone is now? If not, check out the Camera Finder page on Flickr. Currently the iPhone is in the same pack as the Canon Digital Rebel XTi
One particular iPhone (works on iPod Touch too!) application I’d like to introduce today is PhotoScatter, developed by Unique Apps. PhotoScatter allows users to simply take or choose a photo from iPhone or iPod Touch, and submit it to top photo sharing sites on the Internet with touch of a button. Read More…
When a photo gallery or photo sharing website holds your digital photos hostage and demands payment to avoid the total destruction of your photos that were uploaded to the site based on the promise of “free” service, consumers like you can get stuck. When you clicked on “Accept” on the Terms and Services (TOS) during sign-up process, you might not have read it thoroughly and you perhaps missed the fine prints in the TOS allowing them to change the TOS whenever they want.
That’s what happened to a user of Kodak Gallery. The customer found out that she now has to spend at least $4.99 a year on prints or other products to keep her photos on Kodak Gallery from being deleted. It certainly sucks standing in the consumer’s shoes. However the business has the goal of making money. Kodak simply wants to focus on its best customers, not folks who merely want to take advantage of free picture storage. And its new rules are hardly unusual in the online photo business.
Even if you pay for the service from beginning, it is still not certain you will have access to the original photos without paying extra. Some sites are charging extra to download original high resolution photos. Some sites may suddenly go out of business and take all of your photos with it. Especially for those sites are offering unlimited free storage and sharing but doesn’t seem to have any valid business model to generate revenue.
What’s the virtue of the story? Keep a safe backup of your own photos yourself.
Picasa is an excellent photo organizer with decent editing and creative functionalities. The built-in photo browser is very fast. It never chock up on my huge collection of RAW photos. I can browse through thousands of photos scattered in hundreds of folders without ever waiting for anything to update on the screen. On the contrary, Nikon ViewNX often struggle badly on the same computer. Typically Picasa only uses about 25% of the memory ViewNX needs.
When it comes to photo sharing, I am a big fun of flickr. Picasa has good integration with Google’s Picasa Web Albums but I don’t think Google has any interest in supporting a competing photo sharing site like flickr, especially when flickr is dominating. We shouldn’t be desperate though: Google’s Picasa supports third party extensions using a couple of APIs. Someone has created a Picasa plugin (button) called “picasa2flickr” that installs with just a couple of clicks. It doesn’t work alone: you also need to have Flickr Uploadr installed on your computer.
To use it, select one or more photos in Picasa, then click on the “Send to Flickr” button. Picasa will launch Flickr Uploadr with the photos you have selected. You can then do your usual title, description, tags, etc in Flickr Uploadr before uploading them to your flickr account.
With 10+ megapixel digital camera becoming a norm these days, the photo file sizes can be very large depending on format and compression. The large size create significant problems for sharing or sending even with today’s broadband networks. Another complication is the RAW photo files. Each camera manufacturer has its own RAW format. Almost no photo sharing or social networking site will take those type of RAW photos. So what are the options for sharing or sending large photo files or RAW photos when a downsized small JPEG photo is not enough? Read More…
In its attempt to catch up with market leaders Yahoo! flickr and Google Picasa Web Abumn, Microsoft just launched its completely redesigned photos.live.com.
Here are a few highlighted improvements:
Even Though the new site is still not perfect as noted by CNET, we certainly welcome the competition that pushes the big players to constantly improve their services.
Nikon recently updated its my Picturetown, the photo storage and sharing website, with Mapview functions and supports of more file formats. Read More…
