photos

FotoFlexer now offering pro service, free to users

Web based photo editor FotoFlexer has been given an update this morning that's specifically designed to accommodate the needs of advanced users. The company is calling it "pro," although it's not quite a full replacement for traditionally "professional" photo editing applications such as Adobe's Photoshop. It's also not going to be a pay service, despite the pro moniker.

Among the major additions is the inclusion of curves and high resolution editing, which let users work with large pictures in their native resolutions. The new features also let users adjust coloring, contrast, and … Read more

PhotoScape makes editing easy and free

If you're looking to put together a Valentine's Day collage for your sweetie, it's mighty late to be worrying about creative gifts from the heart. So get a jump on that photo mashup (or is that car crash?) you've been planning for next year's Valentine's Day with PhotoScape, a freeware image editor that's surprisingly feature-rich.

Snap and print photos with $129.99 camera/printer bundle

For about the price of a budget digital camera, you can snag a budget digital camera and portable snapshot printer to go with it. Circuit City has the Kodak EasyShare C613 6-megapixel camera and EasyShare G610 dock/printer for $129.99 shipped (plus sales tax in most states).

The camera's fairly basic, offering a compact design, 2.4-inch LCD, and 3x optical zoom; CNET readers rated it 6.2 out of 10, meaning it's probably fine for tossing in your bag for everyday use, but not the camera you want to rely on for the family photo that'… Read more

PhotoShelter nabs exec from Getty Images

While Getty Images continues to look around for someone to buy them, the rising Internet-based stock image house PhotoShelter today announced that it has hired two new executives, one of which it hired away from Getty. When it launched its stock image business called the PhotoShelter Collection late last year, the company promised to invest $1 million toward promoting the Collection's images among buyers of stock photography. As part of this effort, the company has hired former American Express Senior Product Manager Andrew Fingerman to be PhotoShelter's new vice president of marketing, and Getty Images' former market development … Read more

A tiny 5-in-1 digital photo frame

Other than Ceiva, we've never quite understood the need for all these digital picture frames, and getting enormous just made things worse.

Mustek's Photostation PF-D420 goes in the opposite direction--it has only a 2.4-inch LCD--but it compensates for its petite stature by including other functions, according to Chip Chick. In fact, it might be more accurate to describe it as an alarm clock that plays MP3s, FM radio, and, as a bonus, digital slide shows.

Perhaps the most useful feature of all is its thermometer, because it can help you decide if you really want to get … Read more

Share photos with Nokia's Ovi

Nokia announced a new feature to its Ovi service at GSMA. Besides the existing Nokia Music Store and the N-Gage gaming service, Ovi now allows you to upload photos from your camera phone or a PC to an online community. Similar to services like Flickr, Ovi will allow users to interact with each other and share shots. Ovi will support more than 100 media types, and users will be offered unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth for uploads. The only catch is that you'll need a Series 60, third-edition Nokia phone. Check out the Ovi Web site for more details. … Read more

First Look: PhotoContacts for Windows Mobile

Oh sure, anyone can assign a photo face to a contact on their Windows Mobile phone. But how many can also resize images, associate tasks with a contact, and send text messages from their digital black book?

If you guessed "anyone using the application named above," give yourself a gold star. For about twenty bucks, PhotoContacts for WindowsMobile and Pocket PC rolls your contact list into a stylish wrapper with better people skills than your default address book. Could this application be for you? Check out pros and, yes, a few cons, in this First Look video before … Read more

Apple updates iPhoto 7.1.2 with a security fix

On Tuesday, Apple issued a security update for iPhoto. The update is for users of Mac OS X v10.4.9 or later running iPhoto '08 (part of iLife 08). It addresses the vulnerability detailed in CVE-2008-0043.

To be vulnerable, Apple says, a user must subscribe to a maliciously crafted photocast. A remote attacker may then execute arbitrary code on the compromised machine. The fix addresses how iPhoto handles format strings when processing photocast subscriptions.

Apple credits Nathan McFeters of Ernst & Young's Advanced Security Center for reporting this vulnerability.

Adobe shuttering in-house stock photo service

Adobe Creative Suite users will soon have to turn to other Web-based or local stock photography services to get their stock photo fix.

Adobe on Monday quietly announced the end of its stock photography service. The Stock Photos service has been a part of the popular Creative Suite since the introduction of Adobe Bridge in version 2. The cutoff date is March 31st, giving users a little less than two more months to use the service to acquire legal shots to use in design work.

According to Adobe's FAQ on the matter, the company is getting out of the … Read more

Photobucket stats show Democrats like to search more

One of my favorite things to get in my e-mail each week is the data report from News Corp-owned Photobucket. Think of it like the Google Zeitgeist, but for people's searches on the popular photo hosting site. While the report doesn't offer up every statistic, the creators pick a few interesting or pertinent things that make good reading. This week's tidbit? Politics.

The Democratic and the Republican presidential nominees (Edwards now obviously excluded from that list) are represented with several thousand search hits each. So what do the numbers show?

Democrats: 1. Hillary Clinton (25,400) 2. Barack Obama (24,736) 3. John Edwards (1,829) Republicans: 1. Ron Paul (10,589) 2. Mike Huckabee (2,064) 3. John McCain (1,986) 4. Mitt Romney (1,785)

Clearly the Dems like to search. Despite getting more love from the media, Huckabee, McCain, and Romney combined don't come close in searches to Ron Paul. Take that for what it's worth. However, it could mean that people are trying to figure out what the guy looks like.

I would like to see other popular social sites release weekly or even daily stats. The very nature of site stats are similar to Digg, Delicious, and others, in providing entertainment and a window into the habits of other users.

The rest of the report is posted after the break.