photos

A new attempt to provide a higher-end sequel to the ubiquitous JPEG image standard is officially under way.

The multiple countries participating in the Joint Photographic Experts Group, which created the JPEG standard, have approved an effort to make Microsoft's HD Photo format a standard called JPEG XR, said Bill Crow, who has led Microsoft's HD Photo effort and who just took over the company's Microsoft Live Labs Seadragon imaging project. XR stands for "extended range," a reference to the format's ability to show a wider and finer range of tonal gradations and a … Read more

External GPS receivers are pretty handy if you want to turn your Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone into a satellite-navigation device. But imagine if you could use your external GPS receiver to keep a log of your travels and then be able to see your journey on Google Earth.

Better yet, imagine if you could use that GPS travel log to synchronize your digital pictures with their exact locations, so you can post them on sites such as Locr or Flickr and let your friends see where the pictures were taken. The Qstarz Travel Recorder BT-Q1000--the little black box in the pic--does … Read more

At first we weren't sure who would want a 15-inch digital picture frame, but then it occurred to us: You know those people who have life-size wedding portraits in the hallway because they're too big to fit above the fireplace or anywhere else? Mystery solved.

The suitably named "Gigantor Digital Photo Frame," shown here with an equally suitable mugshot of Godzilla, will dominate your desktop not only with a huge LCD but also with its built-in speakers. And its $250 price is surprisingly un-gargantuan given its dimensions, which dwarf those puny 7- and 8-inchers on the … Read more

Almost everyone takes pictures when traveling so they have something to bring back the memories once their vacation is over. A few years ago I went to several countries across Europe and took a ton of pictures with my digital camera. When I flip through the albums now, in some cases I'll forget where some of the more nondescript or interior pictures were taken. Today I found a program for Mac which not only solves that problem, but makes it more fun to view pictures from around the world.… Read more

The only things you need to send a Facebook photo to any cell phone is 3Guppies' (review) Facebook app and a working US or Canadian phone number. The app does a curious thing, pulling up all the photos in your friends' albums as well as your own. Grabbing the photo previews it in a mobile screen frame, though you needn't worry too much about it fitting--3Guppies Mobile automatically scales photos on the destination phone.

You can crop, title, and tag the image and choose to store a copy in the 3Guppies locker for later reference if you have or sign up for an account. Once the photo has landed on the phone, it can be downloaded or sent on its way to sunnier pastures. 3Guppies has hustled behind the scenes, striking compatibility deals with 28 carriers for 1,200 phones in North America.… Read more

The only things you need to send a Facebook photo to any cell phone are 3Guppies' (review) Facebook app and a working U.S. or Canadian phone number. The app does a curious thing, pulling up all the photos in your friends' albums as well as your own. Grabbing the photo previews it in a mobile screen frame, though you needn't worry too much about it fitting--3Guppies Mobile automatically scales photos on the destination phone.

You can crop, title, and tag the image and choose to store a copy in the 3Guppies locker for later reference if you … Read more

Artists, inventors and other do-it-yourselfers are gathering this weekend in Austin, Texas, to show off their latest hacked gadgets and creations at the Maker Faire.

Attendees of the event will get a chance to see some of the innovative exhibits--and maybe even tool around with them if they're lucky.

Some highlights at the event will include a life-size version of the Mousetrap game, the "Cyclofuge," a carnival-style bicycle ride, and the "Star Wheel," which made its first appearance at Burning Man 2004.

For some teasers of what will be on display, check out this CNET … Read more

As a member of the press, I'm accustomed to being the token partygoer taking awkward photographs of the room. Not so much at Flickr's "24 Hours of Flickr" party in New York on Thursday night, where there were so many cameras being whipped out that you'd think it were Times Square.

"I'm stuffing my face with cake, and then I look up and someone's taking a picture of me with chocolate all over my mouth," one mildly uncomfortable attendee told me.

The event, held in a cavernous studio space in Manhattan'… Read more

Vuvox is a handy slide show service we've taken a look at before, and yesterday it launched a new tool called Cut-Out Express that lets you cut away at pictures to add embedded photo slide shows. Like the rest of its tools, you can add shots from your hard drive or pull them in from other services like Flickr, Picasa Web albums, or any old RSS feed with photos in it. What makes Cut-Out neat, though, is its lasso tool, which intelligently lets you wrap around a shot like you would using a high-end photo-editing application. It doesn't have a "magnetic" mode, but there's a helpful vertical and horizontal line that tracks the pointer to help you guide around whatever you're lassoing.

The end result is a pleasingly cheesy open area where your photos will fade from one to the next--sure to be a hit with the social-networking crowd, or people who feel like having a little fun with shots of friends, family, or celebrities. Speaking of which, I've embedded a Cut-Out of a Steve Jobs keynote after the break using pictures of historically faked Apple products (via Macrumors Guides). The service also recommends you do the same with your pet's mouth, billboards, and graffiti. Cute.

On a side note, if you're planning on using Vuvox for photo sharing with your family, the service has a neat feature that lets you privatize your content channel. So unlike a service like Flickr, there's no registration or mutual friendships necessary on your recipient's behalf to see your pictures, while they remain unseen by everyone else. All you need to send out is the URL. Unfortunately this can't be done toggled on individual slide shows (yet), but you can add a separate public channel, letting you group together slide shows you'd like to keep separate from your openly shared work.

[via Go2Web2]… Read more