Digital photography

Vuvox is a drop-dead gorgeous online application that makes sharp multimedia presentations. Users import their photos and videos, and then can place them in interactive templates (like street scenes, photo walls, and so on). The presentations can then be embedded in MySpace (of course) or other sites.

It's designed for kids, who are used to the high production values of MTV and the like. It really does look like it can take snapshots and lousy videos and tart them up to a high degree of slickness.

Killer demo here at Demo 07. Site's not live yet. Should be … Read more

An early leader in the "name soon-to-be a verb a la Google and TiVo" category here at Demo '07 is Yodio, an audio-publishing system to produce and send audio with digital photos.

After three and a half years of development, the Seattle-based Yodio (short for "your audio") is being unveiled in the next hour here at Demo 07. It works like this: take a digital photo, call Yodio's toll-free number, and record a message (but keep it under two minutes). Yodio syncs the MP3 file with your photo, which then can be sent to anyone … Read more

Flickr member Hamad Darwish is now a part of computing history, with two of his photographs included in Windows Vista. Usually Microsoft doesn't approach people with (we're assuming) large checks unless they're vying for a name or settling a lawsuit, but Darwish's work wowed Microsoft so much they hired him for a photo shoot.

Apparently there are three more images from Flickr users shipping with Vista, along with a few from Microsoft employees, too.

This is a cool use of services like Flickr. While Corbis, iStockPhoto, and Getty Images are all a hotbed for finding good … Read more

SplashCast, launched today at Demo 07, is a free service that allows users to combine all sorts of media into one master playlist. That playlist can then be embedded on Web sites and blogs or sent directly to friends and family with a simple URL. It's basically the online equivalent of a mix tape. It's similar to YouTube's playlist maker, but with SplashCast, you can also throw pictures, text, and audio into the mix.

What's really cool about SplashCast is that your already-shared media doesn't need to be uploaded again. Pulling videos or pictures from … Read more

If you upload pictures, video or illustrations to iStockphoto or are a customer who uses the site to buy that content, you could have some new options soon for using the site.

The company has released some details of its interface so that outsiders can create Web sites or software that tap into the site's abilities, according to a company forum posting earlier this month. The objective: "to allow the iStockphoto community to expand the functionality of istockphoto.com, provide useful tools for community members, and attract new members."

Some users already are coming up with ideas … Read more

Locr is a new photo hosting service that promises to make geo-tagging your photos a little easier. After uploading photos, users need to simply add a zip code or city name to set a longitude and latitude for their shots. Users can then browse other geo-tagged photos by click-dragging a Google Map.

Is this different from what Flickr offers? Yes, but without a Web-based batch uploader or a way to tag landmarks, Locr comes up short.

Locr's Web interface is really easy to use for individual uploading and geo-tagging, but it just doesn't work with multiple photos. That … Read more

PowerSnap is a small and free Windows application that merges photos on your home computer with those on the Web photo service Flickr. Its purpose is simple: provide users with a way to view and manage all their photos, online and off.

PowerSnap has a Flash-based interface that lets you navigate, tag, and arrange your photos. It's similar to what you'd get with most photo browsing applications (see iPhoto or Picasa). What sets PowerSnap apart is its Flickr-user tracking, which essentially lets you create RSS feeds for Flickr members. You can add as many Flickr usernames as you … Read more

TagMaps is an exploratory mashup/science project from Yahoo Research Berkeley that mixes Yahoo Maps with Flickr's geo-tagging features to create a neat-looking photo browser. Locations show up on the map as large tags, and mousing over one will populate the corresponding Flickr photos to the right. Clicking any of these photos will give you the title and photographer information, along with the option to visit the photo page on Flickr.

What's really cool is that you can toggle between day and night modes. Both the map and the photos change dramatically depending on which mode you're … Read more

"Paul Simon had a song, "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover." Lead technology has a product that allows the user to convert files and images into over 150 file types..."

Got it.