photo-sharing

Whip photos into shape with ACDSee 15

ACDSee and its publisher, ACD Systems, have been on the scene for several years now, so it's not surprising to see how polished their flagship product is at this point. Getting started with the software is simple, yet the extensive feature set--particularly in regard to management of a large photo catalog--should provide users plenty of opportunities for learning how to master the application. With ACDSee 15, every step of the photo process--importing photos from cameras or other devices; cataloging photos in your library, applying corrections or creative edits to photos; viewing photo slideshows; publishing, printing, and sharing photos--is mostly … Read more

Google, following Facebook, buys Instagram competitor

Google has acquired the company behind popular iOS photo-sharing app Snapseed, the companies announced today.

Vic Gundotra, Google's senior vice president of engineering, posted the news about acquiring Snapseed creator Nik Software to his Google+ account. The app allows users to edit photos and add filters as well as share them on Facebook, Flickr or via email -- similar to Facebook's recently acquired Instagram app.

"We want to help our users create photos they absolutely love, and in our experience Nik does this better than anyone," he wrote, adding that Google+ now has 400,000,000 users since it launched a year ago. … Read more

40 percent of world's top brands already on Instagram

If you're still wondering why Instagram appealed to Facebook, consider how many of the world's top 100 brands are already on the photo-sharing service.

Some 40 percent of the Interbrand 100 -- the world's most popular brands -- are active on the young service, according to a study released today by Simply Measured. The study of how the brands were used on Instagram was released in conjunction with the debut of a new Instagram analytics tool.

While that's nowhere near Facebook's 98 percent adoption rate or Twitter's 94 percent, Simply Measured points out that … Read more

Yahoo Mail rolls out (another) photo-sharing tool

Yahoo Mail has integrated a photo-sharing tool into its interface. No, it's not Flickr. It's a different photo-sharing tool.

Yahoo officially released its photos app today, aiming to give users a new way to organize all the photos ever sent to their inbox. With unlimited storage, that can be a lot of photos.

Dave McDowell, senior director of product management at Yahoo, said Yahoo Mail users exchange close to 500 million photos a day.

"The reason people share photos through email is there's more privacy and control of who sees the photo and (the app) is … Read more

Instagram competitor PicPlz to shut down in July

Instagram competitor PicPlz will cease operation in July and delete all the images and data in its possession, the photo-sharing service announced this weekend.

The photo-sharing first announced the closure Friday on its Web site in a message that began, "It has been a pleasure bringing picplz to our users, but we have decided to move on to other projects and have made the tough decision to shut it down." The Seattle-based startup sent out a follow-up e-mail to users today:

On July 3, 2012, picplz will shut down permanently and all photos and data will be deleted. … Read more

How to send large batches of photos from your iOS device

Problem: You just snapped dozens of wedding/vacation/rave photos on your iPhone, and now you want to share them with friends and family members. But iOS limits you to five photos per e-mail. Now what?

Fire up Kicksend. This free app lets you send big batches of photos, plus documents or video, to an individual or group.

Update: Talk about timing -- Kicksend was just unveiled for Android. Looks to be quite similar in terms of features and operations.

Kicksend looks and operates a lot like Instagram, just without the fancy filters. After registering for an account (also free), you simply tap the camera button to take a photo or video, or choose some from your existing library.… Read more

Is Apple about to make iCloud an Instagram competitor?

iCloud currently offers users the capability to store and sync photos to other iOS devices and PCs using Photo Stream. That functionality does not, however, include the capability to share with other users directly.

According to the WSJ sources, users would be able to comment on shared photos, but any further details of the service have yet to be disclosed.

The iCloud update is expected to be officially announced by Apple at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference, which begins June 11.

Last week, several sneak peeks at Apple's plans for its iCloud service made their way to the … Read more

Pinterest sees user base double in three months

Interest in Pinterest is skyrocketing.

Launched a little more than two years ago, the social photo-sharing service has doubled its number of daily unique visitors to 4 million since January, according to new data from social media marketer Tamba. The site's core users are women, age 25 to 54, but the site is attracting the interest of men, who now make up 28 percent of new members compared with 20 percent in January.

More money is also being associated with the site, according to Tamba. The percentage of social media-driven revenue that comes from Pinterest has grown from 1 … Read more

Path: The smaller, simpler alternative to Facebook

At a time when Facebook seems to keep adding apps, curating news feeds, and pushing users to connect with as many other users as possible, Path, the blossoming social-sharing app for iOS and Android, is doing just the opposite. It's trying to keep things small and simple.

While the idea of social networking on a smaller scale may seem strange, it makes a lot more sense once you get to know Path. With no brand pages, groups, event invitations, or Bejeweled requests to clutter its experience, this young social network is all about sharing personal moments with loved ones. … Read more