photos

Bringing the old Polaroid snapshot back to life

If there's one gadget that's been egregiously over-produced, it's the digital photo frame. We've never understood the need for so many brands, versions, and sizes, except for the networked Ceiva (though we're not so sure about the whole refrigerator thing).

So if companies insist on making these already-overdone products, we appreciate some originality--as in the idea for a retro-styled Polaroid snapshot lookalike conceived by photographer Dave Friedman. The people at Polaroid apparently agree, according to Stuff, because they're working to make the concept a reality.

As originally envisioned, the wireless frame would present photos … Read more

Software upgrade redefines Synology's NAS devices

Setting up a network-attached storage device (or NAS) is oftentimes a pain. Usually the most frustrating part is getting Windows to identify it and map it as a drive. This way, you can actually use it as it was intended, as a network storage device. In CNET Labs, I've come across many types of NAS management interfaces, be they Web-based or desktop applications. All have one thing in common in my experience: they are not the easiest devices to set up. For this reason, I was very impressed by a demonstration from Synology of its new, soon-to-be released Disk … Read more

Photobucket says it erred in censoring diapered babies

Wow, that was fast!

I contacted Photobucket parent Fox Interactive early Thursday to find out why the site censored a bunch of photos of babies in diapers posted by diaper company Good Mama Diapers. In separate e-mails, a Fox spokesman and Photobucket customer support said the hundreds of photos were deleted because they depicted "nudity" in violation of the site's terms of use.

Hours later I received word from Good Mama Diapers that Photobucket admits that it erroneously dumped the photos.

"My team has reviewed the images that were tossed in your account and it was … Read more

Pandigital debuts kitchen TV with extra perks

Pandigital, which is making a name for itself in the digital photo frame market, is branching out into kitchen televisions. As part of the upcoming International Home and Housewares Show in Chicago, the company will be showing off a new 15-inch LCD HDTV that can display digital photos and act as a digital cookbook.

Here are the highlights and specs from the news release:

TV's resolution is 1280x720. Preloaded recipes are included. Plus, additional recipes can be copied onto the frame's internal memory. Copy digital photos onto the frame's memory via the memory card reader or by … Read more

On Photobucket, babies in diapers are seen as 'nudity'

Updated 3:15 p.m. PDT with Photobucket acknowledging its error and restoring removed images.

Photobucket is removing photos of babies in diapers from the site, saying they violate the terms of service because they depict "nudity."

Diaper company Good Mama Diapers sponsored a diaper photo contest on Photobucket and posted hundreds of photo submissions on the photo-sharing site over the past 10 weeks or so. On Wednesday, Jessica Thornton of Good Mama Diapers logged on to the site and noticed they were all gone.

Thornton e-mailed Photobucket customer support to find out what happened. She got a … Read more

Flickr puts hold on PhotoShelter tool

Earlier today I wrote about a new tool that PhotoShelter announced to let its customers migrate images from Flickr accounts to their PhotoShelter Personal Archives. Since then, Flickr has disabled the tool. A company spokesperson for Flickr said, "Photoshelter did not follow the guidelines outlined by Flickr around API usage. We are currently working with them to correct the issue."

My contact at PhotoShelter said that the company is working on the problem and a message on the new tool's page notes that, "Flickr has temporarily disabled this feature. We are working to address it and … Read more

PhotoShelter adds Flickr import tool

Barely a week goes by when I don't see a story about someone's photo being stolen from Flickr. I guess I'm not the only one, because PhotoShelter today announced that they've added a tool to their customers' Personal Archive accounts that lets them import images from, or export images to, a Flickr Pro-level account. Ultimately, it's a pretty slick way for the company to capitalize on the fact that PhotoShelter's Personal Archive provides a more secure environment for photographers, since it doesn't allow unauthorized viewing or downloads, though photographers can set selected galleries … Read more

Print and store photos with 4GB HP portable printer, $45.99

Remember that $40 HP photo printer from a couple months back? For an extra $5.99, you can get one that's similar but way better: The HP A716 churns out snapshots as large as 5x7 (panoramas, too) and comes with 4 gigabytes of internal storage.

The big benefit, of course, is that you can offload photos from your memory card when it gets full, then copy them over to your PC later. Like any good photo printer, the A716 also features card slots for all major memory-card types, support for PictBridge connections directly to cameras, and a good-sized LCD (… Read more

Waves.tv lets you make goofy faces while meeting people

One of the greatest pieces of software Apple has ever come up with is Photo Booth. It's dead simple to use, and about as entertaining as chasing a cat around with a laser beam. There are a handful of Web-based alternatives, but one of the cooler ones out there is Waves.tv.

Unlike Apple's PhotoBooth, there are no fancy effects to change the way you look (for that check out Sigost). Instead, you get four pictures to show off your "personality," and other people rate you on a "lust scale" of 1 to 5 … Read more

Digital photo frame looks back at you

If it weren't for the obvious lens, this would be an item we'd expect to have seen from a spy gadgets purveyor: A Webcam that watches you watching it, kind of like an Escher drawing come to life.

We can't help but think that this is one of those inventions that, years from now, will be laughable when everyone has a two-way video watch phone. In the meantime, this combo digital photo frame and Webcam is at least taking a step in that direction because Red Ferret says it's portable and small enough to stow in … Read more