photos

Photos: RCA Pearl

Plug-in-style MP3 players--that is, those with the USB interface built right in--have been enjoying a bit of a renaissance lately, as evidenced by the recent release of the SanDisk Sansa Express. RCA has now joined the trend with the Pearl, one of three players in the company's new Gem line. Like the Express, the Pearl is also aimed squarely at the budget-conscious, with 1GB and 2GB versions retailing for $39 and $48, respectively. Click the pic to see the Pearl in glorious detail, or head over to CNET to read the review.

Canon unveils three new printers

Canon announced three new additions to its printer lineup today--two home inkjet all-in-ones and one standalone photo printer. The two inkjets are part of the Pixma line: the Pixma MP470 and the Pixma MP210. The $100 MP470 offers 4,800x1,200 dpi color printing with 2pL droplets, 2,400x4,800 dpi scans, a 1.8-inch color LCD, and a USB 2.0 connection. Using its built-in memory card reader and PictBridge port, you can print photos without touching your PC. The PictBridge port also doubles as a USB port for the optional Bluetooth adapter that lets you print wirelessly. The … Read more

A closer look at Windows Live Photo Gallery

I have gotten my hands on the new Windows Live Photo Gallery application and have been playing with it for the last couple of days. Here are the features that I think make the product.

Panoramic Stitching I have to admit, I was a little bit skeptical about this feature when I first heard about it. The concept is that you take a bunch of pictures, all next to each other in the same location, and WL Photo Gallery will stitch them together. Of course, I didn't believe that it could be very good, so I had to give it a try. Here are the photos that I took that make up the panoramic photo.

… Read more

Google News offers image view

Google News is offering a new Image View that displays photos linked to news items with scrolling headlines in a column on the right.

"In looking at how people use Google News and based on feedback we've received, we've found that many people prefer to read the news in a more visual way," the company wrote in the Google News Blog. "The Image Version of News lets you view and explore the top headlines of the day through photos instead of just text."

Mousing over an image displays a summary of the news item … Read more

PicLens: Instant photo galleries off the Web

Galleries of images set off against a black background have become common as software and Web sites try to help people show off their photos better. Cooliris' PicLens offers a clever way to do set up such galleries from many Web sites on the fly.

The PicLens browser extension can convert a bunch of images from Google and Yahoo image search, Flickr, Picasa, Facebook and RSS Media-based sites and other locations into a full-screen gallery of pictures. The photos slide by at a stately pace or advance when the user clicks the keyboard's arrow key, and a handy filmstrip … Read more

Microsoft announces new Windows Live products: How do they stack up?

Microsoft has just announced two new Windows Live products, Windows Live Folders and Windows Live Photo Gallery. Windows Live Folders is Microsoft's online storage solution, set to compete with AOL's Xdrive, Box.net, and a lot of other startups in this market. Windows Live Photo Gallery acts as an upgrade to Vista's Windows Photo Gallery, providing tight integration with Windows Live Spaces and Windows itself.

Windows Live Folders

Windows Live Folders features a 500 MB storage limit, which is a below the industry norm, compared to competitors like Xdrive which provides 5 gigs or Box.net which … Read more

Smart parking meter prevents tickets

Ever been stuck in a can't-leave meeting knowing that the minutes on your parking meter are about to ding you? The PhotoViolationMeter will call to warn you that your meter is running low and let you buy more time over the phone.

The device, created by Photo Violation Technologies of Canada, also gives customers a variety of payment options, including credit and debit cards for the coin-challenged (the meter's wireless network capability allows for instant, real-time authorization of the cards--and free Internet hotspots for anyone who wants to do some on-street surfing).

The first wave of machines are … Read more

Pirate Bay creators launch new photo-hosting service

Admist some of last week's hullaballoo regarding Flickr's censorship on some of the photos of its German language users, it's timely that the creators of The Pirate Bay, the popular BitTorrent tracking site, have recently launched their own censorship-free image-sharing service called BAYIMG. It's similar to other image-hosting services like ImageShack, TinyPic, and DivShare, with one exception--the only person who's able to remove uploaded photos is you. That is, assuming you don't forget the secret removal access code you picked when uploading.

Despite this well-advertised stance on free speech, the service claims that if … Read more

Doodle on and deface your photos with Graphita's Live Studio

Here's a fun piece of Webware that made its official launch last week. It's called Graphita Live Studio, and it's a really fun and well-done Web-based photo editor. Unlike some of the other solutions I've looked at in the past, Graphita doesn't have any grand scheme to replace your favorite desktop photo-editing software. Instead, Live Studio provides users with a way to quickly deface, or "enhance" their photos with all sorts of rasterized stamps and a trouble-making doodling tool.

To get started, users simply need to upload a photo from their hard drive. … Read more