photos

Instagram, Twitter lob grenades in war over value of photos

You've heard it said countless times: A picture's worth a thousand words.

If you think that's not at least as true online as it is offline, you haven't been paying attention to the explosive machinations in the war for digital real estate going on in Silicon Valley over the last year or so.

Today, the tech world is all worked up over the latest in the slow-moving war of attrition between Instagram and Twitter. By cutting off Twitter Card integration, Instagram is hoping to wean its users off Twitter.

This is a seismic event, especially with … Read more

NeroKwik knits your photos into a unified tapestry

Nero continues its collective approach to multimedia with a newly refreshed approach to photo sharing. NeroKwik (not to be confused with Kwik Media from Nero 12) is Nero's latest solution to the ever-increasing challenge and fragmentary nature of keeping and sharing photos.

The NeroKwik app for Android ties your photos from sources like tablets, PCs, and social-networking services together to create a unified album. That means users can now access their photos all in one spot and eliminate the need to juggle multiple services and devices to view albums.

Rather than just spitting out photos indiscriminately, NeroKwik displays your … Read more

Apply special effects, frames, even hats to your photos with Pho.to Lab

Pho.to Lab is an app that lets you add effects, frames, and text to a photo. A free app (with some optional paid additional libraries), Pho.to Lab is available from iTunes and installs quickly.

You can use Pho.to Lab to do quite a bit to an existing photo. Add a frame from one of many, apply a filter to change the effect, or choose a special effect from a library of almost 500 different effects. You can use the Pho.to Lab interface to find the category of effect you want, then edit the image and apply … Read more

Getting started with Facebook Photo Sync on Android, iPhone

Facebook is in the process of rolling out a new feature called Photo Sync to iPhone and Android users. When enabled, photos taken on the device will be automatically uploaded to a private "Synced from Phone" Facebook photo album.

In order to start using Photo Sync, you'll need to manually enable it. As Facebook continues to roll it out to all users your account may or may not have it right away; keep checking back if it doesn't show up right away.

To enable Photo Sync, launch the Facebook app and view the side menu. Scroll … Read more

Facebook app now auto-uploads smartphone photos

Facebook is releasing photo sync for iOS to the general Facebook community, after months of testing.

The new feature, available for Android and the iPhone, automatically uploads photos taken on a smartphone to a private album on a user's Facebook profile. Those photos can then be removed, kept private, or shared publicly. A total of 2GB worth of photos can be stored from mobile devices.

Facebook said it began testing photo sync in August and "will continue to make it available to more people."

Don't like the idea of your photos automatically sent to your Facebook … Read more

Apple picks up support for new Oly, Sony, Pany raw photos

Apple released an update yesterday to let Mac software handle raw photos from eight new cameras, most of them high-end compact models.

The Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 4.02 lets Aperture 3, iPhoto 11, and other software handle raw photos from the following cameras: … Read more

Create a Web site right on your iPhone

It's been about 18 months since I first wrote about Zapd, a clever app that lets you build simple, attractive Web sites using nothing more than your iPhone.

Why would you want to do that? To chronicle something cool, of course, like a wedding, vacation, party, or even a work project. I mean, your photos are already in the phone, right? The next logical step is to publish them where friends and family can have a look.

Of course, most such events involve your friends, family members, and/or co-workers, who will no doubt be snapping photos of their … Read more

Access your Photo Stream without iPhoto on OS X

Regardless of your feelings for iPhoto on OS X, having to launch and wait for it to load your photo library only to access a screenshot or a single photo in your Photo Stream can be annoying. The good news is, after following the steps laid out below, you'll be able to access your Photo Stream at any time, without even having iPhoto running. The process comes courtesy of a post by Ben Ward (which originated from a Mac OSX Hints thread) earlier this year. It looks more complicated than it really is, but as always, proceed at your … Read more

Quickly view original photo while editing on Android 4.2

Have you ever begun to edit a photo and before you know it -- three filters, a border, and a crop later -- you've lost track of where you started? Going back to view the original photo is an option, but then you risk saving the current edit, or losing it altogether and having to start all over.

A post on Droid Life reveals a new feature in Android 4.2 that allows you to view the original photo during the edit process. It's simple to use in order to compare an original photo to the freshly edited … Read more

E-mail bill raises privacy concerns

Tuesday's CNET Update is checking privacy settings:

There's an update to today's top story. Hours after CNET reported on a bill rewrite that would give warrantless access to American's e-mail, the senator behind the legislation has abandoned his controversial proposal.