photo-sharing

Updated September 9, 2011 with comment from Adobe.

When Adobe asked users about their photo sharing-pain points, it generated some buzz about an expected cloud solution. And today it delivered. Adobe Carousel automatically uploads, stores, and syncs photos from all your devices--as long as they're from Apple--and lets you create shareable galleries (Carousels). When shared, you and they can edit and apply special effects to the photos nondestructively.

(Aside: Adobe PR denies that the name Carousel was inspired by the Kodak Carousel slide projector.)

It sounds neat on the surface, and it's based around solid goals--"People want ubiquitous access to photo libraries; to browse, adjust, and share all their photos from anywhere; to share a photo library with friends and family; and simple, easy-to-live-with setup."

But I think there's an unstated goal here as well. Photoshop.com already meets a lot of these needs and the company could likely have been extended the back end with the syncing technology; unfortunately, Adobe can't leverage the site because it's completely partly Flash based, so it can't run on the iPad or iPhone. Thus, Adobe's need to start from scratch. Adobe comments: "The team did not start from scratch to build Carousel. The backend of Photoshop.com provides some of the infrastructure that supports the digital imaging mesh that Adobe Carousel uses. There are also some things that Photoshop.com can't do which is why we developed the DI mesh platform."… Read more

Photovine, Google's photo-sharing app for iOS devices, is now open to all. Let's take a quick look at how this free app works.

Photovine is set up similarly to Instagram, with a large button centered in the bottom menu for snapping a picture, which you can attach to a "vine" or create your own. A vine is a theme around which photos are grouped. Vines I saw included Nutella, Out a Plane's Window, Jordans, Breakfast of Champions, Green, and (of course) Kittens.

… Read more

One of Facebook's best features is sharing photos with family and friends. But indiscriminate sharing of personal photos can be dangerous. Facebook encourages its users to share with everyone, and most of the service's default settings make the information you share available to anyone who stumbles upon your profile.

To manage who can access your Facebook account, click Account in the top-right corner and choose Privacy Settings to view your current settings for sharing in nine categories. The option to let friends of people tagged in your photos view the images is selected by default.

It may be … Read more

Plenty of applications aim to spice up photo sharing or help in the creation of digital postcards. The Photogram app for iPhone gives the concept a Threadless-style spin.

Here's how it works. Choose up to four photos. These could commemorate a party, a set of high scores, or just about anything else that strikes your fancy. Choose from a variety of themes. The resulting photo creations can be shared through e-mail, Twitter, or Facebook.

Now here's the Threadless twist. Themes are created by independent artists. Purchase a theme from the theme store and the artist gets a cut. Choose from options like the space-themed Aldebaran Prime, camping-themed Under the Stars, or a wide selection of vacation themes.

Naturally, I gravitated to the planets for my first Photogram of random images from my iPad that I sent to myself.

New themes arrive as artists crank them out. Themes costs 99 cents to add to your portfolio. The app itself is free. A limited launch special gives users 30 free themes.

Photogram is a simple app with a simple mission. It pretties up photo sharing and cranks out messages that look a lot better than the old-fashioned method of slapping photo attachments onto a plain Jane e-mail. … Read more

CNET's Declan McCullagh reports that Google's access point sniffing ways may also be slurping up Mac address information on mobile phones and laptops ... and can be used to track your information. This is sewious. Also, Pandora's IPO is bubblicious, we go deep inside the psychology of Apple's retail experience, and smell-o-vision coming to a TV near you. Geez, Tong, what are you eating!?

Facebook is working on a photo-sharing application for the iPhone, TechCrunch is reporting.

The technology news site claims it has acquired a 50MB file containing images and documents that describe in detail a Facebook application that will allow users to share photos with others. TechCrunch did not reveal too many details on the service, saying only that the app "appears to be Path meets Instagram meets Color meets With."

Path is a social network for a person and his or her closest 50 friends, while Instagram offers photo sharing on the iPhone. Color allows users to take photos, … Read more

It looks like Twitter's recent app expansion effort might just be getting started.

The microblogging site is getting ready to announce its own photo-sharing service this week, according to a TechCrunch report that cited multiple anonymous sources.

Twitter users can already share photos on their Twitter streams via Twitpic and Yfrog, but as the report noted, a built-in service would have a significant advantage over competing apps.

The site is also close to acquiring AdGrok, a platform for bidding on keywords on Google AdWords, for less than $10 million, according to a separate TechCrunch report citing multiple sources.

Twitter'… Read more

For about a day and a half I've been testing out Color--the very public and very provocative new mobile photo-sharing app that made waves across the Web when reports revealed that the company behind it had already raised $41 million in venture capital.

After playing around with the Color app, I have a few thoughts. And I am, for sure, interested in seeing what happens in the near term with this one.

1. It's a whole new way to get to know your upstairs neighbors. I've been loading up Color inside CNET's New York office, … Read more

What do you get when you mix together a killer domain name, a founder who sold his last company to Apple, a philosophy that borders on "Minority Report"-like futurism, and $41 million in venture funding? Well, it might look something like Color, the photo-sharing app for iPhone and Android unveiled Wednesday evening by erstwhile Lala founder Bill Nguyen.

In Color, photos taken through the app are shared through proximity, something which amasses a list of your contacts through machine learning; in effect, you'll be able to see all photos around you that were taken with Color. … Read more