Webware

Take Picnik for a picnic with Mozilla's Jetpack

Web-based image editor Picnik, which is now a part of Google, has long been the built-in editor for Yahoo's Flickr photo-hosting service. And if you've found yourself wishing it was just as simple to edit other images around the Web, you're in luck. A relatively new Firefox extension called "Instant Image Edit with Picnik" lets you edit any image on any site, using Picnik--all with little more than a right-click.

The extension was built using a new part of Mozilla's Jetpack API, which lets developers add items to the contextual menu of a user's browser. more

Google acquiring Web-based photo editor Picnik

Picnik, which makes an online photo editor, announced on its blog Monday that the company is being acquired by Google.

The editor works directly with online photo libraries like Flickr, Facebook, and Picasa Web Albums. Users can also upload files to the service and download them again when they are done. The editing capabilities it offers are a natural complement to a Picasa, even though the technology appears to be a mismatch: Picnik works in Flash, while most advanced Google apps use the slower JavaScript. (Google, however, is working to improve JavaScript performance with its Native Client technology.)

Neither Picnik

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10 worthy apps for the MySpace user

MySpace is in some trouble. The social network announced on Tuesday that it has been forced to reduce its workforce by 30 percent amid a decline in advertising revenue and outside pressure from competitors. It's a problem, but MySpace does have at least a few things going for it.

Those include some cool applications. Apps developed for Facebook tend to get more attention in the social-networking space, but these 10, ranging from music- to game-centric, are all worth trying out.

10 MySpace apps

Causes: Like its Facebook counterpart, Causes is one of the best apps in this roundup for one reason: it helps you help others.

After you sign up, the app lets you pick a "cause" about which you care. From animal rights to protecting children, you can join any cause and try to increase its awareness. You can donate to the cause and post bulletins on MySpace, so all your friends know what you're supporting. It's a really great app.

Family Guy Picture Hunt: The Family Guy Picture Hunt might not be as useful as some of the other apps in this roundup, but it's extremely fun. Simply look at a picture from one of your favorite scenes from the television show Family Guy, and try to find the different areas on the picture that match the blocks to the right of the image. At first glance, it seems like a simple game, but you'll quickly realize that it's difficult and fun. The game is timed, so you can play with friends and see who is the superior searcher.

Family Tree: Like its Facebook counterpart, Family Tree is a really great app. When you access it, the app lists all your MySpace friends and asks you to find family members. It then sends confirmation requests to make sure that they're really family members.

Once complete, you can input your relationship to those people, and the app will create a family tree. The app's best feature is the option to see which people might be in your family. It does that by analyzing your friends list to see if there are any matches you might have missed. The app even has a family news feed, so you can be kept abreast of what's going on in each other's lives.

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PayPal and Picnik come to Yahoo Mail

Yahoo has added new applications for its users in another step toward giving its users more and more to do from within Yahoo.

The company plans to announce the limited beta of three new Yahoo Mail applications from PayPal, Picnik, and Zumo Drive on Friday. Yahoo Mail users who have indicated an interest in signing up for Yahoo's beta programs will be the first to get a crack at the new services, with the applications coming to the wider user base over the next several months.

It's all part of Yahoo's Open Strategy, designed to let outside more

You can now post pics to Twitter from Picnik

To do this you simply link up your Twitter account once, and Picnik saves your credentials for future use. It also lets you take a shot you've edited in Picnik and quickly make it either your Twitter profile picture, or background. In either case it's skipping the step of you having to venture off Picnik to make the changes.

There are several benefits to blasting out photos over Twitter. People on many modern desktop clients can view the image without leaving their app. And TwitGoo provides a simple way for other people to see the original and directly more

Webware Radar: Stickam brings streaming to Java-enabled phones

Online streaming video service Stickam announced that its offering is now available to all Java-enabled phones. Users will be able to stream video over the Web from their mobile phones with the help of the company's app, Stickam Mobile. According to the company, Stickam Mobile is now available to more than 100 Java-enabled devices, including models from RIM, LG, Nokia, and HTC. The Android-based G1 from T-Mobile is also supported.

Online photo-editing service Picnik announced Monday that it has inked a deal with social-publishing platform Wetpaint. According to the company, Wetpaint's publishing offering will now feature Picnik's more

Picnik adds support for layering, mass uploading

Picnik has just rolled out some neat new features for casual enthusiasts of photo editing.

Now found on the bottom of the editing environment is something called a "photo basket," which includes a pool of photos garnered from cloud services like Facebook, Flickr, and Photobucket, as well as uploads from users' hard drives. It also doubles as the new multiphoto uploader for those looking to unload the entirety of their memory card.

Switching between your photo sources in the basket is nearly instantaneous, and more importantly, it doesn't take you away from what you're working on. The photo more

Picnik crosses the pond, teams up with Photobox, QOOP

It's a virtual arms race among Web-based photo editors. Each one is trying to partner with as many third-party services as possible in an attempt to gain mass appeal. This morning

Photobox is about a fifth of the size of Flickr in active users, and the two have very different services. Photobox provides 1,000MB of storage and gives users more space each time they order prints while Flickr operates on a paid premium membership that requires a yearly subscription of $25.

Also starting today Picnik users will be able to print their shots using