"Freeware application Migratr moves your digital photos from one photo sharing service to another, metadata and all. We're pretty into Flickr here at Lifehacker HQ, but Flickr's free account only serves up 100MB of storage space, so we can understand if, for example, you want to move to the 1GB pastures of an integrated Google service like Picasa Web Albums. But since no one wants to lose all the metadata they've plugged into another site, Migratr preserves all of this when you migrate your pics. Migratr supports importing and exporting to and from Flickr, 23HQ, Zoomr, SmugMug, and Picasa; it preserves each photo's title, description, tags, and albums. Migratr is freeware, Windows only."
If there's one thing you can never have too much of, it would be data storage capacity, and Western Digital seems to agree as it unveils its new two terrabyte (!) external hard drive. This is what Jim Welsh, vice president and general manager of Western Digital's Branded Products and Consumer Electronics businesses, had to say about the product:
read more | digg story
Microvision yesterday announced that it has signed an agreement with Motorola to develop pico projector display solutions for mobile applications leveraging Microvision's ultra-miniature laser based display engine, called PicoP.
Tiny laser-based projectors are expected to enable a "big screen" viewing experience from mobile devices. By projecting content displayed on the device screen onto a wall, object or even a curved surface, mobile users could easily share Websites or multimedia applications such as movies, personal videos, mobile TV, photographs and presentations with friends or business colleagues.
more:
Source: unwired
New KODAK Software Makes It Easy to Create Photo Books, Calendars and More Using Their Favorite Pictures; More than 26,000 Retail Locations Taking Part
more...
In a bid to add more multimedia services for its mobile phones, Nokia (Quote) today agreed to buy photo-sharing specialist Twango for an undisclosed sum.
Twango, founded by a handful of former Microsoft (Quote) veterans and based in the Redmond suburb the software giant made famous, makes software that lets consumers organize and share photos, videos and audio clips through mobile devices and computers.
The company's service, which supports 110 file types, is similar to Yahoo's (Quote) Flickr property or Google's (Quote) YouTube, but operates on a much smaller scale.
The first time I saw sıɥʇ ǝʞı1 ʇxǝʇ, it was truly surprising. But it seems a fun way to write text like this and as it gets popular, those who know about it can show off, while those who don’t know this font trick keep wondering which software makes it possible. (more…)
NEW YORK — Julyl 20, 2007 — Fotolog.com and Google today announced a multi-year search technology and services agreement whereby Google will be the exclusive search and keyword-targeted advertising provider for Fotolog’s growing international network.
more...
Source: Imaging Insider
Google has acquired ImageAmerica, a company that builds high-resolution cameras and uses them to take aerial photographs. The search engine giant announced the move Friday on its LatLong blog about Google Earth and its other mapping efforts. It didn’t disclose terms of the deal.
Source: CNET via ImagingInsider.com
In the live demo, a movie producer can link the entire post-production film crew: sound, digital film, special effects and editors into one application where they can track work progress and resources used, allocate assignments to staff ... read more
Derrick Story writes, “I think the current crop of Adobe applications are well designed, and I like showing budding photographers how to better use them. But I’m noticing a trend that I wanted to share with you. After the formal presentations, when I’m answering questions one on one, I always get, “But what about Aperture?” My first response is typically, “Well, you’ll need a Mac to run it.” That never seems to be a problem.”
Burger King Corp. promotes The Simpsons Movie, converts digital photos into Simpson-like characters Picture
Burger King Holdings, Inc., Miami, Fla., announces www.Simpsonizeme.com, an interactive website that converts digital photos of participants into personalized, Simpsonized versions of themselves, says the company. The website is aimed at promoting "The Simpsons Movie," the feature film based on the television series. Twentieth Century Fox, Beverly Hills, Calif., releases "The Simpsons Movie" July 27.
After uploading a photo and "going yellow," website users can personalize their look even more by choosing from hundreds of hairstyles, body types, outfits, and accessories. When finished, users can create screensavers and wall paper designs with their new look or e-mail to friends. Simpsonizeme.com also features "The Simpsons Movie" trailers, a Burger King restaurant locator, ads and an online store where visitors can apply their Simpsonized photos to t-shirts, mugs, hats, aprons, and photo sculptures.
Burger King Corp. will also sponsor a traveling Simpsonizer throughout July and August, giving consumers a chance to step inside a photo booth and instantly become Simpsonized. Participants will have the option to immediately print their transformed photo, send it as an e-card or send it to a mobile phone.
SOURCE: PMA Newsline International
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Jul 18, 2007 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Shutterfly, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFLY), an Internet-based social expression and personal publishing service, today kicked off its Summer Memories Campaign, to reward and inspire customers, and to celebrate its industry-leading milestones, including:
- 1.5 billion photos uploaded to Shutterfly.com
- 500 million prints sold
Dedicated to helping people share life's joy, this summer Shutterfly will give away a total of 5 million prints to customers who have helped make Shutterfly the industry leader in social expression and personal publishing. Shutterfly will randomly select 25 daily winners from its customer base and reward them with 1,000 free prints each, to use themselves or to share with family and friends. In addition to the daily winners, 3 grand-prize winners will receive 10,000 prints each.
"Shutterfly is celebrating our 8th birthday by giving customers fun and creative ways to enjoy summertime with our Summer Memories campaign. After taking your family on vacation, hosting your kids' talent show or just making home-made ice cream, you can trust Shutterfly to deliver the highest quality products and outstanding service, while you preserve your most prized possessions - your memories," said Jeff Housenbold, CEO and president of Shutterfly.
SummerMemories.com
Whether it's a simple picnic in the park or a more ambitious project like the neighborhood block party, every event becomes a story and an opportunity to tell "how I spent my summer vacation." To help customers create, capture and share their summer stories, Shutterfly has launched SummerMemories.com, to inspire consumers in the Shutterfly community to tell their family stories. This marks the first time Shutterfly has showcased Photo Books authored by its own customers. New stories are continuously added to showcase the breadth of inspirational ideas from the Shutterfly community. See these creative summer-themed books at: http://www.summermemories.com.
Summer Memories visitors can also take an interactive quiz to help fill their summer calendar with fun-filled family activities. After answering a short series of light-hearted questions, quiz takers are matched to one of four personality styles: Epicurean, Social Butterfly, Traveler and Creative Spirit. This informs the types of fun family-oriented ideas and events that readers should consider this summer, along with helpful planning tips and additional online resources. Read all of Shutterfly's ideas for summer fun at: http://www.shutterfly.com/summermemories/ideas/shutterfly_ideas.pdf.
Since its launch in 1999, Shutterfly has become a leading trusted brand among families nationwide for sharing photos and creating keepsakes that celebrate special occasions and everyday moments. Shutterfly has steadily built long-lasting, trusted relationship with customers through its customer-centric policies and easy-to-use features that help people store their photos and easily create beautiful greeting-cards, calendars, photo books and other photo-based merchandise.
About Shutterfly
Founded in 1999, Shutterfly, Inc. is an Internet-based social expression and personal publishing service. Shutterfly provides high quality products and world class services that make it easy, convenient and fun for consumers to preserve their digital photos in a creative and thoughtful manner. Shutterfly's flagship product is its award-winning Photo Book line, which helps consumers celebrate memories and tell their stories in professionally bound coffee table books. The Company has more than 1.5 billion images stored in its digital archive. More information about Shutterfly (NASDAQ:SFLY) is available at www.shutterfly.com. Shutterfly and Shutterfly.com are trademarks of Shutterfly, Inc.
SOURCE: Shutterfly, Inc.
If you pick up the buzz on the most popular blogs lately, it’s like the online world woke up and suddenly discovered Facebook at exactly the same time. What a difference an open API can make when developers want to connect with millions of users. Some may be sick of hearing about the social network, but you can’t deny that some sort of lightning has hit. Now no one knows quite what to make of it. Robert Scoble asks simply, “Why Facebook, Why Now?”
For web workers, there may be a lot of answers to that question.
The job of the future, community evangelism — Call it Online Community Organizer, Online Community Manager, or Community Evangelist, lots of people are doing it. And talking about it. [Marketing Nirvana]
What if you want to hire someone to build an online community? Somebody to create and maintain a virtual world in which all the players in an industry feel like they need to be part of it? Like being the head of a big trade association, but without the bureaucracy and tedium...
read more | digg story
The Flavours Of The Month from Adidas see some great themes transferred onto some of your favourite original sneakers. From a very safisticated Lavender Gazelle to a Japanese Omasoka Micropacer…although the highlight of the pack is definitely a Tomatina Torsion. Check them out after the jump along with many more additions. (from slamxhype)
Wieder mal eine Liste, sowas wie "the hottest german start-ups". Einige gehen nicht mehr als Start-ups durch weils die ja schon 5 Jahre gibt, ist aber nur meine persönliche Meinung.
read more | digg story
If you don't know Moo, you're missing out! Moo "prints things from your stuff". Things like MiniCards, which are 'calling cards' (think mini business card) with your photos on one side, and your contact into on the other side.
Today they announced that they are adding stickers to their repertoire. You can either upload your photos from your PC, or you can import them from the web.
London, July 19 2007 – Leading European service for online photo sharing, storing and printing completes a new round of fund-raising for €10 million.
Created by the merger of Photoways and Photobox last year, Photoways Group announced today the completion of a new round of funding for €10 million. New investor HarbourVest Partners LLC, Boston, is leading the Series B round, with early investors – Index Ventures and Highland Capital Partners – also participating. In conjunction with the financing, HarbourVest’s Peter Lipson, Principal, is joining the Company’s Board of Directors.
The Photoways Group intends to use these funds to capitalize on its leading market position and accelerate its continued growth across Europe. The company is developing new sites, launching innovative photographic products and investing in additional production capacity to meet increasing demand for its products and services.
“We’re committed to driving the online revolution in the world of digital photography,” stated Stan Laurent, CEO of the Photoways Group. “This additional funding will help us strengthen our leadership of our market via great customer service and product innovation. We’re pleased with HarbourVest’s commitment to our business and the renewed confidence and continuous support from our early investors, Highland Capital and Index Ventures.“
The European market for online photo printing has seen double-digit growth rates in the past few years as a result of innovative new services and higher penetration of both digital cameras and broadband. Photoways also recognized early-on the multi-billion market opportunity in products such as photo-books, personalized calendars, or greeting cards which, in many cases, it was the first to introduce to its audience of over 4 million members. The group generated nearly €30 million in revenue in 2006, up 50% on 2005.
About Photoways/Photobox:
The Photoways group was founded in 1999 in France and rapidly expanded into 15 European countries. It pioneered online photo services in Europe with online printing, storing and sharing services for digital photos before extending its range to innovative products such as photo-books, calendars, and greeting cards. The company markets its services under the Photobox, Photoways and Pixdiscount brands.
The company strengthened its leadership of the European market by merging with Photobox, the leading UK service, in April 2006. The group is backed by leading Venture Capital firms Index Ventures, Highland Capital and HarbourVest. Pierre Chappaz, founder of Kelkoo, is Chairman of the Board and Stan Laurent, formerly Chief Operating Officer at AOL Europe, is President & C.E.O.
For more information visit main websites www.photobox.com or www.photoways.com.
About HarbourVest:
HarbourVest Partners, LLC is an independent global private equity investment firm and an SEC registered investment advisor, providing vehicles for institutional investors to invest in the venture capital and buyout markets in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere through primary partnerships, secondary purchases, and direct investments. HarbourVest and its subsidiaries have 166 employees, including 62 investment professionals deployed in Boston, London, and Hong Kong. In 25 years of investing in private equity, the team has committed more than $15.7 billion to newly formed funds, representing relationships with 200 private equity managers. The team has also completed over $3.8 billion in secondary purchases of partnership interests and invested $2.7 billion directly in operating companies. The firm’s clients consist of 240 institutional investors, including pension funds, endowments, foundations, and financial institutions throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, and Japan. To learn more about HarbourVest, visit www.harbourvest.com. This communication has been approved for issue in the United Kingdom by HarbourVest Partners (U.K.) Limited, which is regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
About Highland Capital Partners:
Highland Capital Partners was founded with the mission of helping great people build great companies. Since its inception in 1988, the firm has taken a sector-focused approach to investing in exceptional communications, consumer, digital media, healthcare and information technology companies. With $3 billion of committed capital, Highland has invested in and worked to create such firms as Altiga Networks, Ask Jeeves, Avid Technology, Be Free, CheckFree, Conor Medsystems, Continental Cable, EXACT Sciences, Helicos BioSciences, Lycos, MapQuest, Ocular Networks, Odyssey Healthcare, Starent Networks, Sybase, Telica, VistaPrint and WebLine Communications. For more information, visit Highland’s web site at www.hcp.com.
About Index Ventures:
Index Ventures is a leading European venture capital firm active in technology venture investing since 1996. The firm is dedicated to helping top entrepreneurial teams in the Information Technology and Life Science sectors build their companies into market defining global leaders. The firm has offices in Geneva, London and Jersey and focuses its investment activity primarily on Europe and Israel. Investments include Skype (the pioneering communications company acquired by eBay); MySQL (the world’s most popular open source database) and Last.fm (the world’s largest social music platform, recently acquired by CBS). For more information, please visit www.indexventures.com
Source< Photo News Today>
SanDisk Revs up its Fastest and Flashiest Memory Cards with SanDisk Extreme Ducati Edition CF and SD Plus Cards
Ducati Edition Cards Embody Performance and Style of the Italian Racing-Inspired Motorcycle Company
MILPITAS, CALIFORNIA, JULY 18, 2007 – Borrowing from the lightning-fast speeds, precision engineering and colorful style of international motorcycle racing, SanDisk® Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) today launched a line of turbo-charged flash memory cards – the SanDisk Extreme® Ducati Edition CompactFlash® and the SanDisk Extreme Ducati Edition SD™ Plus. Both have the quickest read/write times of the SanDisk portfolio*1 and represent the company’s ultimate performance products for digital photographers.
The announcement was made during a press conference at SanDisk headquarters on the eve of the U.S. Grand Prix MotoGP race on July 22 at Laguna Seca in Monterey, California. Present for the launch were Casey Stoner of Australia, a Ducati competition rider who is currently ranked number one in the international MotoGP circuit, and teammate Loris Capirossi of Italy.
The SanDisk Extreme Ducati Edition cards are the result of a sponsorship and marketing relationship between SanDisk and Ducati Corse, the racing arm of Italy’s famed Ducati motorcycle company. The line-up consists of 4- and 8-gigabyte*2 (GB) capacities for the SanDisk Extreme Ducati Edition CompactFlash card and 4GB for the SanDisk Extreme Ducati Edition SD Plus card. The latter features a snap-open connector that enables the card to be plugged in directly to the USB port of a personal computer without requiring a cable or reader. Distinctive bright red labels and packaging bear images of Ducati MotoGP racers and the Ducati Corse emblem.
“With the SanDisk Extreme Ducati Edition cards, we have reached a new threshold of speed – 45 megabytes per second for the CompactFlash cards and 20MB/sec*1 for the SD Plus card,” said Tanya Chuang, director of worldwide retail product marketing for the high performance imaging market at SanDisk. “These speeds allow for fast transfers of images from the cards, and are especially useful for professional photographers in their work-flow environments.”
The SanDisk Extreme Ducati Edition CompactFlash card is twice as fast as the SanDisk Extreme III card and is 5MB faster than the new SanDisk Extreme IV card, she added.
SanDisk’s relationship with Ducati Corse, which was launched in January, “takes the marketing of our memory products into a new dimension,” said Wes Brewer, vice president of SanDisk’s Cards and Accessories Division. “Ducati is on the leading edge of motorcycle design and performance, and SanDisk is the world leader in flash memory cards. Both companies share a passion for speed and for pushing the envelope of technology. We feel that SanDisk’s new products will resonate not only with photographers but also with the millions of Ducati and MotoGP fans around the world,” he added.
SanDisk is currently rolling out a worldwide merchandising and marketing campaign that leverages the Ducati MotoGP sponsorship.
Initial distribution is planned for August in North America and Europe, with the cards available through photo specialty stores, high-end niche retailers, high-end department stores, Ducati network shops and other outlets, including on-line. Suggested retail prices are $164.99 for the 4GB CompactFlash card, $314.99 for the 8GB CompactFlash card and $129.99 for the 4GB SD Plus card. They will also be available for pre-order on the SanDisk website at www.sandisk.com/Ducati.
Alessandro Cicognani, marketing and licensing manager of Ducati Corse, noted that SanDisk is one of only a handful of Ducati licensing partners. “This combination of performance, cutting-edge technology and design is a perfect fit for both companies,” he said.
The SanDisk Extreme brand, introduced in 2003, has received awards and accolades worldwide. Apart from faster speeds, SanDisk Extreme cards also are highly durable and can resist extremes of temperature, from well below freezing (minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 25 degrees Celsius) to near boiling (185 F/85C)*3. Both of the SanDisk Extreme Ducati Edition cards come with RescuePROas ® Deluxe recovery software CD, enabling users to retrieve accidentally deleted images or files.
Because SanDisk Extreme CompactFlash cards are faster than the transfer rate supported by traditional card readers, SanDisk offers the optional SanDisk Extreme FireWire Reader, which supports FireWire 400 and 800 connectivity on recent versions of both the Windows and Mac operating systems.
Along with the memory cards, SanDisk today also announced the SanDisk Extreme Ducati Edition USB Flash Drive, a 4GB device that has a read/write speed of 20MB/sec*1 and embodies the styling of a Ducati motorcycle. (See separate press release).
Ducati, founded in 1926, is one of the world’s best-known names in performance motorcycles. Emphasizing unique engine features, innovative design, advanced engineering and overall technical excellence, Ducati motorcycles have won 14 of the last 16 World Superbike Championship titles – more individual victories than the competition put together. Since 2003, Ducati also has been a leader in the MotoGP World Championship circuit.
SanDisk is the original inventor of flash storage cards and is the world’s largest supplier of flash data storage card products, using its patented, high-density flash memory and controller technology. SanDisk is headquartered in Milpitas, California and has operations worldwide, with more than half its sales outside the U.S.
Source <Photo News Today>
Last weekend in Boulder, Colorado, a group of about 70 or so entrepeneurs, investors, software developers, Web designers and marketing geniuses, plus at least one massage therapist, got together with an audacious goal: create and launch a new online business in 72 hours.
Conceived by 23-year-old graphic designer Andrew Hyde, Startup Weekend was an experiment in company creation and an attempt to set the land-speed record for entrepreneurialism.
In marathon small-group sessions punctuated by hourly meetings (and 90-second yoga breaks), the flash entrepeneurs winnowed a group of 10 business ideas down to the three and then chose one: VoSnap, an online voting tool that “facilitates group decision making quickly and easily” by allowing boards of directors, business colleagues, knitting clubs to cast votes and share opinions immediately using a laptop computer, a mobile phone, or any other connected device.
Exhausting just to read, the Startup Weekend minute-by-minute blog is a look inside the sausage factory, from the early consensus on the initial group of business ideas, to “Legal has incorporated the company—it’s real now” at 1:50 a.m. on Sunday, to boos and applause from the punch-drunk crowd, to business-building decisions made in minutes instead of weeks.
The launch of VoSnap.com was supposed to happen by midnight Sunday evening; unfortunately at 3 a.m. on Monday, the small core of developers still at their screens “were ready to launch *something*” reports David Cohen, one of the instigators of the weekend, “but were crippled by the timing and the disbanding of the group. Nobody had the right passwords to the production servers, or whatever. It didn’t get done.”
[Via - Dane Carlson Blog]
Internet users can now get paid for dispensing advice to strangers on virtually any subject -- from computers to calories.
But some of the new services from Web sites like Jyve.com, Bitwine.com and Ether.com are tricky to set up and a bit of a hassle to operate -- most require that you be logged on to your computer to land any business. For those looking for advice, the sites are easier to operate but the quality of answers varies widely.
Users connect with customers over instant-message chat, Internet-phone call or by calling real telephone number. Advice-seekers pay a fee (often a set charge or a per-minute price) via credit card or an electronic payment account like PayPal. The site takes a commission, often around 10% or 15%.
Sites, which ban adult content, vary widely in their quality. Although some require a user to post their credentials to advise on specialized topics like professional coaching or nutrition, most were open to anyone. While some "experts" gave us useful advice, other answers to our queries were silly. When we asked Jyve.com, "How do I hang a painting?" the first response we got was "On the wall."
Web site: Bitwine.com
How it works: Users register with username and email, price per minute and areas of expertise like digital photography or fashion. Skype, an Internet phone service, is required for both parties.
Comment: Payment system was more sophisticated than on other sites. The adviser and client can talk free of charge until they agree upon the terms of the call. The customer is charged only for the amount of time they actually spend on the call.
Web site: Ether.com
How it works: Users enter a description of their expertise, like computer support or editing, and how they want to charge. The site then generates a phone number that a user can post to a blog or Web site or that can be included on the Ether adviser blog.
Comment: The unique landline phone number for each adviser was simpler to use than connecting over an Internet phone service.
Web site: Jyve.com
How it works: The site notifies advisers when someone is asking a question relevant to their expertise -- like science or education -- through software they download to their desktop. Jyve connects them via a text-based chat.
Comments: It was a bit inconvenient to keep the software application running. Jyve says it plans to allow users to be notified through their toolbar when they are logged in to their browser.
[Via - StartupJournal.com]
LinkedIn, FaceBook, Blogger, Twitter, Jaiku…these days it’s not unusual for web workers to maintain membership in multiple online communities. The problem with this is that at some point you hit a level of diminishing returns: you can spend so much time managing and maintaining your online identity that you can’t actually get any work done or remember which contacts you met where. As always, one person’s problem is another’s opportunity, and now we’re seeing a number of attempts at identity aggregation: sites and services that promise one-stop management of all of your social networking. Here are three of the players in this new space.
Most successful organizations are driven by something. Figuring that out isn't always easy, and is often misunderstood:
MARKET DRIVEN: Lots of people claim this one, but few achieve it. Creating what the market wants. I'll put JetBlue in this category.
MARKETING DRIVEN: Much more common. This involves creating what the marketing department wants. Like American Express. more...
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