mosaic

Users are advised to read AndreaMosaic's comprehensive Help file before getting started with their first project, but most will find the effort is worth it. We were impressed with the photomosaics we were able to create after getting familiar with the program.

The program opens with a plain screen that has a dozen options for creating a mosaic. Even though most of the settings are easy to understand, we appreciated the mouse-over labels. Still, a trip to the 32-page Help file should be the first order of business to get a sense of the program's workflow; the navigation … Read more

Creating a photomosaic is a great way to combine a lot of pictures into one collage. AndreaMosaic promises users a program that promises to make mosaics simpler and easier to create. However, attempting to use this program proves otherwise.

This freeware program has an interface that immediately looks like making a mosaic will be easy. A simple menu at the top lets users select pictures, which appear in the right two-thirds of the screen. A column along the left hand side showcases the size of the picture, number of tiles, tile duplication, and a few other variables. At the bottom … Read more

National Geographic has a fun new feature called the Infinite Photograph that takes over 300,000 photos collected from its archives and submitted by users, and turns them into a giant photo mosaic. It lets you zoom in infinitely, making your way deeper into each photo as it breaks down into smaller photos of various colors.

The service is the latest effort to promote the company's MyShot program, which showcases user-uploaded photographs that appear both online and in the monthly publication.

Early Thursday I spoke with Rob Covey, who is National Geographic's senior vice president of content and … Read more

Like fire? Have a backyard? Would you like to have a fire in your backyard? Well, you could dig a pit deep enough to safely contain a large conflagration, but that could get messy, not to mention deep--like deep in the ground. And you'd have to bend down to clean out ashes, and it is a hole in the ground after all. I don't know about you, but holes in the ground tend to sneak up on me.

Fear not, my fire pit friends. The Slate-and-marble Mosaic-top Gas Fire Pit from Frontgate takes all your pyromaniacal urges into … Read more

Creative has released the details of its new Zen Mozaic MP3 player, an attractive heir to the relatively antique Zen V Plus series. It's currently available only in Singapore, the Creative Zen Mozaic is offered in three colors (silver, pink, and black) and three capacities (2GB, 4GB, and 8GB). The Mozaic's features include a 1.8-inch screen, FM tuner, voice recording, photo viewer, video playback, calendar, built-in speaker, and support for MP3, WMA, WAV, and Audible audio formats.

There's no telling when the Zen Mozaic will hit the states, but it's safe to expect prices comparable … Read more

Want to emulate that neat collage look you get when you get photos printed out? There's a service called Collagr that does it for you pulling in photos from Flickr. If you've got shots on there, just fill in your username and Collagr will do its magic. The result is a square array that may look a little small in the preview, but if you save it to your hard drive you'll notice it's 1,400x1,025, which is larger than the average desktop wallpaper. The recommended use, however, is for MySpace profiles--you know, the kind … Read more

If you could spend $6,000 on anything right now, it would certainly be a photomosaic mirror comprised of a 30-inch LCD screen and a Mac Mini, right? If so, you're in luck, because The Barbarian Group is now selling custom-made, limited-edition, real-time photomosaic mirrors. They come as a large box that you need simply hang up and plug in. Its built-in Web cam will take your image and display it as a photo mosaic with about a second of lag while it processes many teeny-tiny pictures to reflect a live image (see video here).

To build up its … Read more

The Flickr API has opened up a lot of fun tools over the years. This morning we got a tip about Image Mosaic Generator, a free service that creates neat-looking picture mosaics of uploaded images. The service uses Flickr images to make up each mosaic and lets users save the end result to their hard drive. Images have a fair bit of variation, although you're likely to see a few repeats close up. The service doesn't link back to the original Flickr images, which is a bit disappointing, but as a result, handles the conversion from image to … Read more