pics

Cross-platform, cross-browser, and proud of it, browser plug-in PicLens is to Web surfing as an IMAX screen is to a 13-inch laptop monitor. In theory, it takes the images it finds on a Web site, expands them to super-extra-large size, and then lets you surf through them in a classy scaling interface that we think we last saw in Iron Man. Or maybe it was The Dark Knight.

Installing it places a button on the Toolbar. When you're on a PicLens-enabled Web site, click the PicLens button to activate the PicLens interface. Your screen will go black, and all … Read more

The fun browser add-on PicLens has incorporated YouTube and Amazon.com into the short but hopefully soon-to-grow list of supported Web sites. Compatible with Firefox on Windows and Mac, Internet Explorer, and Safari, PicLens recreates your surfing experience with a futuristic graphical display.

As Rafe talked about in February, PicLens highlights the image content of a site and allows you to whip back and forth using mouse gestures instead of conventional static browsing. If you're familiar with how it works with an image site like Flickr, the YouTube interface is identical. The PicLens plug-in will install a grid button … Read more

Online storage provider Dropio has a cool new feature for its users today, allowing them to tap into Twitter to post updates every time they add files to one of their storage folders. Dropio's architecture is based around folders (called "drops") so after plugging in your Twitter log-in to any specific drop it will broadcast changes every time files are added or removed.

What makes this feature particularly useful is that you can assign it to specific drops but not all of them at once, meaning if you want to keep some files and uploads private you … Read more

Got a photo gallery you want to spice up? Check out TiltViewer. Like CoolIris' PicLens, it takes your photos and places them on a dynamic 3D wall that can be zoomed around with your mouse. Clicking any thumbnail will scale it up as big as your browser window is, and you can flip any shot to view the metadata--complete with customizable links that go towards that photo's sale page, or to download links.

The big difference between the PicLens and TiltViewer is that the latter doesn't require the viewer to have any sort of browser plug-in installed to … Read more

Crave is teeming with iPhone 3G posts today, and most of them will offer you either an opinionated or a subjective analysis on one or another aspect of the device. You can find service plan assessments, thoughts on the future of GPS, and complaints related to the music player and service.

You won't find any of that here--I don't have much of an opinion on the iPhone 3G. What can I say? It's the end of the day, and my thought process is consumed with an overwhelming desire to kick … Read more

Update 7:59 a.m. PDT June 4: Comment from Cooliris added.

Shashi Seth, the executive leading the effort to make money from video-sharing site YouTube, has left Google, the company confirmed Thursday.

"Shashi was a valued member of both the Google and YouTube teams, and we wish him well in his new endeavors," the company said in a statement. Asked about plans for his replacement, the company said, "We have a talented team leading our monetization efforts at YouTube, and we are excited about the future."

The departure was reported Tuesday by Om Malik, who … Read more

Remember ListPic, the service that used to scrape Craigslist for photos in listings and present them in a wonderfully simple visual browser? Well it's still around, albeit with listings from Oodle instead of Craigslist proper. If you're still jonesing for that visual Craigslist experience, there's a Firefox extension aptly named Craigslist image preview that you're going to enjoy. It will automatically pull up photo thumbnails from each posting and put them into the search results so you can eyeball each item before spending the extra click to see the photos.

This works for everything, not just … Read more

Stock photography houses have been under siege from the millions of amateurs shooting quality photos and making them available for free under Creative Commons licenses on sites like Flickr. PicApp hopes to give the stock photo houses a way to monetize their copyrighted photos across the Web.

Developed by an Israeli company, PicScout, PicApp embeds images like a video into a page, using Flash, and includes an advertisement. The revenue is shared with the stock photo houses, such as Corbis or Getty Images, representing the photographers. PicApp options include embedding photos on Web pages as well as bookmarking and e-mailing … Read more

PicLens, which we've covered before, is a browser plug-in that replaces the typical photo viewer you use on sites like Flickr. It's recently been updated, and if you haven't checked it out lately, now's the time. It's stunning.

The plug-in, which works in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Flock, and Safari (where it's a bit limited), lets you create a moving wall of images where you'd otherwise just see your Web app's more static display of pictures. Launching the viewer is just a matter of clicking a new "play" icon that appears … Read more