photos

Two days ago, I griped that the new photo zoom feature in Google+ didn't work with high-resolution images. But today, it does.

"The blurriness issue you mention has already been fixed," said Dave Cohen, a photographer and Google+ team leader, in response to my experiments posting images ranging from 22 to 80 megapixels.

If you want to take advantage of the full-immersion view that's now available, I uploaded a batch of high-resolution photos from a trip to New Mexico and some even higher-resolution 60- and 80-megapixel shots taken with medium-format Phase One cameras of San Francisco … Read more

No doubt you heard earlier this week that Adobe is giving away Creative Suite 2, an older version of its popular (and pricey) image-editing and design bundle.

Then it turned out that, no, the software wasn't free; Adobe's Don Isaacs wrote that the company was merely "terminating the activation servers for CS2," and that the download page was only for those who already owned licenses for the product.

Ah, but it was too late: the story had gone viral (big time), and it appears Adobe has decided not to try stuffing the genie back into the … Read more

Like most folks, I've made "enthusiastic" commitments to be more resolute in staying healthy this year. Such crazy claims include getting off the buttocks and working out, eating healthy, and other life-changing nonsense. Recently, one of my friends started this diet called the TAO Diet, which stands for Ten and One. The premise is simple: You eat 10 salads and one meal of whatever you please. Then rinse and repeat.

I've come to realize that I'm an attention-seeking and easily distracted geek with a healthy track record of...falling off track. But rather than giving … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Is that a printer in your pants or are you just happy to remember this moment? With the Pocket Photo, which LG featured in its massive CES 2013 booth, you'll be relieved to know that it really is just a printer.

And a pretty cute printer at that -- coming in three different colors (pink, silver, and orange) with a metallic finish on its edges, the compact Pocket Photo launched last September in South Korea.

Unfortunately, an LG rep told me that there hasn't been any official plans for it to come to the U.S. yet.… Read more

Google, which found early success for Google+ among photographers and has been working to keep them happily sharing on its social network, has added the ability to zoom into pictures.

Flickr, Facebook, and other photo-sharing sites offer a larger view of photos, but it's usually at least one click away from the smaller photo that shows by default. Google offers that ability, and last night went one step further by letting people use the mouse scroll wheel to dive further into a photo.

Once zoomed in, clicking and dragging lets people pan around to explore the photo at the … Read more

Since we take our pictures with us wherever we go on our smartphones, the need for real picture frames has fallen to the wayside. But if you like to add a little extra something to your pictures in the form a frame, Imikimi HD Free Photo Frames & Effects offers tons of ornate options to do so.

Imikimi has three simple steps for selecting a frame: search for a frame, add a photo, and share via Facebook, e-mail, or text. The frames are categorized by Hot Staff Picks, Samples, Most Used, Trending, and Newest. We have to admit that the … Read more

Shutterfly announced today that it has acquired cloud-based image-storing service ThisLife.

ThisLife is a lesser-known service for users who want to store photos and videos on the Web. Upon uploading videos or images to ThisLife, users can organize them into events or categories and share them with others. Shutterfly didn't say how much it acquired ThisLife for, but the company noted that the deal will enhance its own services.

According to Shutterfly, in the coming months, it will incorporate ThisLife's storage and sharing features into its own platform. Users will be able to add photos from a host … Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which I answer Mac-related questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week, readers wrote in with questions about managing DVD collections in a central networked library, a missing or malfunctioning "purge" command in OS X, and options for archiving photos from an iPhoto library. I welcome views from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: Managing DVD collections in a central networked library MacFixIt reader "brunnerr" asks:

It this era of immediacy, it can be hard to remember the days when people would shoot a roll of film on a camera and then wait to get it developed before they even saw the photos. In a sense, before digital photography, the only instant pictures that existed were Polaroids.

Now, Polaroid is looking to change up the game again. It's opening several retail shops called Fotobars where people can bring in digital photos they have stored on their mobile devices -- including those in apps like Facebook, Picasa and Instagram -- and get them printed.

"There … Read more