The three most unique being:

Faces. An intriguing addition to the application allowing you to organise your photo collection by the people in the photos! Although not perfect, it’s far better than even I could have expected on viewing the demo.

Places. A way to instantly view your photos based on where they were taken. Thanks to built-in GPS and ironically Google maps, iPhoto translates the latitude and longitude into recognisable places.

Facebook Integration. iPhoto integrates with Facebook allowing you to tag the people in your photos with your friends names from Facebook. Definitely something i’m looking forward to incorporating.

Other new features worth mentioning include;

i) iPhoto has brand new slideshow themes bringing life to your photos and the slideshows can then be saved onto your iPhone or touch!

ii) Smart folders to organise your photos as you wish.

I have to say, I am highly impressed with this new release. For a split second there, I had abandoned the idea of using iPhoto and focused on a future with Picasa… Where do your photos belong?

photo via MacRumors

Picasa for Mac will have “most of the core features of Picasa on Windows” according to Google, “…we’ll be working on more refinements to the Mac interface and feature set as time goes on,”.

Impressions

For a first release i’m pretty impressed. Drag and drop functionality, decent integration with iPhoto, retouching brush, slideshow movie maker, autocropping and an auto red-eye removal is not a bad first line up. In addition, there’s the auto-sharing to Picasa web albums and tagging/organisation options which needless to say, work very well.

If you haven’t had a play yet, I highly recommend downloading the app here: http://picasa.google.com/mac. But most importantly come back and share you’re thoughts with us, enough to make you switch from Flickr, Smugmug or Phanfare?

He has created some hidden elements and measured them before and after changing their font-family to figure out which fonts are on your computer. It works with on Firefox 2+, Safari 3+, IE7+ (OS/X a fair bit nicer than Windows).

By the way, Zee wrote about another interesting font tool last week. WhatTheFont detects fonts from images for you.

Enjoy:

History of the Internet from PICOL on Vimeo.

Hat tip to Renn

MoMB’s Duval is the perfect example of somebody who has put his heart in something and creates something really useful and beautiful over the years.

The betas blogger has the tradition of publishing a short list of the year. Although he skipped it in 2007, he did rank the betas of 2005, 2006, and now 2008. Here’s the top three, but make sure you browse to MoMB to check out the runner ups. They’re also rather interesting and different than the ones you see on the major tech blogs.

1. Goosh - The Unofficial Google Shell

This google-interface behaves similar to a unix-shell. You type commands and the results are shown on this page.
// Goosh.org

2. 280 Slides - Presentations made easy

Create beautiful presentations, access them from anywhere, and share them with the world.
// 280slides.com

3. Google Insights for Search - See what the world is searching for

With Google Insights for Search, you can compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, and time frames.
// Google.com/insights/search

After a wild and woolly four years at the helm, I’m stepping down from the site lead position to work on Some New Stuff on a day-to-day basis in 2009.

An ultra short bio

Trapani a a Sun-certified Java programmer and builds Firefox extensions and web sites. She has written two books about the Lifehacker philosophy and authored articles for Popular Science, Wired, Women’s Health, PC World and Macworld.

The Wall Street Journal Online wrote a piece about her and some of the world’s largest magazines couldn’t resist the temptation of mentioning her.

You just gotta love her GTD tips

The last couple of months, her Getting Things Done tips really improved the way I work blog. Therefore, I might as well share my two favorites - as they can be projected on other professions too. She has mentioned them in an interview with Michael A Banks for his book Blogging Heroes:

• When you get stuck writing a post, step away from it for a while and work on something else.
• If a feature doesn’t come along easily, it’s probably not the right topic for you to cover.

Another favorite is the interview she had with the king of eliminating work, Mr. Tim Ferriss.

Trapani told Ferriss that she rejects the super-structured, old school of time management thought. “As a “web worker,” by nature I embrace serendipity and tangents, and like to keep myself open to working on unexpected things that excite me, even if they’re not in the plan”, Trapani said. Read the rest of a summary I made on The Next Web.

Will she share her secrets for blogging?

Many people have wondered how Trapani is able to pump out so many posts as she does. Will she share those secrets a few months after she stepped down? Let’s hope so. It’s gonna turn the blogosphere into a GTD battlefield. Interesting…

Anyhow, an hour or so later Boris called for my attention as he thought TechCrunch had made the same mistake. He noticed two posts about Jobs in his feedreader. One titled “Steve Responds to Rumors with a Steve-Note: I’m just Thin” and a second one called “Steve Jobs Explains His Weight Loss in Healthnote“. Did Erick Schonfeld and John Biggs pull the same trick as Zee and Boris?

Nah, it’s just Arrington force-feeding you some CrunchGear and MobileCrunch news. See the graphic Boris made to check out how TechCrunch’s 1.7 million RSS readers also get a load of John Biggs and the likes. Some of these articles also appear on the recently redesigned frontpage of TechCrunch.

This raises an interesting question: is it OK to show your readers posts from other blogs you own? Some readers are obviously not amused and speak of violating trust and all that. Others just ask the same question like me. I believe you can of course share news from your blog network, but doing without any notice or graphic hints is less stylish - if not confusing.

After all, you haven’t asked for Crunchgear posts, have you? Maybe you read Gizmodo for the latest gadget news because you like the tone of voice better. Who knows? Arrington doesn’t, that’s for sure. So there’s no motivation for him (except promotion) to shove it under your face.

Hacking has been quietly adopted by police across Britain, saying it is vital for tracking cyber-criminals and paedophiles and is used sparingly but civil liberties groups are very concerned.

“These are very intrusive powers, as intrusive as someone busting down your door and coming into your home. The public will want this to be controlled by new legislation and judicial authorisation. Without those safeguards it’’s a devastating blow to any notion of personal privacy,” the paper quoted Shami Chakrabati, Director of Liberty, as saying.

In this day and age, ‘Freedom’ is a very difficult ideal to define. Freedom in the UK is of course very different to what someones definition is in China. However, the fact that your personal computer, probably one of the most personal items in ones home, can be subjected to search at any given time without the requirement of warrant…crosses the line, irrespective of nation or culture.

via / image credit

He highlights that his startling and publicly noticed weight loss has been due to a hormone imbalance. He concludes, “I will continue as Apple’s CEO during my recovery.”

Here is Steve’s letter:

Dear Apple Community,

For the first time in a decade, I’m getting to spend the holiday season with my family, rather than intensely preparing for a Macworld keynote.

Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed.

I’ve decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow.

As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority.

Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause — a hormone imbalance that has been “robbing” me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis.

The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I’ve already begun treatment. But, just like I didn’t lose this much weight and body mass in a week or a month, my doctors expect it will take me until late this Spring to regain it. I will continue as Apple’s CEO during my recovery.

I have given more than my all to Apple for the past 11 years now. I will be the first one to step up and tell our Board of Directors if I can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple’s CEO. I hope the Apple community will support me in my recovery and know that I will always put what is best for Apple first.

So now I’ve said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this.

Steve

Oh and if you’re not afraid of some healthy vanity, you can also give Boris’ Twittercounter show off-badge a shot.

During BLOG08 - an international blog conference I organized last October -, moderator Patrick and I were searching for a way to show blogs full screen. We installed some add-ons, which did just one thing: making Firefox crash.

Plainview already existed. Should we have known better?

No! We were not alone. A quick search on software tracker Wakoopa finds that only 13 early adopters have discovered Plainview. So I guess it’s safe to say that we’re gonna make a lot of people happy with this post.

Download Plainview (zip file), drag it to your dock, bookmark the sites you need for a presentation, and browse through them by hitting a hot key. And don’t forget to enjoy the experience you’ve waited for such a long time.

Extra tip for writers

If you’re a blogger, get a load of this: open your post editing screen in Plainview and avoid any possible computer-related distraction.

Ok, so you got your notes (Evernote!), contacts, calendars, email, and bookmarks synced between your desktop and phone - but what about your documents? California-based Soonr wants to help you with that by giving you access to documents wherever you are, especially when you own that Apple phone.

Soonr’s desktop client (Mac and PC) uploads selected files to the cloud and syncs them every time you make changes. It’s currently compatible with 40 different file types. You can access the files with almost every smart phone, as the service works on most mobile web browsers. But when you’re the proud owner of the shiny iPhone, you got a nifty app to your disposal.

Song Huang, co-founder of Soonr and Chief Evangelist, takes you through the cloud-based features Soonr brings to the iPhone.

Some cool aspects you might not miss: you can easily send the files to other persons by email or SMS and it’s also possible to print them via a Wifi connection. There’s also a revision history and the option to comment on the doc - in case you’re collaborating with others. Editing isn’t possible (yet).

By launching this cool app, Soonr has an advantage compared to competitors like Dropbox. First, it gets a wave of attention - it’s the freaking iPhone man - and secondly, there’s no prettier and effective way of viewing documents on a mobile phone:

You can find a whole collection of historical tweets over at historicaltweets.com. Most of them are hilarious. I loved the Elvis tweet “so comfortable, you’ll think you died and gone to heaven.” and the Benjamin Franklin’s “It’s all about the me’s, baby“. What would Jesus have Tweeted? It’s there!

Can you think of other historical figures and what they would have tweeted?

It is now January 5th and there are no excuses left to NOT work on that beautiful start-up you vowed to start in the new year.

We here at The Next Web Blog and Conference are eager to start the year and work on some exciting projects for you. We will keep reporting on anything that is of any interest for the International Internet Professionals reading this blog and we have already started preparing for the fourth edition of The Next Web Conference

This years edition of our conference which will take place on April 15, 16 and 17 in 2009 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. We will launch the official site and start selling tickets in only a few weeks.

We hope you will enjoy our blog even more in 2009 than you did in previous years and keep commenting and sending in news and tips.

Strange how people who fanatically promote openness are lined up outside a shop that delivers some of this era’s most closed/lockedin tools

He was absolutely right. The iPhone IS locked-in and many examples of rejected iPhone apps show what the consequences are. If you develop an app that comes close to Apple’s core products, you don’t stand a chance. Just ask Dutch iPhone app developer Vincent Verweij about his experiences with the Apple Store.

Yet almost every 2.0 geek seems to have one, even mr. Vogels himself. Thus the best thing we can do is accept it and laugh about it. Here’s a suggestion how to do so: wear a t-shirt of an exploded iPhone. The most locked-in device, now revealed on your t-shirt. Quite a funny example of fashion sarcasm.

See all the t-shirts here.

twitter means business: how microblogging can help or hurt your company

I covered a book on Twitter last month and after seeing an excellent slideshare presentation on Twitter for Business (not related to this author) I was keen on reading Twitter means business: how microblogging can help or hurt your company written by Julio Ojeda-Zapata (website). First thing I noticed that the book not only covers the glory and success of Twitter, it also explains how it could hurt your business. I really like this down-to-earth view on the topic. The book itself is an explanation of Twitter and elaborates through  “Twitter lessons” how and why you should use Twitter for business. With this focus it clearly distinguishes itself from other books dedicated to the phenomenon. Much of the book is focused on specific cases like Dell, Comcast and Zappos and more general organizations using strategies like listening, speaking, engaging and evolving on Twitter. Two funny things about this book: for one the author itself was one of the best examples. Second the author respects Twitter language in his book by addressing both real names as well as Twitter usernames.

Outliers: The story of success

I don’t know how I could have missed the new book of Malcolm Gladwell last month… Outliers became an instant best-seller after its launch hitting Amazon’s Best of the Month in November 2008. Outliers: the story of success tries to answer the question why some become extremely succesfull, deserved or not, and others don’t. Gladwell argues that outliers rise on a “tide of advantages” like ethnic background, when and where you were born and other factors together with some luck to become truly successful. In his book, he talks about things as the 10.000 hour rule, Harlan Kentucky, and Rice paddies and math tests. As we are used from Gladwell, not (entirely) scientific but well researched and full of interesting and fun trivia make it a nice read.

MySpace Marketing: Creating a Social Network to Boom Your Business

After a book on Marketing on Facebook was launched in September 2008, Sean Percival is now publishing a book on Myspace Marketing: Creating a Social Network to Boom Your Business in Q1 2009. Not the first of it’s kind, but the contents of the book as well as the topic itself is absolutely relevant for organizations. With for instance 6mln+ members on Dutch social network Hyves, these social networks are a marketers heaven and the question how to effectively market those target audiences is more relevant (as well as more difficult) then ever. The book itself covers all the basics you would expect in a book on marketing: from an introduction to Myspace and an assessment whether your business is right for Myspace to a practical, step-by-step guide on how to market on Myspace. With inspiring mini case studies, the book shows you the tactics that work. However, the accompanying Ning Network could use some work though…

Another one?
Yes, another one.

There have been countless efforts to create a usable Web Annotation service. Diigo is one, Fleck is one (our own version) and there was the once popular Third Voice. Nobody seems to have found the right combination of scalability, user interface, compatibility and viral growth that you need to turn such a service into a widely used successful service.

Now there is Layers.com. From their website:

“Imagine if you could pull a transparent layer over any webpage and then you could create upon it. You could annotate, draw graffiti, embed video, photos or do whatever you want. Then, by providing a link, others could see your layer (with the original content beneath it) and you could see layers created by other people. You could follow your friends and see all the layers they create. You could go to any webpage and see any of the layers that have been created over that site.”

They are still in closed beta but the preview video looks amazingly cool and looks like exactly the service you would want to use. Check it out and sign up at Layers.com with invitation code “create1108” for an account.

layers.com from Layers on Vimeo.

Thanks for the tip Nalden!

The message should be something along the lines of  “hey! check out this funny blog about you… jannawalitax . blogspot . com”

Clearly, DO NOT visit the URL as it redirects you to a random site with the standard twitter homepage design in the hope that you’ll type in your login detais…again, clearly, DO NOT type in your login details.

According to Pirillo, the phishing domain appears to be registered in China. Time for Twitter to realise it’s not just geek site anymore, they’re breaking the mold and filtering into the mainstream. Unfortunately, mainstream brings in the riffraff too.

Don’t Break The Chain

Made popular by a motivation technique supposedly used by Jerry Seinfeld, the idea behind the site is to create a number of repeated small improvements to form a chain. This simple motivation tool supports your goals by providing a visual reminder to focus on your goals, daily.

Life Tango

A community of people setting life goals, sharing them with each other, and tracking progress and milestones along the way. Start off by completing a brainstorming wizard to set goals in various areas of your life, and you can also have a peak at other peoples which may remind you of ones you’d forgotten.

JoesGoals

Joe’s Goals is a simple but very effective site where you can post all of your goals, daily, weekly, etc. and can check things off as you get them done them, and it keeps track of everything for you - again the idea is to try and keep a chain of “done’s”.

Joe’s LogBook

Joe’s Logbook integrates seamlessly with Joe’s Goals, in fact, it’s basically a feature upgrade. It’s designed to help you keep several small, user-specified diaries which you can update at any time from a simple grid. Joe’s Logbook ideal for those daily activities, like maintaining a food diary.

WishDone

Wish Done is a social network which is unique as the idea behind the site to let you create two personal profiles. One profile represents who you are now, the second is your “wish” profile, which includes your hopes and aspirations. You can connect with friends based on those hopes and aspirations, join groups, and use their blogging tool if you so wish.

Mecanbe

Mecanbe (Me Can Be…get it?) is a Goal / Plan Tracking tool with social networking embedded. It lets you create and track your rea life goals online and add tasks to achieve them.

With self-assessments, task outlines, and support groups, Mecanbe can be useful to individuals as well as teams.

GoalMigo

Goalmigo is a new online community that helps you set, track and find supporters for you to reach your goals. The tracking and support tools are helpful for this type of online community, and it’s clear that Goalmigo is going after some of the most important aspects of sticking to your guns.

LifeTick

Lifetick is a well designed goals/tasks setting web application. The free version allows you to set up to four goals - the paid version allows unlimited goals. It’s simple, quick and easy to use, allows you to break your goals into categories, has a journal function and sends you email reminders to make sure you’re getting on with things!

43 Things

43 Things is probably the most popular “goal oriented” social network. The idea behind the site is to list list 43 goals/tasks/etc you want to do or achieve, and it highlights other people who have similar goals. These similar people then act as your support group as you go about achieving your goals.

inpowr

Inpowr is a serviced focused on well being and the scientific methodology used to achieve it. It does however, allow for connecting, sharing and the empowerment other like-minded members bring.

8Goals

Although not the prettiest site, 8Goals is no slouch. The site lets you detail all your life goals, divide them into “periods” until you’ve eventually achieved them - giving you a great way to track your progress.

GoalsOnTrack

GoalsOnTrack is a fantastic new goals/task management tool for people looking to achieve their goals without the social networking aspect. You can set your goals, the tasks to achieve them (including recurring tasks, due dates) and you’re also given a journal to keep tabs of your thoughts throughout. The site also offers Time Reports to manage how much time you’ve spent on each of the goals you’ve set yourself. Well worth trying out.

It’s an elegantly designed application but doesn’t seem to offer too many of the bells and whistles (yet) that clients like Tweetdeck or Twhirl do. In fact, I would say it offers no new features and few benefits over any of the major twitter clients out there, however, for a newbie or someone who just looking for a basic, simple, well designed UI (a la Twitterrific) - give this a try.

You can download the app here or visit the site for more info.

Thanks to Cee Bee on Friendfeed for the heads up.