flickr uploadr

Quicksilver is one of the most beloved apps of Mac users, even though it hasn't been updated in a while. If you know how to use it well, the productivity tool can not only help you find anything in a matter of seconds but also gives you complete control over all your files. Consider it as a really powerful Swiss army knife for your Mac.

People who have mastered it know that it realizes its full potential when it's used to control another program, just like Mac's Automator tool can. Automator is more complicated to work with though, because you actually need to create rules and filters, so that it performs a specific action. Quicksilver is more organic, and while you can not automatize anything, you can use the program as a Dashboard from which you launch and perform actions.

Just as an example of how you can work with Quicksilver and your favorite programs, UsingMac have written a clever post on how to couple Quicksilver with Flickr Uploadr. Select your pictures, open up Quicksilver (Option+Space),  find Flickr Uploadr via the 1st pane, then choose 'Open File' from the second pane. Then press CMD+G to bring the photos to the Flickr application. The photos will load up automatically in the application. Once they're ready, all you need to do is upload them to your Flickr account. It's a shame that you can't actually perform the upload process directly from Quicksilver, unfortunately the application does not have access to this specific function.

As Nick reported a few weeks back, Flickr have decided to jump on the video bandwagon. As of today, Pro users will be able to showcase videos of up to 90 seconds in their photostream. The 90 second limit might sound a bit odd, but as Flickr explain on their blog, they want to remain a photo sharing site so the idea is for videos to be like 'long photos'. According to the guidelines videos will also have to be simple and personal, so hopefully Flickr will not turn into another YouTube clone. Having Pro users only uploading videos should also ensure that they meet quality standards normally expected on the photo sharing site.

I can't really say for now if I'm really glad or not by this new offering. Obviously, Flickr are trying to keep it to some level of quality, however I really see video as another medium. Will the 90 second limit always be around? How will you guarantee that all videos have that 'long photo' feel? From what I've seen of the videos that have already been posted on Flickr, the focus on 'artistic content' seems to be respected: it's all about the beauty of the image and showcasing cool effects. The playback functions are very simple: a start/pause button, a draggable progress bar, volume control and full screen. Videos can also be of different sizes and shapes.

As Flickr do well to explain, this will also change the role Flickr moderators will have. The photo and video sharing website has also taken the opportunity to double the video size limit to 20 MB for Pro users and 10 MB for Free users. One point that is not mentioned though is how video will affect all the Flickr related apps out there like the Flickr Uploadr, Flickr Downloader or FlickrFox.

After four years of existence (it was launched in February 2004) Flickr has become the most popular online photo sharing website, with over two billion pictures hosted on their servers. Flickr has evolved a lot during these years, from the early beta stages to a social networking community that has grown around photography. It has also survived Yahoo's acquisition, along with some slight changes in design and functionality.

As regards the latter, you can now find a handful of software tools that have been especially developed to work with Flickr, either to make image uploading easier or to make use of their massive photo catalog in some creative way. So if you're looking for a faster way to upload your pics to Flickr or want to download entire sets in one click, have a look at the list of Flickr tools we've prepared for you:

• Flickr Downloader - Download photos from Flickr and create Flash slideshows with them
• Flickr Viewr - Browse Flickr pictures without even opening your web browser
• Saleen Flickr Downloader - Download, tag and rate pictures from Flickr
• Flickr Uploadr - Publish your photos to Flickr in an easier way (also on Mac!)
• FlickrDown - Batch download photos from Flickr, as many as you want!
• Flickr Wallpaper Rotator - Download Flickr photos and use them as wallpapers
• Flickrfox - Browse Flickr photos from a sidebar in Firefox
• Foldr Monitr - Automatically upload to Flickr any photo you save on a given folder
• SendTo Flickr - Use the Send to context menu to publish pictures to Flickr
• Picasa2Flickr - Upload images to Flickr right from Picasa

Will anybody who hasn't used Flickr before raise their hand? If you haven't tried yet sharing your snaps on the photo publishing website I really think you should give it a try. Not only does it keep the original quality of images but it also lets you share them with friends, have them published online or viewed as slideshows. You can add tags to each photo so they're easy to browse by anyone and join groups with similar photos. Your snaps can even be printed into all sorts of photo books, stamps or albums. There's much much more you can do with your photos so I really suggest you take a look at Flickr .

Luckily, you'll also find plenty of Mac desktop applications for Flickr. My personal favorite is the Flickr Uploadr, which takes your snaps from iPhoto to your Flickr account, but you should also try out FlickrShop and FlickrExport. Also take a look at Magrathea, which geotags all your friend's photos on a map. After you've tried all the Flickr apps on Softonic you can browse this list of 80+ useful Flickr tools. Lots of excellent programs, extensions and webapps in there to make your Flickr experience even better.

The Flickr Uploadr is a must for anybody with a Flickr account. It avoids you the pain of opening your browser to upload your photos to your account. The application lets you create photosets and add tags to your photos. You can also manage the privacy and safety levels for each photos, to allow everyone, or just your friends or family to view them.

Windows: If you don't find anything interesting on Last.fm, try Spotify. This awesome app lets you stream music from your favorite bands, discover new music on its radio with filters for decades and styles, and organize your music in playlists you can also share with friends. Just one thing: you'll need an invite to use it, so join the waiting list now!

Mac: If you're a big Flickr fan then you'll probably be sick of opening a browser to upload to it. Flickr Uploadr is a must for anybody with a Flickr account. It spares you the pain of opening your browser to upload your photos to your account. The application lets you create photo sets and add tags to your photos.

Pocket PC: I don't know about you but I find typing on my Pocket PC a real chore. Step forward ZoomBoard, an application designed to make entering text on the Windows Mobile touchscreen a pleasure rather than a hassle. The software provides you with a choice of two new keyboard skins designed to facilitate quicker, more accurate typing.

One of the coolest looking features of Leopard has got to be Spaces, the virtual desktop manager made easy for consumers. But is it really that useful?

Spaces is not intended for different users on one Mac. If that's what you need just create different accounts. Instead you'll find that Spaces is useful if you carry out very different tasks on your Mac and usually find your desktop cluttered with open applications. Exposé users who tend to use F11 to clear up all items on their screen, or often find they have more than four applications open will also find switching to Spaces much easier.

Let's see how the function can be configured and what Spaces you can create on your Mac. Spaces is available from the 'Personal' section in your System Preferences. You can create up to 16 different desktops in total, divided in four rows and columns. From the System Preferences pane, you select the hotkeys to activate Spaces and switch between them. The default is F8 and CTRL+1 (or 2, 3, 4, etc) lets you switch between them. You will see a popup window appear on the screen to indicate which Space you switched to. I also suggest selecting a 'screen corner' from the Exposé tab to activate Spaces at the drag of your cursor.

If you're like me and you've recently acquired a new camera, you're probably playing around with it a lot and still learning about all its different settings. What I really like about digital photography though is the wealth of applications there are to work with your pics.

Mac users are lucky to be blessed with a wide set of Photshop plugins, filters, effects and full fledged applications that range from RAW editors to advanced viewers, printing solutions or uploaders for the web. Whether you're a pro photographer or just an amateur getting into photography, here is a run down of the best applications you can find on Mac to work with your digital snaps:

• LightZone - A great retouching alternative to Photoshop.
• Capture One - Handle and edit many RAW files at once.
• PicLens - A Safari extension to enjoy your pics in full screen.
• Genuine Fractals - Blowup any picture to a size you couldn't attain normally.
• Apple Aperture - The ultimate application to work with RAW files.
• Flexify -A Photoshop plugin to create panoramic images.
• Hydra - Easily make your own HDR images.
• Snapshot - Lets you print pictures in different formats.
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - Manage, adjust and edit lots of photos with this essential toolbox.
• Picasa Web Albums or Flickr Uploadr - Whether you use Picasa or Flickr to showcase your pics on the web, you'll need to upload them first.

Windows users: check out Nick's post on top software for professional photographers.

The yearly Macworld Conference & Expo, which starts today and ends on the 18th is probably the most eagerly awaited event for Mac geeks around the world, and in no small part for Steve Jobs' Keynote announcement. Last year was probably the most exciting of all, with the announcement of the iPhone, which had been secretly kept under wraps for several months. This year, expectations are still running high, but it probably won't reach last year's excitement. Main guesses are for the announcement of iTunes rentals and possibly an ultra thin Macbook. Wired also have a comprehensive list of what new software to expect, including the release of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac.

You might be one of the lucky people who has access to the Moscone Center in San Francisco where the event is taking place, or you might just be extremely curious at what's going on. So what software do you need to have in your Mac to fully enjoy and follow Macworld?

Firs of all, getting to San Francisco. If you're taking public transport, I'd advise having the BART widget to plan your trip into the bay and WeatherDock, so you aren't surprised by the Frisco fog and occasional showers.

So you don't miss any Mac related news in this exciting week, make sure you have the NetNewsWire desktop RSS reader to follow your favorite Mac feeds, like MacRumors. Even better, get a Twitter account and follow everyone who's attending Macworld or has anything to do with Mac, so you can get breaking news from inside the event and discuss announcements with other Mac fans. You should install Twitterific on your Mac so you can follow all your twits from your desktop.

Are you lucky enough to take a few pictures of the event? Then I hope you have Flickr Uploadr, so you can share your pics of Steve Jobs and fresh Mac gear on Flickr. But what if you're having trouble with your internet connection? Just set up AP Grapher, hop onto a public wireless connection and you'll quickly be back on track.

I also suggest using the Flock social browser, so you can view all Macworld related photos in Flickr from the media bar at the top, follow Mac blogs and get the latest news from your Twitter and Facebook pals, all in the browser window.

After the event, your level of Mac addiction will surely have risen so have the Refurb Store widget on your Dashboard so you can catch all those special deals on cool Mac gear.

It wouldn't be too daring to say that everyone has a digital photo camera at home which, in turn, means that most of us have an impressive photo collection. We no longer need to care about film rolls being wasted or pictures not coming up well, so we simply keep on clicking and capturing anything we see through our lens.

So, after reading the good advice provided by our colleagues on insideTonic's sister blog OnSoftware, we've gathered a few ideas about what to do with your photos, along with the necessary software tools to accomplish them. Hope you find them useful!

Copying to your PC

The first obvious step is transferring all those images from the camera to the PC. Many photo applications like XnView or Picasa include an importing tool to perform this task - even Windows its own importing wizard to help you with this process. But you can also use specific apps such as Cam2PC.

Viewing

Now that the photos have been saved on your PC, it's time to see them! There are hundreds of photo viewers available, from the traditional ACDsee to the great Picasa, including also the versatile IrfanView and, more recently, Pictomio, a new and original concept of photo viewer. Which is the best one? Just take a look at our Viewers category and choose the one that fits your needs.