Hasta La Gadget!

Yahoo today launched a completely redesigned Flickr 3.0 application for iOS and Android. Right off the bat it seems like the service is trying to compete with Instagram head-on. It now offers filters like its Facebook owned counterpart as well as advanced photo editing tools. Users are now able to view each photo’s metadata. They will have access to information such as the aperture setting, the camera used and more.

Its similarity to Instagram isn’t just limited to filters. Flickr users will now also be able to comment, like and share photos straight through the new application. The app can now also be used to capture up to 30 seconds of HD video with live filters applied. It even has a feed which users can scroll through to see the latest uploads from their friends, something that users have long been able to do on Instagram. That was the entire premise behind the popular photo sharing service.

The new Flickr application has an auto-sync feature as well which uploads original quality photos from the handset to users’ Flickr accounts. Another major change is that the app no longer allows users to sign in with a Facebook or Google account. Now a Yahoo account is mandatory.

While the app might not compel a whole lot of people to ditch Instagram, existing Flickr users will definitely get a much better experience. Flickr is available as a free download from Google Play Store and the iTunes App Store.

Flickr 3.0 Brings Filters, Editing Tools And More , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in Cellphones, Android, Apps, flickr, iOS,

This article was written on October 04, 2011 by CyberNet.

When doing web development work I frequently find myself needing placeholder images that have specific dimensions. The last thing you want to do is sit there taking the time cropping a bunch of images to the size you need, and that’s where placeholder generators come into play. All of the online generators I’m going to show you use a custom URL scheme to make it hassle-free to get an image of any size.

Now you’d think that you’d only need one of these sites, but there are a handful I keep handy because they are able to serve up different kinds of images. Here are my favorites:

• PlaceKitten.com – Here you’ll find pictures of cute and cuddly kittens. Who can say no to a kitten?
  • Color photo example: http://placekitten.com/200/300
  • Grayscale photo example: http://placekitten.com/g/200/300
• PlaceHold.It -This site creates a bit more basic placeholders using just a solid (customizable) background color. Maybe not as exciting as some of the others, but it may be a little more professional depending on your audience.
  • Example: http://placehold.it/350×150
• LoremPixum.com – If you’re not fond of messing around with URLs this will probably be the site you’ll want to use. It has a nice selection interface for choosing the dimensions and category of your placeholder image, but images can also be retrieved through the basic URL scheme.
  • Color photo example: http://lorempixum.com/400/200
  • Grayscale photo example: http://lorempixum.com/g/400/200
  • Category example: http://lorempixum.com/400/200/sports
• Flickholdr.com – This site harnesses the vast library of photos over on Flickr. You can can even get a bit more detailed by specifying a Flickr tag you want the images restricted to.
  • Color photo example: http://flickholdr.com/200/300
  • Grayscale photo example: http://flickholdr.com/200/300/bw
  • Tag name example: http://flickholdr.com/200/300/sea

The next time you need an image it might be a huge time saver to turn to one of these sites to get something that is perfectly cropped to the dimensions you need.

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on November 01, 2007 by CyberNet.

Have you ever wondered what software powers sites like YouTube, Flickr, and MySpace? Wonder no more because Pingdom has the scoop! The results are located in the table above, and as you can see Linux, Apache, and MySQL are among the most popular tools. In the end this is how the stats play out:

OS: Linux 7 – Windows 2
Web server: Apache 7 – IIS 2 – Lighttpd 2
Scripting: PHP 4 – Perl 4 – ASP.NET 2 – Python 1 – Java 1
Database: MySQL 7 – SQL Server 1

The stats were compiled from a site called High Scalability who has assembled several posts relating to the architecture of large sites. Wikimedia (the platform Wikipedia runs on) is among the most impressive profiles that they’ve done in my opinion. It said that they receive 30,000 HTTP requests per second, and have upwards of 350 servers being managed by just 6 people. I knew Wikipedia was big, but that’s pretty darn insane!

PlentyofFish was another interesting profile that they did. It receives 30+ million hits everyday, and it only needs 2 web servers and 3 database servers to run smoothly. What’s even more impressive is that everything they serve up is dynamic…yep, none of it is static. Who would have thought?

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on April 09, 2008 by CyberNet.

Back in mid-March this year, we wrote about a rumor that Flickr Video would be here sometime in April. Well, it’s April and as it turns out, the rumor was true. Flickr Video has finally launched. It launched yesterday, and so far it’s received some mixed reviews from people disappointed about some of the limitations that have been put in place for the new service.

The first limitation is simply the fact that it’s available only for Pro members. These are the members who pay $24.95 for an account for unlimited uploads and storage as well as unlimited sets and collections. Why just the Pro users? The Yahoo Blog explains a little bit by saying “Pro members are the most active, dedicated members of the Flickr community and are the foundation to all we do at Flickr.” Fair enough, if people want to use videos, they’ll have to pay a very reasonable yearly fee.

Next on the list of limitations is the length of videos. This is where people are starting to complain because videos can only be 90 seconds long. Flickr says, “we’re not trying to limit your artistic freedom, we’re trying something new.” Something new it is because other video services out there, even Photobucket which is somewhat comparable to Flickr doesn’t have a 90 second limitation and it’s open to all of their users. Flickr’s big thing is that they want to be sure that the videos people are uploading are actually theirs and not a video owned by someone else, maybe one with copyrights. What this limit does is helps prevent material that’s copyrighted from being uploaded.

Below is an example of what a Flickr Video looks like embedded into a site:

Another point that the Flickr team made is if they were to increase the limit, well, who really wants to sit through and watch 30 minutes of your best friend’s wedding? People are more likely to view the shorter clips than sit through a long video. On the Flickr blog, they say “if you’ve memorized the Community Guidelines, you know that Flickr is all about sharing photos that you yourself have taken.  Video will be no different and so what quickly bubbled up was the idea of “long photos,” of capturing slices of life to share.”

Aside from the 90 second limitation, they also say that videos can’t be any larger than 150 MB. Here’s the thing. 150 MB is actually a pretty decent size for a video that’s only 90 seconds long. I went and looked at a couple of video clips I’ve taken with my camera and one was 32 MB and was 1 minute and 33 seconds long while another video was 95 MB and lasted 4 minutes and 35 seconds. Maybe Flickr could change their limitation rule a bit so that videos can either be 90 seconds long or up to 150 MB in size?

All in all, we’re a bit disappointed with the limitation on the length of videos. One and a half minutes really doesn’t give anybody much time to share something with friends and family. Maybe a 3 minute or 5 minute limit would be more satisfying? What is nice about Flickr Video though, is their player (shown above). They kept it clean, and left a watermark off of it. It really does look nice. Perhaps after Flickr has reviewed some of the feedback they’ve received over the last few days, they’ll consider upping the length just a little to better accommodate more of their Pro users that want to share videos longer than 90 seconds in length.

Even though we’re a little disappointed with the limitations, Flickr Video is here!

Thanks for the tip Omar and Change!

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

Everyone’s a photographer thanks to smartphones. Millions of photos of sunsets, lunches, friends, kids, cats (so many cats), and selfies are taken everyday. That’s great. But, you don’t have to — and shouldn’t — keep all those photos on …