Unlike most online photo editing sites, Graphita doesn't give you ways to adjust the levels, white and black balance or saturation. Instead Graphita gives you stamps to "fun up" your photos. We were scratching our head at first as well. Why on earth would you not include the most basic tools for editing a photo? But the answer became apparent as we delved deeper into the site.

On most online photo sites your project ends pretty much the same way with you either downloading the photo or sharing it online. But Graphita did something different, by also letting you put your photos on mugs, mouse pads, shirts and a whole lot of other things that will either clutter up your home or your friends.

By teaming up with QOOP, the transition from one service to the next is fairly transparent. Once you're done placing witty captions or "slippery when wet" signs on your picture, simply select the Order Prints button and your image will be taken to the QOOP site where you can paste it on basically anything they carry.

So instead of trying to be a serious tool for photo editing, Graphita takes a more lighthearted approach. Upload a photo, add a caption or two and send it off to be printed... as a luggage tag.

Tiltviewer is a very slick way to present your photos online. Generally photos are presented in a slide show presentation where photos are displayed one after the other. But unlike a typical slide show Tiltviewer presents your photos in an almost 3D like grid allowing people the freedom to glide around your photos.

In order to use Tiltviewer you will have to download the code and place it on your website. But once properly configured it gives your photos a very modern interface and backdrop. You can zoom into each photo, move around a 3D like space and even click on each photo for more information about it.

We wouldn't recommend Tiltviewer to everyone because of the installation process. But if you are pretty good a following directions and know your way around a few lines of code then you should definitely give Titlviewer a try.

Continue reading Flipping the Linux switch: Linux web tools, Pt.4 - HTML editors for every mood

1. Start the conversation - make your site engage the visitor.
2. Make it a standard size and shape but be different - that's why you need a Web development firm with creative builds in their portfolio.
   
3. Make sure the basics are easy to find.
4. Tell us what you do. Unless your business is globally recognized, we need to see what you're selling in clear language on the home page.
5. Break some rules but stay on the good side of obnoxious.
6. Highlight your corporate tag line. Don't have one yet? Get one.
7. Use language options if appropriate.

Imagine you had a drawing program in which you couldn't draw what you wanted because each tool had a mind of its own. Also imagine you couldn't select the colors to use as it would decide it for you. If this is your idea for a drawing program then you should definitely check out bomomo.

In all fairness, bomomo never claimed to replace any drawing program you may be already be using. Actually, it never claims to be anything really. Maybe its just a web based application that just draws shapes in pastel like colors.

Using bomomo is pretty self explanatory. Select an available brush/tool and start moving your mouse around while holding your button to draw. Shapes are random so don't expect to be able to draw right angles or parallel lines, just think organic.

Bomomo might be used more for the creation of abstract art instead of drafting up plans for a multi story building so that may explain the hours of frustration we had while trying to use the program. Then again we're not really art experts as we think the velvet picture of dogs playing poker is a classic.

Continue reading Sumopaint: There's something familiar about this online image editor

Sites like Flickr and Photobucket already have services that let you build slide shows, MagToo takes it a step further by also letting you create great panoramic shots to share with others.

Creating a panoramic image does require some thought before you start uploading. In order to get a quality panoramic image, MagToo recommends that your photos overlap by at least 20-50% and that you try to keep the camera level as possible. Once you've uploaded the photos, it's just a matter of clicking the "Stitch Photos" button and letting MagToo do the rest.

The main issue we had with the service is that Internet Explorer is required for the creation of the image. Hopefully in the future, the developers will add content creation support for other major browsers as well.

NewsGator, the company behind award-winning RSS readers FeedDemon, NetNewsWire and NewsGator Go!, has just released an update to its widget platform, in the form of Editor's Desk 2.1.

Editor's Desk is a web-based tool for creating widgets that can display dynamic content (using RSS) that can then be embedded into your website, Facebook page (as an app), Blogger, TypePad, NetVibes, iGoogle,Pageflakes, Live.com and Live Spaces.

Version 2.1 boasts an improved interface that is not only better looking, but easier to use. Version 2.1 has also added two new widget templates, a search tool (for premium subscribers), the ability to clone widgets and a way to monitor the feeds within your widgets for problems.

We played around with the new version of Editor's Desk and were impressed with how easy the whole creation process really was. To create a widget, you can either add your own RSS feeds or choose a collection of feeds from categories provided by NewsGator. The free version of the service only provides minimal customization options for your widgets, you can select from a set a templates and then modify some of the colors, but if you pay for the premium version of the service, you can customize the CSS and HTML of the widgets. Some companies like USA Today and The Discovery Channel have already done that with spectacular results.

Continue reading NewsGator launches Editor's Desk 2.1

While Moodstream may be geared towards the folks in the creative department to help them design the next big thing, there's nothing wrong with using it as a screen saver. That is if you like a screen saver that doesn't actually save your screen and displays random pictures with music based on your current mood.

In order to get your mood on, you'll need to adjust a few sliders. Moods range from happy to sad, calm to lively, humorous to serious and so on. If that's more control than you would like, preset moods are also available.

Moodstream pulls in photos from Getty Images' vast database along with music from Pump Audio's Soundtrack. If you like the current mood you can save it to your moodboard (registration required) so you can come back to it later. You also have the option of purchasing any of the images or music on the spot.

So even if you're not the creative type but enjoy having random pictures and music playing give Moodstream a try.