Facebook is the most popular photo sharing site in the world, but its photo upload tool has always been clunky and frustrating to use. No longer, thanks to a prototype New Photo Uploader that will hopefully displace the current upload tool very, very soon. Instead of the slow, tough-to-navigate system that loads up thumbnails of every. photo. in. your. pictures. folder. by default (ugh!), this new version has navigation that looks a lot more like what you're used to in Windows Explorer or the OS X Finder.

Facebook ditched the old-school Java uploader they'd been using since 1995, and built a plug-in from scratch with newer tools. Aside from looking better and running a lot more smoothly, the new uploader can also run in the background, so you don't have to stop browsing while you wait for your pics to upload. The first you try to upload photos after turning on the prototype, you'll be prompted to install the Facebook plugin. It doesn't take long, and it's well worth the extra 30 seconds to get a better, faster photo uploader.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

Adobe's Acrobat.com service is getting a big update tonight, followed closely by a new mobile app for iPhone and BlackBerry. The name "Acrobat" goes hand-in-hand with the PDF file format, and Acrobat.com allows you to convert documents to PDF and save, store and view PDF files. It also features some other applications, including the Adobe BuzzWord word processor, a web meeting service called ConnectNow, and storage space for docs, spreadsheets and images.

The new features include searching by filename (I'm still wrapping my head around how they didn't have this before), but not searching within documents. That feature is reportedly coming soon. Your files are also now displayed in a file organizer that lists everything you have stored on Adobe's webspace - I think this includes saved stuff from other web apps, including presentations.

The mobile app is reportedly going to be a pretty basic mobile front-end for Acrobat.com, with the ability to upload documents and send faxes (what's a "fax?") from your phone. It will come in both free and paid flavors, and the free version will allow a limited number of uploads and faxes per month.

[via CNET]

Google is holding a press event to talk about the upcoming Google Chrome Operating System. The company is not ready to release the OS yet, and won't actually have a finished product ready for another year. But Google announced that starting today the project is open source, which means that you can download the source code today.

So what exactly is Chrome OS? It's an operating system based on a web browser called... Google Chrome. The idea is that you won't have to (or be able to) install a single application directly on your PC. Rather, all of your apps will be run from the web and all of your data will be stored in the cloud.

That doesn't mean the computer won't be able to play games or interact with USB peripherals. For instance, Google demonstrated that you can plug in a camera and watch videos using a web-based video player or copy files to cloud-based storage. And because Google has been working to give web apps access to your PC's hardware, even video games with 3D graphics should be possible as long as you have a video card that's supported by ChromeOS.

The version of ChromeOS that Google demonstrated today is still a work in progress, and we were told that the user interface could change significantly before the final product is released. But the OS already boots in just 7 seconds, and Google says it takes another 3 seconds to launch applications.

The screenshot above shows an app menu that you can use to launch some web apps. You can create permanent shortcuts to these programs by "pinning" them to the ChromeOS toolbar. See those tiny tabs at the top? Those are pinned tabs.

There will also be persistent "panels" that pop up and stay on top even when you flip between browser tabs. For instance you can bring up a Google Talk panel, a music player, or a notepad.

ChromeOS will be automatically updated each day by connecting to the web and making sure that you have all the latest updates.

What do you think? Are you ready for an OS that's effectively useless without an internet connection? While the operating system stores some data on a local storage partition, Google says it's basically just a user cache area and that data will all be synced with the web. That means if you lose your netbook or buy a new one, you should be able to pick up where you left off without missing a beat.

Stay tuned for details. The news conference is still underway. In the meantime, you can check out a few more photos after the break.

Update: You will be able to perform some tasks while offline. For instance, you can cache movies, music, or eBooks and access them while you're on a plane. But the OS is primarily designed for interacting with web services.

Update 2: If you have absolutely no intention of picking up a machine with Google Chrome OS, there's good news: All of the new features that show up in Chrome OS will be able to work with the Google Chrome browser for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

With everyone going gaga over Twitter lists, it was only a matter of time before someone built a third-party service for creating and managing lists. Enter Listerine. Instead of making you go through pages upon pages of people you follow, this handy web app shows all your Twitter friends in a drag-and-drop interface.

The friends display shows mutual friends with a heart icon, and people who don't follow you back with a star. There's a search field, in case you follow so many people that even this compact grid layout is too difficult to navigate. To add a friend to a list, just grab their icon and drag it. Perhaps Listerine's coolest feature is the ability to direct-message everyone on a list. This works great if you want to invite your local list to an event, or DM your team at work.

[via Lifehacker]

Yahoo! Go was an early mobile content service that started in 2006. It seems quaint by today's standards, though, which explains why Yahoo!'s shutting it down. With a mobile site that's available on pretty much any phone, plus a few different iPhone apps, Yahoo! simply has no reason to keep working on Go.

Go hasn't been updated in the past year, so current users probably saw this coming (or already have newer phones).

The official date on the headstone for Yahoo! Go is January 12, 2010. In the meantime, the team working on Go has been reassigned to improving Yahoo!'s mobile site. Other Yahoo! mobile properties include iPhone apps for Flickr and Yahoo! Finance.

[via TechCrunch]

Six Apart, makers of the powerful TypePad blog hosting service, have launched a leaner, meaner version of TypePad. It's called TypePad Micro, and it falls into the gap between longer blog entries and teeny Twitter posts. TypePad Micro comes with a slick-looking theme called Chroma - although you can customize the look of your blog if you want - and it's free.

If you're thinking there are already services in this new short blogging space, you're right: Tumblr and Posterous are two of them. Like those services, TypePad Micro allows you to post images, text, video, audio, and links. It also has a bookmarklet to easily post from another webpage (like Tumblr) and posting by phone or email (like Posterous). Other appealing Tumblr like features, including the ability to follow other users and reblog their posts, have also found their way into TypePad Micro.

So, what sets TypePad Micro apart? Maybe it's the bullt-in stats display (thanks to Google Analytics), maybe it's the built-in comments, or maybe it's just the Six Apart pedigree. I have to admit that I love Tumblr, but I also think TypePad (the big version) is a great product. It'll be interesting to see if there's room in this pool for another large and impressive fish.

[via CNET]

Google Image Search is already a great way to find images from all corners of the Interwebs, and it just got more interesting with a new way of visualizing results. It's called Image Swirl. Searching for an image with swirl will give you a list of 12 images, and clicking on each one brings up a cluster of related pictures. Picking one of those will spin the wheel around and give you even more to look at.

This new way of exploring images may be more fun than it is useful, but it does definitely deliver the goods. If you're a visual thinker, it's probably a quicker way to browse results than the existing "similar images" link in Google Image Search. The underlying technology for Image Swirl comes from Similar Images and Picasa's face recgonition features. If you want to give Image Swirl a spin (har har) it's available in Google Labs now.

[via Official Google Blog]

Google Translate just got a lot better, with a nice, clean new look and several new features. The first thing you'll notice is that you no longer have to click to translate. Translate now works instantly, as you type. If you're trying to translate something into a language with a non-Roman alphabet (like Chinese, for example) Google will also show the phonetic pronunciation underneath the translated characters.

If you're translating into English, you've got an even better option: you can hear an audio pronunciation of the English translation. This feature is awesome, and I'm looking forward to a time when Google inevitably implements it for other languages, too. There's a new feature for English-speakers, too, though: if you type in the phonetic, romanized version of a word from a non-Roman language (Google cheekily gives Fake Steve Jobs' trademark sign-off, "namaste," as an example), Translate will attempt to show the proper characters in the original language.

TinyChat has evolved from an ultra-light chatroom service (no sign-up required) into a quick way of setting up video chats. Now it's going one step further, launching a stream video service similar to UStream. This new project is called Tinychat.tv, and anyone can use it to start their own web-based broadcast.

Tinychat.tv pages are customizable, and bandwidth is free and unlimited, making Tinychat a great choice for anyone who wants to get started with livestreaming. It even supports multi-participant chats, in case your new show needs two or more webcams. You can also comment on shows through various social networking services, or subscribe to a channel.

[via TechCrunch]

[Update] The folks from A Story Before Bed contacted us and have offered a coupon code that allows users to try the site including sharing a story for free. The code is good until the end of November. Just enter MT9C-WN6Y-TF6J at the point of checkout, when you're asked to pay for the story you recorded.

Having to be away from your young children at bedtime is probably the absolute worst part of having a job that requires travel. Worse, sometimes it's not practical to call and talk to them before bed. A Story Before Bed is a site that is looking to solve this problem for traveling parents.

The idea behind A Story Before Bed is that you choose one of the stories in their library, then you record yourself reading it using a webcam. You can then send a link to your child's caregiver, who can then open the book on their computer, and watch as you read the story to them. They see the full pages of the book with your face inset, and the experience even includes animated page turns. To make sure that what you are reading relates to the page being displayed, the video of you reading is actually split up on a page-by-page basis, so you can only ever be listening to the correct voiceover for a given page.

A Story Before Bed is not a free service, but recording a story is free. The service charges $6.95US if you want to keep your recording so that you can pass it along to the young people in your life.

Torrent sites are a lot of people's first stop for music, movies and other files, but not everyone has figured out how to use BitTorrent. If you don't know or don't like BitTorrent, you might still be able to find the downloads you want using regular old HTTP. The site that's making this happen is called httpTorrents.

Although only a small percentage of the most popular torrents have been added for direct download, trying to download a torrent that httpTorrents doesn't have will put it on their list to be added. Using httpTorrents is as simple as grabbing the hash of the torrent you want (which you can find this on most torrent search sites) and pasting it in. If you're a fan of KickassTorrents, you may have spotted httpTorrents links there, as the two sites seem to have partnered up.

It's an interesting idea, but who knows how long httpTorrents will stick around. Because direct download requires the files to be stored on a central server somewhere this project is a bit of a legal toss-up compared to BitTorrent.

You'd think that Google's purchase of FeedBurner a few years back would have meant that FeedBurner stats would be easy to track in Google Analytics. No such luck so far, but Analytics can now track at least some FeedBurner info, although the process isn't very obvious.

If you want to see how many people click through from your FeedBurner feed to your site (no subscriber numbers yet - sorry!) here's how:

In FeedBurner, go to the Analyze tab of your settings. Make sure the "Track clicks as a traffic source in Google Analytics" box is checked. Then, in Analytics, go to "All Traffic Sources" or "Campaigns." Use the search box to search for "feed" or "feedburner," and you'll see your Feed Clicks. Google suggests you select "Ad Content" from the segment drop down in the traffic source data table, so you can see which feed readers your various visitors are using.

According to ReadWriteWeb, more detailed and easier-to-find stats are on their way from Google, so FeedBurners users have plenty of new info to look forward to.

As consumer video equipment continues to get better and cheaper, high-definition video has become increasingly common on video sharing sites like YouTube. So far, YouTube will display HD video up to 720p, but the newest cameras offer even sexier 1080p video. Next week, so will YouTube, as it introduces support for "true HD." Your new HD video uploads will be viewable in their full 1080p, and any old 1080p you've uploaded will be automatically reencoded for full resolution once the feature launches.

This is a well-timed feature release, because I'm certain plenty of 1080p cameras are going to be sold this christmas. YouTube's new HD isn't just good news for fans of gift-unboxing videos and dogs in holiday sweaters, though. Also consider the possibilities for new movie trailers and game demos. Eye candy city, here we come!

[via Mashable]

Tracking how much time you spend on a project is often a pain, and there are a lot of complex software solutions - both web-based and downloadable - that are more confusing than helpful. Yast, on the other hand is painfully, stupidly easy to use. Pick a project, click and drag on the timeline to indicate when you worked on it, and then enter a note about what you did. That's all. Seriously.

If you want to keep track of your projects in real-time, you can click the play button next to a project to start working, and then click stop when you're done. Two clicks? Even easier than a click and drag! Yast color-codes your projects and keeps track of your total time spent on them, automatically. You can zoom the timeline in and out to make selecting the right timeframe easier. Other than that, Yast has no settings to speak of. If you need anything more elaborate, you'll have to look elsewhere. If you want a bare-bones time tracker that just works, Yast is it.