Microsoft has teamed with Barnes & Noble to expand the Nook ebook reader business. Investing $300 million, Microsoft gets a 17.6 percent equity stake in a new B&N subsidiary (currently unnamed). That values the new company — 82.4 percent owned by B&N — at $1.7 billion, more than B&N itself.

Barnes & Noble has been spending heavily to make Nook #2 in the market and the investment from, and deep pockets of, Microsoft are no doubt a welcome stamp of approval. Microsoft is positioning itself for a strong launch of Windows 8, having recently also teamed with Nokia on smartphones. The Microsoft Reader platform, launched in 2000, was last revised in 2007 and is being discontinued this year.

“The shift to digital is putting the world’s libraries and newsstands in the palm of every person’s hand, and is the beginning of a journey that will impact how people read, interact with, and enjoy new forms of content.”
— Andy Lees, Microsoft president, April 30, 2012.

“The formation of Newco and our relationship with Microsoft are important parts of our strategy to capitalize on the rapid growth of the NOOK business, and to solidify our position as a leader in the exploding market for digital content in the consumer and education segments.”
— William Lynch, CEO of Barnes & Noble, April 30, 2012.

“This is a key way of getting more content on to the Microsoft platform — specifically e-books content to ensure that its Windows 8 tablets will be able to compete not only against the best-selling iPad but also the Kindle Fire from Amazon, along with the rest of the company’s e-readers.”
— Ingrid Lunden, TechCrunch, April 30, 2012.

Source: Cnet, Microsoft.

An entry-level, full-frame, 24MP DSLR called the Nikon D600 may be announced in September 2012. Similar to the D5100 and D3200 but with a larger sensor, the camera may cost around $1,500. Features may include an integrated GPS and in-camera RAW editor.

“I would rate this rumor at 40% probability for now. If this turns out to be true, it will change the whole dynamic in the Nikon product line — maybe we will end up with three DX models D3x00, D5x00 and a high end D7x00 (all with 4 digits names) and the rest will be full-frame cameras — D600, D800, D4 (with 1 and 3 digits names).”
— NikonRumors.

In related news, the Nikon D3200 (pictured above) is apparently now shipping.

Source: Nikon Rumors.

An interesting comparison of the upload speeds for 47 microstock agencies is presented in an article by Bobbigmac at pictWorkflow.

“I’ve been putting together a dataset to estimate wait times in the picWorkflow upload queues, and pulled out some data about the rates of agency’s FTP server receiving speeds. As expected, the agencies who accept footage have much faster connections than those who don’t… ”
— Bobbigmac at pictWorkflow, April 26, 2012.

Source: Picworkflow.

The ASCII art of PhotoSecrets has been honored at Github.

In the article “ASCII Art Signatures In The Wild or: How I Downloaded The Internet And Learned How Much One Million Is,” Github contributor Victor Widell kindly included PhotoSecrets at #25 on his list of the “more interesting examples” of ASCII art from the Alexa one million top domains list. The “art” in question is a hidden PhotoSecrets logo embedded in each page of this website.

“As a web developer/designer (amongst other things), I take pride in my craftsmanship and like to sign my work with an ASCII art signature in an HTML comment. … I had this idea: Wouldn’t it be awesome to scan through a chunk of the Internet and see who else is doing the same thing, and how their signatures look? … I’ve picked out a few of the more interesting examples.”
— Victor Widell, 25 April 2012, github

“ASCII art is a graphic design technique that uses computers for presentation and consists of pictures pieced together from the 95 printable (from a total of 128) characters defined by the ASCII Standard from 1963…”
— Wikipedia, ASCII art.

Source: Victor Widell on Github.

Consumer electronics giant Sony is expanding its online photo-sharing offerings with an improved cloud-based photo service called “PlayMemories Online”

The service integrates a wide range of Sony products, including cameras, camcorders, smartphones, digital photo frames, and even TVs with a cloud service similar to Apple’s iCloud. Users can take photos and upload them to the Sony cloud via an Android app or software for Windows and Macintosh. Sony provides 5GB of storage for free and photo-editing software for the PlayStation 3. The service replaces the online media product Personal Space.

“Today, Personal Space — Sony’s cloud-based video and photo storage service — is becoming the PlayMemories Online service. Part of the Sony Entertainment Network, the PlayMemories Online service gives you access to 5GB of storage, for free, to store all of your memories.”
— Ashley, Sony Blog, April 25, 2012.

Rival Samsung is expected to add a cloud service soon.

Related: Online backup reviews.

Source: Sony Blog, TechMeme, PetaPixel, Jay Alabaster, IDG News, PCWorld.

Google Maps has added a feature called “photo tours” that guides users through 3D scenes of famous landmarks, using photos sourced from Picasa and Panoramio.

“Experience landmarks from all around the world with photo tours in Google Maps. Lean back while you fly around these 3D photo tours showing the best views of popular landmarks.”
— Google Maps.

“Every year, millions of people pack their bags and head to far-off places to enjoy sites and cultures different from their own. While there, they snap photos to document their trip and share their excursions online. Yet none of these individual photos captures the experience of actually being immersed in a specific location. With today’s introduction of photo tours, a feature of Google Maps that guides you through a 3D photo scene, we’re one step closer.”
— Steve Seitz, Software Engineer, Google Maps, Google Lat Long Blog.

From Google:
Photo tours are available for more than 15,000 popular sites around the world, from famous landmarks such as St. Mark’s Basilica in Italy to scenic treasures like Half Dome in Yosemite. They can be initiated from Google Maps in two ways. First, when you search for a place, such as Trevi Fountain, the results in the left panel will indicate if there is a photo tour available: click either the thumbnail image or the link to start the tour. Alternatively, if you’re browsing the map and click on the label for a particular landmark, the info window that appears will indicate if a photo tour is available.

Source: Google Lat Long Blog via Mashable! via PetaPixel.

Despite the rise of smartphone cameras, the sales of standalone cameras has actually tripled since 2003, according to Reuters.

“Camera photography is certainly not dead. We’re just seeing a skewing towards what the smartphone can’t deliver. People are recognizing that and are going for a higher end camera.”
— Liz Cutting, senior digital imaging analyst, NPD In-Stat.

“For several years, it has been predicted that smartphone adoption would cut into digital camera sales. In fact, the exact opposite has happened.”
— Prashant Malaviya, Associate Professor of Marketing at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.

Source: Jeremy Wagstaff,, Reuters.

Now you can upload smartphone photos direct to Dropbox, the popular online storage service.

Send photos from your iOS or Android smartphone or tablet via Wi-Fi to a private Dropbox “Camera Uploads” folder. Or plug a camera in to your Windows or Mac PC and Dropbox will automatically detect it and walk you through uploading. The photos are saved in their original full size and displayed on a new Photos page, with thumbnail photos grouped by month.

“Getting pictures off your camera has always been a huge pain. So we put our heads down and worked worked worked to ensure that automatic upload would play nicely with anything that might have a photo or video on it. With the newest version for Mac or Windows, you can just plug your camera, phone, or SD card into your computer, and with a few clicks of the mouse all your photos and videos are in your Dropbox.”
— David Euresti.

“To help you get started saving your photos, we’ll give you 500MB of Dropbox space for your first automatic upload. As you take more photos and videos, you can use this feature to automatically upload up to a total of 3GB extra for free.”
— Jeff Bartelma, Dropbox Director of Product.

Related: Online backup reviews.

Source: Dropbox via Venturebeat.

In another sad Kodak Moment, the venerable Eastman Kodak Co. sold its online photo business to Shutterfly, Inc. for $23.8. No other bidders emerged in the bankruptcy auction. It’s a shame that Kodak didn’t invent Instagram.

Kodak Gallery reportedly never made a profit despite having over 75 million users. About two million customers are estimated to be still active which will be transferred to Shutterfly. The bid did not include the 150 Kodak Gallery employees or intellectual property such as the Gallery’s recent iPhone and Android apps.

“I’m excited to welcome Kodak Gallery’s customers to Shutterfly and look forward to working with the Kodak team to provide a smooth transition for their customers and offering them industry-leading products and customer service that will enhance the way they share and preserve everyday memories.”
— Jeffrey Housenbold, Shutterfly’s president and chief executive officer

Kodak was founded in 1889 by George Eastman. Shutterfly was founded 110 years later in 1999. Coincidentally, Kodak Gallery officially launched on the very same day as Shutterfly, on December 13, 1999. Back then, it was known as Ofoto, an online photo sharing and printing service, and was the main rival to Shutterfly.

Founded in 1999, Shutterfly, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFLY) is an Internet-based social expression and personal publishing company and operates Shutterfly.com, TinyPrints.com, Weddingpaperdivas.com and Treat.com. Shutterfly provides high quality products and world class services that make it easy, convenient and fun for consumers to preserve their digital photos in a creative and thoughtful manner. Shutterfly’s flagship product is its award-winning photo book line, which helps consumers celebrate memories and tell their stories in professionally bound coffee table books.

History of Ofoto/Kodak Gallery

• 1999: Ofoto started in Berkeley, CA by Lisa Gansky and Kamran Mohsenin.
• 2001: Bought by Eastman Kodak.
• 2005: Renamed Kodak EasyShare Gallery.
• 2008: 60 million users (source).
• 2012: 75 million users (source).

What now for Kodak?

“Kodak is focusing its consumer business on retail and destination photo solutions as well as home printing products.”
— Kodak, March 1, 2012.

Source: Dana Mattioli at The Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2012 via TheVerge. Also Shutterfly press release April 25, 2012.

After years of rumors, the online data-storage service Google Drive launched today, with more data space at lower prices than competing services from Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and sector darling Dropbox.

“Just like the Loch Ness Monster, you may have heard the rumors about Google Drive. It turns out, one of the two actually does exist.”
— Google Blog, April 24, 2012.

With Google Drive, photographers can store an amazing 100 GB for $4.99 a month, to be shared with any Web-connected device. Shoot with a Wi-Fi-enabled camera, edit online, save in your portfolio, and deliver to your client, all without using a desktop computer or local hard drive.

“Drive is at the heart of what cloud computing is.”
— Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Chrome and apps.

“This puts Google directly in the game for personal cloud services.”
— Michael Gartenberg, analyst, Gartner.

Google announcement | drive.google.com

For more information, read Online backup reviews.

Source: USA Today.