Tuesday 18 Jan 2005 - 13:53
Google has introduced an upgrade to its Picasa photo editing and organizing software, offering users advanced capabilities such as adding basic lighting and colour effects, and CD burning.
Picasa 2, available for free download from the Google Web site today, builds on the product Google gained when it acquired photo management company Picasa last year.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the release underscores the search company's focus on allowing users to better find and organize information stored on their computers.
Picasa 2 scans stored images and sorts them by date, allows users to add labels and star ratings to favourites, and lets them keep pictures in multiple albums.
For editing, users are offered basic fix buttons for cropping photos, removing red eye and fixing contrast and colour. The new release also contains added effects, such as the ability to focus on a subject and turn a grey sky to blue. Picasa 2 can also be used to create a poster or screensaver with photos, or even a short film.
The sharing features have also been enhanced. Using Picasa's instant messaging product, Hello, photos can be sent directly to a friend's computer, or transferred to a personal blog using Hello's Bloggerbot tool.
The new software is available for download from Google's Picasa page at http://www.picasa.com. It requires Windows 98, ME, 2000 or XP and Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher.
Google snapped up Picasa in July last year, and began offering free downloads of the then current version, Picasa 1.6, almost immediately. The software had been selling for $29 (around £15).
Scarlet Pruitt
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