Like two P’s in an iPod, Google has added a Seattle photo-editing company to its family photo album, pairing Picnik with Picasa. Picasa is Google’s digital shoebox for sorting and storing your favorite photos online. Now, when you’re ready to filter, retouch or add special efects to those images, the second Google “P” to pick is Picnik.
Founded in 2005 and currently employing more than 20, Google picked Picnik to be the ideal complement to Picasa and the rest of the Google OS, including Chome and Android. Surprise, surprise, Picnik is presently a Flash-based application so it would not be compatible with the upcoming Apple iPad.
One unanswered question is how Google will handle the premium Picnik membership free, currently a $25.00 free (Picasa is free), or whether Yahoo will continue to use the service in connection with Yahoo’s Flickr servcie where Picnik has beeen the resident photo toolkit. Early word from Google is that Yahoo is free to keep the Picnik party going. Read our interview with Picnik’s co-founder and CTO, Darrin Massen. [24×7]
WTIA Names Industry Ahievement Award Winners
The Washington Technology Industry Association has recognized the winners of its 2010 Industry Ahiebement Awards, Winners were determined by a panel of local industry experts, with the exception of the Technology Leader of Tomorrow, which was determined by online community voting.
The 2010 winners are:
Commercial Product or Service of the Year: Talyst¨ for AutoCool¨
Talyst is engineering the safer pharmacy. Talyst’s automated hardware/software solutions manages pharmacy inventory, makes workflows more efficient, reduces medication waste and improves patient safety.
Consumer Product or Service of the Year: COZI
COZI simplifies busy family life with one solution to manage schedules, track shopping and to do lists, organize chores, share information and stay in communication.
Breakthrough Start-up of the Year: VholdR for ContourHD Wearable Camcorder
VholdR is enabling modern day explorers to tell their stories of action, adventure, and travel through wearable video cameras, software and an online community.
Service Provider of the Year: Amazon Web Services for Amazon Web Services
Since early 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has provided companies of all sizes with a cost-effective, dependable, and flexible infrastructure web services platform in the cloud. With AWS, you can requisition compute power, storage, and other services, gaining access to a suite of elastic IT infrastructure services as your business demands them.
Innovative Manufactured Product of the Year: Pathway Medical Technologies, Inc. for JETSTREAM G2™ NXT
Pathways Medical Technologies, Inc., located in Kirkland, Washington, was founded in 1998 to design, develop and manufacture innovative medical devices intended for the treatment of arterial disease.
Information Technology Department Innovation of the Year: Washington State Employee Credit Union for Q-Cash
WSECU, a not-for-profit financial cooperative, established in 1957 provides savings, loan and investment products to its members state-wide. Visit www.wsecu.org for membership information.
Best Use of Technology in the Government, Non-profit or Educational Sector: OneBusAway, in collaboration with the University of Washington, for OneBusAway OneBusAway is a suite of tools to make using public transit easier for King County riders. [24×7]
Wa State Gets Fed Funds to Improve Internet Access
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke was in Seattle last week to announce a federal grant that will expand broadband access to rural and other underserved areas in Washington state. Locke was accompanied by U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Bainbridge Island.
The grant was awarded to a consortium led by Tacoma-based Northwest Open Access Network (NoaNet), a nonprofit wholesale telecommunications company. Individual awards range from $9.8 million to Port of Whitman to $298,000 to Black Rock Cable to extend fiber-optics Internet access to parts of Bellingham.
Part of the awarded $84 million will go to creating WA-HealthNet, a statewide broadband health network. The enhanced bandwidth would allow rural and urban health facilities to exchange diagnostic imaging, lab results and other medical records. [24×7]
Why Fly without Wi-Fi? Seattle-based Alaska Airlies to Rollout Internet Service
Alaska Airlines has announced that its entire fleet of aircraft will have Wi-Fi connectivity by the end of the year. The airline finalized the deal last week after completing tests with multiple potential technology providers.
In the end, Alaska chose Aircell and will go for the gold with its Gogo Internet service. The airline will charge a base price of $4.95 for the service. Prices will vary depending on the length of the flight and the device you’re using to connect. Ironically, Aircell currently has no service in most of Alaska. Its focus is entirely on the contiguous 48 states. [24×7]
Get more info in the Seattle24x7 blog
