slideshow

This is an update of a deal I wrote about last year.

Mother's Day is about six weeks away, leaving you ample time to do something really special. Forget the flowers, the chocolates, and all the usual stuff; this time, give her something personal, something unique, something homemade.

For example, you know all those photos in Mom's phone, the ones she's been collecting for years but never bothers to download or print? Why not turn them into a slideshow, one you can burn to a DVD and show during the Mother's Day festivities?

Ah, right, you … Read more

Tablets and smartphones can make great digital photo frames on the fly. Social Frame Free HD Slideshow will craft a nifty slideshow of all the photos of you and your friends on Facebook and Twitter. Social Frame works well enough, but doesn't give you enough control of your slideshow. You can't do much with it once it's created.

The slideshow has to physically sync each of the pictures you want it to display individually. If you choose more than a dozen or so photos this takes a very long time and does a number on your phone … Read more

Making a beautiful slideshow personalized enough not to resemble any other might be harder than it seems. For people looking for some customization options while keeping things simple to use, FotoMagico for Mac might be the solution. However, it comes with a rather hefty price tag.

FotoMagico for Mac can import images from iPhoto, Aperture and Lightroom to integrate with the photographer's workflow. The documentation is rich enough to get you started in minutes. The strong point of this software is clearly its interface. It's well thought out and really intuitive, and everything behaves exactly as expected. Drag-and-drop … Read more

I like digital photo frames. I think the reason most people don't is that it was always a hassle to add new pictures. The Kodak Pulse solved that problem nicely, as it could receive photos via e-mail and pull them directly from your Facebook account -- but, alas, it's a discontinued product.

But here's a thought: Why not turn a tablet into a photo frame? It's got a great screen (and a touch screen at that), access to the Internet, and a slim, countertop-friendly design. All you need is the right app.

The Google Play Store … Read more

Microsoft's Photo Story is a free Windows program that lets you create audiovisual presentations out of your photos and images. You can quickly crop, rotate, and edit your pictures; personalize them with captions and titles; and add sound effects, narration, and background music. Photo Story saves your presentations as WMV files you can play on your PC or convert using a third-party video converter. Finished files can be small enough to send by email, too. Many Windows users already have it; those who don't can download and install it or repair their current installation, if necessary. We looked … Read more

You don't have to buy expensive software or be an editing guru to create photo slideshows. Free Slideshow Maker pieces together multiple pictures and you can add audio files to make your slideshow more appealing. It's not as feature-packed as some similar programs, but it works just fine for showing off pictures to friends, and it's easy enough for rookie users.

Free Slideshow Maker supports most picture and audio formats, so there's no need to convert anything. As for outputting the final product, only the AVI extension is supported. While most computers will be able to … Read more

Animoto, the app that turns Facebook photos into slideshow videos, added a highlight reel feature today that lets users create videos based on their most popular photos of the year.

The magic behind the highlight reel is Facebook's Open Graph. Animoto pulls the photos and captions from your profile -- these include ones you posted and those you're tagged in -- based on how many times your friends commented or liked them, or how many people were tagged in it. The videos are set to music and can include text.

The result, Animoto CEO Brad Jefferson said, is … Read more

Pinnacle's premium video suites offer pro-level editing and production tools. Pinnacle VideoSpin is a free video suite that offers similar capabilities but in a simpler package. It's specifically designed to make it easy enough for beginners to create high-quality videos and slideshows to save, burn to disk, or post online.

VideoSpin lacks Pinnacle Studio's SmartMovie feature, DVD burner, and advanced audio tools. You can open your VideoSpin projects in Pinnacle Studio, but not vice versa, and once something's been opened in Studio, it won't open anymore in VideoSpin. You must register to download VideoSpin, but … Read more

ACDSee 15 is a full-featured photo editor and manager optimized for home and business users. It shares many features and capabilities with ACD's pro photography applications, including powerful image editing tools that can handle the tasks you need as well as gigabytes of online storage space that you can use to organize and safely store tons of images. You can access your account anywhere, and from any computer or related ACD tool, by simply logging in. But ACDSee 15 is also specifically geared to make it easy to post and share your photos online, create slideshows and CDs, add … Read more