Photology, set for public release today, is a new photo cataloging and organizing software that will help you make sense of all those photos named "DSC00012.jpg" or something equally unremarkable on your hard drive. Who really has the time at this point to go back and "tag", or group into folders, or make sense of the traffic choke of photos, years in the making, on their computers? If you've been waiting for that rainy day (that hasn't happened yet) Photology might be the solution you've been looking for.

One of the creators of Photology, Steven Kim, who works at our sister-blog Engadget gave us an inside preview of the software. Our rundown is after the jump. If you like what you see, and are quick, you might be able to snag a free Photology license (50 reserved for Download Squad readers), valued at $39 each! Details after the jump.

It might be a good idea to scrutinize your Gmail account more closely than usual these days. Not only is Google in the process of rolling out IMAP support, but it looks like some users are able to access a new version of Gmail. If you notice a new option that says "older version" or "newer version" at the upper right-hand corner, you're probably in. It should be right between the "settings" and "help" tabs.

Google Blogoscoped has a series of sreenshots showing some of the differences. Gmail 2.0 reportedly loads faster, although it's a bit early to say how much faster. And there's a much more detailed contacts section. There's a new contacts manager and the option to add images for contacts directly from Picasa Web. There also appears to be an option to "filter messages like these" from the Gmail "More Actions" drop down box.

If your account has the new interface, please let us know in the comments if you've noticed any other differences.

Want to keep up on the kind of news and cocktail party talk you can only get from long, detailed, and occasionally dry magazine articles, but don't have the time? Let Brijit do the reading for you.

Brijit is a new magazine abstract service. The site includes 100 word abstracts (or shorter) describing the key points of articles from about 60 magazines, TV news programs, and newspapers. The summaries are written by avid readers who are paid about $5 a pop. It's probably not worth your time unless to sign up as a writer unless you were planning on reading a lot of articles anyway. But if you are, you can add value to the site while making a few bucks.

Writers also rate the articles, so you have a good idea whether you want to read the full article at a glance. While this convention certainly makes Brijit a lot more useful, it does make us wonder whether Brijit can afford to continue paying writers to crank out abstracts of articles with one or fewer stars. Because seriously, who's going to read even the 100 word synopsis of that article?

Since each abstract links to the original article, we hope Brijit won't get on the nerves of content producers.

[via Read/WriteWeb]

There are plenty of websites out there that help you collect local news and make sense of goings on in your neighborhood. But ther'es something compelling about YourStreet's take on local news.

YourStreet indexes articles from local newspapers and blogs. Type in your address or just your zip code, and you'll notice markers on a Google Map showing locations mentioned in those articles. There's also a social networking component. You can sign up for an account, and an icon will pop up showing your location on the map. And you can start a "conversation," for any particular location. Say you want to comment on a play you saw, a good dog park in your neighborhood, or a particular dark alley to avoid at night. Just login and start a conversation.

Like any social network, the more people use YourStreet, the more valuable its data will become. But since the site is part network, part news indexer, there's already plenty to like about YourStreet, even though it doesn't officially launch until tomorrow.

Remember when the M in MTV stood for music? Sure, now the TV channel shows more "reality" content than music. But if you wake up early enough in the morning you might still be able to catch a music video or two. And the network's website is chock full of music video goodness. Of course, most kids these days would rather go find videos on YouTube.

So what's a music network to do? How about offering a new multimedia service that helps you answer that age old question: who the heck sings that song stuck in my head? CNET's WebWare reports that MTV is about to roll out new lyrics-based services for TV viewers, website visitors, and cellphone customers.

Leveraging Gracenote technology, MTV will let you type out lyrics on your computer or cellphone and get a bit of information about the artist and song. There'll also be trivia, games, and a link to purchase the song. Odds are MTV will tie the service into its own music store because, you know, they have to make money off of this thing somehow.

Sure, Orkut may be big in some nations. But in the US and Europe, Google is best known as a a search engine/e-mail provider. While the company lost out on its bid to own a stake in Facebook, maybe Google doesn't really need Facebook.

After all, what is a social network but a way to connect to other users with similar interests and tastes? While Facebook is a social network with applications for playing games, sharing books and movies, and so on, Google already has applications. Google also has a ton of information about your interests from your search history, e-mail, RSS subscriptions, GTalk, and even Checkout buying habits.

TechCrunch reports that Google is indeed working on a new social network that will combine features from a number of Google services. The social network reportedly bears the code-name Maka Maka, although that could change by launch. The platform would be open, meaning third parties could develop applications for Maka Maka. But the coolest part of the new service will likely be the fact that it could launch with access to a bunch of fully polished applications.

This summer we got our first look at EveryScape, a new startup that makes Google Street View look like child's play. But now that the company has launched a public beta, we have to say, we're not convinced Google has anything to worry about. Yet.

EveryScape certainly looks beautiful. 3D panoramas of real-life street views are stitched together from special photos taken atop EveryScape vehicles. Users can also submit their own photos to help flesh out details. At launch EveryScape has scenes from 4 cities: New York, Boston, Miami Beach, and Aspen.

You can click an Auto Drive button to take a guided tour of a city, or select "You Drive" to take control of the "wheel" yourself. There is also a nice directory of popular locations, including sightseeing spots, shopping, food and night life. In some locations, you can even click on an icon within the EveryScape interface to get a pop up button with more information.

But there's one big problem with EveryScape. It's slow. Really, really slow. Periodically during our test drive, a message would pop up telling us that the site was experiencing heavy traffic, which was affecting performance. So hopefully EveryScape is just experiencing growing pains. But while EveryScape provides much more detailed imagery and information than Google Street View (for selected locations), Google has a huge server farm which is capable of handling high traffic volumes.

Sure, there Skype already has clients that let you make VoIP calls on a variety of cellphones with data plans. But typically wireless carriers have frowned upon this use, because you know, it lets you buy an unlimited data plan and skimp on your voice minutes. But European wireless provider 3 and Skype have officially announced the 3 Skypephone, and it looks like a pretty sweet deal. Well, if you live in the UK. That's where the phone launches this Friday. It will be available in Australia, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Macau, or Sweden later this year.

3 Skypephone user can make free calls to any other Skype user. It doesn't matter if that person is on a mobile client or sitting at their desktop. You can also send instant messages for free. Normal SkypeOut rates apply if you want to make Skype calls to domestic or international land lines.

The phone will set you back £49.99 ($102.60) for a pay as you go deal. If you're under a 3 contract, you can pick up a 3 Skyphone for free.

[via Engadget and Skype Journal]

Hulu has finally launched. And odds are you don't have access to it yet. The online video distribution service is a joint venture between NBC and News Corp, and as of today, it's open to anyone with an invitation. Hulu execs say for now, that just means a few thousand people.

We have to admit, we were a bit dubious when the companies announced they would be launching an online video portal. Why not just distribute their videos through an existing service like YouTube or Veoh? And can't you already watch most of these programs at NBC.com or Fox.com?

The truth of the matter is, Hulu is both a web site and a distribution platform. You can watch ad-supported videos at Hulu.com. The videos load in a Flash player, so you probably won't need to install any new software on your computer. And you can embed clips and full-length videos on your own site. Since the advertising stays intact, Hulu makes money no matter where people are watching the videos. Some of the ads will be overlays, while longer videos will likely have a limited number of interstitials, or what we like to think of as your classic commercial that comes on between TV episode segments.

Hulu will also be distributing videos through other portals like MSN Video and AOL Video. In fact, you can already find a handful of full-length TV shows from Hulu at AOL's site.

While you might think the service's 2 company pedigree means you can only watch a handful of videos like Prison Break, 24, Heroes, and Bionic Woman, those two companies produce a lot of video that wind up on other channels. For example, you can find Battlestar Galactica, Monk, Psych, and other shows that air on NBC-owned channels. And there's also a library of programming from the vault, including The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lost in Space, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There's also a limited number of movies available. You can check out complete lists of content from TechCrunch or NewTeeVee (PDF Link).

New episodes will probably stay on the site for about 5 weeks. It's not clear how long episodes of classic TV shows will be online. But that's what distinguishes Hulu from a good PVR or DVD player. It's more like video on demand, in that you're at the mercy of the programmers. If you decide you want to start watching a series from episode 1, by the time you get to episode 6, the first season may have been pulled off the site, forcing you to buy your downloads from iTunes, Amazon, or the DVD store.

Update: Thanks to Silicon Alley Insider, we got us some embed code. And it looks like once you embed the video on your site, you can access all kinds of other videos through the menu system. Check it out after the jump.

Update 2: And Hulu content is live on MSN Video.

[via TechCrunch]

Samarost achieved a sort of time-waster cult status, and lucky for us a 2nd version is now being offered. But let's back up - if the word "Samarost" means nothing to you, and you have even a passing interest in Flash-based games, you need to listen up.

Samarost is probably the best-in-breed flash based puzzle game. The artwork and sound design spectacular, and the puzzles are challenging but not ridiculously impossible. Samarost 2 gives us more of the same solid gameplay and gorgeous setitngs.

Unfortunately, what's available online is only the first level, but it's long enough to get a good taste of the game before you decide if you want to shell out a whole $6.90 for the full version. The good news is that the first level is just the right length to keep you occupied for a good portion of your lunch hour having some pretty great fun in your browser.

Once upon a time trying to install OS X on a PC was like trying to squeeze blood from a turnip. The operating system just wasn't designed to run on Intel processors. But now that Apple is releasing Intel-based Macs, you can install Windows on a Mac, and with a little bit of hard work and license-breaking, you can install OS X 10.5 on a PC with an Intel processor.

Don't expect everything to work properly. You might be missing drivers for graphics cards, audio, or even WiFi. But the installation process doesn't look too complicated. Basically you download an illegal disc image (which we would never condone doing), patch it, install the operating system from a DVD and then throw another patch at it.

Once again, if you really want Leopard to run properly on your hardware, your best bet is to buy an Apple computer. But we're still pretty impressed that the OSX86 hackers were able to figure out how to install the OS on non-Apple hardware before Leopard was even officially released.

[via Daily Apps]

Enjoying those DRM-free music tracks you decrypted using FairUse4WM? Well, it looks like the fun is over, at least for now.

Microsoft recently send out a Windows update that seems to block the Windows Media hacking tool.

We have every confidence that FairUse4WM's author, (a hacker going by the name of Viodentia) or someone else will come along and crack Microsoft's DRM scheme again. But it's anybody's guess how long that will take. When Viodentia released his first version of the program last year, Microsoft responded within a matter of days. It took another half a year before FairUse4WM was updated.

Does that mean it was harder to break the encryption scheme the second time around or just that Viodentia had better things to do? We don't really know. What we do know is that this means if you're downloading music from Napster, the Zune Marketplace, or another store using Windows Media DRM, you'll have to play that music on a Microsoft-approved device for now.

Leopard, Gmail, IMAP, Facebook, and Digg. If you know what at least four out of five of these things are, you can probably skip the rest of this article. If not, it's time to catch up on some of what you've missed this week. That's right, it's time for another fabulous edition of Download Squad's Week in Review.

Gmail Gets IMAP
Some people have been waiting for years for one thing: IMAP support in Gmail. Now it's finally here. That means full synchronization between Gmail and third party e-mail clients, including Outlook, Thunderbird, and even an iPhone. Delete a message in Outlook and it'll disappear from your Gmail web interface as well. Not everyone has access to this feature yet, so keep checking the settings tab in your Gmail account to see if it's been enabled.

Tutsbuzz

Forget about purchasing expensive graphic how to books. OK not really, but you should still check out Tutsbuzz before shelling out cash at the book store. This tutorial archive links out to demonstrations on popular techniques using creative software aimed at 2D graphics, 3D graphics, video editing, audio editing, desktop programming, and web development. Tutorials range from Adobe Photoshop and Flash, Premiere, Final Cut, Sound Forge, PHP, Ruby on Rails, and MySQL. This is a must bookmark for any creative individual.

Adobe is reaching out to students and faculty by offering them Flex Builder 2 for free.

Adobe Flex Builder is an application for developing rich internet applications using the Flex framework. With this, developers can build intuitive interactive apps quickly. Why would Adobe be doing this? To try and gain some interest from new developers of course. Taking the lead from some fast food joints out there, hit them while at University and get them addicted, especially since some schools will begin offering Flex based training.

With retail prices sitting at $499, why not pick up a free copy for yourself if you are a student or faculty member and test your luck at application development. And hey, grab a copy for your non university friends too, it can sure make a great gift!