NASA has just released another image of the “Blue Marble.” This time, the Suomi NPP Earth-observing-satellite captured a composite image of the Eastern hemisphere. The original “Blue Marble” photo, which was released last month, has already been seen more than 3.1 million times making it one of the most viewed photo on Flickr.

Flickr writes:

“The western hemisphere Blue Marble 2012 image has rocketed up to over 3.1 milling views making it one of the all time most viewed images on the site after only one week.”

NASA’s Suomi NPP, named to honor the late Verner E. Suomi of the University of Wisconsin, is NASA’s next generation of earth-observing-satellites. It carries five instruments on board, the most important of which is the Visible / Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite or VIIRS.

NASA explains that the new “blue marble” photo is a composite of six separate orbits around the earth. The images were created by the VIIRS and compiled by NASA Goddard scientist Norman Kuring.

NASA explains the technique, saying:

“NASA scientists created the two new ‘Blue Marble’ images from data acquired by a new instrument that’s aboard the Earth-observing satellite Suomi NPP, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). The Suomi NPP satellite is in a polar orbit around Earth at an altitude of 512 miles (about 824 kilometers), but the perspective of the new Eastern hemisphere ‘Blue Marble’ is from 7,918 miles (about 12,743 kilometers). NASA scientist Norman Kuring managed to ‘step back’ from Earth to get the big picture by combining data from six different orbits of the Suomi NPP satellite. Or putting it a different way, the satellite flew above this area of Earth six times over an eight hour time period. Norman took those six sets of data and combined them into one image.”

The western hemisphere blue marble photo, which now has more than 3.4 million views, was created with the same technique.

NASA’s ‘Blue Marble’ Photos Set Flickr Record is a post from: The Inquisitr

iPad users weren’t happy when the first generation of the device was released without a camera, an issue Apple fixed with the release of the iPad 2, but now it appears at least according to one study, that users aren’t really using the camera that much after all.

The team at ElectricPig took a close look at Flickr’s current daily average user stats for Apple devices and they found that only 22 out of 40 million Flickr users use their iPad 2 cameras on a daily basis for online sharing purposes. When compared to iPhone 4 users that number is 200 times less impressive.

At 4,391 Flickr members using their iPhone 4 each day for picture taking it shows how little interest Apple device users in general have in picture taking from their Smartphones.

It should also be noted that while only 22 iPad 2 camera users are currently utilizing the service they have managed to upload 12,570 images from their devices.

Perhaps an 8MP camera or higher on the iPhone 5 would push up photo usage for Apple iOS based gadgets.

[via ElectricPig]

iPad 2 Camera Isn’t A Fan Favorite For Internet Photo Uploads is a post from: The Inquisitr

Adherents to the loosely-connected, vaguely angry about something social movement known as “tea partiers” or “tea baggers” are known for, above all else, their inability to string together a properly spelled or coherently composed sentence. (Scroll past the pics below to view the first part of a clip from Real Time with Bill Maher from last Friday for another example.)

Someone has taken some of the more egregious examples of teabagger spelling and grammar abuse and corralled them all into a handy Flickr set devoted to “Teabonics,” a portmanteau of “teabaggers” and “ebonics.” (The name itself might be doubly inflammatory to some teabaggers, many of whom haven’t been shy about airing their racial grievances via incoherent sharpie on cardboard ramblings.)

Are you angry about “socilisim” or fear “Barock Husein” influencing your children? If so, the pics below might provide some inspiration. Otherwise, feel free to giggle and learn why it’s best to simmer down before you pick up the markers and the posterboard or risk getting mocked on the internet. (Click through for the full set.)

Do you speak Teabonics? is a post from: The Inquisitr

Flickr has been having some server issues today, but it appears the service is mostly back up and running as of now.

Images posted to blogs and reportedly were not affected by the outage. The Flickr-ing functionality has been chronicled on the Flickr blog, with a timeline of the repair process (in reverse chronological order):

11:26 AM PDT: We’ve got WWWs serving up again, and we also have an official Help Forum topic here. We’re still working on lingering issues, but things are on the mend.

10:50 AM PDT: Hey, we wanted to make sure you all knew, if you embedded photos from a photopage on Flickr, we are still serving them. So, if they are posted to your blog, your photos will still be showing there. What we are doing now is working on getting all our WWW servers back on for everyone; this includes bringing the API back up, which has been affected as well. Sorry for the downtime to everyone, we hate it as much as you!

10:05 AM PDT: We’re still here working on getting things up and serving to you, shouldn’t be too much longer!

9:18 AM, PDT: Hello! All hands are on deck over here and we’re still working on getting things back up for everyone. Apologies for the disruption!

8:51 AM, PDT: Ahoy everyone! Flickr is experiencing problems at the present time, and our engineers are all in the main engine room, working on resolving the issue. Please hang tight, and we’ll have things back for you as soon as possible. If we need to, we’ll post an update for you here.

Still a bit shaky? You can discuss your lingering Flickr withdrawl here.

Flickr back up after morning outage is a post from: The Inquisitr

Flickr has followed up on its less than stellar form on free speech by censoring a doctored image of the now infamous “Obama Joker” image on the cover of Time Magazine.

According to Thomas Hawk, the image on Flickr received over 20,000 page views until Flickr pulled the image down citing “copyright-infringement concerns” due to the use of the Time Magazine trademark in the image.

I’m not personally a fan of the image, and although I’ve not personally commented on it before, The Inquisitr has covered it, and I don’t necessarily disagree with what has been posted here. But my personal views are irrelevant to the case: love it or hate it, the image, even in the doctored Time Magazine form, constitutes a derivative work, and is legal. It may also constitute a parody work as well.

That conclusion isn’t a matter of interpretation either, because the law is clear. From Wikipedia:

For copyright protection to attach to [a derivative work]…. it must display some originality of its own. It cannot be a rote, uncreative variation on the earlier, underlying work. The latter work must contain sufficient new expression, over and above that embodied in the earlier work for the latter work to satisfy copyright law’s requirement of originality.

That I don’t agree with the image doesn’t mean I agree with the decision to pull it. The price of free speech is to defend the speech you don’t like, and hence Flickr should be condemned for yet another stupid decision on copyright, one that on the face of it they’ve made even without receiving a claim from Time Magazine.

Epic Fail: Flickr censors Obama Joker image is a post from: The Inquisitr

Gary Larson’s Far Side has long been a favored cartoon around the world, but some fans take their dedication more seriously than others.

Introducing the Far Side Reenactments Group on Flickr, a group of people committed to recreating Far Side classics in real life.

Shots above and below. Some hit the mark well, others not so close. The group started 2 years ago and only has two pages of shots, but a little bit of publicity might give them a kick along for some new reenactments. Enjoy.

Flickr Group Reenacts Far Side Cartoons in Real Life is a post from: The Inquisitr

Thanks to the Obama campaign for being so Flickr-savvy, aside from using the Internet to its limits (especially in soliciting $5). Here’s how it was during the anxious moments leading to Obama speech as President-elect.

More photos from Obama’s Flickr account.

Obama’s Flickr is a post from: The Inquisitr

Welcome to the latest service from Flickr, Flickr Explore, where 500 of the best pictures uploaded to Flickr each day are rotated through a rainbow spewing from the mouth of a Panda.

And no, I’m not making that last part up, and yes, the screenshot above is EXACTLY what you’ll find on the site here.

Mark over at Mashable has no explanation for it, but I’m going to suggest the only obvious one I can think of: drugs. Acid to be precise, and lots of it. WTF doesn’t even begin to describe this.

Acid found to be drug of choice among Flickr staff is a post from: The Inquisitr

Added to the page are group photos (it was previously just a link) and “interesting photos” below the fold. This is the official spin:

Whatever the best part of Flickr is for you, your new home page now surfaces much more of the action going on around you on Flickr. More of the amazing photos, groups, and interesting tidbits that show up on Flickr every day. And while we were at it, we made it easier for you to turn down the volume on things you don’t want to see, or just find some help.

And it’s exciting!

We’re excited to share the changes with you!

Now it’s easy to hate on sites who decide to change their layout, Facebook being a deserving case in point, but here’s the thing: the only real change is that photos are now in the left column instead of the right, and there’s a few extras photos. Buried in there someone where is also suppose to be an activity stream, because when uploading photos, that’s the first thing many people will want

Before and after

I’m not excited, but I don’t hate it either. Flickr helped popularize the minimalist layout, and they’ve kept true to their roots going for a minimalist change. The good news though is so few people will notice anything different, that they won’t be facing a Facebook style revolt.

The new Flickr, even the change embraces minimalism is a post from: The Inquisitr

The options come as part of the newly launched BuddyUpdates feature for AOL’s instant messaging platform. The feature lets you link your buddy list to third-party sites including Twitter, Blogger, Flickr, del.icio.us, Mixx, StumbleUpon, and YouTube. There’s also an option to add an unlisted service, so you could theoretically connect almost anything — a non-Blogger blog or a FriendFeed page, for example.

Once linked up, friends can see your recent activity from the AIM sign-in page or right within the AIM window itself. The BuddyUpdates service is still under beta mode.

AIM Offers New Social Aggregation Tool is a post from: The Inquisitr

Caterina Fake — who, along with her co-founder husband, decided to leave parent company Yahoo last month — will become chief product officer at the yet-to-launch Hunch.

Fake’s blog only says that Hunch is “a consumer internet application” that “will have a lot of user participation” and “is more than a little fun.”

“Beyond that, we’re still making it up,” she says.

CNET News, however, reports that Hunch is a recommendation engine driven by “collective crowd intelligence.” Its sources predict a powerful service with “top-notch” technology. No launch date has been revealed.

Fake says she’ll remain in San Francisco even while working for the New York-based startup. Her husband and former business collaborator, she says, will not be joining her in the new venture.

Flickr Co-Founder Signs With Secretive New Startup is a post from: The Inquisitr

Scientists at Columbia University have come up with facial swapping software that uses publicly posted pictures as a kind of high-tech camouflage. The concept’s being suggested to Google for its Street View program. The team believes its creation could provide a better alternative to blurring faces on Google’s street shots — a practice started a couple of months ago to protect people’s privacy.

The program works by randomly selecting a face from a database of more than 33,000 photos, pulled from sites such as Flickr and Yahoo Images. It then creates a composite, taking the eyes and nose from the new image and placing them on top of the original face. The software is smart enough to match lighting, pose, and resolution so the parts don’t look out-of-place. It then aligns the features, color corrects, and blends the new face together — and the whole thing happens without any human guidance.

The results are a bit jarring at times, but they definitely do their job. The scientists are looking at offering the software to military or police groups for identity protecting purposes. It could also be marketed for everyday use, letting you switch out a bad grin with a more pleasing shot of your face — or, if you prefer, someone else’s.

Your Public Photos Could Become My Disguise is a post from: The Inquisitr

A lot has happened in the microblogging space in the last twelve months, but Blogs Media, the company behind YouAre has maintained a steady as she goes, get it right development approach. The private beta is planned to last anywhere between “several weeks to several months” until such time the Blogs Media time thinks the site is right to launch.

So what does YouAre offer over the growing sea of competitors?

YouAre combines Twitter, Tumblr, Linkedin, Del.icio.us and the sites “secret ingredient” (their definition). At the basic level YouAre offers 140 character limited short messaging, complete with user profiles, support for @replies and DMs, and the ability to follow friends. The next layer of YouAre (and that’s the best word I can use to describe the feature sets) is Pownce and Tumblr like. Users can share video or pictures, although notably the site doesn’t offer hosting of either at this stage.

The next layer goes off into an unexpected tangent: LinkedIn style professional bios, including support for schools attended and work experience. Layer four takes us into what they describe as De.licio.us territory, but it’s part FriendFeed; yes, users can import external feeds into YouAre, although at this stage the choices are limited to De.licio.us, Flickr and YouTube.

But wait, there’s more! because YouAre also supports manual geolocation, so you can connect with others within your same area, based on the location based in your profile, or if you were visiting somewhere it’s as hard as placing /country/city after YouAre.com.

So what is it? Well it’s not a cake, or even an onion, despite the many layers. My very first impression is that unlike some of the other services I’ve reviewed lately, YouAre wins on name and aesthetics. It’s a great name, and Blogs Media has really thought about the looks of the site. It’s not OMG this is amazingly gorgeous great, but it’s pleasing to work in.

If I’m forced to label it as something, I (with some hesitation) would perhaps label it Twitter 2.0, or even a more professionally focused version of Twitter. It builds on the key concepts of Twitter, and adds to them in a way that isn’t overly complicated, or in a way that has a polarizing effect in an effort to be different (eg Plurk). Any user of Twitter will be able to sign up to YouAre and feel right at home. Although the various layers of the service sound complicated, in practice it feels like a safe, natural progression in this space.

As mentioned above, I don’t have a date as yet for when YouAre will open up nor do I have any invites yet(see below). There’s work to be done, but despite entering late into the space, here’s what I like about YouAre already: these guys are determined on launching this as a fully fledged, working platform:

Right now, our priorities are: launching a desktop widget for Windows and MAC, freeing the API, and optimizing the mobile interface, now that the site works on cell phones and smartphones without javascript support.

Yes, they won’t be launching until all the various parts of the service jigsaw puzzle are in place. In an age of half arsed product launches, isn’t it refreshing to see a company focused on launching a complete package.

Screenshots and YouAre’s spreadsheet below, and I’ll be following YouAre closely as it continues to be developed.

Update: we now have 25 invitations for Inquisitr readers. The first 25 people to email use@youare.com with this Subject: “The Inquisitr Invitations” get in. Also I forgot to add that coming in the next couple of days will be the ability to import contacts from external services, including Gmail and Twitter.

First look at new microblogging service YouAre: Twitter 2.0? is a post from: The Inquisitr

Smugmug

Smugmug is a leader in the Flickr alternatives space. Great looks are combined with good traffic and a strong community to deliver a viable and attractive alternative. The one catch though: Smugmug is a paid service with only a free trial period, a speedhump for the majority of Flickr users on a free account, but premium Flickr users with pro accounts won’t mind paying $39.95/ yr for unlimited uploads and storage. Smugmug also offers video hosting for $59.95/ yr, although with a huge range of free options in the video space I don’t immediately see the appeal.

Zooomr

Zooomr was once the Flickr in waiting, but after uptime issues last year the site now calls itself a “social utility” that offers a Twitter style short message service. Founder Kristopher Tate has also been focusing on the Japanese market. Worth consideration as the traffic is reasonable and the user base fairly active.

Photobucket

Before you ask, the answer is yes, Photobucket. The MySpace (FIM) owned Photobucket has matured past its roots as a photo uploading site for social network profiles and is now a fully fledged photo sharing site with its own community. The selling point: stable, strong ownership means that you’ll never lose your photos. The downside: it’s still as ugly as sin. Great for 12 year olds with ADHD, bad for anyone older than 25 with 20/20 vision.

Picasa Web Albums

Google has long lagged in photo sharing, but more and more lately images hosted on Picasa Web Albums keep popping up. Focused on Google’s excellent Picasa photo editing tool, Google offers functional and easy to use photo hosting that will never go down. For Mac users there is a Picasa photo uploader which looks nearly identical to the Flickr equivalent, so the switch isn’t that big. My guess is that Picasa Web Albums is the next big service in photo sharing, although it won’t appeal to serious photographers. Also like most things Google, it’s not exactly pretty either.

Dot Mac/ Mobile Me

Apple’s Dot Mac (soon to be Mobile Me) service isn’t cheap, but the built in support for photo galleries within iPhoto creates seriously good looking photo galleries. The downside is a complete lack of social sharing or social anything really, it’s great looking photos and nothing else. I personally use this service for private galleries, or to be more precise photos my 5 year old son has taken that I want to share only with family and close friends.

23

23 is the smallest service we’ve put on this list, but it stands out as being a simple, well designed, attractive photo sharing site with a active community. The risk with smaller services is that they might not go the distance, however everything feels right about this site.

I’m not about to cancel my Flickr membership, but already I know I’m not alone in considering other services, so I hope the list helps. If there are any services not included that you’d recommend, leave a comment below, and also let us know why you use them.

6 Alternatives To Flickr Now Yahoo Is In Full Control is a post from: The Inquisitr

Tickr from Dipity is a Flickr browser that delivers results in chronological order on a visual time line.

The site opens with a search engine style interface with popular results showing. Users can search for pics by tag or by location of the shot. Results are then delivered on the time line and can be scrolled backwards or forwards.

I don’t know much about the company behind it, their about page is spartan but they launched a similar service for YouTube back in May according to this TechCrunch post.

It’s a simple, functional service that provides a decent front end for searching Flickr. Worth a look.

Tickr Offers Flickr Browsing Via Time Line is a post from: The Inquisitr