Released awhile ago, SnapPages is a flash powered interface that allows you to share your hobbies/interests, organize schedules, and socialize with friends. They have three applications currently, including: Friend’s Manager, Calendar Manager, and Photo Manager. Each one of these applications has their own specific uses and functions nicely.

The first, and probably most in depth section is the Friend’s Manager. This area allows you to talk with friends in the form of “Gabs”. You can assign Gabs to your friends and enable whether or not you wish to allow them to invite others to the Gab. It’s more or less of a simple flash messaging system. There’s also a “Email Alerts” option which will automatically inform you by email if: you get a new friend request, someone accepts your friend invitation, you’re included in a Gab, or if someone replies to an existing Gab. You get your usual User Profile to edit; name, birthday, picture, hobbies, location, etc. Additionally, they have added a section called “Exchange” which categorizes all types of hobbies and interests: Auto, Finance, Books, Games, Jobs and many others. In these categories, you can create mini threads so that you can share all your favorites interests with your friends. A five star rating system has been implemented so that you and your friends can vote on what things are cool, and what things are not. You can sort them by name, date, friend or rating, as well as add “Opinions”, which are just comments on your Exchange items. If you want to, they’ve also added a print feature for the User Opinions. It reminded me of Delicious Library, a simple application for Mac users to categorize their interests in their own libraries.

SnapPages also includes a Photo Manager application allowing you to organize your screen shots and miscellaneous pictures. To start, you can create an “Album” to import your photos and other pictures. Each album can be set to public, private, secure, or friend-only. Secure requires for you to input a password to access it, the others have permission according to their name. You can add tags to the photos to help organize them for later use. While in your albums area, you can enlarge your photos by using the slider found in the upper right corner. They have included a mild photo editing section in the Photo Manager where you can rotate, crop, and/or adjust brightness. They have a few others setting to revise the lighting and other effects, but there isn’t many option currently right now. If you’re looking for some more in-depth online flash photo editing, head over to Picnik. You able to share your photo galleries with friends by selecting the particular album that you want to share and adding recipients along with an optional message. Lastly, there’s the download feature that simply let’s you download any of the photos you have in any of your albums.

The last section of SnapPages is the Calendar Manager. Each calendar that you create acts identical to the Photo Manager’s Albums in regards to their property settings: private, public, secure, and friends-only. You can color coordinate new calendars when you create them as well as changing their format from the normal month calendar, to a weekly or daily calendar format. You can add events to your calendars which will require you to specify a time, a place, and any further details you need for the events. They also give you the option to input a URL to an online map if you find it necessary for the event. You also can define whether your event is a repeating affair. If so, you can input the time span it repeats: day, week, month, or year. You can also add notifications to each event, which sends you a reminder prior to the actual event. They also give you the ability to add tasks to your calendars and set exact due dates for each project. Like I mentioned, they have the Share option just like the Photo Manager if you desire to collaborate or share certain calendars with friends. They’ve included a nice RSS feature which allows you to subscribe to your friend’s calendars and see their past and upcoming events. Overall, the Calendar Manager is a nice simple way of helping to keep yourself on track for things you need to get done. It’s not nearly as in-depth as something like Google’s Calendar, however for the average person, it’ll suffice just fine.

To be honest, I liked SnapPages. Though it didn’t bring anything incredibly new to the table, it laid out all the old stuff neatly and thoroughly. Since it was created in Flash, the animation helped give it a nice touch of fluency. Give it a try, it was fun to play around in it. They plan on continuously adding new features to SnapPages, so we can only hope for the best.

Can’t get enough social networks? I know I, um can’t. Anyways, here we go. MyQuire, it’s a network where you can handle a lot of different things including tasks, scheduling, projects, even photos. Of course you’ll also immediately find the social community aspects under its skin. Friends, networks, and associates features are there. Brian made the point that MyQuire mimics 8apps a bit in the overall goal its trying to accomplish, and I agree with him. Both applications are trying to make organization, brainstorming, and task handling on the web easier.

Looking deeper under the surface you’ll find everything you’re used to. You have your own homepage that you’ll be able to edit at will. It’s split up into sections including, Photos, Tasks, Projects, Friends, the Wall, etc. Each section does essentially what you’d think it would do. Photos allows you to upload pictures from your computer. Your main profile holds all the necessary personal information identifying you, age, relationship status, location, email, even spiritual and political preferences. You have your own inbox on MyQuire that you can send and receive messages from other users. Also on your main page you have the “Wall” which simply allows you to post random comments and ideas that may come to your mind.

You have a projects area where you can create projects and assign members to. In the free plan, I felt it would’ve been nice to allow users to create more than one project to play around with. To add members to a project, simply drag the people you want working on the project from your friends list, onto the desired project. Also, each project is logged into a folder in the “My Hard Drive” section of the website also. This area allows you to manage each of your projects folders. You can open up and revise the files within each of these folders in a WYSIWYG. Easy enough. You can create new files in the hard drive sections and they’ll be stored there and displayed under the “My Files” section on your profile’s front page as well.

The calendar part of MyQuire is probably one of my favorites. It sets you up with a calendar that you are able to add tasks to by day and time. It works very nicely for keeping track of numerous events if your life is a little hectic. You can display them by day, week or month and you can also use the “Subscribe” button to synchronize your MyQuire calendar up with some of the more popular offline calendar applications, including Microsoft Outlook, iCal, and Mozilla Sunbird. The tasks section of the site also has this synchronization feature. Not much to really say about the tasks section though. You create tasks and assign them to a specific due date, if applicable.

While MyQuire doesn’t do anything wrong, it doesn’t do anything really new. We’ve been seeing these networks emerge like dandelions on the internet. One sprouts and soon its ideas fly through the virtual wind and attract others to try and make something similar. I have nothing against MyQuire, it functions, it’s very easy to learn and use, and it covers all the necessary aspects to help people keep themselves organized. Would it be worth upgrading to the Premium plan? I personal wouldn’t, but if it’s your cup of tea, go for it.

Social networks are sprouting across the internet faster than you can shake a stick at, however a social network for 3D artists is quite the rare find. Teapotters is that rare discovery. It’s your standard run of the mill community, however just knowing that it revolves around 3D work is unique in itself.

Right off the bat, you’ll have to go through a small installation of the 3D Life Player plug-in. This will allow you to view the models that other members have uploaded and give you the freedom to zoom, pan, and twist and turn the models at your leisure. Each user is able to upload their 3D work from Blender, 3D Studio Max, Maya, Poser, and Lightwave, just to name a few. Also, on the upload page there are many choices of customization for your model(s) including: privacy preference, tagging, license selection, and whether or not you wish for your model to be available for download.

On the main page there is a little summary of your activity and other various information coupled together with a gallery of thumbnails of any models that you personally uploaded. You’ll find small statistics such as a percentage of account usage, profile views, and number of times your profile has been saved by others on the sidebar. Links to your Contact List and profile editing are also openly available from your homepage. In the Edit Profile section you can change your password if needed, select your preferred 3D player (3dxml player, or virtools player), upload a picture of yourself, and decide whether you want your email address visible on your profile page for the public eyes to see. Note: using the 3dxml player requires ActiveX support. Below the main information are places to fill out more in-depth details: company name, address, website, current skills, and a brief description of yourself.

In the actual 3D interface you can pan (moving left, right, up and down), rotate the camera, zoom in and out, and re-frame the model back to its original position. You are also given the option to see the actual wireframe of each model along with the ability to smoothen the hard edges of any objects by anti-aliasing them. They also have a full screen option if you desire. You’re also able to comment on any of the models.

When viewing a model, the side bar will indicate file name, file size, object count, polygon count, surface count, vertices count, texture count, and which authoring software it was created in. If the creator has allowed it, the model and textures can freely be downloaded and experimented with by users. A counter of the amount of times a model has been download is also present. You are also enabled to add tags to models in addition to what the author had originally put for tags. Furthermore, in each model’s page there is a HTML widget giving you the code to implement it into a blog, a MySpace, or simply a normal forum. Additionally, there’s a directory listing all the currently signed up members to Teapotters. There is, of course, a listing of all the uploaded 3D models with thumbnails as well. You can sort models by favorites, and users by contributors. Models are organized by tags and the program in which they were created in is also indicated. Another nice feature is that you are able to add any member’s RSS feed to your personal feed reader to continually be up to date with any new models from that specific author.

Members have a Contact List in which they can add and sort people into a Friends List or Business List. You can manage your contacts, invite new contacts, and view your contact history in the “Manage Connections” portion of the site. They have a small “How It Works” section, describing briefly how to use Teapotters and you’ll find a demo video in this section as well, if you’re slightly confused on procedures. They also have a small blog to keep you informed on any updates done to the website. Also, some of the models that have been uploaded to Teapotters are actual models from popular games on the market currently. Who wouldn’t be at least curious to examine in detail how exactly these figures were constructed? I wish they gave members more than a single invite to give away to anyone interested in the community. However, this small downfall is easily trumped by how functional and organized the network is.

Teapotters was a nice fork in the road on the endless avenue of mundane social networks that are blanketing the internet like the plague. There aren’t many 3D networks are out there that can adequately present your work as well as Teapotters does. I’m anxious to see how well they do once they’re out of private beta.

Okay, so you don’t have the time to sit down at your computer, reading what seems to be never-ending pages of reference and tutorials books to simply figure out and understand how to use all those tedious photo editing programs. Likewise, you don’t have the extra cash to indulge yourself in that Adobe Suite that has been enticing your creative mind molecules for awhile. Fear not my friends, Picnik is about to help change all that. Picnik is an online photo editing program, completely powered by Flash, and includes a notable abundance of helpful attributes within its simplistic core. Grabbing images from either your computer, your Flickr account, a desired website, Yahoo! search, or even your web cam (if you have it conveniently installed), are just of the few accommodating features Picnik delivers to its users. Oh, by the way, it’s free. Nice. You actually don’t even have to create an account if you’re one of those people who’s just eager to jump right in and get their hands dirty.

So let’s roll. Like I mentioned previously, Picnik is able to snag images from numerous sources. When you import your photos from Flickr it organizes them and allows you to sort them by date taken/posted and interestingness in ascending and descending order. One of the other neat ways it gets images is its ability to capture them from other websites. Simply input a befitting website of your choice and Picnik will then grab all the images from that designated website. It will retrieve and list all the images that it found on that website and allow you to edit, email to a friend, or download any of them. Unfortunately, you can only have one site’s image listing open at a given time, but this small downfall is adequately compensated by the amount of photo editing features at your disposal for each image.

Once in the Edit portion of the website, you’ll be introduced to your tool palette. Simplified as it might look for all you design gurus, it bears favorable results. The main tool set consists of the following: Auto-fix, Rotate, Crop, Exposure, Colors, Sharpen and Red-Eye. Clicking each tool brings up a sub menu that will assist you further in editing. The Auto-fix function repairs color quality if you come across an images with less-than-par color characteristics to it. In the Rotate menu you’ll be able to adjust any noticeable uneven horizons in photos using the Fine Rotate tool. Additionally, you can freely rotate the image left or right 90 degrees. The Crop tool allows you to, obviously, crop your image to the proportions you wish. They have default preset dimensions of cropping for you to choose from, or you can choose to custom crop by inputting the measurements you want.

Moving on, the Exposure tool allows you to adjust the brightness and contrast in your photo. An Auto-fix function is found in the Exposure menu as well, for those who just want the quickest fix for exposure problems. This menu also has an Advanced setting attached to it displaying a graph of color tone changes to the users as they edit their photo in real-time. Next, the Color option enables users to manage the color balance of their images. Saturation helps add emphasis on primary colors in a photo when increased and will, adversely, strip all colors from your image and eventually gray scale it if fully reduced. As can be implied, the temperature slider helps add or subtract warmth to a photo. For those who have studied and understand camera lighting and filming, know that the warm feeling in video and still images is portrayed as an orange hue, while on the contrary, cold is depicted as a blueish shade. The temperature control is similar to that. Excuse the brief lighting lesson, I digress. Again, you’ll find an auto function for the color tool if you so desire to use it. There is a Neutral Picker which is similar to what people in the film industry may refer to as white balancing, which generally speaking is, the act of identifying what is the true white color of a photo or piece of film while taking into account environmental lighting and natural shadows. Picnik’s Neutral Picker compares closely to this term.

Next on the list is Sharpening. Nothing too substantial in this menu, the slider adjusts how sharp an image is and can naturally come in handy to counteract slightly blurred photos. Last on the palette is the Red Eye tool for all those photos of yours that were marred by the infamous red eye defect. Click on the center of each affected eye to help restore proper color to infected areas. Of course like all editing software, you’re able to undo any unwanted mistakes that might happen while editing, or redo admired effects if that’s the case.

Picnik currently has a limited amount of features in the Special Effects category, however still respectively consists of general filter distortion such as: Sepia, Matte, Black and White, Vignette, Soften and Boost effects. Zooming in and out is also easy via a small slider at the bottom right hand corner of your project while you’re in the Edit and Creative Tools modes. Though you are able to resize a photo once you’re ready to save it to your computer, it would’ve been nice to have a real-time resize function within the interface. Nevertheless, combined with the site’s other components, you should should be able to find an outcome that you can pleasantly appreciate.

After all your tweaking is finished and you’re satisfied with the results, you can save your work to either: your computer, your normal Flickr gallery, your Flickr slide show, or even save to a website. Websites that you are able to save directly to include: Image Shack, Photo Bucket, Live Journal, and Walmart Photos, just to name a few. Furthermore, you can also print out your work and email it to a friend. Pertaining to their printing function, you have the option to print in a full page format or half page format. As for saving to your Flickr slide show, it’s easy and straight forward. Simply authenticate that you agree that Picnik will directly connect to your Flickr account and you’re done! The embedded HTML code and direct link to your Flickr slide show will be displayed for you in Picnik. You’re also able to change the background color and size of your slide show through Picnik. Prior to saving the image directly to your own computer, you’re brought to a settings page that includes the dimensions of the image, desired format (.jpg, .gif, .png, .bmp, .pdf, .tiff), and a slider that controls image quality.

On a personal note, I believe they presented Picnik clearly and I think it will appeal to a large audience. The site design is clean, as well as being constructed and organized in a focused manner. Think Apple’s iPhoto, but online. Granted, Picnik isn’t Photoshop by far, or close to most other image editing and manipulation programs out there. It doesn’t include freehand tools like brushes, cloning, or fills. It’s not meant to. It’s meant to simply enhance the decency of already taken photos, not totally give them an extensive make-over. However for being strictly online, being entirely generated by Flash, being flexible enough to obtain images from literally anywhere, and above all, being free, it unquestionably earns my vote as being one of the best values for a near instantaneous, presentable, online photo editor. Looking for examples of what Picnik can do? Visit the Picnik tag or Picnik group on Flickr, both hosting a nice inventory of work using Picnik. And hey, it’s still in beta. Only good things await on the horizon for this credible application. I tip my hat to you Picnik.

Update: Picnik now supports image resizing. (Thanks Darrin!)

Humble Voice, think MySpace, but with a pleasant facelift and being overall more versatile. Essentially, it’s a social network for the creative type where users can show off their work, build a portfolio, and connect with friends and family. It has all the recognized social community features that everyone has come to abide by and appreciate. You have your standard profiles, Friends Lists, Bulletin Board, and comments. There’s also a point system in place in which you’re able to win prizes after accumulating certain amounts of points. In general, Humble Voice is a place where any person who is creative through designing, composing music, art, video, and writing can convene to meet others who share similar interests and hobbies.

Let’s start with the main sections of the site. They have separated their sections in five major categories: Music, Video, Art, Photography, and Word (Writing). Each section displays the latest and greatest pertaining to its topic. Every section’s main page contains recent and popular profiles. For instance the Music section has a side column that displays the Newest Artists, Most Played Songs of the Day, and Most Played Artists. Featured Uploads, along with the most recently uploaded are there as well. Naturally, for each artist you’re able to go into their profile and listen to their work via the Humble Voice media player. Also you’ll find more information and biographies of the band and its members, along with upcoming shows and pictures, if any.

Next is the community section; this section features a point ticker that keeps and up-to-date track of the active user base on Humble Voice. Powered by Flash, it presents a scrolling list of members on Humble Voice and the points that each member has accumulated according to recent activity on the site. So, the more browsing and participation you do will affect whether or not you’re seen on the ticker. Furthermore, they have an area to recognize the members who currently are the leaders in points within the community. Additionally, they have outfitted the section with their very own Humble Voice TV player. The TV has “channels” that show user submitted videos that you can watch at your own leisure. Lists of the newest members and the friendliest members can be located on this page, along with a link to the Humble Voice store. The community section is also where you’re able to cash in all those points that you earn on Humble Voice. You’ll also find a online chat on the community page where you can openly share messages with others logged in to Humble Voice.

Moving onto an area where I believe Humble Voice executes exceedingly well at. Their profile and user account area is very thorough. They’ve implemented a small control panel that lets you freely edit any and all of the things you wish. They give you layout choices for each content area of your profile. You can choose one, two, or three column formation for each content area. You can then mix and match the different layout settings to satisfy what you vision your Humble Voice page to look like. The content areas include: Profile Photo, Featured Text, Actions, Artist Profile, Bulletin Board, Word Gallery, Friends, Blog, and Comments. You’re also allowed to add new pages to your profile. You can then, in turn, add and remove any of the contents areas on the first page. Users can then sort out which content they want on each particular page. This allows for more expansive user profiles and helps diversify your profile from others. So say, for instance, I wanted to make a section for each of my individual interests. I could make a separate page for Writing, Music Composition, and Design. I could add all the content categories that are associated with each of those topics in those specific pages. For example, in my Design page you’d find the Art Gallery and Photo Album content areas, in comparison to say, my Writing page which you’d find content areas such as the Blog, Word Galleries, and Notepad. This feature helps to easily maintain and organize your information so your viewer can easily browse your profile.

The Music section’s streaming audio player is similar to PureVolume, in functionality. You can add songs from artist profiles to your Library so that you can easily find them at a later date. Additionally, you can also add the actual bands to your library as well. Their Video section mimics the Music section design-wise, but in a more simplified way. You’re able to tag, add comments, bookmark, and rate all the uploaded videos to sort out the bad from the good. Their rating systems compares with many standard five star rating systems, but instead of stars it’s, of course, their logo’s bird. Obviously, you can bookmark videos for future viewing as well. The Photography and Art section are almost identical. Featured work is on the front page, along with lists of a selection of the popular pieces and recent submissions. Naturally, you acquire points from rating and commenting on people’s work. The comments that members submit to each other aren’t moderated, so it could be hard to find thorough reviews of your work, if that’s what you’re seeking.

However in the long run, you get the best of both worlds with Humble Voice. They have nicely designed their website while keeping a wide variety of usability for the members. Topics are organized well, they have a plethora of content for your surfing pleasure, and heck, you can win prizes. What’s not to like? It’s easy enough for the timid online user and diverse enough for the more competent. So if you’re looking to get your work out their and hopefully positively criticized, then Humble Voice is one of your best bets. They have a notable amount of active users for how new their community is to the social network scene, so input on your work shouldn’t be too hard to acquire. Personally, I’m not a hardcore MySpace person, but browsing through MySpace after being on Humble Voice is like drinking orange juice after brushing your teeth. (Yeah, that bad.)