PUBLIC MARKS from multilinko with tag photo

Nearly half of all households now own a digital camera, estimates Merrill Lynch in a new report I just got my hands on, and people are taking four to five times as many pictures as before, but they are printing less. The reasons for this are because 1) it costs nothing to take a digital photo, 2) you can view it immediately on your camera or computer screen, and 3) you can share it digitally as well (for free). Yet, for companies to make money from the digital photo boom, they will have to convince people to print more photos.

Torture's Terrible Toll Abusive interrogation tactics produce bad intel, and undermine the values we hold dear. Why we must, as a nation, do better. By Sen. John McCain

Photobucket.com Inc., started by a photo buff who wanted a better way to share images with his friends, has seen traffic surge tenfold in the past year. In August, it had 12.2 million unique visitors, compared with 9.6 million at Yahoo Photos and 5.9 million at Kodak EasyShare Gallery, according to research firm Nielsen/NetRatings.

CNET News.com and The New Yorks Times (no registration required) report that even though the prices of printers have dropped up to 30 percent in the last few months thanks to a savage price war, buyers are going to pay at least 28 cents a print. This is if you believe the manufacturers' math. It could be closer to 50 cents a print if you trust the testing of product reviewers at Consumer Reports. In the meantime, the price of printing a 4-by-6-inch snapshot at a retailer's photo lab, like those inside a Sam's Club, is as low as 13 cents.

Microsoft® Codename Max is not like any other product. That's because it's not a product—it's your opportunity to try an exciting new user experience from Microsoft. Max is built on built on the next-generation WinFX technology that will drive the development of Windows Vista® applications. Today Max lets you make lists of your photos and turn them into beautiful slide shows to share with your family and friends. Tomorrow...who knows?

Add descriptions to your images, send photos per email in just the right size, print high-quality copies, display slide-shows, publish web-galleries, safe- keep your images on CD or DVD. You'll get dual-monitor support, smart updates and many other award-winning functions of StudioLine Photo Version 2 – and it’s free. Also, professional online printing and photo gifts are available through EveryoneSmile.com.

When Morgan's mother and a client recently took CDs with some of his shots to a printing lab, the photo technicians spurned them. They said that since the shots seemed to have been taken by a professional, printing the pictures might be a copyright violation.

When cameras used only film, consumers didn't have much of a choice about where to get their photos printed, unless they had a darkroom at home. Now, with 80 per cent of cameras sold this year projected to be digital models, consumers have more options than ever about where, or even if, to print their snapshots. One result is an all-out war among retailers, printer manufacturers and on-line companies like Snapfish for a piece of the $8.2-billion (U.S.) pie that the Photo Marketing Association International said consumers spent on printing photos last year