DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY NEWS

Phanfare redefines personal photo and video sharing on the iPhone

Latest update adds photo and video slideshows with music, photo editing, image stabilization, bulk uploader, and much more to award-winning iPhone app.

Princeton, NJ (January 27, 2009) -- Photo and video sharing service Phanfare (www.phanfare.com) has released a significant upgrade to Phanfare Photon, its award-winning iPhone application. Photon brings cloud-based photo and video management to the iPhone, enabling users to wirelessly synchronize all of their photos and videos between an iPhone or iPod Touch and Phanfare's secure servers. The new version, which is available today through Apple's App Store, includes bulk uploading, photo and video slideshows with music, image stabilization, photo editing, and offline access, providing the first complete mobile photography solution for the iPhone.

"Phanfare Photon turns your iPhone into the connected digital camera of the future" said CEO Andrew Erlichson. "Every photo you take with the iPhone synchronizes wirelessly to the cloud for safekeeping and sharing, and every photo or video you have ever taken, whether on the iPhone or uploaded from your computer, is available for viewing and editing on your iPhone or iPod Touch." PCMag.com awarded its Editors' Choice to the previous release of Photon, saying, "Phanfare Photon is the best photo-sharing iPhone app to date."

The new version of Photon brings Phanfare's slideshows to the iPhone. Phanfare users have always loved the service's web-based slideshows, which combine photos, videos, and music together for a highly-engaging viewing experience. With this latest Photon release, users can show off their photos and videos in style wherever they are.

Phanfare Photon protects the images that users take using their iPhone. A new bulk upload tool quickly imports the user's iPhone photos, wirelessly synchronizing them to Phanfare. Once uploaded, the photos can be shared online and accessed from any web browser, published to Facebook, or displayed on popular wireless photo frames.

For picture-taking, this latest release of Photon adds image stabilization, which uses the iPhone's accelerometer to determine when the user is holding the phone steady enough to take a sharp photograph. Two additional features, a self-timer and Tap Anywhere, make it easier for users to be in their own photos.

Photon now includes popular editing tools, including crop, sharpen, and auto-levels, as well as a variety of fun filter effects, such as black-and-white and antique. Any edits made on the phone are also applied to the original images, which are stored securely on Amazon S3. Edits are non-destructive, so users can always revert back to their original uploaded photos.

Phanfare Photon works even when the phone has no network connection. Viewing albums, image editing, and taking photos are available when the iPhone is in airplane mode or out of network range. Pending uploads are queued and wirelessly synchronized when the phone reconnects to the Internet.

Most iPhone users also own another camera and the Phanfare service is ideally suited for today's point-and-shoot cameras and DSLRs like the Nikon D90 and Canon EOS 5D Mark II, which take both photos and videos. Users can upload from their computers with Phanfare's Windows, Mac and browser-based clients as well as via plug-ins for Adobe Lightroom, Apple's iPhoto and Aperture, and Google's Picasa. Albums can be displayed through Phanfare web site, Photon, or on Facebook.

Phanfare stores over 114 terabytes of photos and videos and serves over 500,000 consumers per month. Phanfare offers 1GB of free storage to all users. Unlimited storage is available for $54.95/year. Phanfare also sells a full range of photo merchandise including prints, photo books and photo cards.