Fun New Ways to Order From Your Phone, Facebook, iPhoto and More

Today we'd like to tell you about a few new options you have to order your favourite photos. As we all know, photos are not just on our memory cards and computers. We keep photos everywhere: our mobile phones, various software applications, social networking sites, and much more. What if you want to order prints of the photos you have in those various apps and sites? Well, now you can! Read on for a few brand new ways to order your photos.

Facebook

Facebook photos have always been fun to look at but virtually impossible to print...until now. To order prints of any of your Facebook photos, simply install the Facebook photo ordering app from your Facebook account. The app is still a Beta release, meaning your feedback is welcome to help make it perfect via the feedback link in the app. Once it is installed, you can order any photos from your Facebook photo albums, or any Facebook photos you are tagged in. Select the photos you wish to order, press "Add to Cart" to put them in your shopping cart, and when you are ready to order, press "Go to Cart" to open the shopping cart and complete the order. The order is sent like any other order you place using your online photo account.
 

Ordering Facebook photos is a great way to preserve your memories so you can enjoy your Facebook photos anytime, even when you are not in front of a computer. I recommend ordering 4x6 or 5x7 prints from Facebook, since the resolution on Facebook photos is usually too low to get a good quality print in any larger size.

iPhone 

Imagine this: you are walking down the street and bump into your favourite celebrity. You pull out your iPhone for a quick photo, and it comes out great. But, how do you make a print? Well, thankfully, I have the answer Download LifePics for iPhone. The free iPhone app lets you order any photos from your iPhone to your local photofinisher, or any photofinisher near you if you are travelling. Order 4x6, 5x7, 8x10, or 11x14 prints (print size availability is based on which sizes the photofinisher offers). You can also access your photos that are stored in your online photo account and order those through the app as well. The app is a great way to print and preserve your memories captured on your iPhone. A similar version will soon be released for Android phones; you can download the current Android phone app now (search "LifePics" in the Android market on your phone), but the printing capability is not included yet.

Android App

The LifePics Android app is your one stop shop for all your digital photo needs. Our free app lets you create an account, view online photos, and upload photos from your phone to your account for unlimited free storage, sharing, and thousands of cool photo products. Coming soon: order photos from the app to 10,000 different stores in the LifePics Network! Search "LifePics" in the Android Market on your phone, or visit the online download page.

The LifePics Android app operates directly within the Android phone's operating system. Users who have installed the app will see "LifePics" as a sharing option for any photos saved on their phone, whether the app is running or not. The app also uses lazy loading technology, so users with thousands of images stored online can quickly access all of their albums without having to wait much time for the albums to load. The next release of the app will include the ability to order prints from the app to any of the 10,000 stores in the LifePics Network, as well as multi-image simultaneous uploading

iPhoto

We recently released a new iPhoto plugin that allows Mac users to quickly and easily upload and order images saved in their iPhoto accounts. Uploading photos from iPhoto to LifePics online photo accounts has always been a bit more tedious than uploading from other sources, but with this new plugin, it is incredibly easy. Users can log into their account through the plugin, or create a new account to upload to. Once the upload completes, the plugin automatically opens your site for the user to order the photos. 

To use the plugin, Download the LifePics Uploader for iPhoto. Then, double click the file and follow the installation instructions. Open iPhoto on your Mac and select the photos you want to upload to your online account. Choose from the top menu: "File," "Export," "LifePics Uploader," and then click the "export" button. Voila! Your photos will be uploaded to your account.

Google Picasa

Picasa is free software from Google that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC. Every time you open Picasa, it automatically locates all your pictures (even ones you forgot you had) and sorts them into visual albums organized by date with folder names you will recognize. You can drag and drop to arrange your albums and make labels to create new groups. Picasa makes sure your pictures are always organized.

Picasa now allows consumers the ability to print to all LifePics photofinishers. To purchase prints, a user simply clicks the "Order" button in Picasa and chooses the LifePics network. From there, the user is taken to the LifePics website, where he or she enters a zip code to select a local photofinisher. The photos are then transferred automatically to the selected photofinisher. This functionality allows photofinishers who have joined the LifePics network -- from small one store shops to regional or national photofinishing chains -- the ability to immediately start receiving orders from this popular tool for organizing and managing your photos on your PC. From a consumer's perspective, this new functionality combines the power of Picasa with the convenience and service of the largest network of local photofinishers.

The Picasa software is available for download at www.picasa.com. Users can also find it by going to www.google.com and clicking the "More" link. Picasa is for Windows® computers only and is currently available in English.

Adobe Lightroom

Adobe Lightroom is a software application many people use to edit and share photos. Up until recently, there was no way to order those photos directly from the software. Thankfully, you can now install the Lightroom plug-in, which allows you to order all of your Lightroom photos through your local photofinisher. This plug-in is free and is a great tool for Lightroom users. People who use Lightroom often spend hours editing and manipulating a photo until it looks just right, but what's the point if you cannot print the photo and hang somewhere? Well, now you can. Install the plug-in and give it a shot! 

 Well, that's it for now. There sure are a lot of ways to order! Hopefully one of these methods applies to you and you have time to give it a shot. Keep an eye out for several new apps and integrations coming over the next few months, making it easier to order your favourite photos from Ted's Cameras PhotoLounge!