ReadWriteWeb

Recently, Google's photo sharing app, Picasa, was updated to a new version that now does facial recognition and tagging. There are also rumors that the soon-to-launch next version of Windows Live Photo Gallery will do the same. Today at DEMO08, new Mac software, iLovePhotos, claims to do the same. Unfortunately, their interpretation of "automatic facial recognition" leaves a little something to be desired. However, some of their other features like automatic sharing and slideshows look pretty great.

We all know that when we're driving, we shouldn't be on our cell phones chatting away or, even worse, texting. Yet we do it anyway. The problem has become so bad that some states here in the U.S. passed legislation restricting cell phone use while driving or enforcing hands-free use only. California, for example, recently enacted a law prohibiting handheld use while driving (but strangely, texting is OK). Other states also have similar laws on the books. With numerous voice-dialing features and utilities for all sorts of handset models, going hands-free has been relatively easy. That is, unless you need to get directions.

The new surge in Enterprise 2.0 technologies is giving companies, especially small-to-medium sized businesses, more alternatives when it comes to company intranet portals for team collaboration and project management. In fact, it has taken those portals, once only available behind the firewall, and put them online as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings. Once such SaaS portal for information sharing among company employees launches today at DEMO08: Qtask, a project-centric collaboration environment.

This week we're running a prediction challenge, on the topic of browsers. Google's new browser, Chrome (our coverage), is sure to take market share from the existing players. So we want you to help us predict: which of the following browsers will lose the most share (in percentage terms) between August 2008 and December 2008? Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, or a tie or other? You can cast your prediction by visiting RWW Predictions. It'll be interesting to see what the ReadWriteWeb community thinks will happen!

We've been tipped off that Google has been releasing nightly builds of their new Google Chrome browser like crazy. It's been reported that up to 10 nightly builds a day are being released for Chrome. That's a lot of updates to keep up with and we have to admit we're surprised at the pace in which Google is releasing these builds. However, the builds do not come with automatic updates or notifications for new build releases. A developer has taken the time to throw together a simple and efficient solution.

The iTunes App Store is becoming a trendsetter for other companies in the mobile market. With thousands of apps to choose from and over 60 million downloads total, what more could you ask for? Apparently a lot. Users still aren't satisfied with the selection of apps that Apple is letting into the App Store. Apps that are extending the functionality of some of Apple's standard offerings are being denied their chance to shine. This has resulted in a small, but talented pool of developers finding other ways to promote their apps to iPhone users.

Enter a method known as "jailbreaking". Jailbreaking your iPhone voids your warranty, but allows you access to some of the most incredible apps that won't be coming to the App Store anytime soon. Here's our top 10 picks of apps worth jailbreaking your iPhone to get.

If you've ever tried to make a guide or tutorial visually appealing, then you know just how hard and tedious it can be. There are plenty of tools floating around the web to make this easier. Just do a search for screencasts or presentations in the ReadWriteWeb search box for our reviews on such tools. For simple guides and tutorials, or for creating overviews of a project, we may have just the solution you're looking for. Whizle is a newly launched service that looks to be a great tool for creating simple and visually appealing work.

So Google has released Chrome, its entry in the browser wars (bonus points, Google, for promoting it with a Scott McCloud comic).

I know, I know, it uses the same rendering engine as Safari... but even still, Murphy's Law of Browsers dictates that weird little quirks and idiosyncrasies will somehow find their way in. And in a world where we have to test web pages against Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Konqueror, old versions of Netscape, various mobile browsers and that web-enabled toaster oven in your client's office kitchen, well... oy.

The Office 2.0 conference took place in San Francisco this week and I attended and took notes for ReadWriteWeb. The Day 1 recap is here and Day 2 is below.

The sessions highlighted in this post are Going 100% SaaS and Meeting without traveling. I also reviewed Joblogs, a CRM "relationship and management lite".

What we thought might have been an AIR app in the making, may be something entirely different. With social video sharing sites such as Youtube and Vimeo it can be hard to keep the recommendations flowing. Hundreds of videos are added to these sites daily, but only a select few are really worth our time. With no easy way to sort through these uploads, Vimeo is asking the community for help in finding a solution. Today the site has announced the launch of Vimeo Toys. These toys aims to give users an interactive and visually appealing way to find more video content. Here's a look at what's available.