SmugMug Goes SmugMungous

We all know who SmugMug is (an awesome online photo-sharing site) and what they do (it's way more than just photo-sharing these days). They've been (and continue to be) great sponsors here around the Corner. And today, they've made some big announcements: bigger photo display sizes and astounding video capabilities.

smugmungous
70 thumbs alongside SmugMug's X3-Large display size

I've had a chance to play around with the new interface (even a couple of days early... hehe), and I must say, it's pretty cool. If you have a really big monitor, you'll LOVE it. And if you're showing your parents photos from your 1600x1200 monitor on their 800x600 monitor, SmugMungous will arrange things so that your photographs look awesome on both monitors. Here's part of their press release:

Holidays bring crazy, funny, once-in-a-lifetime moments (blame it on the eggnog) that we shoot and record as a vivid chronicle of our most treasured times. Now SmugMug displays these photo and video memories in all their glory, giving customers SmugMungous XLarge, X2Large, and X3Large photo viewing options and up to 1280x720x24p HD video.

Once the standard, those nifty 800x600-resolution monitors now account for only 8-10% of screens with 1024x768 screen resolution most prevalent. Many entry-level desktop monitors are now 20 inches and 1680x1050 pixels, and SmugMungous gives options that are like viewing specialty enlargement prints without sacrificing the ease of use for which SmugMug is famous. SmugMungous fills a screen with larger images and more thumbnails, with no wasted space and no scrolling, whether the viewer's monitor is a generous 30-inch model or he's looking at the 4 1/2-inch screen on his micro PC. For professional photogs, SmugMungous automatically resizes watermarks, too.

For those who don't want to see their videos dinky and pixilated on YouTube, SmugMug introduced SmugMug Video. SmugMug supports DVD-resolution clips for Power Users and HiDef for Pros. SmugMug makes every video clip available in web resolution as well, for viewers with slow connections. SmugMug accepts every common video format and converts it to h.264, which plays beautifully in Web browsers and on devices being unwrapped this holiday - including iPods, iPhones, AppleTV, PlayStations, and Xbox 360s. Many Nokia, Sony and Panasonic devices also support h.264. iTunes makes it easy to be notified of new videos from SmugMug friends and family and automatically download them for the iPod and AppleTV.

"Since 2002, SmugMuggers have chosen us because their photos-and now videos-look outstanding here," said SmugMug President Chris MacAskill. "I've never met a person whose face didn't light up when they saw their photos and videos crisp and SmugMungous."

I feel exactly the same, Chris! I hooked up my laptop to my HDTV, and WOW, it looked fantastic. Pictures of my new puppy were bigger than real life! ;) For more information on SmugMungous, check out http://smugmug.com/help/full-of-photos.mg. And for more info on the new video stuff, check out http://www.smugmug.com/help/video!

Trackback URL for this post:

http://www.photographycorner.com/trackback/850
Posted by Tim L. Walker on Fri, 2007–12–07 13:55
Categories: Press Releases
Tags: photographysmugmugphoto sharingipodHD