Google offers Visigami image search app, screensaver...

Google's Mac Team has released Visigami, an image search application and screen-saver. The open-source application, available under Apache license, can search from three different image sources, including Google Images, Picasa, and Flickr. From within the application, users can specify any image search query and images matching the search will start animating on the screen. According to the documentation, there are multiple ways of animating the images: fan, carousel, and grid as well as a few different camera views: fixed, autopan, and mouse pan. The screen-saver uses the same settings that were setup by the application, but the team says it is easier to tweak the settings in the application than to run the screen-saver. In addition, users also have the ability to use sliders to adjust settings such as display speed and zoom.

Cover Stream 2.0: iTunes Cover Flow for the desktop...

Snarb.tk has released Cover Stream 2.0, an update to its iTunes controller that extends iTunes Cover Flow to the desktop. The upgrade features new graphics, a playlist and search filter, an integrated songs browser, Last FM and Apple Remote support, full screen mode, Apple-flavored bezels, desktop artwork, and much more. Cover Stream, a popular iTunes controller, was developed exclusively for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, extending iTunes Cover Flow to the desktop and giving users a quick and convenient way to control, browse and search their music library.

Photon 1.1 organizes, sorts photos quickly...

Green Volcano has released Photon 1.1, the first major update to its high-performance digital photo workflow application for Mac OS X. Version 1.1 brings an enhanced caching engine and better filesystem support. Designed for both professional photographers and advanced photography enthusiasts, Photon enables users to review and organize large numbers of photos by focusing on the front-end of the photo workflow process: ingest, review, and culling. Photon's intelligent on-demand caching engine offers full resolution views of the digital photos available within seconds. Additionally, Photon's innovative "stacking" feature streamlines the process of organizing large batches of images by making it easy to quickly shuffle photos into separate stacks using a single keystroke.

US, UK Apple Stores halt iPhone orders...

Apple has quietly updated its online Apple Store in both the US and the UK to stop orders of the iPhone, marking the first time the company has ceased orders altogether since the iPhone's launch last year. Both 8GB and 16GB versions are listed as "currently unavailable" and are not given estimates for when they should return to the ordering system.