5.04.2011

Picasa and Pandora

A blogger buddy was talking about Pandora the other day. Basically she said that some people don't know what Pandora is. It made me think of a couple things.

(1) It's amazing how I can use something every day and LOVE it and other people don't even know what it is OR use it.

(2) What are THEY using that I don't know about?

So, firstly, as Kim said, you should use Pandora. If you have the internet and you like music AT ALL, this is the thing for you. It is free. What you do is you pick a band you like, you enter it in as a "radio station", then it plays that band AND other bands that are similar. There is a little icon for "thumbs up" and "thumbs down". If you like the song, give it a thumbs up and if you don't, give it a thumbs down. Then Pandora knows what you want...and they give it to you. You can't get much better than that. Really.

The only drawback: I am traveling, and they won't let me use it abroad. Booo. 

The second thing I use a lot is Picasa. If you like to take photos and need a simple editing tool that is also FREE, you should download this. Also, it can upload photos right to your blog or your internet photo album or send them as an email, also for free.


I love the "star" function, which allows you to select favorites and then sort them that way later. You can also tag, geo-tag and see the EXIF data. Oh and don't forget about the face recognition software! Now you can see just how many photos of you really were taken on your last vacation!



Below are a few examples of what Picasa can do. The mix itself is a collage; the separate photos are examples of editing tools. As you can see, you can also add lettering, borders and more. It's a great tool!


What do you use for photo editing? What do you use to listen to music? Do you have any other free software tips? What are YOU using that I don't know about?


April is over, but A-Z is not dead. P is for Picasa.

10 comments:

  1. Love both of these. Pandora on my phone is a welcome change from the same old iPod running mixes!

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  2. I have never heard of Pandora but I definitely have to check it out now. But I love Picasa, it's a great tool for people who like to take pictures =)

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  3. I love Pandora. It drains the battery on my crappy blackberry, though, so I only use it on my laptop. I haen't tried Picasa, I will have to check it out!

    My fave web application is goodreads. It's so nice to track what I am reading and find out about what others are reading!

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  4. i use picasa for my initial quick edits, but i mostly use the online tool picnik -- i get the pro account for only $24.95 a year. it's got other tools (curves, effects, vignetting, etc.) that picasa doesn't have. i like that you can now access picnik right from the picasa dashboard!

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  5. @Gracie - I love Pandora on my phone (iPhone) too! Except, just like Lisa said, it totally drains my battery! Boo.

    @Lucy - I like Picknic, have used it a little, but probably not as much as I should.

    @A WOman's Right.. Dude, check Pandora out, it is AWESOME. You will not regret it.

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  6. I have Pandora, and I always forget to use it. But I've heard a lot of complaints lately about the advertising. I use Photoshop Elements to edit pictures ... obviously that's not free, but it's not as much as the full Photoshop. I love that iMovie comes with a Mac - so much fun to edit video with!

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  7. Two of my favorite programs! When I hit my free listening limit on Pandora I switch to Slacker radio. Picasa is unmatched in my opinion, but then again I love everything Google.

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  8. I don't know if Grooveshark works outside the US or not but that is another free music station that allows you to create exact playlists of songs (as opposed to Pandora which only plays songs like ones you request).

    I use Picnik (another P word) to edit photos--the basic version, which is what I use, is free and really easy to use!

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  9. I love this!!! Thanks for the love :-)

    I love picnik for photo editing!!

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  10. Pandora is one of the best things EVER. I can't believe you can't use it abroad!

    I haven't really used Picasa much. I edit my photos on Photoscape and then upload the ones I'm sharing on Photobucket. But I might give Picasa a shot. I like trying different sites.

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