DIGITAL cameras and camera phones have made taking photos anywhere and anytime literally a snap.

With the advent of online web albums, anybody can quickly upload and share photos with anyone in the world. But nothing still beats high-quality, physical prints when it comes to treasuring these memories for a long time.

Picatoo (www.picatoo.com), the leading online photo-creation service in the country today, announces support for one of the most popular online web albums—Google Photos, or more popularly known as Picasa (picasaweb.google.com).

This means Picasa users no longer need to redownload photos from their web album and reupload to Picatoo for printing. All they have to do now is go straight to Picatoo and instruct it to retrieve the images from Picasa directly.

This significantly saves time and allows for faster image transfer. Once transfer is complete, users can order prints or use the images to order photo creations such as picture books, mugs, mouse pads, T-shirts and many other possibilities.

“The World Wide Web is getting more and more ‘social.’ We see people sharing their photos to strangers in social networking sites like Picasa, Flickr, Friendster, Facebook and many others. Picatoo is embracing this phenomenon by making it simple for people to order physical prints or photo creations out of their own photos,” says Dick Chiang, chief operating and technology officer of Mozcom.

“We are very excited to support Picasa as it is one of the most popular web albums out there. With Google’s excellent developer support and software development resources, we are looking forward for more features to come,” Chiang adds.

Picatoo prints photos using Fuji YKL’s industry-leading Frontier digital minilab. Fuji Crystal Archive paper is used to ensure the clearest and longest-lasting prints. “We share in YKL’s commitment to making the best quality prints. At the same time, we are committed to making Picatoo the most technologically advanced online photo-printing solution in the country. We already support Flickr and Picasa, and we expect to add more support for other popular online albums in the months to come,” says Chiang.

Picatoo is owned and operated by Mozcom, the Philippines’ first commercial Internet service provider, in partnership with Fuji YKL Color Lab. Mozcom owns and maintains a variety of e-commerce sites that caters to the interests of today’s generation. These cyber stores are equipped with PayEasy, Mozcom’s award-winning online-payment system. Established more than 50 years ago, YKL Color Lab is the exclusive distributor of Fujifilm products in the country. For more information, visit http://www.picatoo.com or e-mail info@picatoo.com.

Apple bucks trend as stores show ‘gravitational pull’

SAN FRANCISCO—Cheng Jian Wei, on a 24-hour visit to New York from China, was willing to risk missing his bus to the airport for the chance to buy his son an iPod at Apple Inc.’s Fifth Avenue store.

IT security policy vital for business to recover from severe virus attack

VIRUS attacks against businesses may imply financial losses due to delays in operations, as well as damage to software and hardware.

CHINA Bank’s web portal, China Bank Online, the Best Banking and Finance Web Site in the 9th Philippine Web Awards (PWA), is the People’s Choice awardee for the Best Corporate Web Site category in the 10th PWA.

TOKYO—Canon Inc., Japan’s biggest office-equipment maker, will invest ¥140 billion from now until 2009 to produce more toner cartridges used in printers and photocopiers as demand increases.

DIGITAL cameras and camera phones have made taking photos anywhere and anytime literally a snap.

With the advent of online web albums, anybody can quickly upload and share photos with anyone in the world. But nothing still beats high-quality, physical prints when it comes to treasuring these memories for a long time.