So, perhaps you’ve already noticed, but recently our Online Photo Lab switched service providers. Our online uploader and album service is now provided through a lovely company called Life Pics. Ddon’t worry, as always all the photos are printed by us, but thanks to a partnership with Life Pics we can offer you even more things, more on that in a bit.

So, this new service has a lot of exciting new things to offer, and a few nice changes in addition. How about a quick overview?

1. Not Silverlight. It’s not that Microsoft’s Silverlight technology is bad, per se, but it’s still a new technology and very much a Windows-oriented one. Our new uploader and management system is powered by Java, which is much more universal, and means that Mac and Linux users should now get the same experience as everyone else.
2. Apps. This is truly the age of apps, and we’re ready for you. Life Pics has apps for both iPhone and Android where you can log into your account, manage and add and share pictures, and order prints from us without ever booting up a computer. Prefer a computer? They provide plug-ins for Picasa, Lightroom, Kodak EasyShare, and Microsoft Photo Gallery (in Vista/7). Upload pictures direct to your account and order prints without having to leave your favorite photo manager. You can check out all those apps here: http://www.lifepics.com/apps/
3. More Printable Things. Sure, pictures are excellent. They’re flat and easy to store. But, sometimes what you really need is a mug. Or a mousepad. Or a dog food bowl. Or a keychain. Or a gift bag. Or lots of things. We can now make that happen for you, and you’ll find there’s not a whole lot we can’t get your photos printed onto for you. There’s so many, in fact, we’ll just point you here to see them all: http://robertsimaging.lifepics.com/net/Gifts/
4. Multiple Upload Speeds. Only ever intend to print 4x6s and don’t want to wait a jillion years while your full-size pictures upload? Our new system offers three upload speeds, and what sizes they’re good for, so you don’t have to wait around forever to get printing.
5. Picture Editing. Picture need rotated? Cropped maybe? No worries, you can do all that once uploaded. You can also remove red eye, adjust gamma, brightness, contrast, saturation, hue, or even make it black-and-white or sepia toned. All online, no software needed.

So, as you can see, we’re still working hard to be the best online lab you can come to, and we hope you’ll all find our new system much more friendly and feature-packed. I believe the lab dudes mentioned that your accounts have been moved over (mine was) for you, so you should be able to just keep moving along. Just in case anything’s missing, we’re running the old service still until October 1st (and you can find that here).

Haven’t tried our lab before? Now’s a good time to start. Just hit the link below to get started.