In a post today over at the FlickrBlog, Caterina Fake talks about the bond with Yahoo, and what will change and what won't. Check it out.

You're probably scratching your head right now, wondering what's up with the title of this post. Well even though officially Yahoo "acquired" Flickr, Yahoo will be receiving more Flickr features than Flickr with Yahoo. Yahoo is looking to move away from its lame stuck-up interface and move towards something more friendly, (like Flickr). Yahoo photos will receive an upgrade with Flickr features, but Flickr will not become Yahoo photos. Yahoo is also developing Yahoo 360, a service to host your own blog and more. It is unknown at this point what effect Flickr will have on this.

As a individual who has worked on a part of Flickr, I also believe (like all the Ludicorpers) that this Yahoo acquisition is definitely for the best. Yeah, Google is better. But I think this will get other companies into making the web more Flickr-like, which is in turn more Mac-like. A user friendly internet. And isn't that what we all want? Isn't that what makes Google and Flickr so great?

Answer: Yes.

This evening I created my very first Sony Ericsson cell phone theme. I decided to make a theme based off of Apple's iPod photo graphical user interface. This theme is currently only compatible with Sony Ericsson T610, T616, or T618 phones, but I may make it for a few more models in the future.

I tested the theme out on my T610 and it looks great. To install it on your own phone: download the theme, connect to your phone via Bluetooth, browse to the "Themes" section in your phone, and simply drag and drop the theme. On your phone, go to your Settings>Display>Themes and choose "iPod photo". Voila!

If you have any suggestions for this theme, be sure to let me know!
Update: This theme will look best with your display contrast set to full.

Download the theme here.

I now have an iPod shuffle. I've wanted one of these since they came out back in January, but now it's done. I have one. My thoughts are below...

First off - I love this thing almost as much as I love my 20GB iPod. As you've probably heard or known, it's tiny, light, and has great sound quality. I can see myself taking this to school every day. My normal iPod, although awesome, is a rectangular bulge in my pants rather than a sleek mp3 player. Don't get me wrong, my 20GB is still better for long trips, in the car, and as my main alarm clock. But the shuffle really is awesome for casual music playing.

Why is the iPod shuffle so awesome? Because on my normal iPod, the mode I usually use is the "shuffle" feature anyways. Sure, I don't have 1200 songs on my shuffle. But I have my favorite songs on it, which I enjoy more than the random stuff I have floating around iTunes. It tests your music knowledge too - I didn't recognize some of the songs I heard today on my shuffle, and had to go check what they were...

iTunes makes it extremely easy to update songs. Although USB is slow, you don't have to wait to plug your shuffle in to re-arrange, add, or remove songs from your shuffle. iTunes allows you to keep the iPod shuffle in your source list at all times, and it auto-updates your iPod when you plug it in. Autofill is cool, but I don't think I'll be using it until I compose a smart playlist which filters out songs that suck (Christmas, GarageBand, etc.).

The display on the normal iPod is nice to have, especially when you're looking for a particular artist or song. But I don't think Apple would have had a screen on the shuffle even if it cost them nothing. It would ruin the design, add weight, but most importantly, ruin the whole "shuffle" aspect. If it had a screen, you'd be looking for a certain song just to realize, "Oh darn, I don't have that one on my shuffle". Random rocks.

Will the iPod shuffle be a hit? Is it already? Is 1GB really enough? The answer to all of these questions, although some may doubt it (just like with the mini), is a definite yes.