Bishop Valentine of Terni is a martyred Saint of ancient Rome. Because of his believes he was executed on 14 February 269. Bishop Valentine married couples and aided Christians which Emperor Claudius II considered a crime. According to legend Valentine gave the newly wedded couples flowers from his own garden. A modern Valentine present for a friend or partner requires a personal touch, that purchased flowers can hardly provide. 

Cambridge. 21 Jan 2010. -- Choosing or preparing a gift for Valentine's Day should be fun - not something rushed through at the last minute. FotoInsight, a leading independent digital photo service, is expanding its range of Valentine's photo gifts year after year. "Love is a special feeling and it must be expressed in an extraordinary way, Valentine's Day is the perfect occasion", states the Catalina Martinez, Head of Communication at FotoInsight Ltd and asks: "When have you given you partner a truly unique gift?" 

Online digital photo services like FotoInsight can help transforming an individual photograph into a Valentine present that will be cherished and remembered for years to come:

• Snow dome with red hearts – a photograph is inserted in the centre.

• Love Crystallised: FotoInsight adds to its selection of photo gifts designed to display and preserve cherished photographs. Valentine’s Day photo gift ideas include crystal photo heart with a 3D laser engraved photograph, picture frames, photo key rings, pen holder glass block with a laser engraved photograph. Special about the crystal key ring is an LED light to illuminate the engraved image.

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Canvas printing is popular for a family portrait from a professional photographer or a wedding picture. But any well achieved photograph in sufficient resolution could decorate an office or home. A framed poster or canvas print from a photograph is in any case more personal than a poster from a furniture store. A few years ago, during a visit to a well know Swedish furniture chain, I noticed that most of the posters on the shelf had already been there in my own youth. This popular chain charges about £30 for a framed print. Own photographs printed onto a canvas cost about twice as much, but are infinitely more individual than posters from stock and they preserve personal memories.

Instead of standard decoration for our teenager's room we printed a photograph from her skiing holidays which she chose, onto a large canvas. The print was so good and popular, that many more poster and canvas prints have followed since. It doesn't really matter if a poster print from an artist makes a higher cultural claim. Own photographs reflect the photographers impressions, and thanks to digital technology, these can be reproduced, just like when telling a story through pictures instead of words. Most people with digital images from holidays, parties or family pics have such images which should be on display.

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When well being and friendship become more important than material goods, then the way presents are selected changes, too. Ann Green has put together a list of Christmas gifts available online. The gift ideas range from the decorative, the practical to family friendly games. They all have in common, that they can be personalised with own images. 

Berlin, London, Cambridge. 6 Nov. 2009. Finding the right Christmas present for your friends and family is a challenge you have to face every year. When a few basic rules are observed, finding original and affordable presents can become quite easy. Last minute purchases should be avoided, it only causes stress at the wrong time of the year.

Christmas, celebrating reunions

Searching for and buying Christmas presents can be completely relaxed when done from home on the Internet. Questions like: "What would she like or what would be useful to him?" or "Does it have to be that expensive?" have become redundant in our affluent society, where people have already bought the things they want and what they have not bought yet they don't really want. For this Christmas here a list of individual gift ideas to preserve personal memories and to celebrate families and friendship. These are largely photo gifts, personalised with own images.

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Berlin. London. 5 Nov. 2009. Printing-1 produces long lasting photo book. Now the online photo book specialist is adding an gloss vanish option to sealing the photo book pages. This ensures that after the whole family has browsed through the new photo book at Christmas it will still look like new. As an environmentally aware enterprise, the printer ensures through compliance with ISO 14001* that the pages in photo books from Printing-1 remain free of toxic substances.

Glossy prints last longer

For three years Printing-1 has been offering customers the opportunity to design their individual photo book. To the range of photo canvas prints and photo books as well as photobook calendars Printing-1 now adds the glossy photo book. For this the complete photo book pages are coated with an environmentally friendly glossy varnish, which improves brilliance and detail. 

Environmentally friendly diversity

Customers can choose among seven different photo book formats with up to 250 pages. A longer lasting book binding is achieved with a Polyurethan (PUR) glue, which keeps the photo book pages in place. Thanks to the new High-Gloss finish option, the printed surface is protected from wear and de-colouring, ensuring a long life for the book and the photographic memories within. The new hi-gloss can even be used with a good ecological conscience.

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Ever more and better images rest on ever smaller storage media. FotoInsight uses increased image resolution for innovative photo products and offers during October 2009 only 1/3 discount on photo calendars orders.

Cambridge. 7  Oct. 2009. - A professionally printed calendar using own photographs must rank among the most convenient photo gifts for friends and family. But photo labs can only print calendars, once the images have been uploaded. In the days before Christmas calendar production is running at full capacity. To entice early birds, FotoInsight offers 1/3 off on photo calendars during October with the discount voucher "EARLYBIRD". Those ordering their personalised Christmas gifts in October can therefore make real savings.

Photographic calendars can be ordered by uploading 13 digital images online. Alternatively FotoInsight also offers free Designer software, with additional calendar models, many calendar templates and many more editing tools than an internet browser could handle. Editing the calendar through a special software tool allows for example to freely position any number of images on a single page. This is useful when an event should be enhanced by scanned holiday memories, like entrance tickets, postcards or maps – these can now be integrated into a professionally printed photo calendar. The increase in design flexibility follows requests from customers, ordering photographic calendars year after year for friends and family.

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Cambridge, 20 August 2009. - Europe's most popular photo book software is now also available for Linux and Mac OS. Against an ever growing number of photo book services, FotoInsight is increasing its technological lead with the introduction of version 4.5 of FotoInsight Designer. The application is available as a free download on the photo service's website and it can create a 130 page photo book lay-out in under three minutes. The new release of the order software adds photo albums processed on thick, lustre finish photographic paper pages. The new photo paper album styles ranging from 26 to 82 pages (in steps of eight pages) are only available in the FotoInsight Designer software.

In FotoInsight's new Photo Paper Album each page lays flat

FotoInsight states that the book bulge in the new photo paper albums disappear, as the pages lay flat when the book is opened 180 degrees wide. A new binding process is being used for the album pages, which are thicker than pages in CEWE Photobooks. This allows the pages in an open photo paper album to lay flat, rather than bowing or arching up towards the spine. Flat pages make it easier to view images which spread across a double page. FotoInsight's Managing Director Klaas Brumann states: "The new printed photo album's thicker pages provide a premium feel over traditional coffee table style photo books. We expect the new photographic paper books to be popular with professional users and for wedding photo books!" 

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Cambridge. 23 July 2009. - When the start of a new school year approaches, the school bag needs filling. The online photo printer FotoInsight from Cambridge offers a new service to individualise such items. The idea is to personally engage the youngsters with their school supplies, to ensure that they will look after them. In addition, own pictures of a pet, a group of friends or from the holidays keep positive memories alive. An aluminium water flask with a personal photograph is less likely to be kicked in-lieu of a football. The school bag will be treated with due care if the the own image has been printed onto it. FotoInsight now prints digital photographs onto practical items like spiral note pads, money boxes or fluffy key rings.

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Easy to use authoring tool to collect, store, organize and publish information.  

London. 23 June 2009. - vetafab Software is releasing a new version of it's Windows application lexiCan. According to the developer, the upgrade improves productivity and collaboration. Individuals and teams use lexiCan to manage information and knowledge for projects, in business management, research and idea gathering. The developer is also introducing a new read only client lexiCan Reader, which allows users to publish content such as guides, manuals, references, support data bases, knowledge bases within a network with one click, making publishing as easy as editing. The software remains simple, no special training is required.

Similar to a personal Wikipedia, lexiCan allows users to build articles using texts, pictures, tables, links to websites and files. Using the title as a reference, articles can be accessed in seconds even in voluminous collections, overcoming the daily burden of clicking through folder hierarchies as done in Windows Explorer. Unlike Wikipedia, lexiCan purely works as a desktop application based on Microsoft .NET framework, enabling user convenience, such as setting links per drag and drop or dropping emails from Outlook into a description. lexiCan features full text search that includes embedded files. The developer points at several other intuitive retrieval features, like an automated view on pictures, embedded files and tags. Articles can have multiple tags which lexiCan displays as a list or clout. The article tree can be structured in the application's Outline section.

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Canvas printing is popular for a family portrait from a professional photographer or a wedding picture. But any well achieved photograph in sufficient resolution could decorate an office or home. A framed poster or canvas print from a photograph is in any case more personal than a poster from a furniture store. A few years ago, during a visit to a well know Swedish furniture chain, I noticed that most of the posters on the shelf had already been there in my own youth. This popular chain charges about £30 for a framed print. Own photographs printed onto a canvas cost about twice as much, but are infinitely more individual than posters from stock and they preserve personal memories.

Instead of standard decoration for our teenager's room we printed a photograph from her skiing holidays which she chose, onto a large canvas. The print was so good and popular, that many more poster and canvas prints have followed since. It doesn't really matter if a poster print from an artist makes a higher cultural claim. Own photographs reflect the photographers impressions, and thanks to digital technology, these can be reproduced, just like when telling a story through pictures instead of words. Most people with digital images from holidays, parties or family pics have such images which should be on display.

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Photo sharing from Flickr, Facebook, Picasa and geotagging site "locr" come to personal printed photo albums. Today FotoInsight launches a new version of FotoInsight Designer, now also for Macintosh and Linux. The service adds new photo book formats and new features like fading frames and festive templates.

Cambridge, 17 March 2009. - Against an ever increasing number of photo book services, FotoInsight is increasing its technological lead with the introduction of version 4.5 of FotoInsight Designer, which is now also available for Linux and Mac. The ease at which photos can freely be inserted into the book or into templates now also extends to clipart, maps, text and images from photo sharing sites like Flickr as well as the geotagging site "locr" and Wikipedia GeoNames. The photo sharing sites become an online interface for photo book building with family and friends, as users can now complement their printed photo albums with additional pictures (e.g. the Eiffel Tower form a different angle) from photo sharing sites, straight from within the FotoInsight Designer software. 

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Internet specialist ECCE TERRAM exhibits ground breaking innovative software solutions at PMA in Las Vegas – Booth # Q176-4

Oldenburg, Germany. February 13, 2009. - ECCE TERRAM – the innovator and provider of solutions for the digital photo market – will be showcasing its expanded software solution for photo laboratories in the area of ordering programs at the PMA 2009; Along with the 2.0 version of the “iPhone Photo Order Client,” the first Offline Client solution for PC with multi-touch capability is being presented among other things. The company thus again raises the claim of presenting technically sophisticated and innovative solutions.

In many laboratories, online photo orders in which digital images are printed on traditional photographic paper exceeded the volume of analogue photos in 2008. Digital image processing continues to be a vigorously growing industry. Numbers from the 2008 Holiday Season retail trade in many places show that the economic crisis ihas n no way dampened the pleasure provided by digital images. Consumers’ desire for unique moments or very personal photo gifts remains strong. Very few software developers have the experience and knowledge to create a complete solution – from consumer to production, for wholesale laboratories and photo services in the online and in-store market. ECCE TERRAM’s experience uniquely serves these end to end requirements.

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Valentine symbols have changed since courtly love flourished in the High Middle Ages. By the late nineteenth century Valentine cards were popular. Today it is difficult to escape Valentine's kitsch. Remembering the tradition of expressing love through love notes FotoInsight puts the personal note back into Valentine.

Cambridge, 23 Jan 2009. -- FotoInsight, a leading independent digital photo service, is expanding its range of Valentine's photo gifts. “Love is a special feeling and it must be expressed in an extraordinary way, Valentine's Day is the perfect occasion. Valentine's Day gifts are important to make your day memorable” states Catalina Martinez, Head of Communication at FotoInsight Ltd.

When searching for Valentine’s Day gift ideas for a girlfriend, boyfriend, wife or husband the personal touch is desired and candy and flowers can’t provide it. Online digital photo services like FotoInsight can help transforming an individual photograph into a Valentine present that will be cherished and remembered for years to come.

• Snow dome with red hearts – a photograph is inserted in the centre.

• Love Crystallised: FotoInsight adds to its selection of photo gifts designed to display and preserve cherished photographs. Valentine’s Day photo gift ideas include crystal heart with a 3D laser engraved photograph, picture frames, crystal key rings, pen holder glass block with a laser engraved photograph. Special about the crystal key ring is an LED light to illuminate the engraved image.

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A Dozen Gift Ideas which have not Increased in Price

Cambridge. 25 November 2008. After many years, this will be the first Christmas in a recession. Almost 8 in 10 Britons responded that they are taking steps to make Christmas more affordable, according to research by Birmingham Midshires. The survey of more than 2,000 adults revealed the average Christmas spend will drop by £102. The costs of many important goods of daily life have increased in the current year, the inflation has reached new heights and families are tightening their belts. Not every wish will come true this year.

The recession is a good opportunity to re-think priorities in life

The sad news for children is that 14 per cent of parents will be giving their children smaller stockings this year. And Grandparents need to receive attention, too. The trend is to personalise gifts, self made presents, handicrafts, family entertainment, or a games evenings. Many families could be helped if they communicate the importance of unity at Christmas, setting a strict price limit for presents. Here a dozen gift ideas which have not gone up in price:

• Photo calendars are a classic among the Christmas gifts – printed through a photo lab, calendars look really professional. All photo calendars like the kitchen, table and wall calendars from FotoInsight are also good value! See a  photo calendar test  here.

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The leading players in the imaging industry's fastest growing segment - Photo Books - are getting ready to showcase their latest developments. FotoInsight announces an upgrade to its "Designer" software and new, even larger Photo Books.

Cambridge. 19 November 2008. -- To provide space in which the favourite photographs can shine, photo book services like FotoInsight Ltd are constantly improving their software and their range. So far, most books printed with own photographs are limited to less than 100 pages. With the upcoming version 4 of FotoInsight Designer its photo books can feature up to 130 pages for the first time. After introducing the Photo Book XL (12"x12" / 30x30cm) last year the software upgrade will add a new "Photo Book XXL" format (H12"x16" / H30xW42 cm) in stylish faux leather and with a traditional screw bound. In the new XXL format landscapes can be spread over 80 cm wide double pages. For this, FotoInsight is increasing the print resolution to 360 dpi.

The software upgrade announced for the UK Retail Imaging Show has finally been launched. The clever 'Assistant' in the FotoInsight Designer photo book software will then be able to design a 130 page extra large photo book in under three minutes, For this the application automatically lays out the pages with the chosen images and can put these in order of date, file name or event.

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Online poster and canvas services will usually only print the customer’s image. FotoInsight is launching its new “Deco Shop”, where a matching, natural wood frame can be combined with a mounted canvas or laminated poster. Large format prints from own digital photographs will then be delivered mounted and framed, ready to decorate the wall at home or in an office.

Cambridge. 7 November 2008. – The resolution of digital cameras is rising constantly. Many digital photographs could impress at home or in an office meeting room, when printed as a laminated poster or a stretched canvas in a floating frame. With the right image it makes a worthy present.

FotoInsight, a specialist serving amateur and professional photographers alike, prints canvases in different sizes from 20x30 cm / 12”x8” (minimum resolution 800 x 1100 pixel) to 60x80 cm / 32”x24” (2500 x 3300 pixel recommended). FotoInsight states that it uses man made optimised fibres and fade-resistant "archival" inks to guarantee longevity and brilliant colours. The hi-tech inks penetrate deep into the fabric and can therefore be printed and mounted over the edges of the wooden frame. Standardised sizes allow a largely automatic production process. According to FotoInsight this ensures constant quality and long durability at lower prices for the first time.

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September is the month of the world's biggest trade fair for the photographic and imaging industries, the bi-annual Photokina in Cologne. The leading players in the imaging industry's fastest growing segment - Photo Books - are getting ready to showcase their latest developments. FotoInsight announces a upgrade to its "Designer" software and new, even larger Photo Books.

Cambridge. 22 September 2008. -- To provide space in which the favourite photographs can shine, photo book services like FotoInsight are constantly improving their software and their  range. So far, most books printed with own photographs are limited to less than 100 pages. With the upcoming version 4 of FotoInsight Designer its photo books can feature up to 130 pages for the first time. After introducing the Photo Book XL (12"x12" / 30x30cm) last year the software upgrade will add a new "Photo Book XXL" format (H12"x16" / H30xW42 cm) in stylish faux leather and with a traditional screw bound. In the new XXL format landscapes can be spread over 80 cm wide double pages. For this, FotoInsight is increasing the print resolution to 360 dpi.

The software upgrade announced for Photokina shall be launched online on the 16th of October 2008. The clever Assistant in the FotoInsight Designer photo book software will then be able to design a 130 page extra large photo book in under three minutes, For this the application automatically lays out the pages with the chosen images and can put these in order of date, file name or event.

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The best way to create a calendar with your own photographs

There are three different ways to make your own photo calendar. If you have many photo prints which you prefer to stick onto paper and if you want to add hand drawn images, an old style pre-printed calendar template will still be useful. More versatile and interesting is making photographic calendars through software, and the result looks most professional when printed by a proper photo service. For this you normally have to use the software which the (online) photolab provides (usually) for free at http://fotoinsight.co.uk/calendar

FotoInsight offers wall and desktop calendars. All calendars are printed professionally on 250 gr/m2 paper using Indigo technology (except the Desktop calendar in tin box which is processed on photographic paper) and cost between £4.99 and £16.99 per calendar plus £2.80 delivery (Europa wide, also with seperate delivery address).

Printing-1 is the independent option for photo book calendars for Mac OS and Windows PC users, but no wall calendars. Printing-1 websites includes a kind of photo sharing service, which allows to show the layout to others online prior to a print order: http://www.printing-1.co.uk - Discount: First order £5 off.

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Quality jewellery at moderate prices – The Jewellery Channel sets itself apart

The Jewellery Channel does not only offer a wide range of beautiful and precious pendants, but also does so at good value

Necklaces are almost the most favourite piece of jewellery since they are consistent with every occasion and are furthermore the most versatile piece of jewellery.

The Jewellery Channel does not only offer a wide variety of beautiful necklaces, but also a great choice of noble and precious pendants. Especially very thin and fine necklaces become a pure eye-catcher when they are adorned with a beautiful pendant.

Precious Treasures

As well as the necklaces, the pendants are made of different materials such as gold, silver, platinum or bronze. A special highlight are pendants adorned with precious gemstones or diamonds. Take for example the pendant made of white gold adorned with three London blue topaz, four Swiss blue topaz and four Sky blue topaz, as well as four white topaz, all in round cut, or the noble pendant made of yellow gold adorned with a rhodolith in caree-cut.

Pendants suit themselves perfectly as a little something for someone special, be it a friend or the partner. Adorned with a special dedication, jewellery admirers will get particularly excited about the beautiful pendants from The Jewellery Channel.

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The necklaces from The Jewellery Channel are the ideal medium to express individuality and personality

Artistic beauty and diversity – The Jewellery Channel is at its best when it comes to beautiful, exquisite and precious necklaces

Already worn in the Old Stone Age, the necklace is now one of the most famous piece of jewellery and can be worn on every occasion.

The necklaces from The Jewellery Channel captivate with their beauty, high-class quality and their uniqueness. Made of gold, silver, platinum or pearls, the necklaces from The Jewellery Channel can be worn as “stand-alone” or can be adorned with a beautiful pendant. Not only the choice of material used for the necklaces is at a wide choice, but also the choice of design, reaching from classical or elegant to filigree or fancy.

The Jewellery Channel makes jewellery shopping easy and handy and provides its customers with high-class jewellery at an affordable price. Thus beautiful necklaces such as the silver 925 rhodanised pearl necklace or the golden tricolour necklace of small rods adorned with diamonds are affordable for all jewellery admirers.

The Jewellery Channel can offer first-class jewellery at moderate prices because of their unique business strategy. The Jewellery Channel draws its goods directly from the mines, thus spares out overpriced intermediary and can pass on considerable cost savings on to its customers. The Jewellery Channel keeps control of the precious goods from the moment they are mined to the moment they arrive at the customer and can therefore guarantee highest quality.

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Known and famous for its durability and resistance, platinum has become one of the most used materials for jewellery fabrication

Misjudged and unnoticed in the first place, did platinum only in the 18th century arouse peoples interest and became a famous material not only for jewellery fabrication

The History of Platinum

Platinum has actually been used for different purposes since 3000 b.C., interestingly unnoticed. In ancient Egyptian jewellery researcher found small amounts of platinum. Also Indians in South America took advantage of the positive features of platinum in combination with gold dust, unknowingly though. Later, in the 17th century platinum was found an annoying corollary material and people even thought about countersinking it in the ocean to eliminate smuggling and forgery, since people started manufacturing it to sell it as gold. Only in the 18th century did people discover the posisite features of platinum and made use of it.

Platinum Jewellery from The Jewellery Channel

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High-class jewellery made of gold, silver or platinum – shopping with The Jewellery Channel

The Jewellery Channel draws its materials directly from the mines and takes over the responsibility for the jewellery from the moment it is mined to the moment it arrives at the customer to guarantuee the high quality of the jewellery and, what is more, to pass on considerable cost savings to the consumer

Jewellery was not only in former times an important status symbol but is today also a way of presenting oneself and underlining individuality. In everyday life as well as for special occasions lovers of jewellery like to embellish their outfits with adequate jewellery.
The Jewellery Channel exclusively offers the finest and most precious jewellery, appropriate for  any occasion and, what is more, The Jewellery Channel offers its jewellery at an affordable price.

Gold jewellery does not only stand for exclusiveness but also for elegance and grace. The Jewellery Channel offers gold jewellery in different forms and designs. The range of products reaches from rings, necklaces or earrings to bracelets, tie pins or cuffs. Today, gold jewellery is worn in everyday life and not only on special occasions. Unfortunately, this  led to an increasing amount of knock-offs on the market. The Jewellery Channel offers finest gold jewellery at an affordable price. This is possible because of the unique business strategy of The Jewellery Channel. The TV-Shopping channel draws its good directly from the mines and thus spares out overpriced intermediary. This cost saving is then passed on to The Jewellery Channel's customers.

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Cambridge, UK. 17 July 2008. – According to FotoInsight, thousands of its online photo printing customers have taken advantage of its new production processes. Modern fabrics, optimised for ink absorption and long durability and standardised sizes which allow a largely automatised production process result in professional quality of a high continuity and durability at lower prices.

Thousands of digital camera users have used FotoInsight to have their photos printed into a photobook or on a canvas. The product has been so succesful, that FotoInsight is now extending its canvas offering to the Mediterranean countries. FotoInsight's Managing Director Klaas Brumann explains the move: “Photo canvas prints are an ideal gift, but sending large format parcels is costly. FotoInsight offers direct shipment of canvases to overseas addresses, ideal for birthday or Christmas gifts. France and Spain are among the most popular holiday and retirement destinations. We expect that both our English and local language services will be popular in the Mediterranean countries.”

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Printing-1 the specialist service for PC and Mac makes ever bigger photo books. The new larger formats Premium (H12” x W16”) and Panorama (H8” x W12”) offer space for many photographs on up to 250 pages.

London, 14 July 2008. – The majority of snaps taken during the vacations, a wedding or party, never make it onto the traditional 6”x4” sheet of photographic paper; stepping in its place are online photo sharing and printed photo albums which are professionally printed as a coffee table photo book. As the resolution of digital photographs is increasing, the specialist service Printing-1 is making photo books that literally stand out by their sheer size.

Printing-1 extends its offer with the new formats “panorama” and “premium” and at the same time is making the photo books bigger. The Printing-1 photo books carrying up to 144 pages could always be made larger than with most other photo book services. Printing-1 is now extending the number of pages, offering the options of 200 and 250 pages. According to the vendor, the “premium” format book with 250 pages is Europe's largest on-demand photobook. In any case, it offers a lot of space to archive photographic memories.

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Diamonds are a girls best friend – The Jewellery Channel proves that Marylin was absolutely right

The Jewellery Channel exclusively presents its most beautiful and most precious gemstones – fascinating and charming

Gemstones are very rare minerals and very beautiful and therefore quite expensive. Untreated gemstones are no real feast for the eyes since they are quite unclear and sometimes even very bulky. To bring out their real beauty, gemstones need the right cut. The cut is the single most important factor in appraising any gemstone. A well-cut gemstones allows as much light as possible to be reflected through its table, creating the stone’s trademark luster. There are many different kinds of cut but the round-shaped, “brilliant” cut best displays this luster and brilliance of the gemstones from The Jewellery Channel.

Because of their rareness, gemstones can also be seen as a valuable investment, especially since there won’t be more but much less gemstones in the future.
The most famous gemstones are the so called Fancy Diamonds, very colourful gemstones like ruby , sapphire or amethyst.

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The Cambridge based Internet photo service is expanding its successful photo book range with software in Spanish and Italian. FotoInsight is outperforming the photo finishing market through product and service innovation as well as its aggressive international expansion.

Cambridge, 10 June 2008. – Today, FotoInsight of Cambridge launched the award winning CEWE Photobook service in Italy, just one month after its successful launch in Spain. The expansion of the popular photo book concept is helped by winning this year's TIPA (Technical Image Press Association) best photo service award. TIPA voted the CEWE Photobooks at the self-titled the European ‘Oscar’ of the Photo and Imaging Industry, as the leading product in its hotly contested category, which has lend a new dynamism to the photo printing industry and offers the consumer an attractive option to preserve photographic memories.

The TIPA judges state “With its photobook concept, CEWE offers a complete solution for creating and ordering high quality photobooks across Europe. Digital photos can be combined with backgrounds, text and page design, and the CEWE photobook software is free of charge and offers intuitive handling. ...”.

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Paraparaumu. 21 May 2008 - Political Stock Markets are a virtual stock market, where participants express their expectations about future events through the buying and selling of virtual shares. Several prediction markets relating to different issues about economic and political developments are offered together. The new service starts under http://esm.forecast4u.co.nz/ with topics like the National Elections in New Zealand or the Estimation of Property Growth for June 2008.

The "Wisdom of Crowds" is considered to outperform expert knowledge in areas like topicality as well as width, depth and references of knowledge. A principle of prediction markets, as of any electronic exchange, is that those who buy cheap and sell at a higher price benefit.

Practical evidence suggests that prediction markets are at least as accurate in forecasting events as other instruments used by polling institutes on similar demographic groups. This concept, part of a field of study called collective intelligence, is the ideal tool for market and event forecasts. The closer a participant's forecast matches the real event, the more the value of the virtual account rises. This stimulates forward strategies and therefore using quality information and experience in these virtual investments is paramount. The Political Stock Markets also rewards closely matching expectations when dealing with rate fluctuation and diligence.

Electronic Stock Markets (ESM)
The prediction market is based on the "Electronic Stock Market Technology" (ESM) developed by ECCE TERRAM. It is based on theses by Friedrich von Hayek, who in 1974 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics. From Professor von Hayek's findings it derives that more accurate prediction of future events can be made if people trade shares about them with the opportunity to obtain a profit. Frank Simon, Managing Director of ECCE TERRAM: "ESMs in the form of prediction markets provide surprisingly accurate results for opinion research and serve as a prognostics instrument to generate forecasts". The user's interest in trading shares and the chance for personal gain as well as the opportunity to create accurate forecasts bind the user into the online service and increase traffic to the website. The technology starts from a base different to traditional opinion research. Interviews, polls and e-votes use questions like "how would you vote?" The Electronic Stock Markets ask "what do you expect the outcome to be?"� Traders therefore buy and sell based on their expectation of the outcome. These reflect in the prices at which shares trade. The system can then, based on the share price, calculate forecasts.

ECCE TERRAM has used prediction markets already in the run up to the German federal elections of 1998 with great success, achieving the second best forecast after Allensbach, one of Germany's leading public opinion poll institutes. In recent years ECCE TERRAM has organised more than two dozen prediction markets on a great variety of events. ECCE TERRAM Ltd, located in Paraparaumu, has started since May 2008 to offer Electronic Stock Markets to the New Zealand and Australian Market based on the 12-year-experience with this tool.

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The Jewellery Channel exclusively presents one of the most exclusive and most colourful gemstones of the world – the sapphire

The sapphire catches with its wonderful colourfulness and can furthermore be manufactured multifariously. Whether as a ring or a necklace – The Jewellery Channel offers a wide range of beautiful gemstone jewellery

The Sapphire is a variation of the mineral corundum which also educes the ruby. Sapphire derives from the Greek “blue stone” but actually describes all colourless and colourful varieties of the red ruby. The sapphire is often said to have protecting strengths against poison and evil sprits. Sapphire has also been used in the official rings for bishops and cardinals since the sapphire was believed to make its wearer devotional and to give him or her divine benevolence. However, the old Persian monarchs believed that the reflection of the light in the sapphire is responsible for the blue colour of the sky. Sapphire is also the birthstone for September.

The Star of Inda – world’s biggest cut sapphire

The biggest cut sapphire ever is called “Star of India” and weighs more than 563,35 carat and  is now on display in The American Museum of Natural History. Predominantly sapphires are manufactured as jewellery and are either facett cut or cut as cabochon. The Jewellery Channel offers the most noble and most precious sapphire jewellery: rings, earrings, bracelets or necklaces – the offer is almost unmanageable.

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Diving into the multifarious and colourful world of ear jewellery with The Jewellery Channel

The earring is one of the oldest pieces of jewellery known to mankind and is not only popular with women. Already in medieval times, earrings demonstrated affiliation to a certain craft. Nowadays, earrings still have symbolic value in some cultures.

Up to now, the oldest earring that has been found is estimated to be around 8.200 years old. In many cultures earrings were worn and are still worn by both, men and women. Also seamen quite often used to wear golden earrings. In Europe, however, it was quite unusual for men to wear ear rings, especially in the 19th and 20th century, but in the 1970ies earrings for men underwent a revival which still lasts.

High quality jewellery – allergic free

Depending on the culture, earrings are made of different materials. Although materials like bones, wood or synthetics are used quite often when manufacturing earrings, metal is still the most popular material that is used. However do many people tend to be allergic to certain materials. Although many earrings are made of silver, they are not always made of real silver. For making unreal silver earrings solid and reasonably priced, silver is quite often alloyed with nickel. After a while, the surface of the metal oxidizes and disperses. The skin reacts to those particles which arise from the liquidation.

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A New Photo Book for 60 cm Wide Landscapes Spread Across Double Pages. The new version of the FotoInsight Pro software is available as a free download.

Cambridge, 22 Apr. 2008. – Most households use digital cameras and a growing share take high resolution pictures which can be enlarged to poster size. While computers, mobile phones and cameras have a tendency to become ever more compact, the resolution (or number of pixels) of digital images is growing ever larger. In line with it grows the demand for large format prints. FotoInsight serves this trend with posters, canvas printing and the new XL photobooks, in which pictures can extend across a 60 cm wide double page spread.

“The digital image quality has improved vastly. The demand for our large format print products like poster- and canvas print has experienced enormous growth” explains FotoInsight’s Managing Director Klaas Brumann and adds: “It was therefore only logical to add a large photo book format; the new XL photo book to our range.”

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The Jewellery Channel exclusively offers trendy and stylish jewellery for the fashionalbe Him

Jewellery for Him is coming into vogue – but caution is adviced when it comes to the right choice of the jewellery. Therefore The Jewellery Channel exclusively offers precious and elegant jewellery for trendsetting males

Jewellery always stands in contrast to its time. The way of wearing jewellery has steadily changed. In former times wearing jewellery used to be a privilege of kings and noblemen and symbolised their power. In the 20^th century mens jewellery was worn by only a few men. In these days watches became a real classic for mens wristwear.
It is only now that mens jewellery is becoming more and more popular. The choice of material for mens jewellery is wide. Mostly commodities like gold, silver, stainless steel or titanium are used. Also gemstones, like in rings, are more and more appreciated by men.

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