TwitPic founder Noah Everett launched a new website called Heello. Heello is similar to Twitter in a way where you create an @ username, share what you are doing in a status called Pings (140 character maximum), and the ability to attach a video/geolocation/photo.

Photo sharing service Twitpic has launched a video feature so that you can spread videos through social media services. Users will be able to upload, store, and share videos through Twitpic. “We’ve been working hard the past few months to release our new video sharing feature for Twitpic. Just like uploading a photo you can now upload a video from the site itself, from your phone via email or from supported Twitter/Twitpic clients,” wrote Twitpic on their blog.

Douglas Wheelock is one of the most interesting Twitter users. Wheelock is a NASA Astronaut that studied engineering at Georgia Tech. From outer space, Wheelock sends out some very interesting Twitpics. He sent out the picture above when writing: “Hurricane Earl is gathering some serious strength. It is incredible what a difference a day makes when you’re deal.” If you’re not following @Astro_Wheels on Twitter yet, I highly recommend that you do.

Twitter photo sharing service Twitpic announced an events feature last week and now they have face tagging.  This way you can add the name and Twitter username to any photo you upload through Twitpic.

Twitpic is now letting users organize images by events.  Twitpic will let you add description information and tags for each photo.  Twitpic’s Events feature is now available to use.  To access it, go to your timeline on Twitpic, choose a photo, and click on the link that says either tags or events.  [Mashable]

This past week there was a major earthquake in Chile and a major warning about a tsunami in Hawaii. The 8.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Chile yesterday caused buildings to collapse and has taken the lives of hundreds of people. There was a loss of electricity in Santiago and the airport was shut down. Below are some resources from the web that are related to the event. This includes donations resources, pictures, and videos.

Donations

There are numerous ways to donate money to the people of Chile that were victims of the earthquake [Mashable].
The Mobile Giving Foundation set up a micro donation fund. The text message campaign can be donated by:
1. Text the word “CHILE” to 25383 to donate $10 on behalf of the Habitat for Humanity
2. Text the word “CHILE” to 20222 to donate $10 on behalf of World Vision
3. Text the word “CHILE” to 52000 to donate $10 on behalf of the Salvation Army
4. Text the word “CHILE” to 90999 to donate $10 on behalf of the American Red Cross

You can also donate through the web:
American Red Cross
Americares
ChileDisasterRelief.com
Doctors Without Borders
GlobalGiving.org/chile-earthquake
Google Crisis Response
Samiratan’s Purse
World Vision Disaster Response Fund

TwitPics of Hawaii

Abandoned Ala Moana Beach in front of #hawaii #tsunami by What_Boundaries

Idiot in water in Hilo Hawaii #NoPity you’ve been warned by CoachDeb

Hawaii bracing for Tsunami,Beaches are empty by HawaiiParcel

#tsunami warning in #Hawaii: how the evacuation will take place by mirkocorli

Mass exodus of boats frm Ala Wai Harbor in front of #Hawaii #tsunami by What_Boundaries

This is pic in the Hawaii Tribune herald The Island is called Moku Ola by Hilomikey

TwitPics of Chile

#terremotochile Catedral, Santiago #chile by ConyCampos

Madrugada Caleta el piojo Niebla valdivia horas despues del terremoto en conce by EomerElessar

#terremotochile muro cae sobre bencinera en Maipú/Mapocho (Stgo Centro) by MrMobictec

Valparaiso, Independencia c/n Las Heras.#terremoto #terremotochile by EGMiranda

This is the pic of the moment here in Chile. That’s out flag. We can get through this by Aloemilk

Área inundada en Pelluhue, Chile -APTN by edowoo

Video Streams

UStream announced today that they hit about 4.35 million streams related to the events [Mashable]. Many people are uploading videos on YouTube that are related to the event.

Adrianne Marie Curry is a American model that is known for being the first model to win at the TV show America’s Next Top Model. Curry is married to Christopher Knight, who is best known as Peter Brady on The Brady Bunch. The two met on VH1′s fourth season of The Surreal Life. After The Surreal Life, her and Knight started dating and were the stars of a show called My Fair Brady. That show ended in March 2008 so now Curry has a lot of free time on her hands. What is she doing now?

“jumping into shower.going to spend my afternoon playing World Of Warcraft butt naked&stoned.Perfect Sunday!” stated Curry on her Twitter account at 4:31PM on December 6th. A couple of hours later, she sent out a TwitPic to prove that she actually does what she tweets: http://twitpic.com/sgom0. The picture has been viewed over 100,000 times already. Not a bad plug for World of Warcraft. Curry is currently an investor in the NowLive radio network.

Last night I was sitting at the Good Time Charley’s bar watching the Michigan State vs. Iowa University football game in Ann Arbor, Michigan. All of a sudden I notice that a large crowd started gathering outside of the bar. When I walked out I saw smoke and fire spewing from the top of a building about one block down from where everyone was standing. The roof, the roof, the roof was on fire of a building that used to be known as Pinball Pete’s.

While the firefighters were battling the heat, students were busy taking pictures and updating their Twitter accounts. A couple of people next to me sent out some TwitPics immediately. Shortly after the pictures were taken, a video was uploaded on YouTube [embedded above] and Flickr user moto1986 uploaded a stream of pictures from the event.

When I was standing there watching all of the students sending out tweets and updating Facebook statuses while the firefighters were battling the fire, I couldn’t help but think about how far technology has brought us. Just imagine if this event took place about 10 years ago. Our friends would rely on how well we could describe the fire rather than having the ability to see our pictures on Twitter and our videos on YouTube.

Some of the tweets that were sent out are displayed below [click the image to enlarge]:

[Photo credit: Emma Bumstead]

[Photo credit: Kristen Oltersdorf]