PicLens Browser Extension For Full-Screen Photo Viewing

Firefox plug-ins have most to do with tweaking the browser’s performance, adding to its powers, and increasing user productivity. And lots of other things, too. Now there’s one that helps you make the most of Web-based photo albums. It’s called PicLens, and it helps you enjoy digital slideshows as they were meant to be enjoyed: full-screen.

A number of caveats right from the get go, though, and they’re important memos for all you peoples out on the Web loving the wealth of cross-platform compatibility today, so pay attention.

The plug-in is indeed available for Firefox and Apple’s Safari browser, but unfortunately, they don’t both ways, for whatever reason. (Beats me.) If you wish to enjoy full-screen bliss in Firefox, you’ll only be able to do so with the browser’s versions made compatible with Windows XP and Vista. So, any Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) users who’ve grown attached to the open source sensation won’t be able to install PicLens to have alongside their other add-ons. Instead, Mac users will need to download PicLens for Safari, which, last I checked, is an inferior product to iteration 2.0 of the Mozilla creation. Oh well. At least we Mac people only make up about 5% of the world’s PC-wielding populace, eh? So no big deal, really. It’s cool. (Serenity now, serenity now….)

(FYI, I haven’t checked to see if PicLens installs on Safari for Windows. You can give it a go if you’d like, but I presume any such efforts will prove unsuccessful.)

After you get past these incredibly frustrating particulars, PicLens starts to look really good. A heck of a lot better than what services like Flickr, Picasa Web Albums, and such offer. Not that there’s anything wrong with them. They’re just, you know, not as good.

So, if you happen upon one of the abovementioned sites – or any that sport Media RSS compatibility – PicLens will deliver the .jpgs you see sized up to fit nearly every inch of real estate your computer screen has to offer. The fact that images superimposed in PicLens also get nicely fitted into an easy-to-operate candy wrapper doesn’t hurt, either.

By the bye, if any Mac users are saddened by the incompatibility of the PicLens Firefox extension with installations of Firefox for OS X, they may still have something to cheer for. Turns out the plug-in assembled for use with Safari gets the added bonus of talking to the Apple Remote. Nice, huh?