We've posted before how popular the iPhone is as a camera on Flickr, with people uploading tons of photos, both shot by and straight from the iPhone. But now, The Next Web has covered a huge drop in photos referencing the iPhone over on the popular photo sharing site. The suspected culprit? Flickr themselves.

TNW suggests that the problem is the Flickr iPhone application, which will upload pictures straight to the service -- but not include metadata information like the fact that the pictures were taken with the iPhone. Still, even they sound a little skeptical: not all of that drop can be attributed to just the Flickr app's shortcomings. They also suggest that the iPhone is wearing out its welcome -- lots of people jumped to use it as a camera when the 3GS introduced a better lens and the video capability, and now in day-to-day use, they're not using it as much. Other commenters to the post suggest that the vastly improved Facebook app may be eating away at the use of the built-in Camera app.

I know that my photo habits for the phone haven't changed -- I use the iPhone quite a bit to take pictures, but looking at my own usage, I don't use Flickr nearly as much these days, as I use services like Twitpic and other sites built up directly around the iPhone. A drop in usage on Flickr doesn't mean people aren't using their iPhones to take snapshots -- they could just be sending their photos and media somewhere else.

Update: One of our commenters, echoed by our old friend & past colleague Barb Dybwad at Mashable, notes that Apple's change to the EXIF data recording for iPhone photos (breaking out the different iPhone models to indicate which specific phone took the picture) may be partly responsible for the drop.

Changes.app, the ultimate Mac application used to track changes in folders and text files, was recently updated to version 1.5. This new version easily integrates with Coda, Espresso, BBEdit, TextWrangler, and TextMate. When you launch Changes, you will be able to install plug-ins directly into those application right from the Changes menu item.

There is a new HUD (Heads Up Display) that allows you to view changes from within the supported applications. Changes can also interface with Subversion, CVS, Perforce, Mercurial, Git, Bazaar, and Darcs for versioning control. With this new version, there is also built-in AppleScript support.

Even if you're not a developer, or don't use the applications or versioning control systems that are mentioned, you can still find Changes to be useful. Anyone, not just developers, may find it useful to be able to look for differences between two support files or folders.

You can download a 15-day free trial of Changes from their website. Single-user licenses are $49.95 each.

Special Promo Code
If you are planning on purchasing Changes, you can use our special promo code to get $10 (US) off the purchase of any license type. Just type in TUAWCHANGES15 at checkout. This special offer is good through April 15th, 2009.

Multi-service, open source and free chat client Adium received a new point release tonight, with new features and a redesigned interface for viewing contact information.

Adium 1.3 features the following goodies:

• Get Info Window is now called the "Contact Inspector"
  
• The aforementioned Contact Inspector has a newly redesigned interface that allows for faster retrieval of contact information
  
• Facebook chat is now integrated into Adium 1.3
• Standard contact window list now features a search box (found by pressing command + F)
• Improved MSN support with personal messages
• Speed improvements
  
• Multiple bug fixes
  

To download this new revision of Adium, just visit the Adium website and click the download link. If you would like a complete list of all the changes in Adium 1.3, just visit the Version History page.

Last week we announced that software developer Ian Baird was in need of a tagline for Changes. He put up 2 free licenses to be awarded to the readers with the best suggestions. Well, after a tedious round of judging over 100 entries, TUAW is pleased to announce the winners of the Changes tagline contest. Envelope please ...

The number one pick for a Changes tagline is "Think Diff", by Brian. (Brian, we've been unable to contact you thus far, but please get in touch with Ian for your free license).

The runner up is Nitin Madnani for his entry "Resolve your differences."

In addition to eternal fame and the adoration of their peers, all of tonight's winners will receive a free license for Changes 1.0.

Congratulations Nitin and Brian!

Ian Baird at Skorpiostech has been hard at work polishing up Changes, the new OS X directory comparison and file differencing utility, for a 1.0 release. We covered the beta at the end of last year and the program received a significant amount of feedback from testers in the months following, producing a high-power app that makes managing the differences between files and folders a breeze.

Changes is Leopard-only and leverages Core Animation and Quick Look for a refined user experience. If you're a FileMerge user, you'll probably find the power and ease-of-use of Changes to be a welcome step forward. And it fits into just about any workflow with a CLI utility, a TextMate bundle, BBEdit menu scripts, TextWrangler menu scripts, XCode integration and F-Script support, in addition to Subversion, CVS, Mercurial, git, Perforce and other SCM systems. And its support for MacFUSE mounted volumes is ready for prime time.

Ian also tells us he's looking for a clever tagline for Changes (think BBEdit's "It doesn't suck"). He's given TUAW 2 free licenses to award to the best contributors, so take a stab at it in the comments! And for those less inclined to witty prose, Ian's offering $10 off of the $39.95 price tag (25%) with the coupon code TUAW, which is valid for the next 2 weeks.

You can get a fully-functional, 15-day trial and licenses are available for purchase starting today.

This one is ostensibly for developers, but if you ever rock a revision control system or get excited about a little late-night diff-and-merge for whatever reason, your life may have just gotten easier. Changes is an app designed to simplify project synchronization and differencing for groups or individuals working locally or remotely. It provides a GUI and an impressive list of features for an initial release, including MacFuse support, Subversion and other SCM integration, a TextMate bundle and a command line utility.

Yes, it bears a resemblance to FileMerge, but Changes offers features and options well beyond Apple's aging utility. Because it uses existing systems (chdiff) and provides a plugin SDK, it's both easy to implement and extensible. The command line utility and F-Script support provide additional options for incorporating Changes into your existing workflow. I appreciated the familiar interface and was impressed by how simple it was to integrate Changes into my existing TextMate/Subversion workflow with a few keystrokes.

Changes, which is a Leopard-only release, is currently in beta and is available for immediate download. As of today, the download requires registering for a beta key but the developer has let us know that an upcoming build will switch to a simple time-locked beta. If you dig the software you can get a pre-release discount on a full license, receiving $10 off the $39.95 release price, but the offer is only good until the end of the beta period. And, less importantly, I made it through the whole post without a Bowie reference. Phew.

Update: The new build mentioned above has been released and no longer requires registering for a beta key. An email address is still required for download, but it's less hassle now.

So I just finished rebooting the computer after loading the new iTunes and QuickTime updates and here's what I found. After launching iTunes and going through the mandatory "click accept" thing (I mean, honestly, does anyone ever read those things? I don't.), I waited for a couple of minutes while iTunes "updated" my library. I've got a very small library compared to most people, so I'm a little wary about how long this might take for other people.

The new full-screen Cover Flow (shown here) is nice and easy to use. Click the button at the bottom right of the screen to zoom in and out from full-screen mode.

When you control-click (or right-click) items in your library, there's a new "Apply Sort Field" option, where you can pick Same Album, Same Artist, Same Album Artist, Same Composer or Same Show. Select any of these and iTunes will prompt you whether to change the Sort field for all matching tracks. (e.g. If you select Same Album, you affect the Sort Album column, and so forth.) I'm still unclear as to the utility of this new option. Let me know in the comments why this is important.

Finally, there's a new AppleTV help option in the Help menu, but the links are still pretty much all bogus. This will probably change as AppleTV actually ships.

Check out all the screenshots in our gallery.

This has been bothering me since I upgraded to iTunes 7, and I finally laid hands on a copy of v6 to confirm: in v7, Apple seems to be pushing the new MiniStore they introduced in v6.0.2, as in: they don't make turning it off nearly as obvious anymore. Maybe they didn't like the fact that they were subsequently forced into asking permission to run the store, because in v7, there is no 'click down here to toggle me on/off' button. iTunes 7 is pictured above, while a shot of v6's button is below.



Yes, users can toggle this store under the View menu in iTunes 7, but the point is they removed the instructional piece, as well as any obvious, visible UI for toggling the store. A missing button might not be a big deal to the typical iTunes-familiar user, but there are plenty others out there who don't bother to go hunting for things like this when they get moved (remember what happened when Microsoft re-arranged the Start menu for Windows XP? Riots, mass panic and a severe shortage of duct tape), and they relegate themselves to complaining about how [insert explicative and optional insult] Apple is for doing this.

C'mon Apple, we know you love your store (and we're pretty keen on it ourselves), but you don't need to pull UI tricks like this on your users. Besides, there's plenty of toolbar space down there for everybody; especially for a button that used to live there to begin with.