Kodak New General Manager, Worldwide Sales and Customer Operations

Eastman Kodak Company has named Gustavo Oviedo as General Manager, Worldwide Sales and Customer Operations. In that role he oversees worldwide sales and customer support for the company’s Consumer Digital Imaging and Graphic Communications Groups. Oviedo is a Kodak vice president.

Oviedo previously was Managing Director for Kodak’s Asia Pacific Region and Managing Director for the Graphic Communications Group for that region. He held the latter role since 2006, when Kodak acquired Kodak Polychrome Graphics (KPG).

“We have consolidated our sales and customer operations for Kodak’s digital businesses into one organization that presents a single face to the customer, maximizing our value proposition to customers,” said Philip J. Faraci, Kodak President and Chief Operating Officer. “Gustavo’s international career spans more than 25 years working in South America, Asia, Europe and North America, and he brings fluency in several languages to his interactions with our customers.”

Before joining Kodak, Oviedo, who will report to Faraci, worked for Schneider Electric in increasingly responsible positions managing logistics, sales and marketing, business development, and mergers and acquisitions. He holds a business degree from the University of Salvador in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

“I am looking forward to meeting our customers worldwide, as well as the opportunity to introduce others to the broad range of solutions offered by Kodak for consumer and commercial applications,” said Oviedo.

www.kodak.com

Eye-Fi and Evernote partnership

Evernote and Eye-Fi have announced a partnership. Users of Eye-Fi’s wireless SD memory card can now automatically upload photos from their digital camera directly into their Evernote accounts, where images containing printed or handwritten text will be indexed and made searchable.

Evernote adds the images to the user’s collection of notes and memories and makes them available on their desktop, the Web or a mobile phone, where they can be searched and organized.

“Evernote helps consumers capture and search for anything they want to remember from their real and digital lives - from business cards and white board notes, to wine labels and receipts,” said Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote. “There has never been a simpler way to get high-quality images into Evernote than with a point-and-shoot digital camera. It literally takes one step: snap the photo and Eye-Fi does the rest automatically.”

Users can uploading hi-resolution photos through Eye-Fi and tap into Evernote’s convenience of searching and cataloging the images. Now, no extra steps are required between taking a picture and having it become automatically searchable through Evernote.

“Eye-Fi aims to make it easier to capture and share life’s memories,” said Jef Holove, CEO of Eye-Fi. “Now we’re helping people use their cameras to capture everyday information they want to remember. The combined power of Eye-Fi and Evernote means that now anyone who owns a digital camera can have a photographic memory.”

Eye-Fi’s products range from $79-$129 and can be purchased at Apple Retail Stores, Best Buy and major online retailers.

About Evernote Corporation - Evernote allows users to easily capture information in any environment, using whatever device or platform they find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere. Evernote is available on the Windows, Mac, Web, iPhone, Windows Mobile, and other devices. For more information visit: www.evernote.com

About Eye-Fi

Eye-Fi secures $5.5 million in series a funding

The round was co-led by Opus Capital and Shasta Ventures. Eye-Fi is developing wireless-enabled products and services that intend to make the “ease of use” promise of digital photography a reality. Carl Showalter, general partner for Opus Capital, and Robert Coneybeer, managing director for Shasta Ventures, have joined Eye-Fi’s board of directors.

“Digital cameras have made it very easy to take pictures, but it’s a chore to get photos off the camera to a place where you can print or share them,” said Coneybeer. “This is a very real problem affecting both consumers who own digital cameras, and companies in the digital photography industry looking to boost profits. We see a huge market opportunity for Eye-Fi because anyone with a Wi-Fi network and a digital camera is a potential customer.”

Eye-Fi was founded in August 2005 by Yuval Koren, president and CEO; Ziv Gillat, vice president of marketing and sales; Eugene Feinberg, hardware architect; and Berend Ozceri, systems architect. The team has five decades of collective experience in delivering successful products at companies including Apple, Atheros, Cisco and Silicon Graphics.

“Wireless technology can enhance digital photography and help the market reach its full potential by removing some key obstacles,” said Ben Bajarin, analyst and strategist at Creative Strategies. “Wireless networks will make it easier to synchronize, upload and share photos, and provide other valuable services like geo-tagging to indicate where the photograph was taken.” said Bajarin.

“Remember that sense of anticipation you felt when you picked up your prints from the local store? We want to bring that excitement back to photography,” said Koren. "Our services will use wireless technology to automatically upload photographs from a digital camera, making it easy for people to experience the real magic of digital photography."

Eye-Fi will use the funds for product development, operations, support, marketing and production. The company plans to release its first product, which is currently in beta trials, later this year.

About Eye-Fi - Founded in 2005, the company is dedicated to building services that help consumers navigate, nurture and share their visual memories. Eye-Fi’s patent-pending technology works with Wi-Fi networks to automatically send photos from a digital camera to online, in-home and retail destinations. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., the company’s investors include Opus Capital and Shasta Ventures. More information is available at www.eye.fi

About Shasta - Shasta Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in technology-enabled businesses serving consumers and enterprises. Located in Menlo Park, Calif., Shasta Ventures manages a $210 million fund. Shasta was formed in 2004 by venture capital veterans and has made 19 investments to date across consumer and business services, infrastructure and software. For more information on Shasta Ventures, please visit www.shastaventures.com

About Opus Capital - Opus Capital is a venture capital firm with more than $1 billion capital under management, investing in committed, high integrity entrepreneurs building early-stage technology companies. The team has participated in the successful outcomes of more than 80 companies (including 50 IPOs) in the U.S. and in Israel including AirGate PCS, Electronics for Imaging, FedEx, Genesys, Harmonic, Precept Software and Vantive. Opus Capital is headquartered on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California.

Major focus on digital photography at Macworld Expo 2006

 

IDG World Expo announced a major focus on digital photography at Macworld Conference & Expo 2006, taking place January 9-13, 2006 at San Francisco's Moscone Center. Several new features have been added to this year's event that will provide attendees with more education, services and product insight about digital photography - always one of the most popular topics at Macworld.

Aperture

January's Macworld will mark the first in-depth public training on Apple's newly launched product, Aperture - the first all-in-one post-production tool for professional photographers. Taught by best-selling digital photography author, Derrick Story, this conference session is part of the Power Tools Conference and provides two full days of in-depth training on this powerful tool.

Digital Photography Exhibitors

The leading companies in the digital photography industry will be exhibiting or sponsoring at Macworld. A sample of those exhibiting companies include: Adobe, Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Quark, FileMaker, Lowel-Light, HP, Epson, Filmloop, Light Crafts and B&H Photo-Video-Pro Audio.

Digital Photography Day

Sponsored by Olympus, FileMaker and Lowel-Light, this new Macworld educational feature provides attendees the opportunity to improve digital photography skills in one day under the instruction of top-notch industry photographers. Professional and novice classes will include classroom instruction; outdoor shooting; indoor lighting and shooting; downloading and critique; editing; and organizing and sharing images.

The Dr. Is In - Digital Photography Help

This new Exhibit Hall feature is a complimentary service where attendees can bring prints, camera (bring cables for download) or images on flash storage to the digital photography doctors in the Creative Corner of the Macworld Exhibit Hall and let members of the American Society of Media Photographers give pointers. The Doctors will be in all week. Open to all Exhibit Hall attendees.

Digital Photography Birds-of-a-Feather: ASMP/ SFDIG: "The Digital Camera of 2015"

The American Society of Media Photographers will host Mac industry luminary David Pogue of The New York Times, as he discusses the next decade of digital photography. You'll hear about the screens, batteries, storage devices, and software of the next decade's digital camera, including which current annoyances will go away and which will only get worse. Features virtual video visits from the top visionaries at Kodak, Nikon, and Canon. 1/11/06 at 6:00 p.m. Open to all Exhibit Hall attendees.

Photoshop Feature Presentation

Photoshop expert Russell Brown of Adobe will entertain and educate with an "altered" view of Photoshop, guaranteed to make you smile. Russell will take you on a wild and wacky ride through some of the key new features found in Photoshop CS. 1/13/06 at 10:00 a.m. Open to all attendees.

Photoshop Education

-- Users Conference: "Photoshop Digital Creation: Uncanny Realism," 75 minute session.

-- Users Conference: "Photoshop CS2: Secrets to Levels and Curves," 75 minute session.

-- Power Tools Conference: "Professional Photoshop," two full days of in-depth training.

-- Taste of the Conference: "Photoshop CS: Essential Tips & Tricks," gives essential, time-saving techniques on Photoshop. 1/11/06 at 5:00 p.m. Open to all Exhibit Hall attendees.

Digital Photography Education

Users Conference: Learn how to use a digital camera, take better pictures and share them with friends, family and other associates with sessions on Wednesday. Thursday sessions offer tips, tricks and vision to the advanced Digital Photographer. This track includes five unique 75-minute sessions.