The 95th Tour de France is reaching its most exciting moments, and we’re bringing them to you on a brand new channel in our PicLens Discover feature!

The Tour de France channel has all the latest news, daily photos, and video highlights for the race from across the web. Even if you’re not a cycling enthusiast yet, check it out: you may become one!

Coming soon on Discover in PicLens: The Olympics!

Here at Cooliris, we believe that two heads are better than one.

When we’re looking for new directions, one of the first places we look isn’t the next cubicle over. It’s you guys. We love hearing your thoughts on the Next Big Thing. And we’re listening.

The folks over at iPernity posted an article about us on their blog a couple of weeks ago, asking their users to request full PicLens integration. The iPernity community pounced on the opportunity, and their response was overwhelming “ at its peak, we were getting 30 emails an hour!

We talked to their CTO right away and got the ball rolling. We started getting emails on June 30th; iPernity received full PicLens integration on July 4th, just in time to show off the fireworks.

When you mobilize, so do we. The PicLens & iPernity team effort happened because their community members were all so motivated to get PicLens enabled on their site that they combined their voices “ and made sure we really did hear them.

We’re working as fast as we can to implement great new ideas for improved functionality, customizability, and the just plain cool. Over the next few weeks you’ll be seeing some great new features out of PicLens. But we’d like to hear from you on what you think will make the next version of PicLens better.

So take a moment: add a suggestion to this blog post! If someone has mentioned your idea already, back them up! You guys are invaluable, and we want to do everything we can to make sure you’re soaring through the internet.

With version 1.7, PicLens is more popular than ever before! How come? One of the biggest reasons is the addition of Discover “ channel surfing on your computer! As soon as you pull up PicLens, you’ve got the world’s media at your fingertips.

With channels like International News, Business, and Fashion/Lifestyle, Discover offers constantly updated, fully-captioned snapshots and video feeds from the best global news sources: Reuters, the Associated Press, ESPN, MSNBC, ABC, and more.

The media-rich environment is easily navigable, allowing you to slide through hundreds of news items in seconds using the 3D Wall to find the story that most interests you. Best of all, the new version now allows you to pop in and out of PicLens, so you can get the full story quickly and easily in your browser before sliding back to your channel surfing.

We’re hearing back from hundreds of users who have integrated Discover into their frequent news browsing breaks. It’s a great substitute for television, allowing you to quickly find the content that you think matters most, and is a great way to relax and stay “plugged in” in the midst of a busy schedule. Let’s hear what users have to say:

“The interface is amazing, it searches all the major media sites (photo and video) and makes it extremely easy and fun to find photos, watch news videos, or just entertaining videos. The interface is fast, intuitive, and beautiful. I found it easier and faster to find what I was looking for through PicLens compared to going directly to YouTube or Google.” — This Year

“I now use PicLens many times a day, throughout the day. For catching up on the news, it’s so much easier and faster than turning on the TV.” — Amy, a new user

“The real power of PicLens though is its “Discovery” section. This is where you can browse the news, sports, business and everything going on the web easily and quickly . . . If you want to see where the web is going, download this app now.” — Ty, blogger

What are you waiting for? Join numbers of PicLens users in revolutionizing the way the web is viewed. There’s a whole world of media out there, and there’s no faster or easier way to surf it than Discover.

This week, watercooler talk at the Cooliris office has been centered around one thing and one thing only. No, we’re not talking about the imminent July 4th festivities. It’s the Olympic swim trials. Because our own Hongzhe Sun (or “Hong” for short) has been competing for the honor to represent the US in the 100m and 200m backstroke.

Hong, our very own Product Manager, comes to us from Stanford, where he graduated in ‘07. Hong’s amazing drive and determination have been instrumental to shaping new PicLens builds. Hong works tirelessly with our team to take our products in exciting new directions . . . and that’s between his intense swim practices every day!

The competition has been fierce at the Olympic trial swim meets; 6 world records have already been broken. During the 100m backstroke on Monday, Hong finished with his best time of 54.83 seconds, earning him a 9th place finish and a lane in the semifinals. Just a few hours later, he came in 11th in the semifinals at 54.47 seconds – falling just short of the finals but achieving a personal best time for the second time in one day!

Tomorrow, Hong will compete in the 200m backstroke. He’s told us he’s “very optimistic” about the event.

We’re all proud of the amazing spirit Hong has shown in his Olympian efforts both in the water and at Cooliris. We’ll be clustered around the TV rooting for him! Help support Hong by checking out the swim trials for yourself on the USA and NBC networks!

Go get ‘em Hong! You’re our man!