More doom and gloom news about social networking on the wires this week: The sites are allegedly costing nearly 6.5 billion pounds a year in lost productivity in the United Kingdom, says security consultancy Global Secure Systems and Infosecurity Europe. According to a press release, 776 office workers admitted spending at least 30 minutes a day visiting social networking sites at work. This comes on the heels of a report from Sophos that we covered last week, tracking how much time employees supposedly waste on Facebook.

iNovia Capital, a manager of seed and early stage venture capital funds, announced today the launch of its second fund, iNovia Investment Fund II L.P. (”iNovia II”), a $107 million Canadian seed and early stage venture capital fund focused on the information technology, life sciences and cleantech sectors.iNovia Capital, which recently completed iNovia II’s second closing, obtained the support of important investors from within Canada and abroad including: Consensus Business Group, Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, FIER Partners, BDC Capital, AVAC Ltd., Solidarity Fund QFL, Export Development Canada (EDC), Fondaction, McGill University’s Endowment fund, the University of Alberta, Universite de Sherbrooke, Bishop’s University Foundation CSN, Gestion Univalor L.P. and Telesystem Ltd., as well as a number of strategic angel investors.

“iNovia Capital provides entrepreneurial capital to the companies it backs. We are indeed pleased to have attracted, as investors in iNovia II, a diverse group of institutions and individuals who share our vision and approach,” said Mark de Groot, President & CEO of iNovia Capital. “With iNovia’s expanded presence across Canada, we will continue to execute on our seed and early stage investment strategy, and further build out our North American network of co-investors and deal flow providers, in order to generate strong returns for our stakeholders.”

In preparation for the launch of iNovia II, Shawn Abbott joined the management team as Partner in 2007. Shawn brings to the team over twenty years of experience as a technology entrepreneur, an angel investor and a venture capitalist. This experience includes serving as CTO and then President of Rainbow Technologies (NASDAQ: RNBO) where he consolidated three divisions, built a management team to return the US$70 million business to profitability and growth, and positioned it for a successful sale in 2004 at nearly half a billion USD. Prior to joining Rainbow, Shawn established and built the AND group, which pioneered a widely used encryption-based CD-ROM software distribution system. Shawn was most recently general partner with the Alberta-based venture capital fund SpringBank TechVentures.

Adobe today announced Photoshop Express, a new online photo service that makes it easy to upload, share, and - more importantly - edit digital photos without running a dedicated program such as iPhoto or Adobe’s own Photoshop Elements. The service is free, currently includes 2 GB of online storage, and is a public beta.

It’s easy to see the appeal of Photoshop Express as being “Photoshop on the Web,” a way to tap into the long heritage of image editing established by Adobe Photoshop. But when I saw a preview of the service last week, my first thought was, “This is more like a really good online version of iPhoto.” It features an easy to use interface and basic capabilities for uploading and organizing images into photo albums.

As you might expect from technology based on Photoshop, the service shines when it comes to making adjustments to your photos. You won’t find levels or curves adjustments in this consumer-oriented approach. Making an adjustment such as exposure gives you a strip of thumbnails with various degrees of the settings applied; click the one that looks best to you. (A few adjustments, such as White Balance, also offer sliders for a bit more control over how the effect is applied.) Making edits is also non-destructive, with a clear method of reverting to previous edits and toggling the application of adjustments you’ve applied.

Provider of restaurant order automation technology and services GetQuik released its iPhone offering to enable Apple’s handset users to skip long restaurant lines by ordering their favorite food from their shiny phones.

In order to use the new service and save some time while on a dinner, you’ll need to register for a free account at GetQuik’s website, and then create and save favorite menu items and meals from participating restaurants, only to access them later on your iPhone via iphone.getquik.com.

As you might guessed, GetQuik is talking about the web-based application but they also vowed to go “native” after the new iPhone/iPod Touch firmware is out. In addition, at the moment you can only access the data you saved from your desktop, but in the future you’ll be also able to search, view and order from a restaurant’s complete menu directly from the iPhone…

Taltopia.com a free online platform which connects aspiring talent with fans and industry professionals, announced today that it has completed a Series “A” round of funding in the sum of $800,000. The financing was led by an angel investor from Go4Funding (www.go4funding.com), a site whose goal is to unite entrepreneurs, business owners, and investors.

The young entrepreneurs who started Taltopia.com™, formerly Famesource.com, have completely self-funded the project up until this point. Allen Vartazarian and Anthony Zanontian, now 24 and 22 years old, plan to use the funds primarily to broaden Taltopia’s reach and to further develop appealing features on the site.

“Taltopia is about empowering fans to decide who gets exposure,” said Allen Vartazarian, referring to the “fame” and “shame” voting system. By focusing on this unique niche, Taltopia™ has distinguished itself from other general social networking sites where aspiring artists typically get lost in the clutter.

For users who are not getting the exposure they crave, the site boasts a “Wall of Fame” which grants users the opportunity to “buy” their fame with Famebucks™, the virtual currency used on the site. Users bid for the limited number of spots available on the page, with outbid users being bumped down to subordinate positions. To kick things off, Taltopia.com™ is giving away $5 worth of Famebucks™ to the next 2,500 members that join the free site.

“Taltopia is going to modernize the way artists get the recognition they deserve by providing the tools they need to promote themselves,” said Anthony Zanontian. “We hope to further expand our relationships with talent industry professionals, which are an essential part of this equation,” he added.

Anyone can upload or embed audio, video, or images of their talent to Taltopia.com™, in the hopes of becoming the world’s next “web-celeb.”

About Taltopia.com:

Taltopia, LLC (www.taltopia.com) is an online media distribution and social networking destination whose aim is to provide aspiring and professional talent with a world-wide stage to share their abilities across the web. The site also rewards its members with Famebucks™ for simply using the site’s features, giving users an incentive to find and recommend good artists, while giving artists a platform to promote themselves online. Categories include Music, Art, Acting, Dance, Comedy, and Modeling. Taltopia.com™ is based in Los Angeles, California.