First look: Apple's all-new Photos for OS X brings the best of iPhone, iPad & iCloud to the Mac
Apple's first beta of the new Photos application for OS X showcases a sleek, uncluttered interface that will instantly feel natural to anyone who has used the modern Photos app for iPhone and iPad, bringing welcome features and strong iCloud integration to the desktop.
Developers were provided a preview of the new Photos app on Thursday, and AppleInsider went hands-on with the pre-release software to get our first taste of Apple's latest Mac app. It's immediately clear that Photos for OS X further blurs the lines between OS X and iOS, continuing the effort that Apple has made for years to develop its two platforms into one consistent ecosystem.
Also evident right off the bat, unfortunately, is why Photos for OS X is not yet available to the general public: The beta software remains buggy, and our initial tests did lead to a number of crashes. Enthusiasts hoping to get the software on their Mac should wait, and leave the testing to developers while Apple works to iron out the kinks.
Still, our initial impressions with Photos are positive, with a few new features and functions that stood out right off the bat. In particular, Photos offers users the ability to easily produce their own books, calendars, cards, and other physical items in a manner that's more simple than ever.
As with iCloud Photo Library on iOS, Mac users will have the added confidence of knowing that all of their pictures are backed up and accessible on all their Apple devices. Of course, uploading to iCloud will also result in larger storage requirements for many users, which come at a cost.
Also a welcome addition from iOS is the option to intelligently decide whether to store or not store photos locally on the Mac. This helps allow users to optimize their hard drive space while still having all of their images accessible when connected to the Internet and accessing them from iCloud.
Photos for OS X also makes it even easier for users to share photos with others via iCloud. There are also a convenient optimized slideshow configuration wizard.
The editor pane in the new Mac Photos application is straight-forward for anyone who has used the basic editing tools in Photos for iOS.
The interface itself is clean and uncluttered, though in its beta state, we did find a few situations where it was unclear how to proceed.
For example, the progress bar for importing photos does not automatically display in the foreground. We assumed this was a bug, until we noticed a small graphic of a circle being filled near the top left of the application, and clicking on it revealed a full-size progress bar.
Photos for OS X breaks down imported pictures into sorted albums, just like on iOS. Photos can be sorted by All Photos, Faces, My Photo Stream, Last Import, Favorites, Panoramas, Videos, Time Lapse and Bursts.
As with iOS, users can put everything they have into the cloud, including full-resolution copies of photos and videos. If users want, they can choose to only store originals on their Mac if they have space.
Apple hasn't yet signaled when Photos for OS X will become available to the general public. The new beta is included in a pre-release build of OS X 10.10.3 Yosemite, which is only available to members of Apple's registered developer program.
Developers were provided a preview of the new Photos app on Thursday, and AppleInsider went hands-on with the pre-release software to get our first taste of Apple's latest Mac app. It's immediately clear that Photos for OS X further blurs the lines between OS X and iOS, continuing the effort that Apple has made for years to develop its two platforms into one consistent ecosystem.
Also evident right off the bat, unfortunately, is why Photos for OS X is not yet available to the general public: The beta software remains buggy, and our initial tests did lead to a number of crashes. Enthusiasts hoping to get the software on their Mac should wait, and leave the testing to developers while Apple works to iron out the kinks.
Still, our initial impressions with Photos are positive, with a few new features and functions that stood out right off the bat. In particular, Photos offers users the ability to easily produce their own books, calendars, cards, and other physical items in a manner that's more simple than ever.
As with iCloud Photo Library on iOS, Mac users will have the added confidence of knowing that all of their pictures are backed up and accessible on all their Apple devices. Of course, uploading to iCloud will also result in larger storage requirements for many users, which come at a cost.
Also a welcome addition from iOS is the option to intelligently decide whether to store or not store photos locally on the Mac. This helps allow users to optimize their hard drive space while still having all of their images accessible when connected to the Internet and accessing them from iCloud.
Photos for OS X also makes it even easier for users to share photos with others via iCloud. There are also a convenient optimized slideshow configuration wizard.
The editor pane in the new Mac Photos application is straight-forward for anyone who has used the basic editing tools in Photos for iOS.
The interface itself is clean and uncluttered, though in its beta state, we did find a few situations where it was unclear how to proceed.
For example, the progress bar for importing photos does not automatically display in the foreground. We assumed this was a bug, until we noticed a small graphic of a circle being filled near the top left of the application, and clicking on it revealed a full-size progress bar.
Photos for OS X breaks down imported pictures into sorted albums, just like on iOS. Photos can be sorted by All Photos, Faces, My Photo Stream, Last Import, Favorites, Panoramas, Videos, Time Lapse and Bursts.
As with iOS, users can put everything they have into the cloud, including full-resolution copies of photos and videos. If users want, they can choose to only store originals on their Mac if they have space.
Apple hasn't yet signaled when Photos for OS X will become available to the general public. The new beta is included in a pre-release build of OS X 10.10.3 Yosemite, which is only available to members of Apple's registered developer program.
Comments
Dear AI:
Thanks for taking the time to actually create low res thumbnails instead just scaling the high res images. I'm sure the extra work is appreciated by those who might be on a slower connection.
M
I have no desire to share my photos via anything-cloud.
Wait until your wife's nude selfies appear across the whole "family share". (Or your mistress's selfies)
Dude. I love Budapest as much as the next guy; but a chopped weenie in blood red sauce?? c'mon. You can find a better photo to use as example.
Only on iCloud? Can use other backup services?
Probably.
This looks absolutely fantastic. Looking forward to it. Will greatly enhance OSX/iOS photo integration and make Apple ecosystem yet stronger and stickier.
Agreed. Would love to see Siri come to the Mac and have 3rd party app integration.
Nothing wrong with making a simple suggestion.
Dear AI:
Thanks for taking the time to actually create low res thumbnails instead just scaling the high res images. I'm sure the extra work is appreciated by those who might be on a slower connection.
M
Except that the thumbnails don't load unless you go into the forum.
I'm curious what's in store for the photographers and dSLR users. RAW support? I was going to buy Aperture just before Apple announced discontinuing it. My only choice was to go and subscribe to Adobe's Lightroom/Photoshop suite.
While I'm not a fan of Adobe, it's going to take Apple doing something really special for me to get off of all that now.
Agreed!
The idea of storing everything in the cloud does not appeal to me right now. It may in the future. To upload 100 gb's definitely does not appeal to me
I'd like to automatically back up all my photos to a dedicated external HD, however. Other than that Photos looks fine. More than Cards, Calendars and Books (old School), I am much more interested in the photo management part of the app. I'd love easier management of different libraries, for instance. Being able to send a bunch of photos wrongly imported into one library to another would be awesome. For advanced image editing I use PSCS6 with which I am very familiar and which serves me well. For basic image optimization I like iPhoto and I am sure I will like Photos.
I'm looking forward to this; my 100Mb upload connection is ready and waiting for iCloud Photos.
However, would anyone in their right mind entrust all their beloved photos to iCloud without storing them locally on their Mac as well? Seems foolhardy to me.
How are "hidden" photos treated? Are they uploaded to the cloud, as well?
How are "hidden" photos treated? Are they uploaded to the cloud, as well?
Why wouldn't they be? It’s only a tag.
When making a greeting card I noticed it said "Made on Mac" or something like that with an "Options" button. When you click on the options button, do you have the option of removing the "Made on Mac" watermark?
Looks promising...very clean and modern. I hope I don't have to use iCloud with this though. Apple's current pricing is too high for a decent amount of storage. Not to mention the less than stellar 2 to 3 Mbps upload speed of my Internet connection (download is a decent 45 Mbps) which is not conducive to large photo files!
I'm curious what's in store for the photographers and dSLR users. RAW support? I was going to buy Aperture just before Apple announced discontinuing it. My only choice was to go and subscribe to Adobe's Lightroom/Photoshop suite.
While I'm not a fan of Adobe, it's going to take Apple doing something really special for me to get off of all that now.
You really don't need to subscribe. Just buy a copy of Lightroom 5 or wait for Lightroom 6. Lightroom 6 will be available as a standalone purchase. I do like what I see with Apple's new Photo App, but I don't think this will be a suitable replacement for Lightroom users.
EDIT: Another more in depth article. You will be able to upload RAW files
http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/5/7982517/apple-photos-mac-iphoto-replacement-explainer-faq