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Image files - why so hard to move around?

post #1 of 11
7/27/10 at 10:08pm
Thread Starter 
I'm brand-new to Macs, coming from a long history of PCs.

I'm having trouble with images/photos on my new iPad. In fact, I'm beginning to think my troubles might stem from a basic difference in philosophy between PC and Mac: that on a Mac, files are generally associated with a single app and are not meant to be shared.

This morning I uploaded a few images from my PC into my MobileMe. I put them in the Pictures folder of the iDisk. Later I opened Photos on my iPad and was disappointed that they weren't there. An Apple store class instructor said I needed to install Gallery on the iPad to view them, because they were located on the MobileMe server, not on my iPad (I thought MobileMe would sync them to all computers that were members of my MobileMe; guess I'm wrong!)

So, I installed Gallery, but they still weren't there. I went back to the PC and opened up MobileMe and discovered that there is a Gallery there also, in addition to iDisk. And the photos were in iDisk but not Gallery. So I guess I put them in the wrong place. I then tried to transfer them from iDisk to Gallery, but I don't see a way to do this. Gallery wants me to upload from my PC (which is where I'm currently running Gallery from).

So, I figured, well, the iDisk is supposed to be mirrored on each computer, so there should be a copy of all iDisk files on my PC. I'll upload from there. But I cannot find the iDisk folder. I expected it to be under My Documents\\MobileMe\\iDisk or something like that.

I realize I can access the iDisk files using the MobileMe iDisk app, but what if I want to access them with something else. What if I want to access photos using Photos on iPad, when they are stored in the iDisk?

See what I mean? It seems the Mac philosophy is to tie files to apps and not allow sharing of them between different apps. Am I wrong?

ted
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post #2 of 11
7/28/10 at 3:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by tedtoal View Post

...

So, I figured, well, the iDisk is supposed to be mirrored on each computer, so there should be a copy of all iDisk files on my PC. I'll upload from there. But I cannot find the iDisk folder. I expected it to be under My Documents\\MobileMe\\iDisk or something like that.

MacOS X is UNIX. We use forward slashes (/) here. To your point, iDisk is mirrored only if the user specifically mirrors his MobileMe account on his computer. This does not change iDisk's behavior.

Quote:
Originally Posted by tedtoal View Post

See what I mean? It seems the Mac philosophy is to tie files to apps and not allow sharing of them between different apps. Am I wrong?

ted

You are projecting your ignorance of the Mac files system into a deficiency on the system's part. With iDisk mounted on your Desktop, every application has access to the files stored on iDisk. The applications that use those files are decided by the user, not Apple. It takes user action to place photographs in the iPhoto library. Only you can place photographs in your iPhoto library.

iPhoto for the iPhone and iPad use the photographs stored in your iPhoto library.
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post #3 of 11
7/28/10 at 3:59am
Try SugarSync, it may make more sense. All the best.
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post #4 of 11
7/28/10 at 6:56am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Me View Post

MacOS X is UNIX. We use forward slashes (/) here. To your point, iDisk is mirrored only if the user specifically mirrors his MobileMe account on his computer. This does not change iDisk's behavior.

You are projecting your ignorance of the Mac files system into a deficiency on the system's part. With iDisk mounted on your Desktop, every application has access to the files stored on iDisk. The applications that use those files are decided by the user, not Apple. It takes user action to place photographs in the iPhoto library. Only you can place photographs in your iPhoto library.

iPhoto for the iPhone and iPad use the photographs stored in your iPhoto library.

All true about iPhoto, but the OP has a PC.
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post #5 of 11
7/28/10 at 11:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by tedtoal View Post

See what I mean? It seems the Mac philosophy is to tie files to apps and not allow sharing of them between different apps. Am I wrong?

ted

Yeah, you're wrong. It has nothing to do with Mac vs. PC, and it's certainly not true that you can't share files among Mac applications - come on, that's ridiculous, of course Macs share files among different apps, and in fact it's much easier than Windows because of the ubiquity of drag-and-drop on the Mac. It's definitely true, though, that iOS is still only taking baby steps towards playing well with files and apps.

If you have a picture file you can put it on your iDisk on your PC (a quick google search can help you do it if you don't know how), or use dropbox, or just email it, etc.
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post #6 of 11
7/28/10 at 12:24pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
MacOS X is UNIX. We use forward slashes (/) here.

I know that, but the path I gave was a Windows path.

Quote:
To your point, iDisk is mirrored only if the user specifically mirrors his MobileMe account on his computer.

And I did specifically mirror the MobileMe account on each of my computers, AND installed the iDisk app on each one. In fact, it turns out that the uploaded images were accessible on the iPad under the iDisk app. I learned two things I wasn't expecting about iDisk and iPad:

(1) iDisk does not sync files between different computers in the MobileMe account, but rather, provides ACCESS to them; this is contrary to my understanding that MobileMe is a SYNCING technology. But its okay, now that I understand how it works. It should perhaps be made more clear to customers when selling them MobileMe.

(2) Even after downloading an image file from the iDisk Pictures folder on the iPad, it was not possible to view the picture in Photos. This is what I mean by lack of file sharing between apps. I was eventually able to do it. iDisk allowed me to save the image to an app I just happened to get called GoodReader, and then when I opened GoodReader, IT allowed me to pass the photo on to the Photos app!!! I believe each photo processed that way is probably using three times the amount of space it should be; each app has its own copy. But its so much work, I won't be doing that anyway.

Quote:
You are projecting your ignorance of the Mac files system into a deficiency on the system's part. With iDisk mounted on your Desktop, every application has access to the files stored on iDisk.

Oh? Please tell me how to access the photo files stored on iDisk using the Photos app of iPad.

Quote:
The applications that use those files are decided by the user, not Apple. It takes user action to place photographs in the iPhoto library. Only you can place photographs in your iPhoto library.

That is fine, as long as I don't need to make separate copies of each photo in order to have them in the libraries of various photo apps. I want my photo library to be located in one place, and accessible to all photo apps. How do I do that with the iPad?

Quote:
Yeah, you're wrong. It has nothing to do with Mac vs. PC, and it's certainly not true that you can't share files among Mac applications - come on, that's ridiculous, of course Macs share files among different apps, and in fact it's much easier than Windows because of the ubiquity of drag-and-drop on the Mac.

I would love to be wrong! Please tell me how I share files on my iPad!
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post #7 of 11
7/28/10 at 1:15pm
MobileMe syncs (copies) contacts, calendars, email, and the like, but not other kinds of files. You have to specifically tell it which files you want to be actually copied over to your iPad. If you think about it that makes sense, given that files can be huge.

If you need the picture file in Photos, you can touch any picture anywhere (like in the iDisk app) and hold it, and then click "save image" and it will go into the Photos app. For some reason, Photos isn't listed among the apps (like Goodreader) that can open a picture file when you select it in the iDisk app. It should be.
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post #8 of 11
7/28/10 at 1:25pm
I think what you need to do is create a MobileMe gallery using your web access to your me.com account. Upload the photos to a gallery. If you were on a Mac, you could also create and upload photos to a gallery with iPhoto. Either way, now they should be viewable on an iPhone or iPad using the MobileMe Gallery app.
Please don't be insane.
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Please don't be insane.
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post #9 of 11
7/28/10 at 1:37pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Millmoss View Post

I think what you need to do is create a MobileMe gallery using your web access to your me.com account. Upload the photos to a gallery. If you were on a Mac, you could also create and upload photos to a gallery with iPhoto. Either way, now they should be viewable on an iPhone or iPad using the MobileMe Gallery app.

Yes, that was my original intent, but I didn't realize that uploading via the Gallery app at MobileMe.com on my PC was DIFFERENT than uploading to the Pictures folder of the iDisk at MobileMe.com on my PC! Now I understand that all these apps have their own separate storage areas and do not share.

So, I DID upload a photo to a MobileMe Gallery, and that did indeed work. I'm disappointed, though, that Gallery seems to be written for an iPod only; it doesn't seem to be using the iPad screen effectively.

I am a new iPad AND MacBook user. I still haven't done much with the MacBook, but I presume it is a "real computer", and will have a complete folder/file type of file system like my PC, and unlike the iPad.

I am just quite surprised that the iPad seems to have a specialized file system that creates a separate file-system sandbox for each individual application, and inter-operability between apps appears to be possible only if the apps in question specifically were designed to share data between them.

Would it be possible for someone to write an iPad app that would store images in a place where other app writers could access them?
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post #10 of 11
7/28/10 at 2:20pm
The iPad is different in the way it handles files from any other device. For the most part, files are associated with the apps and otherwise hidden -- but this is not necessarily a limitation. For instance, if you use Pages or Keynote on the iPad, they both have direct access to your iPad photo library.

Since you also have a Mac, you might consider using iPhoto. When you plug your iPad into your Mac, iPhoto will launch and display your iPad photo library automatically.

Yes, it's weird that MobileMe Gallery has not been updated for the iPad. I suspect it will happen soon, though -- they only just got around to making the iDisk app iPad native. BTW, you can use the iDisk app to look at photos on your iDisk. It works fine for that. You just need to navigate to the folder in which folder you uploaded them.
Please don't be insane.
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Please don't be insane.
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post #11 of 11
9/27/10 at 2:50am
Tedtoal,

It is very easy to transfer your photos from the iDisk. Just open the picture you want to transfer on iDisk, hold it and then click on Save Image, and the file will be automatically saved to the Photos App on the iPad.

Now about your question on the Mac philosophy: Just as the PC, the Mac has a File System with Folders, and Folders within Folders that allows you to drag and drop, delete and move your files without using the program that opens them. Remember Windows was copied from the Mac, so of course Mac will do all those things. In fact, it took until Windows 95 to have this capabilities that the Mac had since the 80's.

Now the iPad is a total different thing. The iPad uses the iOS as operating system, which is totally different from the Mac Operating System (the OS for the Apple Computers). In fact, the iOS was previously called iPhoneOS, since it was not designed for a computer, but for a phone, and was never intended to be used by a computer. Now, for some reason (ease of use, control, popularity, battery time, relationship with the iPhone&iPod line or simple revolutionary ideas) Apple decided to use the iOS for the iPad and not the MacOS.

Of course for the common user, who is expecting the iPad to work more like a computer and less like a phone or an iPod Touch, we expect things like folders and file sharing. This things are being improved and we expect more with the release of the new iOS for the iPad in this fall.

In the meantime, enjoy the baby steps of the new computing revolution.
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