Apple releases public beta of OS X 10.10.3, gives the masses a first taste of new Photos app

Posted:
in macOS edited March 2015
Members of the public OS X Beta Program can now experience Apple's forthcoming Photos app for Mac, thanks to the release of the first OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 public beta.




Identified as build 14D87p, OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 Public Beta is now available to download through the Mac App Store. The download is available to users who have registered for the free OS X Beta Program.

Apple advises that users install the beta software on a system or partition that they are prepared to erase if necessary. Users are also told to always back up their Mac when using beta software.

The release includes the new Photos app, which organizes a user's photo library and helps to perfect photos with comprehensive editing tools. Users can also store their photos and videos in the cloud using iCloud Photo Library, and then access them on all of their devices.




Features of the new Photos app, according to Apple, include the ability to:
  • Browse photos by time and location in Moments, Collections, and Years views
  • Navigate a library using convenient Photos, Shared, Albums, and Projects tabs
  • Store all of your photos and videos in iCloud Photo Library in their original format and in full resolution
  • Perfect photos with powerful and easy to use editing tools that optimize with a single click or slider, or allow precise adjustments with detailed controls
  • Create professional-quality photo books with simplified bookmarking tools, new Apple-designed themes, and new square book formats
  • Purchase prints in new square and panoramic sizes
Photos is Apple's forthcoming replacement for iPhoto on the Mac. Developers have been able to test the beta application out since it became available to testers last month.

Photos for OS X features a sleek, uncluttered interface that will feel natural to anyone who has used the modern Photos app for iPhone and iPad. It brings many of the features of that app to the Mac, including strong iCloud integration and basic editing capabilities.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 78
    Can't wait!!
  • Reply 2 of 78
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member

    Early adopters and beta testers, let us know how it works. :D

  • Reply 3 of 78
    mac_dogmac_dog Posts: 1,069member
    this is a little late. mine was installed on the 23 of february.

    i'd like to know what "safari networking" is and how to stop these dialogue boxes from popping up every time i navigate to a site.

    and yes, i have sent a report (more like an inquiry, as it's probably not a bug) to apple, but they're not going to write back. i'm hoping someone on the thread can answer for me.
  • Reply 4 of 78
    My browser (Safari) has slowed to a crawl with lots of error messages since installing the public beta this morning. Is anyone else having this problem?
  • Reply 5 of 78
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member

    Any impressions? Really tempted to install this, but probably not a great idea on my main work machine. 

  • Reply 6 of 78

    Does Photos have "Faces"? If not, is the faces data transferred into a tag or description?

  • Reply 7 of 78
    My impression? Just like Pages and Numbers, I absolutely HATE it. It's confusing to use, button placement isn't in any logical apparent order. Nothing is labeled, you can't scroll across events with your mouse to find pictures.

    Total move backwards. It's a mirror of the limited iPad version, but I don't have an iPad. I've got a mac! I have screen real estate, so this minimalist bull crap that strips away immediate productivity needs to stop.

    Apple wrote the book on Human interface guidelines. Everyone realized they nailed it and copied them. Now, they are making changes that go so far against those guidelines, it's not even funny.
  • Reply 8 of 78
    sporlosporlo Posts: 143member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Brian Jojade View Post



    My impression? Just like Pages and Numbers, I absolutely HATE it. It's confusing to use, button placement isn't in any logical apparent order. Nothing is labeled, you can't scroll across events with your mouse to find pictures.



    Total move backwards. It's a mirror of the limited iPad version, but I don't have an iPad. I've got a mac! I have screen real estate, so this minimalist bull crap that strips away immediate productivity needs to stop.



    Apple wrote the book on Human interface guidelines. Everyone realized they nailed it and copied them. Now, they are making changes that go so far against those guidelines, it's not even funny.



    What the **** is Apple doing? I used to be the biggest Apple fanboy since I first started using Apple products probably 15 years ago or so, and everything they do these days constantly tries to erase their history. I simply can't justify any serious support or approval of their decisions anymore. Today's Apple apologists simply don't consider the past.

  • Reply 9 of 78
    Does anyone know if you can upgrade from a previous Yosemite beta (pre-release 10.10.0) to this new 10.10.3 version directly? Or would one have to install a retail version of 10.10.2 and then upgrade to the 10.10.3 beta?
  • Reply 10 of 78
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member
    My impression? Just like Pages and Numbers, I absolutely HATE it. It's confusing to use, button placement isn't in any logical apparent order. Nothing is labeled, you can't scroll across events with your mouse to find pictures.

    Total move backwards. It's a mirror of the limited iPad version, but I don't have an iPad. I've got a mac! I have screen real estate, so this minimalist bull crap that strips away immediate productivity needs to stop.

    Apple wrote the book on Human interface guidelines. Everyone realized they nailed it and copied them. Now, they are making changes that go so far against those guidelines, it's not even funny.

    The NeXT UI HIG was a leap forward from Apple, and the first thing we discovered were warring factions inside Apple to butcher OPENSTEP and that's how we got OS X: a compromise.

    HIG is under Ives, who should be be overseeing it.

    Unfortunately, Keith Ohlfs was never interested in taking it over when offered after the merger. But he's a special consultant on the new Steve Jobs film.
  • Reply 11 of 78
    akacakac Posts: 512member

    Frankly I like a lot. I'm not sure where some of the negativity is coming from. I've been using Macs since 92, seen and used Copland (yes the real deal), NeXT, and so on. Its a beta, and there are missing features - yes. I do think that hovering over the pics should show them, but other than that I've found the app to be extremely responsive, easy to use, and intuitive. There are a few buttons that are unlabeled, but if you don't know what < and > and + and some of the other standard buttons mean, then well ok. All the editing buttons are labeled. 

     

    Its an unfinished, but good piece of software. Understand that and I think you'll go a long way.

  • Reply 12 of 78
    damn_its_hotdamn_its_hot Posts: 1,209member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by superjunaid View Post



    Can't wait!!



    Yes you can. It sucks.

     

    Reminds me of the neutering that was done to iMovie. Apple claimed it was simple and so much easier to use. The thing is that they did not tell you they were cutting features so that it does not have parity (or other features compelling enough to throw out the old).

     

    It does not do what iPhoto does (editing, viewing). It changes the paradigm from events and albums as your main navigation to a timeline (yes you can still have events and albums). It also ties you to iCloud which is OK if you don't mind carrying a subset of your pix on your iPhone and have constant access to either WiFi or cellular so that you can retrieve the others. EXIF data is an afterthought and not easily accessible and the location is no longer stored the same.

     

    Beware, once you move to Photos from iPhotos you can't go back. I'm sticking with iPhoto as long as I can.

  • Reply 13 of 78
    damn_its_hotdamn_its_hot Posts: 1,209member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Akac View Post

     

    Frankly I like a lot. I'm not sure where some of the negativity is coming from. I've been using Macs since 92, seen and used Copland (yes the real deal), NeXT, and so on. Its a beta, and there are missing features - yes. I do think that hovering over the pics should show them, but other than that I've found the app to be extremely responsive, easy to use, and intuitive. There are a few buttons that are unlabeled, but if you don't know what < and > and + and some of the other standard buttons mean, then well ok. All the editing buttons are labeled. 

     

    Its an unfinished, but good piece of software. Understand that and I think you'll go a long way.




    The very definition of "Beta" is feature complete but needs to be tested. This would be alpha or developmental. I would not expect to get those missing features back until a large group raises enough hell to get their attention. Of course this is a perfect opportunity for a 3rd party but that will end up costing some bucks at the expense of integration. So far the API to Photos seems to be very thin (as not robust, i.e., not all is exposed). After setting up numerous keywords for searching in iPhoto they now have them converted to tags without the easy searches (albeit simple) that you have in iPhoto.

  • Reply 14 of 78
    akacakac Posts: 512member

    That may be the old definition from years and years ago. Very few apps work that way. Especially with iterative development these days, beta just means "we're at the point where people can use it".

  • Reply 15 of 78
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Brian Jojade View Post



    My impression? Just like Pages and Numbers, I absolutely HATE it. It's confusing to use, button placement isn't in any logical apparent order. Nothing is labeled, you can't scroll across events with your mouse to find pictures.



    Total move backwards. It's a mirror of the limited iPad version, but I don't have an iPad. I've got a mac! I have screen real estate, so this minimalist bull crap that strips away immediate productivity needs to stop.



    Apple wrote the book on Human interface guidelines. Everyone realized they nailed it and copied them. Now, they are making changes that go so far against those guidelines, it's not even funny.

     

    I love the new Pages and Numbers and use them everyday, so sounds like I'll love this too. Your posts sounds hilariously sensational. If you don't like it, there's a ton of other photo organization apps on the mac. This is catered towards those that have iOS devices, and for that it works brilliantly. 

  • Reply 16 of 78
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Damn_Its_Hot View Post

     

     

     

    It does not do what iPhoto does (editing, viewing). 


     

    What the **** are you talking about? The editing tools are 1000x more comprehensive than whats in iPhoto. 

     

    Every technology site single hands-on I've read has said it's a massive improvement over iPhoto, but we can always count on the Apple-hating trolls on this site (oh sorry, "life-long Apple fans", as they call themselves) and other Apple sites to tell us how truly horrible it is. 

  • Reply 17 of 78
    dhagan4755dhagan4755 Posts: 2,152member

    I don't get where the negativity is coming from.  The app is nowhere near perfect but it is far better than the slow, clunky iPhoto. There is always resistance to change.  Some of the change has been for the better, some not, but I like this new app.

     

    I like being able to have the same photo library on all my devices.  It's like iTunes Match for photos & I like it in that regard. What needs serious tweaking is the organization options for the actual photos themselves.  

     

    I'm sure they'll add all of the Aperture features to it over time, like what happened when Final Cut Pro 7 went to Final Cut Pro X, and the whole debacle over multi camera editing. That said, with Apple having so much money in the bank, you'd think they'd hire more developers to make sure the software is solid and feature-complete in the first place.  There are issues in software development at Apple right now.  Apple needs to really get a handle on it or it's going to be their demise. The amount of bugs getting out these days is disturbing.  That said, again, I like where this new app is going and if Apple can address the aforementioned issues, it's going to be a solid iPhoto/Aperture replacement.

  • Reply 18 of 78
    damn_its_hotdamn_its_hot Posts: 1,209member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Slurpy View Post

     
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Damn_Its_Hot View Post

     

     

     

    It does not do what iPhoto does (editing, viewing). 


     

    What the **** are you talking about? The editing tools are 1000x more comprehensive than whats in iPhoto. 

     

    Every technology site single hands-on I've read has said it's a massive improvement over iPhoto, but we can always count on the Apple-hating trolls on this site (oh sorry, "life-long Apple fans", as they call themselves) and other Apple sites to tell us how truly horrible it is. 


     

    I beg to differ with your hyperbole regarding Photo.

     

    I don't think even the development team would make such exaggerated claims (and doubtfully with as much vitriol). I dare say you have no business calling me a troll.

     

    I am not a life long fan of Apple although I did buy my 1st Mac in Mar 1984 and have been a developer since 1986 (they called Certified Developers back in the day). I worked at Apple in engineering for several years (was there for the earthquake). I am not nor do I ever plan to be one of those that simply loves everything they do but I have believed in them long to be a long term AAPL stock holder. Take a look at the what The Verge and MacWorld says. They do not back all of what I have said but there are weaknesses in Photo IMHO.

     

    Oh, and take a chill pill, you're going to have a stroke.

     

    Edit: I did not catch this in your previous post but you seem to have the gall to attack me for my opinion when you have little or no experience with it : Slurpy says "I love the new Pages and Numbers and use them everyday, so sounds like I'll love this too."

  • Reply 19 of 78
    mubailimubaili Posts: 453member
    sporlo wrote: »

    What the **** is Apple doing? I used to be the biggest Apple fanboy since I first started using Apple products probably 15 years ago or so, and everything they do these days constantly tries to erase their history. I simply can't justify any serious support or approval of their decisions anymore. Today's Apple apologists simply don't consider the past.
    After a week of use, I absolutely love the Photos. My early 2009 iMac just cannot handle 40,000 photos with iPhoto. However after about 1 hour of imports from the existing iPhoto library, Photos just take those 40,000 photos in without any hesitation and scroll like a knife cut through a melting butter. It is bad business for Apple though. I could live the 2009 iMac for another two year if Apple is going to improve performance like Photos does.
  • Reply 20 of 78
    damn_its_hotdamn_its_hot Posts: 1,209member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DHagan4755 View Post

     

    I don't get where the negativity is coming from.  The app is nowhere near perfect...

    I'm sure they'll add all of the Aperture features to it over time, like what happened when Final Cut Pro 7 went to Final Cut Pro X, and the whole debacle over multi camera editing....


     

    Their record says otherwise with iMovie. I hope your right because that would be a huge upgrade from just iPhoto parity. If this is the case they have a funny way of rolling forward with it -- EOL Aperture and intro Photos parallel to iPhoto although once moved from iPhoto it is pretty much a one way street.

     

    I suspect this is more of a way to be on all platforms (via iCloud) and to attract users from the WinWorld & Google. This does help keep the (supposed) slide from happening in education that has embraced the Chromebook (if you believe those rumors).

     

    I for one prefer iPhoto over Photos but in saying so don't intend any "negativity". I have used Photos for several weeks and prefer iPhotos and think many others will feel that way as simple as that. These changes in iPhoto to Photo will not cause any mass exodus from the platform any more than the changes did in iMovie. I for one appreciate that different people like different ways of accomplishing similar tasks - it helps feed innovation and creation even if the newer way is not the way I prefer it.

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