Google testing Picasa for Mac beta
Long the domain of Linux and Windows users, Google's Picasa photo management tool is currently being tested for Macs, AppleInsider has learned.
People familiar with the matter say the search engine giant has just begun internal beta testing for the Mac-native version of the software.
While its proximity to a final release is still unknown, Picasa for Mac would serve as one of Google's few fully offline Mac apps and has often been one of the most conspicuous omissions on Apple's platform from a company otherwise known for its cross-OS friendliness in programs like Google Earth and SketchUp.
The company has previously made gestures towards integrating the app with Macs, including iPhoto and web plugins to upload images to Picasa's Web Albums service. To date, however, most observers have seen Picasa's basic organization, editing and sharing features as making the app a direct competitor to iPhoto that hasn't been as necessary as on Linux or Windows platforms, which have generally gone without rough equivalents.
A representative for Google did not return emails seeking comment.
People familiar with the matter say the search engine giant has just begun internal beta testing for the Mac-native version of the software.
While its proximity to a final release is still unknown, Picasa for Mac would serve as one of Google's few fully offline Mac apps and has often been one of the most conspicuous omissions on Apple's platform from a company otherwise known for its cross-OS friendliness in programs like Google Earth and SketchUp.
The company has previously made gestures towards integrating the app with Macs, including iPhoto and web plugins to upload images to Picasa's Web Albums service. To date, however, most observers have seen Picasa's basic organization, editing and sharing features as making the app a direct competitor to iPhoto that hasn't been as necessary as on Linux or Windows platforms, which have generally gone without rough equivalents.
A representative for Google did not return emails seeking comment.
Comments
That said, I don't see the point in releasing a version for the Mac. Because frankly, iPhoto is just much better.
Having used Picasa for Windows, I think it's the best simple image editing and viewing program for the PC world.
That said, I don't see the point in releasing a version for the Mac. Because frankly, iPhoto is just much better.
While the iPhoto plugin to send photos from iPhoto to Picasa works great and is pretty straightforward to use, that was as far as my dad could readily get (he wanted to make some pictures available just to my brother and I). He couldn't figure out that he had to sign onto the website, then navigate into the specific albums and send a link for each one of them to us. And there is just the manual process to get pictures from Picasa downloaded into iPhoto, which is also something my dad couldn't figure out.
If the standalone app makes these two things easier to do, lots of people will find Picasa much more usable.
Having used Picasa for Windows, I think it's the best simple image editing and viewing program for the PC world.
That said, I don't see the point in releasing a version for the Mac. Because frankly, iPhoto is just much better.
Agreed. I think an iPhoto plugin for picasa would be more appropriate.
Agreed. I think an iPhoto plugin for picasa would be more appropriate.
A Picasa uploader plug-in for iPhoto has been available for some time now.
http://picasa.google.com/mac_tools.html
Having used Picasa for Windows, I think it's the best simple image editing and viewing program for the PC world.
That said, I don't see the point in releasing a version for the Mac. Because frankly, iPhoto is just much better.
Having used Picasa for Windows, I think it's the best simple image editing and viewing program for the PC world.
That said, I don't see the point in releasing a version for the Mac. Because frankly, iPhoto is just much better.
Picasa does have some nice stuff that iPhoto doesn't have or doesn't do as well. Swap the names and the same is true of other features.
expression media is way better. would like to see picasa since its free and has got to be better than iphoto.
iPhoto better? its terrible (slow, makes copies of all your photos for no good reason, cant burn a cd that you can read on windows).
expression media is way better. would like to see picasa since its free and has got to be better than iphoto.
Given that Expression Media is $199, a valid comparison would be against Lightroom or Aperture, not much cheaper low end programs like iPhoto or the free Picasa. Even then, it looks to be its own category.
I only have a MacBook Pro at my job, and it does not have iPhoto installed. My home computer is an HP and Picasa is very useful with great features. Personally I will welcome with a big
The thing is that every Mac is supposed to have iPhoto included. There is no comparable default install with Windows computers.
In your case, it was either given a clean install of a new OS (retail box doesn't include iLife), rather than the included discs. The discs included with the computer would have iLife.
Anyways, Picasa fills a rather large need for Windows users. iPhoto pretty much does 90% or more of Picasa, to most users it would look redundant.
The great "features" of iPhoto:
Slow as hell
Slowness is proportional to number of photos
The more you use it, the slower it gets
File system is HORRIBLE
Horrible interfacing with online applications
Did I mention that it's slow as hell?
But since returning to Apple I was very sad to learn that there wasn't any way to upload video to my Picassa acct. That was a deal breaker. I don't know if they have since added this feature... Doesn't matter for me now. I've got mobile me acct. Which is difficult for my PC family to use, and often leaves me appologizing.
Sorry, but iPhoto is pretty much a piece of crap wrapped in fetid, steaming garbage. ANYTHING is better than iPhoto.
The great "features" of iPhoto:
Slow as hell
Slowness is proportional to number of photos
The more you use it, the slower it gets
File system is HORRIBLE
Horrible interfacing with online applications
Did I mention that it's slow as hell?
Of course it's going to be slow on a G3. On a normal computer, it's plenty fast, and I had 15k images in the program.
Sorry, but iPhoto is pretty much a piece of crap wrapped in fetid, steaming garbage. ANYTHING is better than iPhoto.
Slow as hell
Hmm.... maybe you should try upgrading from a G3 to something newer...
Seriously, your claim is simply unsubstantiated for any machine that shipped in the past 5 years or more. I just retired an old dual G4 and it was running iPhoto 08 just fine with thousands of photos in the library.
You say it's slow, but compared to what? What function is slow? Importing photos? Scrolling through photos? Editing photos? Do you have any benchmarks to compare it to, especially with Picasa? No?
I always recommend Picasa for people who don't have Macs. Picasa is a decent program, but frankly, it falls quite a bit short of iPhoto, particularly with regard to the overall interface. Further, there are many programs outside of iLife that integrate well with the iPhoto library.
Sorry, but iPhoto is pretty much a piece of crap wrapped in fetid, steaming garbage. ANYTHING is better than iPhoto.
The great "features" of iPhoto:
Slow as hell
Slowness is proportional to number of photos
The more you use it, the slower it gets
File system is HORRIBLE
Horrible interfacing with online applications
Did I mention that it's slow as hell?
You do realize, don't you, that actual iPhoto users are laughing hysterically at your irrational FUD?
Sorry, but iPhoto is pretty much a piece of crap wrapped in fetid, steaming garbage. ANYTHING is better than iPhoto.
The great "features" of iPhoto:
Slow as hell
Slowness is proportional to number of photos
The more you use it, the slower it gets
File system is HORRIBLE
Horrible interfacing with online applications
Did I mention that it's slow as hell?
I use iPhoto as my main storage and for 2008 the Library is now at about 100GB. No speed problems at all...NONE. I run it on a MacBook Pro with 2GB ram. To edit the images (all raw) I use NX2 configured as external editor.
The only time I saw iPhoto slow down was when I had mistakenly set edits to be saved internally as TIFF images. Changed the setting, removed the TIFF versions and everything was back to normal. It's no less responsive than LR or Expression Media running on the same laptop cataloging the same Library.
File Systems...iPhoto uses the same filesystem as Mac OS X....you sound like non technical jerk to me.
Sorry, but iPhoto is pretty much a piece of crap wrapped in fetid, steaming garbage. ANYTHING is better than iPhoto.
The great "features" of iPhoto:
Slow as hell
Slowness is proportional to number of photos
The more you use it, the slower it gets
File system is HORRIBLE
Horrible interfacing with online applications
Did I mention that it's slow as hell?
Are you using the latest version with recent hardware? I used Adobe Elements 4 on a PC for a while and it had its quirks. But now I have a 1 year old MB with iMovie08. Compared to before iMovie08 rocks. I added Keyword Manager to it and with the Events the organization of of iMovie is really great.
My Wife will holds onto the PC and recently we dumped Elements for Picasa as my wife wanted an easier way to share photos and she could never figure out the Adobe software, I do not like Picasa and find iPhoto so much easier for organization, but Picasa does have better editing (I added Aperture2 to my Christmas list to compensate for iPhoto's short comings).
I have found the Picasa plugin of iPhoto to work very well and actually I find using iPhoto with the Picasa plugin a faster solution for publishing photos than using the Picasa for Windows.
If Picasa for Mac is a replacement for iPhoto I will not be interested, If it is enhanced seamless integration with iPhoto then sign me up.
You do realize, don't you, that actual iPhoto users are laughing hysterically at your irrational FUD?
I use iPhoto on a G4 that was made 2.5 years ago. My iPhoto library is less than 10 GB. You do realize that Apple still made G4s up until 2.5 years ago, right? You do realize that 10 GB is not a huge amount for an iphoto library, right?
Do you even know what the hell "FUD" is?
You need to shut the eff up before you start accusing people who have been using Apple products (including iPhoto) far longer than you've probably been alive.
Hmm.... maybe you should try upgrading from a G3 to something newer...
I did!! I have a G4 now, it's the NEXT generation of PowerPC processors!