January 5th, 2009

Google launches Picasa for the Mac!

Posted by Garett Rogers @ 2:47 pm

Categories: Google, Picasa

Tags: Google Inc., Apple Macintosh, Google Picasa, Desktops, Hardware, Garett Rogers

Last week I blogged about a piece of information that was handed to me:

“… A Mac version of Picasa will be launched this year at Macworld …”

It turns out that Google did indeed launch Picasa at this year’s Macworld Expo, and it looks great. I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, but I will surely be installing it on my Macbook tonight.

today, we’re releasing Picasa for Mac. While we’ve previously offered both a standalone Picasa Web Albums uploader and an iPhoto plugin for Mac users, Picasa for Mac finally brings all of the advanced sharing and sync features of Picasa to the millions of Mac OS X users who use Picasa Web Albums. Not to mention the “it-slices-and-dices” feature list that covers everything from color balance to collages.

It’s about time Mac users had an alternative to iPhoto.

December 29th, 2008

Google to launch Picasa Mac at Macworld 2009?

Posted by Garett Rogers @ 4:07 pm

Categories: Google, Picasa

Tags: Software, Google Inc., Apple Macintosh, Google Picasa, Tools & Techniques, Desktops, Management, Hardware, Garett Rogers

According to someone who claims to work at Google, we may be seeing an Apple version of their popular photo management software at the 2009 Macworld Expo. This unconfirmed rumor does definitely sound plausible, considering a Google representative said earlier this year that a Mac version would be available “later this year“.

I asked if Picasa for Mac was coming, and as luck would have it I managed to pick the Google employee with the least amount of media training and immediately put her on the spot. Her response: Picasa for Mac is under-development and will be launched later this year. — Duncan Riley, TechCrunch

An official post on the Official Google Mac Blog has confirmed that they will have a booth set up where they will be making “larger presentations” and demoing software:

Demo stations will be placed throughout the booth so that attendees can try out Google software on their own, and in many cases, talk to the people who helped create that software.

This information is still unverified, and should be taken with a grain of salt — but I’m hoping there is some truth behind this one. Picasa is a great piece of software, and if they do it right, you would definitely see it replace iPhoto on many Macs.

January 8th, 2008

Panasonic to sell web-enabled TV using Google

Posted by Garett Rogers @ 6:23 am

Categories: Google TV, Picasa, YouTube

Tags: Google Inc., Web, Panasonic, TVs, Tv & Home Theater, Personal Technology, Home Entertainment, Garett Rogers

The new TV, which was announced at CES, will let users to do a variety of things like watch YouTube videos and look through photo albums from their couch. To do the same thing using today’s technology, your best bet would be to hook up a computer directly to the TV.

Without any extra hardware, it’s now a lot less complicated on network enabled televisions. This effectively removes the barrier that was stopping average users from accessing web content, that makes sense, through their TV.

I wonder how long before Google Gadgets will work on this platform too? I’m thinking it will either be in the first release, or shortly after. Shap announced AQUOS Net at this year’s CES also — a service that uses their own proprietary “widgets” that must be approved.

December 23rd, 2007

Picasa 3.0 on the way

Posted by Garett Rogers @ 8:24 pm

Categories: Picasa

Tags: Google Picasa, Tools & Techniques, Management, Garett Rogers

Anyone who uses Picasa to touch up and manage their photos will testify that it is a wonderful piece of software. I can’t think of much that would make it even better, but maybe Google has been thinking hard enough to come up with some more really great features.

In the Official Google Blog Picasa Web Album, some of the pictures have very interesting Exif data embedded in them including:

Exposure: 0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire
X-Resolution: 72 dpi
Y-Resolution: 72 dpi
Software: Picasa 3.0
Date and Time: 2007:12:07 05:08:57

As you can see, the “software” used was “Picasa 3.0″ — newer than the current 2.7 version available from http://picasa.google.com. There is no word on which features are actually in the works, but if we look at the support group, we can start to build a list of the most commonly requested features. If these suggestions are any indication, we can expect to see many improvements including:

• Better browsing capabilities with a calendar view
• Easier way to backup files on external hard drives, and keep things in sync
• Photo tagging for better search
• Even more RAW format support

Whatever Google does with the new version, Picasa users will be anxious to give it a shot. There’s no word yet on a Mac version of the software, but lets hope we can see one of those soon too.

August 21st, 2007

Picasa adds support for seven more languages

Posted by Garett Rogers @ 11:00 pm

Categories: Picasa

Tags: Google Picasa, Garett Rogers

Google isn’t satisfied with products that only work for English speaking users — the world’s information is stored in many languages, therefore Google spends much effort building support for them. Today Picasa added the following languages:

• Croatian
• Czech
• Greek
• Hungarian
• Portuguese (Portugal)
• Romanian
• Ukrainian

In addition to these new languages, the software fixed several minor bugs including:

• A problem with Picasa jumping to the wrong picture after deleting a picture.
• Two issues which could cause a “Failed to Connect” error when logging into Picasa Web Albums.
• A case in which an error could result when opening pictures with third-party products.
• Problems related to Picasa Media Detector not disabling properly.

April 26th, 2007

Picasa version 2.7 released

Posted by Garett Rogers @ 7:21 am

Categories: Picasa

Tags:

The new version was released to the public yesterday — it's still not available through auto-update yet, but you can get it by going directly to picasa.google.com and downloading the latest version from there.  There is nothing much new — it's likely more of a bug fix release with a few goodies attached.

• New RAW processing engine with support for more cameras and improved color.
• New color engine for "tuning" fixes.
• Added support for Google Photos Screensaver.
• Improved BlogThis! reliability.

April 3rd, 2007

Orkut photo albums ready for an upgrade

Posted by Garett Rogers @ 8:12 pm

Categories: Orkut, Picasa

Tags:

After Google added a new entry into their robots.txt file tonight (Disallow: /orkut/albums), I began doing some research into Orkut's photo album feature.  If you listen to many, the current version sucks compared to what could be possible if they just integrated it with Picasa Web Albums.

When Google adds something to this file, it almost always means something is coming.  The new addition makes me think something will happen with "orkut albums". I am guessing it will be some sort of Picasa integration if user suggestions have had any influence on an update.

December 23rd, 2006

Google Predictions, 2007

Posted by Garett Rogers @ 3:01 pm

Categories: Google, Google APIs, Google Calendar, Google Checkout, Google Docs, Google Health, Picasa

Tags:

Google had an exciting year in 2006 — stealing headlines with almost everything they did, even if the news wasn't particularly exciting.  Many of the more important things that happened are summarized by Google Operating System in an article titled "Google 2006 in 12 Pictures".

Will the excitement carry forward in 2007?  Like most of you, I don't know, but I have a few predictions about what we can expect to happen in the coming year.

We will see fewer, but more exciting product releases than we saw this year. (75% chance)

This was hinted at by Marissa Mayer in an interview with TIME:

"Users aren't going to remember our 50-plus products. They'll remember three to five. We need more features and fewer products,"

GDrive will finally be launched (80% chance)

Many of the newer Google products already rely on web-based storage.  The only thing that's missing is a desktop client to view those files in a consolidated fashion.  Some of these products include Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Picasa Web Albums, Google Video, etc.  They even hired Jeremy Allison (Lead Samba developer) away from Novell this past week.  What is Samba?  Here is the official answer from their website.

"Samba is software that can be run on a platform other than Microsoft Windows, for example, UNIX, Linux, IBM System 390, OpenVMS, and other operating systems. Samba uses the TCP/IP protocol that is installed on the host server. When correctly configured, it allows that host to interact with a Microsoft Windows client or server as if it is a Windows file and print server."

Google TV will be launched (40% chance)

Eric Schmidt went on record stating they are definitely interested in television — giving me the impression it's already in the works.  There was even a paper written by some Googlers explaining a new system that eavesdrops through your computer microphone to grab an audio fingerprint of ambient noise.  This information can be used to accurately identify what is being watched on television to show relevant advertisements or even hook you up with others watching the same thing.

Google is also reportedly in talks with Apple regarding their iTV product to be launched early in 2007 — which curiously has yet to report any sort of television capability.

Google will launch enterprise version of Google Apps for Your Domain (100% chance)

Google Apps for your Enterprise will offer organizations the peace of mind that comes with 24×7 phone technical support — something that is currently not available for Google Apps for your Domain.  Not only will it offer support, but APIs will be made available to manage user accounts and data — giving enterprises the ability to hook themselves into the product at any level they desire.

Google/NASA partnership starts to bear fruit.  (80% chance)

Google Earth will have a wealth of new information available, including a similar interface for Mars and the moon.  It will also provide real-time temperature and climate information for any point on the planet.

Google releases their "Medical Scrapbook" (75% chance)

This product is also referred to as the "Health URL" by Adam Bosworth, engineering manager for "Google Health", in a speech he made recently.  He is currently leading a team looking to standardize how the world uses personal health records.

Not only has Adam talked about this publicly, but Tony Ruscoe actually found references to this quite a long time ago — leading me to believe the product is further along than we think. 

Google Checkout goes completely international (80% chance) 

In order for Google Checkout to truely compete with PayPal, the product will need to begin accepting merchants from countries other than the United States. Google Checkout has already started accepting payment from all buyers (regardless of their location), however many stores do not ship internationally.

Make your predictions in the comments! 

December 8th, 2006

Google Checkout opens up to other countries

Posted by Garett Rogers @ 4:50 pm

Categories: Google Checkout, Picasa

Tags:

At least half of Google's Checkout service has been opened up to countries other than the United States.  Now, regardless of where you live, you can purchase items with Google Checkout — unfortunately, finding a store that will ship internationally is quite challenging.

One place that is accepting money from other countries already is Google's own Picasa Web Albums.  You can now upgrade your account even if you don't live in the United States.  You will also notice that Picasa Web Albums is no longer labeled "TEST" on their logo.

The only thing left for Google to do now is allow international merchants.  Once this happens, PayPal better watch out — assuming they aren't already.

December 8th, 2006

Picasa now supports Vista

Posted by Garett Rogers @ 6:06 am

Categories: Picasa

Tags:

Google just released a new version of their Picasa photo management software that, among other things, includes support for Windows Vista.  I have not used Vista yet — and I don't plan on using it until I absolutely have to — but when that time comes, Picasa will be right there waiting for me.

Another interesting feature is the auto-download of updates.  When users choose to "check for updates", they don't have to wait around while Picasa downloads the newest version from the server.  If there is an update, it's likely your computer has already downloaded the installer package.

From the "Auto Update" page:

Picasa now automatically downloads updates in the background so you don't have to wait for a download to complete when updating. To disable this feature go to Tools > Options.

• Added Vista / Internet Explorer 7 support
• Changed update behavior
• Picasa Web Albums is now available in 18 languages

From the release notes: 

Build 35.94 - December 7, 2006

New autoupdate behavior for Windows Vista support

New CD/DVD-burning engine (supports more devices)

Improved upload reliability to Picasaweb

Added support for 18 new languages

Added XMP metadata parsing

Fixed many crash bugs

Rolled-up fixes from 32.97 and 32.95