New Year, New Photo Workflow

I’ve set up a new iPhoto library for 2013 going forward. The previous library was only 32GBs but it spanned 1998-2012. I felt it was time to focus on new photos and a new workflow so I started a new library. Apple still doesn’t have a very good system for power users to share photos, but I think I’ve come up with a flow that should make things a bit easier.

After analyzing my habits I’ve determined that I have mainly 2 types of photos. The random, everyday boring moment that is quickly shared on Twitter or Facebook and the photos that are part of a larger event or collection (i.e. Holidays, Vacations, Birthdays). So I need two types of apps.

For the first type of photo (random photos) I’ve been using a few apps (flickr, camera+, Instagram, etc.) for awhile, trying each and seeing how I feel about them; but I think I’ve settled on Path. It can share with FB, Twitter, foursquare (location), and tumblr. The posts look good on each of the platforms (mostly), it has good filters, and it even can post video. I also got mom & dad set up with a Path account so they can see a lot of what I might post to Twitter or Facebook without having to get accounts for those platforms themselves. Path even provides a nice notification on their devices each time I post something.

For the second type of photo (events) I’m going to use a workflow that I’ve been testing recently. Photos from both my iPhone and iPad automatically go into PhotoStream no matter what app I use to actually take the photo. I can then use iPhoto on my laptop to download those photos and collect them into one Event or Album. If others have photos to share, I can use the shared PhotoStream option to download those as well or figure out a workaround. For any video, I’ll have to make use of an app called PhotoSync which allows for wireless transfer of files, photos, or videos to/from a computer. Once the video files have transferred from my device to my laptop, I’ll have add them manually to iPhoto. Although I could set up a folder action to automatically add them if I wanted.

Once the event has been created and organized, iPhoto still allows the best sharing options (for me); with the ability to share an album to Facebook, Twitter, flickr or make books, postcards, etc. It also allows me to have the best possible editing capabilities – although Aperture would be much better.

Now, I still would like the ability to see all my photos that I’ve organized on my laptop so I’m testing two different apps (Quik io and Younity) that allow you to “see” all the files you have on your hard drive. These apps allow me see & browse my iPhoto library on my mobile devices. FWIW, they also allow users to see & browse videos, documents, & music files on a laptop/desktop. These two apps are just getting started so there are quick a few bugs with photos currently. I’ll probably keep looking for a better way to browse my photo library. The best solution would be if Apple updates iPhoto.app to allow a user to see their iPhoto desktop library. Wether that is through some sort of iCloud integration or a solution more akin to the Quik io one, the important point for me is that I would be hosting my photos, not paying someone else.

We’ll see how this new workflow tests in the new year.

Link

Clipped launches as a Flipboard competitor, using natural language processing to better curate news

Created by Tanay Tandon, a 15 year-old entrepreneur who is a Natural Language Processing enthusiast, as a way to read evidence files in a debate class faster, Clipped’s original intent was to be something that the average teenager could use easily. He says that it was important for the user to be able to open up the application and immediately find the most important information in front of them. Instead of being subjected to pages of content about a particular story, such as the US “Fiscal Cliff”, sporting events, business opinions, anything else, wouldn’t it be better to just get it summarized for you in bullet points so that you can get the important parts and move on with your life?

I haven’t used the service but isn’t this just “Cliff Notes” for the electronic age? We’re just finding new ways to get dumber. Now you don’t even have to read the entire article.

Instagram’s New TOS

I’ve never been a big Instagram user. I’ve tried. I just can’t get into taking random photos about everyday life. It’s just not my thing. That’s OK though because there are literally millions of people who love the service.

My big qualm has always been the size of the photos. I think most people are terrible about photo organization and probably believe that using a service like Instagram means their photos are preserved for all time and safe. They don’t realize that Instagram crops their photos from a would be 2448×3264 to 612×612. That’s a lot of memories down sized. And I’m sure most people are blissfully unaware.

If you want to know more about how the different camera apps post smaller resolution photos check out this older post in which I go through Instagram, Path, Camera+, Facebook, and others.

But the big news lately is how Instagram changed it’s terms of service to say that any photo a user posts can be sold without their consent or any compensation.

You agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you…

My first thought:

But I was glad to see Wil Wheaton even take up the cause and share some very plausible examples:

if Kaley Cuoco uses Instagram to share a photo of her and Melissa Rauch doing something silly, does that mean that Instagram can take that photo and use it to advertise for something silly without compensating them for what becomes a use of their likeness for commercial purposes? I can see that being a pretty serious shitstorm if it happens.

I personally think Instagram will cave and reverse this but time will tell.

UPDATE: Some stars are catching on and are not happy:

Limitations of “DogFooding”

There is a term in the online world commonly known as “dogfooding” or “eating your own dog food”. It refers to the practice of using the same tools, software, elements that you’ve built for your users. The theory goes that if you don’t use your own tools/elements then why would you expect your users too? Or, put another way: You need to practice what you preach.

PBS, with it’s local stations and internal departments, has many examples of this theory. But I want to focus on two different ways to interpret this theory.

Many local stations in the PBS system simply don’t have enough budget or staff required to produce beautiful one-off designs for each project. So, what they do is build what’s internally called an “Animation Package” – basically a toolkit of animations and elements that someone can turn to when in need of branding element or promoting a show. The national PBS office decided many years ago that from time-to-time we would build a huge Animation Package that in-turn reflected the national PBS branding instead of a local PBS brand. This toolkit is then distributed to all the local stations so that when a project comes up, the editor, designer, producer can use this toolkit to produce great promos that are on brand with high quality graphics but on a low budget. The last time PBS did this was in 2009 and the time before was in 2002. That means the current animation package is 3 years old and the one before was 7 years old. Most broadcast stations redesign their animation packages every year and most cable networks every 2-4 years.

Now that you have a bit of history and Promo 101 under your belt, let me explain how this “Animation Package” relates to “dogfooding”. When the internal team at PBS has limited time or budget, we use the animation package to help brand our projects. So, in that regard, we do “eat our own dog food”. But, and here’s the difference, on larger projects we don’t automatically use those same elements. No. We want this larger project to feel special and new. So we produce new designs. The trick though is producing this new content through the magnifying glass of your brand and the designs that have come before it and will come after it.

I subscribe to the theory that this animation package we built was never the end-all-be-all answer to every promo. It has always been a solution to the problem of having no budget. I believe that when you do have the budget, time, and talent to produce something new, you should go for it. Limiting yourself to the tools you built a month, or even years ago, simply because you were trying to “control” something is short sighted.

A brand’s visual identity is a living thing that evolves over time. It’s like a child. At first you need to be very strict with the rules – structure and discipline are foremost. Then, during the “growing years” you can experiment a bit but always with one foot grounded in the original design. Once into adulthood, you have to send your baby off, hopefully with enough experience under it’s belt that it can thrive on it’s own. A brand is not something that can be put in a box and never allowed to grow or evolve.

Link

The scary part though, is that one recurrent theme I see in nearly every single “how I write on the iPad” story is Dropbox. It’s the linchpin in the workflow. Scary, because Dropbox is outside Apple’s control. Scary, because if not for Dropbox, many of these people would not be using their iPads as much as they are. Scary, because Apple’s iCloud falls short of Dropbox.

via Daring Fireball Linked List: Dropbox: The Linchpin.

Not scary because a TINY percentage of users are the only ones who write anything more than a few emails on their iPads.

Link

There have been a few articles recently of the opinion that every one of Apple’s core apps (Contacts, Mail, Calendar, etc) are subpar to other versions in the App Store (Gmail, Fantastical, Google Maps, etc).

After four and a half years since the App Store’s launch, developers are consistently making iPhone apps better than Apple can.

This is predicated on a subjective idea and when opinion is presented as fact it drives me nuts. Especially when it’s by people who aren’t designers or developers to begin with and have ZERO basis for their opinion.

I for one agree that some of Apple’s apps have been left behind and these other apps can include more features. But just because its newer or has more bells & whistles doesn’t make it better. And let’s not start with looks. Most of these “scab” apps are a 6 out of 10 in the looks department. And I for one would rather have a beautiful app that does a few things well, than an ugly one that does everything. But that’s just me.

Apple ID & Email Account Management

History

I’ve been an Apple customer for a long time. So long that I still have my old .mac email address. It’s not only my primary email address, but also my Apple ID. All my iTunes purchases are linked to that address.

So when MobileMe came out and Apple added .mobileme addresses to everyone’s account it was definitely a hard pill to swallow. I now had this extra email account tied to my main one that was just sitting there. It was a pain, but I lived with it.

Fast forward a few years and now we have iCloud. For all the wonders that it’s allowed with app syncing one’s of it’s quirks is that it added another email address to my account. Now I had my main account (.mac), my old MobileMe account (.mobileme) and now this new account (.icloud) that cluttered up my settings. Then, not too long ago I noticed that Apple added .mobileme and .icloud accounts for both of my alias accounts. So, if you’re keeping score at home that’s 9 email accounts.

I’ve tried asking several Apple Geniuses about this problem and they’ve all been stumped. But I finally figured it out.

The Good Stuff

Apple has a little known URL which allows you to manage your Apple ID: https://appleid.apple.com/

Using this site I was able to delete the iCloud and MobileMe accounts leaving just the pure .mac account as the one primary ID and email.

Apple ID email management

But if you’d rather not mess with all that or if somehow deleting account items tends to make you nervous there is an easier way. It’s buried in the iOS System Settings:

Settings > iCloud > Account > Mail

Scroll down and you’ll see a list of accounts that you can turn off or on. Simply turn off all the accounts you don’t want to see when composing messages. That’s it. Now you don’t have all those extra email address to scroll through every time you write a new email.

iOS Email Managment

 

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