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Apple iPhone and iPod Touch get their very own Picasa

By Tim Conneally, BetaNews

December 13, 2007, 2:30 PM

Google brings its Picasa photo sharing application to Mobile OS X Safari, with an interface designed especially for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Google's photo sharing application Picasa has been redesigned to support Safari on OS X Mobile, allowing iPhone and iPod Touch users to see the albums they've uploaded to Picasa Web, watch slideshows, search for photos, and browse other users' albums through the tactile interface.

To check out the site, go to picasaweb.google.com. Note that the launch is currently only in English, so non-English users should change their language preference.

While Picasa mobile can also be accessed from Windows Mobile devices, it lacks the elegant interface shown in the iPhone-optimized version, and may leave users feeling a bit neglected.

It may seem that Google is addressing only a small sector of mobile devices, since there are far more handsets powered by Windows, but according to Market Share last month, iPhone users access the mobile Web about 3% more than users of Windows Mobile.

Furthermore, adoption of Google's open mobile platform Android is believed to be quite high with more than 30 mobile handset manufacturers and wireless carriers on board, and the similarities between OS X (based on a UNIX platform) and the Linux platform on which Android is based outnumber their differences. This typically makes porting software between the platforms a simple enough affair.

This could mean that the current shortcomings, and Google's apparent back-burnering of Windows Mobile, may become afterthoughts as the evolution of mobile software as a whole moves forward.

Add a Comment (11 Comments)

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By yountmj

posted Dec 15, 2007 - 10:55 AM

As is so typical of Apple products, the iPhone is just Apple's way of charging more for a "cooler" way of doing less than what other manufacturers' products are capable of doing.

Score: 0

By gatonegrosky

posted Dec 14, 2007 - 11:17 AM

try jailbreaking it, i did and it takes your ipod touch to the next level :P

Score: 0

By airbedman2

edited Dec 14, 2007 - 8:50 AM

So why is there no Picasa for OS X yet? iPhoto has been the most annoying thing for me since I switched to iMac. I loved Picasa on the PC, and iPhoto seems like bloatware, slow and painful to do most things in comparison.

Score: 0

By yountmj

posted Dec 14, 2007 - 8:18 AM

Gee, that's... great.

Now, how about bringing something simple... like Flash! How about instant messaging? Multimedia texting? What about any one of dozens of features that should be trivial to implement??

iPhools.

http://www.thebestpagein...ages/steve_koolaid2.jpg

Score: 0

By gatonegrosky

edited Dec 14, 2007 - 1:44 AM

i just hooked up the ipod touch and let me say is an unbelievable device... luckily there are people out there that work on 3rd party apps better than any other web app :P thank you developers all around the world .. excuse me i'm pretty exited with my IPT :P

Score: 0

By Program86

posted Dec 13, 2007 - 3:20 PM

boss!

Score: 0

By setzek

posted Dec 13, 2007 - 2:51 PM

When employees with clandestine assignments at Google and AT&T/NSA see the love we share through our pictures, they may choose to stop spying and instead stand for freedom, love, and all that is.

Google Scan's user's email to display advertisements
http://www.nytimes.com/2...AY&pagewanted=print

iPhone a Trojan Horse For Government Surveillance?
http://www.prisonplanet....7iphonesurveillance.htm

Can't you feel the tide rising? It feels like a new age to me. ;)