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TICKET ARCHIVE -> iPhoto 6

RobinS - Jun 13, 2006 - 10:12 pm

Can I upgrade iPhoto 5 to 6 for free?

Can I buy iPhoto 6 by itself? (The other stuff in iLife is not of any use to me.)

earthsaver - Jun 13, 2006 - 10:21 pm

Neither. If iPhoto is such an awesome application, and you absolutely must use version 6 instead of version 5, is it not worth $79?

- Ben

RobinS - Jun 13, 2006 - 10:39 pm

First - it ain't no awesome application. Its not even very good. (For me.) But it might be worth upgrading to 6 as that version seems to have a full screen function. Full Screen is something quite alien in the Mac world. You have to scratch, bite and beg to get anyone to implement it.

Its so rare that Apple makes any app that really seems well designed. The only program I ever use of theirs is Mail. That seems excellent. Though that might be because I'm quite a basic emailer! lol.

It just goes to show you.....people and companies are usually excellent in only a very few areas. Apple's area seems to be a virus free and somewhat stable OS. Too bad more of the public doesn't analyse things better and realize that. They'd have a far larger market share overnight if they did. That is if people realized how easy it is to run OS X86 on a $200 Intel box. But we'll keep that a secret.........shhhhhhhh. Wall Street hates the irresponsible dissemination of pertinent information at an inoportune time.

grggary - Jun 14, 2006 - 2:07 am

Ever consider something like Photoshop if iPhoto doesn't have the features you require? There is the money factor, but you do get what you pay for. I look at iPhoto as akin to Text Edit. They're both simple programs that work well for a casual user. But if you're into high-end word processing you buy something like Word or an equivalent competitor. The same holds true for iPhoto. If you want a simple way to organize your photos with limited capabilities, there's nothing fundamentally wrong with iPhoto. Actually it's not a bad program for what it's intended to be. But if you're into serious photo editing capabilities, I'm afraid you'll have to pony up the big bucks. Do some research on the net. There are other programs available that work well for less than Photoshop if that program is overkill.

grggary - Jun 14, 2006 - 2:10 am

Also, I'd be happy to make some recommendations of software that may be more tailored to your specific needs if you can be specific about what you expect from your image editing program. I can give you some links and some comparison reviews and you can base your decision once you've had a chance to read about the pros and cons of what's available. Look forward to hearing back from you. Thanks!
Gary

RobinS - Jun 14, 2006 - 10:35 am

My needs right now are ridiculously simple. As I'm practicing with my camera I don't need any editing features at all. Only rotation. I need:

To open many pictures at once.
To have them open Full Screen - nothing but the picture. Or at the most the Menu bar on the top. As a typical digital camera picture usually has a little bit of vertical empty space when displayed on the typpical landscape monitor, having a menu bar doesn't interfere with the picture.

Preview does both but it resets and forgets the previous screen size when I close a group of its windows. Also for some inexplicable reason it doesn't open to fill the screen. Almost but not quite. I have to drag the right lower corner of the window down to the right lower corner of the monitor.

I would love to be able to change the default size of OS X windows that open up (like when you hit Command+O in an app) and get some 1/6 screen size window with horizontal and vertical scroll bars. Every single bloody time I have to drag it bigger. And the next time it never remembers. Utterly bizarre. And Mac people don't seem to care. They just mindlessly do the same redundant things thousands and thousands of times without so much as a whimper. One of the world's greatest mysteries or one of the world's greatest marketing coups. Make it pretty and they won't complain seems to be the motto at Apple.

Well I'm getting a little off topic. Sorry.

grggary - Jun 15, 2006 - 12:01 pm

You may want to check out this link

http://aroundcny.com/technofile/texts/tec122202.html

If you like what you read you can download a trial copy from
www.acdsystems.com/English/Products/
If you decide that it fits your needs it's only $40 to keep. I haven't had the opportunity to evaluate it yet, but if you decide to give it a try, let me know so I can get some feedback as to how it works for you. There are probably others like you who are looking for full screen views and don't think iPhoto fits the bill. Hope I have been of help to you. If you don't like this product I'll keep looking. Just let me know.
Thanks!
Gary

RobinS - Jun 15, 2006 - 8:29 pm

Can one search for freeware from a site like Versiontracker? There's no way I can rationalize paying hundreds of dollars a year on constantly changing software. I'd like to be able to eliminate all shareware stuff.

grggary - Jun 17, 2006 - 12:57 am

You might want to look around and see what you can find. Most of the freeware I've downloaded has been pretty simple stuff. As far as shareware goes, I'm running several programs that I paid the modest fee to own and really haven't felt the need to upgrade to newer versions since they already do what I want them to do and, more often than not, I don't need the extra bells and whistles. This viewer may fill the bill for years to come and you're only out $40 for a one-time purchase, not hundreds of dollars every year to keep it going. I've been running OSX from its baby steps right up through its most recent version and none of my shareware I've purchased has broken with subsequent system upgrades, so I'm not sure where the concept of spending hundreds of dollars a year comes from, unless you always want the latest and greatest upgrades. Generally they're not necessary if you are happy with the program as it is, and bug-fixes are generally free downloads. My way of looking at it is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it. (Although I do keep my OS tuned up at all times with Software Update.) My advice, for all it's worth, is to download the software, try it out and if it does everything you want it to do, buy it. If not, trash it and try something else. The link I gave you isn't technically shareware. It is a trial version that you are given time to evaluate and then purchase if you're happy with it. Shareware is usually disseminated widely from a variety of sources and is usually developed by perhaps just one guy. This program comes from an actual software company, not an independent developer, so that would be the difference. Anyway, it sounds like you may be reluctant to go for anything but freeware, and I'm not up on any with the full screen capabilities you're looking for, so I'll open this back up and see if any of the other techs have any freeware ideas for you.
Thanks!
Gary

Ferdinand - Jun 17, 2006 - 4:02 am

RobinS - Jun 18, 2006 - 2:18 pm

Thanks - I rated you highly. For what that's worth.....

Yes - if you could throw that back or recommend how to reword the question that would be great. I'm convinced any answer to any problem is available - if only the description was adequate.

"Free full screen photo viewer needed"?