One of Picasa's most interesting features is its strong integration with Google services.
If you aren't sure about making the leap, be sure not to make any changes in Picasa, because iPhoto won't pick them up. Any changes made in iPhoto will be quickly picked up by Picasa, but iPhoto switchers beware: it doesn't work the other way around.
A basic movie editor allows for compatible files to be chopped and spliced together, complete with simple transitions and still photos for interstitial slides.Īn appreciated coat of polish for Mac users is that Picasa 3 displays a separate "iPhoto Library" section in its sidebar, and the default iPhoto Library file (in your user's Home/pictures/folder) is already added to Picasa's watch list. Near the top of Mac users' wishlists (especially those fed up with iPhoto and even its $200 cousin, Aperture) is Picasa's ability to watch specified folders for new images. Picasa brings a lot of interestingness to the table, however, and includes the "same core features" that made its Windows counterpart so popular. For those familiar with the latest Windows version that we took for a test drive in September, Cook assured Ars that the Mac version "works very much like Picasa 3 on the PC." Picasa features many of the basics of photo and video organization, including albums, tags, the ability to create collages and slideshows, editing and touchup tools, and selective importing from many devices, even including an iPhone.
Ars Technica spoke with Jason Cook, Product Marketing Manager for Picasa, about the release and just how closely it resembles its Windows counterpart, and took the new software for a spin.Īvailable for free from Google's Picasa product page, Picasa 3 for Mac is a beta (naturally) that brings Google's unique approach to both photo organization and photo application UI to the Mac (as long as you're on an Intel machine running at least Mac OS X 10.4-sorry PowerPC users). Right on schedule, today Google announced Picasa 3 for Mac, the first version of the company's rich photo and video organizing software that runs on Mac OS X. Picasa's flexible functionality is all you need to organize and share your photos.After years of desperate pleas, rumors, and a basic uploader plug-in, iPhoto finally has a formidable competitor. Picasa's editing options may not satisfy advanced users. The application is free, easy to use and it can be installed in a matter of seconds. It allows you to create montages and collages and it can sync our pictures to Google Plus.
You can also sync a folder's contents to your Google Plus account, by simply clicking a switch next to the folder and share it via direct link. They allow you to play the contained pictures in a slideshow, create a video presentation or a collage.
Alternatively, you can jump directly to a specific folder, by selecting it in a column, on the right side of the interface.Ī series of options are available for each folder.
You can just scroll through your pictures, using the mouse wheel or a scroll bar. The contents of the folders are displayed on separate ribbons, in the central area of the user interface, which makes it quite easy to browse through your pictures. Once the scanning process is complete, the application will organize the found pictures in separate folders, according to their creation dates. Picasa will offer to scan certain folders or your entire Mac for pictures, when you run it for the first time. The application comes from Google, so naturally, you can expect to find a wide range of useful features, which can make your life easier.
Instead of using a different application for each operation, you can use this universal tool to organize your pictures, create collages or slideshows and much more. Picasa can be used to perform nearly any operation that involves pictures.