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iPhoto Envy
It's that time of year again - a new version of iLife is out, with a new snazzy version of iPhoto...
Watching the guided tour can invoke a distinct case of feature envy in your average Aperture user, even if some of the features are firmly geared towards the consumer rather than the pro.
Faces
As usual, a very slick implementation from Apple. On the pro side I can see something like this implemented in Aperture being a huge boon to conference/event/wedding photographers, hopefully with the names added as keywords for easy integration into Aperture's other search methods.
From a programming point of view Faces probably isn't even that slow once each image has been scanned for facial features. Each set of facial features in the image would be stored as a set of parameters (ratio of eye width to gap between eyes etc.), much like the ones used to store adjustments. This would mean that adding a new person would be closer to doing a metadata search than processing and analysing all those thousands and thousands of pixels in all the images...
Places
Again quite a good implementation of geotagging, especially with reverse geotagging (adding place and country names based on co-ordinates) built in. It's worth bearing in mind that the snazzy 'show all the relevant photos by starting to type in a name' feature already works in Aperture if you've been using a geotagging app that adds the location information (such as my own GPS2Aperture Pro).
As a developer I'm in two minds about this - Aperture clearly needs some kind of geotagging features beyond 'view this location in Google Maps in your web browser', on the other hand it potentially reduces the space for third-party geotagging apps such as GPs2Aperture and Ubermind's Maperture.
The drill-down navigation for Places is nice, and reminiscent of LightRoom's metadata browser. Oh, and iTunes' Browser feature. ;-)
The slideshows and the map integration into the book tools are also slightly droll-inducing, but in a way my favourite new feature isn't from iPhoto, or even iLife, but the new Keynote Remote app for your iPhone. I'd love to see something like this for Aperture's slideshows.
Ian
Since I have no idea I'll just ask: is iPhoto based on the same architecture/programming frameworks as Aperture? I ask because Garageband is based on the same as Logic, simply the GUI is different, which makes the two almost interchangeable.
'Sort of', as far as I can tell. They clearly use a lot of the same OS-level frameworks such as Core Image and Core Data, but the way they handle image files/adjustments is drastically different.
How easy it is for the Apple programmers to port features from one to the other is anyone's guess.
Ian
Sorry, but what an utterly pointless duplicate blogpost to the other one a day ago:
http://blogs.oreilly.com/aperture/2009/01/should-i-use-iphoto-again.html
...
Thanks Jonas, having made the conscious effort to *not* duplicate Dominique's post and instead talk about how some of the new features would impact Aperture users and how they might be working under the hood, it's nice to know that the time spent was appreciated... :-(
Ian
First - thanks for your effort Ian...your take on the new stuff and how it might be implemented in Ap is thoughtful and appreciated.
Its sad to see the Ap community reduced to backbiting and caustic remarks about what is NOT in the product or might someday be....it has been WAY too long since there has been any communication from Apple, let alone some kinda feature upgrade or tweak. I used to send in feedback, but its hardly worth the effort anymore. And, does Joe Shorr still work at Apple? or did they shoot him since the product has lost so much ground to LR??
Sorry for my sour grapes, but I have "banked my farm" on Aperture and am frustrated daily with quirks and sloppy stuff that still exists.
Thanks again for your positive spin and contribution...a little light in the dark room.
cheers
david
Ian,
I agree - I'd love to see the faces feature added to Aperture. What I'd like to see added that it doesn't seem to be in iPhoto is I'd like the faces to be set on a Project level.
I'd really hate BrideA in project A get mixed up with GrandmaG in project B or worse GroomZ in project Q.
I can only imagine the backlash "why do you think I'm a grandma..."
But to "lift and stamp" face data between projects for multiple family sittings and whatnot.
I have to admit geotagging photo's isn't something I've done much of, it always sounds cool, but I don't want to fork over the cash to get it built in. I did try Mappture and it worked...
Shortly after the keynote, I started this post in the Macworld forums with the question,
"Is Apple aiming for Consumers, Pros, or both?"
http://forums.macworld.com/thread/108882
As we point out, professional uses tend to require futher consideration and control the the usual consumer versions, so I shouldn't be surprised that we see this first with iPhoto.
But what do you really think? Many other companies service their pro apps first with some update love, and then dumb it down for the consumer versions. Apple has a trend of doing the opposite lately, getting the consumer app out there and teasing us pro users with what 'might' be coming for us later.
Does this signal a trend, especially with the hardware output lately, for apple to focus on its consumer market?
Now that we're into Feb., have you heard if Apple has any plans to add the "Faces feature" to Aperture and when that might be?
I'm a prosumer and use Aperture to keep track of my library of photos (thousands) with lots of different family members. Only some of my photos have individuals tagged (which took a long time to do). I don't what to spend the time going through each image and tagging them all and I don't what to move back to iPhoto.
Kamal