Apple Updates iPhoto

hrbrmstr writes "Apple released an update to iPhoto, bringing it up to version 4.0.2. From the horse's mouth: 'iPhoto 4.0.2 addresses minor issues with Smart Albums and European books, and provides notification when new versions of iPhoto are available.' Get it from Software Update or from Apple support."

i understand news for nerds, stuff that matters...

[humuhumunukunukuapu']

but does a 4.0.x update to iPhoto deserve to be on the front page? I mean, it doesn't even seem like there were any major changes. [Disclaimer: I'm an Apple fan...use iTunes when I am in windows [although i -still- cannot get Rhythmbox to accept .m4a files in the linux world! aaargh!], use an ipod , girlfriend has a G4 that i like a lot]

Re:i understand news for nerds, stuff that matters

[sxtxixtxcxh]

girlfriend has a G4 that i like a lot

so... you like the girlfriend, or the G4 ?
;)

just kidding. no doubt you like the G4.

A European Book?

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

What's that? Sounds like a kind of bet, like a European call option.

Re:A European Book?

[Alanoman]

It's the feature that lets you make an album and arrnage it nicely and get it printed into a physical book. And also be in Europe at the same time.

Re:A European Book?

[magefile]

Google for Pascal's wager sometime - it might surprise you. Not such a great idea after all, eh? (try "pascals wager site:infidels.org" if you can't find it).

Re:A European Book?

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

Yeah! I bet my no God can kick your God's butt any time.

This?

[Onan]

I'm an enthusiastic mac user. I read most of the stories in the apple.slashdot.org section.

I hate people who put up posts saying, "This isn't news! I'm a nerd and this doesn't matter to me! I want a refund!"

I usually find stories about updates to, say, the OS and major applications to be useful. It provides a forum for people to compare notes about the new version.

And yet, despite all this... Did this really merit an article? I'd think that if there's anyone in the world who'd be interested in this it

Re:This?

[yapyap]

What are you talking about? iPhoto has fixed minor issues with smartbooks and european books. How can you not think this is interesting news?

Re:This?

[zygote]

Don't forget "and provides notification when new versions of iPhoto are available."

Now you don't have to rely on /. for upgrade news!

Re:This?

[biglig2]

Alas, the method it uses to provide that notification is an automatic slashdot submission, so there's more of this sort of story to come.

Where's the new iTunes though? I'd like one that isn't broken.

Please don't post replies saying that your iTunes isn't broken, I know most people's isn't, but mine is and it's not my computer's fault (unless you want to blame it for running Windows XP, which you probably do)

Re:This?

[javax]

hey, mine aint broken - though this might be, because I use it on a Mac...

Re:This?

[biglig2]

Sigh....

What the %&^$*?

[tm2b]

What's New in iPhoto 4.0.2
iPhoto 4.0.2 addresses minor issues with Smart Albums and European books, and provides notification when new versions of iPhoto are available.

Why in the hell do we need applications to check for new versions? We have Software Update for that, and it does a fine job! Come on Apple, you're smarter than this!

Re:What the %&^$*?

[radicalskeptic]

Yeah, get a clue, Apple! In fact, let's hang out. We can go to town and see the Shakespeare theatre's production of The Taming of the Clue. Then we can go to my favorite restaurant, Clubie Tuesdays. Later you can come back to my house and we'll get high and watch reruns of the old Clubie Doo cartoons.

Re:What the %&^$*?

[tunah]

So you don't have to refresh slashdot every five minutes, I guess. I will anyway, of course, I gotta be the first to get 4.0.3!

Re:What the %&^$*?

[Sebby]

It might be useful for checking updates to modules (or plugins) inside the app (something SU can't do)

For example, if a printing place adds options, then only the module that displays the order/layout/etc stuff for that place need be updated, not the whole app, which is several MB in size, vs probably only a few 100k for the module, if that.

Re:What the %&^$*?

[pjdepasq]

Yeah, but does Software Update check to see if there's an update to itself? It's an application to, so if Apple is going to add this to all of their applications, they should add it to S/U.

Ok, so now it's recursive!

Re:Out of all the iapps

[Steve Cowan]

iPhoto isn't so much a photo manipulation tool as a way to store and organize your pictures. The iPhoto directory is in ~/Pictures. There is a command in iPhoto to reveal the pic you're looking at in the Finder, so that you can edit in Photoshop or other full-featured editor.

The default behaviour of iTunes is the same: double-click a music file, and iTunes will launch and copy the file into ~/Music/iTunes. I used to fight this, and now I kinda like it, because it automatically puts my music files into folders, by artist. The tough part was wrapping my head around the fact that once I have played my music in iTunes, I can trash the original file because iTunes now "owns" its own copy.

IMHO the rationale behind this is that tools like iTunes and iPhoto are better ways to organize media by its specific metadata than the all-purpose Finder can provide. The Finder is not geared to show us song lengths, or to create playlists, photo albumbs or music CDs.

Re:Out of all the iapps

[chillmost]

iPhoto isn't so much a photo manipulation tool as a way to store and organize your pictures.

This is true. We import a lot of our images at work into iPhoto, pick our keepers and then bring them into Photoshop but the fact remains that iPhoto is the most unstable (poorly programed?) applications in the iLife suite. We have problems with it on every computer we use it on. I just downloaded and installed the update and it promptly crashed after I started the app. I know that those things happen every once in

Re:Out of all the iapps

[PabloJones]

I agree with you, of all the Apple programs I've used, this one just did not sit right with me. Safari and iTunes are fine applications, and I have very few gripes with them. But iPhoto just frustrated me when I used it back when it came out.

It was slow, and put the photos deep into a hierarchy, which made them a pain in the ass to find when I wanted to manipulate them in Photoshop. And since most of the photos I take are intended to be used for things other than just having around on my computer to be looked at occasionally, iPhoto is more of a hassle that it is a convenience. I just wish I had a better way of organizing my photos than I do now, somewhere in between the complex organization of the way iPhoto does it, and trying to manage them myself (wherein I usually end up with duplicates of photos because I usually don't delete the photos on the camera after I retrieve the photos from it that I need).

Basically, iPhoto is good for people who like amassing large albums of photos of their dog, kids, etc. But it's needlessly time consuming and frustrating if you need to do any serious digital photo editing.

Re:Out of all the iapps

[stephentyrone]

iPhoto lets you specify any external editor you want to edit the photos with. It's not designed to be a serious photo editing application; it's designed to organize your photo library with lots of metadata. The newer versions do a very good job of this.

easy as...

[CoolMoDee]

I find the pictures VERY easy to find when I want to edit them in photoshop. Here is what I do, I have iPhoto open, I open up photoshop go File->Open then I *drag* the photo I want from iPhoto to the Open File dialoge. As far as duplicates go, when importing photos it says something to the effect of "hey! there is a duplicate photo here do you want to re-import it anyway?". Which *should* help solve your duplicates problem when using iPhoto ;-)

Re:Out of all the iapps

[stigin]

euhm, last time I checked there was a revert to original option somewhere in the app, so your original picture is never lost and no need tracking it down with finder or alikes...

Re:Out of all the iapps

[aflat362]

I like iCal a lot better than the outlook calendar

Re:Out of all the iapps

[jrockway]

Wow, I love iCal... it sealed the deal on the mac for me considering I haven't managed to find a decent calendar app ANYWHERE... iCal does just what it's supposed to, and syncs with my PDA (and iPod).

I like Iphoto

[eadint]

But when you start to deal with allot of 6.3 MP photos it starts to get slow. that is one thing that ive noticed. i hope that this update might help that a little. it would be better to see posts like this update fixed this but didnt fix that instead of why is this post here.

Re:I like Iphoto

[Steveftoth]

are you a pro photographer?

What model of camera are you useing that generates pictures that large?

Re:I like Iphoto

[EtherealSys]

Checkout the preview for Tiger. Looks like they're gonna build support for hardware image processing into all their apps. A good graphics card and a little openGL could go a long way with those 6+MP photos.

Another paid upgrade

[beetle496]

I bought iLife at the beginning of last year, as I really wanted iDVD. At the time, iLife included iTunes 3, iPhoto 2, iMovie 3, and iDVD 3. I missed the free upgrade by a matter of weeks. Since then, I paid for the upgrade to Panther, and renewed my .mac account. With the exception of iTunes, all that software is now obsolete. I would like to have the current versions, but there is no upgrade path. I am not interested in Garage Band, so it just doesn't seem worth the money with everything else I paid Apple this past year. There is no upgrade path to the current versions, short of buying a new copy (at full price) of iLife '04. This is very frustrating to me. At the time, I understood having to pay for iLife just to get iDVD, as there are licensed codecs that cost Apple money (I already owned the rest). I can understand charging for Garage Band (it's new). iTunes is free. I paid for Jaguar and Panther without any regret. I know I am whining, but I really wish Apple was more generous with their upgrade paths for their consumer products. Really I am a MacFanBoi, but this is the second worse thing Apple has done in recent years (the first was charging for .mac -- after heavily advertising it a free feature of OS X).

Why do you need to know the file structure?

[Anonymous Coward]

I am somewhat confused about the commotion about knowing what the file struture is. The reason I use Iphoto is so I don't have to know the file structure. You import you pictures and then by using albums, keywords, ect you can organize. Great stuff.

To use an external editor I right click and choose open in external editor. I can even open multiple pictures by selecting more than one. I make my edits in Photoshop Elements and save them. The data is saved and refresed in iphoto. If I dont like it I can ALWAYS revert back to the original import version (under photos revert to original).

I can backup my library by exporting what I want. So simple.

Re:Why do you need to know the file structure?

[Moofie]

And, to top it all off, I found a plugin [zwily.com] that exports iPhoto albums to Gallery [menalto.com]. Which makes it better than world peace.

Not showing up in Software Update

[kongjie]

I get the feeling they may have yanked this update. 8/3/04 9:37PM EST and Software Update does not show the update (I have 4.0.1). Also, the link on the iPhoto support page is bad.

Yup, it's been pulled.

[Anonymous Coward]

The Apple discussion boards are talking that it's been pulled due to some issues.

If you don't have an iTools login you can still view most everything in the Apple Discussion area.