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Google Picasa 3.5 released
Google have released version 3.5 of their free image management application, Picasa.
Available for PC and Mac in English only, Picasa 3.5 adds functionality that bring the desktop client features in line with those already offered on Picasa Web Albums. The Linux version of Picasa, which currently stands at version 3.0, has not been updated.
Picasa now offers face recognition with the 'name tags' feature. Similar to iPhoto '09 on the Mac, Picasa analyses your photos, grouping what it deems as similar faces together. You can then apply names to each identified face, allowing you to search photos based on the people that are in them. If you are signed into a Google account, names are handily auto-completed using your contacts database.
A growing trend amongst photographers, driven in part by the increase in GPS enabled mobile devices such as the iPhone, is Geotagging photos. Again, as in iPhoto '09, Picasa allows you to view your photos on a map. This is facilitated either by reading the EXIF location data embedded within the photo or by dragging your photos to the appropriate location on an embedded Google map. This functionality was previously (and optionally still can be) provided externally by the Google Earth application.
Other changes to the application include improved upload, import and sharing functionality, deeper integration with Picasa Web Albums, enhanced picture tagging, the ability to modify date and time on pictures, improved responsiveness in the 'Sharpen' tool and more reliable CD burning in the Windows version.
Comments
6
Subscribe to commentsErikSep 23rd 2009 12:35PM
Improved (ie, usable) caption editing? Like, selecting text in a caption field? Being able to click to move your cursor in a caption field? Batch application of captions to multiple images? The basic stuff that anyone would want to do with captions that Picasa/Google have resisted implementing for YEARS? Is that in the new release?
rcrhSep 23rd 2009 12:27PM
Why can't they change this so that the database can be shared within a household? If spousal unit #1 spends hours tagging photos why should spousal unit #2 and all of the kidlets have to reproduce the same work? Photos, probably more so than any other media are shared within a family (or maybe they just take more time to organize than music).
blogwardSep 23rd 2009 2:06PM
Same old Picasa. Bloated, inflexible, phones home.
JohanSep 23rd 2009 4:04PM
So guys, if you say Picasa is so bad, can you point me to a better (windows) alternative?
PeterOct 4th 2009 1:00PM
I would *love* this feature! Even better if it worked on a distributed gallery basis - i.e. my parents can add and see photos in the same albums. Which is better than Picasa web albums, because it's all searchable from one interface.
HimanshuSep 24th 2009 6:48AM
Please provide us with the ability of selecting multiple folders at once. I've been waiting for this basic function since forever.
Brings pain to sort 400 albums in the folders I choose.
I mean, c'mon. It did start out as a photo organizing tool now, isn't it??