Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Google, Freeware
Google Picasa 3.5 released
by Paul O'Brien Sep 23rd 2009 at 8:30AM
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.
I don't know if this is a labor of love or merely the brainchild of four very gifted games designers, but Level Up is a really weird mash-up of gaming elements that you have probably never seen in a Flash game before.
Let's start with the premise itself: Groundhog Day meets Memento. The game experience revolves around 'days': you explore the world and the clock slowly ticks towards the evening. You bounce around picking up gems and talking to the denizens of 'Level Upland'. Eventually you feel tired and head back to ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Erik said 12:35PM on 9-23-2009
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?
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rcrh said 12:27PM on 9-23-2009
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).
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blogward said 2:06PM on 9-23-2009
Same old Picasa. Bloated, inflexible, phones home.
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Johan said 4:04PM on 9-23-2009
So guys, if you say Picasa is so bad, can you point me to a better (windows) alternative?
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Peter said 1:00PM on 10-04-2009
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.
Himanshu said 6:48AM on 9-24-2009
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??
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