At the moment MMISoftware is testing a number of their programs to make sure they work with Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)…

PhotoInfoEditor is fine and works great. It can be used under 10.5 to geotag your photos for viewing in the new 10.5 Preview – see earlier post for more details.

There may be a slight problem with PhotoGPSEditor, and the program is still being investigated/tested. Hopefully there will be an update on the status and/or a new version soon.

iCalMaker is also still being checked out.

One thing that a couple of iCalMaker users have emailed about is that the program will no longer import calendars from the iCal 10.5. Well, this is actually a ‘feature’ that was added to iCalMaker after 10.4. In 10.4 the way that the iCal data was stored was changed so much from 10.3 that iCalMaker would not work at all. Therefore, to protect the user (and the user’s iCal data) a check was put in to the post-10.4 iCalMaker so that it would not import calendar data from iCal in 10.5 until a new version of iCalMaker was released.

PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor are freeware programs from MMISoftware – continued development can be supported by making donations (PhotoInfoEditor Donation | PhotoGPSEditor Donation), or purchases at the MMISoftware GPS and camera stores.

Both programs are available for download:

A new version of PhotoGPSEditor has just been released (download). So, what is new in this version?

Well, there are a number of new features, namely: support has been added for the MEF file format; the ExifTool has been updated to the latest version (Exiftool), and finally there is improved the handling of ‘corrupt’ photo files.

In addition to the new features there are a number of bug fixes and most importantly a problem that was causing latitude and longitude data not to be reported has been corrected. This problem was very difficult to track down and required changes in the program and also on the server, which provides the initial map data. An addition ‘wrinkle’ with this problem was that it was only seen by ‘non-registered’ users of the program that had used the program more than 5 times. It was surprising how many people complained about this problem! If they had registered the program (which they could have done for as little as $1, or even for free if they used TrialPay), they would have never encountered this bug.

The new version of PhotoGPSEditor is available for download.

PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor are freeware programs from MMISoftware – continued development can be supported by making donations (PhotoInfoEditor Donation | PhotoGPSEditor Donation), or purchases at the MMISoftware GPS and camera stores.

Both programs are available for download:

There is a good tip over at Apple on how to view the exif (meta-data) of a photo that you have tagged with PhotoGPSEditor or PhotoInfoEditor. Such a simple tip, and something I do everyday without thinking about.

Basically, it takes two clicks to view the meta-data (exif) of a photo.

1. Click the photo’s icon to select it.
2. Press command-I (that is, get info for the file)
3. Read the info (you may need to click on the small triangle next to ‘More info’ – that is your second click)

Here are some examples. The following photo was taken in Les Deux Alpes, France:

Les Deux Alpes, France
(if you save this photo to your desktop and then open it with Preview you can read more information stored in the by using the ‘Get Info’ command in Preview’s Tools menu.)

Before the file was processed with PhotoGPSEditor or PhotoInfoEditor the above ‘get info’ method would show:

Before addition of data – note that ‘get info’ for the file shows only the camera details.

After processing the file with PhotoGPSEditor or PhotoInfoEditor and using the ‘built-in’ mapping functions of the programs, the saved file now shows:

After the addition of the meta-data – the data was added by positioning a marker on a map at the location the photo was taken, and then the program ‘added’ Les Deux Alpes, France

The great thing about this is once the data is added it stays associated with the photo, and is searchable via Spotlight.

The Apple Tip: link

PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor are freeware programs from MMISoftware – continued development can be supported by making donations (PhotoInfoEditor Donation | PhotoGPSEditor Donation), or purchases at the MMISoftware GPS and camera stores.

Both programs are available for download:

Mac OS X 10.4.9 has just been released and the good news is that the Mac now supports the a Sony GPS CS1 [Amazon Link] unit.

So, what does this mean?

Well, if you are using PhotoGPSEditor to geotag photos than you can now directly access the GPS data on Sony GPS CS1 [Amazon Link] unit for geotagging.

Update 14th March, 2007, 01:47:55: A comment has been posted that the 10.4.9 update on a PowerPC (PPC) Mac does not support the Sony GPS CS1. I have tested the 10.4.9 update on a ‘lampstand’ (i.e. PPC) iMac and can confirm that the Sony GPS CS1 DOES NOT work. It appears the fix is for Intel Macs only.

PhotoGPSEditor is a freeware program from MMISoftware – continued development can be supported by making donations (PhotoGPSEditor Donation), or purchases at the MMISoftware GPS and camera stores.

PhotoGPSEditor is available for download: PhotoGPSEditor Download

It appears that there is some good news, and some bad news, with the latest update of iPhoto (to 6.0.6). The good news is it supports latitude and longitude data and doesn’t destroy the data on editing. The bad news is, iPhoto still doesn’t seem to support user comments and information added to photos, it can’t be displayed, and is lost on export.

PhotoInfoEditor got a write-up on the ‘The Unofficial Apple Weblog’ (TUAW) blog this morning….

I read a lot of blogs… in fact my ‘reading list’ in ‘NetNewsWire is embarrassingly long. Basically I must scan 300 – 400 individual posts per day before picking the ones I want to read.

I have been an avid reader of TUAW for a long time and it was great to see PhotoInfoEditor get a write up this morning (see blog post), and TUAW had picked the program up from freemacware.

The post was great and very positive. The only negative thing was:

“One comment in the post PhotoInfoEditor is still a little touchy (sometimes the Google Maps don’t draw correctly)“

N.B.: Now fixed!

YES! We are so aware of that problem, and we have hunted in vain for many months for a solution… At first we thought it was our server (although the maps are from Google, the initial page is loaded from our server), but it isn’t. Next we thought it was a local (on machine) ‘cache’ issue – it was not… It can’t be Google as they have more bandwidth than you can shake a stick at… After some more experimenting we may have found a solution… but this is going to take some thought and work to get it in to the program…

If you do encounter the dreaded ‘map not drawing’ problem (and it doesn’t happen all the time, so you may only see it occasionally) try switching between map views and you should get the map fully loaded.

Update: The ‘map-redraw’ problem was fixed!

Anyway, thanks TUAW for the blog post.

PhotoInfoEditor is a freeware programs from MMISoftware – continued development can be supported by making donations (PhotoInfoEditor Donation), or purchases at the MMISoftware GPS and camera stores.

The program is available for download: PhotoInfoEditor Download

“Why doesn’t PhotoInfoEditor or PhotoGPSEditor ‘play’ with iPhoto?” – this is a surprisingly common question from users.

Now, there is a sensible answer to this one… and it is not because the developers couldn’t sort it out.

If you add GPS/location meta-data to a photo and then edit, or re-save, it with either Preview or iPhoto then the GPS/location meta-data will be destroyed/lost because of a bug/problem in the Apple code. Preview and iPhoto can read the GPS/location meta-data, but can’t write it. And, if you code, you can easily reproduce this by using the Cocoa API to load a picture (you can access and read the meta-data dictionaries), but when you come to save the meta-data the API will not allow all the data (i.e. the GPS data) to be saved.

I am hoping this will be fixed in either Mac OS X 10.5 or iLife ’07. (This may explain why the ‘Google Map’ button in iPhoto was not activated in iPhoto ’06 – see the following post at TUAW for more details).

Hence, in an attempt to avoid this happening the programs were not ‘tied-in’ to iPhoto (this is also mentioned in the ‘Help’ that comes with the programs).

PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor are freeware programs from MMISoftware – continued development can be supported by making donations (PhotoInfoEditor Donation | PhotoGPSEditor Donation), or purchases at the MMISoftware GPS and camera stores.

Both programs are available for download:

Using PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor it is possible to add comments and geotags to your photos, and this leads to the question ‘what can I do with my geotagged photos?’. Well, one answer may be to use http://www.locr.com/, which offers a free service to store and display your tagged photos.

Locr looks nice. It is easy to use, with a clean interface. You can either load [geotagged][geotags] photos directly into your account, or you can use their ‘stand-alone’ tagging software (which is only for Windows – so therefore on a Mac you would have to use PhotoInfoEditor or PhotoGPSEditor) to tag your pictures. Once you have your photos online you can then share them with friends and family.

Anyway, check out the service at Locr as it look like it could be useful. To get a real feel for what it can offer have a look at their galleries and map sections.

PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor are freeware programs from MMISoftware – continued development can be supported by making donations (PhotoInfoEditor Donation | PhotoGPSEditor Donation), or purchases at the MMISoftware GPS and camera stores.

Both programs are available for download:

MMISoftware has just released updates to PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor

Both programs are free and can be downloaded from MMISoftware (PhotoInfoEditor Download and PhotoGPSEditor Download). Donations are accepted to support future development – PhotoInfoEditor Donation and PhotoGPSEditor Donation.

So, what is new?

Well, with PhotoGPSEditor we have added support for jpe and MRW image files and it is now possibly to load multiple GPS (gpx or NMEA) files to combine trip/track data. We also corrected a small bug which was a typo in the main window

And, with PhotoInfoEditor we also added support for jpe and MRW image files.

Not exactly earth shattering changes, but changes that are worth a download (Downloads: PhotoInfoEditor | PhotoGPSEditor). Both programs are now only 1.2 MB to download.

Both programs are ‘donation-ware’, so if you wish to support continued development please consider making a donation (Donate to: PhotoGPSEditor Donation | PhotoInfoEditor Donation) or visit the MMISoftware GPS and Camera Stores.

Program Descriptions:

PhotoInfoEditoris an easy to use meta-data editor for photo files.

With PhotoInfoEditor you can add location and summary details to RAW and JPEG photo files. Location information consists of latitude and longitude data, as well as town, area/region, and country. This can be added manually (just type it in) or ‘automatically’ by placing a pointer on a map to get the latitude and longitude data, and then allowing the program to add town, area/region, and country information. This process can also be described as ‘geocoding‘ a picture/photo. Summary information can be added by typing it in!

PhotoGPSEditor is an easy to use meta-data editor for RAW or JPEG photo files, plus it can match data from GPS (gpx or NMEA) files.

With PhotoGPSEditor you can add location and summary details to a photo file. Location information consists of latitude and longitude data, as well as town, area/region, and country. This can be added automatically by matching up photos with GPS (gpx or NMEA) file track data, manually (just type it in) or ‘automatically’ by placing a pointer on a map to get the latitude and longitude data. The program can then add town, area/region, and country information. This process can also be described as ‘geocoding’ a picture/photo. Summary information can be added by typing it in!

I came across an interesting piece over at techcrunch today about SmugMug.

As you know, PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor are both freeware (PhotoInfoEditor Download | PhotoGPSEditor Download), which we are supporting by donations (well, donation-ware (why not make a donation PhotoInfoEditor Donation | PhotoGPSEditor Donation and help support future development?)), and on-site advertising.

One of the companies we advertise on our site is SmugMug, which offers an excellent service and has recently undergone an upgrade to add a host of new features (see the techcrunch article for further details). Yes, to use SmugMug you have to pay a fee, but the company offers a service that is clearly worth the money otherwise it wouldn’t have over 200,000 users willing to pay the annual fee, and the company wouldn’t be in profit!

If you haven’t tried SmugMug then you should pop-over to their site, and take advantage of their 14 day free trail and check out their sample galleries.

Full article: SmugMug: The (Anti) Web 2.0 Company