A new version of PhotoGPSEditor has just been released. This new version contains a minor bug fix to allow photos to load correctly under Mac OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard.

PhotoGPSEditor is an easy to use meta-data editor for 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.

The program is freeware, however, donations can be made to help support future development.

This new version runs under 10.5 and 10.6 only. Unfortunately 10.4 can no longer be supported.

New version of PhotoGPSEditor is now available. This is a minor update with improved import of poorly formated nmea files, and improved export of geotagged photos.

With PhotoGPSEditor you can add location and summary details to a photo file. The location information consists of latitude and longitude data, as well as town, area/region, and country. This can be either 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.

The program is ideal for geocoding photos with ‘Places’ information before importing in to iPhoto.

PhotoGPSEditor also allows meta-data to be edited in single or multiple photo (JPEG/RAW/Tiff) files at once.

PhotoGPSEditor is available for download

Well, I have been approached by another team that are taking part in the Mongol Rally, this time it is Morris to Mongolia, last time it was Minor Problems.

Again, I will be providing technical support, processing GPS data, and sponsoring the team directly in the form of equipment such as a GPS unit, plus some computing gear…

This looks like it will be an interesting one, so watch this space (and this space).

And, don’t forget, you can also go an sponsor the team – sponsor.

This was an interesting project that I was involved with towards the end of 2008…

The Great Football Giveaway gives away, as their name suggests, footballs. The charity works in Africa where they drive around visiting schools and isolated communities giving away footballs. Why?

Well, they have found that by giving footballs to schools improves attendance. Basically, word gets out that the local school has footballs, the kids come to the school to play football, and pick up an education at the same time.

What The Great Football Giveaway needed was a blog to post their latest news and stories, and also some help with tracking their giveaways (one of the guys I worked with on Minor Problems is involved in the charity). So, I created a customised theme for their blog and provided technical support for the capture and tracking of their ‘giveaways’. The blog is powered by wordpress (and MySql), and the new theme simply added.

The Great Football Giveaway Blog

Nice little write-up on PhotoGPSEditor over at Bioneural.

Basically Bioneural gives a good little run down on geotagging photos on the Mac. It is a nice piece and worth a read.

I particularly enjoyed the part that said:

“One of these methods allows you to zoom in using satelite view in Google Maps to the point where you were standing—and best of all you only need to mark one photo in a set this way, and the offset will be applied to all photos in the set. Very clever:”

It was the “very clever” bit I liked!

No mention in the article of PhotoInfoEditor, which can be used to geotag photos when no GPS data is available…

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:

Well, things have been quite at MMISoftware, not because we have not been working, but because we have been working! One thing we have been doing is working with Duncan and Rob over at Minor Problems who are taking part in the 2007 Mongol Rally. Basically, MMISoftware are sponsoring them! Our first ‘official’ sponsorship!!

So, what has MMISoftware been doing for Team Minor Problems?

Well, we have ‘taken-over’ the updating and maintenance of their website. Have a look at Minor Problems to see what is going on, and we have also set up a blog for them.

In addition, we have been providing technical support in ‘equipping’ the guys with the necessary hardware (and some software) so they can send ‘live’ (or as close to live as we can get) reports from the rally, and also provide a ‘tracking solution’ so they can record their route.

Rob and Duncan decided they wanted to be able to:

• send back photos
• send back reports of our progress and any problems
• give a ‘live’ update of our location

The solution we came up with is to use internet cafes to send reports and photos, when such cafes are available, and to use a mobile phone to send reports and photos when they can’t get to a cafe.

The phone they are using is a Samsung U700, which has Bluetooth and a 3.2 megapixel camera. Using the phone it is hoped that the guys can send back photos and text files as emails attachments. For writing the blog text we have donated a Palm T3 on to which we have installed a text editing package (TexT) and a file zipping package called HandZipper (Handwatch) (HandZipper compresses the text in to a smaller file so it is quicker, easier and cheaper to send).

The way the guys are going to have to work this, when they can’t get to an internet cafe, is to write blog posts on the Palm, zip the file and use Bluetooth to send the zipped file to the phone, where they can be attached to an email, along with any photos, to be sent back.

To work out the location they are going to use a Garmin Geko (again, donated by MMISoftware), to provide the current location (latitude and longitude), as well enabling them to ‘track’ the number of miles they do each day, and their average speed. The GPS unit is fairly basic and does not provide any mapping or ‘direction’ functions, but will be more than sufficient for their needs.

Finally, we hope that Team Minor Problems will be able to produce a GPS track record of their adventure, and for this MMISoftware has given them a Sony GPS data logger… It is hoped that they will be able to send back some ‘track-logs’ from internet cafes, but we may have to wait until we get back to the UK.

If all goes well, and to plan, we hope that Team Minor Problems will be posting regular updates and news to the blog of their rally adventure, so to follow their progress why not subscribe to their blog rss feed or their email newsletter?

If you are interested in GPS tracking, why not visit the MMISoftware GPS Store?

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:

Just received an email from a user (I don’t know if they use PhotoInfoEditor or PhotoGPSEditor) alerting me to the addition of PhotoGPSEditor to a Wikipedia page on geocoding.

The geocoding article on Wikipedia is an interesting, however, I would take issue with one point and that is the use of GPS data.

The piece seems to suggest (in its present form – you just know how these Wikipedia pages can change!) that you have to use GPS data to geocode a photo, you do not, you can assign geocoding data, i.e. latitude and longitude, as well as city, region and country, manually (which they do state in the second half of the entry), and this is where PhotoInfoEditor comes in. With PhotoInfoEditor it is possible to assign the geo-location of a photo by simply dragging and dropping a pointer on a map. There is no need to use a GPS unit, you just have to remember where you were when you took the shot, and find it on a map. The ‘bonus’ if you use PhotoInfoEditor to do this is the program will then automatically fill in the city, region and country information for you.

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 minor update of PhotoGPSEditor, which really addresses only one bug, has been released. The bug in question was not major, but it was annoying and causing some users problems…

Under some rare circumstances if a photo file did not have a thumbnail icon and was using a ‘generic’ system JPEG/TIFF type icon then PhotoGPSEditor would save the file with a low resolution version of the icon. This was not really a problem and in no way affected the file, but it was annoying! Hence the release….

If you have used PhotoGPSEditor and have a number of files with ‘low resolution’ generic icons then you may wish to use PhotoIcon (download) to replace the icons with a thumbnail of the photo.

PhotoGPSEditor is freeware programs from MMISoftware – continued development can be supported by making donations (PhotoGPSEditor Donation), or purchases at the MMISoftware GPS and camera stores. (PhotoIcon is free (more information))

The program is available for download:

A number of users have emailed MMISoftware about how the ‘map marker’ is used in the PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor. Although both programs use ‘markers’ to get latitude and longitude information, and to show, on a map, where the photos are taken, the latitude and longitude data produced is used differently.

PhotoGPSEditor: In this program the function of the marker is to help match the GPS data to the photos. Moving the marker will not update the information in the picture, it is just to help do the match, and then confirm that the match has worked.

The initial positioning of the marker is used by PhotoGPSEditor to match the selected photo with the GPS data. The program then calculates the difference in time between when the photo was taken, and when the GPS data was recorded.

A ‘map marker’ on a map!

PhotoInfoEditor: The function of the marker in this program is to show the location the photo was taken and moving the marker will update/change the information.

I tend to use PhotoGPSEditor to do a match between GPS data and the photos, and hence add latitude/longitude and location data. I then export the photos for import in to PhotoInfoEditor for ‘fine-tuning’ of position and to add additional information.

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: