Google Photos

Google updates Picasa, adds Google+ Auto Backup standalone Mac tool

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Google has been offering its standalone Picasa Mac app for years and while it may lack ease of use and elegance of Apple's own iPhoto and Aperture software, by no means is it a slouch.

Matter of fact, I've been using the program for years as my primary point of entry for sorting, geotagging and organizing images in folders prior to importing them to Aperture for advanced touch ups and album management.

But aside from maintenance updates, Picasa for Mac spent much of 2013 unchanged in terms of features, so much so that I began to suspect that Google could perhaps discontinue it in order to make room for a standalone Google+ Photos app for the Mac.

Instead, yesterday's update has proven there's still life left in Picasa. In addition to a few new features and complementary fixes, the improved Picasa also brings out a brand new standalone tool allowing you to synchronize a batch of photos and videos residing on your Mac with Google+ Photos...

Google+ gains full-res photo/video backup, location sharing, inline translation and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated December 4, 2013

The search monster Google has posted another update to its Google+ app for the iPhone and iPad, this time bringing a new iOS 7 perk: the ability to upload your iOS Camera roll photos and videos automatically and in glorious full resolution, to a private album on Google+ Photos, viewable only by you (unless specified otherwise). This brings the iOS app to parity with its Android counterpart.

It's really useful because your photos get sent to the cloud in the background, even if you haven't opened the app. You could previously enable Camera backup in Google+, but this would not back up full resolution images and the app would upload for only a few minutes after it quit.

It's a very interesting addition that turns the Google+ thing into a viable cloud backup of your iOS Camera roll. This Google+ update comes with other tweaks and nice-to-haves so jump past the fold if you're interested to learn more...

New ways to awesomize your Google+ Photos

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 26, 2017

Photography fans are in for a nice treat as Google today rolled out a series of photo-related announcements. iDB already told you about full size uploads and background sync, coming soon to Google+ for iOS, and the new HDR Scape effect in Google-owned Snapseed app which can deliver results comparable to high dynamic range imaging, but working from a single photo.

But Google's only warming up. The company has also unveiled scheduled Hangouts On Air and rolled out a bunch of enhancements to Google+ Photos on the web such as Auto Awesome Movie, Auto Enhance Action and Eraser and much, much more.

I've got a quick rundown for you ready right after the jump...

iPhoto beware: native Google+ Photos app heading to Mac

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 26, 2017

Despite its pedestrian and overly geeky interface, I still find myself using Google's Picasa Mac app to geotag my photos, find duplicates and organize image files in folders prior to importing the images into iPhoto. Picasa may not win any beauty contest, but it sure is lightning fast and gets the job done.

Now, once Google retired Picasa Web Albums and doubled-down on Google+ Photos, I could tell the desktop Picasa software was heading to the technology graveyard. But some good will come out of this: according to a Google-focused blog, the Internet giant may be replacing Picasa soon with an upcoming desktop Google+ Photos app for Mac, Windows and Linux...

Google now gives you 15GB of shared Gmail, Google+ Photos and Drive storage

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

Hands up who lives in the Google cloud. If you keep your images on Google+ Photos (formerly Picasa Web Albums), manage documents in Google Drive or file messages with large attachments in Gmail, you are tapping the power of Google's cloud storage. But up until today, each of these relied on their private cloud locker in the sky, which was inconvenient.

This morning, Google has tweaked the offering to include fifteen gigabytes of unified, free storage shared across Gmail, Drive and Google+ Photos. Previously, Google gave you ten gigabytes for Gmail and an additional five gigabytes of combined storage limited to Drive and Google+ Photos.

The change strengthens the Drive brand while simplifying things for consumers, akin to Apple's iCloud that comes with five free gigabytes of shared cloud storage...