A photo viewed in Aperture with metadata shown.
Last week, Apple opened Apple Watch order books. Most models now have a delivery date of June. Some may suggest that this is Cupertino under-ordering to create a false shortage. It may not be until July or August that the watch appears here.
Also released was the new MacBook. Again, despite early naysayers, when reviewers actually had them in their hands, reports were quite favourable. These are available here, starting at 43,900 baht (42,200 baht for students and teachers). Availability is shown as three to four weeks. Although I wrote last week that I expected OS X 10.10.3 to be coming soon, I was surprised when it was released Wednesday night. iOS 8.3 with Siri for Thai users, among new features, was also released. Siri is a bit hit-and-miss, as she claims a lack of online information for some requests. This will improve: the Thai team at Apple are chipping away. If you haven't tried it yet, look at enhanced dictation for Thai on Macs.
I downloaded OS X the next morning. I had been using beta versions of the update including the new Photos. This is now available to all users. The update also fixed a back door API insecurity.
For those using iPhoto now, the transition will be fairly easy. Several books are already available on Photos, including one by Jason Snell, former editor of Macworld. I read this last week and the US$10 (325 baht) gives good value. This can be read either cover-to-cover or dipped into like a manual. As more information is available, purchasers will have free updates.
Where Snell admits he is less strong is with Aperture. Photos is not going to please those who work with this useful application. So much we depend on is unavailable. Photos has some excellent basic editing functions with sliders that work almost the same as Photos on iOS devices.
Some third-party developers will be integrating their applications, but the deeper functions are just not there. I am keeping my fingers crossed, for example, about iWatermark and Tonality, both of which have Aperture plug-ins with the Pro versions. Aperture will still be usable for the present, but I am unlikely to switch to Adobe Lightroom. I have been searching for editing alternatives and also for metadata applications, as Photos is deficient in this area.
As part of this preparation, last week I discussed apps for examining metadata on iOS devices. I already have some applications on the Mac, like Graphic Converter, which displays a wide range of metadata. The Mac App Store found me some other apps. Initially, I wanted to be able only to examine the metadata. Some apps also allow editing.
Image in Photos, showing Edit tools and metadata display (including GPS/map).
My first choice was the $4.99 ExifExtreme by Marc Rochkind, whose unusual website reveals that he has a number of other apps and several technical books to his credit. One of his other creations is ExifChanger, which has expanded features, including the ability to add location data. This can be done with Aperture, but is not currently possible with Photos.
ExifExtreme can be used with Aperture, iPhoto and Photos. When Open is used, users may access images in these applications. I was also able to click and drag an image from Aperture or iPhoto, but not from Photos. RAW images from these applications appeared as JPG. Other data in the large display of information was correct. It is possible to copy the data and paste into a text file.
The only way I was able to have this display metadata for a RAW (NEF) image was to export that, then drag it in to the working panel. Graphic Converter was the same and only displayed file data for NEF if the image was exported first.
There was also iExifer for $3.99, but this had not been updated since 2011, so I also downloaded the more recent Image info ($2.99), which is a slightly odd application. Access to the working panel is only via a Menu bar icon. It is simple to drag an image from the desktop into the panel, which displays basic information, including coordinates when GPS data is available.
There is also a More Info tab which reveals a number of other photo data types including EXIF and IPTC. I was able to edit date information in a RAW image using this utility. Other data can also be edited.
This utility is useful but can get in the way as the menu bar provides the only way to access it.
If that is crowded it may not be instantly visible.
I was able to drag images from Aperture and iPhoto into the panel, but (as with others) not from Photos. Also like other metadata applications, images dragged in from photo software on the Mac only used the JPG reference image.
Graham K. Rogers of Mahidol University's Engineering Faculty has OS X flavoured web pages at www.extensions.in.th/index4.html
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