Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch, App Review
Your iPhone and iPhoto library are in sync with Simplify Photo
Many of us are forgetful in some form, and this trait is especially magnified when one proceeds to show others an "awesome photo" on your iPhone that, sadly, didn't get synced. Instead of telling your friends that you'll show or email them the photo later -- assuming you even remember to -- you can use Simplify Photo to view your entire iPhoto collection.
While increased megapixels in digital photography brings with it the promise of better picture quality, in most cases it comes at a file size premium. And because storage space on your iPhone is a finite resource, you can choose to set aside dedicated space for those really important photos and use Simplify Photo for those that are not as important but would nonetheless like to have access to just in case.
Simplify Photo is available for 99 cents on the iTunes App Store, while the required desktop client (available for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux) is available as a free download at the Simplify Media site. The desktop app allows you to not only specify which iPhoto albums and events to sync, but the people as well -- via integration with the app's "Faces" facial detection feature. And if you're not exactly sure which album or event a photo is stored, you can use the app's search feature, which searches your photos' tags, titles and comments.
But the standout feature of Simplify Photo is its geolocation support. Like iPhoto '09's places feature, Simplify Photo displays a map with various dropped pins; and tapping on the pins will display the photos taken in the vicinity.
If a picture can say a thousand words, then Simplify Photo's desktop syncing capabilities have the potential to make your iPhone speechlessly filled with photos.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
filid said 9:10AM on 8-20-2009
And Simplify simple knows, when ever you use the App and for how long and where. They use Pinchmedia to track you down in the iPhone app.
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Lumi said 9:46AM on 8-20-2009
I actually thought I was looking at an update to the Photos app.
A shame this isn't the case. I don't have THAT many photos in my iPhoto library, but the sorting in Events would be a really nice touch.
Browsing through thousands of photos can be a tedious thing.
So yeah; c'mon apple!
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jennyp said 9:53AM on 8-20-2009
I never managed to get Simplify Media (music) to work as advertised, despite many attempts. It just sits there. So not holding my breath for this lot.
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Chris said 10:54AM on 8-20-2009
I thought at first this app provided a different function that I've been looking for - syncing from an iPhone to iPhoto WITHOUT opening iPhoto. I don't want to sync other iPhoto libraries to the iPhone, what I want instead is a seamless background sync of my iPhone pictures automatically when I plug it into my machine without having to open iPhoto and without having to import pics manually as if I was taking them off of a camera.
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Chris said 10:57AM on 8-20-2009
While this is a great update, it still doesn't seem to be a full blown 3.0 OS update - no push notifications for DMs or replies which is something I definitely starting to look for in a Tweeter client. Seems speedier though, almost on par with Tweetie on my iPhone 3GS. Will be REAL interesting when the next version of Tweetie comes out, as since it's been a while since we've seen a Tweetie update, it's sure to be a-rockin'.
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Chris Anderson said 11:14AM on 8-20-2009
Also, not sure why a comment of mine from another post ended up here - weird!
carrespondent said 11:26AM on 8-20-2009
Perhaps I'm missing something. Aside from the geolocation support, what does this do that using built-in tools to sync one's iPhone to iPhoto does not?
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jpkrautw said 11:37AM on 8-20-2009
I would love something like this for Lightroom on the Windows side.
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bshigenaka said 11:45AM on 8-20-2009
I'm afraid to use any of Simplify's apps after having their Media app continually spin up my HD. I submitted questions about the issue and never heard a response.
The minute I deleted their app, my HD came to rest. Having access to all my media on the fly isn't worth taking years off the life of my HD, thanks.
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hostwisely1] said 12:01PM on 8-20-2009
This seems to be an interesting one!
The new feature is really amazing...
http://hostwisely.com
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David Robison said 5:43PM on 8-20-2009
Can we get some writers on this so we can understand what this app does? The TUAW article doesn't do it and Simplify's website doesn't do it.
I'm with Carrespondent on this one.
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TheCastro said 5:51PM on 8-20-2009
Not worth 99 cents in my opinion.
I love streaming music from my iMac though over my iPhone, its awesome on road trips.
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david watson said 11:34PM on 8-20-2009
I've been successfully using Simplify Media since October. Streaming music to my iPhone 3G works perfectly and with Simplify Music 2 it got even better (search, resume, favorites.) Simplify Photo is the next logical step. I have to admit that when it works, it definitely has that "wow" factor.
I have streamed from iPhoto '08 and it is fine, but the ability to sort by Faces and Places is really nice in iPhoto '09.
I have to say that it's actually a nice start.
Things they need:
faster load times
zoom (they said it's coming)
ability to download full (or at least larger) size images to iPhone.
resume
share directly from within the app.
favorites
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