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.

Earlier today we reported on an update to the media sharing tool from Simplify Media. It added some nice features, but it also installed a demo share on home machines that was not appreciated by many. It set off a mini-firestorm on the company blog, and we received plenty of negative comments as well.

Tonight, wasting no time, the folks at Simplify Media have pushed out another update for Macs, as well as Windows and Linux boxes. It defaults with the demo/test share turned off, but allows you to turn it on if you want to test to see if your system is working.

Paul Joyce of Simplify Media had some comments tonight on his blog:

Today I've been trading emails and comments with a few of you around a feature in Simplify 2.0 -- the Simplify Demo. The exchange has re-enforced one thing I already knew -- we have great, passionate users -- and one thing I know now -- I made a mistake in communicating this new capability.

Such candor is refreshing in a software company. This would be a minor issue, but the iPhone app that allowed users to have access to their large music collections from anywhere was a major hit at the App Store, and one of the most downloaded utilities, so a lot of people had a chance to be pretty angry about the installation of test content on their machine without permission.

Anyway, it's solved now, and it's a really positive outcome. I downloaded and tried the update, and indeed the test share is gone by default. A new version of the iPhone app will also be submitted this week. If all software developers were this responsive, it would be a better world.

Torches and pitchforks can now be stowed. A link to the new updates is on this page, about halfway down.

The Simplify Media app for sharing your music libraries across the net or to your iPhone has been updated to version 2.0 (previous coverage here). If you have the app installed on your Mac, PC or Linux computer, you'll see an update notice real soon now. The update includes stability improvements, the ability to share only selected playlists, and a much-desired feature that lets you send your shares to Sonos, Roku or XBox 360 devices. The app now supports FLAC, in addition to the usual MP3, AAC, WMA and Apple Lossless codecs.

Simplify has also added a version 2.0 for the iPhone. The original app will continue to work fine, and it's free. The new version, Simplify Music 2.0 [App Store link], is $2.99US and adds the ability to search your music library from afar, tag tracks as favorites, create on-the-fly playlists and a 'scrub bar' so you have more playback control in podcasts and audio books.

I had no issues with the install on my desktop Mac, but the software irritatingly and without warning put a new share in iTunes called 'Simplify Demo' with an album by Brad Turcotte. I could have lived without it, and can't figure out how to send it back to the netherworld from which it came.

Update: I wasn't the only person ticked off about the demo share the software installed. Check the comments at the bottom of this page on the Simplify Media site. What were these guys thinking? What a creative way to ruin a good reputation. Also, a couple of our readers correctly point out that version one of the iPhone app was free, but is now $3.99.

A further update: Paul Joyce of Simplify Media tells me they will release a new build with an 'off' switch to get rid of the demo share. Good move. It's nice to see a company acknowledge a mistake and move quickly to fix it.

ComputerWorld has an interesting item this morning by Mike Elgan. It speculates about new features in the anticipated iPhone coming this summer, including an FM transmitter to send iPhone audio to a car radio. It's also thought that the new 3.0 software will enable stereo bluetooth streaming to a car suitably equipped.

There's no doubt that these features might convince many to either skip satellite radio, or to not renew current contracts.

All that is bad news for Sirius/XM, but the newly merged companies have done plenty to shoot themselves. Many subscribers think the merger was badly done, and many favorite channels were killed with no notice. As an XM subscriber I experienced that first hand when no heads up was given to customers about massive channel changes until the day of the switch last fall. For a communications company, that's pretty poor communications.

With an iPhone that can stream stereo Bluetooth, services like Pandora, LastFM, AOL Radio, and Simplify Media become more mobile in the car. I'd have to think twice about renewing XM or Sirius. Although new car sales are in the dumper, a great many new vehicles are delivered with iPod adapters, giving even more impetus for users to take their own music with them rather than to be stuck with a costly, and seemingly diminishing satellite radio service.

The whole theory behind Sirius/XM was to get radio worth paying for. To a degree, the iPhone and iPod have changed that equation, because you can take your favorite music with you, either your own or music from the new streaming music services. But getting the music into your car audio system was a chore if you weren't pre-wired for it. If indeed Apple makes the integration of the iPhone into the car easier, I think satellite radio will have to re-think its business plan, a plan that is already in tatters.

How about you? Do you subscribe to Sirius/XM now? Has the economy changed your plans? Would new options to get iPhone audio on your car make you think again about that costly subscription plan?

The Simplify Media iPhone application (iTunes link) v1.1 has hit the App Store. As you can see from the video above, with Simplify Media installed on your Mac and on your iPhone or iPod touch, you can stream your home iTunes library to your mobile device wherever you may be. It will supposedly work over EDGE, 3G, or WiFi and promises what might be the holy grail for mobile audio devices -- practically unlimited storage.

To get started you'll need to download the Simplify Media Mac client as well as register for a free account. Then install the iPhone client on your mobile device and your home Mac should show up as a streaming source. In addition to your home machine, you can connect to up to 30 friends also running the cross-platform software.

Simplify Media for Mac is a free download. Only the first 100,000 copies of the iPhone version are free to download, after that it will be $3.99.

[via Gizmodo]

Simplify Media allows you to stream music from your home computer (or from the iTunes libraries of 30 of your close personal friends) to your iPhone or iPod touch via WiFi. Admittedly this video is pure marketing, but the concept is cool. I installed a copy of the 1.0 alpha build from Installer.app, and gave it a spin--or at least I tried. The program requires that you have a Simplify Media account so I had to step back and grab a desktop client first. Then after painfully installing the software, signing agreements and clicking "I don't have an account yet", I finally got signed up and added my music folders. The whole process took about 20 frustrating minutes but persistence paid off. I then returned to my iPhone, signed in with my new account, and although I was able to get correct listings of my music library, none of the songs actually played back--causing "Server is not responding" errors instead.

This is one of the caveat lector instances: Boy, does this tool sound like it's going to be great but at the same time it doesn't really work as well as you might hope, at least it doesn't for me right now (some commenters have had better luck, see below). Simplify Media for iPhone is an alpha release and presumably will be finalized sometime after the official iPhone SDK ships.