Pictures 1.0 for iPhone®

I hope you find Pictures 1.0 useful and fun. I’m a small-scale independent developer in Australia, and your feedback and support will help me built better products. So if you have any ideas or improvements, please e-mail me by tapping Contact within the app or e-mailing

If you upgrade to the full paid version, you’ll get rid of the ads and unlock all current and future features including: full-screen viewing and landscape mode, full smart albums, auto-tags based on location and date, more colour badges, Facebook & Flickr upload, and similar image search.

– James

Features

Questions & Answers

What does the progress bar mean?
Pictures synchronises with your camera roll and iPhoto libraries. New images will appear once the sync is complete.
Can Pictures work with videos?
Yes, everything you can do with pictures you can also do with videos. However, Pictures only shows you the ‘key frame’ from your videos—it doesn’t play them. You can play videos using Open With App or Apple’s Photos app.
Are images shown in any particular order?
Yes, albums are sorted in reverse chronological order (your latest images are shown at the top and your oldest images are shown at the bottom). For smart albums like Nearby and Similar Images, items are sorted in order of best match.
Can I re-order my images or sort by name?
No, the sort order is determined automatically.
How do I put pictures into albums?
You can use Tags to make smart albums in Pictures. Or to make Library Albums, you’ll need to use iPhoto.

When Pictures is showing images on your device, simply tap the Tags button to add a tag. Tagged images will immediately appear in the smart Tag Albums on your device. Tagged pictures are not removed from your Camera Roll and there is no need for you to synchronise with iTunes or iPhoto. However, tag albums only appear in Pictures and are not shared with other apps.

Alternatively, you can use iPhoto to create photo albums and then copy your pictures into them. You can also use iPhoto to move photos from your Camera Roll into albums. Albums will appear in the Library section of Pictures after syncing with iPhoto. You must use iPhoto because Apple does’t provide a way for Pictures to do directly it on your device.
What does the Invert button do?
In Library Albums, the Invert button sorts images in forwards chronological order (oldest images at the top). In Smart Albums, the Invert button reverses the meaning of the album, meaning that all matching images are hidden and all non-matching images are shown. For instance, the album showing all ‘Red’ badges would instead show all ‘Non-Red’ badges.
How is “Similar Images” supposed to work?
Similar Images is meant to detect exact duplicates, and has the capability to show certain similar images too. The similarity is based on patterns of light and dark in your images. While this works for most images, images with text or speckles may fail to match. Sometimes it doesn't detect HDR images due to the change in light and dark contrast caused by the HDR process. Nevertheless, it’s fun to play with!
How do I delete images?
Apple does not allow apps to delete any items from the Camera Roll or Libraries. Instead, you can Archive pictures or delete them using Apple’s app or iPhoto.
What ‘Hidden Features’ are available in Pictures?
In Albums
  • Badges & Filename: To add a colour badge or edit the filename of a picture in the album list, hold down on it until the editing screen appears. Alternatively, or to edit multiple pictures at once, click Edit and tick the images to edit. Then tap Tags.
  • Search by Name: When viewing a list of album contents, pull down on the list to reveal the search field.
  • Search by Date: When you search, you can search by dates like “3/04/2010”, “2010-12-19”, “Aug 2010” or “October”.
In Image View
  • Export image or Upload to Facebook & Flickr: when viewing an image, click on the organiser icon.
In Image Info
  • Nearby Images: To find images that are nearby to the current image: tap the Info button, tap Location, and tap on the disclosure arrow as shown on the map.
  • Megapixels, orientation and aspect ratio: Tap on Size for more information.
How do I copy or migrate my pictures to another device?
Using iPhoto/iTunes. A future version of Pictures will be migrate your labels, tags, filenames and auto-tags to another device (e.g., from an iPhone 3GS to an iPhone 4).
What features doesn’ Pictures have?
Pictures cannot delete your photos, set as wallpaper, send as MMS, assign to contact, or take videos. There is currently no slideshow feature. Contact me about the features you would most like to see in the future.

Credits

Pictures uses the following third-party libraries:
Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod touch, and iTunes are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. iPad is a trademark of Apple Inc. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc. iOS is a trademark or registered trademark of Cisco in the U.S. and other countries and is used under license.