New and revamped UI in PicsPro for Picasa 4.x

As some of my users have repeatedly mentioned, the UI design of PicsPro looked quite dated - that is, until now.
Starting December 16, a fully revamped version of PicsPro has been published on Google Play.

Here's what's new in PicsPro for Picasa 4.x:

• Sliding drawer menu
• Interactions comply now with Google's Android guidelines (the old version of the app had HTC-style thumbnail selection - the ones where you had to select the feature first, then select the thumbnails)
• Better caching
• "Select all" in every thumbnail view
• Compatibility with high-resolution phones (1920x1024), like Nexus 5

Here are some screenshots:

Swipe to show main menu in Flickr Mobile 1.0.6

Starting with Flickr Mobile 1.0.6, you can also reveal the main menu using a swiping move to the right (anywhere in the "content" area of the screen).

Other notable enhancements in this release:

• The physical Menu button can toggle the menu (useful only if your device does have a physical Menu button)
• You can now set a "start-up" section for the app (experimental)

Both options can be configured from the app's settings, as shown below.

In case you run into any problems by selecting a default section that "misbehaves" (unlikely, but just in case), you can always force all settings to their default value by going to the phone's Settings -> Apps -> Flickr Mobile and tap on "Clear data". 

Warning: only use this as a last resort, since you'll have to login again afterwards.

Picasa Mobile becomes PicsPro for Picasa

In an effort to make sure we comply with the latest Google Play policies, we have renamed "Picasa Mobile" to "PicsPro for Picasa".
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you; we are just trying to avoid the fate of similar apps that were removed lately from Google Play.

This release also include a long-awaited enhancement: the possibility of "hiding" certain folders form the auto-uploader.
To access this new feature, you have to go to the app's Settings section, tap on Uploads and then tap on the "Folders" option, as shown below.

In the example above, the download folder (/storage/sdcard0/download) will be ignored by the auto-uploader.

Contact Info in Flickr Mobile

Starting with version 1.0.5, you can use the "Info" option in the "Contacts" section to change their status, ex.: "Friend" and/or "Family".

Video support in Flickr Mobile

Starting with version 0.9.5, we added video support in Flickr Mobile.
You can:

• Play any online video (if your Android device support that particular format)
• Download any online video. The downloaded videos will be visible in the Gallery app (and any photography app supporting videos)
• Upload your local videos to Flickr. Please note that some 3GP video files recorded on Nexus devices may not be recognized by Flickr. MPEG/MP4 video uploads seem to work without problems.

In thumbnail view, you can differentiate the videos by looking for the the usual "Play" icon.

You can download Flickr Mobile from:

• Google Play
• Amazon App Store

Flickr Mobile - First Relase

At long last, we have a second Android app: Flickr Mobile.
Flickr Mobile is available on both Google Play and Amazon AppStore.

Favorites section with the main menu expanded, on Nexus 7

Main features:

• Photostream - view and manage the photos in your Flickr photostream. You can download photos, add photos to photosets, add photos to a group, share, view/add comments or delete photos.
• Photosets - view and manage the photos in your Flickr photosets. You can create new photosets, delete existing ones or remove photos from photosets.
• Local media - view and upload your local photos to Flickr. You can upload them directly to an album, or just to your photostream.
• Interesting - view, download, add to favorites or to galleries, share or comment on interesting photos.
• Favorites - manage your favorite Flickr photos: add or remove favorites, add photos to galleries, download them to your SD card or share them.
• Contacts - add or remove contacts, view their photostream, photosets, favorites and galleries.
• Groups - view your groups, search for public groups, join or leave groups. Download photos from any group to your SD card, comment on them or share them.
• Galleries - manage your photo galleries, add or remove photos, download and share photos. While you can create new galleries, you cannot delete from the app due to an issue in the Flickr API.
• Search - search public photos based on keywords. Add to favorites, galleries, share or download any photo you find.
• Slideshow - view photos in any section of the app as a slideshow.
• Multiple accounts - you can switch between all your Flickr accounts.

Enjoy!

New main screen design in Picasa Mobile 3.5.4

Starting with version 3..5.4, Picasa Mobile allows you to choose between two main screen designs: "Classic" and "Colorful".

You can switch between the two designs by going to Settings -> Main menu theme:



Here are the two designs side-by-side:

It would be extremely useful to know which one you like best, so please do not hesitate to leave your feedback here.

So, which design looks better?

Other enhancements in this release:

• Added 2048 px resize before upload. This is only available for devices running Android 4.0 and above and should be considered experimental.
• Fixed random crash when user exits a long loading task.

Set as wallpaper, web image sharing, ancestral navigation in Picasa Mobile 3.5.0

We just published a new version of Picasa Mobile, 3.5.0, which adds the following new features: setting photos as wallpaper, ancestral navigation and more web photo sharing option.
We also fixed a bug occurring sometimes when deleting the last photo in an album, in full-screen mode.

Setting photos as wallpaper

You can set any photo as your Android devices' wallpaper, including your online photos, your local photos, your contacts' photos, as well as any photos displayed in the Search section.
The option is available from the full-screen mode, as illustrated below:

Please note that Android will crop your photo slightly, to allow for the "slide" effect when moving from one home screen to the next.

Ancestral navigation

Ancestral navigation is just a fancy term for the "Up" button introduced starting with Android 3.0.
When pressing the "Up" button (see highlighted in blue below, in top-left), the app will go to the previous screen in the screen hierarchy.

More web photo sharing options

Picasa Mobile 3.5.1 adds the "Share image" option, complementing the existing "Email image" option.

You can access this option either from the thumbnail view, by long-pressing on a thumbnail, or from the full screen view, by using the options menu.

Set as album cover - not available in Google's Picasa Web API
We also tried to implement "set photo as album cover" - unfortunately this operation is not available in Google's Picasa Web API. Hopefully, they will make it available at a later time.
More details on this issue at the address below:
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/google-picasa-data-api/DhWZYUGfa2w

Bug fixes

We also fixed a bug occurring from time to time when deleting the last photo in a web album, in full screen mode.

Moving photos out of Instant Upload album

There seems to be an issue on Google's side preventing users from moving photos that reside immediately under the "Instant Uploads" albums.

Until Google fixes this issue, the is a simple workaround: when tapping on the Instant Uploads album, choose "Subfolders" from the "Show" prompt:

Then, locate the correct date-based sub-album and move the photo from there.

For those technically inclined, I posted the detailed explanation of the issue on Google Picasa Web Albums API group: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/Google-Picasa-Data-API/NRue29DnL6s .
Hopefully, someone from Google will take a look at it.