Chromecast Support in PicsPro for Picasa

Starting with version 4.5.1, PicsPro for Picasa includes Chromecast support for full screen online media.
To use the Chromecast functionality, please read the steps below.

1. Make sure your Android device and your Chromecast are on the same WiFi network, otherwise the Chromecast cannot be detected.

2. Once the Chromecast device is detected, you will see a Chromecast icon in the top-right menu of any online PicsPro section, as shown below.

3. Tap on the Cast icon and you will be prompted to select a Chromecast device. In this case, I have only one Chromecast device called "Living room"

4. The app will connect to your Chromecast device. This may take a couple of seconds. Once connected, the Cast icon will be displayed with a white fill, as shown below.

5. As mentioned before, only online full screen media will be "chromecasted". If you are not in a full screen view, you have to navigate to one. 

Displaying local media is not possible at this time.

6. Online Picasa Web videos can also be played to the Chromecast. Just press the big "play" button and the video will start playing through your Chromecast. While the video is playing, a "control box" like the one below will be displayed, allowing you to pause or stop the video.

While playing videos, you can adjust the audio volume by using the "volume up" and "volume down" buttons on your device.

7. The online media (photos or videos) will continue to be displayed when you switch to another app on your Android device. A Chromecast icon will be displayed in the notification area as long as you are connected.
By dragging-down that notification and tapping on it, you can change the audio volume or disconnect from Chromecast.

If the volume is too low, you can further increase it by using the remote control of your TV (or the device to which your Chromecast is connected).

Happy Chromecasting!

Major Change in Flickr API

Very Important Announcement for all Flickr Mobile Users

Starting June 27, Yahoo will roll out a major change in their Flickr API.
To make sure your copy of Flickr Mobile still works after that date, please make sure you upgrade to version 1.3.1 or newer.

Here is the original announcement from Yahoo: http://code.flickr.net/2014/04/30/flickr-api-going-ssl-only-on-june-27th-2014/ .

EXIF info in Flickr Mobile 1.2.3

Starting with version 1.2.3, Flickr Mobile displays EXIF details in the "photo info" view:

Scroll down and you will see all the EXIF tags provided by Flickr for the current photo:

In some cases, ex: videos, the EXIF info may not be available. Also, some Flickr users may choose to keep their EXIF info private - in this case, nothing will be shown in the EXIF section.

Other changes in this release:

• You can add the author of the current photo as a contact - also from the Info view:

• The thumbnail rendering has been optimized to show larger thumbnails on xhdpi devices like Motorola's Moto G:

Recent Activity and Collection Support in Flickr Mobile 1.1.5

Starting with version 1.1.5, Flick Mobile includes two new sections: Collections and Activity.

A collection usually contains photosets and it may come in handy when you have a lot of them.
For more details, please see this help article from Yahoo.

Flickr Mobile allows viewing existing collections and their contents, editing a collection's title and description, deleting an existing collection as well as regenerating the collection's icon. (The icon is actually a mosaic composed of various photos in the contained photosets.)

Please note that deleting a collection will not delete the contained photosets.

You can add an existing photoset to a collection in the Photosets section, by tapping on the context menu and choosing Add to collection.

In the Activity section, you can see the most recent comments and faves on your photos, photosets and galleries.

There are many context menus throughout this section, offering various options like viewing the comment author's Flickr content, or adding the comment author as a contact.

If this section shows too many (or not enough) comments, you can change the time interval by tapping on the funnel icon in the top-right.

Finally, we improved the styling throughout the app, using Google's "cards" UI pattern, as seen in the Google Music app, as well as in Google Play.

Enjoy!

Note: This has been published as a staged rollout and it may take a day or so before it becomes available in all geographical regions.

On-demand Album Caching in PicsPro 4.2.8

Starting with PicsPro for Picasa version 4.2.8, one of the most requested features is now available: web album caching for offline viewing.

To save your bandwith, the caching is performed on demand, for specific albums.

To cache an album, in the album list view, tap on the context menu, then choose Cache, as shown below:

You can cancel a cache in progress at any time, by dragging down the download icon from the notification area and tapping on the notification entry.

Note: on some devices, especially when using high resolution photos, you may still see a "loading indicator" in the full-screen photo view.

This is because the app reads the photo from the SD card and resizes it to fit the screen.

You can validate that the photos are really cached by putting your phone in "airplane mode".