End of Support for Android 2.1 Starting with Picasa Mobile 2.3.0

Starting with Picasa Mobile 2.3.0, the support for Android 2.1 devices ends.
Android 2.1 is now used by less than 1% of our users and this change was needed in order to lay out the groundwork for new and awesome features only available in Android 2.2 and up.

If you are still on Android 2.1, your downloaded version of Picasa Mobile will continue to work, but you will not be able to receive updates until you upgrade to Android 2.2.

Stay tuned for more details.

Google Giveth, Google Taketh Away

On a day like today, if you're an Android developer, it's easy to feel like you're loosing it...

The Android Market has had, yet again, tons of problems. Of course, the average user doesn't know that.
And of course, they blame the developer and punish him with bad ratings and scathing reviews.

Some of the users have the decency to contact the developer with questions before shooting from the hip.
Others stick to their one-star guns.

On some level, I understand them. They need somebody to blame for spending $0.99 on an app that refuses to download. And it's hard to believe that Google is the culprit.

Of course, Almighty Google could do a lot to improve the situation for everybody. That is, if they cared...

In the good tradition of openness we came to expect from Google, they could admit that they have a problem (9 out of 10 experts say it's the first step on the path to recovery:)).
More importantly, they could provide a way for the developer to visibly respond to unsubstantiated claims from users.

For now, I suggest putting a red banner at the top of the Market app, something like the weather warnings on TV:

Severe Android Market conditions in effect. Use it at your on risk of being frustrated and disappointed.

I'm joking, of course. But something is very rotten in Googleland...

Picasa Mobile 2.2.8 is now live

This new release adds multi-select download for your and your contacts' photos.

Many thanks to Jim for suggesting it.

Picasa Mobile 2.2.7 is now available

Picasa Mobile 2.2.7 for Android is now available for download on the Android Market. Major highlights of this release:

• Slideshow capabilities: the slideshow can be launched through the context menu and can be used with your online photos, your local photos, with any public photos displayed as the result of a search as well as with your contacts' photos.
• Russian translation - many thanks to Stanislav Belyaev for translating the user interface into Russian. Great work, Stanislav!

Picasa Mobile 2.2.5 is now live

Picasa Mobile 2.2.4 for Android is now available on the Android Market. Major highlights of this release: 

• Optional photo caching: if you are looking at those crazy vacation photos over and over again :), it would help if you enable photo caching. You can do so from the Settings menu, under Photo Browsing -> Caching.
• We reorganized the Settings menu into categories - there were just too many options in the same screen.

Many thanks to John for his suggestions!

Picasa Mobile 2.2.4 is now available

Picasa Mobile 2.2.4 for Android is now available on the Android Market. Major highlights of this release: 

• Album search - you can use a keyword to filter the list of displayed albums
• Full screen photo browsing - starting with this version, the photos are displayed in full screen by default
• Optionally hide the photo captions when browsing through photos
• By default, show the newest thumbnails first

Many thanks to John, Tzinzo and Harald for suggesting some of the above enhancements!

Picasa Mobile 2.2.1 is now available

Picasa Mobile 2.2.1 is now available on the Android Market. Major highlights of this release:

• Video playback - you can play any video stored on Picasa Web Albums, regardless if it's yours or if it was made public by somebody else, including your contacts
• Thumbnail caching - this feature was requested by many users in order to speed up the thumbnail scrolling

Many thanks to Lester and Tzinzo for their suggestions.