Why doesn't Aperture use iPhoto's date ...

Update 10/2/06: I wonder if the surprising failure to allow date modification is related to Aperture supporting XMP export but not XMP import. Clearly it makes no business sense to support only XMP export, so it's very likely XMP import was pulled from the product late in the release cycle. I wonder if support for editing dates was pulled at the same time ...
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I have worked for years in product design and product management. There are lots of reasons seemingly obvious things don't get done. Sometimes they just got missed, but when customers are complaining frequently that doesn't happen. More often the problem was much harder than it seems, or the product manager thinks it's a bad idea.

Aperture 1.5 is a great update, with one amazing omission (assuming all the Apple Discussion Group users didn't miss something). I don't think this was an accidental omission, so the interesting question is .... why?

That's what I asked on Apple's Aperture Discussion Forum. It's the kind of question they usually delete, so here it is for the record. If anyone has a theory, please add it to comments.

Apple - Support - Discussions - Why doesn't Aperture use iPhoto's date ...

This is how image date logic works in iPhoto. This image date value is used in queries and sorts.

1. Image date is stored in database.
2. Initial value taken from image metadata if available.
3. If image metadata not available, use file date.
4. User can edit database date (does not change file header).

This is how it seems to work in Aperture 1.5

1. Image date is stored in database.
2. Initial value taken from iPhoto database if import from iPhoto.
3. If not import from iPhoto, initial value taken from image metadata if available.
4. If image metadata not available, use file date.
5. User CANNOT edit database date.

I was shocked (really, I'm still stunned) that Aperture 1.5 still does not equal iPhoto's date management capabilities. Since Aperture is a Pro application it's reasonable to have several date fields, but one of them should behave like iPhoto. That metadata field should be useable in queries/filters, sorts, display, book printing, etc. It should be the default date metadata element for all date related operations.

Please note, it's fine that Aperture does not muck with image file (exif) metadata -- that's dangerous. EXIF is a quasi-standard badly implemented.

So now, my question. Why?

Aperture 1.5 was a huge update. They fixed much more than I thought was possible. It could have been labeled Aperture 3.0. Offering it free to users was a genuine apology, gratefully accepted I'm sure. It took all my strength of will not to order it immediately, waiting instead for the initial reviews to come in.

So there had to be a reason Aperture's Product Manager, Joe Schorr, chose not to implement iPhoto's image date behavior. Something he'd thought carefully about.

What was it?

My guess is that this was a high priority item originally, but the metadata management portion of the application code is very badly done. The team decided to do a complete fix rather than a hacked patch, and they couldn't get the fix done in time. So they backed it out and left this for version 2.0.

Alternatively, the product manager has a peculiar blind spot about date metadata, but that I don't believe.

Now I wait to see what iLife 2007 is like, then see what Adobe's Lightroom is like, then wait for Aperture 2.0 ...

The Griffin PowerBlock - Sweet and simple

I picked up the Griffin Technology PowerBlock on a whim. Good impulse purchase! It's a very compact, well built, folding plug USB charger with a compact iPod USB cable. It'll charge any relatively modern iPod. It's much more compact and portable than Apple's USB charger, it's less expensive, and it comes with a iPod cable as well.

Since my phone also charges via USB, this device replaced my phone charger and an awkward old firewire charger. Sweet.

See also: Griffin does me wrong, then makes up.

Add an h-card to your web page

The h-card is an XML implementation of the V-card spec. Create yours, put it on your home page. Of course, don't publish anything you're not ready for spammers to abuse. I'll give it a try. (It didn't display well when posted into this blog post).

Open identity management and data formats

whobar.org supports the alternatives to Google or Microsoft's identity management: OpenID, InfoCard, i-names. Big stuff.

See also microformats.

Above leads courtesy of a web 2.0 post.

Windows can do that?!

Wow, there are one or two XP tips here even a geek like me didn't know about (ok, I knew most of them):

The Joel on Software Discussion Group - Best tips that no one seems to know about?

cd p*\Skype
to cd into c:\program files\skype

Really? That I HAVE to test ...

Also

People that navigate through explorer or the registry with the mouse expanding each node, one by one by one....drives me nuts!
arrow keys + quickly typing the name of the node you want gets you home sooner.

And to open an Explorer window from a directory - start .

Google's 12V standard power supply

USB is the closest thing to a standard DC power supply, but it's only 5V. Firewire is 12V -- much nicer. A Firewire power supply would charge a camera nicely, whereas USB doesn't cut it. Maybe coincidentally, 12V is the output Google wants to see for a universal power supply in cars and buildings... (Is 12V what auto electrical outlets provide?)

Google adds dynamic calendar events

Dynamic updates to shared date-specific data, including the weather. Now if only I could sync Google calendar with Outlook, or the OS X calendar, or even my (yech) PalmOS PDA.

Update 9/27/06: I got a link from Jacob Reider's blog to an ultimate sync post and to ScheduleWorld. Wow. That sync guy is one serious geek (that's a compliment coming from me). I'll have to decipher it and see if this could really work ... I wonder if Jacob posted that one after seeing my post -- I know he reads this sometimes (though Gordon's Tech doesn't go to Jacob's medlogs site).

Incorporating Google's AJAX Search API into a blog

This is something I’d like to do:

Blogger Buzz: AJAX Search API Hackery

... the sidebar's "Google Search" field searches multiple indexes (Web and BlogSearch), as well as individual site-restricts (in this case the AJAX Search API blog, the Google blog and www.blogger.com) - you can customize any of these ...

If I get it into my blogs I’ll update this post with details.

Update 9/26: I haven't had time to play with this, but see the comment from Marc Lucovsky about dong this. Marc has a topic-specific blog on AJAX search as well as a quite interesting personal blog. I've added both to my Bloglines list. BTW, I'm a fan of topic-specific blogs, which often have well defined lifespans. Ideally when they reach retirement they should be replaced by a summative web page, but that life-cycle completion is probably overkill for many resources. As I was told by a former boss (repeatedly, evidently I didn't get it the first time), don't let the perfect defeat the sufficient.

Aperture 1.5: pinch me

I'm hallucinating. This has to be some kind of sick joke. How could Apple have fixed everything that was broken in Aperture 1.0 and offer it up free to long suffering 1.0 users?

AppleInsider | Apple premiers Aperture 1.5 at Photokina

... Presenting at the Photokina trade show in Cologne, Germany on Monday, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company showed off several new features of the software, including a powerful new open library, iLife '06 and iWork '06 integration, XMP metadata support, new adjustment tools and an export API that makes it easy to extend the Aperture workflow to third party applications and services.

With a new open library system, managing RAW, JPEG and TIFF images in Aperture 1.5 has been made more flexible, allowing photographers to store image files wherever they want -- either within the Aperture library itself, or in other disk locations, including external hard drives, CDs or DVDs.

The new version of Aperture can also generate high-resolution previews of each image so that users can review, rate and organize images as well as perform slideshows -- even when the master images are offline. The previews, which can be generated at a range of size and quality levels, make it possible for photographers to keep their original images safely stored on a desktop system at home or in the studio, while still being able to take a compact version of their entire photographic library on the road using a MacBook or MacBook Pro.

Aperture 1.5 is now supported across Apple's full line of Macintosh computers, the company said, from the Mac mini to the Mac Pro, and offers new integration with the iLife '06 suite of digital lifestyle applications and iWork '06 productivity software. The tight integration means that photographers can build complete websites with iWeb, create self-contained slide presentations with Keynote, or produce DVD slideshows with iDVD, all using JPEG versions of photos directly from their Aperture library. Integration also includes syncing to iPod using iTunes 7 and the ability to access and copy Aperture photos from within iPhoto...

... Wih Aperture 1.5, Apple is also introducing a new export API plug-in architecture that allows third party developers to tap into the expanding Aperture user community with plug-ins that seamlessly connect Aperture's workflow to complementary applications and services. Plug-ins from industry leading companies, including Getty Images, iStockphoto, Pictage, Flickr, PhotoShelter, DigitalFusion, Soundslides and Connected Flow, are being previewed at this week's Photokina tradeshow -- demonstrating a range of printing, publishing and storage workflows that take advantage of the new architecture.

Pricing & Availability

Aperture 1.5 is available this week in English, French, German and Japanese as a free Software Update to current Aperture 1.0 customers.

I have never seen any update of any product that fixed so many broken things. Aperture 1.0 users must be singing in the streets. Me? Now I can buy my MacBook. Oh, and Aperture too. Please take my money Apple.

9/29/06: The Apple Discussion forum is full of posts saying users still can't edit image dates, and that all date oriented functions are still based on EXIF date headers. Some of the posts are replies to missing posts -- a sign that Apple is deleting negative comments ... I'll update with more news as it arrives ... They did so much that was good I'm holding out hope that this is merely a misunderstanding ...

9/30/06: Maybe I should retitle this post "bite me".

iTunify: convenient packaging of iTunes scripts

Macintouch writes:

iTunify 1.4 is the set of tools for iTunes. From within iTunes, it can find duplicate tracks, find/replace ID3 tags with support for regular expressions, import/export art and ID3 tags, turn bookmarking on and off for AAC tracks, remove dead, checked, or unchecked tracks, and more. This release fixes audiobook indexing in iTunes 7, tweaks the interface, supports more ID3 tags in Find/Replace, supports more criteria in Find Duplicates, adds an option to enable/disable the "Part of gapless album" track option, and makes other changes. iTunify is $15 for Mac OS X (Universal Binary) with iTunes 7.0 or later.

The main difference between iTunes OS X and iTunes XP is the former is scriptable. That's a big advantage. This app packages up scripts you can find and use for free; so it's $15 for convenience, quality assurance, updating, etc. Not a bad trade-off.

When will we have 160 megapixel camera?

Engadget highlighted the Seitz 6x17, a $30K plus panoramic camera with 48 bit color (TIFF, RAW is 16 bit, so the "48 bit" might be hype) and up to ISO 10,000 sensitivity. The multi-GB images are dumped by GB ethernet to a Mac mini.

That's a lot of money, but not that much more than an 8 megapixel camera would have cost in 1996. It's not hard to imagine that a prosumer, slighly less immense, camera will have similar imaging capabilities for about $800 in 2016. It'll be pretty easy to zoom in on that acne scar ...

Replacing Safari

Since resolving that Safari must perish. I'm been playing with alternative browsers. The acid test, of course, is Google. OmniWeb actually shows the RTF text controls in Gmail, but they don't work. Spreadsheets rejects OW immediately.

Of course Firefox 1.5 works. So does Camino, the Cocoa Gecko browser. Camino doesn't have all the FF extensions I use (no Google toolbar, no Google bookmark synchronization, etc), but it does have features of its own:

Camino incorporates features that use Spotlight, Address Book, the Keychain, the Finder, the Dock, Bonjour, Services, and System Preferences.

I'll try alternating FF and Camino for a while and see which I like better.

Update 9/24/06: Camino is impressive. It's much faster than Firefox on my old G3 iBook, it works with all FF sites, and I don't have to deal with Adobe's kludged PDF integration -- Camino just downloads the PDFs. I like the fine touches, like the "Search this site" option in the embedded Google searchbar. I love the Keychain integration -- that makes up for all the missing Firefox extensions I can't use. It's my browser for now.

Update 9/24/06: Still enamored with Camino. It uses Gecko 1.8, same as FF 1.5. (FF 2.0, due to ship RC1 on 9/26 uses Gecko 1.9.)

Timed webcam s/w: hidden in PowerToys for XP

For some time I've been looking for a simple app that would take a webcam shot every 2-3 seconds and save it for me. I've had an awful time finding anything that worked and wasn't infested with a worm or virus. By chance, I discovered I've had it all along ...

Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP

Webcam Timershot:This PowerToy lets you take pictures at specified time intervals from a Webcam connected to your computer and save them to a location that you designate.

Well knock me over. I'll try it at work and update this post.

Burn , Disco and Toast: extending OS X built-in CD burning

CD burning works reasonably well in OS X 10.4, albeit with a bit of an obscure UI. It doesn't, however, support multi-sessions CDs (which I never use anyway, CDs are cheap). A TUAW post and comments list 3 alternatives, Toast ($80), Burn (free, open source) and Disco (not yet out, expected to be inexpensive, from the AppZapper team).

Disco sounds just like it will be right for me, but if I need something before it comes out I'd try Burn.

OS X save as dialogs

I'm shamed to note I'd not noticed the spotlight feature, but the rest of this hint is noteworthy and new: Show full file paths in Save As... dialogs. It really annoys me that Spotlight hides hierarchies and enclosing folders from its lists. Dumb. Hierarchy is a valuable piece of information.