Punted Until Innsbrook

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That is the word from Eddy Cue back in November 2011 in an email in respect to having your whole iPhoto library in the cloud. I explained to him my frustrations with iPhoto:

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Eddy, Photo Stream is not cutting it! 
My photos are still dependant upon me syncing my iOS devices to my Mac with iTunes. Photos are the last link iOS has with my Mac. That is, if I want to have my thoroughly organized iPhoto library in my iOS devices I need to use the Mac. I can't organize  Events, Faces and Places in iOS. It is still tethered to my Mac.
Photo Stream solves how my pictures show up in the Mac, wirelessly. it is working beautifully, but after they come to my Mac and I've sorted the ones I want, tagged the faces of my family and friends, and grouped the events, I still have to open iTunes and sync it to get that reflected on my iOS devices (iPhone & iPad). It's maddening!
Not to mention that now there are duplicates everywhere!! There are exact equal photos in the Camera Roll, Photo Scream and then the organized post-iTunes synced photo library... I can have up to three copies of the same photo in my iPhone.
iPhoto needs to be moved to the new digital hub, iCloud.
The Mac is still its hub and master for now.

To which he replied:

I agree with much of this. Unfortunately, your whole photo library in the cloud was punted until Innsbrook. The new iPhoto on iOS will make it better.
Eddy
Sent from my iPad

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This was before iPhoto made its debut for iOS so I got the impression that iPhoto would replace Photos.app to become the default way iOS handled photos. And that would bring back simplicity to the workflow of: take picture, edit picture, store picture for later enjoyment. It used to be simple to take and store photos, but as Peter Nixey accurately describes the process is a nightmare now, even for advanced users.

Flickr just announced a full 1 TB of photo storage for free. Apple wouldn't even need to go that far to start.

And Apple already has the model to make it work: iTunes in the Cloud. Get all the library's metadata syncing - edits, events, faces, places - on all of my devices and we can selectively download the pictures we want on that device through the familiar cloud icon.

Quite some time has past since that email. My hope is that Apple didn't punt iPhoto in the Cloud to Innsbrook.

Fix for iTunes 11 New Search Behaviour

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Personally I really like the new iTunes 11. A clean grid of artwork with the gorgeous expanded view for albums. I think it is a very strong release. Good riddance to the sidebar.

The biggest gripe I had with the new version is about how search has changed. It used to be that you typed a search query and only what matched showed up - essentially filtering the content to only the relevant songs.

Say I type "clapton", the new way works like this:

 

A small pop over in the top right, under the search bar, with results from all different parts of the library. I don't see how this new behaviour is more efficient.

I was happy to find out that there is a solution to bring back the old behaviour. Click on the magnifying glass and uncheck the box to "Search Entire Library":

Now we're back to relevant search results within the active view tab, displaying all the content that is relevant to the search query. What a relief.

Information Highway

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The incredible dissemination of simple to access publishing systems is allowing anyone to leverage themselves in a way never experienced before, and giving way to the rise of individuals.

We are living now in an environment where the greatest source of wealth are the ideas we have. It is no longer as important how many zeros you earn, that is what you have, but whether you can structure your affairs in a way that enables you to realize your full individual potential. Can you really do what you want? Are you free to be, do & have? Do you know your individual choices? And how they affect your own world?

The ability for anyone to rally around a common interest has never being possible at such a broad level. Individuals are becoming brands in and of themselves. Who are you more likely to trust? Some random advertisement being pushed on to you or a friend’s recommendation?

The most powerful aspect of the information highway is the fact that we now control what we focus on. Instead of watching the nightly news and having information thrown at you about all different kinds of subjects, the internet allows you to choose that which you are going to listen to and most importantly who you are going to trust, to base your decisions on.

The biggest change that this brings is the decentralization of power, the disintermediation of the old access systems to information. Cyberspace is the ultimate off-shore jurisdiction and with information flowing freely, no big brother nation state government will ever be capable of controling its flow.  There will be a point we will eventually move beyond politics.

Maybe you haven’t really noticed the power that has become available to you through the spread of handheld, small, light mobile computers. We have these devices in our hands everyday bringing us updated and real-time events. Like genies in a bottle, the power to use algorithms to encrypt and secure information that is only available to those with the access keys, creates a situation of disaggregated and non-local based discussion groups for spreading ideas globally and instantaneously. When access to information is instant, knowledge is infinite.

How empowering is that?