“A month after Apple previewed OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 to registered developers, the company on Monday issued the first public beta of the update, notable for Photos, a new application that will replace the aged iPhoto,” Gregg Keizer reports for Computerworld.
MacDailyNews Take: Thank God. iPhoto is a laggy mess – we can’t wait to ditch it!
“Like many of the changes Apple has introduced to OS X, Photos resembles the same-named app on iOS,” Keizer reports. “Although Apple does not disclose update release timetables, the appearance of a Yosemite 10.10.3 public beta hints that the final version will ship in the next month or so.
Keizer reports, “On Dec. 20, for instance, Apple seeded a public preview of 10.10.2 and released the finished update on Jan. 27.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The Photos beta shows much promise, but we’ve only begun to dabble with it. If you’ve tried the Photos beta, what do you think so far?
Related article:
Apple releases OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 Public Beta with all-new Photos app – March 2, 2015
I understand the replacement of iPhoto but am not happy about the abandonment of Aperture. The way Apple has treated users of Pro grade and Prosumer Video, Music and Photo apps makes me not want to invest in their software.
Photos is in no way a replacement of Aperture. Maybe with plugins it might be someday, but not right now. Kind of like the train wreck of Final Cut Pro X Vista Edition- it might be viable now, but was not ready for prime time when it was launched.
I agree. I spent some time with the beta version last night. It’s missing too many of the features that I think should be basic. For example, you can’t add location data after the photo is imported. If your camera doesn’t have GPS capability and you want to organize photos by location, it can’t be that hard to allow the user to click on Apple Maps to identify the location of the photo. Another shortcoming is the retouch feature. It blurs out, rather the patch over, the trouble spot, and lacks any definition to make it useful.
After holding off since Apple announced it would discontinue development of Aperture, I finally started doing research on Light Room as an Aperture replacement. I just don’t see Photos closing enough of the gap soon enough.
I’m a professional photographer.
Due to Cook’s decision to simply ignore me as a customer I have suspended any and all investment in Apple products, and am encouraging other pros to do the same thing.
Why financially support a company that does not support you??
I now buy any Apple gear ‘lightly used’ and I am only doing that because the alternative is using M$ garbage.
DavGreg:
Quite why anyone needs to point out that Photos is not a replacement for Aperture is a genuine mystery. At no point has Apple pitched it as such. I moved from Aperture to Lightroom four years ago, and I was a hold out amongst my colleagues.
I hate Lightroom with a passion, but until someone comes up with a better app, I’m stuck.
Thanks a lot Apple. -_-
In the Pre-Digital Era I made my living as a Photographer and still enjoy it for my own enjoyment. I also have a background in Video and have played music since I was a very small child.
As such, I had invested in Final Cut Pro Studio, Logic and Aperture. Apple has chosen to gut or drop each of these software series with little advance notice and no obvious way forward.
Add to that the castration of the Mac Pro for the glorified Home Theater PC they call the New Mac Pro and you can see what many long time Apple customers are more than a little peeved.
When Apple was dying the steady income from the Pro and high end market paid the bills and allowed Apple the breathing space to do the iMac, the iBook, the iPod, and the iPhone. What thanks do these customers get in return: a big eff you from a company that seems determined to make watches for hipsters.
If there were a decent alternative I would trade out of this ecosystem because it is obvious Apple gives not a shit for it’s customers.
Admittedly I am not a Photography professional, but I am a little confused by all these hot-headed comments. Doesn’t Aperture still work? When Apple dropped it, last I checked, they didn’t disable the software. Also I agree that the roll-out of new Final Cut Pro was a little premature, but in the long run, everyone I talk to says the change was for the better. And the old Final Cut didn’t stop working in the interim.
I mean use the old software until the new improved method is ready for prime-time. Isn’t the old Apple software still better than the alternatives? Isn’t Aperture in its “dead” version better than Lightroom? Why not continue to use a product that works instead of jumping ship to inferior products? This confuses me. Most Mac users that I know continue to use the products long after official support runs out, because they are that good. I remember the days when hypercard was killed. It lived on many long years after that.
It doesn’t make sense, unless these posts are not made by photography professionals – just trolls wanting to complain about Apple.
I can use my MacBook Pro again!
I went for it, the install was painless, and results are amazing for what I’ve been using my computer for lately.
Safari would take a minute or so to even launch a window, now its lightning fast! Even the finder was to slow, icons would appear over time… what a mess. I feel like i just bought a new mac!
Nice that photos supports images on network drives.
iCloud drive should reflect the size of your registered iOS devices MHO!
MacBook Pro 6,1 17″ Mid 2010 2.66GHz i7 8GBRAM
I just don’t get it. Why abandon aperture. There replacement is no replacement. I’ve spent allot on plugins not to mention aperture itself. And that’s it. Thanks apple
I am getting the return of some odd graphics-related glitches with Photo (I first saw them in Pixelmator). I sent a report to Apple.
Any idea how the sharing between devices works with photo libraries that exceed iCloud storage?
Here’s the one and only reliable idea: don’t use iCloud for your photo backup or archive. It’s a temporary consumer file sharing tool, and nothing more. Archive and host your own files on your own server, it’s not hard.
Sadly it screws up trying to import my iPhoto library, so I’ll leave the real experimenting for now. I can’t bear to open iPhoto again, it crumples my soul waiting for it to cough and splutter into action.
Pissing away another iBrand. Ever try and search for help on a Numbers feature? Maybe Pages? Calendar? Good luck searching for “Photos white balance” even if you also tag with OS or some variant.
Apple software has gone downhill dramatically since Cook took the reins. This is just the latest proof of it.
I wish Apple spent more time listening to users and improving performance and user control — much less time having superficial designers fuck up what wasn’t broken. Apple went from stable & solid to ugly polarizing unintuitive grey fashion-first consumer grade software in the last few years. Pathetic.
Is there any way NOT to have Photos auto-import Aperture photos and libraries? I dearly love Aperture, and don’t want to abandon it any time soon. I’ve stayed away from these betas precisely because I don’t want to accidentally have all my Aperture libraries “upgrade” to Photos.
I got a public beta testing invite for the same, but am not sure as the MBP is my primary system and I am not sure If I should install the same. It might not make any difference as the final version will continue to have bugs too 🙂