Simplify Media just launched Simplify Photo, a new iPhone and iPod Touch application that allows you to browse all the photos on your computers at home while on the go. Just like with Simplify Music, the appeal of Simplify Photo (iTunes link) is that you don’t have to store all of these files on your iPhone, laptop, or netbook, where storage space is often an issue. Instead, Simplify Media’s desktop application just turns your Mac or PC into a media server and you access your music and photos remotely. Simplify Photo is currently on sale in the App Store for $0.99.
The app comes with a number of different ways to browse your photos, including a timeline and albums view. The most interesting view, however, is the ‘places’ view, which puts all your geotagged images on a map. In our tests, the app worked just as advertised, though it took a while for the desktop tool to index all of our photos.
New Desktop Features
On the desktop, Simplify Media’s application now also includes a Photo Viewer, which replicates the iPhone app’s functions on your desktop, including the map view. One nice feature for Mac users is that the latest version of the desktop tool also allows you to connect iPhoto to these remote libraries and view them right from within iPhoto.
Your PC as a Media Server
As Simplify Media basically turns your computer into a media server and doesn’t store any data in the cloud, it is important to note that your computer needs to be running in order to use the iPhone app. This is probably the biggest drawback of Simplify Media’s line-up of apps. However, this is also what makes the applications possible without running into copyright issues or making the storage unaffordable for the company.
If you just want access to all of your pictures without using a lot of space on your iPhone or iPod Touch and you don’t mind paying a small monthly fee but you don’t want to keep your machines running 24/7, also have a look at Phanfare’sPhoton app, which we liked a lot when we first reviewed it.
Note: if you are already using Simplify Media on your desktop or laptop, make sure you update to the latest version to get access to the photo features.
