New iPhone app! - iSmug

skim1420

Hey guys, we just released a new iPhone app today, called iSmug, a basic browser.

App store link - http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ismug-a-smugmug-viewer/id524897454?mt=8
iSmug website - http://www.vanesoftware.com/ismug/

Please check it out, thanks.

Steven

skim1420

Just submitted 1.1 to the App Store - please visit our website to get a preview:

http://www.vanesoftware.com/ismug/

Please send in any comments, help spread the word, thanks much.

wally007

@skim1420 -> Tried sending you an email but it came back as undeliverable. ( from gmail, i made sure address is correct ) please check your mail server.

Anyway, my question was about caching videos and pictures for offline viewing. Does the app support it on iPad/iPhone and if it does, can I just select category/gallery for offline viewing and any new pictures are automatically cached ?

Picasa Web Album viewer caches all pictures but unfortunately it is only for Picasa and I'm looking for alternative.

Thanks
-vw

skim1420

Well that's a bummer. My email is hosted on Google apps; you're the second person to have a bounce back. I appreciate the heads up.

iSmug doesn't support off-line viewing currently. The feature is on the product backlog. We do allow you to save individual photos to the camera roll but I don't think that's what you're looking for.

We'll certainly announce the feature when it arrives!

wally007

I will keep an eye out for that feature.

Thank you

skim1420

iSmug 1.1 is now available on the App Store! It's a pretty big release for us, as this introduces iPad support. We're pretty proud of this release - please take a look!

http://www.vanesoftware.com/ismug

sean000

Nice! One minor request for unauthenticated mode
I downloaded iSmug after Blossom just stopped working on my iPhone as well as my wife's iPhone. It's very nice and, like Blossom, is faster and looks better than Smugmug's mobile site. The one thing I wish it would do is let you set it up to connect to a Smugmug site without authentication. I would like to install it on my mother's iPhone, her iPad, my sister's iPhone, my wife's iPhone and iPad, etc. and I could connect them all to my Smugmug site without authentication. If I have to login to iSmug on each of their devices (and they live in other states), I will have to do it all over again when I change my Smugmug password.

I guess I could see the need for authentication if the API doesn't support Smugmug's folder/image security (which I could see being the case since there are different layers of security).

Anyway... that's a minor wish. I still like the app very much and have it on both my iPhone and iPad (will load it on my wife's devices as well)... I like it even more than Blossom since you can zoom the image a little. Seems a bit faster as well. Kudos!

skim1420

Hey thanks for the post!

The feature you asked for has been asked be several others. It warms my heart to hear how families are sharing photos via iSmug. After rolling this present large boulder up over this hill, we'll come back and take a look at this specific use case.

In the meanwhile, iSmug 1.2 is on the burner right now, continuing to build on what's been a great start for us. Thanks for buying iSmug, and your support!

atomicmom

Hi! Is iSmug just for viewing or can I upload with it, too?

skim1420

atomicmom wrote: »

Hi! Is iSmug just for viewing or can I upload with it, too?

Hi, currently it's just for viewing, no upload capability.

wally007

Hi,
I saw that 1.2 version has been released but description is rather unclear whether caching for offline access is implemented or not?

Can you please let us know?

if it isnt, any timeline that we can look forward to? (month, 3 months, year ....? )

Thanks.

skim1420

Hi Wally, 1.2.0 does not yet support offline access.

It does implement most of the plumbing to get to offline access, so I think it should be in the next release. Also, iSmug's approach to offline access will be different than other apps, which take a "synchronize to device" approach. We think offline access should be more integrated into the existing way users view pictures with online galleries.

Aside from me being hit by the proverbial bus, I think it should be in 1.3, which is inside two months. Thanks for the question.

Best,
Steven

wally007

I think you'll have to explain the feature when it comes :-) as I do not understand what you mean by 'different' .

In Picasa Photo Viewer for iOS, i simply mark which gallery I want to be cached and once every 24 hours the app on iPad checks with Picasa if there is anything to cache. I have about 5000 images cached to iPad and it takes about 30 seconds to check. You can also force cache refresh by pulling down the album overview.

Some other apps try to be 'different' by asking user to mark each picture, ugh. Others do one time sync and everytime you upload something, you have to manually force it, ugh x2 :-)

And then you have SmugMug official app that is just an embarrassment.

wally007

So i bought the app and updated to the lastest (1.2.2 ) version which says that it has offline access feature and I must say its just as bad as the rest of SmugMug apps. I've been using it for few days and I can not see how anyone would use it if you are interested in having SmugMug portfolio on iPad.

It seems that the way its implemented, I have to go and view each and every gallery ( picture? ) in order to cache photo to the iPad. No way to just press 'sync' or simply pull down the list to 'sync' all galleries and all pictures to iPad. Its tedious and slow.

This is one of the reasons why I've gone back to Picasa. Its online look is not as nice as SmugMug but iOS apps for Picasa are much better than anything released so far for SmugMug.

skim1420

Hey Wally, thanks for the feedback.

1.2.2. isn't yet the implementation of offline galleries. Description simply says it allows offline access to photos you've already seen, which are residing in the cache. I think you can see that if we were to add a control to populate the cache with all photos in a gallery, you would have "offline galleries" proper.

To head off a potential future post, 1.3.0 is queued up in the App Store, but it is also not yet offline galleries. Just iPhone 5 compatibility.

Thanks for your patience. I like to think I didn't single handedly lose a customer for SmugMug, in your choice to go with Picasa.

wally007

I have old Picasa plan where 50Gb is really cheap and I've started using it more and more. My SmugMug account has expired and I did not renew because of lousy iOs support.
I've tried your app with my girl friends account which will expire this Xmass ( gift I gave her

I'll keep checking for proper off line support.

Kenanoff

No news is no good news here. No news of the offline support (which we eagerly expect with the SmugWallet down), also "Add to Camera Roll" actually doesn't do anything (at least in iOS6 on iPhone 5)
I got two and a half months since the last update, any news from the kitchen?