Camera Roll Annoyance

[DarkRavenMoon]

Hi all, this post is not really a question but more of a rant/future feature request from Apple (hopefully).

Ok here goes - is it just me, or are the way images organised on Apple products really annoying? Fair enough use the main Camera Roll folder to store any 'unsorted' photos that have either just been imported in or taken using the devices camera because that makes total sense. However, when you create a new Album and add images to it, why are they only linked from the Camera Roll folder... That's just stupid! -- Wouldn't it make far more sense to physically move the selected images to the new Album that's just been created? This would then mean the Camera Roll folder would be free to accept the next lot of photos and not contain 100's if not 1000's of jumbled images that have to be scrolled through each time (shattering the image that the iPad is a sexy well tuned bit of hardware as you look like you are having a fit) till you find the latest ones that have just been imported/taken, to then add (and I say this very loosely) them to your next Album?

Yes yes I know some will say the images should be backed up to iTunes on the users Mac/PC to alleviate the above situation, but if that's the case why bother having the 'Create a new Album' function at all..?

Am I missing something here or is it just barmey how this works?

 

[s2mikey]

No, you are correct and I dont care for it either. I have several folders but the camera roll rules over them all so its really pointless.

 

[DarkRavenMoon]

Thank god for that someone agrees - I just thought I was missing something or just being a bit dim lol

 

[s2mikey]

Thank god for that someone agrees - I just thought I was missing something or just being a bit dim lol

Oh Im sure there are legions upon legions of people that dont like it. It aint just you and I!

 

[giradman]

Agree completely about the 'native' photo app although improved in the iOS 5.x release! The folders created w/i that app just contain 'links' to photos in the camera roll, so if pics are deleted there, then the links are lost in your created folders - indeed, a pain!

One solution is to obtain another third party photo app - many available in the App Store; for myself, I'm using Photo Manager Pro - folders can be made and even passcode protected, if desired; once photos are imported into the appropriate folders of the app, the pics can be deleted in the camera roll. Not ideal since one still has to constantly deal w/ the camera roll!

 

[jsh1120]

...
Yes yes I know some will say the images should be backed up to iTunes on the users Mac/PC to alleviate the above situation, but if that's the case why bother having the 'Create a new Album' function at all..?

Am I missing something here or is it just barmey how this works?

The answer to your question is that the "create a new album" function was added to quiet the widespread unhappiness with the inability to create subsets of photos without having to do any real development work.

It was a band-aid and a bad one, at that.

As to why your eminently logical suggestion for truly "moving" images to a new folder (album) is concerned, I suspect that the answer lies in the extremely weak file system management available in IOS.

 

[DarkRavenMoon]

Well Apple can add one more hopeful to the list of people waiting on a fix for this quite frankly useless part of the OS... As for purchasing an app to do the job of what should be a default function my answer has to be a resounding no thank you - why should we have to rely on 3rd party app developers for generic tasks such as creating a new folder! Don't even get me started on the whole cut, copy & paste fiasco from previous versions of iOS... Anyone see a pattern forming here sigh.

 

[Seadog]

Progress is never as quick as we would want. I have no issues with the existing system as I just ignore the roll and view from my folders. It is a much better setup than the original version.

 

[55julie55]

I agree with the loose operational process you are all discussing.
My gripe is that after you move image you have saved from the web to a new folder ,you cannot delete from the saved file.
My photo files are growing unnecessarily
I just want it in the new file!

 

[christitsworthb]

I just thought I was missing something or just being a bit dim lol

 

[s2mikey]

I just thought I was missing something or just being a bit dim lol

Nope, its Apple that has been "dim" on this particular issue. Im hoping an OS update or something will make it better. Otherwsie, Ill just have to try a photo manager app.

 

[dstuttgen]

I agree with the loose operational process you are all discussing.
My gripe is that after you move image you have saved from the web to a new folder ,you cannot delete from the saved file.
My photo files are growing unnecessarily
I just want it in the new file!

My workaround for that was to buy a photo album app but now if I want to do some photo-editing with another app, the photo needs to be in the camera roll to be "found". I find Apple's photo album to be very lacking in the usability and organization dept.

Cheers

Dan

 

[jsh1120]

Nope, its Apple that has been "dim" on this particular issue. Im hoping an OS update or something will make it better. Otherwsie, Ill just have to try a photo manager app.

I certainly agree that Apple failed big time in terms of improving photo management in iOS 5. I'm puzzled, though, as to why that was the case. After all, it's not as if Apple has "dim" engineers and designers. A couple of hypotheses...

() A quick "fix" applied to quiet the complaints without expending any significant development effort. This might well be the case. After all, as popular as the iPad is, its sales are dwarfed by those of the iPhone where extensive photo management is not nearly useful. Perhaps improvements in photo management were sacrificed on the altar of development priorities. That happens.

() A more likely explanation, I suspect, lies in the architecture and philosophy that constrains iOS development. I have no idea why but I suspect that enabling more powerful photo organization features may have bumped up against Apple's "sand box" architecture for apps and/or opened vulnerabilities for jailbreaking or hacking via the creation of folders (albums) that were not under the direct control of the app that manages the Camera Roll.

If the failure stemmed from latter issues, this is another example of the price paid for Apple's software architecture.

 

[55julie55]

Interesting .
I suppose we just wait and see,and struggle on with massive duplicate libraries etc

 

[RAC]

I certainly agree that Apple failed big time in terms of improving photo management in iOS 5. I'm puzzled, though, as to why that was the case. After all, it's not as if Apple has "dim" engineers and designers. A couple of hypotheses...

<snip>

() A more likely explanation, I suspect, lies in the architecture and philosophy that constrains iOS development. I have no idea why but I suspect that enabling more powerful photo organization features may have bumped up against Apple's "sand box" architecture for apps and/or opened vulnerabilities for jailbreaking or hacking via the creation of folders (albums) that were not under the direct control of the app that manages the Camera Roll.

If the failure stemmed from latter issues, this is another example of the price paid for Apple's software architecture.

As it stands, the iPad is great for viewing photos, while on a trip, but not for backing up and managing them, due mainly to the sandboxed OS.

I have been experimenting, for some time, with various WiFi storage devices but so far none has quite had the software to work the way that I would like to see.

When you think about it, the iPad will always be limited as far as storage for photos is concerned and WiFi is probably the most logical way to connect external storage. Even if you could connect via USB, having something attached to the iPad by wires is an accident waiting to happen.

The best options I have found so far are the DreamPlug and TonidoPlug. In both cases I actually need to use a Perl script to get the work flow that I want at the moment, I just can't find software that does the job.

The TonidoPlug is my favoured prospect at the right now. It has a built in 2.5" drive bay + USB and WebShare software that can be accessed via Safari. Two issues are that WebShare needs some enhancements and the WiFi is flakey (which the developers admit to).

In my opinion, the best currently available software to work with file servers (incuding Plug Computers) via WiFi is FileBrowser. What I really want to see is web browser based file management software, hosted on the remote device, that can copy files from USB to HDD locally, not via WiFi.