Category Archives: Flickr

Flickr IPTC glitch persists in iOS app

07 Monday Jul 2014

Posted by in Flickr, Internet, iPad, iPhone, photography, technology

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With recent security changes at Flickr making it impossible (for now) to upload pictures there from my favourite mobile photo editing apps, I’ve resorted to exporting images to my camera roll and uploading them from the Flickr iOS app.
Although I’m happy to see most IPTC data are now being properly read and transferred by the app, one critical field always comes up blank when pictures appear online: the title.
Indeed, after uploading a test image for which every IPTC data field was filled in, no data are automatically read and converted into a photo title.
While this is just a minor inconvenience for uploading one image, having to manually re-insert titles for a batch upload could be quite the chore.
(And for the record, I uploaded the same image to Flickr from my desktop … and every field filled in perfectly, including the title.)
This is just the latest chapter in a long-running issue with Flickr’s iOS app and IPTC data.

Flickr changes: More convoluted than it needs to be

21 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by in Flickr, Internet, photography, random, technology

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ThomasHawkBlogFlickr

I was afraid of this — some wrinkle in the fine print of the massive changes to photo-sharing website Flickr made yesterday.
There’s nothing wrong with the esthetic improvements, to my mind.
All the trouble lies under the hood.
As blogger/photographer Thomas Hawk found out, the status of “Pro” accounts wasn’t as static as first thought.
Certain people’s current Pro account will eventually expire and those users will be forced into a new upgrade regime — $49.99 annually to remove ads; $499.99 annually to double space allocation to two terabytes. (That second one is not a typo: Four-hundred ninety-nine dollars and ninety-nine cents.)
Other Pro accounts will be allowed to continue.
It is still unclear to me how this Pro vs. Ad-Free/Doublr is suppose to shake down.
Will someone at Flickr please provide a CLEAR explanation of who is entitled to what? Who still has access to old-style Flickr Pro and who doesn’t?
What entitlements that were previously reserved for Pro users will be available to all users with the new free program?
How do I find out how much space I still have? One terabyte is a lot of data but I like to be organized …
Flickr has a few answers here: http://www.flickr.com/help/limits/#150582914
Still, it feels as if I’m information is being withheld or poorly explained.
I just tried to buy two more years under the current Pro regime … and it appears I’ve succeeded — even though the documentation states I shouldn’t be able to do so.
What changed in the last few hours? Has Flickr changed who’s entitled to a Pro account?
Essentially, I’d like to know how screwed I am when my Pro account expires … if it ever does.
This is turning out to be more confusing that it should be.

p.s. In the minutes after I took that screen capture of Thomas Hawk’s blog, he was also able to extend his Flickr Pro account. He is (not surprisingly) ecstatic.

New look for Flickr in your web browser

20 Monday May 2013

Posted by in Flickr, photography, technology

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I’d been wondering how long it would be before the wonderful justified view for my contacts in Flickr would come to my own photostream.
The answer is … today. That and a whole bunch of other changes and goodies from Flickr.
After you log in, you are immediately shown a feed of your contacts’ images. Not puny little thumbnails as before, but medium-large size images you can scroll through vertically.
The new “wrap” around the main page has a Google-like quality to it, with persistent menus at the top and the right side of the page. (Flickr is owned by Yahoo, oddly enough.)
Navigate to your own photostream and you’ll see what I mentioned before: Your own images shown in a pretty mosaic (justified view), the same as the contacts page has been for the better part of a year.
All in all, the visuals in your web browser resemble that of the iOS Flickr app.
There appear to be a few other changes, under the hood.
Whereas before, members who used the free version of Flickr had monthly upload limits, it appears this has changed to a hard cap on space placed at one terabyte.
However, with the free service, there are ad and no detailed statistics. (Same as before.)
There are no changes for Flickr users who pay for a pro account.

Flickr iOS app updates coming fast and furious

16 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by in Apple, Flickr, Internet, iPad, iPhone, photography, random, technology

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Just saw this pop up on the phone …
Enhancements include the addition of the ever-ubiquitous hashtags and unspecified “bug fixes.”
Will have to try it out later and report back on what “bug fixes” we’re taken care of this time.

EDIT: A long-running complaint of mine hasn’t been addressed with this update: The Flickr app used to use the ‘keywords’ IPTC field and turn it into Flickr tags. It hasn’t done so since the prettier Version 2 of the Flickr app was introduced in December. Very annoying.

Flickr updates iPhone/iOS app

21 Thursday Feb 2013

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What many of us have been waiting for. See for yourself!

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UPDATE WITH LIGHTNING REVIEW: After a few minutes of quick use, I have found the following.
1) The uploading is much quicker, as advertised.
2) You still can’t upload video, a feature many users requested.
3) There is indeed a “Save photo” button that appears — but only valid for your own pictures.
4) The IPTC data reading is still broken. Keywords in IPTC fields still don’t show as tags. Not only that, it’s actually worse now. See the following two screengrabs. While the photo title and caption appear correctly inside the new Flickr app, they do not show properly on the Flickr website. How weird is that?
I’ve removed that image from my Flickr feed until I can figure out if it’s a bug or if I’ve done something wrong.
FURTHER UPDATE: My latest batch of photos had their titles and captions properly published. IPTC tags are still broken, however.

Neon tooth

17 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by in Canada, Flickr, fun, photography, photowalking, random, Toronto, Travel, urban

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Happy tooth

Chalk up another esoteric Flickr group requesting to have an image added to their pool. This one is called “Neon Teeth of the World Unite”.

Neon Winky Tooth

This tooth was spotted in Toronto a few months ago.

Flickr makeover followup — bug report

01 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by in Flickr, iPad, iPhone, photography, technology

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You may recall my review of Flickr’s latest app for iPhone.
After using the app for a couple of weeks, I’m still relatively satisfied with it save for one major, annoying flaw.
It appears the app doesn’t handle IPTC keywords very well. The old Flickr app used to read the field and convert its values to tags. But now, those values fill a field called “machine tags” and don’t generate any normal tags at all.
For example, this result …

Flickr Screen Shot 2013-01-01

… came from uploading this photo.
Ourson comestible

I’ve left a message in the Flickr for iPhone group but have yet to hear back from anyone about a fix. Here’s to hoping this gets solved soon!

Flickr makeover

12 Wednesday Dec 2012

Posted by in Flickr, Internet, iPhone, photography, technology

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Metro: Aardvark style

This image of the Montreal metro comes to you in part thanks to the newest Flickr app for iPhone.
The latest renewal to Flickr’s iPhone app is truly stunning. Not only is there a new interface for your enjoyment but the app gives you more access to your Flickr account than the old (now comparatively anemic) version. There are also new integrated tools to make minor edits to your images. Here are a few screenshots for your enjoyment:

See your contacts:

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Browse your groups:

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Check out photo details:

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Edit details for your own photos:

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Edit your photos:

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Detailed settings for sets and groups before upload:

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Change your profile details:

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One thing I haven’t tried yet, is batch uploading. I’ll let you know in a future post how well that works compared to the old app.
Now, as for using this app on iPad … it should look just fine on an iPad 2 or an iPad Mini; it’s obviously a bit pixelated but acceptable (to me, anyway) on any iPad with a Retina display. That said, if Yahoo! can successfully transfer this piece of art into an iPad specific app with high-def graphics, that would be grand.
Also … what’s up with this portrait-only business? A landscape-compatible mode would be nice at times.

P.S.: Sorry for polluting your feeds this morning, as I inadvertently uploaded the images in this post as individual posts instead of just adding them my library. Oops!

P.P.S: I seem to be having trouble with the screenshots I tried posting earlier. I’ll restore them later once I’ve figured out what went wrong. It appears we’re back in business. Thanks for your patience!

Scato-logically speaking …

27 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by in Flickr, fun, New York, photography, photowalking, random, Travel, urban

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Doggy bags

I’m not sure what’s more shocking: That one of my pictures was “invited” to be added to a Flickr group called “Doggy (poop) Bags”, or that a Flickr group called “Doggy (poop) Bags” even exists.
For what it’s worth, I found this cute container in the Dumbo neighbourhood of Brooklyn, N.Y.

Justifiable change

21 Wednesday Mar 2012

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I finally got switched over the Flickr’s new “justified” view for my contacts. My first impression is very positive. In fact, I like it very much. Nicely done!