App review: Picasa Tool on HTC EVO
This guest article was written by John Freml.
If there is one thing lacking on the HTC EVO 4G (and as you know, there is really not much that is lacking), it is tighter integration with Google's own photo service, Picasa. While those of you running custom-built AOSP ROMs like CyanogenMod do not necessarily have this problem, those of us running stock or close-to-stock Sense-based ROMs have to download third-party apps just to view our web albums.
Fortunately, Picasa Tool steps up to the challenge and performs its duties quite well, even allowing you to quickly and effortlessly upload all the photos on your EVO to Picasa.
After launching the app and signing in with your Google account credentials, Picasa Tool gives you three main options: Explore, which allows you to view featured public photos from the main Picasa site; Following, which lets you see new activity from your friends; and Albums, which lets you view each and every personal web album that you have uploaded on Picasa.
Depending on your web connection, thumbnails can take a few seconds to load in the app, but once all of your albums load, navigating through them and viewing high quality photos is quite intuitive and snappy.
What I like most about Picasa Tool is its ability to so easily upload all the photos you’ve taken with your EVO to the Picasa-powered cloud. After tapping the upload icon, you are taken to the default folder on your SD card where your camera shots are stored, although you can quickly navigate to any other folder on the card too. Most helpfully, you can sort your photos based on when they were taken, as well as those which have or have not yet been uploaded to Picasa. This makes batch uploading a breeze and minimizes any risk of accidentally uploading duplicates.
While a picture is worth a thousand words, Picasa Tool is an app that offers some premium features for a nifty price of . . . nothing. You can't really go wrong by downloading and giving it a spin! And if you are as big of a Picasa user as I am, I think you will agree that this app beautifully bridges the gap that HTC created when they made the decision to go with Flickr instead.
Links: Market (EVO) | Market (web)
This guest article was written by John Freml.
