Tagamac

Ironic Software, makers of Yep and Leap, yesterday released a new image searching and tagging program called Deep. Deep offers a unique approach to image searching by combining filtering by tags/keywords, location, size, and aspect ratio with color palette matching. As you build your search in the top portion of the window, the results are displayed in a carousel below with navigation reminiscent of cover flow. As with Leap, tags include not only keywords that you’ve assigned to your images, but folder names, as well, providing you with a very complete list of keywords even if you’ve never tagged a photo. Unlike Leap and Yep, however, Deep is not focused on organizing photos. Although you can add tags to a photo, the program’s primary focus is on finding photos that are similar to one another, leaving the task of organizing, importing, or editing those photos in the first place up to software better equipped for the job. Interestingly, Deep doesn’t use a database; all of its metadata (including tags and color data) is included inside the extended attributes of your image files.

The awesomeness of Deep does come at a cost, however: Deep not only requires Leopard, but is Intel-only. It will not run on PowerPCs. Deep is available for $34 or as part of a package deal with Yep and Leap for $69, and the application includes a 21 day free trial. Definitely check out the manual for some very useful tips and tricks on using the software; although Deep is simple enough to pick up and use immediately (or almost immediately, given the need to index the colors of the images on your hard drive), there’s definitely more to the program than meets the eye.

Once again I find myself slightly behind on the times, this time thanks to moving (no longer in a wasteland of apartments, I’m now living in lower Queen Anne; the difference is night and day). Some minor updates that may prove of interest include Shoebox 1.7.4, MarsEdit 2.2.1, PackRat 1.7.3, and Things 0.9.5. Shoebox now apparently has better Photoshop integration; MarsEdit fixes a number of bugs and introduces better AtomPub support; PackRat fixed some problems with Textile conversion; and Things now allows you to sort tasks by due date (along with bug fixes). Things also has a tentative release date: January 2009 at the MacWorld expo.

For more details about the MarsEdit update, see the 2.2.1 blog announcement. For more info about Things see the release notes or 0.9.5 blog announcment. The other software didn’t provide much in the way of release notes.

Keyword Manager, a standby for iPhoto-related tagging, is on sale today, May 5, 2008 only for 50% off over at MacZot.

Definitely a good deal if you’re interested in an easier way to tag your photos than iPhoto’s built-in keywords functionality. Keyword Manager provides an attractive HUD interface, hierarchical keywords, and more.

Shoebox, an iPhoto competitor that features tag-based organization and browsing through tag recipes, has been updated to 1.7.1. Although there are no release notes, MacUpdate notes that it has improved compatibility with Leopard along with an importer for iMatch and stability enhancements.

Shoebox is definitely an interesting app if you’re looking for something a little more tag-centric than iPhoto, and is available in “Express” and “Pro” flavors at $30 and $80 respectively. If I did much photo management, Shoebox is probably what I’d use (although the pricing scheme is extremely cheap; the only difference is that Express has a limits the number of catalogs and photos you can add, which means you’re paying Kavasoft an extra $50 to essentially toggle off a variable that’s artificially limiting the program).

Photonator, a photo manager with tagging capabilities, has been updated to 0.95. This update advances the expiration date (as Photonator is currently pre-release expiring software), and brings cropping/straightening, image enhancement controls, and bug-fixes with code optimizations. Although personally I find the interface to be too much of a hindrance to using Photonator, it may appeal to people who are looking for an alternative to iPhoto. This is one of the pieces of tagging software that I’m tracking because it features tagging, but that I don’t really recommend. Hopefully by release the interface will receive a little more love. (That said, I haven’t really used it much, so it’s quite possible there’s a lot of power underneath its unappealing facade.)

For details about the .95 release, see Photonator’s release notes.

Keyword Manager, one of the quintessential pieces of tagging software for iPhoto users, has been updated to version 1.4. This version brings Leopard compatibility and two crash fixes.

For more information, see the Keyword Manager release notes over at its website (you have to click the “Release Notes” link; no direct link available).

Keyword Manager, the iPhoto tagging plugin, has been updated to 1.3.2. The only change to the software is that it now works with iPhoto 7.1.

Head over to the Bullstorm website to download the most recent version.

Keyword Manager, the sleek iPhoto tagging plugin from Bullstorm Software, has been updated to 1.3.1. This minor update fixes an iPhoto crash that occurred when plugging in a camera and has been tested for compatibility with iPhoto 7.0.2.

For more details or to download, please visit the Keyword manager website.

Picture Box, a simple tags-only photo organizer meant to complement software like iPhoto, has been updated to 1.2.5. This minor update adds drag and drop between Picture Box documents so that you can easily transfer photos with their tags with a flick of the mouse.

For more details (hint: there aren’t any), see the 1.2.5 release notes.

Several apps received minor updates while I was away from the internet. Yep was bumped to 1.6.5 (including several bug fixes and performance tweaks), iGTD jumped to 1.4.5.6 (several minor bug fixes), Keyword Manager received a larger update to 1.3 which brings compatibility with iPhoto ’08, Pukka version 1.6.1 added support for the free RSS feeder Vienna, and PackRat is now at version 1.3.2 (fixing a crash that some people were seeing).

For more details about the updates, or to download them, please use the links above (all except Yep have blogs or release notes).