The IT Nerd

This past week, Apple released iOS 8.3 and OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 to the world and they brought a bunch of changes to the table for Apple users. The biggest change is the release of Photos for Mac. This replaces iPhotos and Aperture as OS X’s app to edit photos. My take on this is as follows:

• If you’re used to iPhoto, you’ll find that Photos in some ways is more capable than iPhoto. It behaves in a lot of ways like the Photos app on iOS. You’ll find it easy to use and easy to edit your photos and make them perfect.
• If you’re used to Aperture, you’ll find this to be a step down. It’s not as capable as Aperture and the fact that Apple has now killed off Aperture is going to make prosumer and pro photographers run to Adobe Lightroom.

In either case, importing Aperture or iPhoto libraries is automatic and easy. Plus you can flip back and forth from Photos and iPhoto/Aperture if needed without affecting anything in the other app if you have to.

From the bug fix department, it appears that unlike Apple’s first couple of attempts to fix the WiFi problems that Yosemite introduced, 10.10.3 appears to have fixed. At least for me. I’ve been using my MacBook Pro for several days now trying to reproduce the issues that have plagued me since Yosemite shipped, and thus far my WiFi connection is fast and stable. Now I won’t claim that this release will fix WiFi for everyone as the first two attempts fixed issues for some and not others. But it is clear that Apple is making progress in addressing WiFi issues. Another fix is a rather serious security hole that would allow anyone to take over your Mac.

There’s one note that I have about 10.10.3, it was a 2GB download for me. Unless you have a fast Internet connection, be prepared to pack some patience.

Apple also released iOS 8.3 which rolled up a bunch of fixes in a single release. But the biggest thing is that iCloud Photo Library is out of beta with this release of iOS. What this feature does is it will sync your Photos or iPhoto library with your iOS devices. All images are stored online in the iCloud in high resolution whether they were taken on an iPhone or imported from another camera and any changes will automatically sync. This scheme will free up space on your Mac or mobile device by substituting a lower-quality version. You can still get the original whenever you need it, but it’s not taking up room if you don’t. The only catch is that you have to have space in iCloud for your photos. In other words, the free 5GB that Apple gives you won’t likely cut it.

My advice in either case, make sure you have a backup and upgrade away. You won’t regret it.

This entry was posted on April 11, 2015 at 4:01 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.