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Apple releases first beta of OS X 10.10.3 with debut of Yosemite's new Photos app

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Developers can be among the first to get their hands on the new Photos for OS X application, thanks to the release of a preview build of of OS X 10.10.3 on Thursday.

OS X Yosemite version 10.10.3 is now available to developers as a pre-release build. It marks the first time that testers will be able to sample Apple's forthcoming Photos application, which replaces iPhoto for Mac.

Thursday's release is identified as build 14D72i.

Apple offered a preview of Photos under embargo to select publications ahead of Thursday's beta release. Impressions published by Re/code make it clear the application is yet another marriage between iOS and OS X, including icons and a general look and feel borrowed from the native Photos application for iOS 8.

Photos screenshot via Re/code.

In the release notes, Apple states that Photos for OS X automatically organizes a user's photo library, and includes comprehensive editing tools. Users can also store both photos and videos in the cloud using iCloud Photo Library, accessing them across devices.

Features of Photos for OS X, according to Apple, include the ability to:

  • Browse photos by time and location in Moments, Collections, and years views
  • Navigate library using convenient tabs: Photos, Shared, Albums and Projects
  • Store photos and videos in iCloud Photo Library in their original format and in full resolution
  • Access photos and videos stored in iCloud Photo Library fro Mac, iPhone, iPad, or iCloud.com with any Web browser
  • Perfect photos with powerful and easy-to-use editing tools that optimize with a single click or slider, or allow precise adjustments with detailed controls
  • Create professional-quality photos books with simplified bookmarking tools, new Apple-designed themes, and new square book formats
  • Purchase prints in new square and panoramic sizes
Editing tools in the all-new OS X Photos application, via The Verge.

Photos replaces not only iPhoto, but also Aperture, both of which Apple discontinued last year. However, the new OS X Photos application is not meant to be a professional-grade photo editing application, as Apple has advised pro photographers to transition to Adobe's Lightroom.

Though development on iPhoto for OS X has ceased, it remains the default photo-editing application on the Mac until OS X 10.10.3 and the accompanying new Photos application are released to the public. Apple has not yet provided a timeframe on when it might launch.



46 Comments

hydr 12 Years · 146 comments

Would love an article about Photos, what is included? Face detection? How did the migration go? How will backup beside cloud work? Does editing/revert back work seamless with iPhone etc? Panorama editing also? How are videos organised?

paxman 17 Years · 4729 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by hydr 

Would love an article about Photos, what is included? Face detection? How did the migration go? How will backup beside cloud work? Does editing/revert back work seamless with iPhone etc? Panorama editing also? How are videos organised?

Yes, please. Not just an article but an in-depth (honest) review. 

canukstorm 11 Years · 2744 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by hydr 

Would love an article about Photos, what is included? Face detection? How did the migration go? How will backup beside cloud work? Does editing/revert back work seamless with iPhone etc? Panorama editing also? How are videos organised?

For starters you can read these;

 

http://www.macworld.com/article/2880099/first-look-photos-for-os-x.html

 

http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/5/7979925/apple-photos-app-new-iphoto-hands-on-video

 

http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/5/7982517/apple-photos-mac-iphoto-replacement-explainer-faq

feynman 19 Years · 968 comments

Doesn't look like we are forced into putting all of our photos on the cloud, that's reassuring. Ordering physical photos and books is still there, also reassuring.

johnm0630 10 Years · 7 comments

I am very excited about Photos because it potentially makes the photos experience across all my apple products work together. PHOTO SHARING My only real question is in regards to sharing. In the iPhoto world and the current Photos world on iOS, when I go to share a photo, it creates a duplicate of that photo that is uneditable unless reimported into my collection. Shared items are essentially a separate collection that have duplicated photos. This is confusing and frustrating to me and I am sure to many users. I would prefer a system where I can share a photo or album that is in my collection and what would be shared would be the same version of the photo or album that is in my collection without making a duplicate. Those who I share the photo with would be unable to edit it, but if I edited it they would see the edited version just as I do. All comments on that photo would reside with the original photo. I could also share an album and if I added photos to a shared album then those photos would be shared with anyone who was connected to the album. This would be a drop box approach to folders applied to albums with the limitation of editing and deleting of photos belonging to the photos owner. Other permissions could be applied to allow or restrict people from adding, commenting, or duplicating photos in a shared album. PHOTO STREAM VS ICLOUD LIBRARY Lastly I don't understand the purpose of the Photo Stream in the world of iCloud Photo Library. It seems if you have the iCloud Photo Library turned on, then the photo stream should not be an option, and vice versa. APPLE TV Will a true photos app using the iCloud Photos Library and organized in parallel with Photos App on the Mac and iOS be brought to Apple TV?