Everything Treo

Ratings:

SplashPhoto is an application that helps manage photos both on your Treo and your desktop. Available for both Palm OS and PocketPC, SplashPhoto is a great option for organizing your Treo photos.

Introduction

If you’re the type of Treo user who loves using the built-in camera, you have no doubt run into the headache of trying to organize and edit all your photos. SplashPhoto by SplashData offers a convenient way to organize, synchronize, edit, view, and share photos. When paired up with the desktop (PC) software, it really doesn’t get much easier to keep your growing gallery in check.

User Interface

When you first open up SplashPhoto, you’ll notice familiar options at the top to organize the photos by location on your device (i.e. – internal or storage card) and by category. The action keys on the Treo 700w will allow you to quickly toggle views and pull up the 'Tools' menu. While using SplashPhoto, you have 4 main views you can choose from:

• List View: Lists the files in order (much like Windows) and displays the file information you choose. This view makes maximum use of the screen space, but doesn’t show a preview of the photo.



• Detail View: Displays a thumbnail of the photo, allows you to change the storage and category, shows the image size, file size, date, photo notes, and time the photo was taken. This view is very handy if you need to move files back and forth between a storage card, and if you’re looking to categorize a couple of photos.



• Thumbnail View: Displays a thumbnail of the photo and the file name. This view makes very good use of screen space while still displaying a thumbnail.



• Gallery View: Displays only a thumbnail of the photo. This view is handy if you’ve got a lot of photos and are looking for a particular one.

The 'Tools' menu allows you to set the program as the default viewer for JPG photos, show specific columns in the list view, arrange the photo list, display a slideshow, manage categories, set photo security, refresh the view, and exit the program.

Features & Options

Perhaps the most convenient feature of the program is the ability to quickly and easily categorize your photos. SplashPhoto lets you create customized categories, and quickly assign photos to a given category. Along with categorizing the photo, you can add notes to your photo that will display in the "Detail View". This is definitely convenient when you need to make a specific photo easy to find, or if you just need a quick reminder where the photo was taken.

The most intriguing feature of the categories is the ability to set a photo as private, which will require a password before being able to view them. This feature can be helpful if you’re taking photos that you don’t want someone who picks up or steals your phone to be able to see – such as company prototypes. You can quickly toggle the ability to view private images by going to Tools >> Security >> Show/Hide Private Images. If you choose to show them, you’ll be greeted with a password prompt. Unfortunately, if you were to go into the default Camera application, you could view these photos without a password being required – thus making this security only effective within the program itself.

Much like the default Camera application, SplashPhoto allows you to send photos via email, MMS, or beaming. The only addition we’d like to see here would be the ability to highlight multiple photos and send them all via email, MMS, or beaming.

Along with the device version of SplashPhoto, you also get the SplashPhoto Desktop which installs on your PC (see notes for compatibility information) and allows you to easily synchronize between your device and desktop. This feature is much more convenient than synching photos using ActiveSync, and it allows you to keep your photos separate from the rest of your data.

Just like the application for your device, the desktop version gives you the option of viewing your photos with the same four views. It also adds the functionality of being able to quick edits including: brightness and contrast adjustments, zooming, cropping, and image rotating.

Another welcome addition to the SplashPhoto Desktop software is the ability to quickly and easily send any of your photos via email. Simply highlight the photos you’d like to send, right-click and choose the "Send via Email" option.

Issues and Notes

During testing, I did not encounter any issues with the installation process, registration, or with the program hanging. The memory footprint of the program is quite small and unobtrusive.

SplashPhoto Desktop requires Windows 98, ME, NT4, 2000, or XP.

Conclusion

SplashPhoto is a great tool to help you keep your ever-growing photo gallery organized and synchronized. The ability to categorize photos has proven to be a priceless feature, and is certainly a welcome improvement over the default Camera application.

SplashPhoto retails for $29.95 and is also available as a 30-day free trial.

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