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Geotagging images in Aperture 3 with Places

2010-07-19T21:21:13+00:00

Using Aperture’s Places to geotag my images has been a much desired feature on my Aperture feature wish-list when I still used the old version. It turns out that using Places is not as straight forward as I expected it to be. Manually dragging pictures to the map works perfectly fine, but when adding GPS tracks and automating the process of placing the images, it’s hard to get an accurate result.

I’m using a popular GPS logger to record GPS data to geotag my pictures in Aperture. As I’ve had some trouble with the workflow of automating everything as much as possible, I’m sharing the results of my findings here with you.

The device I’m using is a Wintec WBT-202. I set it up to record a GPS location every five seconds. The device has a replaceable 1GB memory card to record data. It also can record waypoints by pressing a special button. The data format it uses has the filename extension .TES, a format Aperture cannot deal with. I’m converting it to GPX, a XML based format, using Wintec’s software that comes with the device.

When first trying to match the GPX data against my pictures the results were daunting as the automatic placement in Places got it all wrong. The most important detail in matching GPS recorded data against images taken is the time the camera uses and embeds as metadata into the images and the time the GPS logger stored for each location. It’s easy to set the camera time in the settings menu of every digital camera. The GPS logger does not have any option to set the time. It uses the time it retrieves from the GPS satellites.

Your first priority should be to set the time in your camera to your local time, taking daylight savings time into account if applicable. Look up the current time on the Internet (there’s plenty of services for that).

So, which time zone is the GPS logger using? It doesn’t really matter actually, at least when using the WBT-202. As the WBT-202 stores data in the TES format, we need to export the data to something Aperture can use anyway. When exporting from within the Wintec device software, you can set a timezone. Choose the right time zone. It’s probably easiest to think in offsets of GMT. Take daylight savings time into account.

You can open the generated GPX file in any text editor. You should be able to understand the structured XML. Notice that waypoints and locations are marked differently. You should check the timestamps saved with each location and validate that they match the timezone you intended to use.

After importing the generated GPX file into Aperture, Aperture will show the waypoints only. You can select to show the whole track, which you should do. Hover the mouse over the legs of the track and notice how Aperture messes up the recorded times. In my tries, Aperture never got it right, ignoring the correct time stamps. The solution is to tell Aperture which timezone you want it to use.

Setting the timezone using the geographical names of timezones did not work for me. Even after setting the right timezone, the legs of the track still showed the wrong times. This must be a bug in Aperture 3. It’s not difficult to find references to this buggy behaviour on other blogs if you use Google.

Again, it’s easier if you use GMT offsets at the bottom of the menu. That worked for me. Now the legs of my track showed the correct times.

We’re ready to tag the pictures now. Rather than relying on Aperture to take care of matching times and location, we choose a single picture we can place on a leg of the track ourselves with confidence that it’s placed correctly. This is important! When you drag that single picture across the legs of the tracks, you will notice the time offset Aperture displays. It’s the delta between the embedded time in the picture and the GPS data. As much care as we took to synchronize the GPS time to our camera time, there still is an offset. I’m not sure if it’s possible to get rid of this offset at all.

When you drop that single image on the right spot, Aperture will ask you if it should place the rest of the pictures of your project on the track. You can let Aperture do its work now. It will apply the same time offset to the other pictures as to the first one. I had to correct only a few pictures when it finished.

If you have a better way to deal with geotagging in Aperture, please let me know in the comments.

A short test drive of Valve's Steam on Mac OS X

2010-05-14T18:02:37+00:00

Valve has released its games distribution platform Steam for Mac OS X recently. I downloaded it two days ago and gave it a short test drive on my MacBook Pro. Basically, most of what I expected from the platform worked. Some things, like payment and support are more than just shaky - in a negative sense. Also, at least on my Mac Steam crashes more often than what is tolerable.

I'm using a MacBook Pro 13'', 2.53GHz, 4GB RAM with Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Installing Steam was a breeze. After downloading a small DMG file and accepting Valve's usage terms the installer downloads the rest of the software. After starting it for the first time, a Steam user account must be created, much like in iTunes. I got up and running fast. I wanted to try two things: download and start Portal which is available for free for a limited time only and depending on how well that went, I also fancied buying Torchlight, an action RPG which is now also available for Mac and price reduced by 50%. Here are the things that bothered me most, in the order I noticed them:

There is no copy and paste within Steam. If you're using programs like Keepass or any other password manager from where you copy and paste passwords where you need them, then you're out of luck in Steam. I found this to be a major annoyance when setting up the Steam account and more importantly when paying using Paypal.
When downloading Portal, I noticed that the integrated download manager is not very smart. The download was aborted or halted a couple of times (due to the huge interest into this title). I expected the download manager to resume the download after some time, but that didn't happen. You have to check on it from time to time and resume the download manually. That was a bit inconvenient. Also, the download interface didn't update its status accordingly so that it was actually a bit confusing whether the download was halted or running. I noticed some of those problems again when downloading Torchlight.
Steam crashes quite often on my Mac. I haven't found any other Mac user with the same experience, but for me that happens quite a lot.
When purchasing Torchlight, I opted for Paypal payment. That didn't went smooth at all. After working through all steps of the purchase dialog, a new window opened up, redirecting to the Paypal site to complete the purchase. The redirection didn't work, instead the window showed the home screen of the Steam shop. I went back to the purchase dialog in the other window, repeating the process. This time, a new window opened up, taking me to the Paypal site. I completed the payment there. The purchase dialog in Steam then informed me, that the purchase was not completed, due to problems with my credit card (WTF?!). After waiting some time, I tried to repeat the last step of the payment process for this game. Steam then recognizes, that the game has already been bought. It then shows up in the list of available games, from where I could download it. See attached screen shots.

While waiting for the Paypal payment to be effective, I used the 'support' link from the help menu to find out about support options. It takes you to a web page that handles support issues for Steam. The site has a login form on the left side. Trying to use your existing Steam account to login there doesn't help much though. They don't tell you before you try, only after your login is not accepted will they display a hint that you need to create a separate account for the support. This is a very poor solution. I created an account for the support site. An activation email was supposed to be sent to my email address I specified. Without that activation mail, there is nothing you can do on the site. That email never arrived, even after having the support site resend it a couple of times. To sum up, I was unable to contact the Steam support at all. FAIL.
When playing games, it can happen that it's impossible to close the Steam client even after any game started from within is already closed. That seems to be a common problem, even on the Windows platform.

After playing around with Steam for a while, downloading and buying two games, my impression is that the overall quality of the service is not beyond beta status. The basic functionality is there but everything is still rough around the edges. In my opinion Steam on Mac is not in a state that should be released to the public. Once it's ready it's a nice platform for games distribution, especially if you own both a PC and a Mac (as you can get some games you already bought for PC on to your Mac without buying them again). However, I would still wait a bit until Valve fixes most of the rough corners.

By the way, Portal is great. So is Torchlight. You should get both while Portal is still free and Torchlight down to 50% of the normal price - well, if you're prepared to deal with the quality issues of Steam at the moment that is.

5 reasons to be disappointed about the iPad

2010-01-28T13:22:23+00:00

The web is full of opinions about Apple’s new tablet ‘computer’, the iPad. With all that buzz and information at hand I can’t help but put my own opinion online. Because it’s my own opinion and nobody else’s it’s just fair that I offer some information where I’m coming from here:

I’m a content user of Apple products. I’ve owned Apple notebooks for many years now and I thoroughly enjoy the Mac user experience on my MacBook Pro with Mac OS X.
I’m using an iPhone 3G for almost a year now and I like it very much, in spite of its obvious shortcomings. I’ve spent a small fortune on applications from the App Store, a lot of those are fun games.
I’m a software engineer and technical consultant by day. I deal with software technology for a living.
Although I enjoy using Apple’s Mac OS X a lot, I spend even more time in front of computers running GNU/Linux with a 100% Open Source software application stack.

So here we go. I’ll give you the short version of my opinion in just one sentence, if you don’t like it you won’t be forced to read on through the rest of this. In my humble opinion, all Apple did was to super-size the iPod Touch and give it a new name. Basically. Add a microphone, tweak the underlying software a bit to take advantage of the bigger screen but basically the iPad is a bigger version of the iPod Touch at almost the same price (ever wondered if the iPod Touch will now be getting much cheaper to compensate for this?!). So what’s the buzz? Because the iPad is basically just a bigger and better version of the iPod Touch, it shares all of its disadvantages that didn’t matter as long as you compared the iPod Touch to other media players. The iPad however will have to measure up against so called netbooks and other tablet PCs. And when you do that, you’ll be utterly disappointed.

Before Apple introduced the iPad, almost everybody wondered what it is that you do with it. What’s the use case for an Apple tablet? Where and why will there be demand for such a device? The great thing about Apple is that they are able to actually make that demand and the use cases spring into existence when they introduce new products. Before they introduce something, nobody ever missed not having it. But afterwards, nobody wants to live without it. Well, how about the iPad? Do I want to live without it? Most definitely. I just don’t see any serious use case I could use that iPad for.

Actually, there’s at least five core reasons to be disappointed:

The Name

“iPad”. Feminine hygiene products anyone? And it seems like I’m not the only one with that association. The rumored “iSlate” would have been so much cooler. Hey, but have it your way Apple…

No Multitasking

Imagine yourself lying lazily on the couch with the iPad in your lap. You are listening to music from your iTunes library on the iPad while surfing the web with Safari, the iPad’s browser. That’s about as much multitasking as you get. What I really want to do with the iPad is to start an application like Skype and let it run in the background, so that I’m able to receive incoming calls while I’m happily browsing in Safari and listening to music. Well, that’s not possible. The only way you can receive feedback from applications not running in the background is by push notifications. In my opinion, the biggest drawback of the iPad is the use of the iPhone OS which does not allow for true multitasking, something that every Windows PC manages since Windows 95. Things that seem so natural for almost everybody today, like switching between several running applications is not possible on the iPad. Apple takes a great technical platform and gives it a crippled OS which was designed for limited devices such as MP3 players and mobile phones. That really sucks.

No Interfaces

The iPad has no interface to the world around it other than the port with which to connect to an iTunes enabled computer, WiFi and optionally UMTS at a higher price. You have a digital camera and want to copy the images to your Apple tablet? Well sorry, you first need to put those images on a real, grown up computer before you can put them on that iPad toy as there is no way you can connect the camera’s memory card to the tablet directly by use of a card slot or attaching a USB card reader to the non-existent USB slot. You have an external hard drive and want to connect it directly to the iPad? Sorry, no can do. Somebody hands you a USB stick with some files and you just want to copy them? No can do with the iPad. You’re traveling abroad and the place you’re staying at doesn’t have WiFi and UMTS use makes your roaming bill go through the roof? Want to connect an ethernet cable instead? Oops, no can do. As innovative as the hardware of the iPad is, its lacking connectivity to other media is simply embarrassing. As I already mentioned, the iPad is not a computer, it’s simply a super-sized iPod Touch. Any netbook for about 300€ copes better.

No Flash

The iPad promotion video on Apple.com states that the “iPad is the best way to surf the web”. Well be sure to remember that whenever you hit a web site with Adobe Flash elements that Apple’s crippled iPhone OS running the iPad does not support. Apple must hate Adobe’s Flash platform a lot as neither the iPhone, the iPod Touch or the iPad support it and it’s probably not going to change. According to this Techcrunch article, Flash will be supported on the iPad sometime. However, if you read closely, it’s only about porting Flash applications to native iPhone OS applications to be distributed from within the App Store. So in other words, forget about using Flash from within web sites. The reason for this lack of support is probably not even of a technical nature but simply to the fact that Flash is a competing technology that would allow to distribute applications to devices like the iPad by circumventing Apple’s App Store. This is leading me to the next big issue. Read along…

Too much Control, no Freedom

The iPod Touch, the iPhone and the iPad are 200% proprietary. The only way to put any software on them is by going through Apple’s App Store. There’s no way you can choose the origin of the software you install yourself. If for some reason Apple denies a software vendor to distribute a specific software product via the App Store you simply cannot use that software, even though you want it and a vendor would be willing to supply. Again: if Apple doesn’t want you to be able to use specific software on your device, you won’t be able to. For example, the only web browser you are ever going to use on the iPad is Safari. You want Opera or Firefox? Screw you, because Apple says no! While this restriction is something I can live with on a device like an MP3 player or a smart phone, the boundary is most definitely crossed when it comes to a tablet computer. I wouldn’t tolerate this kind of external control over my MacBook Pro and I’m not tolerating it for a tablet computer I would be interested in.

Another threat posed by distribution models such as Apple’s proprietary App Store is the lack of openness as witnessed in the Open Source universe. While there are a few Open Source applications available on the App Store that doesn’t necessarily mean that users get to experience the freedoms granted by typical Open Source licenses – because Apple doesn’t let them. Essentially, Open Source software grants its users the freedom to modify the software they licensed under an Open Source license. If I download Firefox and its sources I can make changes to it, rebuild it and use that modified version on my computer (and even if you can’t do that technically, someone else could do it for you). With the iPhone OS platform in general and the iPad specifically you cannot modify any application you download from the App Store, even if it’s an Open Source application. You would need to register for Apple’s iPhone developer’s program (and pay the fees) and put your modified version of the software forth for an application so that it’s available in the App Store again. So Apple decides again – not the user.

While this kind of control exercised by Apple is tolerable for devices like media players and smart phones (folks like Richard M. Stallman would utterly disagree here), I am very much afraid of the inclinations this trend will have on future home computer use. If Apple manages to establish this kind of environment for distributing software to home computers and the market accepts this kind of model, there is no future for Open Source software anymore. It would be very harmful for consumers as it narrows choice and freedom of use. The iPad is crossing a line here and it’s not pretty on the other side of that line.

I don’t think the iPad is going to be a big success like the iPhone. Maybe I’m wrong, but don’t say I did not warn you. In my eyes the iPad is simply an unnecessary luxury toy – an iPod Touch grown too big. Have fun with it if you buy it though.