Review: PicasaSync
Score:
61%
While Microsoft might want you to use SkyDrive for everything, including uploading your pictures, there are other services people use. One of them is Picasa, and Ahtut's client, PicasaSync, sets out to help you use Picasa with your Windows Phone.
Version Reviewed: 1.3.0.2
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Picasa is Google's image hosting service. It's been running since 2002, and was purchased by Google in 2004. A number of desktop clients are available, as is a plug-in for iPhone on Mac OS. Picasa is also integrated with Google+, Mountain View's social network, although you can use Picasa as a standalone service if you wish to store and share images.
With no official Google software on Windows Phone beyond the skinned HTML5 mobile sites, apps like PicasaSync are here to take up the slack. Working much like the automatic upload option for SkyDrive users, PicasaSync will upload images in your Camera Roll - either on demand when you ask it to upload a picture, or in the background after you take an image.
The app will launch a browser window inside the app for you to sign in and create an upload folder to place the images in (although you can change where files are uploaded to if you wish). The created folder will initially be set to 'private' so only you can see them. Because Google's sign on system is granting permission on a per app basis, you can revoke PicasaSync's access rights without having to reset your password.
Once you sign into your account you have a number of options in regards to uploading your images. You can have it set to 'off', using just a wi-fi connection, using a data or a wi-fi connection, or an experimental 'battery saver' mode.
It's worth pointing out here that, unlike the SkyDrive upload built into the OS, PicasaSync will not upload the images instantly. The frequency of the upload in the background is limited due to the background nature of multitasking in Windows Phone. This is where the ability to open PicasaSync and press the 'Upload Now' button comes in useful. If you have to get an image into your Google account (perhaps so you can share it on Google+) then open up PicasSync and force the issue.
The developers are working on the frequency issue, and while it would be nice to have something a little more user definable, if you can live with waiting for the sync then there's not too much to worry about - personally I've got this filed away as 'an overnight operation that my phone does', a time when I know I'm in wi-fi coverage and on mains power to charge my phone.
The app is clearly functional, rather than one that takes advantage of many Windows Phone features and styles. Scrolling through the pictures on your Camera Roll is accomplished by a left/right on-screen button combination. There is no swiping here to aid the scrolling, and neither is the grid view seen in the photo albums available. This does harm the UI, and makes it sit awkwardly next to the navigation available in the Photos hub.
PicasaSync does show up in the Photos hub as an app, but unfortunately it does not show up in the menu options on an individual picture. While it's not quite 'sharing' it would be nice to have some sort of integration with the rest of the Windows Phone UI, even if only to force a single picture to be synced to Picasa. Also, while it shows up in the Photos hub as an app, it doesn't show up under the 'apps...' menu when viewing a standalone image.
While PicasaSync would need a fair bit of developer time to make it look and feel like a true Windows Phone application, I think it would be time well spent. PicasaSync does do what it sets out to do, and I do want to recommend it for that. But there's so much more it could do, and I hope that with a bit of encouragement that PicasaSync becomes more 'Windows-y' in a future release.
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at