Apple’s .Mac Web Gallery: A Stellar Development

Apple held an event at its campus earlier this week for particular members of the press, at which it showcased its new ultra-glossy lineup of iMac desktop computers, as well as a few updates to its iLife and iWork software suites. Tied into stageman Steve Jobs’ announcement and demonstration of two specific iLife applications – iPhoto ’08 and iMovie ’08 – was a new development pertaining to the company’s .Mac Net-based supplement for OS X users.

The addition to .Mac, strangely seen as mostly unimportant and unnoteworthy by the general media, is called Web Gallery, and from what I make of it, it is actually quite a fantastic piece of kit.

Marketed as an online space for two forms of media – photos and videos – it does very little that numerous other services aren’t able to do themselves - sometimes even for free. (The .Mac package is available for an off-the-shelf price of US$100, or $70 for those who buy a subscription along with a new Apple desktop PC or portable.) But, of course, few perform the task of managing and presenting one’s various images and personal movies with a level of charm and grace one would call remarkable. In the case of the new Web Gallery service, Apple brings class where class has thus far mostly been absent.

If you’ve read synopses and/or first-hand reviews of the match made between iPhoto, iMovie, and .Mac, you’re probably already quite intrigued. All the talk about effortless scrolling through snapshots of various events. The impressive array of options for video quality that can be presented to viewers with little trouble on the part of the creator(s). It’s enough to get any average consumer eager to plunk down several hundred dollars or more (way more, if one is without a relatively current Macintosh release) to start sharing personal galleries “as they were meant to be shown.”

And, well, I too can vouch for the enthusiasm. If you make your way over to this sample .Mac Web Gallery, you’ll see for yourself how it all really does work as advertised.

Mouse over the snapshots of the various photo albums present at the site, left to right, and you’ll see the array of photos shuffle about in miniaturized form. Click through to enter into the chosen album, where, via interaction with a slider bar positioned at the lower right corner of the browser window, you have the option of expanding the size of photos as a collective group. You can also quickly change the color of the background upon which the photos are laid, and even choose to view photos in different modes: Mosaic, Carousel, and Slideshow. I won’t waste your time here by attempting to describe each. You’re best off sampling the interface yourself to understand what each option really gives you. Do keep in mind, movement through a Web Gallery happens (if you’re in possession of a relatively powerful computer, that is) quickly and fluidly. Well, as fluid as any Web 2.0-type app of current making can give you, anyway.

(A disclaimer: You’ll need a fairly speedy broadband connection to experience the smoothest of transitions and operate the Web Gallery interface without much wait time. A strong WiFi signal or wired hookup connected to a large “pipe” is something you’ll no doubt want to get a hold of.)

Thus far, I’ve only found a few pesky issues with the .Mac Web Gallery product, one of which has more to do with the less-than-stellar computing power my trusty-but-slow PowerPC-based PowerBook G4 provides than any issues harbored remotely by Apple’s servers.

While the option to display and view video via a .Mac Web Gallery is no doubt lovely, trying to pipe video encoded in Large formatting through to one’s browser isn’t advised for people who don’t have hardware two years of age or younger. A few exceptions can of course be made, but generally speaking, old machines and Apple’s Large format don’t mix well.

Also, text descriptions displayed beneath photos in the Grid Format are truncated to show only three or four words. If you prefer viewing photos in the most basic of layouts available in a Web Gallery, you’ll do well to keep anything written short and sweet.

Lastly, Apple’s Safari is, I presume, the browser that will get the most preferential treatment in terms of aesthetics. (Strangely enough, Safari users are now experiencing trouble even gaining access to the sample Web Gallery provided by Apple. I myself have seen that that is so, even as all software on my Tiger-equipped machine is up-to-date.)

As of this moment, users of Firefox will encounter a somewhat tacky mismatch between the Web Gallery interface and the browser’s scroll bar. While the website is themed with an overall darkish hue, the horizontal scroll bar remains standard issue. A minor grievance of course, but as it’s been said time and time again, veterans and dedicated fans of the world of Apple are a fickle bunch, and take notice of the smallest of details.

If you haven’t already done so, you can see a sample .Mac Web Gallery here.