New 'Shop' button allows users to order prints from regional print provider

Mar 4, 2009 11:03 GMT  ·  By

The code savvy folks at Google are proud to announce an improved version of Picasa, the search giant's free photo organizer and editor. Updates to Picasa are made on an ongoing basis. Updates may include bug fixes, performance enhancements, additional hardware/device support and other improvements, so users are encouraged to download the latest version of the software as soon as it becomes available.

Google says that Picasa 3.0.4 adds a new 'Export as HTML Page' feature, as well as a 'Shop' button, which allows you to order prints from regional print providers. Color profiles should now align with other viewing applications, in Picasa for Mac. Google also added support for deleting photos on network drives, while files and folders containing '/' will now be scanned and displayed. The new version also introduces stability fixes for video playback and moviemaker. Lastly, but probably most important for some, movies created in Picasa should now play correctly on YouTube.

Picasa doesn't store images, but only represents the actual directories containing photographs on your computer, saving you space, as well as eliminating the risk of bad manipulation. The application handles your iPhoto Library in the same way, with a small variation made for the way in which the latter organizes your photos. If you make edits in iPhoto, each album or event in your iPhoto Library will contain an “Originals” folder and a “Modified” one. Picasa is able to scan the photos and videos in both of them, and can display a single collective folder with the most recent version of each file.

According to the Google Mac Team, a few minor features like geotagging and webcam capture aren't functional yet, since Picasa for Mac is only in its early beta stages. Despite other, minor issues, Stuart Morgan, software engineer of the Google Mac team, trusts users to find “plenty to like” in this beta. “We're excited to get this release out into the hands of the Mac community at this year's Macworld! We're looking forward to making Picasa for the Mac even better, and to hearing what you think,” he said.

Readers may download the latest version of Picasa for Mac using the link below.

Download Picasa for Mac (Free)