Sharpcast Photos takes the pain out of uploading digital photos

I'm in a bit of trouble with my family as I've fallen off the digital photo uploading wagon. I ran into a Flickr problem months ago and just haven't taken the time to figure it out. In the meantime, my family goes photo-less, which is cruel punishment for far-off, loving grandparents, uncles and aunts. Just writing this makes me feel like a heel.

Anyway, a new service called Sharpcast Photos makes the process a lot easier. Import your digital photos into this photo organizing app (sort of like a Windows-only iPhoto), and it automatically synchs (syncs? Is this word even real?) with your web-based Sharpcast account. No uploading necessary. There's even a version for mobile PocketPC's, so camera phone photos get synched up as well.

There's more than just insta-sync -- Sharpcast simplifies photo sharing, too.

I've been talking to the Sharpcast folks for a while, as they anticipate parents will find this extremely useful. I agree -- using Sharpcast is effortless. The only problem...it's for Windows XP users only. They're working on a Mac solution, so for now, I'll have to wait. Not too long, I hope -- the grandparents are getting restless.

Tags: Digital photography, Parenting, Sharpcast

Comments

[Gibu Thomas]

Thanks Asha for the kind mention. Mac users, for now, can experience the full functionality of Sharpcast through a web browser (yes, you have to upload ;)), and we are releasing an iPhoto integration tool next week. We will announce more Mac love in the next couple of months.

One critical feature that is not mentioned in the article that our users find most valuable is that Sharpcast is the best kind of backup for your photos -- back up without thinking!

Sharpcast backs up your original photos (and captions, and edits and comments and everything else you do to your photos),completely transparently.

We never touch your originals (even when you edit them) and you can restore them in its entirety anywhere with a couple of clicks. More specifically, all it takes to migrate your entire collection to a new PC is logging into the application on a new PC, and everything is recreated exactly the way you had left it, in just a few minutes.

Compare that simple experience to the chore of downloading originals one-by-one from a website (if they allow you to do that) and having to redo all the organization work, or worse yet, not having a way to get your originals back once you have uploaded it to the evil photo sharing company in the sky that holds them captive or deletes them if you don't buy prints from them ;)

Please send us any feedback, comments or suggestions. We are committed to building the best photo solution that takes the management out of photo management and you can help us get there.

Cheers,

Gibu Thomas,
CEO, Sharpcast.

[Simone]

I like it. Maybe this will finally get my Dad off my back. Now, can they also automatically plug in my camera, decide which photos to toss, and download the remainder? ;)

[justin]

"sync" is an abbreviated version of the word "synchronize".

My favourite free dictionary site is at http://m-w.com

[Louise]

I'm confused--why would someone with iPhoto need this? iPhoto does everything for me quickly and easily. I send out so many digital photos, I'm driving my friends and relatives nuts!