Review: PhotoLinker

As part of reviewing the i-Got-U GT-120, I searched for a Mac solution to handle geotagging of photos. There are lots of options on the Mac. I looked at many of them and GPSPhotoLinker worked quite well and was free to top it off. In addition, the interface was very Mac like. I liked what I saw, so I asked the developer for a copy of PhotoLinker, GPSPhotoLinker's big brother, to review.

GPSPhotoLinker and PhotoLinker share a main purpose and that is to geotag photos. In both programs, you load in your track files. (Hint, create a folder on your hard drive and put all your track files there and keep them so that you can reference them later. Both programs link to the files and don't copy them.) Both programs do their basic job well in that you load your tracks and pictures and basically click "geotag". If all you need is geotagging, then I have to recommend the free GPSPhotoLinker as it worked well in my testing.

PhotoLinker starts adding bells and whistles that may make it worth $50 to prosumer or professional photographers.

PhotoLinker adds:

• Cleaner interface. The basic PhotoLinker view puts the geotagging console hidden so that what you see are your pictures, a map, and tags associated with the picture. GPSPhotoLinker confuses the interface by having the first column be the area to geotag.
• Ability to add EXIF tags outside of the standard geotagging information such as keywords, description, people shown, and event.
• More customization in view options.

I put both products through some tests and the rest of this review will focus on the paid PhotoLinker product.

Pros

• Easy to use.
• Works well.
• Clean user interface; very Mac like.

  There isn't a lot to say as it does what it is supposed to do and does it simply.

Cons

• Map choices aren't all that useful; Google and the more mainstream maps aren't options. The developer has indicated on his forums that this is due to licensing costs with the mainstream vendors.
• No direct downloading of iGotU data. (The open source iGotU software is GPL licensed which would make it impossible without separate arrangements to integrate it.)
• No AppleScript support. Normally I wouldn't care, but when my end goal is to get geotagged files into iPhoto, automation would be most welcome.
• Cost is a bit high.

Overall impressions

I really like the concept of geotagging my photos. I don't travel all that much, but anticipate taking vacations in the future with my family (have you ever travelled with a 2 year old? It isn't the most pleasant experience.) For basic geotagging needs, the free GPSPhotoLinker will handle all my needs. I can't justify the $50 for PhotoLinker for a few user interface improvements. I don't see myself using additional EXIF tagging, so that feature isn't a key to me. PhotoLinker will have to add some real compelling features to justify the cost; I can't think of any features right now, so I'm not much help to the developer. I'd be more than happy to take another look at PhotoLinker when improvements are made to see if my recommendation against buying stands.

GPSPhotoLinker Screenshot	PhotoLinker Screenshot

Review: Sprint MiFi 2200

A few months ago, I got a Sprint MiFi 2200 to test and use for work. When I first saw this device at CTIA Wireless back in April, my jaw just dropped because of the size and utility of the device. In case you don't know what it is, it is a mobile WiFi hotspot.

For a number of years, I've written drivers/applications for various USB modems. While USB modems do have many uses, the lack of drivers drew me to the MiFi. The quality of drivers/applications ranges from good (the ones that are built into the OS are best) to not so good, so by eliminating the drivers, my main complaint about modems goes away. I also really like the ability to connect more than one device to it when I'm in a situation with co-workers without a broadband connection. In addition, having the modem separate from the computer lets you put the modem next to a window and you can sit somewhere else in say a hotel room. This is huge when you have trouble getting a signal; you no longer have to have sit next to the window.

Really my only complaint about the device is battery life; due to the small size, the battery doesn't last as long as the battery on my Mac.

Pros

• Small size
• No drivers required
• Can share to 5 devices
• Fast connection for a wireless card
• Sprint has a fairly large footprint with good coverage

Cons

• Poor battery life
• 5 GB/month data cap (may not be an issue for the casual user)
• For a consumer, the monthly cost could be a barrier.

Overall, if you have a need for mobile broadband, I don't think that you can go wrong with the MiFi.

Reduction in frustration

For work, we use a Cisco VPN. Unfortunately the Cisco VPN client for the Mac is a piece of crap. The software looks awful and isn't completely integrated into the OS. It gets quite confused if you switch networks without disconnecting; instead of it repairing the mess it made, it almost always requires a few restarts to get things going again. The problem is that it replaces /var/run/resolv.conf (/etc/resolv.conf is symlinked to it) with DNS for the VPN. So, if you disconnect properly, your original DNS settings are put back; if you don't disconnect properly, then DNS gets wacky.

One of the killer features in Snow Leopard is Cisco VPN support. I've read reports of it not working for some depending on if their VPN is using UDP or TCP; it works fine for me. The one annoying problem was that it asked for my password about every 45 minutes which almost made me crazy. A colleague sent me a tip today which solves this.

While the VPN client supplied by Cisco gets confused with network changes, the one built into Snow Leopard seems to disconnect properly on network changes and doesn't muck with /var/run/resolv.conf. The only issue I've found so far is that using a command line tool like "dig" doesn't resolve DNS lookups properly for lookups that are in my work's domain (we use split DNS). Other terminal tools such as SSH work fine, so this is just a minor inconvenience.

Mac Mini vs 1080p

Yesterday when I was playing back an HD show on the EyeTV, I heard the fan running like mad. The Mac Mini is a 1.66 GHz Core Duo Mac Mini. I thought that the problem was the processor being a Core Duo and not a Core 2 Duo machine, but then realized that the machine has integrated Intel graphics while the latest Mac Minis have separate NVIDIA graphics. My suspicion is that the new machines won't have to work so hard to play HD video full screen.