Photo sharing is everywhere and everybody claims its solution is easy. At KoffeeWare, we think easy photo sharing can only be easy if it addresses the whole chain from the digital camera to the methods of displaying the photos and ordering prints.

Therefore, KoffeePhoto includes a desktop photo manager. Downloaded on the computer, the KoffeePhoto photo manager is capable of grabbing photos from connected digital cameras, creating and managing photo albums, uploading pictures in background (thus eliminating the hassle of managing uploads) and managing access rights to enable private photo sharing. Obviously KoffeePhoto also allows for ordering prints.

KoffeePhoto obviously also includes web pages for easy photo sharing tasks. These web pages allow for slideshow based display of pictures and feature blog-like comment capabilities.

Access rights are easily granted by inviting relatives by email thus simplifying photo sharing privacy concerns.

For a complete one-stop photo solution, optional KoffeePhoto Premium additionally provides for online backup of the original picture files.

Outside of the required featureset, easy photo sharing is mainly a matter of ergonomics. Depending on our computer usage experience, we all have different requirements in terms of user interface. The challenge here is to address all requirements while keeping the ergonomics in mind.

KoffeePhoto 2.5.115 has just been released. It fixes some EXIF management issues,  some japanese characterset support issues and as well as some display bugs.

Once again, nothing specific to do. Software will update itself while running.

Registered KoffeePhoto users may have recently noticed some changes in their KoffeePhoto web space.

We added a profile page that will allow the users to control the behavior of their KoffeePhoto account.

The current settings provide for:

• defining the account’s default language for navigation and email updates,
• defining the user’s country used, among others, as default for photo print orders,
• changing the account’s password
• as well as setting the frequency of information updates users receive about their account.

These information updates refer to the KoffeePhoto photo sharing activity summary and may include update information about KoffeePhoto.

As language and country information have only been collected automatically with recently created accounts, we invite early users to check and, if needed, update their information for an improved KoffeePhoto user experience.

While future versions will obviously include more controlling features, feedback and feature requests are welcome.

I agree, this might sound strange but consider online photo sharing in the private circle, when sharing photos with the family or with friends. Not everybody would be happy to have his “strange” face from the last party being made public and seen by everybody.

At KoffeeWare, we take privacy very seriously when it comes to KoffeePhoto.

First, you don’t have to share. Yes, KoffeePhoto manages and backs up your pictures. Why would you need to have to share them in order to benefit from backup? No, pictures managed with KoffeePhoto can simply be stored and backed up without having to share them. This said, you will still be able to access them online through your private, password protected page.

Second, when sharing, this does not necessarily have to imply public sharing. When sharing photos using KoffeePhoto, your fellows receive an invitation and can access the shared pictures on a specific, non public URL or on their own private page if they have a KoffeePhoto account.

Last, you can post your pictures on your shared page. This page is accessible to any one with whom you’ve shared pictures, through an invitation or through a link from your personnal blog. In the latter case, if your blog has a certain exposure, these pictures can be considered as being public and may even be crawled and indexed by search engines.

If public exposure is what you are looking for, don’t forget to properly name your album and picture for a better search engine indexing.

So, yes, privacy is the key of photo sharing. It is up to the user to define the level of privacy he requires.

Last but not the least, do not forget to read the photo sharing provider’s Privacy Policy…

As announced earlier, KoffeePhoto Japan is now a reality and is available at: http://www.koffeephoto.jp. Services include photo sharing, photo hosting and order of photo prints. While offering exclusive services to the japanese market, KoffeePhoto Japan remains interoperable with KoffeePhoto from all over the world.

Do we need to mention that KoffeePhoto Japan represents an important milestone in the development of KoffeePhoto?

KoffeePhoto photo sharing 2.5.91 has just been released. It fixes some software freezing issues.

Once again, nothing specific to do. Software will update itself while running.

Photo sharing obviously implies social interactions. These interactions need to be known in order to be leveraged by adding reactions.

With this in mind, we are now introducing the KoffeePhoto photo sharing activity summary. Its goal is to keep users in touch with activity of their photo sharing network, in terms of shared photo album browsing but also sharing fellows’ posts and latests comments. A random display of stored pictures adds an emotional value to the photo library. The summary also provides updated information with regards to the dependability of your photo album backup and much more.

The activity summary also includes latest information from KoffeePhoto’s sponsoring partners.

Delivery options can be set in the user’s profile. We are convinced it will improve the overall photo sharing experience using KoffeePhoto and look forward for your comments.

KoffeePhoto photo sharing 2.5.77 has just been released. Along with the usual bug fixes, it runs a new storage model and improves contact management.

Once again, nothing specific to do. Software will update itself while running.

Did you know that KoffeePhoto features photo microblogging?

As we think that microblogging gives to photo sharing an extra dimension, photo microblogging features are associated to each photo stored (and shared) on KoffeePhoto. Just make sure comments are allowed on that given album (check the Album properties in the KoffeePhoto software) and off you go. Turn each photo into a community event!

Posted comments are displayed on the photo sharing web pages, on the software as well as on the Activity Summary.

As soon as I had heard about the Asus EEE PC in summer 2007, I said «Hey! I want one of those!». Half a year later, the most inexpensive ultramobile laptop ever is available in Europe… and soon in my hands! The first challenge was to install KoffeePhoto on it. In fact, you could not think of an easier challenge. Read on.

Installing KoffeePhoto on Asus EEE PC is incredibly straightforward: Open www.koffeephoto.com in FireFox, click on «KoffeePhoto free download» button… you’re almost done! FireFox is pre-configured to open the Java Web Start link with the included Java Runtime (Java version 5), just confirm that choice by clicking «OK». Then the Java security dialog pops up telling the software is signed by KoffeeWare… «OK» again and KoffeePhoto starts up. You can log in to your KoffeePhoto account or create one.

KoffeePhoto’s graphical user interface suffers a bit from the limited screen resolution of the Asus EEE PC. Almost every feature in the software will still be useable, but sometimes you will need to go fullscreen (hiding the system task bar) and some dialogs will look a bit broken. The good news is that we are working on it and plan to release an update addressing these issues, for a clean user experience on this low 800×480 resolution.

In the end, KoffeePhoto is still the easiest tool to manage, share and backup your photos from the Asus EEE PC. You can share hundreds of photos in seconds, benefit from seamless automatic synchronization with your other PC’s… and keep all your photos always with you even when no Internet connection is available.