Dear JAlbum user, JAlbum 6.4 has just been released. This version has an important memory related bug fix and a nice improvement to the handling of movie files as the most important changes (see the history page for the version history). You can update directly from the JAlbum download page. As usual, there is no need to uninstall previous versions.

Movie thumbnails
I've just been on a wonderful ski trip to Val d'Isère (first vacation from JAlbum in four years). Coming back with over 400 digital images and some movies gave me a great reason to use JAlbum myself for a change :-) (This is something I should do more often by the way). When working with the movie clips the digital cameras produce these days I was annoyed that JAlbum only generates generic movie icons for those files. (It made it hard to find that offpist section I wanted to play). Many users have requested that JAlbum should be able to pick the first image from movie files and use as thumbnail. This is of course a great idea, but I've had problems implementing it. However, Canon and Sony cameras actually does part of this job. They store a representing thumbnail image in a "THM" file along with each movie file. JAlbum 6.4 is now smart enough to recognize and use those files. You can see my Val d'Isère album as an example. (The movie files are several MB in size, so you might not want to load them over a slow connection)

Better memory handling
Editing comments in the new Edit section was a real memory eater causing JAlbum to slow down after browsing through a number of images (since v6.0). I've finally been able to address this issue with this release. You should notice that the comment editing section is more responsive now.

As you may know, much of the power in JAlbum is actually delivered by highly flexible skins that are being developed by users all over the world. There are several skins with interresting special features out there, many even having their own web sites with extensive documentation. Let me just mention a few:

PositionMap
This is the first skin which integrates Google Earth support! Click an image and the album will also show where that image was shot on a map (and vice versa). More info on the PositionMap site.

BluPlusPlus
One of the most popular JAlbum skins. It is fully documented with great details and examples, and is highly configurable through its user interface tab. One feature I think is really fun is its extensive frames collection. See the BluPlusPlus frame gallery. BluPlusPlus is also a great example on collaboration: The skin is made by Armond from Iran, the frame generator by a German and the documentation by an American.

ExhibitPlus
Popular and packed with features is this skin. Has a custom user interface to configure its many options one being able to mark folders as "new" if they are less than a certain number of days old. User can select from a "free flowing" mode where thumbs flow across the page as the browser is resized, or from two different fixed table modes. Has keyboard navigation and full-screen slide show. There are actually that many features that this skin has its own web site.

BananAlbum
Most JAlbum skins are html based, but it doesn't have to be so. This is a very popular Flash based skin. It has a clean black and white look, a row of thumbnails and a closeup image showing at the same time. I think it is appreciated for its simplicity and the "Hollywood-style" animations that show while images are being loaded. More info on the BananAlbum site.