I dare to claim that jAlbum v31 is the most important update we’ve made in years. Bold words, but even skeptics agree. This release brings jAlbum closer to your mobile phone than ever.
We now use QR codes to ease everything from adding images and videos from your phone to previewing galleries on your phone and inviting others to contribute with images.
The importance of this integration cannot be overstated: For many people, the mobile phone is now their preferred camera. After all, it fits in your pocket and the image quality has increased drastically over the years. Disregarding that, the mere fact that over 50% of web galleries are viewed on mobile phones today demands that your galleries look and behave great on such devices as well. With jAlbum 31, previewing from your phone and adding images from it is now done in seconds.
Add from phone
People struggle to transfer images from phones to computers in all kinds of ways:
- Using a cable
- Through email
- Through cloud services
- Using AirDrop (if you’re fully within Apple’s ecosystem)
- Using dedicated apps
All these methods have obvious drawbacks: “Where’s that cable?”, “Uh, that’s slow”, “I don’t own a Mac”, “I don’t have that app” etc.
Enter jAlbum 31! jAlbum’s “add” button is now fitted with a “From phone” menu item. Click it and you’ll be presented with a QR code:
Just aim your phone’s camera onto that code and follow the link the phone presents. This will bring you a screen that has one button for selecting images/videos and one for transferring them to jAlbum.
Once you’ve made your choice and hit that “Upload” button, jAlbum will respond with a sound and accept your selection. You’ll see a progress indicator during the transfer and hear another confirming sound from jAlbum once done. Your selection will end up in the currently open jAlbum folder. (If you don’t have any open projects, then jAlbum will prompt you for a project name)
What looks like a file transfer app is a web page, served by jAlbum! You can bookmark it or save it to your home screen for future use. That way you don’t even need to scan the QR code again. jAlbum will accept incoming images and videos for another 5 minutes. To re-enable file transfers, just select “Add from phone” again.
Can it be any easier? No app downloads, no slow cloud uploads, no integrity considerations. Just super fast transfers from any mobile device, be it a phone, tablet, iOS, or Android! The only requirement is that both devices are on the same network.
QR invite
What if you’re not on the same network, or what if jAlbum isn’t running? Can you still gather images for an album from external devices? Yes, you can! Use the new “QR invite” function we’ve added to Collaborative albums:
Settings – General – Collaborative album – QR invite
This will present you with a QR code that will let people email attached images to your album. You can save the QR code to disk or print it to invite visitors to an event to contribute with their images.
Once jAlbum is running it will check for additions to Collaborative albums on a minutely basis and download them to the designated project.
On Collaborative albums: Each registered jAlbum user gets a free email address in the format username@jalbum.net. The title designates the target project.
Phone preview
As stated earlier your galleries must look great on mobile devices as well. Now it’s easier than ever to check their appearance on your mobile. You no longer need to upload the galleries before viewing them on your phone, and no typing long addresses either. Just SHIFT-click the preview button. This presents you with a QR code. Aim your phone’s camera onto that code and follow the link presented. You’re now previewing the album on your phone.
jAlbum’s integrated browser is also fitted with a new QR button. This allows you to view any page on your mobile that the integrated browser is currently viewing.
Before developing v31, we never imagined that QR codes could bring so many benefits. Don’t you agree?
What are you waiting for? Get jAlbum 31 today! v31 is a free update to anyone who is on a current support and update plan. Discounts apply to old users. Sign in and head to our purchase page to see your low upgrade price.
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