Aperture discontinuation breaks ecosystem?

1. Aperture will be updated to run in Yosemite. Apple have said that. That means you have a minimum of 18 months before you have to change anything.

2. Have a read of these three:

http://www.dslrbodies.com/accessories/software-for-nikon-dslrs/software-news/ano ther-one-bites-the-dust.html

https://www.apertureexpert.com/tips/2014/6/28/comment-follow-demise-aperture

https://www.apertureexpert.com/tips/2014/6/30/closer-look-photos-adjustments-bar

maybe the change won't be as radical as you fear.

Ditto, ditto, ditto!! You took every single thought right out of my head and laid out here in this forum. I too am the guy who recommends everything Apple to a large group of people. I recently just bought a 6 core Mac Pro, mainly to run Aperture. One of my favorite features of Aperture was how well it was connected to all other Apple software. Unless Apple has something up their sleeve this has been a huge boned head mistake.

That is exacetly like me! I have over 200'000 Photos and hundreds hours of work in aperture libraries. If Apple cuts off Aperture, I change back to Windows and Android and will never buy mac, iPad, iPhone or anything in the iTunes store. Is there something like aperture for Windows? I don't like the adobe cloud trap and so lightroom is not a choice for me.

Well, yeah there are alternatives. LR works on PC and Mac, and works fine without any cloud thing at all. In fact, purchase buys you a license for BOTH Mac and PC use. It's very handy and one reason I began the transition to it a couple of years ago. And there are others: ACDSee is probably better on PC than their Mac version. And Capture One too; take a look at it cuz it has a nifty free app that connects to your desktop so you can rate and change metadata on photos without having to move them around; some light editing too. And while you might not like PCs and Windows, a cheap Windows machine can be nice photo respository; you hardly notice it's Windows 😁

There are some really good reasons to change. Lots of us did even BEFORE Aperture's demise; one thing that prompted me to do so is when the newer versions dumped the sharing the OP spoke of in favor of Photostream. I went to a standalone media server instead so I can see photos on everything, not just ATV.

In terms of other integration, Aperture and LR and others still stink. That lame little media browser can look inside Aperture or iPhoto libraries, but it is so crippled. Try looking for versions. Or searching by various metadata. Aargh. iMedia Browser does essentially the same thing, but also with LR catalogs, but is also lame. There is still room for something better; maybe the demise of Aperture will prompt that. At least on iOS Apple is moving forward with better photo integration. On the Mac? dunno. Wish someone would. Wouldn't it be nice if when you did an "insert image" from an OS X application it opened a lighttable in a DAM? with the ability to develp and crop a RAW? and then go right back to the original application and drop it in? That would be real integration.

So I expect that one, Apple is probably focusing more on your needs than on the needs of some pro wedding photographer with a business, and two, there isn't a really good photos application that integrates as well as it could with OS X. Aperture and iPhoto included. And we hope where's there's a need, there's an incentive to create a solution.

CoolFriday wrote:

Does anyone else see Aperture's discontinuation as more than just an inconvenience, but creating a significant breaking point for their overall ecosystem?

No. Apple is all about the ecosystem. Moreso today than ever before.

Folks who see Aperture discontinuation as a break in the ecosystem simple fail to see Apple's view of the ecosystem. Apple is very secretive, so I suggest that anyone who wants to improve awareness of where Apple may be going sign up as a developer and do homework under NDA.

-Allen

No, I think Photos will do a much BETTER job of integrating in the Apple ecosystem than Aperture did.

I always found Aperture's integration a bit challenging. Sharing photos with iWork and iLife was a bit clunky and required previews to be generated (which weren't in early versions of Aperture), PhotoStream seemed a bit "backward" in how it worked, etc. I think Photos will do a much better job of making it easy to have all your photos everywhere, accessible all the time (if you fit within the iCloud storage limits). So I think overall for the ecosystem, this is a huge step in that direction.

However I think for people with multiple terabyte libraries that are using Aperture as a professional asset manager rather than a "part of the ecosystem" there's more of a risk that Photos will be a step backward in functionality. We'll have to see.

Actually ... the demise of Aperture and iPhoto may enhance the Apple ecosystem.

With the advent of the new Photos application supported by PhotoKit and Core Image as the foundation for offering cross-device support ... it may not be too long before we realize it was indeed time for Aperture to go.

Technology moves on. That does not mean that every application we are accustomed to will also make the trip.

Once we see Yosemite and iOS 8 released it may very well be that the Apple ecosystem will be stronger than ever.

What ecosystem. That implies there was a system.

Steve Jobs was an inveterate tinkerer and always wanted to start something new before he finished what he was working on. So multiple ways to do the same thing evolved, sometimes for the best, sometimes not. Often this crept into Apple's photographic philosophy. How many ways does Apple have to load, display, or transmit photos:

1. Aperture plug-ins to Flickr, SmugMug, Facebook, email

2. iCloud Photo Sharing and Photo Stream

3. Aperture Web Pages

4. Aperture Web Journals

5. Aperture Books + Prints

6. Aperture Slideshows

6. iPhoto can share all Aperture can + Twitter + Messages

7. iPhoto adds Cards + Calendars

8. Apple TV has a bizarre way of displaying photos even though it is ostensibly an iOS device

9. We hade iWeb

10. And MobileMe Gallery

11. iOS has Photos

12. It can do "Shared Streams"

13. It supports Albums from other Apps

14. Its own Stream is called "Activity"

15. iPhoto for iPad has its own Journals (which is really, really good)

16. iPhoto for iPad also connects to the same services as iPhoto for the Mac

17. We even have Image Capture on the Mac

18. iTunes supposedly calls upon a Media Library including photos

19. So does iMovie

20. So does FCP

The whole Apple photography experience is an ongoing melee. I thank heaven they are finally cleaning it up and appear to be doing so with a wholesale iOS 8 and Yosemite overhaul. If Tim Cook is cleaning house along with Jony Ives and Craig Federighi then they appear to be mapping out improvements, not setbacks.

I also think they are setting up a structure where pro apps are made by pros for pros on Apple hardware. I anticipate plug-ins to take the place of advanced built-in features because Photos will be free.

I can't see how you can anticipate plug-ins.

All the rewrites for Apples other software don't have plug-ins with the exception of EndNote for Pages 5.2, which is a mess.

Also Applescript is virtually non-existent in most of the new .apps.

Peter

PeterBreis0807 wrote:

I can't see how you can anticipate plug-ins.

It's easy to anticipate ... it was mentioned and discussed at WWDC and confirmed by this story:

http://petapixel.com/2014/07/01/apple-representative-confirms-3rd-party-extensib ility-robust-editing-features-in-osx-photos-app/

As far as Apple Script support goes ... it always seems to lag a bit behind major updates and rewrites. I think for many of Apple's in-house apps, there is more to come with Yosemite and iOS 8 that needed to be fitted out better before scripting could be employed.

There is always some temporary inconvenience when attempting such strides.

Yes, I have been hunting around for the (rather sparse) details and found a few extra articles that just popped up.

Whilst Apple mentioned support for plug-ins everything still remains very vague and as this article points out the feature set is going to look a lot more iOS8 level than anything on the Mac including iPhoto.

http://9to5mac.com/2014/07/01/os-xs-apertureiphoto-replacement-photos-appears-to -focus-on-ios-8s-editing-features-not-pro-tools/

Going on experience "Some temporary inconveniences" drags out for years and for many features, forever. The list of things that won't work or work so badly they may as well not work, will go unreported by the Mac media, but be revealed in the face of real work.

Have yet to meet a client who is willing to wait that long or give up on something they thought was a given, just because Apple has another change of mind.

What do you consider "lagging a bit behind major updates and rewrites" means?

Pages 5 is over 8 months old and still mostly crippled.

Peter

Of course, that's from 9-to-5 mac and they're not so well known for their in-depth coverage of photography on the Mac. This guy, however, is.

https://www.apertureexpert.com/tips/2014/6/30/closer-look-photos-adjustments-bar

Thanks for that link, I am aware of the site but I last looked a couple of days ago.

As he points out these are just screen shots and possibly only mock-ups.

Experience does show that the devil is in the details. Hopefully those details reach down to the OSX frameworks. One of the great features of OSX has been that all Apps could hook into some very sophisticated functions eg the Color Adjustment panels in Preview and Pages.

The long development period at our expense is par for the course with Apple and having to use two, generally incompatible apps to survive the long gestation period is an enormous pain. Particularly since these changes are not in isolation, they are across a wide range of applications.

I am finding a large part of my time now is going into testing and hunting down (sometimes non-existant) feature fixes across far too many programs. A massive waste of time. And those are only the problems I catch, what nags me is the ones I will inevitably miss.

Peter

PeterBreis0807 wrote:

I can't see how you can anticipate plug-ins.

All the rewrites for Apples other software don't have plug-ins with the exception of EndNote for Pages 5.2, which is a mess.

Also Applescript is virtually non-existent in most of the new .apps.

Peter

Most apps now work on some form of plug-in architecture, and the iOS 8 announcement sys so as do the follow-up announcements for Yosemite's Photos app, direct from Apple.

Can you list them? Virtually all that I know of don't. The ones that do like Safari, start falling over rapidly.