iPad™ App, SEO, new Stats, and bug fixes
It may be April 1st, but our efforts are no joke! We’re back this week bringing you a few new goodies amidst a garden of bug fixes.
SmugMug + iPad™
We’re huge Apple fans, and we hope that those of you who are also waiting for the iPad will be pleased to see a familiar face on their latest and greatest. Check out our brand-new iPad app, which will let you browse not only your own site, but any SmugMug site you please. Fire it up and be ready to show off gorgeous photos, videos and slideshows at any time.
You can download it for free from the App Store℠.
Collecting Photos
We made a small change to the collecting photos feature so that collecting (and Smart Gallery rules) follows our existing logic for linking and sharing photos. We’ve always allowed photos to be posted to external sites even if you had a site-wide or a gallery password, and if the gallery was unlisted. In the same way, a photo can now be collected from you if the galleries are protected. If you prefer to prevent this, you can:
1. Disable the ‘Allow Collection’ toggle in your Control Panel > Settings tab
2. Disable ‘External Linking’ in the gallery settings where the photo resides.
If you need to review the details of these features, check out the help pages: Collecting. Smart Galleries.
SEO: Use your Meta
We give you lots of great SEO tools so you can hike your Google juice. We made things a bit better by serving up your custom meta information into search results. This means that if you have a gallery description entered in your gallery settings, we’ll use that first. If not, then we use your site meta description, which you can set in your Control Panel’s Settings tab. If you have entered neither, then search results will display our default SmugMug phrase.
Stats ahoy!
We’ve flipped the switch on our new Stats and have bid a fond farewell to v1.0 . Visit your Control Panel and say hello to our formerly-beta stats because they’re here to stay. We really, really appreciate all the feedback you’ve sent us over the last few months. If you’re lost, we updated our help pages, so take a look. Growing never stops; Our ears are still perked if you have any suggestions or gripes.
Comments updated
Comments got a boost and some refinements, so we hope that you’ll notice the difference:
- Notification emails are back to containing the comment text you missed so much.
- If you have elected to receive notifications, you’ll see the messages now indicate if the comment was left on the collected version of the photo.
- The comment notifications will be emailed to the gallery’s owner, not the owner of the photo (if they are different.)
- Although we love to hear from you, we’ve removed our Heroes-in-the-Middle. If the commenter left their email address, hitting reply to the notification will now email the comment author, not our support team.
Bug fixes:
- When you share a collected photo to Facebook using Be Social, the gallery link will point to the display gallery, not the original location.
- We fixed a bug that was causing your Smart Galleries to break when you previewed your rules.
- Our Timeline got a smack. It now correctly toggles between “date taken” and “upload date.”
- Your Friends and Family box displays all of your additions without overflow or a scrollbar.
- Get a Link now gives the right link for blogs after you choose the thumbnail. It also allows you to grab a gallery link even if the gallery has external linking disabled.
- You can now customize away the “Stuck? Contact this photographer for help” link on the password prompt of a protected gallery.
- We fixed a customization bug that caused a few Buy buttons to hide. Your old customizations should work just fine once more.
All the best,
The SmugMug Family
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An iPad app already? YES!
Now I’ll be able to load my iPad up with Smugmug photos when I pick it up at 9 AM EST tomorrow!
Blackberry and Android app (that works well) wait time – over a year and still waiting.
Apple iPad app wait time – minus two days
go figure…
@Randy – have you tried yoursitename.smugmug.com/m ?
Thanks as always for the service and features. You guys work so hard to keep everyone happy, its a tough job but there’s no-one quite like SmugMug:-)
Way to go SmugMug! I love that you already have an iPad app! Thank you for all of your work on making this a great place to be involved in. I love my SmugMug!
Congrats. But why no love for the iPhone? Seems like it would be pretty simple to add iPhone support, especially since you already have a mobile optimized site (Andy’s comment).
Brad, we updated the iPhone site (and the whole /m experience) just a couple weeks ago
Try it.
well, the IPAD app is doing much more than the site. It would be great to get that on Iphone …
What especially prustrating in Iphone is the need to re enter password at each time to get to non public galleries. It’s a show stopper from my point of view
A shiny new Apple toy gets support from day 1 from a photography site (even though it has no camera), but the blackberry users continue to get pushed down down down.
I remember reading that there just wasn’t time to support blackberry users, though their numbers must surely be more then 100x the number of ipad users. But you found developer time to support the ipad.
Can we just be honest with each other and admit that as apple fans you would feel like traitors supporting blackberry users? By the time you let blackberry support bubble up near the top apple will have something newer and shinier for you to spend your development time on, and the country’s largest base of smartphone users will continue to get nothing.
Bitter? Yeah, just a bit.
Blackberry? Do people still use those things?
Sad. I don’t like your new games with stats because of these:
1. Most important: I can not see, which galleries were visited through day in general without clicking and opening each one. Really strange, how you missed it.
2. Gallery Details HTML view really sucks. It gives too fat rows and soon they mix with columns… /Firefox 3.6.3 mac
3. Lost galleries icons (made from gallery photos). Now I have to look at date, then at name to guess what it was about…
4. Galleries are ordered by names. In fact, they should organized be BY DATE. No other way round is logical. Solution is naming them like songs 01, 02, 03… Which is somewhat crazy.
5. Other smaller flaws like lack of intuitiveness.
Conclusion: The only one good thing you made this time is front-page chart with day-to-day statistics. If I was here for statistics, I would dump you. Nothing personal, but it a real lame backward move. What was before was not cool, but it was somewhat logical and easy, now bulky and heavy without good reason.
What I ask. Perform corrections. What you have done is too raw to be out of beta-testing and not suitable for general public.
Contrary to popular belief, there are phones out there aside from an iphone that can access the Internet. Any many do it well. With over 1/3 of Americans using their phones to access the Internet every day (IAB statistic as of this month), SM is keeping many thousands of users in the dark. Sure, people will upgrade, but not everyone wants an iphone, nor will they buy one. Ignoring the non-apple customer base is shooting yourself in the foot. The number of people using phones to access the Internet will increase even more in the next year. And they will just be adding data plans, not upgrading to an iphone. Can you afford your site to be in the dark?
Oh, and for the record, I have a Palm Treo 650. Yeah, it’s an old phone. Guess what? It accesses the Internet perfectly, but not my SM site.
it’s great having the new app for the iPad but it would also be nice if the app for the iPhone was still upgraded. There’s NOWAY to upload videos from your iPhone (I’ve even tried email upload from my iPhone) unless I’m missing something?
it is very beautiful.
it is very beautiful iPad.
Is there any way to get the photo information to display with the iPad Application? I would love this feature for the client to fill out an order form with file names should I take print orders locally.
Other than that, it’s a terrific App. and I commend Smug Mug for once again being ahead of the curve.
Any plans to integrate to the Tivo? They have logins for photobucket and picassa through my new Tivo Premiere, it would be nice to browse my photo’s directly through SM.
Thanks for making this such a great site.
If you add the ability to order from the ipad I would buy one and put it up at art shows for folks to buy / order prints. I think this would drive revenue for both of us.
Something like a slideshow of a folder of pre-selected images and then touch to order a picture option added to it. Wouldn’t that be grand?
Need to also lock it from other ipad apps without a password or something like that.
Thanks,
-Scott
Scott – I’ve been thinking about the same thing for the past few days and how to market/set it up. It would be really awesome. I am considering trying it w/ just the regular website anyways, though. Tried it on Sunday w/ my tablet laptop, but that just isn’t the same experience as an ipad.
I said it before and can only repeat it: The new stats may look fancy but it’s actually a step backward. Counterintuitive, slow, crowed and non user-oriented.
I love the app, it looks great on my iPad! I can’t figure out, though, what the Plus/Minus icon in the top right corner is for. It doesn’t seem to do anything… ?
Also, you need an option to re-download an album. When the download gets interrupted or new photos are added, the cached version gets out of sync.
Overall, though, I’m thrilled, and was so happy to find the app! Thanks, Smugmug!
I have SmugMug Ipad app on my 16gb wifi Ipad . I have downloaded all my photos and videos into Ipad. I have saved all the photos but if I click on an individual photo the screen goes black (blank). I have also saved one video and if i try to play it , the screen returns to IPad homepage without playing the video. If I play any of these using the wifi connection , i dont have any of these problems…it’s only after i have saved these assets that the problem begins.
Great application for the iPad and good bridge of technology. The form factor of the iPad makes a great portable portfolio and I believe we are just seeing the many uses of this device due to the size/form factor.
Keep the technology changes evolving and thanks for a great experience!
iPad app is great. As for the blackberry comments, why would you want to bother using a blackberry to view the apps? I deal with blackberries all day at work (IT). I don’t think I would ever want to use them for viewing photos.
I would like to buy a photo but no pay-pal no buy. sorry
I like the iPad app. however, I think adding the ability to email or share a photo from the app would be great. also adding the ability to run a slide show and incorporating music (just like the iphoto app) would be great, and then allowing the ability to email or share that slideshow. With these additions to the app it would definitely be an app you can charge for and without question worth the purchase.
I assume you guys appreciate honest (constructive) feedback. Well, here you go.
I’ve been monitoring SmugMug for some time, looking to make the jump from Flickr Pro. My first gripe some months ago, was that your full screen slide show wasn’t up to scratch, with an ugly vertical scrolling bar appearing in Chrome…which has now thankfully gone. Your slideshow is still not quite as good as Flickr’s, but it’s still good, and something I’d happily adopt.
Your in-site layouts blow the competition away however. Your own social system is neat, and the tight integration with external social computing is the best I’ve seen…I’m so almost ready for the jump over. However…
Your iPad app, and support for external apps and APIs appear to be quite poor, and this is a bit of a deal breaker for me (and I’m sure it is for many others). I suggest you look at an application called FlickrStackr for inspiration, as it’s this kind of innovation that drives adoption and retention.
Recent research is showing that the ‘web’ is dead, long live the Internet. Clearly it’s a bit tongue in cheek, the web will never die. But, the application landscape is changing. People are accessing the Internet through apps, not the web (browser). Yeh HTML5 might change that a little, but it’s likely the app model will still be used for small, isolated pieces of functionality. It also has the bonus of commercial commodity, whereas there’s a lot of folk out there that think if it’s on the ‘web’, it should be free. I’m sure you know this…apologies.
You seem like smart guys, and hopefully you’ve got something in the pipeline (Android, WinMo7, etc included). At this moment in time though, you’re missing an ubiquitous platform that includes mobile, and I’m certain it’s going to be hurting your revenue. I’ve taken time to write this, as I like your product, and want to see it get better. Hopefully you’ll get to read this.
The iPad app needs work. Various galleries wont show up for me.
Yes the IPad app needs work.. It doesn’t work and my videos crash, sometimes I cant even get hem to upload. Ive been trying for 2 months for update bug fixes and I’m still waiting
I love your smugmug site, but along with some other people, your app for the iPad does need some more work. Some of my galleries do not load and have experienced some crashes when trying to enlarge a photo. Once these bugs are fixed this will be a great app for all smugmug users with an ipad.
More than 1 year later and it doesn’t work!
Sad, but not surprising. The Stats API hasn’t worked in years.
Well iPAD app = sad story
Very disappointing that after year this app is in this stage
Take a look at SmugWallet app for inspiration
If they would make app fro iPAD I would buy it any time
Problem with your app:
1.) Quits unexpectedly
2.) I have to download library on eat the time (the app should have sync capability and recognize what you have downloaded or not. Give me list of libraries and I should be able to choose by check mark what galleries I wasn’t to keep in sync)
3.) After spending hour to sync my smugmug galleries I clicked on (-) button and the app removed every downloaded photo in second without even asking
4.) I would love to see exactly same layout and galleries / sub galleries as on the smugmug website (same as smugwallet does it on iPhone)
Please fix this think that we can actually use it
Or hire the guy who developed smugwallet
I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own weblog and was wondering what all is required to get setup? I’m
assuming having a blog like yours would cost
a pretty penny? I’m not very web smart so I’m
not 100% positive. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated. Appreciate it