Picasa now customized for Nokia S60 and translated into 36 languages

Monday, June 9, 2008 | 11:06 AM



Joe optimized Picasa Web Albums for the iPhone and Zak made it shine on Windows Mobile. This made me wonder about Nokia phones. Ever since S60 3rd Edition came out, phones like the Nokia N95 have had good web browsers. Why not give Picasa Web Albums on S60 some AJAXy goodness, with faster browsing and a slicker user interface as well? I investigated what it would take to make our existing design work on S60 and it turned out to be really easy! And since I'm Dutch, I also wanted to view this interface without needing to switch my account language to English. So we had it translated into 36 new languages. We also gave the toolbar an overhaul, adding simpler to understand icons. You can now get this new version of Picasa Web Albums on all S60 phones using a WebKit-based browser, as well as iPhone using Safari and Windows Mobile 6 Professional using Internet Explorer. As an added bonus we've also added support for Windows Mobile 6 Standard.

Finally, based on requests we've had on this blog, we've added a zoom feature for the iPhone. When viewing a photo that was uploaded to Picasa Web Albums in high resolution, just tap on the zoom button -- the one with the magnifying glass. This will take you to a page with a high-resolution image where you can use those wonderful finger gestures for zooming and panning around in the zoomed area.



Head to picasaweb.google.com to give it a try, and be sure to let us know what you think! There's a good chance now that your phone and preferred language are supported.

10 comments:

Codename Matrix said...

Any plans for a Symbian UIQ 3 version? I love my P1i but I hate that Nokia phones always have the preferential treatment. Is the Opera Mobile so bad? Opera Mini wouldn't give me the nice UI either (picasaweb.google.com gives the normal view, picasaweb.google.com/m the "old" design). Is there any URL like picasaweb.google.com/m or a parameter so we can try if the new interface works with other browsers too?

cja said...

So does this mean I can upload pictures from my phone or do I have to carry on using Flickr?

Unknown said...

Super! Great! Came to pull this to my Nokia 82. Tried and tried but I guess since I am in Australia, I have to wait a bit? The Aussie sub-site for those of us not in the US, seems to have a dead link at the moment - 8am QUeensland on June 10th.

MidNight

Ms. Jen said...

Hi, I am on a Nokia N95 and the Picasa web album site came up beautifully in my browser. When can we upload photos using the picasaweb.google.com site?

;o)

norcalbarney said...

ms. jen,

If you have a Nokia S60 phone, you can try Shozu. It's an app which can upload to photos to Picasa Web Albums, and a whole bunch of other sites.

-matthew-

alsam said...

Ready for it on my Blackberry 8310!

Antony Pranata said...

Nice stuff! To complement this new release, I have created S60 Widget for Picasa Web Album. It is available on my blog, http://www.s60tips.com/2008/06/11/s60-widget-for-web-picasa-album/

The widget basically allows you to launch Picasa Web Album directly from the main menu (no need to launch the browser).

Unfortunately, not all S60 devices support widget yet. Only newer devices/firmwares do, such as N78, N82 and N95.

Ms. Jen said...

Norcalbarney - Yes, I know about ShoZu, I have been using it for over 2 years.

Mostly I was gently teasing our host, as the Picasaweb mobile is only view, not upload & view like ShoZu or the Mobile Flickr site or others.

I am big proponent of the mobile web and mobile apps being creation oriented as well as consumption oriented.

Andrey said...

There's a quite convenient way to upload photos to Picasa from phone directly - send them by e-mail. You have to switch on the "Upload photos by Email" new feature in Picasaweb. It works well for me.

Gabriel said...

I just want to agree: uploading pictures from the mobile device should be possible!