Apple Photos: out with the old, in with the new

Today, Apple has released its public beta of the new Photos app, which will replace iPhoto on Mac devices. The new app will create a unified experience across iOS and Mac devices, and make it easier to synchronize photos and video with iCloud.

Apple fans who wish to try the new app, can do so by registering for the OS X Beta Program.

The Photos app requires OS X Yosemite, as well as iOS 8, and it’s designed to automatically share photos and videos across all devices, and not just the last 1000, as iPhoto does. The new Photos app will automatically sync all versions of every photo and every video on all devices. For instance, images that have been edited, both the original, full-size version and the edited one will both appear on iCloud.

The Photos app offers drastic improvements over iPhotos, with a wider view for single images, and the familiar “endless tiles” view, which allows for smooth, fast browsing of all images on iCloud, in a way that is already familiar to iOS 8 users.

As the new app makes use of iCloud in such an integrated, seamless way, some considerations on the cost of additional storage must be made. iCloud currently offers up to 5GB of space, which is in line with nearly all storage services, including DropBox, Google Drive and OneDrive.

Expanding the free iCloud storage up to 20GB will cost $12 per year, which may not be much, however, users with a “trigger finger” could wind up needing more, in which case Apple’s heftiest offering of 1 Terabyte is available for $240 per year.

iPhoto is not the only app about to get booted out of the App Store. Pro image editing tool Aperture is also slated to be removed this Spring. The $79.99 software has been a favorite of pro and semi-pro photographers, however something else could be in the works, once the advanced photo editing tool is no longer available for purchase.