iPhoto 6 introduces a new feature called photocasting that does for images what podcasting does for audio: You can share your photos with friends, family, business clients, and anyone else with an Internet connection! However, you must be a .Mac subscriber to photocast albums to others.
Here's how photocasting works: You designate an album to share by selecting it in the source list and then clicking the Photocast button on the iPhoto toolbar. iPhoto displays the Publish a Photocast sheet.
If the Photocast button doesn't appear on your toolbar, it's because there's not enough room on the toolbar at your current screen resolution! Click the double-right arrow button (>>) to display the remaining toolbar buttons.
Specify the size of the images you want to offer (full size is highest quality but also takes the longest time to upload and download). By default, any changes you make to the contents of this album are automatically updated in your .Mac account and, in turn, are updated automatically to everyone who receives your images. You can turn this feature off, however, if you have a large number of images and you update often.
Prefer a little security for those images? In that case, you can require that your photocast audience enter a login name and password before they can receive your photos.
Click Publish, and you'll see that iPhoto indicates, with a cool twirling progress icon to the right of the album in the source list, that your images are being uploaded. When the process is complete, iPhoto indicates, with a special networky-looking icon to the right of the album, that the album is being photocasted. You're on the air!
Now for the other side of the coin: By clicking Announce Album on the iPhoto toolbar, iPhoto automatically prepares an email message in Apple Mail that announces your new photocast! Just add the recipient names and click Send. This spiffy message includes complete photocast subscription instructions for the following:
- Folks using iPhoto 6 on a Mac: As you can imagine, this is the easiest receive option to configure. After these folks are subscribed, they get an automatically updated album of the same name that appears in their source list, and they can use those images in their own iPhoto projects!
- Folks using Windows or an older version of iPhoto: These subscribers can use any Web browser with Really Simple Syndication (RSS) support (like the Safari browser that comes with Tiger) or any RSS reader. (In effect, your photocast becomes an RSS feed for those without iPhoto 6.)
