photo editing without a real computer

  I've written about my chromebook experiment, and moving away from using what you would call a "real computer" in a sense of having a powerful computer, with a dedicated OS and dedicated photo processing applications.  Instead I've been processing photo's on my Chromebook, and my Tablet.  My workflow has changed drastically a few times.  New services were introduced that I started using, such as the Amazon Cloud Drive storage for photo's, and Google Photo's with it's unlimited photo storage that I've written a few posts about.  The one thing that I couldn't find mentioned anywhere, is if you upload your photo's to these services, and edit them on a tablet or phone, it's size get reduced drastically.  This is all not a problem if you are using the images for sharing online, on computer screens.  But it does become a problem if you want to print them out.
  It get's kinda tricky when you upload a 12MPixel image, and you edit it on the tablet, and suddenly it becomes 2MPixel.  This can be a problem if you want to print the photo's.  There are tricks around it, but took me a few experimenting to figure out. First, you need to know that there are two apps for Amazon Photo's, and Amazon Cloud Drive.  So for auto-upload Amazon Photo's does a great job, but if you choose to edit directly from Amazon Photo's app the images are resized to smaller size. The trick is to download the image from the Amazon Cloud Drive in full size and edit it in an editor that can handle larger images.  Snapseed will reduce image size automatically, Pixlr can edit larger images and save them in larger resolution.  I also tried picmonkey subscription for about 2 months, but I decided to cancel it, because I didn't really use it that much to justify the $5/month cost, the free options perfectly cover my needs. Plus the fact that I can only use it in a browser that supports flash, which means on a Chromebook, but can't use it on a tablet.
  While snapseed, and Pixlr are great apps, it would be useful to have them properly document file size if editing on tablets or other devices. I can't complain about this, since I choose to move to "cloud computing" using a chromebook, and tablet only.  I say "cloud computing" just because almost all the files are stored in the cloud, except what you download to edit, temporarily it's saved locally, whether it's on the tablet or on my chromebook.
  I still need to see how those photo's edited on those apps look like in print format, I'll surely print some out, and I'll share my experience once I get them. I hope this post helps someone who ran into similar issues with their editing on their tablets, or phones.

Editing on iPad

First I downloaded the photos to my laptop.  Selected the best I want to share, then edited, resized, and uploaded.  Just to think that later a frame would be a good addition.  So on google plus photo's I went to edit and wala done.  I ordered a wireless SD so editing and downloading will be instantaneous.  I tried the Wireless SD card, and I like it so far.  It is not fast, but I knew that before ordering.  I can start the camera up, and transfer the files to the iPad, Phone, or even my laptop/desktop.  It is a great feature, I feel like I upgraded my camera, and it works with my DSLR as well as my bridge.  I would recommend it to anyone.  If speed is important, make sure you read the reviews, the Transcend WiFiSD I got is a bit slow, but I don't care for speed that much in this case, while the price was decent.  The next problem I may face is the fact that I got the 16GB iPad.  My First tablet which was a Galaxy Tab 10.1 16GB I never ran into space problems, but then again, I didn't have so much content on it.  The iPad has my Favorite National Geographics subscription, which takes up approx 500MB/Issue, that's about 6GB, just Natgeo :)  and it is beautiful on the retina display :-)  Till later...

Gave in got an iPad

Not sure if you followed me, but I wrote in the past that I got a cheapo 7" Android tablet. I was all happy and satisfied with it in the beginning. But overtime the tablet started slowing down.  And after longer usage I started to realize that 7" is small. But that's not what annoyed me, it was the fact that even after I left it for a few minutes to sync, and update things it was slow. I couldn't open an article in flipboard, it became slow, or froze and locked up.

 Now the retina display on the iPad is sweet. Looking at pictures, and even editing on it is a pleasure not to mention battery life. In the end you get what you pay for. I wasn't expecting a performance daemon, but I wanted it to be usable. I wish you could try things for longer times, before buying. I liked the 30 day money back guarantee in the USA, even with some electronics. Though I may even be happy to pay 15% restocking fees, if I'm that unhappy with the product rather than being stuck with it. Anyhow will try to get rid of it.  Wrote this on the iPad :) and enjoyed it.

Do you really need a desktop?

  For the past 2 weeks, my desktop computer has been disassembled, and my wife and I don't even miss it.  We both have a tablet, and I have a laptop as well, which I use for photo processing once or twice per month.  We just talked about it the other day, that we don't even miss the Desktop.
  We can do all our online activities, reading email, social networking, and even keeping in touch with family via Google's lookout or Skype.  While I do sometimes use the laptop, for processing pictures, I don't even need a powerful machine to achieve that, and the laptop does it without breaking a sweat.
  I tried downloading and processing the images on my little 7" tablet, but this form factor is only good for reading.  If I were to download and edit images on a tablet, it would need to be at least a 10.1, and with more muscle than my little 7" Prestigio.
  Since I am an IT professional, who spends like 99% of work time in front of the computer, when I get home I don't miss the monitor, so I usually read on my tablet at night. While I don't think you can get everything done with a tablet, even if you have a top of the line tablet, a powerful desktop is no longer a requirement for everyday usage as it was in the past.  Every household had at least one powerful desktop, and maybe a laptop, that was mostly for Word processing, a little surfing and emailing.  But photo editing, and heavier stuff needed the desktop power.
  These days, even the lower category laptops can handle much more than what laptops 10 years ago could.
  I just installed linux on a sub $500 laptop, which had 4 CPU core's, and 6GB or RAM.  Now it was a joke running Ubuntu on that machine, of course, I could max out the CPU if I start Trans-coding, decoding, encoding video, but then I wouldn't buy that cheap a laptop.  That laptop, can do all that is needed for a regular household, and then some.
  I would argue even that having a Decent Laptop at home, and a tablet would cover all needs.  But then again, that's just my opinion.