i,m, the bast

So, um, why are we assuming old people are automatically incompetent?
No one needs this. If they can't figure out email attachments, they probably can't figure out a bunch of other things this software won't handle.

Yes Purr (#54), FastStone does monitor your keyboard. That is how it works when you press the PrtSc key with or without other keys. All programs that monitor the keyboard for hotkeys are keyboard loggers. Otherwise they would be worthless. Windows itself also is also a keyboard logger. ;-)

I got it so I could send pictures to my niece who is 10. It installed fine. I put in my used name and password but all it does is spin and spin. I even left it over night to see if it would go through but nothing. When I hit send a box pops up that says photos for grandma and then a ok button. If I hit the button it stops and gives me a error. If I don't hit the button it just spins. Guess I will take it off. It doesn't work for me

Good designed interface...

The program refused to auto-detect my email server settings and would not accept the correct server settings manually even though I had no trouble sending test messages to myself using Thunderbird.
This program definitely needs some help.

With the program Picasa (which others have mentioned) you can also email from within the Picasa program using either Google email or your own email. Mine is set to use Yahoo so I don't know how other emails work with Picasa. Mainly I do use Gmail to email my pics from Picasa, and I don't have to upload them to google's site.

I do not like, no ... I really do not like (I despise,detest, abhor, etc.)programs which with no warning modify what is loaded into my memory when Windows boots, and then does not uninstall cleanly or easily but instead says "some program elements can not be removed ...".
The program does not explain and it is very difficult for non techy users (grandmas) to reboot the machine after uninstall to unload the .dll file then find the installed folder and delete it. I love GAOTD, don't think this one's up to their standards tho...

Hey Ballpeen (#22) I know that you and others like to spam FastStone products here, but I think it would be wise to advise people to utilize some threat alarm programs first. Everything I've tried from FastStone sets off my utility alarms about the software logging keystrokes. Needless to say, it gets ripped out of my system in a flash.

Keystroke loggers? We really don't need to be promoting them on a GAOTD site, now do we? Would the forum admins like to comment on this?

As for today's program. too bulky, too childlike, and won't work on the majority of email programs (web-based). Might be good for the few who need it, but it's not something I want or need today. Looking forward to the next pitch, GAOTD, thanks!

computer; I am our resident computer 'tech', at that.

#18 and #24 - grayfox and copmom - you tell her 'sister'...lol...!! I don't know why people are still 'ragging' on grandmas, but they do. Even the media tells you that this or that product "ain't your grandma's'...whatever". They either think we grandmas are (in different respects) stupid, or that what we like is stupid to like.

#26 - Rick - great idea, although there are other online photo storage/display services one can use as well such as Photobucket and Webshots.

#51 - GAOTD Fan - I imagine you mean well, but nonetheless, most of us grandmas really don't need a pep talk about learning new things like a computer, i.e. Now granted, there *may* be some of the much older ones (say, over 70 years old) who don't know as much about a computer, but us younger ones do. Besides all that, that is really just a stereotype as a lot of younger folks (like my husband) hardly know *jack* about how to use a computer. Heck, I have taught my boys how to do things on a computer that they wouldn't have known, otherwise.

Thanks Talon Designs (#47)... I didn't know that about GMail. ;-)
Thanks BladedThoth (#48) too!

This program may make life easier for grandmas and the likes. But these grandmas should know better not to fall into these so-called "traps" in life.

Just like them books for dummies. You're not a dummy! You're better than that! Don't let them label you with negative connotations like that. If you have to learn it the hard way--DO IT!

Taking the easy way out ain't gonna do you any good. While age is only a number, life is a marathon, not a sprint! You have been through so much in your life--DON'T STOP NOW!

Grandmas should be using Adobe Photoshop while learning new tricks, so that they can teach their young ones & inspire them. You can only inspire people if you are willing to go that extra-mile in life.

How cool would it be if your 90-year-old grandma could beat you in a video game! Life is a marathon. Don't stop learning new things until you reach your last finish line. Only then can you depart and leave behind your great legacy.

Overall, this is a great program & also great looking. I tested it and love it. It is user friendly aside from the setup part. Obviously, if you're installing this program for your grandma or grandpa, you should set it up for them and make sure that it works. Props to the creator for inventing such a cool tool, but no props for targeting grandmas.

I really dont see how difficult it can be to send photos from a to b via email. Two basic methods , either "attach" or "click on photos and send." How hard is that.? Most photo Viewers have options for sending Pics via Email, built in. "Fastone Image Viewer" is an excellent picture viewer that thumbnails pictures in the file via an explorer feature. Clicking on the Thumbnail and "Send via Email" has the option to simply "ADD" others automatically resizing them and posting to Email client, just like "Grandama"
Free and very effective. So simple Grandma could use it..

Why do I have a 15 day evalution period on mine?

No prob BillW50 (#42): Well, as my review stated; I couldn't get it to work with --4-- different email services, all of which I know work properly, including GMail.

BillW50 - Just wanted to mention - Gmail has POP3 and SMTP Services available for free. Wether or not you can use this software with it? I can't answer that honestly. But since you can configure Outlook express or Thunderbird to send and receive via your gmail account, I would assume that you can. But you know what assuming does.

Feedback on that aspect might be helpful from others that have it set up that way.

Im not interested in this software, so i wont be voting or commenting on it though. I just wanted to mention that.

So thank you nonetheless GAOTD.

Theres not much use for this. Anyone with half a mind for computers can easily do this.

I really could not see any way to see any of these features.

This software works ok to be honest.
The problem is GAOTD offers too close to Image Compressor, which can do what this software can do, except for email templates i think.

Even this software is waaaay cheaper then Image Compressor, but hey, we get both for free (thanks to GAOTD), so.. nothing to really complain about.

Thanks BladedThoth (#35). Although somehow there still is a difference and I haven't found one person said that "Photos for Grandma" has worked with AOL email accounts (IMAP). Probably since AOL most likely doesn't follow strictly to the SMTP standard.

..where's Bill Withers?...

No need for personal attacks lucgod1 (#34). All it does is to make you sound unintelligent. There used to be free POP3 email accounts like Yahoo, Netzero, Netaddress, etc. Although the ones that stayed around either switched to pay service or free web based email accounts.

Slow-slow-slow

This is the utility I've been looking for.. Good idea, elegant design and simplicity! But.. most people connect to his ISP via ADSL modem.. that needs to fill secret ID and PW - no way to autodetect! Okay, go on..
In email we can add more recipients and send mail in one turn. With lots of pics its a long time. Here program sends to each recipients again, and again the whole pack of pics.. its a long time to upload all turn via ADSL.. Program moreover very slow in functionality and tasks.. Thats a main problem here! However I still have positive impression to this simple/complicated/slow utility.. And one more question.. reading through all tutorial and help pages I still don't know what is it for the "Browse" button??? Are there somebody who knows this funciton? I am eagerly waiting to use it, but where and what for? Thanks!

Senseless AND quirky. Here's how I send anything via email to all my contacts:

1) Open folder

2) Select files

3) Right click, and

4) Mail to recipients via incredimail

Need I say more...

Completely incidental to the software, but the inference of the title "pictures for grandma" is that the senders are the *grandchildren*. So it's not really condescending to grandmas, many of whom are either young enough to be part of the computer generation themselves (40-60) or smart enough to have lived this long that they have picked up a thing or two :-)

I would assume the market for this is families with kids in the 4 - 8 years range who are computer users already but not advanced computer users. (For example my niece is quite comfortable logging in to her account on our home XP and kicking off a web-hosted game, but I doubt she's ready yet for resizing images and sending them as attachments from Outlook...)

In fact I may well install this for her so she can send photos to her great aunt who lives in scotland and has only seen her twice. (my mother - approaching 80 but quite comfortable using email; in fact we even managed a video chat once but unfortunately they only have dialup which wasn't fast enough)

G

Thanks GAOTD, but i'll pass on this one also.

I did download and install a few of your offerings, and i enjoy them. :)
Thank you for providing us with all these programs for free! :D

As there is one each day, tho, i got fast to the point where i am very selective (as otherwise i would have too many apps installed):
- do i need this program? Will it be useful to me?
- do i already have software which does that?
- is the installation invasive? Hard to uninstall if i don't like it?
- is there a really free (i.e. without time limit) alternative which would do the job even better?

Comments and review from other users help me make my choice, thanks for the feedback, everybody. :)

To BillW50 (#32):

I was simply indicating that it would work with the SMTP connections associated with POP3 and IMAP servers. You can't actually send via POP3: POP3 is a method of recieving email from a server. Check out the definition here:

http://searchexchange.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid43_gci212805,00.html

Usually, with POP3/IMAP, you get SMTP access, as such I just indicated that if you had IMAP access, you likely had SMTP access. With IMAP, you still need SMTP for mail delivery, even if you are archiving Sent Messages on the IMAP folder structure.

@ 32 (BillW50) with POP3 :
"Does anybody know of a free POP3 email account to use with this software?"...

ERROR !!!

Bye.

nice, but I have an image resizer that DOES work with all the email formats... including free ones

Rick (#26), not a bad idea to use Google's Picasa Web, as long as you are comfortable with Google collecting all of your data. Google is in the business of collecting data and making money from it. Thus "Photos for Grandma" sounds like a better idea to me. ;-)

P.S. Does anybody know of a free POP3 email account to use with this software?

P.S.S. BladedThoth claims it works with IMAP servers in his review. But I couldn't get it to work with them, nor found claims that it will besides BladedThoth's comments.

I just can't imagine ever needing this software
How hard can it be for people to click on " attach file" in thier email program, and select pictures, and click "send"?

Probably useful for those who are barely savvy enough to click the " power button" on their computer.

Downloaded and installed fine. Does what it says. To add contacts you have to do one at a time-why not have the ability to import contacts automatically at least? Way to simplistic and featureless and I will not have a use for this app especially when there are many apps and online sites that take care of this task much more quickly and easily and with tons of extra features and most are free. I would be interested in having a chance to check out your Photo Gadget Pro, however. Thanks anyway.

don't see any way to compress and encrypt (password) a picasa pic. otoh, i don't think you can password-on-the-fly from within email apps either. :-)
i guess those flickr, picasa, etc accounts have generated gallery views, allowing visitors to choose which pics they want to see fullsize?

wow, gotd has "old and bold" granmas.
peeps using webmail might try some of the poppers to "fake" ISP mail. free "guest" level of fastmail requires sending via your isp, which is usually smtp.

faststone can mail, hmm. seems irfanview also has a (basic) send mail.
from plugins.txt: * 11. EMAIL.DLL - This PlugIn allows IrfanView to send images as emails.
I tried it partly... the mail dialog also provides box to type a plain text message.

Just some info for those who cannot use this program. If you right click on the picture you want to sent a menu comes up that gives you another way to send photos. I found this out because my friends internet provider does not like attachments so deletes them automatically and it does not like big files.

When you right-click, hit the send to portion, then mail recipient. You will then be asked if you want to make the pictures smaller or keep the original size. It then asks for an email address and type in a subject line because some providers don't let empty subject lines through either.

This is the only way we can send pictures to each other so maybe it will help others out there. Oh, I run windows xp sp2 and don't know if this works in other applications.

Hope this helps someone.

Why are we still sending pics as attachments? Get a free Google account, upload your pictures to Picasa Web, and let people see them and download them as they see fit. It's a win-win situation for everybody.

Hello all! Today's 15-Minute Review is up! Check it out!

http://www.bladedthoth.com/reviews/15mrs/photos-for-grandma-v1-1/

This here grandma (and great grandma, also knows how to use a computer, send photos, set up web sites, and even knows HTML! We've come a LONG way baby!!!

But, I don't believe I need this program as I already know how to insert or attach photos, reduce them, etc. It might be good for someone that has no expertise in computers!
"grandma" copmom

correction, Faststone's does not have any email features.

FYI: Faststone's Photo Resizer
http://www.faststone.org/
it does all the above for free and does it very well

Description from their site:
An image converter / resizer intended to enable users to convert, rename, resize, crop, rotate, change color depth, add text and watermark to images in a quick and easy BATCH mode.

LOL@#18!

anyway, seems like a nice program, but I only use hotmail... through outlook express, though, but that does not seem to make a difference for this thingie... nice name, though! photos for grandma (although one shouldn't take the name too seriously, I suppose...)

#16 Mark

Would you *please* stop yelling.You have made your point. :-)

Yes diana (#6), I couldn't get it to work with my AOL email account either. I even manually set it up and it errors when it tries to send the pictures. I don't have any POP3 accounts anymore, just IMAP and web based.

@ # 11 by silverfox yes, foxy-baby, nowadays grandmas not only use computers, they can even bold!
But I don't need this program, for I prefer a hosting service or/and online media-center.
grandma graylox

Any easy E.Mail proggie is welcomed for folk who think P.C`s are a dark art society However would Granny Clampett be able to use it ?!!!

Their lunar prog would also be interesting if it could give tides for mere nortals on this planet.....

download fine, setup was a breeze for a change, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WHAT WAS THAT?? don't remember grandma being so simplified that she would like pictures sent with these simple frames, no photo editing options, just add an email and size of the picture, add a simple frame and send, not even close to being worth $19.90!!! WILL BE GOOD FOR KIDS UNDER 10 MAYBE, SORRY GUYS, IT HAD TO GO, NOT A KEEPER FOR ME! I AM OVER 50 MY KIDS ARE GROWN AND GONE AND I HAVE NO USE WHATS SO EVER FOR THIS PROGRAM AND I WOULD NOT WANT MY KIDS TO SEND ME ANYTHING FROM THIS PROGRAM, SORRY!

This is an excellent program. I do have an email account with my ISP which I never use BUT most of my family uses gmail and when you send photos to / from gmail you can only send three at a time and the recipient gets these little thumbnails that take awhile to open. I tested this program and sent a bunch of photos to myself at gmail. FAST easy sending process and it came through wonderfully in gmail. Opened the email and all the pics were right there, opened and good quality.

Ok, now I set up all the parameters for my ISP email account but still no workie. My ISP, Speednetllc.com, provides web based email so maybe that is why. If anyone else has web based email from ISP and are successful with this, please post.

Although the software itself is useless to me, as #8 said, thumbs up for providing a 64 bit version.

This seems like an okay program.
To get around the no-webmail thingy:
If your webmail provider has a smtp feature, then set up Outlook Express with the info. If you want, set OE up with ONLY OUTGOING mail server settings. This would avoid waiting for your email to download.

Just a suggestion.
BTW, KUDOS TO XemiComputers FOR HAVING THE 64-BIT VERSIONS AS WELL AS POSTING BOTH THE 32-BIT AND THE 64-BIT VERSIONS ON THE SAME DAY!

~The Incredible Mr. Electrode
"I'd love to change the world, but they won't give me the source code. Oh well, I'll just hack it."