MobileMe Gallery Review

While no one can accuse Apple of being behind the curve when it comes to their magnificent hardware, the same cannot always be said about support for their software. It is now 6 months into the iPad’s life cycle, and Cupertino has only just dispatched a version of its MobileMe Gallery app for the tablet. Ultimately, it is a competent release that provides all of the functionality of the iPhone version (but not a drop more) tailored to the iPad’s generous screen.

At its core, MobileMe Gallery is an example of what Apple does best: elegant simplicity. Adding images to the cloud is a simple matter of uploading them from your desktop or your iPad photos app. Once inside MobileMe Gallery, the main screen provides a basic view of your cloud-stored images, complete with limited pinch-to-zoom functionality (like the on-board photo app). Shots stored on the cloud load quickly and can be scrolled through with a swipe or a button press. You also have the option to e-mail your friends an invitation to view individual pictures or entire galleries.

Unfortunately, the app’s streamlined design is both its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. MobileMe Gallery includes a basic slideshow function that displays each of your gallery images in succession, with a gentle fade in between each, but offers no options for customizing your gallery. You cannot rearrange the order of the pictures in a gallery, for example, and the slideshow has but one transition speed and wipe. The result is a clear and effective, yet a one-size-fits-all viewing experience.

The only other feature of the app is the ability to use the My Gallery drop-down menu to add a friend’s gallery to your view. You cannot search for friends, however, and you can only add entries from your contact list or by entering an exact member name.

And that’s all, folks. No one expects Apple to ship a free app with advanced photo editing functionality or flashy display features, but a modicum of customizability or pizazz would have been nice. At the very least, doing so would provide additional value to an otherwise expensive, yet limited subscription service. MobileMe Gallery will be fine for subscribers who wants a quick, unadorned, easy-to-use image viewer on the go, but others will likely want to check out one of the various, more fully-featured, premium cloud image viewers in the App Store.