I couldn’t access SUBERAPPS and my other sites this morning, so logically I thought it must be my hosting server acting up. So I asked my friend, James from The Phuse to check on his side. He did noticed a little slowness but loaded eventually for him. He also recommended me this app, ImageOptim, that can reduce file size of images to reduce server load.

Tried it and hey it works! So I thought I should share it here.

How ImageOptim Works

ImageOptim is extremely easy to use. It compresses images by removing unnecessary comments and color profiles, handles PNG, JPEG and GIF animations.

I find that when I compress an image, there isn’t much difference compared to when it was not optimized.

Extremely Easy To Use

Before I tried the app, I imagine I would have to load the image into the program and save it again. But no, you only need to drag and drop your image, either into the app interface or the dock icon. ImageOptim will compress the image and save it immediately.

You can even drop multiple images for compression.

I’m guessing most people will be using this for their existing project. Let’s say you’re working on a website project, you can just drop your entire folder of images into ImageOptim and upload these image files.

It’s that easy. I find it can be very useful for making a site load even faster, resulting in a better user experience.

How Much Can It Compress?

It depends on the image you’re using, if you’re using an image with lots of color, it’ll compress the image even more.

As you can see from the screenshot, I managed to compress an image saving 30.6% of file size. Pretty impressive if you ask me!

How Much?

Free! Go download!

Check out SUBERNOVA online project management tool:

If you love Flickr and your Mac, Flickery (€9.90 / $12.70) is the perfect app for you. Flickery has been around for some time during the beta period and recently the app reached it’s 1.0 status, ready for showtime. :)

Flickery marrys Mac OS X’s ease of use with the most popular photo sharing network Flickr providing more usable Flickr fun all on your desktop.

After using it for quite a bit, the user experience was almost perfect, in terms of knowing where to click or what to do, the loading speed for the photos was fast and smooth. It is truely a complete Flickr photos management app, there’s almost nothing you can’t do with this app.

User Interface

The user interface is straightforward, with all your photo sets, favourites, upload function, groups, searches, contacts on the left sidebar and photos on the right.

Viewing Photos

Intuitively, viewing larger versions of photos is just a double click away. There’s an additional option to view photos in fullscreen, providing the best photo browsing experience. Use the left / right arrow keys to scroll through groups of photos with smooth transitions.

Sidebar

Your photos, favourites, photosets, groups and contacts are all on the sidebar.

Add to Group or Sets

While browsing photos, you can conveniently add a photo or a group of them, to any of your sets or groups you’ve subscribed to.

Adding to a group:

Adding to a set:

Flickr Search

Search with options:

Flickery lets you search photos Flickr wide, if you’re a designer frequently searching for pictures, this is a great feature for you. You can also download them to your hard disk, or add them directly to iPhoto.

Emailing Photos

Want to share pictures with your friends via email? Flickery lets you easily do that just by clicking on the “Email” icon. An email will be pre-composed though I’m not sure if this is for everyone.

Email pre-composed:

Uploading Photos

You can uninstall the original Flickr Uploader app if you have it installed. Flickery performs the exact task with ease with more bells and whistles. You can take a picture directly with iSight, or do a screenshot directly within the app for uploading.

Overall this app is 9.5/10 for me. Very comprehensive and useful, definitely a god send for Flickr addicts using Mac OS X Leopard.

Check out SUBERNOVA online project management tool: