Review: iLoader
by Robb Lewis
February 23, 2010
Overview
Uploading photos to Facebook through the iPhone app can be a chore, as you're limited to uploading one at a time. iLoader is designed to make uploading photos and videos to Facebook a much easier task. With iLoader you can prepare uploads offline, simultaneously upload multiple videos or photos, and create albums.Features
- Simultaneous multiple uploads - Offline mode - Queue photos, videos, captions and descriptions whilst offline - Tag friends and rotate photos before uploading - Edit videos before upload (3GS only) - Badge icon to show selected photos/videos that haven't been uploaded yet - Remembers selections and resumes where you left off - Themes When first using iLoader, you will be prompted to link the app to your Facebook account and allow it access. Login is done through Facebook connect, so your login info is secure. Once your account is linked you can start uploading. iLoader has three sections: Photos, Videos and Settings. These are accessed through the corresponding icons at the bottom of the screen.
First, the photos section. Pressing 'select photos' will give you access to your camera roll, as well as any albums you have synced to your iPhone. When you select a picture, you will see an 'adding photo' progress wheel for a moment, then '1 photo added' will be displayed at the bottom of the screen. This counter will update each time you select a photo so you always know how many you have selected.
Once you have chosen all the photos you want to upload and pressed 'done' you will be taken back to the photos screen and presented with a list of the photos you selected. From here you can add captions to each photo and tag your friends. Tagging friends is as easy as tapping the photo and selecting them from the list. iLoader remembers which friends you have tagged and moves them to the top of the list so they are easy to tag again in other photos.
If you need to, you can also rotate photos before uploading. Once you have finished rotating, tagging and captioning, you're ready to upload. Select 'upload' in the top right corner and you will be presented with a list of your Facebook albums. From here you can either select an existing album, or create a new one by pressing the '+' symbol. Press done and you will be asked to confirm the upload. Select yes and the photos will begin to upload. A progress bar will be shown as your photos are being uploaded.
The upload process for videos is almost identical to photos. Select your videos, add captions and upload. From here, you can trim and edit your videos to make sure they are perfect before upload. The only other difference compared to photos is that you cannot tag friends in videos but you can add descriptions as well as captions. Once you have uploaded either photos or videos, you will be asked if you want to view them in the iPhone Facebook app or tell your friends. If you choose to 'tell your friends' an iLoader link and description of how many photos you uploaded will be posted to your wall.
In the settings tab, there are options for logging out of Facebook, changing the theme of the app to one of over 100 different colours and turning sound alerts on or off. The alerts will sound when photos or videos are successfully uploaded. There is also a tutorial video (if you can't quite get the hang of uploading) and an faq/support link.
The Breakdown
The Good: The feature that puts iLoader head and shoulders above any other Facebook uploading app is the multiple uploads. Being able to upload a whole days worth of photos or videos in one go saves so much time that iLoader practically pays for itself. iLoader's interface has been very well thought out and is so easy to use that anyone can use it without too much thinking.
The ability able to add tags, titles and descriptions before uploading is another great feature that makes me love iLoader. The last thing that you will notice when using iLoader, is the speed of the uploads compared to the Facebook app; Even over 3G, multiple photos and videos will upload within minutes.
The Bad:
There are a few things I would like to see improved in iLoader. Firstly, each time you select a photo for upload, there is a slight pause and an 'adding photo' pop-up while it is added to the queue. I would prefer to be able to select multiple photos at once (similar to the iPhone's photos app), then add them all to the queue at once.
The second change is the ability to tag videos. For whatever reason, iLoader doesn't include this feature which is a little bit frustrating as you have to log onto the desktop version of Facebook (because the iPhone doesn't support Facebook video yet) and tag your friends from there.
The final feature that I feel iLoader is missing is the ability to upload videos and photos at the same time. This may not have been clear in what I have written above (nor in the app store description) but you can only upload one type of media at the same time.
You can queue both photos and videos for upload but they have to be uploaded separately which is a little annoying if you have 50 photos and just one video to upload.
