AcidImage 20x Faster on Palm OS 5

Posted By: Ryan Wednesday, January 15, 2003 12:59:21 AM

Red Mercury, LLC, has updated AcidImage to version 2.4. Updates include native ARM optimizations and new security features. AcidImage is a image viewer that supports many formats including jpeg files. Palm OS 5 users will notice significant performance increase with the new version.

AcidImage utilizes full ARMlet support for regular and progressive JPEGs. JPEG image files now load 10 to 20 times faster on OS 5 devices such as the Tungsten and Clie NX series.

Added security features include the option to mark selected images and image groups private and require password access. Users also have the option to hide or mask private images files.

A free 15-day demo of AcidImage is available for download on the Red Mercury web site. The full version is also available on the company’s site for $19.95 U.S. per license. AcidImage, runs on all Palm Powered handhelds with Palm OS 3.5 or higher.

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JPG made usable

McMagnus @ 1/15/2003 2:54:53 AM #

Wow! JPG just got usable on my Palm. At last I can delete those big IMG... files.

RE: JPG made usable

musnat @ 1/19/2003 4:49:17 PM #

Problem with these applications are that, they don't integrate well with other apps. They have one specific purpose and that's all they do. However I think, if they publish how they work and open the way to other developers for integration, then I think they would be really really useful.

Best image viewer yet, but misses one important aspect...

Lidocaineus @ 1/15/2003 4:55:33 AM #

I like this image viewer better than SplashPhoto (better interface), but there's no IR/Bluetooth send option!! I just emailed them a feature request saying I'd register if they included that. I suggest everyone else do the same!

Yes I know exiting out and beaming it manually is an option, but if you're gonna pay for an image viewer, it better be worth it, you know what I mean?

Still not as fast as SplashPhoto

asiayeah @ 1/15/2003 7:03:25 AM #

AcidImage is good as it contains zoom and panning functions. Otherwise the SplashPhoto still beats its speed.

Zooming is quite fast on the AcidImage, but panning is still very slow considering the high speed of the ARM processors.

Tony Cheung

--
With great power comes great responsiblity.

RE: Still not as fast as SplashPhoto

IanJD @ 1/15/2003 7:34:44 AM #

However, Splashphoto does not deal with some larger images well, presumably running out of memory.

RE: Still not as fast as SplashPhoto

Wuju @ 1/15/2003 8:49:27 AM #

Acturally AcidImage running on my TT produce a bug where it says ran out of memory to display the thunbnail view of 20 images. I have about 100 images on my SD card and this shows up around the 50th ones where the thumbnail images become a blackbox with a question mark. I've downloaded the latest version already and I thought this would have been fix since I reported the same bug on the previous beta version but not fixed yet.

PicturePlus

Yonic @ 1/15/2003 9:08:10 AM #

If you think AcidImage is fast, try PicturePlus, now THAT'S speed.
Besides that, acidimage require 5mb free space on my rom to handle 3 mega pixel image, while pictureplus works fine with much lower free rom.

RE: Still not as fast as SplashPhoto

^fidodido^ @ 1/15/2003 9:13:17 AM #

I'm yearning to see one of those using the DSP beneath the TT. AFAIK, all of them use the main ARM processor to decode JPEGs.

RE: Still not as fast as SplashPhoto

hkklife @ 1/15/2003 9:31:26 AM #

Yup, I also had a problem with Acidimage running out of memory for thumbnails...I've got about 120 images and 3.8 mb free main ram on my T|T. On the latest build of SplashPhoto, I've note encountered a single problem as far as viewing images or running out of memory. I just wish it had a zoom feature built in! I've already e-mailed them about this and they actually recommend AcidImage! Talk about developer complacency! Seems like they are content to sit happily at the #2 spot. Also, the interface on SplashPhoto's not bad at all, IMHO.

RE: Still not as fast as SplashPhoto

asiayeah @ 1/15/2003 9:42:32 AM #

It's interesting to compare SplashPhoto and AcidImage. BTW, I've also just reported the "out of memory" bug with the thumbview of AcidImage to the developer. I didn't know it's such a well-known bug.

Tony Cheung

--
With great power comes great responsiblity.

RE: Still not as fast as SplashPhoto

sandbuck @ 1/15/2003 11:31:18 AM #

I've been playing with all three. My ranking:

1. SplashPhoto - starts faster; taking a cue from Palm's UI strategy, it gets you between pics faster, and gets you around the app faster. Best replacement for the old picture flipper in your wallet.
2. AcidImage - much better featureset than SplashPhoto. Best for enjoying pics solo.
3. Picture plus - navigation in this app is harder than it should be. No real advantages over the other two.

RE: Still not as fast as SplashPhoto

hkklife @ 1/15/2003 6:11:33 PM #

I agree to the above rankings as well. I've registered Splash Photo, after much debating and testing with about every image viewer out there and it's the best possible viewer out there now, IMHO.

PS for those of you using a palm without VFS capabilities and the Photosuite Mobile, then I did a few quick tests and it seems that images converted to pdb format and stored in main ram (with resolution, color depth etc the same) are a good bit smaller using Splash Photo than they were when using the PhotoSuite desktop app. Just an FYI someone out there might appreciate!

RE: Still not as fast as SplashPhoto

Operator99 @ 1/15/2003 7:52:13 PM #

Just for the record, have both and because I have about 350 pics, I stick with Splash because I get the out of memory problem with Acid Image and like others have e-mailed them about the problem. They were responsive, but it hasn't been fixed. They recommended breaking into smaller directories, but that is a pain. So.. sticking with Splash (faster and no memory problem) for all but those images I really nedd to zoom and scroll. If they fix the memory issue it could become my new best friend.

RE: Still not as fast as SplashPhoto

HiWire @ 1/16/2003 11:33:49 AM #

Speaking of PhotoSuite... I am really starting to hate it. I believe the file format is uncompressed, probably similar to a Bitmap (.bmp) format on the PC - for faster performance on the Palm. It causes my Palm to crash when I am using SilverScreen now; installed either on the MMC card on main RAM.

Also, I think that Roxio (ealier MGI) has no intention of updating the program since nothing has been done about high-resolutions or other features since two years ago.

But it was free with my m505 ;-)

Palm m505 User

RE: Still not as fast as SplashPhoto

HiWire @ 1/20/2003 12:14:30 AM #

Just downloaded the AcidImage 2.4 demo to play with. Decoding JPEG's is surprisingly slow on my m505 - up to 2 minutes for a 170KB file, read off my MMC card. I guess there's a reason why PhotoSuite Mobile's files are non-compressed.

Otherwise the program is very nice, I would get it if I had a faster processor.

Palm m505 User

No Support for the D-Pad on the Tungsten T

Solo @ 1/15/2003 9:50:55 AM #

I hate when major updates comes up and they don't include features for us T|T users that are waiting for.

I am also beta-testing Agendus 6.0 and they are still working on it, but it still isn't built into it.

Come on developpers, give us reasons to give you our hard-earned money

Just like Dire Straits sang so long ago in their hit, Money For Nothing : "I want my, I want my, I want my MTV." Same thing now, but different lyrics : " I want my MP3 software".

RE: No Support for the D-Pad on the Tungsten T

Wuju @ 1/15/2003 10:04:11 AM #

Very true. Neither Splash or Acid has the nav tool ability of TT built in into their latest version. Love to simply select or scroll throw the thumbnails to view the image using the nav tool in TT instead of using the stylus. What about the ability to scroll through the catergory as well using the nav tool like Launcher X. I'm currently a registered user for SplashPhoto and I hope they will continue to improve it.

RE: No Support for the D-Pad on the Tungsten T

iJITSU @ 1/15/2003 11:48:36 AM #

Actually, it was Sting who sang the "I want my MTV" section of Dire Straights' Money For Nothing. :)

Better for OS 4. as well

Timothy Rapson @ 1/15/2003 2:48:54 PM #

I have been using the lastest AcidImage on my Clie NR70V, and it is much faster AND more stable than the last one I tried.

I am ready to buy it. Cool.

RE: Better for OS 4. as well

cykalan @ 1/21/2003 8:25:35 AM #

only fast on the NR series for OS 4, as NR features a dedicated DSP for handling JPEG decoding.

Alan
----
Read your manuals before you ask!!

20x isn't news

hotpaw4 @ 1/15/2003 2:47:13 PM #

Almost all compute bound applications will show a 20 to 30x speedup when the performance critical sections are converted to armlets and run under OS 5.

When enough applications get converted to ARM code, I'm hoping for an underclocking mode, since you could run an OMAP at around 10 MHz for longer battery life, and still have all your converted apps perform faster than the equivalent versions on a Palm V.