Ah, yes. I remember them well. The holiday slide night; that 1960s and 1970s institution in which families the world over would invite the neighbourhood in for a fun-filled evening of viewing badly taken, mostly blurry, holiday snaps being projected onto a wrinkled (at least in my house) white sheet hanging precariously from the living room wall.
All highly embarrassing, of course. "Look, there's junior falling into the pool," dad would intone because he was the self-appointed narrator of the evening, not to mention the projectionist.
"And there's me following him in. And mum was next because she was laughing so hard and lost her balance. It's a good thing Sally was the one taking the pictures. Um, you really had to be there. It was hilarious."
But dad's entertaining remarks weren't enough to keep the neighbours awake. The monotonous click-click of the projector moving over to the next slide coupled with the darkened room to enhance the viewing experience simply added to the soporific atmosphere as hundreds of slides were put through their paces.
If any of you were born pre-1975, you probably experienced the boredom of at least one holiday slide night.
Which is why I'm envious of the 21st-century child, who lives in a hi-tech world in which slide nights don't exist. Instead, they have a range of social-networking sites at their disposal and can choose the pictures they want to view at random.
But even today, there's still that same risk of overkill. Which is where Kodak Gallery (free; iPhone, coming soon to Android) comes in.
The app
Do you have friends on Facebook who upload every photo they've ever taken? And do you really need to see them all? Kodak Gallery thinks not, allowing you to download your photos onto its app and to filter them through to friends and family, either by e-mail or sites such as Facebook and Twitter. So you get to choose who sees what and you save everybody hours of sifting through hundreds of snapshots of your recent adventures. Send grandma the sweet ones you know she'll approve of and your mum nothing from that Metallica concert last month; that's an album better reserved for your friends, especially that picture of you crowd surfing the mosh pit.
The details
Kodak Gallery is a relatively simple app to use. Simply register, set up your gallery, create an album/s, upload your pictures and let your friends and family know that they can contribute to them. You can resize your pictures and even ask your friends and family to join albums. Just remember not to send too many. After all, it's a sure bet that your mum is a Facebook friend and she really doesn't need to know that her Gen X child is still hanging out in mosh pits.
Have some great personal finance apps that you want to share? Write to Curt Brandao at cbrandao@thenational.ae
