I second this. An m3u\pls for photos :
- order of photos + timing
- comment\caption for photo (+ formatting info)
- transitions

Wow and I was just riffing.

Do you mean an extension on EXIF? Why is EXIF not suitable? Would one keep the metadata in the 'photo browser'?

Dude... I cannot believe I forgot about EXIF! There's a lot of potential in that spec and Maemo devices are just the ones to fully exploit it!

EDIT: but EXIF needs to be updated, to include video and higher color depths...

EDIT 2: Maybe XMP is the solution... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensi...adata_Platform

When producing media on a mobile device, you'd always need to take into account a greater perspective. Files are consumed later, sent to some online services, further processed by more powerful software on more capable hardware and so on. If we are encoding particular metadata, it would be nice to keep compatibility with other software that is ought to use those data elements. Afterall, what's the reason to put for example location information if it could not be decoded later by other applications?

So on Maemo media applications front we are looking to follow what is established already as first step. IPTC's IIM, as exposed in EXIF and XMP is probably OK for stills, video metadata is more uncertain. While there is already "industrial standard" regarding video metadata, it is used in much lesser degree than for example iTunes metadata.

It would be good to unify video metadata access/creation behind common interface and support all posible alternatives. I can already witness headache working with all variations in their own way and then maintaining sync between multiple representations for the same image or video.

Nice. For mixing photos one could use existing frameworks such as Libvisual or maybe hooks used by VJ software such as LiVES (there is a lot more VJ software for *NIX). The point here is that you're basically making a video stream out of static photos using automation from metadata (EXIF, XMP, user defined) and effects to 'mix' them together. The process is similar to VJing, just the target audience and produced work is not. For example, this demo is mostly a video (made using LiVES ~6 years ago). Can you imagine the output being less video/motion_picture (due to input; more photos) but still with nice effects to blend from one photo to another?

On Fremantle there is MAFW to allow multiple ways to "play"/"render" multiple sources. MAFW provides ways to combine both sources and renderers together and maintain play lists for them. Nokia's mediaplayer on Maemo5 uses MAFW internally.

If you have need to implement transitions, this could be one approach: write a renderer for MAFW that takes a playlist of photos, then displays transitions while playing out that list. You can have multiple renderers stacked as well.

Think about GPS-enriched postcards. I'm traveling, I come to a really cool spot, and want to share with friends and family. I take a picture, and along with that is captured the coordinates along with other relevant metadata. I then send it out.

When a recipient opens the postcard, the client app digs into the accounts the recipient has opened access to (default airlines, hotel chains, personal schedule) and builds a potential travel plan. The client app would also pull in special events and deals surrounding the postcard's coordinates, finding slots in the recipient's schedule for those. The originator and/or recipient(s) could network with others to arrange a group travel event.

This would have business applications as well...

This is essentially what was demonstrated in NRC's prototype they have shown in the Linked UI concept: http://research.nokia.com/research/linkedui

I see no problems for doing this, except in existing GNU/Linux environments you rarely have all information available in unified way. In Maemo 5 some attempt has been to provide common data store and access through Tracker. Hopefully, this will get to larger use among apps as Tracker continues to evolve with Harmattan.

I think Ovi could help enable this...