Photoleap Inc. on Monday introduced a new application, Photoleap, that enables users to send multiple high-resolution digital pictures in a compressed form, decreasing download and upload times. Photoleap essentially operates as a separate e-mail browser dedicated to sending and receiving images, complete with the ability to compose new messages, reply to or forward incoming messages and delete old messages. A toolbar button enables the user to add received photos directly to iPhoto. Photoleap seamlessly integrates with iPhoto 4, but owners of earlier versions can still drag and drop images to new messages. A plug-in will be released soon that adds iPhoto 5 compatibility, according to the developer.
The base version of Photoleap is free, but it includes advertising within the application and is limited to sending no more than 25 photos, two megapixels or smaller, to up to 25 recipients per message. The US$29 Plus edition can handle up to 250 images, no more than eight megapixels in size, to as many as 250 other Photoleap users. The $499 Pro version has the same limits on the number of images and recipients as Plus, but the pictures can be up to 16 megapixels and Photoleap said it will soon add the ability to send shots with lossless compression. Mac OS X v10.3 is required.