Beamr: Sharing High-Res Photos Easily Without Losing Quality

With every smartphone having a camera and connection to internet, apps such as Instagram and Facebook are swamped by photos uploaded seconds after they are snapped. Due to data traffic limitations, however, most apps compress the images, which drastically reduces their quality. An 8 megapixel photo uploaded to Facebook from a smartphone, for example, is reduced in quality by up to 90 percent.

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Israeli company ICVT, which has gained fame among Mac users with its JPEGmini format, has decided to take its technology on the road with a new app for Apple devices called Beamr. ICVT’s aim is to enable users to share high quality photos just as quickly as one would share them using existing, image-quality-reducing apps.

They achieve that by using their JPEGmini format, which uses a sophisticated algorithm that mimics how the human eye decodes imagery. Basically, the algorithm strips the image of anything that wouldn’t have been processed by the human eye to begin with.

Reducing file size by up to three times

When activating Beamr, the device’s photo library automatically opens, allowing users to easily select which photos they wish to share. The app then bundles the images in a magazine-like format, which carries a customizable title and can be shared via Facebook, Twitter or e-mail. These “magazines” can then be shared and recipients can flip through the high-res photos and download any of them.

ICVT claims that the app reduced file size by up to three times, while still maintaining the original image quality – thus allowing it to be shared on the internet three times faster. “Beamr is setting a new high standard for iPhone photo sharing ease, quantity, speed, resolution and aesthetics and delivers full resolution, original quality photos – even panoramas,” says ICVT CEO Sharon Carmel.

Next stop: high-quality video

The company says that they intend on utilizing their technology for video compression as well, allowing users to share videos of a much higher quality from their smartphones. Beamr is also planning the launch of an Android version for its app.

Headquartered in Tel Aviv, ICVT is a privately-held company

Photo by Beamr