iPhoto or Aperture to use PhotoStream?

After getting a new solid state hard drive and getting most things set up. I didn't realize you had to have either iPhoto or Aperture to use PhotoStream. I was actually trying to get away without having to install iLife (iPhoto) because I've not had a very good experience with it.

Are there any other ways to be able to use PhotoStream without having iPhoto/Aperture?

$79.99 for Aperture in the App Store...pretty sure I don't want to buy it at that price. It might be better but it's look like it does way more than I'd ever need it for. I don't do any photo editing or anything, hell I don't even use iPhoto or iLife for anything other than what I guess is keep PhotoStream working.

Plus it appears from some of the comments that Aperture is slow in Lion and that was a big problem I have with iPhoto.

Damn!

xxBURT0Nxx said:

i mean if all you want is your photostream to appear on your mac just use iPhoto, it's not that bad, but if you want to organize and edit your photos, Aperture is way better imo.

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Yeah, that's all I want was to organize my photos. However whenever I would use iPhoto I get a lot of spinning beach balls, way too often.

I started using Picasa because of that but haven't used it to even say that it's good or bad.

Bear said:

I read differing opinions about the speed of Aperture - it all depends on your system configuration (especially memory) and what type of editing you are doing.

If I'm reading what you say correctly, Photo Stream is not what you want. Photo Stream only stores (for up to 30 days) 1000 photos. It is not an organizer.

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Yes you're correct. I doesn't bother me what kind of photo organizing software it is...as long as it works. I was just trying to keep from using iPhoto with my new configuration (if I could) and PhotoStream was something a little extra that was OK to use with my iPhone.

newagemac said:

What version of iPhoto were you using? I have the latest version and on my 2010 Mac Mini (base model), iPhoto is pretty fast. In fact it is faster in Lion than it was in Snow Leopard. I do have 8GB of RAM in it though. Your available RAM is an important factor with anything managing photos because the images get cached in RAM for faster viewing.

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Not sure of the version but is from iLife '11 with all of the updates.