Ascendo Photos is a nifty little application that lets you load photos from your PC to your BlackBerry using the same data cable that you probably already use for synchronization. The software has two parts: the photo viewer on the BlackBerry, and the Photos Desktop, which loads the pictures onto the device.

I downloaded the trial version, unzipped it, and installed it in a snap using the BlackBerry Desktop Manager. Then I launched the Ascendo Photos Desktop on my PC, browsed over to MyPictures, and uploaded some pictures to my BlackBerry. Very easy, very quick. And now pictures of my family were staring at me from my 7100. Very cool.

The Ascendo Photos Desktop was a breeze to use. It has some intuitive controls to pan and zoom your picture, allowing you to frame it just right for display on the device. It automatically detects the device type and uses an appropriate emulator for your screen size, so you can see what the picture will look like after you transfer it. This level of control is really usefull for getting the most from your BlackBerry screen size.

After you have uploaded your pictures, you use the Ascendo Photos on the BlackBerry to create galleries and organize your photos. You can run through a slideshow of your images, selecting different types of transition effects and time intervals between pictures. The photo viewer also functions as a screen saver, automatically displaying a rotating display of photos after a specified time.

I was very pleased with this application. It was easy to install and intuitive to use. There is a User’s Manual that downloaded with the application, but I never needed to use it. The desktop portion of the application that lets me preview how the image will look on my device before loading is tremendously useful. I also like the fact that I can load the image directly over my sync cable. One minor nit is that the minimum time between slides in a slideshow is 4 seconds. I’d prefer an even shorter interval. Don’t really like to dawdle when I show off pictures.

I particularly like this application for when I travel. I alway take a few family pictures along with me when I’m away on business, but because most of my pictures are digital, I’m stuck with the few prints I had made for Christmas cards last year. Now I can just upload the most recent photos to a gallery and they are at my fingertips whenever I want to bore my seatmate on the airplane with pictures of my kids.

Ascendo Photos is a well put-together application that is an essential addition to any BlackBerry. It retails for $29.95 here.

## This Article Was Originally Published by AllBlackBerry.com