Photo time stamping just not an option? - HTC EVO 3D

I just emailed HTC about it. I even had to send a photo I took with my Hero with time stamping enabled to show them what I meant. The only thing they can tell me is that it just isn't an option on the Evo 3D. They also told me to look on the market for an app that'll let me add that functionality. Is there such a thing?
I'm adding the same example photo I sent to HTC in this post, so everyone will know what I mean by time/date stamping.
I really don't get why it isn't a standard option.
I was going to add a poll to see how many of you out there think this should be an option added to the camera app, but I can't seem to figure out how to add a poll. lol

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Isn't the timestamp simply part of the metadata tags built into the image file?

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saltorio said:
Isn't the timestamp simply part of the metadata tags built into the image file?
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...what he said. Unless you actually want an old school red/orange timestamp on top of your photo? Might find an app for that on the Market, who knows?

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dumasauce said:
Unless you actually want an old school red/orange timestamp on top of your photo? Might find an app for that on the Market, who knows?
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the sample photo he posted above contains a text colored timestamp on the bottom right hand corner.
i do think it is very odd the camera app does not provide an option for a timestamp and i too have used this feature in the past and think its a good idea.
odd they didn't add that feature. i hadn't noticed until i read this post and checked my camera app .. def no option to put a timestamp on the lower right corner of the photo.

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joeykrim said:
the sample photo he posted above contains a text colored timestamp on the bottom right hand corner.
i do think it is very odd the camera app does not provide an option for a timestamp and i too have used this feature in the past and think its a good idea.
odd they didn't add that feature. i hadn't noticed until i read this post and checked my camera app .. def no option to put a timestamp on the lower right corner of the photo.
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But again, how is a time stamp on the actual photo a benefit over including the time stamp in the image file metadata?
Back when photos were on film, burning the time stamp into the photo itself was the only way to know when it was taken. But these things are digital. Metadata is a much more elegant way to track all sorts of information (like geo tags) associated with a photo, and it's how all the information is stored in the photos the EVO 3D (and pretty much every other digital camera device) takes. Most photo organization software (like most MP3 software) makes extensive use of meta tags for sorting and searching your files. And it doesn't muddy up your images to boot.

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saltorio said:
But again, how is a time stamp on the actual photo a benefit over including the time stamp in the image file metadata?
Back when photos were on film, burning the time stamp into the photo itself was the only way to know when it was taken. But these things are digital. Metadata is a much more elegant way to track all sorts of information (like geo tags) associated with a photo, and it's how all the information is stored in the photos the EVO 3D (and pretty much every other digital camera device) takes. Most photo organization software (like most MP3 software) makes extensive use of meta tags for sorting and searching your files. And it doesn't muddy up your images to boot.
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to illustrate the otherside of the viewpoint you've expressed and address your question.
i guarantee not every android user understands metadata, nor knows how to use/where to find it. i find it comical imaging my parents trying to locate the metadata of a picture they took on their phone.
for those people who still print out their images and want to scrapbook/put in photo albums, they might prefer having the time/date stamped on the front of the image itself.
some people prefer timestamps printed on their photos and some people do not. having or not having timestamps on photos is a matter of personal preference and is a legit request as an option, especially given i've had the option of printing timestamps on the images i've taken with previous android phones.

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joeykrim said:
to illustrate the otherside of the viewpoint you've expressed and address your question.
i guarantee not every android user understands metadata, nor knows how to use/where to find it. i find it comical imaging my parents trying to locate the metadata of a picture they took on their phone.
for those people who still print out their images and want to scrapbook/put in photo albums, they might prefer having the time/date stamped on the front of the image itself.
some people prefer timestamps printed on their photos and some people do not. having or not having timestamps on photos is a matter of personal preference and is a legit request as an option, especially given i've had the option of printing timestamps on the images i've taken with previous android phones.
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Well then go to the official HTC Community forums and make the request.
My X10 didn't have the ability to print time stamps on the photos, neither does my wife's text messaging phone. I'm not even sure if either of our digital cameras (a Digital Rebel, and a Canon point-and shoot) have that capability. All I'm saying is people have to move with the march of technology.
And on a related note: can you imagine your parents even having an EVO 3D?

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Here's something. Wouldn't it be possible to just take the setting from the most recent Sense before Sense 3 and add it to the settings in our present camera app?
I'm no programmer, (or I'd just attempt it myself, lol). Just putting it out there so maybe someone will consider it.
The reason for time/date stamping ON the photo in addition to the metadata is the fact that most people, at least in my opinion, when attempting to retrieve the date of a certain photo on the internet, would rather just see it printed right on the photo than have to download the image and look for it in the image info.
Now I'm not sure if I'm just missing it when attempting this or not, but I went to a random site, right clicked on an image and went to View Image Info, and didn't see anything at all about a date or time the image was taken. Only when I actually download the image then go to Properties>Details do I see an actual date/time.
I didn't mean for this to be a debate or anything. Just feel it's wrong not to even give the option anymore. It's not like something like that takes up a lot or space or processing power, or even time processing the photo.

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I think It's cool when you need to provide a day and time for a pic that you want to upload online.

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johnequickiii said:
Here's something. Wouldn't it be possible to just take the setting from the most recent Sense before Sense 3 and add it to the settings in our present camera app?
I'm no programmer, (or I'd just attempt it myself, lol). Just putting it out there so maybe someone will consider it.
The reason for time/date stamping ON the photo in addition to the metadata is the fact that most people, at least in my opinion, when attempting to retrieve the date of a certain photo on the internet, would rather just see it printed right on the photo than have to download the image and look for it in the image info.
Now I'm not sure if I'm just missing it when attempting this or not, but I went to a random site, right clicked on an image and went to View Image Info, and didn't see anything at all about a date or time the image was taken. Only when I actually download the image then go to Properties>Details do I see an actual date/time.
I didn't mean for this to be a debate or anything. Just feel it's wrong not to even give the option anymore. It's not like something like that takes up a lot or space or processing power, or even time processing the photo.
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i didn't want a debate either so i stopped replying as it was clearly off topic.
copying the settings file from a previous sense version of camera which supports the time/stamp, *could* work, assuming the current camera.apk supports time/stamping and they just forget/intentionally didnt add it to the options menu inside the camera.apk.
i dont have a previous sense phone, like the EVO, handy to pull the camera settings file from /data/data ..
on the EVO3D the settings file is: /data/data/com.android.camera/shared_prefs/com.android.camera_preferences.xml
an example adb pull command to copy it to the local computer:
adb pull /data/data/com.android.camera/shared_prefs/com.android.camera_preferences.xml c:\com.android.camera_preferences.xml
i do wonder how adding time stamping to the picture would work in 3d mode ... i wonder if that presented an issue so they scrapped it ... just speculating!

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joeykrim said:
i do wonder how adding time stamping to the picture would work in 3d mode ... i wonder if that presented an issue so they scrapped it ... just speculating!
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Ya know, I never thought of that as a potential reason for leaving it out. That's probably it too, not that we could get an official answer to it though, so speculation will have to do, but I do think you have it right.
I DID hear early on in the threads that it was possible that panorama and burst mode, among other things, weren't acting right for one reason or another, and those functions were pulled right before release. Makes sense that panorama or burst wouldn't work right either in 3D, so it stands to reason.
Still though, it would've been nice to have those options for 2D pictures. It's a shame they couldn't figure out how to disable those options when the 3D switch was flipped, if any of this is really the case even. lol
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA App