Pros & Cons
For a long time I had my reservations about Adobe's photo syncing service, Revel, which previously went by the name Carousel. A roadblock to its success as I saw it was that, early on, the only mobile OS it supported was iOS, for which it duplicated the functionality of Apple's iCloud Photo Stream—which didn't carry Revel's $5.99-a-month fee. What iCloud didn't—and still doesn't—offer is Web-based galleries and video uploads. Not only does Revel have both those capabilities (though, unfortunately, the video bit isn't supported by the Windows 8 app), but there's also a free option. And Revel no longer locks you into Apple's ecosystem, with mobile clients for Android, the Web, and now Windows 8.
Install and Setup
As with any new-style Windows 8 apps, you get Revel from the Windows Store. Unfortunately, it only works on x86- and x64-based CPUs, not on the ARM-based RT tablets; it requires 2GB minimum RAM. I installed the app on a Surface Pro tablet with a dual-core 1.7GHz Core i5 processor and 4GB RAM, and it ran just as speedily as I could have wanted.To use Revel, you need to create or sign in to an Adobe account, as the appealing welcome page notes. You can also sign in via Facebook. I mentioned the free account, but with that you're limited to just 50 photo uploads per month. The $5.99-a-month paid account allows unlimited uploads.
Uploading
Revel's Auto Import option, accessed through the app's Settings charm, uploads photos as soon as they appear in a specified folder, the most likely candidate for which is the Pictures folder, where photos you shoot with the Windows 8 device are saved. So for Windows 8, Revel can act like iCloud Photo Stream. Of course, you could also set up a Windows 8 device to upload to SkyDrive. There's no camera mode in the Windows 8 Revel app, though, so you can't add photos from within the app as you can in Revel for iOS.Similar Products
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Another big thing that the iPhone version of Revel can do that the Windows 8 version can't: Upload videos. Any video entries in your Windows 8 Revel app appear as still photos, and no editing or playing is possible. Adobe may take note that SkyDrive options in Windows 8.1 let users have their photos and videos automatically uploaded to a folder on SkyDrive, which, by the way, offers very respectable online galleries itself.
Viewing
Revel's very simple initial interface just shows two options, Library and Albums. The first lets you select among any Revel, Photoshop.com or remaining Carousel libraries attributed to your Adobe account login. Creating new libraries requires a paid account. Calling up the app bar presents options for adding photos to an Album, sharing to Facebook (more on that in the Sharing section below), deleting, viewing in "Card view" which presents a pleasing, swipeable post-card style view of your photos. You can also add media or change the sort order.
I could swipe a finger or thumb to quickly move through gallery photos, but I couldn't pinch to switch back to album view, as I could in the default Windows Pictures app. For high-res photos, the final sharp image took a couple seconds to crystallize, but the app doesn't show you that it's sill loading, so you might think you had a not perfectly focused shot. I also missed the ability to see any photo metadata—even the filename!
Far from offering a full social photo community and tagging like Flickr does, the Revel for Windows 8 app doesn't even let you add the comments and favorites as the service's iPhone and Web apps do.
Final Thoughts
