Photostream to Mac without iPhoto '11 - via Windows 8

There was a widely circulated tip for creating a Photostream folder on a Mac that didn't need iPhoto open, but you need iPhoto '11 - I think this is the original source, http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20120120073300575.

I really don't want to pay the £10.99 upgrade fee (from '09) as I don't use iPhoto for anything and just want my pictures from my iOS devices on my mac. So, I've got a Windows 8 VM in virtual box and have got the Windows' iCloud Utility to download the images onto the VM's desktop. I then drag the files over to a folder hosted on my mac but the files lose the 'Date Taken' field which means I don't know when any of the photos were taken.

A9wd3_jpg_medium

via oi49.tinypic.com

Is there any way I can automate the files' data to be updated with the 'Date Taken' field in such a way that the information is accessible in Finder, or is the information already there and I can't see it?