📸 Cool new photo features in iOS 15

Apple's new OS brings better auto videos, easier photo shares

KNX anchor Karen Adams asked me this the other day on the radio: “What about those great Labor Day sales” for new tech gifts?

Good questions, but nope Karen, Labor Day isn’t the pre-cursor to Black Friday and deal season. It is, however, the final curtain to summer and the entry-way to the fourth quarter and all those cool new tech products from Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and others.

But instead of telling you about new stuff you’ll need to buy to keep up, how about a preview of a totally free product instead?

Every September Apple updates its iOS iPhone operating system with new features that bring more stability and security to your device, but more importantly, make it more fun to use. It’s a free way to bring cool new stuff to your older phone as well. Like getting a new iPhone without having to go out and buy one.

So today, a preview of Apple’s iOS 15, which I expect to be available sometime around 9/15, from a photographer’s perspective. Or, in other words, anyone who enjoys taking photos on an iPhone. Because there are several new features worth getting excited about. And again, they’re free.

(Quick note: most of the features will work with the latest iPhones, but not all, as USA TODAY points out. Apple says the iOS will work with iPhones going back to the 6S.)

The marquee features of iOS15 include the ability to watch entertainment with other folks together on FaceTime and have a digital version of your driver’s ID honored, which I noted in-depth the other day.

✈️ Show your driver's ID on iPhone

📸 For us shutterbugs, the high-level summary: better automatic movies from your photos, the ability to convert words from photos into text and more information about your images.

TEXT PHOTOS

The most useful feature of iOS 15 is so simple. How much do you hate the bother of trying to save photos that are texted to you? 

The old way: put your finger on the photos and wait for the Save button to appear. Then hope it makes it to the camera roll in the photos app. 

New way: there’s a share tab right next to the photo in the iMessages app, as well as a new “shared with you” album in your camera roll of texted photos. 

Like why didn’t Apple think of this years ago? 

MEMORIES

If you’re like most folks, you love shooting video and photos on your smartphone, but you never get around to the bother of editing them. Apple knows this, and it has gone to great lengths to create automatically produced sizzle reels of our trips, friends and family. But most of us never look at them.

So with the new iOS, Apple has upgraded its transitions, animated cards and collage styles for “a cinematic feel” to the Memories. You will be able to dramatically upgrade the sound quality by adding licensed songs from your Apple Music subscription for the soundtrack. Or you could continue using tunes from Apple’s canned music library.  

The new Memories do look way better, and unlike in previous iOS versions, they are easier to share on social media and in e-mail. I’ve always hated the automatic videos Facebook and Google created on my behalf, because I couldn’t alter them. Apple has introduced the ability to do slight edits on the videos, switching out the automatically selected song suggestions and deleting photos you don’t want shown that Apple has added to your production. This is cool.

LIVE TEXT

Apple has added the ability to copy text from a photo and send the words  to an e-mail or document, which is incredibly useful if you take pictures of recipes or the like. (Google added this to Android several years ago. Just sayin’.)

INFO PLEASE

A new feature that probably won’t get much play at first, because it’s not really totally ready for prime time is an information tab you can click on under the photo to reveal the download about artwork, landmarks, pet breeds and flower types. In my tests, I was able to find the breed of a dog shown in a photo as well as a flower type. Some landmarks popped, others didn’t. I didn’t make it to a museum this week to check out the artwork feature. Blame it on COVID.

EXIF

More importantly, for photographers, we finally get EXIF information listed in the Camera Roll, which tells us which of the iPhone lenses we used, what our automatic exposure was, and this is fantastic, the file name of the photo. This basic info hasn’t been available in previous IOS editions and it really helps when I want to search for the photo on my computer. Knowing what it’s called is a lot more useful than just looking for that photo of the Manhattan Beach Pier. 

Apple historically releases the new iOS about a week before the release of the new iPhones. Bloomberg pegs Sept. 14th as the likely date for Apple to announce the 2021 iPhone lineup, and Sept. 24th for their release. 

Last year iOS14 was released on Wednesday, September 14, so I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict the final release of iOS15 for Wednesday, Sept. 15th. 

But if you’d like to download it now, like I did, the beta version is available here: 

https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/

P.S. Speaking of iOS 15, that controversial new feature we wrote about here that would see Apple snooping on your iCloud photos in the name of child safety, has been paused, for the time being. The outcry was just too loud.

Celebrating the Ginger Jinxes

My friend Ginger let me know the other day that last Wednesday was National Ginger Cat Day, so in honor, we celebrate out favorite Ginger Jinxes:

Mike Richards

No tech or photo angle here, but just wonderin’. Mike Richards was ousted this week as executive producer of TV’s Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, after earlier losing his gig as the new host of Jeopardy! If you read any of the articles, you surmised that Richards treated some women poorly, said awful things about many people on his podcast, and is hated by the Internet for engineering what appeared to be a rigged contest to install himself as the successor to the beloved Alex Trebek.

So in other words, per all the stories, Richards was one awful person with no redeeming qualities. The online pile-on was brutal.

But someone liked him enough to give him the gig. And to keep him employed even with weeks of controversy.

So I have to wonder what things were like on his last day when he was packing up? Did anyone come up to him and say “Hey, you’ll be missed,” or “Sorry to see you go?”

Or was the scene like the January 6th riot with everyone if the offices screaming at him, as he fled in horror?

Tweet of the week

Jefferson Graham @jeffersongraham

Good morning Friday! Hello Labor Day weekend! #photowalkstv

September 3rd 2021

3 Likes

Thanks as always for taking the time to read, watch and listen. Enjoy what you saw today? Let me know with a HEART tab or just by replying. Big thanks to Lenny and Donna for weighing in last week on the $508 doctor visit issue. Glad I’m not alone on this! Happy Labor Day everyone!

Jeff