iCloud Photo Library

How to fix photos not uploading to or downloading from iCloud Photo Library

iCloud Photo Library is one of these great features that you think you don't really need until you actually start using it. One of the promises of the service is that it automatically keeps every photo or video you take in iCloud. These photos and videos can then be accessed from any of your devices, assuming the feature is enabled on these devices. iCloud Photo Library is great... at least when it works as it should.

tvOS 9.2 is here: Dictation, folders, Live Photos, wireless keyboards, iCloud Photo Library & more

tvOS 9.2, a new update for the operating system which powers the fourth-generation Apple TV, is now available for public consumption. The new firmware, released alongside iOS 9.3, OS X El Capitan 10.11.4 and watchOS 2.2, is a very interesting update for the cool new features it brings to the table.

tvOS 9.2 enables several features missing from the initial tvOS release, including long-awaited support for wireless keyboards, dictation, Siri support for App Store searches, app folders on the Home screen, a revamped app switcher, Siri Remote improvements, support for Live Photos and iCloud Photo Library and more.

Poll: how does Google Photos compare to Apple’s Photos app + iCloud Photo Library combo?

Among a flurry of yesterday's announcements at the Google I/O developer conference, the Internet giant launched Google Photos, its brand spanking new photography service available across iOS, Android and on the web. It offers unlimited storage (with a  few caveats) and has many other compelling features that give Apple's iCloud Photo Library a fairly good run for its money.

To name but a few: world-class facial recognition that understands aging, sleek design, fast performance, unmatched search and machine intelligence, the ability to create a movie, collage or animated GIF in seconds and more.

The question is, will you be turning to Google Photos as a backup solution for the media you've amassed on your iOS device? Or, perhaps you'll be sticking with Apple's iCloud Photo Library even though it offers a meager five gigabytes of free cloud storage? Planning on using Google Photos alongside iCloud Photo Library, are we? Not a big fan of either service, you say?

Tell us in today's poll!

iCloud Photo Sharing: one of Apple’s best kept secrets

If you're a frequent reader then you may remember my thoughts on Apple's iCloud Photo Library beta and my lack of faith in Apple and its ability to keep my photos safe. Nobody wants to lose photographs of their kids or loved ones because Apple's cloud solution had a meltdown one day.

And I just don't have any expectation of that not happening at some point.

During my time spent testing iCloud Photo Library I rediscovered one feature that I had actually forgotten about since the days of the iOS 7 betas. It was as feature that I never made great use of at the time because some key members of my family didn't have iPhones, but now that they do, I decided to revisit it.

The feature I am talking about is iCloud Photo Sharing, and it's really rather good.

Will you trust iCloud with your memories?

The big news around the Apple blogs right now is the arrival of the first beta of Apple's new Photos application for the Mac. Coming as part of the OS X 10.10.3 beta of Yosemite, Photos is the long awaited replacement for the aging iPhoto and to some extent, Aperture. In a world where we create gigabytes of photos each and every year, in part thanks to our iPhones, having a way to keep those images organized is vitally important to many of us. Apple thinks Photos, in combination with iCloud, is how we're going to do just that.

But is it right?

Photos for Mac goes from “early 2015” to “available at a later date”

Photos for Mac, a missing piece in the iCloud Photo Library puzzle, has just gotten delayed until later this year.

Last summer, Apple took us by surprise saying it would cease development of Aperture and transition users to Photos for Mac, a new app that was supposed to replace iPhoto on OS X Yosemite as well. But Yosemite came and went and native Photos Mac app was nowhere to be seen.

Apple then gave us a vague new shipping date: “early 2015.” However, the updated wording in this support docs now lists the app as being “available at a later date.”

iCloud.com’s Photos web app gets image zoom function and sharing via email

German enthusiast blog iFun.de has spotted a pair of useful additions concerning the Photos web app on iCloud.com.

Two new features, which were added over the weekend, let you zoom in on an image via a new slider in the toolbar and send photos as email attachments directly from the web UI.

Previously, sharing via email was a tedious multi-step process where you had to download a photo to your computer before attaching it to an email message using a third-party desktop email application or a webmail service.

New report says deep organizational issues are hampering iCloud progress

A new report is out today claiming that Apple's iCloud ambitions are being stymied by a wealth of organizational issues. Jessica Lessin of The Information spoke with roughly a dozen current and former Apple employees, who say these issues are holding up releases and complicating products.

Lessin uses the work-in-progress iCloud photo project—codenamed Hyperion—as an example. First unveiled in 2011, Steve Jobs' vision for seamless photo-syncing has yet to be fully realized. iCloud Photo Library is a step in the right direction, but it missed the initial iOS 8 release and is still in beta.

iCloud Photos app updated with new uploading capabilities

Apple updated its iCloud.com Photos app today, enabling the ability to upload photos. The feature, which developers have been testing on the iCloud beta site for the past two weeks, allows users to upload images to iCloud Photo Library.

Previously, those with iCloud Photo Library enabled in iOS 8 could view, download and delete their photos on iCloud.com, but there was no way to upload them. Now users can upload images—including those not taken with an iOS device.

Apple testing upload functionality on iCloud Photos

As part of yesterday's batch of Apple app refreshes, among them the iMovie for iOS update which has enabled support for iCloud Photo Library and the ability to share videos with iCloud Photo Sharing, Apple has now added upload functionality to a beta version of the iCloud Photos web app available to registered iOS developers.

The features makes it easy to use a desktop computer to upload JPG images using the web interface at beta.icloud.com, making them available on all iOS devices and Macs that have iCloud Photo Library turned on.

Apple updates iMovie for iOS with support for iCloud Photo Library

Apple has posted updates for a number of its iOS apps today including Beats Music, iWork suite and more. Most of the releases are fairly insignificant, with only 'minor stability and performance improvements' listed in their change logs, but iMovie got some extra attention.

In addition to 'performance and stability improvements,' iMovie for iOS received support for iCloud Photo Library and the ability to share videos with iCloud Photo Sharing. Apple also says that it has resolved the issue that occurred when rotating a device in landscape mode.