Photo Stream

How to automatically upload burst photos to My Photo Stream

Sandy Writtenhouse / November 9, 2020

If you’re one who uses the My Photo Stream feature in Photos rather than iCloud, there’s a small setting you might not know about. The setting is to automatically upload burst photos to My Photo Stream and can be quite handy.

Burst photos are terrific for making sure you capture the perfect shot. So instead of just one photo, you can take several with a tap. You then review and keep those you want from the burst. And since you can see and save the images on any device with My Photo Stream, you may want the photos from the bursts there by default.

Here we’ll show you how to automatically upload burst photos to My Photo Stream so you can work with them on iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

How to filter iPhone and Apple Watch screenshots in the Photos app on Mac

Jeff Benjamin / April 18, 2018

As you might imagine, I take tons of screenshots on a weekly basis for work. Instead of connecting my iPhone to my Mac and importing screenshots manually, or instead of using AirDrop, I simply use Photo Stream to do the grunt work.

Photo Stream allows me to access any photo taken with my iPhone, including screenshots, directly from the Photos app on my Mac. Just a few seconds after taking a picture with my iPhone, the photo appears on my Mac. This is great for quickly grabbing iPhone screenshots, and it even allows you to easily access screenshots taken on the Apple Watch.

In this post, I'll show you how I set up a simple Smart Album to separate screenshots—Apple Watch screenshots included—from regular photos.

PhotoAlbums+ for iOS 7: move, secure, and share photos more efficiently

Jeff Benjamin / March 13, 2014

I have to be honest with you and state that for whatever reason, I've never been a big fan of PhotoAlbums+. I've never been big on taking photos with my iPhone, and I certainly don't take photos that I care about hiding from others. That being said, PhotoAlbums+ contains features that jailbreakers should definitely be aware of—features that may help your workflow when it comes to photo management on iOS.

The iOS 7 compatible version of PhotoAlbums+ just recently touched down for both the iPhone and the iPad. Check past the break as we go hands-on in our video walkthrough...

How to prevent iOS screenshots from being uploaded to Photo Stream

Sébastien Page / April 14, 2018

On any given week, I take dozens of screenshots of my iPhone or iPad for either personal reason, or as part of my workflow at iDB. For each post I publish involving an app for example, there are at least two screenshots, as you can see above.

Of course, every time you take a screenshot on your iOS device, it is automatically uploaded to your iCloud Photo Stream. Over time, these screenshots can be really annoying and distracting, especially if, like me, you use your Photo Stream as the screen saver of your Apple TV.

Thankfully, a jailbreak tweak called Screenshot Dam is available to stop screenshots from uploading to Photo Stream automatically...

How to easily turn an iPhone photo album into a public website

Cody Lee / March 15, 2018

Did you know you can easily create a web page containing some of the photos taken with your iPhone or iPad?

I've been using an iPhone since the first one launched in 2007. And in that time, I feel like I've learned most of the ins and outs of iOS. Like many of you, I'm the one friends and family come to with their tech questions.

But I'll be the first to admit I don't know everything about Apple's mobile OS, as I learn new stuff everyday. And recently, I found out that you can turn your Photo Streams into websites, viewable by anyone, in just a few easy steps.

This little-known feature is a great way to easily share pictures with friends and family, even if they don't own an iPhone. Learn how to turn a photo album into a public website with this tutorial.

How to have iOS screenshots automagically appear in your Mac’s Finder

Christian Zibreg / January 27, 2013

I've always loved the simplified iOS approach to screenshot taking just by pressing the power and home button simultaneously. This oft-used feature works in absolutely any app and, as an added bonus, iOS stores my screenies in the Camera Roll as crisp, lossless PNG files.

An indispensable part of my daily blogging workflow, I grab app graphics on a daily basis for use in reviews, news articles and guides such as this one. The old-school approach to syncing iOS screenshots (along with your photos) entails connecting your device to a Mac or PC via USB. But if you're anything like me, you've long cut the cord to enjoy the benefits of wireless sync.

Now, iCloud makes photo sync a no-brainer: that is, unless the very thought of firing up iPhoto or Aperture on your Mac just to access your Photo Stream drives you nuts.

There must be a better way to bypass these resource-intensive apps and have the screenshots taken on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch automagically appear just a mouse click away in your Mac's Finder. Read on for the full breakdown...

iOS 6: Shared Photo Streams

Jeff Benjamin / June 26, 2012

Shared Photo Streams is a new feature in iOS 6 that allows you to selectively share photo albums with friends and family of your choosing. Unlike the My Photo Stream feature which is geared only towards individual photo sharing amongst iOS devices and computers owned by you, Shared Photo Streams brings a social element to iOS photography.

The streaming element comes from the fact that you can dynamically add or remove photos from a shared album and they will almost instantaneously appear or disappear on demand. Album viewers can also comment and like your photos, and you will receive push notifications any time someone does so.

Take a look at our full video walkthrough above for a look into how Shared Photo Streaming works.

Shared Photo Streams coming to iOS 6

Jeff Benjamin / June 11, 2012

Photo Stream has always been a nice feature, but it's always felt a bit limited, because you can't currently share your Streams with other iOS users. Now all of that is about to change with iOS 6.

Shared Photo Streams will allow you to share you photos on the fly with selected iOS users. This could be a great feature to keep family and friends in touch with what's going on in your life...

We’re giving away 10 copies of PhotoAlbums+

Cody Lee / May 2, 2012

We've talked about PhotoAlbums+ a couple of times here on iDB over the past two years. The tweak adds a host of features to the stock Photos app like the ability to create password-protected albums on the fly.

Well the developers just released a major update to PhotoAlbums+, adding new PhotoStream controls to the package. And even better, they've given us 10 free copies to giveaway to our awesome readers! Read on...

Forget iPhoto, save all of your Photo Stream photos to a folder on OS X

Cody Lee / February 11, 2012

One of my favorite components of iCloud is Photo Stream. I love having instant access to all of my photos on both my iPhone and iPad. Having instant access to my photos on my laptop is awesome too, but there is one major caveat.

You see, to access your Photo Stream photos on your Mac computer, you have to go through iPhoto — which I hate. It takes forever to load and the UI is terrible. Luckily, I've just come across a software-free way to access my Photo Stream photos on my computer...

‘3G Unrestrictor 5’ is More Proof That the iPhone 4S Jailbreak is Imminent

Jeff Benjamin / January 16, 2012

Need more proof that the iPhone 4S jailbreak is right round the corner? Then look no further than 3G Unrestrictor 5, the first tweak to our knowledge that outright claims support for the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 on its Cydia page.

3G Unrestrictor is a tweak that enables FaceTime calls and high quality YouTube streams over 3G. Its latest update brings iCloud Backups, and Photo Stream to the world of 3G as well.

It's on sale for a limited time for $0.99 (existing customers), so if you think you're going to need its services, especially on your newly jailbroken iPhone 4S, you might want to take a look inside.

Acer’s New PictStream and Cloud Services Look Awfully Familiar

Cody Lee / January 9, 2012

Last night, during its CES keynote, Taiwan-based manufacturer Acer announced that it was getting into the cloud business. Dubbed AcerCloud, the service will allow users to keep content synced between their phones, tablets and computers.

Now, we're not trying to jump to any conclusions here. But there's something about the service that looks awfully familiar. We can't quite put our finger on it, but it seems like we've seen this service and, come to think of it, these slides before...