iPhones automatically updated with "Send to Web Gallery" feature

At some point during the Jobsters lenghty unveiling of multifarious technologies today, iPhones across the nation were silently rejiggered (presumably by magical Apple wood-sprites) to allow for use of the just announced "Send to Web Gallery" feature. Whether this was a timed event scheduled into the new 1.0.1 update or an over-the-air transmission from Apple remains to be seen, but it is definitely true that the "fully integrated" web gallery upload option which Mr. Jobs demonstrated at today's press conference is currently available for use on your iPhone. Right now. This second.

[Via TUAW, thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[harveyhanson @ Aug 7th 2007 5:48PM]

Lets wait and see how many apple fanboys rant about how many new features may be 'activated as per a time', or non-fanboys ranting about how noone has any control over when their iphones get updated!

[A Mac Addict @ Aug 7th 2007 9:41PM]

Well, THIS Apple Fan Boy (a term to which I take offence) tells me that this feature was not updated but hidden within the iPhone's OS. So there might be some secrets hidden. Perhaps pictures of jealous Apple non-fan boys, wishing that M$ was that clever with foresight.

[g.Park @ Aug 7th 2007 5:49PM]

Damn Steve.

Well played sir, well played.

[Frankenstein Black @ Aug 8th 2007 12:01PM]

and so the light bulbs illuminate all over the interwebs :^)... They (AT&T and Apple) have just quietly demonstrated why this incessant quest to SIM unlock the iPhone (for real) is pointless. Even without docking your iPhone, “they control the horizontal (OAA), and they control the vertical (OAP)”. Besides, iPhone will be available in EU and Asia soon enough (what, less than 6 months to go?). iPhone aint no PSP. The homebrew/hack smack-down CAN strike at anytime without notice. Scary, isn’t it?

[Q @ Aug 7th 2007 5:50PM]

Must be triggered over there air, because it's not on my phone, and I haven't been on the AT&T network all day.

[Rob @ Aug 7th 2007 6:38PM]

I have been on the AT&T netowrk all day, and I don't have it either...so I'd say it's still up in the air (so to speak)

[Terc @ Aug 7th 2007 8:18PM]

Cry, I dont have it yet either.

[Dripps @ Aug 7th 2007 5:50PM]

How'd they do that? My iPhone is updated. My husbands isn't. We both have .mac accounts.

[Adam @ Aug 7th 2007 5:53PM]

Hm, no update for me yet. Ive been on the network all day, and I dont have a .mac account.

[Nick @ Aug 7th 2007 5:57PM]

Same here, no update.

[adam moss @ Aug 7th 2007 5:54PM]

Ive powered down and ive been full service all day. No update for me.

Do you have to connect a .mac account to the iphone before the update happnes?

[EmoRebellion @ Aug 7th 2007 5:58PM]

Heres an updated from TUAW:

Update: It looks like you must have a .Mac email account set up on your phone for this to work. Also, attempts to send a photo to a gallery result in a prompt to configure .Mac. However, that option is not available on the .Mac hompage. Perhaps iLife '08 must be installed.

[randy @ Aug 7th 2007 7:48PM]

Enough of this. You know, I'm really starting to feel a bit scammed. Upload your photos to a server, but only APPLE's server! Use ITUNES purchases for ringtones and alarm clocks, not your own! (well, praise jesus for ifuntastic). Plug in only APPLE headphones! Enjoy only APPLE's selection of YouTube videos! yada yada yada...

This is getting old!

[John @ Aug 7th 2007 9:18PM]

This is the theme for a large amount of electronics products on the market from all sorts of companies. Some if not all Sony products that have extendable memory can only use Sony's propriety memory sticks. Video game consoles can only play games designed for their console (this is do to different hardware in the consoles of course, but its also a business model plus($$$)). Apple has a business model surrounding the iPhone, just as it does for iMac and its other products. Apple also likes to keep quality in check for its products and ensure a good user experience. This type of behavior is expected from Apple so you shouldn't feel scammed. Otherwise you haven't done your research.

[Harbinger @ Aug 7th 2007 10:18PM]

He hasn't done his research, from all the things he got wrong with his post.

[Don Wilson @ Aug 7th 2007 6:02PM]

Wow, the new iMac is ugly.

[Alvin @ Aug 7th 2007 6:47PM]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll

[Sirocco @ Aug 7th 2007 11:13PM]

Oh, my wig just flipped! Somebody catch it!

[jon_mckinney @ Aug 7th 2007 6:09PM]

Mine isn't updated yet and I've been on the network all day. Haven't had it connected to iTunes in a few days though.

[Lance @ Aug 7th 2007 6:09PM]

Um, no update on my iPhone yet. And I have a .mac email account set up on my phone. I even made it my default account to see if that helps. No dice. Strange. And I'm in Virginia. Maybe being released at different times depending on where you live. Oh well. It will happen eventually.

[Steve @ Aug 7th 2007 6:15PM]

mine hasnt been....yet

[Court Kizer @ Aug 7th 2007 6:19PM]

Seriously the writers for engadget are braindead. Your phone is not magically being pushed an "update", your phone was updated in the last one, you ONLY see the web albums after getting sent a message from the new iPhoto. That's how you get the extra button, it won't show up until then, when it syncs with your updated .Mac account. geeze!!!!

[Alex @ Aug 7th 2007 6:27PM]

Really? That's funny. I have the button, but I don't have the new iPhoto. Nor have I synchronized with anything. My iPhone has been in my pocket all day.

[KC @ Aug 7th 2007 6:24PM]

Wait... where's that $2 bill to activate that feature (remember the wireless N)? Don't they need to do that for accounting purposes?

[ryan @ Aug 7th 2007 6:39PM]

someone hasn't been paying attention ... the whole point of them announcing they would be adding features on a rolling basis and not accounting for all iPhone revenue at the time of sale is so they don't have to charge the incremental fees for new features.

[yoshi @ Aug 7th 2007 6:33PM]

No, it would part of your service contract with AT&T most likely.

[Frostberg @ Aug 7th 2007 6:53PM]

I don't have that on my iPhone yet...engadget and their LIES!!
Over the air trickery...

[Mike Cohen @ Aug 7th 2007 6:55PM]

Mine hasn't been updated. I don't use .Mac email, however (I have it forwarded to gmail, since .Mac's lack of spam filtering makes it useless).

[Pork Rind @ Aug 7th 2007 7:03PM]

If you don't have the .Mac mail account set up on the phone, the button will not appear.

[rich @ Aug 7th 2007 7:24PM]

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Dotmac/WebGallery/en/psh384.html

[Jason @ Aug 7th 2007 7:25PM]

Mine *just* updated. It showed up right after I checked my .Mac mail on my phone. Seems they're just sending something invisibly over the .Mac e-mail service.

Is anyone else pretty impressed that Apple had a modest eye on the iPhone when they were doing their Mac announcements today? I think it's finally the kind of value-add, thinking of other Mac products, that we were looking for when, oh, say the Apple TV came out. I really appreciate it, Apple. Thanks!

[crackheaduare @ Aug 7th 2007 7:32PM]

.mac does have spam filtering now along with 10 GB

[Ozbone @ Aug 7th 2007 8:06PM]

Nothing yet on mine and I have .mac

[San @ Aug 7th 2007 8:15PM]

I knew this would come as it makes sense really!

[James @ Aug 7th 2007 8:52PM]

what about "send to picasa". Seriously. I should have seen this coming. Likely why i haven't owned an apple since my newton.

[superjohn @ Aug 7th 2007 8:22PM]

turn off your iPhone then turn back on. check your photos then you should be able to see that "send to web gallery" option.
also, u have to configure something on your .mac account too

[Ricardo Chavarria @ Aug 7th 2007 9:43PM]

It was a timed event. I'm outside the US right now and I don't have the SIM card on the iPhone,but it was on. After the presentation, I took a photo and while emailing the photo, the gallery thing showed up.

:D

[Dan @ Aug 8th 2007 12:13AM]

Waiting for two things:
i) people to "have no problem" with apples control over YOUR phone
ii) this auto update gets exploited :)

[Lou @ Aug 7th 2007 9:32PM]

My iPhone is not updating. I think this is a feature of iPhoto 08 and if you don't have that, then it's not going to work with your iPhone or your .Mac account. Am I correct on this?

[Chicksta @ Aug 7th 2007 9:38PM]

No.
I have the new button, I don't have iPhoto 08, and it was there before I put iWork 08 on my system...

[Chris_R @ Aug 7th 2007 9:46PM]

Does anyone else find it slightly worrying that iphones can be altered through the network without the users consent?

Just wait till hackers figure out how to do this and there'll be bricked iphones all over the place.

[Gregory Pierce @ Aug 8th 2007 4:42PM]

Aw come on. Steve said that the iPhone was secure and that people wouldn't be able to develop for it because doing so would destroy the sun or some other such nonsense. Are you saying that he knowingly delivered FUD about crashing phones and evil developers?

[wilbah @ Aug 8th 2007 7:21AM]

SO strange... I noticed this immediately... in the car with my wife, two iphones, mine shows this option, hers did not. Both sunk (synched?) from the same machine, this morning.

More to this than meets the easy eye.....

[sticky_bit @ Aug 7th 2007 11:20PM]

I'm a .mac user, I have a .mac email act set up on my iPhone. As soon as I read about this feature, just 3 mins after it was spoken, thanks to the live blog event, I looked and it was not there. An hour later, while in full AT&T service, and iPhone attached to my MacBook Pro with iTunes and iPhoto both up and running, I looked again and BOOM! there it was. Looks like, as mentioned above, iLife '08 needs to be installed or the option to work.

[Chris M @ Aug 7th 2007 11:42PM]

Iphone 1.0.0 software and iLife 08. No button on my phone so I guess something in the update allowed apple to update the phone. (thats why you wait on updates!)

[k4v1 @ Aug 8th 2007 12:50AM]

OK. Well I just realized how it works once you get the button. For me...I activated my .Mac account and made it default on my iPhone. Then I waited for awhile. The button eventually showed up. However, once the button showed up, I got an error message on my iPhone that said I had to configure .Mac in order to send photos to my Web Gallery already created with iPhoto '08, after downloading the iPhoto '08 software update.

IN order to do this, one must go to "settings" at the bottom of the screen when a published album is selected, and check the box that says, "allow e-mail uploads."

[ICregular @ Aug 8th 2007 1:50AM]

did anyone else see that on the apple site it mentions that not only will we be able to upload pics but MOVIES as well!

[Dennis Bjørn Petersen @ Aug 8th 2007 3:33AM]

The iPhone can now be used in Europe. You need a SuperSIM and a SIM-card writer, but the procedure is fairly simple.

http://www.thebetanews.com/iphone-hacked-again-how-to-use-your-iphone-in-europe/

[homer @ Aug 8th 2007 8:51AM]

This iFeature is Flickr rip off

I have been doing this feature since I've my iPhone using flickr. You can send a picture from your iphone to your flickr email and it will go live in seconds. I've also have a badge that show my last iphone photo on my blog and I spend 24$/years with flickr.

[David Washington @ Aug 8th 2007 11:11AM]

http://therobot.wordpress.com/2007/08/07/surprise-features/

I was totally bummed when I saw that I needed iPhoto '08 to use this feature. If you do the math...this is a pretty expensive feature.

iPhone - 500 bux
iPhoto - 79 bux
.Mac - 99 bux
Fancy Mac - buncha buxx

Send to Web Gallery - priceless? Probably not. Probably should be free.