iOS 11's Photos app uses AI to make your shots better
It's also shrinking the size of the photos and videos you take.
Apple's iOS 11 promises to be a big upgrade for shutterbugs. It's improving both the Camera and Photos apps to take some of the headaches out of snapshots and photos. For instance, the Photos app's Memories section can make use of machine learning to automatically reorient images when you change your phone's orientation -- it knows what to focus on. Live Photos also make use of this AI-like technology for effects. And Live Photos should be decidedly lively with new visual tricks, including a long exposure blur effect, the ability to pick a key photo, video looping and a Boomerang-style "bounce" effect.
Also, Apple is making some improvements that will help you capture more photos and videos. It's switching to HEVC (aka H.265) encoding for videos, which is twice as efficient as the H.264 format used today. For still shots, meanwhile, Apple is moving to HEIF (High Efficiency Image Format) to achieve similar space-saving. In theory, you won't have to worry quite so much about running out of storage when you're capturing every moment of your next vacation. We have questions about exporting images (how easy will it be to share JPEGs with everyone?), but this could be very helpful in a world where 4K video and large photos are becoming commonplace.
Get all the latest news from WWDC 2017 here!
