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Twitter lets you upload iOS Live Photos as GIFs at last
Twitter is offering iOS users another way to get more out of Live Photos by letting you turn them into GIFs "anywhere you upload photos on Twitter." It's not clear whether this'll work for Pixel motion photos as well. Engadget has asked Twitter for clarification.
A looping GIF could soon be your next Tinder profile pic
Tinder's latest addition is one cribbed from relationship-minded competitor Hinge. The dating app is testing out a feature called "Loops" in Canada and Sweden, which are essentially two-second repeating GIFs that you can add to your profile.
Google brings its fancy Motion Stills GIF-making app to Android
Motion Stills has existed in a strange space for the past year. It's a Google-made app but it's been available only on iOS, piggybacking off Apple's Live Photos function to create dramatic, stabilized GIFs and short videos. Android owners, Google's main user base, were left out of the fun entirely -- until today.
iOS 11's Photos app uses AI to make your shots better
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.
Now Apple's Live Photos can work on any website
Apple first introduced Live Photos in the iPhone 6S series back in 2015, but the odd photo/video-clip hybrid has taken its time coming to the internet. While Tumblr was the first to integrate Live Photos into its site last September, Apple is finally introducing an official JavaScript API to get its odd photo/video hybrid format out onto the web at large.
Google keeps improving Apple's Live Photos
Apple's Live Photos are a neat trick when done well, but in practice they tend to be a wobbly mess. Last year, Google showed off a much more elegant solution with it's Motion Stills app for iOS, which converted shaky Live Photos to smooth looping GIFs or movie files that could actually be exported to Instagram and other services. This week, Google continued to improve upon Apple's Live Photos with the latest version of Motion Stills, which adds better color depth, smoother stabilization and the ability to export loops in their original Apple-only format.
Tumblr on desktop plays nicely with Apple's Live Photos
Tumblr's website is now almost as Live Photo-friendly as its iOS app. The microblogging social network has finally added support for Apple's animated image format on desktop, nine months after introducing the capability on iOS. When you see the Live Photo icon -- check out those concentric circles on the top left in the picture above -- simply click and hold the image to play it. And yes, it comes with sound! Only reason we say the website is "almost" as Live Photo-friendly is because if you're using an iPhone, you can also turn the moving images into GIFs using the iOS app's GIF maker.
Google Photos will compensate for your shaky-cam Live Photos
The latest update for Google Photos brings some of the same features introduced in the standalone Motion Stills app into the main product, making it easier to edit, stabilize and share Live Photos taken on an iPhone. Like Motion Stills, Google Photos uses advanced stabilization to create moving images with frozen backgrounds or wide, sweeping pan shots.
Google's new iOS app turns Live Photos into GIFs
Cinemagraphs -- those artsy hybrids of animated gifs and film stills -- used to require a good deal of work to set up and create. That changes today with Google's latest iOS app Motion Stills, which uses Apple's Live Photos feature along with Google's own video stabilization to freeze the background of your photos and create dramatic looping gifs or video snippets.
Google Photos now shows Live Photos from your iPhone 6s
If you frequently snap Live Photos with your iPhone 6s, you now have an easy way to preserve those photo/video hybrids for the ages. A fresh Google Photos update for iOS lets you both back up and view Live Photos, so you shouldn't have to choose another cloud storage service or (gasp) resort to taking still shots. And it's still a useful update even if you aren't in a rush to get a 6s -- there's better navigation (fewer times accessing that omnipresent hamburger menu) and lower cache use when you're tight on device space. Grab it now if you're determined to keep your Live Photos for posterity.
You can share your iPhone 6s' Live Photos on Facebook
Live Photos on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are supposed to add a dash of life to your memories, but what good are they if you can't share them with your Facebook friends? You might not have that problem after today. Facebook's iOS app now lets you share those animated snapshots on the social network. While viewers will need a device running iOS 9 to see the effect, this could give your friends one more reason to check out your baby pictures. Be prepared to wait a little while to try this, however. Only a "small percentage' of users can try Live Photos right now, and the wider roll out will continue into the new year.
Share your iPhone 6s' Live Photos on Tumblr
Tumblr is a bit more animated now thanks to Live Photo sharing from the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. The GIF-dominated social network's app on iOS bumped to version 5.0 and with that milestone brings support for the more prominent features on Cupertino's latest handsets. In addition to easy sharing for your animated selfies, Tumblr's making use of 3D Touch to view them. If you have a 6s or 6s Plus, 9to5Mac notes that when you're scrolling through the dashboard and see the Live Photo icon over an image, simply deep-press on your device and it'll play the motion and audio captured with the photo.
No, the iPhone 6s' camera and mic aren't spying on you
Whenever a device ships with a feature that involves always-on listening or watching, privacy concerns invariably come up -- and the iPhone 6s is no exception. In an attempt to address controversies before the 6s even ships, Apple has told TechCrunch that neither the always-on Siri voice commands nor Live Photos (which records a brief burst of video before and after your photo) are eavesdropping on you. Ultimately, Siri works like the technology you've seen on the Moto X -- it's merely waiting for a keyword, not recording whatever you say. What little memory buffer exists (for audio patterns, not sound clips) is automatically erased after a few seconds, and the feature is strictly opt-in.
