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Apple’s Photos app

Read Cult of Mac’s latest posts on Apple's Photos app:

6 reasons to set up Apple’s Family Sharing ASAP

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iCloud Family Sharing
Share your services, locations, photos and more over iCloud.
Photo: Denis Lyamuya/Wikimedia Commons/Apple

If you have a family, odds are you share a house, furniture, car and more. But you might not give as much attention to what you share in your digital lives, even if your digital pictures and purchases are equally valuable. Luckily, Apple Family Sharing makes it easy to share photos, movies, apps and more.

It just takes a little bit of setup to share iCloud’s fantastic Family Sharing feature. Here are the top six benefits of using it.

Don’t let iOS 18’s radically redesigned Photos app throw you for a loop

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An image of the icon for Apple's new Photos app in iOS 18, along with the words,
The revamped Photos app in iOS 18 is a big change. Learn how to use it now.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Apple’s redesigned Photos app in iOS 18 brings the biggest changes ever to how you browse your pictures, videos and memories on your iPhone. Gone are the separate tabs across the bottom. Now the Photos app delivers a single, scrollable view. Scroll up to see your library; scroll down to sort through albums, people and memories.

It takes some getting used to — and the big changes are driving some people absolutely insane. To get a grip on all the changes, you need to learn where to find your recently saved images, deleted photos and your album of hidden photos.

Here’s how it works.

Some users really hate iOS 18’s revamped Photos app

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Photo of an angry man to illustrate the backlash to the iOS 18 Photos app redesign.
The Photos app's big redesign in iOS 18 really enraged some people.
Photo: Sander Sammy/Unsplash License/Modified by Cult of Mac

When Apple pushed out iOS 18, it trumpeted big changes to the Photos app (though it already rolled some back after negative feedback). Now, with the app’s public release, many users’ initial excitement has turned to disappointment and even anger on social media. The iOS 18 Photos app backlash is real — some people really hate it.

And amid that angst — and for that audience — developer LateNiteSoft put out the new Photon Library app designed along the lines of Apple’s old Photos app.

“We’re bringing back tabs, basic photo grids, a list of albums you can simply scroll through, and we even added some quick access to your Favorites!” Noël Rosenthal, a product manager atLateNightSoft, told Cult of Mac.

18 hidden features in iOS 18 that Apple didn’t tell you about

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Hidden iOS 18 features
There are so many hidden features in iOS 18 to try out!
Photo: Rajesh Pandey/Cult of Mac

iOS 18 is packed full of great features Cult of Mac has covered at length — but the upcoming iPhone software update packs many more tiny features and small improvements that Apple did not mention or talk about. If you know to look out for these features, they’ll make the everyday interactions with your phone faster and easier.

Here’s a roundup of 18 little changes and useful features in iOS 18. Keep reading or watch our video.

Apple details iOS 17.5 bug that resurfaced deleted photos

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iPhone 15 telephoto camera
Old photos that resurfaced on your iPhone due to a bug were not seen by anyone else.
Screenshot: Apple

Apple provided more details Thursday about a nasty iOS 17.5 bug that resurfaced old and deleted photos for some iPhone users. Since the software glitch resurfaced photos from as far back as 2010, some people theorized that iCloud Photos secretly stored their deleted images.

However, Apple shot down such theories in its explanation. (The company rolled out iOS 17.5.1 on Tuesday to patch the bug.)

‘Clean Up’ feature in Apple Photos could let you zap unwanted objects

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A Clean Up feature rumored to be coming to Apple's Photos app could give users a handy new tool.
A Clean Up feature rumored to be coming to Apple's Photos app could give users a handy new tool.
Photo: Daniel Korpai/Unsplash License/Modified by Cult of Mac

An AI-powered “Clean Up” feature reportedly coming soon to the Apple Photos app could let users eliminate unwanted objects from images. If true, Apple could showcase the rumored image-editing feature Tuesday at its “Let Loose” event.

During the prerecorded product launch, Apple should show off new iPads alongside some updated accessories, like Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard.

Here come the replaceable iPhone batteries [The CultCast]

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An iPhone teardown and The CultCast logo (episode 600)
The EU plans to cram more changes down Apple's throat: This time's it's replaceable iPhone batteries.
Image: iFixit/Cult of Mac

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: Those EU technocrats plan to force Apple (and everybody else) to make batteries in their devices easier to replace. The specifics remain vague. But is forcing changes to the iPhone and iPad design a good thing or a bad thing?

Also on The CultCast:

  • Apple gives us a peek at how the software sausage will be made for the upcoming Vision Pro headset. Looks promising!
  • Some of the features coming to the Photos app in iOS 17 work wonders. Others not so much.
  • HomePods are about to get a long-awaited feature — sort of.
  • The latest Mac sales data seems impossible to believe.

Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video live stream, embedded below.

What to expect from Apple in 2023, plus our best of 2022 picks [The CultCast]

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This year was good for Apple, but 2023 looks even better!
This year was good for Apple, but 2023 looks even better!
Image: Cult of Mac

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: We’re talking about all the Apple gear we’re certain will arrive in 2023 — and some we just hope will materialize.

Also on The CultCast:

  • An Apple Watch Ultra clone for less than $50?!?
  • More on Apple’s penny-penching strategy of skimping on cloud storage by serving up lower-resolution files.
  • Our picks for best of 2022 — part two!

Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video live stream, embedded below.

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Share your memories, think creatively, and enjoy photography again [Awesome Apps of the Week]

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Awesome Apps of the week text in front of face down iPhone 12
With roughly 2 millions apps available in the App Store, sometimes all you need is something to tell you what’s good.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

Whether you like great time-wasting games, want to experience the beautiful photography that was once popular on Instagram, or want to preserve your favorite memories in video, this week we have some awesome apps to check out.

Apple adds Maroon 5’s new song as soundtrack for your Memories

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Maroon 5 Memories
“Memories” from Maroon 5 can be the background music of your Memories.
Photo: Apple Music

Maroon 5 is reportedly allowing iPhone owners to use the band’s new single “Memories” as the soundtrack when they build mini-movies from images in the Photos app.

Apple calls all these collections Memories, so the connection is obvious.

How to shoot stunning black-and-white photos on iPhone

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This wasn't taken on an iPhone, but it could have been.
This wasn't taken on an iPhone, but it could have been.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Black-and-white photos aren’t just regular photos with the color taken out. Or rather, they are exactly that, but they are also more than that. A B&W portrait can seem to say more about the subject than a colorful version, for instance. B&W is also ideal for showing more graphic images. Take a color photo of scaffolding and it looks super-dull. Take the same photo in B&W, jack up the contrast, and it becomes a stark grid — way more interesting to look at.

There’s much more to taking a B&W photo than just removing the color. For instance, did you know that a color filter will have a startling effect on a B&W photo? Let’s take a look at some of the tricks to capturing and editing stunning black-and-white images.

Apple tries teaching photo editing over the phone

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Apple Photos app on iOS or macOS
Apple's phone-only training covers the iOS and macOS versions of Photos. But a Today at Apple training session might be better.
Photo: Apple

Apple is once again offering one-on-one tutorials on photo editing. Oddly though, these training sessions are given over the phone.

There are grounds to question the usefulness of a lesson in which neither the teacher nor the student can see what the other is doing. Perhaps an in-person Today at Apple group session would be a better option.

Apple photo printing service is dead as disco

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Apple photo printing service discontinued
After being around since 2002, the Apple photo printing service is going away.
Photo: Apple

Mac users can still print pictures from the Photos app to Apple’s online Photo Print Products service, but only for a couple of more weeks. It’s being discontinued at the end of September.

iPhone and iPad users, there’s nothing to see here. This service never made the jump to iOS.

Everything new with Apple’s Photos app in macOS High Sierra

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Cult of Mac
The Photos app in macOS High Sierra comes packed with great new features.
Photo: Cult of Mac

In macOS High Sierra, the built-in Photos app packs some great new tools as well as lots of small improvements. It brings better organization, new editing tools (like selective color and curves), and extended integration with third-party apps.

Check out all the new features and improvements in Apple’s Photos app.

How to find out everything about your photos with Exify

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exify iPhone
If Exify can't tell you about it, you don't need to know it.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Pick a photo on your iPhone. Any photo. Can you tell me where and when you took it? Of course — that’s easy. But can you tell me the shutter speed of that photo? What about your elevation when you took it? Could you show me a histogram of the photo’s exposure? If you have Icon Factory’s Exify installed, then the answer is “Yes.” You can get to all that info, and a whole lot more, with a couple of taps.