MacRumors

Apple originally debuted Live Photos for iPhones in 2015, touting them as an enhanced mode of photography that lets you take pictures which move when you press on them. Since then, ‌Live Photos‌ have become a standard feature available on iPhones and most iPads, and Apple has added some extra tricks in successive versions of iOS.

‌Live Photos‌ are made possible thanks to a background feature built into Apple's camera app, which automatically starts recording the moment you open it on your device. After you tap the shutter button with ‌Live Photos‌ on, the app saves only the 1.5 seconds beforehand and discards the rest.

That means, if you open your camera app and leave it open for a few minutes, your device will be recording video the whole time. However, once you tap that shutter button, everything recorded prior to 1.5 seconds beforehand will be deleted.

This guide will help you make the most of ‌Live Photos‌ by showing you what you can do with them. You can click the links below to jump to the sections that most interest you.

• How to take a Live Photo
• How to get the best Live Photo shot
• How to edit Live Photos
• How to change the key image in a Live Photo
• How to save a Live Photo as a video
• How to merge several Live Photos as a video
• How to add a Live Photo to your Lock Screen
• How to share Live Photos
• How to view Live Photos on different devices
• How to view Live Photos on a Mac

How to Take a Live Photo

‌Live Photos‌ can be taken on iPhone 6s and later, ‌iPad‌ (5th generation) or later, iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad mini (5th generation), iPad Pro (all models), and iPod touch (7th generation). The Live Photo feature may be on or off by default; you can control it by following the steps below.

1. Open the Camera app on your iPhone or ‌iPad‌.
2. Tap the Live Photos icon (it looks like a set of concentric circles).
   
   

3. You will know when ‌Live Photos‌ is on when the icon is highlighted in yellow.
4. The word "Live" will also appear at the top of the screen. This label will remain on until 1.5 seconds after you tap the shutter button. It signifies that the video recording is complete.

On iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models, the Camera app has an additional Live Auto option that lets the phone decide whether a shot has enough action either side of it to warrant taking a Live Photo. You can find it by swiping up from the bottom of the viewfinder.

‌Live Photos‌ are automatically stored in the Photos app, just like traditional photos. However, when you long press or 3D Touch on the screen, they come to life.

Keep in mind when taking a Live Photo that the camera is already recording beforehand, so you don't want to jerk your iPhone or ‌iPad‌ around right before taking a picture. Instead, make sure you have a steady hand just before taking the shot, and don't immediately put your device down immediately afterward, either – the camera will be recording for just a couple more seconds.

The Camera app automatically senses if the device is being raised or lowered during the 1.5 seconds of video before or after a Live Photo is taken, and omits any video taken during that time. The feature results in potentially shorter Live Photo videos, but keeps the final product looking good by not including blurry footage taken by a device in motion.

‌Live Photos‌ also record audio, so keep that in mind when trying to grab a candid shot of your friends having drinks. Their conversation will be heard in the Live Photo, and all but three seconds of it will be cut off.

How to Edit Live Photos

In iOS 13 and later, ‌Live Photos‌ can be edited on your iPhone or ‌iPad‌ just like any other photo.

1. Launch the Photos app.
2. Tap the Live Photo that you want to edit.
3. Tap the Edit button, then make your adjustments.
4. When you're finished, tap Done.

How to Change the Key Image in a Live Photo

If you take a Live Photo and the still image is blurry, you can open it up and see if other frames you captured are clearer. Then you can choose a new "key photo" – aka the main photo that you see in your camera roll. Here's how.

1. Open up the Photos app on your iPhone or ‌iPad‌.
2. Choose a Live Photo.
3. Tap Edit in the upper right hand corner of the display.
4. Using the photo navigation bar at the bottom of the image, tap the thumbnails to browse through the frames captured for the Live Photo.
5. If you find a better still, tap Make Key Photo to select it.
6. If you like your original still image best, tap Cancel to exit out of the editing interface.

Once you've selected a new frame and tapped Make Key Photo, the new still image selected from the photo will be the main image that you see in your camera roll and the image that's sent if you share the photo with someone else.

How to Save a Live Photo as a Video

Apple recently added the facility to save a Live Photo as a standard video, which is useful if a Live Photo doesn't do justice to your captured clip. It's also handy if you want to share your Live Photo over a service or platform that doesn't natively support ‌Live Photos‌. Here's how it's done.

1. Launch the Photos app on your iPhone or ‌iPad‌.
2. Tap a Live Photo.
   
   

3. Tap the Share icon (the square with an arrow pointing out).
4. Tap Save Video.

The video clip will be automatically saved to your Photo library.

How to Merge Multiple Live Photos into a Video

If you take several ‌Live Photos‌ in succession, you might decide that they'd work better as one continuous video. Or maybe you'd just like to combine various ‌Live Photos‌ into one long clip for easier sharing. Either way, it's a simple procedure, as the following steps show.

1. Launch the Photos app on your iPhone or ‌iPad‌.
2. View your photos, then tap Select in the top-right corner of the screen.
   
   

3. Tap several ‌Live Photos‌ so that a blue tick appears in the corner of each thumbnail.
4. Tap the Share icon (the square with an arrow pointing out).
   
   

5. Tap Save as Video.

The selected ‌Live Photos‌ will be automatically saved to your Photo library as a single continuous video clip.

How to Add a Live Photo to the Lock Screen

You can set a Live Photo as your Lock Screen wallpaper, and use a long press or 3D Touch to activate it at any time. You can add one just as you would add a traditional wallpaper, but with a couple of added steps.

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone or ‌iPad‌ and select Wallpaper from the list.
2. Tap All Photos to choose a Live Photo that you've created.
3. Select the Live Photo you wish to use and select Set as Lock Screen.
4. When prompted, you can choose to set the image as a still, perspective, or Live Photo. Select Live Photo.
   
   

5. When prompted to set the image as your Lock Screen, Home Screen, or both, select Lock Screen. (The animation of the Live Photo only works on the Lock Screen.)

How to Share Live Photos

You can share your ‌Live Photos‌ with anyone that owns a compatible iPhone or ‌iPad‌. ‌Live Photos‌ are also supported on Macs running OS X El Capitan and later.

Sharing ‌Live Photos‌ is similar to sharing traditional ones. Tap on the Live Photo to select it and then tap the Share icon (the square with an arrow pointing out of it). Then select the method for sharing, such as Messages or AirDrop.

‌Live Photos‌ are not supported on non-Apple services like Twitter and Facebook, but you can always save them as a video and then share them that way.

How to View Live Photos on Different Devices

‌Live Photos‌ were introduced with the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, which were the first devices to sport ‌3D Touch‌. Recently, Apple began phasing out ‌3D Touch‌ in its smartphones, replacing the feature with Haptic Touch. This means activating a Live Photo on newer iPhones is similar to doing so on an ‌iPad‌ – instead of hard-pressing the screen, simply touch and hold the screen while the video plays. Keep your finger on the screen for the duration of the video.

How to View Live Photos on a Mac

‌Live Photos‌ can only be viewed in Apple's ‌Photos‌ app on Mac computers running OS X El Capitan and later.

If you receive a Live Photo through AirDrop or something, you first need to import it to the ‌Photos‌ app on Mac to view it. The Live Photo will automatically play when you click on it.

Tim Hardwick contributed to this article.

YouTube today unveiled YouTube Music, a streaming music service and app designed to compete with existing streaming music offerings like Apple Music and Spotify. YouTube Music is part of YouTube Red, the ad-free subscription service YouTube announced last month.

The new YouTube Music app is available for both iOS and Android devices, bringing the YouTube Music service to a wide range of smartphones and tablets. YouTube Music, which offers both songs and accompanying music videos, includes both an ad-supported free tier and a paid ad-free version that's tied to a user's YouTube Red subscription. YouTube Red costs $9.99 per month (or $12.99 in the iOS app to account for Apple's 30 percent cut), but users can sign up for a free14-day YouTube Music trial when downloading the app.

Like other streaming music services, YouTube Music lets users search for content, but it also includes curated lists of the top songs of the week and a section on music that's trending. It also has dedicated artist pages with additional album recommendations as a way to discover content, and it offers a music library that includes classic videos, concert footage, live recordings, and other content that's not available on other services.

The YouTube Music app for iOS can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Following a soft launch and months of testing, Mozilla has released Firefox for iOS on the App Store for free. The WebKit-based web browser for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch features a Firefox-like design, Intelligent Search, Firefox Accounts, Visual Tabs, Private Browsing mode on iOS 9 or later and more.

The web browser's features are best suited for users that also use Firefox on Mac or PC:

• Intelligent Search: Suggested search results and list of search options, including Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Twitter, Amazon and WordPress
  

• Firefox Accounts: Firefox browser history, passwords and open tabs synced between Firefox on the desktop and your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch
  

• Visual Tabs: A card-based grid of intuitive visual and numbered tabs easily let you find content for future reference
  

• Private Browsing: Firefox won’t remember any of your history or cookies, but new bookmarks will be saved

Mozilla Firefox was once a leading desktop web browser for PCs and Macs, but it has lost significant market share since Google launched its own Chrome web browser in late 2008. Firefox is now the fourth most popular desktop browser in many countries, trailing behind Chrome, Internet Explorer and Safari.

Mozilla was initially opposed to releasing Firefox on iOS because of Apple's policy that requires third-party browsers to use its own WebKit framework and JavaScript engine, but the company eventually reversed course and announced plans to release an iOS app in December 2014.

Firefox for iOS is free on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch and requires iOS 8.2 or later. The app is written in Swift 2.0 and open source on GitHub.

Disney today launched a new Disney Infinity 3.0 Edition Starter Pack for the fourth-generation Apple TV, bundling a SteelSeries Nimbus Wireless Controller and a Bluetooth-enabled Disney Infinity Base in a package that's now available for purchase directly from Apple retail stores.

The new Disney Infinity 3.0 Edition game for the Apple TV is available on the device as of today, and in addition to the controller and the base, the bundle Disney is offering is Star Wars-themed with the Star Wars: Twilight of the Republic Play Set piece and the Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano figures. The figures will unlock a comprehensive Star Wars gaming experience with both new and classic Star Wars characters and storylines.

Earlier figures and Power Discs from the 1.0 and 2.0 versions of Disney Infinity are compatible with the new Disney Infinity 3.0 version of the game on the Apple TV. Disney Infinity has largely been limited to console-only platforms from Xbox, Nintendo, and Playstation, but in recent months, the franchise has expanded to PC, Android, and iOS devices.

With gaming now available on the Apple TV, Disney has delivered the first full console style experience to Apple's set-top box with the launch of Disney Infinity 3.0. For those unfamiliar with the Disney Infinity line, it's a sandbox-style action adventure world where gamers can unlock new characters and gameplay experiences using real-world collectible figurines.

The Disney Infinity 3.0 Edition Starter Pack for the Apple TV can be purchased from the Apple Store for $99.95.

Mophie today announced the debut of a new lineup of Powerstation external batteries, which can be used to charge a range of different electronic devices, including Apple's iPhone and iPad. The new Powerstation battery packs are Mophie's thinnest and lightest yet, with an aluminum finish designed to mesh well with iOS devices and 15W fast charging capabilities.

Mophie's new Powerstation products follow in the footsteps of its previous Powerstation line, with Mophie offering several different battery capacities at varying prices and sizes. Available sizes include 1X (2,000 mAh), 2X (4,000 mAh), 3X (6,000 mAh), 5X (10,000 mAh), and 8X, with the 8X size offering a capacity of 15,000 mAh, which Mophie says is equivalent to an additional 54 hours of talk time, 59 hours of web browsing, 59 hours of video playback, and 272 hours of audio time.

The smallest Powerstation, the 1X, measures in at 6.9mm thick and 95.5mm (3.76 inches) long, while the largest 8X Powerstation is 12.1mm thick and 183.9mm (7.24 inches) long, with other sizes fitting in between the two extremes.

The higher-end 5X and 8X models include support for a Mophie Power app that lets users see the remaining battery life in the Powerstation and how long it will take to charge a device to full. The app is also able to send custom notifications when batteries are low or fully charged.

All models except for the 1X version also support pass-through charging, which will charge an iOS device before charging the Powerstation. On the 3X, 5X, and 8X models, there are also two ports for charging multiple devices at one time.

Mophie's new Powerstation lineup is available for purchase from the Mophie website, Apple.com, and Apple retail stores. Pricing starts at $39.95 for the Powerstation 1X and goes up to $149.95 for the Powerstation 8X.

F.lux, popular Mac software that adjusts the color of your computer's display to adapt to the time of day, has been released for iPhone and iPad in beta outside of the App Store. The app can be downloaded and side-loaded on iOS 9 devices using Xcode 7 on a Mac running OS X 10.10 Yosemite or later.

F.lux will adjust your iPhone or iPad display to appear like sunlight during the day, and warm during nighttime hours to avoid looking at a bright screen. The app has settings to adjust the brightness level during the day and night, and you can also configure a time that you normally wake up each day.

Apple does not allow developers to access the Private APIs that f.lux requires to work on iOS, so the app is unlikely to appear on the App Store unless that policy changes. Since the app is side-loaded, there are no automatic updates, so the beta performs a daily update check and will display a message if a new version is available.

How to Sideload F.lux on iPhone and iPad

F.lux has provided step-by-step instructions on how to sideload the app on iPhone or iPad.

• Download and install Xcode 7 from the Mac App Store
  

• Download F.lux for iOS, unzip and open the “iflux.xcodeproj” project in Xcode
  

• Open Xcode > Preferences > Accounts and enter your iCloud or developer credentials
  

• Under Targets > iflux > General > Identity, give the Bundle Identifier a unique name
  

• Under the same Identity > Team menu, select your iCloud account or Developer profile
  

Next, connect your iPhone or iPad to a Mac using a Lightning cable and follow these steps:

• From the Xcode Product menu, choose Destination and select your iOS device
  

• Push Cmd-R when you’re ready to have f.lux
  

• When you first run, you’ll be prompted to open Settings > General > Profile on your device, and trust your developer account
  

• Run again, and allow location and notifications -- the app needs to be able to constantly communicate to run well

F.lux for iOS was developed by Michael Herf and is free for iPhone and iPad. The app was released for jailbroken iOS devices in late 2011.

Alongside today's launch of the iPad Pro and its Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard accessories, Apple design chief Jony Ive shared his thoughts on the new stylus accessory with The Telegraph.

Addressing the device's strong resemblance to an actual pencil, Ive stresses that a familiar and natural feel is key to the user experience.

“We hoped if you are used to spending a lot of time using paintbrushes, pencils and pens, this will feel like a more natural extension of that experience - that it will feel familiar,” he says, carefully. “To achieve that degree of very simple, natural behaviour, was a significant technological challenge.”

Ive notes how that natural feel increases with usage to the point where the user forgets they are using a piece of technology and is able to simply focus on the task at hand. As an example, he points to his design team, which has experimented with tools other than traditional sketchbooks over the years but is finally finding the iPad Pro with Apple Pencil a natural combination.

“Many of us in the design team have worked together for 20 plus years. We’ve always drawn in our sketchbooks, and for the first time - despite flirting with some alternatives a couple of years ago - I’m seeing people starting to use the iPad and Apple Pencil. Our personal experience has been that there are definitely affordances and opportunities now that you have a much more natural and intuitive environment to make marks, there are clearly things you can do sketching and writing on the iPad which you could never dream of doing in the analogue world."

The Apple Pencil is a $99 accessory sold alongside the iPad Pro, although early customers may need to wait a bit to get their hands on one. While the iPad Pro is in some cases available for in-store pickup as early as today, the earliest Apple Pencil orders are taking a few days longer to start shipping out and shipping estimates for new orders have quickly slipped to 3-4 weeks.