Tumblr is the first social network to support Live Photo sharing thanks to iOS app update

By Saqib Shah Published December 11, 2015

How to get Tumblr followers — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Tumblr has rolled out an update for its iOS app that introduces two major new features; the ability to share Live Photos and 3D-touch-enabled functionality.

The move marks the first time a major social network has integrated the Live Photos feature — currently only available on the Apple iPhone 6S and 6S Plus — reports 9to5Mac. Additional updates include live messaging, which was originally rolled out to selected users last month.

Recommended Videos

It’s a positive indication for Apple’s Live Photos feature that a major social network has embraced it, and could pave the way for further third-party integration. At present, Live Photos can only be shared through other Apple software, including iMessage, AirDrop and iCloud Photo Sharing.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

For anyone who doesn’t own an iPhone 6S or 6S Plus, Live Photos are animated images that capture movement and sound just before and after a photo is taken (precisely 1.5 seconds). Apple itself doesn’t refer to them as videos, and your iPhone will not save them as such. Live Photos make a good fit for an audio-visual platform such as Tumblr. At present the blogging platform is home to all forms of GIFs, memes, and videos.

Tumblr users can add Live Photos to their posts in the same way that they would any other photo — once posted they will carry a special icon when appearing in other users’ feeds. A Live Photo can be viewed (and heard) on an iPhone 6S by using 3D Touch (deep pressing the display), users of older iPhone models can also view the images by tapping and holding them. At present, Live Photos will only display as stills on Android devices and on the Web.

Tumblr was purchased by Yahoo for $1.1 billion in 2013. Currently, the social blogging network contains over 267 million blogs and sees an average of 58.3 million user posts per day.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Saqib Shah is a Twitter addict and film fan with an obsessive interest in pop culture trends. In his spare time he can be…

Mobile

The best 360-degree camera apps for iOS and Android

360-degree-camera-app

Today's smartphones have succeeded in making amateur photographers of most of us. But as smartphone photography became ubiquitous, a more intriguing version of instant photography came into vogue -- the 360-degree spherical panorama. A 360-degree photo lets you observe a scene in any direction from a single point of view and smartphone apps make it incredibly easy to accomplish, as you don't have to do anything except use a specialized app and move your smartphone around to capture and view a scene.

Before modern smartphones, the only way you could capture a genuine spherical panorama was to use a special camera designed for the task and employ stitching software to bind multiple shots together. You can still do that, but today's photo apps make it possible not only to shoot 360-degree images, videos, and panos, but to instantly share them privately or via social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube. Here are some of the best 360-degree camera apps currently available for iOS and Android.
Google Street View

Mobile

iOS 15 bug recorded a ‘small portion’ of Siri interactions

three iPhones each showcasing a new feature of iOS 15

Apple has brought a lot of changes to its devices in the iOS 15 update with the new Focus taskbar, Live Text, the redesigned Safari browser, and more. However, the company has noted that the transition to the newest software hasn't been entirely smooth. Some users who opted out of Siri and Dictation's ability to record their voices for service improvements were recorded anyway.

Despite giving iOS users the ability to opt out of the service, recordings of unconsenting users were made and sent to Apple as the result of a bug in iOS 15. The bug has since been fixed as of the iOS 15.2 update, and Apple addressed the issue by saying that it deleted "audio received from all affected devices" in a statement to ZDNet. In the same statement, Apple said that the bug turned on the Improve Siri and Dictation setting on unaware iOS users, but the company has turned the setting off again for those affected.

Mobile

Apple’s iOS 15.3 update fixes critical Safari security bug

iPhone showing Home Screen with widgets resting on soft white cloth background.

Apple has just released iOS 15.3, and while this latest update doesn’t add any significant new features, it addresses at least one critical security flaw. Earlier this month, software engineer Martin Bajanik of FingerprintJS found a serious vulnerability in Safari 15, the browser included in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, that could leak browsing history information and even credentials from online services that a person is using, such as Google, YouTube, Amazon, and sites using WordPress.

As Bajanik explains, many websites use an API called IndexedDB to request that browsers like Safari and Chrome store information in a local database on a person’s device. Under normal circumstances, a given website should only be able to request information about the databases that it created — any others should be invisible to it.