The 5 Minute Photos Weekend Digest #14
SOFTWARE UPDATES • 50 YEARS OF APPLE • SHARED WITH YOU
YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL
One of the most provocative TED Talks I’ve watched explored the paradox of infidelity. That, as human beings, we are simultaneously drawn to both novelty and security. We’re excited by the prospect of something new and different, but we also crave the comfort and safety of the familiar.
This is the stuff of great movies.
And the stuff of software development.
I see it debated in Facebook forums every day.
Why can’t Apple software do this? versus Why did Apple have to go and change that?
A current topic is the Finder theme in OS 26 dubbed “Liquid Glass” that’s spurred love-it-or-hate-it discussions on social media for months. Well, there’s not a lot of love, but plenty of “what’s the big deal” commentary.
The point, though, is that we’re excited by the prospect of something new even as we’re in love with what we’ve got. Apple, which builds us great devices that serve us fine for years, has learned to keep the love alive by mixing up the software every year - dressing up for the ball in a brand new outfit.
Tomorrow marks the start of Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference - WWDC26 - where we’ll get a peek at what new goodies are in store for us in the next upgrade of Operating Systems that release in the Fall. We’ll find out if Liquid Glass has made the cut. Are Collections here to stay? Will Siri finally become a true friend?
But the reality is it’s all just window dressing for what’s happening in private. Security. Performance. File Management. Creative tools. And, of course, this year it’s AI.
And all things considered, Apple’s done it right for most of us. For my community - the everyday photographers - the experience just gets better and better.
So here’s the thing. As Apple users we’re ultimately just along for the ride. And, by all accounts, it’s been a good one. Change has always been a part of that. Features evolve and improve. Performance scales. Stuff works. If not today, then in 1 or 2 updates down the road.
Patience.
Aren’t many things in life where you get both the novelty and the security in one package without having to make a choice.
50 YEARS OF APPLE
I went to our local library the other night to hear David Pogue speak about his new book, Apple: The First 50 Years. David is an Emmy Award winning, New York Times #1 best selling author who covers technology, and Apple has been a through-line for his entire career.
Coinciding with Apple’s 50th Anniversary, this book couldn’t be more timely or inspiring. At least for those of us who’ve ridden the Apple train since the beginning. And for those who didn’t, it’s all here in 600 sidebar filled, color illustrated, anecdote verified pages. The company with a mission that wouldn’t die, and rose from the ashes to change the world.
Steve Jobs, when once asked about his greatest accomplishments, named Apple, the company, as that. And this book follows that theme. Although Pogue shares details about every product along the way, it is a narrative about Apple itself. This crazy journey that went from train wreck to bullet train over 5 decades. For all his inspiration and confidence, Jobs never launched a successful product until his return to Apple in 1997. That the company survived until then is a business miracle, as those who lived it know.
There have been many books written about Steve Jobs and Apple, but what sets this book apart is David Pogue’s unprecedented access to the people who work there. The company’s secrecy is legendary and Apple granted him rare employee interviews to write this book. David was able to dig deeply to ferret out the truth of the stories that have grown up around the company and uncover behind the curtain projects that never saw the light of day.
If there is someone in your circle who is a big Apple fan I highly recommend this book as a both an engaging history lesson and a delightful Apple reference. It truly covers everything in an engaging and thoughtful way.
Did anyone say “Father’s Day”?
Check out Apple: The First 50 Years at applefirst50.com and David Pogue’s universe at David Pogue.com
For my LA readers, the next stop on David’s book tour is at Barnes & Noble at The Grove on June 22nd. Tell him you heard about it in 5 Minute Photos.
PHOTO ORGANIZING WITH MESSAGES
For me, Messages has become the quick and easy way to send photos and videos that I want to share. Not the best way, mind you - that would be iCloud Links - but for pop-up, no fuss picture sharing, Messages is great. The thing is that it requires some steps on the receiving end to complete the process.
The natural tendency is to treat Messages as a perpetual inbox and leave those shared photos in place. But that has 3 downsides.
Storage space. Those photos and videos are unmanaged full size images. Over time those attachments across several active senders can start to burn up storage. I saw one client who had almost 50GB of photos taking up precious iPhone space.
User Experience. Your Photos App is designed to organize and display pictures in a user-friendly way. Messages is not. Bouncing back and forth between the 2 apps is tedious and awkward.
Search. If you get frustrated swiping through your Photos Library view, searching through Messages is worse. Was it from my son or daughter-in-law? January or March-ish? Maybe it was an Email? If it didn’t happen in a recent time frame it’s essentially lost.
A better move is to simply add incoming photos directly to your Photos Library or enjoy and delete them on the spot. And Photos has 2 handy features for that.
If you catch it at the time of receipt, you can tap the little Save icon next to the picture and it will Import to Photos. This has the additional advantage that when you go to clean up your backlog of Messages attachments, you’ll know that you’ve already saved the keepers to your Photos Libraries.
If you miss that, you can also see the photos shared with you - but not saved - right in the Photos Library view. With the Shared with You alert turned on in Messages, you will see those photos show up in the Library with a Messages bubble in the corner. Or you can use the Library filter to only show you Shared photos.
Once saved to Photos, you’ll want to delete them from your Messages conversations.
It may seem like adding shared photos to your Library is just more clutter, but really works in your favor.
The photos are easier to find, reshare, include in Albums, and they show up in Collections. They can be Optimized to save storage space and they can be more thoughtfully removed if and when they become unwanted.
Sharing is a two way street and it’s just as important to understand good practices on the receiving end as with how to send.
Know someone who's drowning in iPhone photos? Forward this. You'll be their hero.
