How to store pictures to iCloud

With iCloud, the online storage service from Apple, you can easily synchronize data between different applications and different devices: iPhone, iPad, Mac, and even Windows PC.

With the launch of OS X and iOS Yosemite 8 service has evolved becoming iCloud Drive, a real hard disk online (Dropbox style) on which you can load different content, first of all the photos and videos made with iPhone and iPad to keep them permanently.

Guided by today then we will see together how to archive photos to iCloud using all the functions - old and new - that Apple's platform makes available to us. Choose your favorite.


The first way to store photos on iCloud is to use Photo Stream service that is enabled by default on all iOS devices and allows you to have some sort of online hard disk they are stored temporarily all the photos and screenshots made with iPhone and iPad .

According to the official documentation of the platform Apple Photo Stream can store up to 1,000 images at a time for a total period of 30 days. This means that the loading of the picture number 1,001 older ones are deleted and you can not keep the same image on the server iCloud for more than 30 days, in reality, however, these limits are not always respected: sometimes you can not access the same image even after 30 days.

Among the most interesting features of this feature - in addition to the backup of photos in itself - there are automatic synchronization of images of all devices connected to your Apple ID (including computers) and the failure to erosion of the storage space on iCloud. The Photo Stream, in fact, goes beyond what is provided for storage space on your account to iCloud Drive.

To make sure the service is up Photo Stream on your iPhone / iPad, access to the iOS settings by pressing on the appropriate icon on the home screen and select the items iCloud> Photo from the menu that pops up. If the lever option Upload to "My photo stream" is set to ON, the function is already active, otherwise you activate it by pressing on the switch.

Following you'll find all the photos downloaded from streaming photos by accessing the Photos app, by going in the album section of the latter and by selecting the icon My photo stream.

From iOS 8.1, Apple introduced a new way to archive photos to iCloud. This is the function of iCloud Photo Library that differs from Photo Stream to support the video and the fact that no limit to the number of content that can be uploaded online.

It is a free service but unfortunately goes to affect the storage space on iCloud Drive. This means that to use it in a decent way must expand 5GB account base by signing one of the paid plans of iCloud: 0,99 £ / month for 20GB, 3.99 £ / month for 200GB, 9.99 £ / month 500GB or 19.99 £ / month for 1TB.

Another interesting feature of the Photo Library of iCloud is the synchronization Smart content on user devices: on Apple's servers are loaded photos and videos in original resolution as the iPhone, iPad and Mac are downloaded version optimized to preserve disk space . Who wants to, of course, can turn this feature off and obtain the files always original resolution by going to Settings> iCloud> Photo and by checking the item Download and keep the original.

If you want to activate the Photo Library of iCloud on your iPhone or iPad, went in iOS Settings and select items iCloud> File> Change storage plan to sign one of the paid plans of iCloud Drive, then go to Settings> iCloud> Photo and turns ON the trigger option Photo Library iCloud.

Activating the Photo Library of iCloud you can browse all your photos and video even from the browser. Simply connect to the to iCloud website using any computer, log on with the details of your Apple ID and click on Photo.

Interesting, is not it? But in reality to view photos taken with your iPhone or iPad online do not have the photo gallery service iCloud, just take advantage of the function of photo sharing integrated in iOS, which is free and does not go to affect the storage iCloud Drive.

To create a shared album that you can view online not need to do is start the application photos of your iPhone / iPad, select the tab Shared and press the + button located in the upper left.

In the box that opens, type the name you want to assign album, presses the button Next, select the people you share it (which will be able to view and edit pictures as well as add new album) and press the Create button which is located in the upper right.

At this point, select the album you just created from the app Pictures tab Shared, presses the + button and select the photos (and videos) to add to the collection: it can load up to 5,000 and you can create up to 100 albums .

If you want, you can also create a public album viewable by anyone on the Internet. Just select an album from the Photos app Shared tab, press the People button and turn ON the option Public Website: within a few seconds will show the link to view all photos and videos selected by the browser.

ICloud platform included "standard" in OS X, where the photos are synced automatically through iPhoto, while Windows must install a small client download available on the Apple Web site.

Find all the details on how to install and configure it properly in my guide on how to use iCloud on your computer.


Original post: Salvatore Aranzulla

How to copy photos from iPhone to PC

It is now more than a week that you're having fun with your new iPhone. How many apps you've downloaded so far? And how many photos you've taken? I imagine many. Then explain to what absurd reason you have not yet done so to store them on your computer.

Do not make excuses. I know that you do not have a very "friendly" with the PC, but in this case leaves many precious memories that you can lose at any moment. You do not want to take a risk so great?

Come on, take a few minutes to spare - so it takes - and discover how to download photos from iPhone to PC following the instructions I am about to give you. I assure you it is much easier than you imagine.


Copy iPhone photos on Windows

To transfer photos from an iPhone to a computer equipped with the Windows operating system is critical that the PC will be installed iTunes, Apple's multimedia software. If you have not already done so, then connected to the website of Cupertino company and click the Download button to download iTunes on your computer.

The download is complete, open the installation package called iTunesSetup.exe, presses the Next button and complete the setup of iTunes before clicking Install, and then click Yes two consecutive and Finish.

Now it is left to connect the iPhone to your computer using the cable Lightning / Dock supplied, wait automatically start iTunes and presses the Authorize button that appears on the screen of "the iPhone" to allow communication between your smartphone and your PC. This is only necessary the first time you connect your iPhone to your computer.

Next, go to Start> Computer (or This computer), right-click the icon of the iPhone and select the item Import pictures and videos from the menu that appears. This will open the window for you to import photos and movies saved on the memory of the iPhone (which from now on should automatically run every time you plug the device into your computer).

If you want, then enter the tags you want to assign to the photos to be transferred to the PC (separated by commas) and presses on the Import button to start copying images to your computer. Photos will be stored in the Pictures folder in Windows and organized into sub-folders renamed with the current date.

To change the name to be assigned automatically to the location where the photo or import them, click on the item Import Settings and select the settings you prefer from the drop-down menu in the window that opens. By affixing the checkmark next to erase from device after importing you can make sure that the images imported to the PC from being removed automatically from the phone memory.


Download iPhone photos on Mac

After seeing how to download photos from iPhone to PC, we move to the procedure to be followed on a Mac.

Being produced by Apple, the Mac already include "standard" all the software needed to transfer images from the iPhone. This means that you have to do is connect your phone to your computer, launch the Photos application (on OS X 10.10.3 or higher) or iPhoto (on earlier versions of the operating system) and press the button Import all new pictures that you located at the top right. After the procedure you will be asked if you want to keep the pictures on the memory of the iPhone or if you delete them.

You can also import some images on Mac leaving others on "the iPhone." In this case, you must select the photos you want to transfer to your computer by cmd + click on their thumbnails and press the Import button selected which is located at the top right.

All shots in or imported into iPhoto app Photos OS X are stored in a library "locked" which contains all the images. If you prefer to save your photos freely in a folder on your computer, launch Image Capture and select the iPhone icon from the sidebar of the latter.

iCloud/Dropbox

With iCloud, you can create an online backup of all the photos that you take with your iPhone and download them to your computer (or other iOS devices).

To be precise, the Photo Stream service retains the last 1,000 photos taken on iOS devices and allows you to download them to your computer using applications Photo (Mac) and iCloud Control Panel (Windows), while the service Library Photos iCloud stores photos and videos permanently but it requires the signature of one of the paid plans of iCloud Drive. You can find more information about it in my tutorial on how to archive photos to iCloud.

If you use Dropbox, you can also install the free app Carousel and store photos you take with your "iPhone by" on Dropbox. In short, the choice are a lot.

Original post: Salvatore Aranzulla

How to burn DVD with Mac

Do you need to burn a DVD with your Mac and you do not know how to do it? Are you looking for good software, for free, to turn your DivX to DVD and play them on any player from your living room? No problem.

Give me five minutes of your time and I'll explain how to burn DVD Mac as simply and quickly as possible. We'll see how to create disk data, such as empty them (if it were re-writable DVD) and how to turn all the most common types of video files to DVD playable on any player table.

Do you need to burn some ISO image file format? Do not worry. We will also discover how to perform this type of work, and think, in most cases you will not need any additional software: you can do everything directly with the tools included "standard" in OS X. :)


DVD data

If you want to burn a disk with data, whether they are working documents, videos downloaded from the Internet or any other type of file, what you have to do is insert a blank DVD into your Mac and wait for it to appear on the desktop window for the selection of 'action to be performed.

Set then the Open item in the Finder in the dropdown menu located at the center of the window and presses the OK button to open the Finder. If the window does not appear for the selection of the action to be performed, go directly to the Finder by clicking on its icon in the Dock and select the DVD icon in the sidebar to the left (should have a symbol next to yellow and black).

At this point, drag the Finder window all the files you want to copy to disk and click the Burn button located at the top right to start its burning. Then type the name you want to assign to the DVD, set up a burning speed from those available in the appropriate drop-down menu and presses on the Burn button to start the writing of data.

In the case of rewritable DVDs, to erase the data on the disk, open Disk Utility and select the DVD drive icon from the sidebar to the left. Then choose one of two options available to initialize the disk: fast or complete and click Initialize Room button to start deleting data.



File ISO

Do you need to burn to DVD Mac from an image in ISO format? Nothing easier. Right-click on the ISO file to burn and select the menu item Open with> Disk Utility from the menu that appears.

In the window that opens, click on the ISO image in the sidebar to the left, click the Burn button located at the top and start burning de diskette by pressing the appropriate button.

If you want, you can also set a speed of custom writing using the appropriate drop-down menu and operate the verification of the burned data by putting a check mark next to this verification in the lower part of the window.



DVD video

To burn a DVD video with Mac you can use two different solutions: buy commercial software for burning, such as Roxio Toast, which is able to create DVDs with menus starting from all the major video file formats, or convert videos in MPG format using any free software suitable for the purpose (eg. Total Video Converter Lite) and pour the final result on DVD with Burn, an excellent free application for burning (which is no longer being updated for a long time but still working).

To download Total Video Converter Lite please go to Mac App Store, to download Burn instead connected to the Internet site of the first program and click the Download icon (located in the lower left corner) and then on the item Download Burn. Download is complete, select the Burn icon and drag it to the Applications folder of OS X to install the software on your computer.

At this point, open Total Video Converter Lite, drag the video to burn to DVD in the program window and select the format DVD video PAL as the output format.

When the conversion is complete, launch Burn, select the Video tab from the main window of the program and sets the option DVD-video in the drop-down menu located at the top right. Then drag the video obtained with Total Video Converter dialog Burn Burn and presses the button to complete the operation.

Burn, to be precise, also includes a function for converting video to DVD. However, it does not always provide good results and it does not work with all video files that are found today on the Internet (for example not read MKV files). For this reason, you should use Total Video Converter or another external converter and leave only the task of Burn burn videos to DVD.

Original post: Salvatore Aranzulla