I was preparing a post on how to embed an animated slideshow on the Microsoft Surface 2 Lock Screen and wanted to do some comparison with how to do this on the iPad. See, I’ve discovered that the feature that once existed is now gone. Not completely. There is a way to do this, but it’s definitely not as easy or intuitive as it was before iOS 7. Actually, the button that triggers the slideshow is still there on the iPad Lock Screen. Sloppy Apple. If you’re going to remove a feature, you must remove any residual clues that the feature already exists. Or maybe Apple plans to bring the feature back in the future. Yeah that’s it. “Forward” is the new mantra.
Anyway, I always used this feature when hosting guests in our house before I moved to an apartment in Chicago. The old house had multiple rooms, and I would set up multiple iPads in various rooms and do slideshows in each. There was also one that worked in the TV room using an Apple TV streaming music to the party. These were always fun slideshows because they often featured photos of the people who would be present at the party. (It’s amazing what you can create by visiting Facebook and finding pictures where people have been tagged.)
But the old simple method is no longer available and there are some key differences. Here’s how to get animated slideshows on iOS 7 devices. A kind of.
Open the application. Then select the or view at the bottom of the screen.
Select an album or shared stream that you want to view in the animated slideshow. You will see the word at the top of the screen. Tap on it.
Here you can choose the type of transition you want (Dissolve, Cube, Ripple, Wipe or Origami). You can also choose to Play Music with your slideshow.
Hit the slideshow and you’re done.
Not so well.
In the past, a slideshow started from the Lock Screen would continue until your battery ran out on the iPad. Now, with this “new” way of doing things, your slideshow will only run for the amount of time you set before your iPad screen turns off and switches to Auto-Lock, assuming you have this option set. If you’re having a party and want a slide show to end, you should also set this setting.
go
Then go to
Tap it and set the interval you want. Choosing will give you a long running animated slideshow.
There is one more disadvantage. Apple has never made it easier to move a picture from your Camera Roll to an Album on iOS. This is still the case. You can select photos in the Photos tab and there will be a command. However, as in the past, you can only add these photos to a new album.
Apple’s focus now seems to be on “Sharing” photos, but you can only share a photo in a new album, not an existing one. Even more interesting, you can’t add them to a shared stream.
So, if you want to create a special album for a special occasion, you have to do it on a computer and sync it via a USB cable and iTunes. Or choose to share the album with yourself. Talk about smooth.
Apple can create a great smartphone camera and photography experience on some level. However, there are some basic things on their device that just don’t make any sense, like moving photos to albums.
