Last week, Apple changed the tech landscape in a dozen ways, but I’d like to review one of the smallest changes that could have the biggest impact on your iPhone usage.
Since the very first iPhone, Apple has used the standard JPEG image file format for images created with your iPhone camera. You may have noticed that screenshots on iPhone are PNG format, this is mostly because screenshots often include web content or text, and this type of file generally doesn’t take to JPEG compression as smoothly. With the forthcoming release of iOS11, the iPhone camera will generate a new file format, called HEIF, intended to take up less storage on your iPhone. HEIF (High Efficiency Image File Format) advertises smoother compression, at a superior rate, giving you the ability to take more photos with the same amount of storage.
What will this mean for most users? Like a lot of Apple’s finest innovations, you won’t notice a change at all, but have an easier time storing those 10,000 photos of your dog, brunch plate, sunsets, and accidental screenshots of your lock screen. The thing is, we are generating more files every year. Consider your oldest data, and think of that as your digital birth. For me, digital image files date back to 2005, and since that year, I have generated more and more files at an exponential rate. If you’re anything like me, you stand to gain a great deal from new compression tech like HEIF. Some early complaints are the usual, “Apple is forcing change.” Some have voiced concerns about transferring these new file types to your computer, or printing them from the digital file, but rest assured, the market will follow Apple as it always has. Apple is working to solve a problem we hadn’t even considered: data growth at this rate is unsustainable. Everyone wants to transfer their previous iPhone contents to the next iPhone, and after a couple phones, the data stacks up. With the introduction of HEIF, we stand to add a bit of wiggle room to the storage ceiling.
New formats, power adapters, or data ports have always created uncertainty, but those transitions are exactly what we specialize in here at Small Dog. As always, we will be there to answer any questions you may have about these changes.