Q: Delete single photos in photostream

Devs (like myself) are under a NDA, and are not allowed to comment on such things.

Tunderhill:

You represent the most boneheaded kind of engineering mindset: you would say that one million users need to change their habits, their thinking, what they want, or use a different program rather than support a single, relatively simple change -- defend all of the features of the first design at all costs when those features are bound to change.  Wherever you work you will always be a grunt. Fortunately, Apple doesn't think that way, and that is why we all own Apple devices and use Apple services. Just pay attention to how Apple has updated its devices since the release of the iPhone: the ability to create folders for apps is a relatively recent development in the history of the iPhone, but you probably would have been arguing with people demanding it in earlier versions. Regardless of the service, device, or configuration, people want to be able to have absolute single item control in all environments as well as to be able to manage (navigate, update, delete, convert) files by folders and in batch rather than one at a time.

The truly annoying thing about the inability to delete single files isn't just that we're unable to delete single files, but that there's no explanation of both the features AND the limitations of the service when it is first being activated.  Don't bother pointing me to documentation online: I'm talking about a brief overview that is honest about limitations up front, when the service is being activated.  Apple doesn't do that and gets complaints regularly.  This is bad business practice and not a good way to treat loyal custormers.

jjr "I learn from my kids" 1964:

You completely missed the point. You can use a cell phone to hammer a nail but it wasn't designed for that. As I clearly indicated in my first email, I am not a "grunt" but the owner and cofounder of a large tech company. I have many engineers and programmers who work for me. I was actually reading this board for market research to see if people are understanding and adapting the future of the Internet. Apple is about perfectly designed products doing perfectly designed things perfectly. Unlike you, I use apple products to their fullest in the EXACT way that jobs and his team designed it for. I clearly stated that they will allow you to delete individual photos in future releases. HOWEVER, it is not available now. Therefore I was explaining that if you choose to use the service incorrectly, which is your right, then it is useless to you right now And you should find another web based service that does what you want. There will always be people like you who use apple products because they are "cool" or because you want to be an "in the know" older person. Regardless you are not using it properly nor the way it was designed. If you don't want to be educated on why things work the way they do and how things are evolving then you can continue to be frustrated with a product that you still buy and use. Please learn more before you speak to authorities in the field as if you know what you are talking about.

Wow, this thread went south quick.  People just do not seem to have respect for each other anymore and seem to think they are smarter than their neighbors. 

I have a clear understanding of the cloud services and what the future holds, but that has nothing to do with the fact that Apple should have incorporated a way to delete individual photos from the stream.  It has nothing to do with "understanding" the future of the Internet.  I like the cloud, and I understand some do not want to mess with it.  Deleting from the stream is a feature that Apple may have had trouble incorporating in the initial release.  That is the only logical reason why the feature is not there.  It will come soon enough.  In the meantime just be careful folks!!!  

Zachary.

Thanks for injecting a sense of reason to a debate that has become unnecessarily personal in terms of ego.

The simple fact is that it should be possible for users to delete photos on the cloud or on the ipad and there the debate should end.

The only positive that Apple should take from this is that their users are passionate, and rightly so, about the product and its use.

As a product manager in IT I fully understand the dilema that exists in providing functionality to suit all users (impossible!) however there is certain functionality that is essential, no matter how or why it was ommitted, and the successful supplier will recognise this and react appropriately as I am sure Apple will - just let us all know when please!

Perhaps future discussions will inject a positive note of how things could be better rather than moaning about perceived deficiencies?....

Tunderhill:  You can't say that "Apple is about perfectly designed products doing perfectly designed things perfectly" and then claim you've been predicting a future update to their product that will perform a task everyone else thinks it should be doing now.  This issue here is not expertise in a field.  The issue here is being able to think coherently.  If a program will perform in the future something everyone thinks it should be performing now -- something very basic -- then it wasn't designed perfectly, and you shouldn't be telling everyone they don't understand the product because it's not doing -yet- what you think it'll do in the future. 

Everyone else:  Most people, so far as I can tell, aren't flaming Apple for leaving off a common-sense feature. There's a variety of possible reasons for that, ranging from wanting to get the product out sooner, to planned obsolesence, to being so focused on the innovative aspects of the product that simpler things are overlooked.  As I mentioned earlier, almost everyone I know who is a long-time Apple user told me not to go with first generation devices because second gen. are much improved.  That's okay.

But getting annoyed at being confronted with boneheadedness about what's obvious to everyone by someone with an innate sense of his own superiority isn't "ego."  It's understandable, and deserved.   

Jjr:

Let's go through the chain of events before and after you jumped in.

1.  People on this thread were looking for help on how to use photo stream to store photos. Photo stream is not a web storage feature and so they should find a web based storage service.

2.  People on this thread want to be able to delete individual photos on photo stream. It does not allow for that right now and so those people who said its useless should go find another service that does what they want until it is updated.

3.  People on this thread wanted to stop individual photo stream photos from showing up on their apple tv. You can't do that now and so I posted a link to assist those people on how to pick and choose photos to put on apple tv as a screensaver without using photo stream.

4.  Someone named jjr, jumped in many posts later and personally attacked someone who is trying to help others find solutions and work arounds. Why did jjr do this?  Because he didn't understand the context because I wasn't replying to you.

5.  Photo stream is an edge to edge sync service. Not a storage feature. I don't care if you want to hammer a nail with your iPhone. Other people on this thread were looking for web storage functionality when photo stream is a pick and choose feature to save individual photos to your actual hardware. What's on your photo stream is irrelevant as it should be used to simply save the individual files you want to your hardware.

6.  It's people like you who make tech people not want to visit these boards to assist people who have different questions or don't understand a feature.

Why don't you 2 guys give up this irritating, childish, personal attack exchange and use the forums for something useful?

Tunderhill wrote:

3.  People on this thread wanted to stop individual photo stream photos from showing up on their apple tv. You can't do that now and so I posted a link to assist those people on how to pick and choose photos to put on apple tv as a screensaver without using photo stream.

Point of fact, no-one on this thread wanted to stop PS photos going to Apple TV, I just gave an answer to one of your questions on the subject, then you posted a fairly irrelevant link to making a screensaver.

Re: Delete single photos in photostream Nov 28, 2011 3:14 PM (in response to Tunderhill) If I turn off Photostream, it says it will delete all the photos on there.  I don't want to do that.   A better workaround I just found is to use a third-party camera app like Camera+.   So if I want to take pictures of potential engagement rings, I can use Camera+ and email my family from there and not worry about them accidentally getting onto PhotoStream (which is my Apple TV screensaver).   By The Way, just because it's not practical to you doesn't mean that the rest of us wouldn't like that added functionality.  Everyone uses their smartphones differently and if enough people out there would like this added functionality, Apple should at the very minimum review the option.

Who else can see your photostream?

Anyone who switches on Apple TV, that's who!

OK, you've now lost me completely.

I really don't understand all these issues about what Apple made and how or why and other

philosophical expressions by "owner and cofounder of a large tech company".

The matter is simply: the photos are mine and I have to handle them as I want. A Cloud service

doesn't mean that it can't be able to delete, but just that I have MY photos on MY web space.

It's not a cloud service, its a device linking service. They aren't the same thing.

What is iCloud http://www.apple.com/icloud/what-is.html see also http://www.apple.com/icloud/features/photo-stream.html

This misunderstanding of what Apple is offering is at the heart of this thread. It's not that Apple doesnt get it, it's that some of the people on this thread don't get it.

ok, it' s a device linking service or whatever ... but the photos are still mine photos! I HAVE to be able to decide what I want to do with. Even if this is only a "linking service"

They are your photos. That's not in question. The folder called Photostream is just a temporary synching folder. It's contents change over time. If you want to save one of those images, copy it to a differrent folder. If you don't want to save it, then leave it in the photostream and over time it will disappear.

Define "temporary": one month, one day, a year?

temporary for who?

Who decides how it should be temporary? Not the user.

"That is the question" (You're are from UK and hope you will appreciate the quote...)

So the user can't delete or manage the photos, the user can't determine what should be temporary... Should I wait a month to delete my photos? But why?

And if I need NOW more space in the cloud for a large doc? Still I have to wait the PhotoStream automaticaly purge the photos?

Not Apple style, IMO