Live Photos Feature In iPhone 6s And iPhone 6s Plus Takes Up 2X Space As Regular Photos
I'll admit to being impressed with the demonstration of Live Photos. What it does is record 1.5 seconds of video with sound before and after snapping a photo. Apple insists that Live Photos are distinctly different from videos, in that you're still left with a picture, but what's different is that the photo comes to life if you hold your finger on it (part of the company's 3D Touch feature, which is the iPhone's take on Force Touch).
Live Photos also spring to life when you swipe through your camera roll. It's really neat and I'm excited to try it out when the new models release later this month. I'm also interested to see how the market reacts to the feature's space requirements.
During the launch event earlier this week, Apple's VP of Worldwide Marketing, Philip Schiller, stood up on stage and said of the Live Photos feature that it captures these moments in time "in a space efficient way so they don't take up much more room" than regular photos.
Actually, they take up twice the amount of storage space, an Apple spokesperson told Time. This is going to surprise some iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus owners, especially ones that are less savvy. It also makes the case for skipping over the 16GB models and going for the pricier 64GB option.
I still like that Apple added Live Photos to the iPhone, but it's a little bit of a buzzkill to be told that the feature won't take up much more room than regular photos when in fact it will consume double the space.