iOS 5.1 features: Delete individual photos from Photo Stream

By Rene Ritchie
last updated

The just-released iOS 5.1 beta 2 adds a small but incredibly important feature to iCloud's Photo Stream -- the ability to delete individual photos.

Take a very personal photo only to find, horrifically, that it was suddenly part of your Apple TV's screen saver? Leave your iPhone unattended and suddenly you've been [junk-bombed]( on all your devices? No longer... at least if Apple is good enough to leave individual deletion from Photo Stream intact in the iOS 5.1 release version when it's made public.

Here's hoping.

Rene Ritchie
Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.

25 Comments
  • Is there a way to download these betas if you aren't a developer? I really wanna try them out.
  • For $99 a year you can join to get the updates.
    You'll be in the developer program, but it won't actually make you a developer....
  • Apple has enough of my money, maybe after I get my Xmas bonus from work I'll think bout it lol Thanks for the info tho!
  • It'll probably be released by then...
  • So I might be able to use photo stream after all :) I have a horrific story regarding photostream and apple TV... it immediately got turned off on all my devices.
  • I like to think that I'm thankful the ScarJo thing didn't happen when the new photostream went live.
    Almost had a few "HOLY MOTHER OF TOENAILS" moments.
  • Why do you constantly relate this to taking NSFW pictures? Seems like a bizarre obsession.
    The iPhone camera isn't exactly perfect - I take a lot of blurry pictures that I then re-take. It will be nice to keep the photo stream free of clutter between devices.
  • Probably because blurry photos in public don't get you in as much grief as NSFW pictures.
  • Seriously, how many people over the age of 23 take NSFW pictures of themselves with their phone? 3%?
    If you're stupid enough to do that, when you know it could end up in front of millions of eyes, you deserve all of the grief you get.
  • Not to mention, unless your phone is in the dev database, your phone most likely won't activate.
  • I love how things that should have been released originally inherent with the service are now added later and ridiculously referred to as "features"! Apple's hubris is palpable... and laughable.
  • You can always create your own perfect phone operating system that always ships with every single feature that should be there from the start. I'll wait for it with bated breath.
  • Come off of it.
    Apple doesn't always make intelligent decisions when it comes to their systems. More often than not, they do.
    However, the photo stream idea must have been QC'd and tested by mentally damaged rats, because every other person on the planet is aware of the stupidity in "all or nothing" with regards to pictures. Seriously, even for poor quality/blurry pics alone not being able to delete is ridiculous.
    Then let alone the other less appropriate applications.
  • Then I underestimated the number of teenage/immature/stupid people that read this blog.
  • You don't keep inappropriate pictures on your iOS devices, good for you.
    Some people do, somtimes accidentally.
    Take your prudish arrogance elsewhere please.
  • Uh oh, looks like I'm getting pulled over by the comment police.
  • That's tempting me to install the beta.
  • It's about time. I don't really need screen captures, items I took photos of at the store (to remember price/specs) or the 20 pictures I tried to take of fireworks synced with all my other computers...
  • Thank you!!! I was taking pics of Christmas ideas and it pretty much decimates the joy of the photostream
  • the callity on iPad 2 is very bad
  • NSFW?
  • Not suitable for work... Ie inappropriate.
  • Now all they have to do is allow me to leave an iMessage group chat, and fix that static when I'm on the phone, and the phone will be perfected.
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