How-To: Using Apple iPhone's Send To Web Gallery Feature

The "Send to Web Gallery" feature allows Apple iPhone owners to post photos directly from their Apple iPhone to their .Mac Web Gallery, simply by tapping the "Send to Web Gallery" button. When Apple announced the new "Send to Web Gallery" feature and .Mac integration, a lot of blogs and articles were devoted to the magical appearance of the feature, without need to synch the Apple iPhone or download any updates and, truth be told, the timed released way in which the menu option appeared was really cool.

Not long after the "Send to Web Gallery" announcement though, questions started surfacing from Apple iPhone owners who were not seeing the new functionality. The reason why may seem fairly obvious to some: you need to have a .Mac account setup and configured for the magical menu option to appear. According to this support article recently published on the Apple Support web site, there are a few other requirements to meet before the "Send to Web Gallery" feature appear as a menu option on your Apple iPhone.


According to the Apple Support article, to use the "Send to Web Gallery" feature, Apple iPhone owners must have:

• An Apple iPhone with Software Version 1.0.1 or later installed
  
• An active .Mac account (full membership account—not just email)
  
• Their Apple iPhone configured with a .Mac mail account (the same account to which you published the Web Gallery)
  
• An iPhoto ’08 album published to a .Mac Web Gallery. See this document for more information on creating a Web Gallery.
  
• The Web Gallery configured to "Allow photo uploading by email" as shown in the iPhoto ’08 Publish Settings (see dialog box above.)
  

It is also interesting to note that while you can use your own .Mac Web Gallery, the "Send to Web Gallery" feature also allows Apple iPhone owners to send pictures to the other Web Galleries, like friends and family (NOTE: In both cases, "Allow photo uploading by email" must be properly configured.) From a social networking and Web 2.0 perspective, this aspect of the "Send to Web Gallery" feature seems to create the opportunity for new communities and applications.

Pretty cool, Steve. Keep it up!