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Flickr updates iOS app with automatic upload, new editing tool

Yahoo's Flickr photo hosting service released an update to their popular iOS application Wednesday, featuring automatic uploading to its terabyte-per-user storage, a new straighten tool, and a slightly refined user interface for iOS 7.

The update leverages iOS 7's new background task execution feature to provide quick, seamless photo uploading, even if the app is closed before the upload is finished. New photos are marked 'private' by default, and users can choose whether the app can make use of their cellular data network for uploading.

Another addition is the app's ability to automatically straighten photos. The feature worked well in AppleInsider's tests, quickly identifying edges in photos and rotating the image accordingly, though it was occasionally fooled by images which did not contain long, straight edges, such as a three-quarter shot of a MacBook Pro's keyboard.

Flickr iOS app update
Interface Incongruity: The app mixes iOS 7-style UI elements (left) with pre-iOS 7 shaded controls (right).

The app also received some user interface polish for iOS 7 — including a flatter application icon — although it does not fully embrace Apple's new design language and leaves some pre-iOS 7 UI elements intact, making for a slightly dissonant experience.

Navigation elements, for instance, are inconsistent. The camera view, which appears to use a slightly modified version of Apple's built-in camera controls, makes use of iOS 7's thin typography and borderless buttons, while other screens maintain iOS 6-style shaded controls.

The app is available as a free download from the App Store.