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Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images

(www.theverge.com)
669 points danso | 1 comments | 20 May 20 19:36 UTC | HN request time: 0.205s | source
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crazygringo ◴[21 May 20 16:55 UTC] No.23260987[source]▶
I thought iOS was supposed to convert HEIC images to JPEG automatically behind-the-scenes in any file transfer situation where HEIC isn't supported. The article itself even says:

> iPhones convert HEICs to JPEGs automatically when they’re attached to emails in the Mail app

I'm just curious technically why the same didn't happen with the testing portal? If you have a webpage that accepts image uploads, is iOS Safari not smart enough to do the same conversion?

Or was the portal programmed badly or in a non-standard way that that couldn't happen? Or is there a way to do it that the developers ignored?

Just curious for the technical details of who's more to blame here -- Apple not providing enough backwards compatibility, or the testing portal being designed poorly.

Because blaming students for not following obscure instructions to change their phone's overall configuration is not the right path. A national testing portal ought to support the default image format taken by the world's most popular phone, period.

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somehnguy ◴[21 May 20 17:01 UTC] No.23261070[source]▶
Probably not. If I Airdrop photos taken on my phone to my Macbook they arrive in HEIC format. I have to use an external tool (iMazing HEIC Converter) to manually convert them for a bunch of places.
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crazygringo ◴[21 May 20 17:12 UTC] No.23261284[source]▶
I've experienced that with AirDrop too, but that's because the iPhone knows the Mac can view them.

Also you don't need an external tool -- Preview will convert HEIC to JPEG for you relatively instantly, even in batch. (Though I really do wish the phone would ask first if you want to convert, when Airdropping.)

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somehnguy ◴[21 May 20 18:03 UTC] No.23262276[source]▶
I'll try Preview next time instead, thanks! iMazing works fine for the actual functionality but has some sort of bug where it won't re-open if I closed it without force quitting it. Minor but annoying.
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1. CamJN ◴[21 May 20 19:51 UTC] No.23264092[source]▶
That's likely an issue with iMazing not properly handling apple's saved ui state mechanism. You could try checking if holding the option key reveals a "quit and close all windows" option in the app's eponymous menu item, or press and hold the Shift key while opening the app to forget previous UI state.

If you don't care for apps to remember their previous windows and ui state, you can disable this mechanism in the settings app: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT204005#appresume