Record iOS footage to Mac
Get footage from your iPhone or iPad on to your Mac with QuickTime
Recording footage from iOS devices has previously been something of a kludge, requiring bespoke (and quite expensive) hardware, jailbreaking, or the help of a third-party utility that enables you to AirPlay to your Mac. No longer. If you’re running the latest operating systems on all your kit – iOS 8 for your iPhone or iPad and OS X Yosemite on your Mac – you can now record directly from your device to your Mac using QuickTime Player.
You might especially want to do this if you’re a developer. If you’re about to release an app or game, it pays to take advantage of the App Store’s video previews, and also to put gameplay footage/app walkthroughs on your own website and YouTube.
Usefully, Apple helps you by adding a touch of extra polish: the QuickTime Player recordings strip any personalised data from your status bar, replacing them with ‘generic’ details; so rather than your carrier and clock settings, you get a status bar with full cellular reception and a full battery, showing 9:41 AM on the clock (referencing the time seen on devices used during the demos in Apple events).
But even if you’re not a developer, this functionality can still be useful. If you want to show off your skills in a game (such as the excellent Helix, which features in the walkthrough), you can do so. And if an app is misbehaving, you can provide a developer with a video that shows what’s going on, rather than just a few stills. Craig Grannell