8 megapixels not enough for you? Try 32. Photo: Apple
How would you like an app that transforms your regular 8-megapixel iPhone 6 camera into a 32-megapixel one?
Okay, so it’s not exactly as miraculous as it sounds, but photography app Hydra is a worthy tool to add to your virtual camera bag. It works by taking a series of up to 60 small images and then stitching them together to form one super high-resolution picture.
While it isn’t true 32-megapixel photography, it’s still an altogether impressive app that only serves to underline just why the iPhone camera has been so embraced by users.
GoPro shares have dropped 42 percent since hitting an all-time high in October. Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac
Shares of GoPro stock plummeted as much as 15% this afternoon after it was announced that Apple was awarded a patent that could put the wearable camera company in serious trouble.
Apple was granted a series of 34 patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office today relating to a camera system that can be mounted to helmets and scuba masks and controlled remotely. That patent specifically mentions weaknesses in GoPro’s system, which has sent investors worrying that Apple is aiming to crush the sports camera giant.
The iPhone 6 camera was one of its most popular features. But things could get even better. Photo: Cult of Mac Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus featured Apple’s best-ever iPhone camera, but Apple is always on the lookout for ways to beat its own sky-high standards.
According to a new report from the Chinese language website United Daily News, Cupertino is planning to create a dual-lens camera with optical zoom capabilities and a 3D pressure sensor for the iPhone 6s, which will likely arrive this September.
This week: the next iPhone might feature a massively improved camera; Uber’s super bro culture gets bad press, but we want to party with their brogrammers; why we’re not so jazzed on Apple Watch apps; Steve Jobs drowns the first iPod prototype to prove a point; and finally, what we like and don’t about the gadgets and Apple accessories we’re reviewing—it’s an all-new Under Review.
Chuckle your way through each week’s best Apple stories! Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the chuckles begin.
Our thanks to lynda.com for sponsoring this episode! Learn virtually any application at your own pace from expert-taught video tutorials at lynda.com.
With its improved lens, sensors and image stabilization, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus offer the best camera seen yet on an Apple handset. But one of the biggest changes was one that took place behind the scenes of iOS 8, with an API allowing third-party developers to have precise control over the workings of the iOS camera functions.
The result is more professional photo apps, which are transforming your most-used camera into your best one.
One of these new breed of photo apps is Little Pixels’ Manual custom exposure tool. Giving you a powerful camera app with full control over each image, the app lets users quickly and easily adjust all the parameters of their images, including focus, white balance, and exposure. If you’re looking for a guide on how to manually focus an iPhone camera, you can refer to this detailed tutorial on iPhone camera manual controls.
The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus camera sensor didn’t get an increase in megapixels, but it’s still way better than the iPhone 5s.
Need proof? Travel photographer Austin Manntook his iPhone 6 and 6 Plus review units to Iceland, and not only were the landscapes absolutely breathtaking, but his pictures prove that the iPhone 6 has the best camera Apple’s ever made.
Why is Apple hiding the bump of the iPhone 6 camera lens in profile?
The iPhone 6 is the first iPhone with a camera lens that protrudes slightly instead of being flush with the back of the device. It was a necessary design trade-off, allowing Jony Ive’s team of designers to cram the advanced optics into the iPhone 6 necessary to make it the best smartphone camera ever.
But that doesn’t change the fact that Apple usually likes clean lines in its product designs. And that protruding camera lens, when viewing the iPhone 6 in profile, turns an otherwise clean line into an unsightly bulge. Apple can’t stand that bulge, so the company is going to the unprecedented length of using clever lighting and photography to hide it in its marketing materials.
Hyperlapse, the new time-lapse video app from Instagram, is taking the Web by storm. In today’s video, Cult of Mac goes hands-on with the free app to show you exactly how to use it to make incredible videos.
We also explain why Hyperlapse beats out iOS 8’s built-in time-lapse feature, and we’ll show you some of the best videos made with Instagram’s new app so far.
A moment of triumph for Apple and its customers. Certainly not for BlackBerry, though.
We’re all so used to using our iPhones as our primary cameras these days that it’s difficult to remember what it was like in the dark days before the device came along.
Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a new series of Apple-related patents, including an historic 2008 filing for an Apple camera. While the patent covers both a standalone camera (something Apple hasn’t done since the QuickTake camera launched in 1994) and a camera integrated into a PDA, it is likely that this is the patent which covers the original iPhone.
A new set of leaked iPhone 6 photos from luxury iPhone upgraders Feld & Volk reveal that Apple’s next handset may come with recessed volume buttons, a protruding camera lens, and an embeddable Apple logo that might be made of Liquidmetal.
The iPhone 6 is expected to be unveiled next month, but a plethora of leaks flooding out of Shenzhen have already given fanboys an idea what to expect, and these new photos add a few more pieces to the puzzle with details on how Apple will slim the profile of the device and make your shiny Apple logo scratch-resistant.
Merek Davis is not a coder. The developer never even made an app before 2013. Yet on his first iOS at-bat, he hit an App Store grand slam with Mextures, his photo-editing app that quickly became one of the top photo apps of the year.
Mextures is like Photoshop for your iPhone, only easier to use. The app’s editing tools and formulas let you tweak and re-tweak pics, adding light leaks, textures and color gradients that can turn even your crappiest pics into something majestic.
It’s a bona fide hit, with some of the most-followed names on Instagram using Davis’ creation. But it almost never happened.
We get slammed 24/7 with new Apple rumors. Some are accurate, most are not. To give you a clue about what’s really coming out of Cupertino in the future, we’re busting out our rumor debunker each week to blow up the nonsense.
The onslaught of ridiculous iPhone 6 rumors continues this week with reports claiming a huge megapixel boost is coming thanks to a new camera sensor. We’ve also heard whispers of week-long battery life coming soon, seen glimpses a possible iPhone 6 TouchID, and heard new details on the iWatch coming in different sizes this fall.
There’s even some new reports of production delays with the 5.5-inch iPhone 6, but you’ll have to gaze deep into our crystal ball to find out who the hell really knows what’s going on with Apple’s iPhablet.
For many users, the iPhone has long since been their default go-to camera, and that’s unlikely to change with the upcoming iPhone 6.
As many smartphone camera aficionados will know, Apple has been using Sony’s Exmor sensors for its cameras as far back as the iPhone 4s. Both the 4s and 5 used an Exmor IMX145 unit, while the 5s updated to a newer model.
According to a new report, the iPhone 6 is set to upgrade yet again: adopting the Sony Exmor IMX220, which boasts 13 MP and a 1/2.3″ sensor, and is capable of recording 1080p videos (3840 x 1080 resolution sampling.)
In famous ’70s sitcom Happy Days, Henry Winkler’s unflappably cool greaser, Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli, has a superpower, described on Wikipedia as “an almost magical ability to manipulate technology with just a nudge, bump or a snap of his fingers for things such as starting a car, turning on lights, coaxing free sodas from a vending machine, or changing the song selection on a jukebox.”
It turns out that if you’re having camera issues with your iPhone 5, fixing it might be as simple as channeling the Fonz: Just try thwacking it.
We’re still busying digesting all the new stuff Tim Cook and Craig Federighi announced yesterday with iOS 8, and even though we’re ridiculously excited about major backend features like HomeKit, iCloud Photo Library and Metal, 24 hours of tinkering around with the OS has revealed a lot of hidden gems that went unmentioned.
Along with the host of new iOS 8 features, Jony Ive and the Human Interface team have been busy adding dozens of tiny tweaks to the UI as well as tossing in a few smaller features you probably didn’t notice.
Take a look at these 11 tweaks Apple sneaked into iOS 8 without telling anyone:
Remember Facebook Poke? It’s become nothing more than a faint memory since its introduction in December 2012. But for some reason the iPhone app has stayed on the App Store until now.
Today Facebook decided to do some spring cleaning in the App Store by pulling not only the Poke app, but Facebook Camera as well.
Nokia’s incredible PureView camera technology is one of the reasons why so many Android users were desperate to see the Finnish firm ditch Windows Phone and bring Google’s platform to its flagship smartphones instead — and you could soon see the same technology in future iPhones.
Apple has used Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Nokia’s handset business as an opportunity to poach executives who are seeking new challenges, and the Cupertino company has just hired Lumia engineer and PureView camera expert Ari Partinen.
For many users, the quality and accessibility of the iPhone camera means that it is the only camera we need on a regular basis. It may be about to get a whole lot better, too, according to a patent application published by Apple on Thursday — describing a new “super-resolution” mode.
What makes the patent interesting (apart from that it promises higher quality images) is that it suggests that picture resolution could be ramped up without needing more megapixels.
Cramming something as complicated as a camera into a form factor as thin as that of a smartphone is difficult, and with smartphones getting thinner all the time, many smartphones — from Nokia’s PureView-equipped Lumia’s to Google’s Voltron-like Project Ara — are choosing better image quality over sleek form-factor by making their smartphone cameras protrude, at least a little bit.
Will Apple follow suit with the iPhone 6 if it means better image stabilization? Come on. That’s not their style. But the camera will be getting better.
Swann’s bottomless lineup of security and wifi cameras — the company even sells a camera that isn’t actually a camera — has just added a new model, with a unusual twist.
In addition to all the high-tech bells and whistles one might expect from a high-end wifi camera (like the ability to view the feed from an iOS or Android device through an accompanying app) the new SwannSecure also eddddcomes with its own wireless, 7-inch touchscreen monitor.
Future iPhones may feature Olloclip-style interchangeable lenses — according to a patent published Tuesday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The newly-published patent describes a mechanism by which an iOS devices could be fitted with a bayonet mount, onto which various different types of lens could be attached.
The bayonet mount would allow lenses to be securely fastened to the body of an iPhone, while also keeping a relatively inconspicuous profile when not being used.
Side-by-side comparisons show how the Ember (right) stacks up against the existing iPhone flash (left)
Want to take good night photos using your iPhone, but find that the device’s in-built flash — consisting of a couple of LEDs — doesn’t result in the kind of pictures you want?
If so, you may be interested in this Kickstarter campaign to build a new iPhone 5/5s case, packing a whopping 56 LEDs into a hard case to provide a bright panel of lights for all your nocturnal photographic needs.
In a world in which the iPhone camera is good enough to be most people’s primary camera, the days of low-grade cellphones pics are a thing of the past (for Apple users at least.)
But it’s not simply a matter of megapixels, but about the other “value added” touches that truly make the iPhone a camera worth hanging up your SLR for.
One of those touches is Apple’s neat “tap to focus” functionality, which arrived with the iPhone 3GS in June 2009.
This week in Cult of Mac Magazine – No Fail iPhone Photography, the best tips, tricks, and practical advice on using that amazing camera you carry around in your pocket.
We’re celebrating Apple’s astonishingly great iPhone camera with a whole issue dedicated to all things iPhoneography. Cult of Mac’s own photography guru, Charlie Sorrel, weighs in with some choice technical advice on photography that applies across all cameras, iPhone or not, while Buster Heine gives you the lowdown on all the greatest peripherals you’ll want to gear up with before the big shoot.
Olloclip’s Michele Baker drops some wisdom on how to best capture “silver” with your iPhone, in honor of the winners of this week’s Photography contest, and our very own Nicole Martinelli interviews one of the best street iPhonographers around.
We’ll take some time out to showcase the top ten entries in our #CoMSilver photo contest, with the top three winners and some fantastic runner ups.
Of course, we’ll start off with the usual Best Apps, Books, Movies and Music from the past week and then end with our famous “Ask A Genius” column, so be sure to subscribe and download the issue.
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The Ultimate DSLR Camera Course Bundle packages two courses – one aimed at beginners and one aimed at those ready for more advanced techniques. No matter your skill level, this bundle will help you become a better photographer. And you can take those steps to improve at your own pace, all without breaking the bank because The Ultimate DSLR Camera Course Bundle is only $29.99 for a limited time!
