![Make iPad into HDMI monitor with Lux Orion [Awesome Apps]](https://www.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Lux-Orion-1-1-1536x864.jpg "Make iPad into HDMI monitor with Lux Orion [Awesome Apps]")
You can make your iPad into an external screen for your Mac, a Nintendo Switch, a camera or another device. All you need is the free Lux Orion application and a relatively cheap adapter.
Lux, the maker of the brilliant Halide camera application, made Orion just for fun. But it’s very useful, too.
On the heels of a big Obscura 3 camera app refresh, another popular and powerful photo app sees major changes this week. This time, it’s the Halide MK II app for iPhone and iPad, from Lux Optics, which also makes the Spectre app for creating long exposures.
The Halide app’s important updates include the addition of batch actions — so you can finally work with multiple photos at the same time — and an improved “Image Rescue” function.
A just-released update to Halide helps iPhone and iPad owners take better close-up images. The iOS application works with the macro camera in the iPhone 13 Pro series, but also offers tools that can help any phone or tablet user with close-in pictures.
This is in addition to Halide Mark II 2.5’s many other features that give more control over the cameras built into iPhone and iPad than are available in Apple’s own application.
Professional photog/developer Sebastiaan de With accidentally discovered that the rear-facing camera in the 2021 iPad Pro can focus on objects very close to the lens. This allows the tablet to capture close-up images not possible with an iPhone.
Cult of Mac did a bit of experimenting and confirmed the results.
Halide isn’t just for iPhone any more — the alternative camera application gained iPad support on Tuesday. Lux promises its latest release is, “packed with all the powerful features of Halide for iPhone and a few special ones for better photography on big screens.”
Got a new iPhone or iPad for the holidays? Make the most of it by getting your hands on some of the best, most useful iOS apps. We’ve rounded up five of our favorites that we think every iPhone and iPad owner should be using.
Halide Mark II brings a significant revamp to a popular alternative camera application for the iPhone. The developer redesigned the software to make it even easier to use for beginners. But it also comes with professional-grade features built in, like new tools for working with RAW images.
Today’s release of iOS 13.2 brings Apple’s new Deep Fusion feature, so iPhone 11 owners can start taking beautifully detailed photographs of sweaters. But if you have an older iPhone, Halide has you covered. The iOS photo app’s new Smartest Processing update brings Deep Fusion-style detail to anybody’s sweater shots.
What makes the iPhone 11 Pro a Pro smartphone? It’s definitely not the ultra-wide camera.
According to Ben Sandofsky, co-developer of the photo app Halide, the ultra-wide camera does not support RAW capture of images or allow photographers to manually focus the camera.
In iPadOS and iOS 13, you can kinda replace the stock Apple apps on your iPhone or iPad. For instance, anytime you tap the Mail icon, Spark could launch instead. Or, and this is probably the most useful, when you tap the lock-screen shortcut for the Camera app, you could launch Halide instead.
This isn’t proper app replacement, but it is a pretty wild trick for iOS devices. We use a new feature in Shortcuts to make the magic happen. And for the Camera app, it works great.
Portrait mode on the iPhone XS is pretty amazing — when it works. I gave it a good, hard workout after the device’s launch in September 2018, and found it to be an almost miraculous trick to fake the optical depth of photos taken on a bigger camera.
But after using it for half a year, does Portrait mode still seem so great? No. While it’s still just as impressive, sometimes it’s so frustrating to use that I just give up, quit the Camera app, and don’t bother to take a photo at all.
Halide, an iOS camera app that entered a flooded photo app category in 2017, quickly rose above most of the others as a must-have tool for serious iPhone photographers.
The creators, wanting manual camera settings and a RAW shooting option, rolled out a new app this week bringing ease to the otherwise complicated task of light and motion painting with long exposures.
The new app, Spectre, requires no technical skill – or even a tripod – to bring the streams of light to urban scenics shot on iPhone.
Halide, the best iPhone camera app that isn’t the iPhone’s Camera app, has gotten yet another amazing update. This time it brings a color histogram (which is actually way cooler than it sounds), plus even smarter Smart Raw.
Got a new iPhone? Then get started with these five amazing apps for your new device. Whether you’re taking photos, listening to podcasts, making notes, or just out taking a walk, we’ve got you covered.
This week we find out that Halide has added yet another awesome new feature to the iPhone’s best camera app, that the AudioKit team has busted out yet another amazing (and retro) synthesizer, that Name Skillz exists to help you remember people’s names, and that HomeRun has scored — yes — a home run with its HomeKit-controlling Apple Watch app.
Apart from the screen, the big different between the iPhone XS and XR is the camera. The XS has two, and the XR only has one. This means that — like a one-eyed person — the XR camera can’t calculate the depth of objects in a scene, and therefore can’t use the Depth Blur feature to blur the background. It works around this by using clever facial recognition tricks to allow Portrait Mode with people, but that’s it.
Until now, that it. In its latest update, camera app Halide adds back this functionality to the new iPhone. That’s right. With Halide, you can take depth-effect pictures of anything with the iPhone XR.
The iPhone XS camera is pretty incredible. The device uses its two rear cameras, plus the A12 chip’s Neural Engine, to record such an accurate 3D map of the scene that you can adjust the background blur with a slider. But that depth map is useful for more than just blurring backgrounds. It can be used by other apps to:
The iPhone XS is the gold standard for iOS cameras, but the XR manages some excellent tricks of its own. Despite having only one rear camera, the XR can still recognise people, and then use AI and the super-powerful A12 Neural Engine to separate out the person form the background. While this portrait matte isn’t as detailed as an iPhone XS depth map, it can in theory still be used to do many of the same tricks.
Today we’ll look at the best depth apps for the new iPhone XS, XR, and XS Max.
The Portrait Mode in iPhone XS is the best thing to happen to iPhone photography in quite a while. It uses the XS’ dual cameras, plus the A12 chip’s Neural Engine, to work out how far away everything is in your photos. Then, it blurs everything in the background, just as if you used a fancy big camera.
But what if you want even more blur? The iPhone XS’ Depth Control feature looks very realistic, but maybe it’s a bit too realistic? Maybe you want to really wipe out that background with some extra blur. The good news is, there are some great apps that do that.
This week it’s all about awesome updates. Spark adds Siri shortcuts to your email, Halide adds Smart RAW to make your iPhone XS camera even better, and Fiery Feeds gets a makeover and Pinboard support.
Hear about all that and more in this week’s app roundup.
Last week, Halide developer Sebastiaan de With debunked Beautygate, and introduced something called Smart RAW, all in one blog post. Now, Smart RAW is available in Halide 1.10, and it takes the iPhone XS camera to a whole new level.
Turns out the entire “Beautygate” controversy has been much ado about nothing.
Corners of the internet have been up in arms over a perceived flaw in the iPhone XS camera that makes people in selfies look better than they should. Apple is supposedly looking to “fix” the undisclosed beauty filter, but developers behind one of the best iOS camera apps revealed today that such a filter does not exist.
This week we look at iOS 12-ready apps Halide and Sorted 3, and then listen to podcasts with Ferrite and Overcast. You’ll also find apps for scuba divers, obituaries and making the most of your local music scene.
iOS 12 gives your favorite apps access to some amazing new abilities. One is integration with the brand-new Siri Shortcuts, which lets you automate your apps, or to interact with them by talking to Siri. But that’s not all. Camera apps now have access to the the depth information from Portrait Mode, so they can do some pretty special effects.
Safari’s password autofill has also been opened up, so apps like Dashlane and 1Password are now available with a single tap. Let’s take a look at the best new iOS 12-ready apps already available.
iOS 12 packs a whole host of significant improvements that Apple didn’t get a chance to showcase during its WWDC preview. One of those, according to one developer, is a greatly-enhanced Portrait mode for compatible iPhone models.
The image below highlights the impressive difference between a Portrait photo taken with iOS 11 and another taken with iOS 12.
Monument Valley 2, an M.C. Escher-inspired mobile gaming masterpiece, is just one of the brilliant titles we’ve picked out for this week’s “Awesome Apps” roundup.
We’ve also got a great task manager, an ancient Egypt-themed strategy game, and a superb camera app. Check out our picks below.
