Posts tagged with "camera"

Screenshots Show “Panorama Mode” Enabled On iOS 5

Shortly after the first beta of iOS 5 was seeded to developers in June, a series of code strings suggested the company could implement a panoramic photo-taking feature in the OS, allowing users to shoot wider photos with a Panorama functionality allegedly similar to what third-party apps like 360 Panorama and Pano are already offering. As Apple kept seeding more betas and eventually released iOS 5 to the public, Panorama was nowhere to be found in iOS, suggesting Apple wasn’t ready to debut the feature yet.

A series of screenshots posted by programmer and iPhone hacker Conrad Kramer earlier today, however, show the interface and options for what could have been Panorama in iOS 5. In particular, the screenshots show a very simplified UI to take multiple shots in a single camera session “from left to right”. It is unclear whether the design of the functionality was final but Apple decided to save it for a future version of iOS, or if the company decided Panorama wasn’t simply good enough for iOS 5. While Kramer seems to promise a Cydia tweak will be released to easily activate the feature on jailbroken phones, developers can play around with Panorama by manually changing a key on their devices. The resulting image of an iOS Panorama has also been posted on Dropbox showing a far from perfect output, although we can’t speculate on how the picture was taken, or the stability of unofficial, hidden iOS 5 functionalities.

As we mentioned above, those willing to check out panoramic photos on iOS right now should check out Occipital’s 360, which we reviewed here and here. Apple is working on an iOS 5.0 update that will introduce security fixes, better battery life and gestures on the original iPad, but Panorama wasn’t mentioned in the release notes for the new beta software.

Update: Cydia developer @chpwn has already submitted a tweak called “Firebreak” to Cydia to enable panorama mode on iOS devices.

Apple Posts New iPhone 4S Camera, iCloud and Siri Ads

Following the first Siri ad that was released last week, Apple uploaded three new commercials on its website and YouTube channel earlier today, showcasing once again the capabilities of the iPhone 4S’ voice assistant, as well as the improved camera and iCloud support.

The new commercials cover a wide range of hardware and software features of “the most amazing iPhone yet”, albeit some of them are also available on older generation models like the iPhone 4. The camera is described as “all new” with 8 megapixels and “advanced optics”, but the ad also focuses on what’s possible to do after a photo has been taken on an iPhone, showing the built-in photo editing functionalities that “no ordinary camera can do”. From the YouTube description:

With 8 megapixels, advanced optics and more, the all new camera on the iPhone 4S may be the only camera you need.

The second Siri commercial is similar to previous one, featuring different input requests from iPhone 4S users such as map directions, weather conditions, calendar appointements and Messages. Apple describes Siri as your “personal assistant for everything”.

The iCloud ad goes a little more technical – although with Apple’s usual clear and friendly style – to show iBooks and document sync across devices, Purchase history on iTunes, Photo Stream and Automatic Downloads for songs. “Now the things you do on your phone are everywhere you want them”.

Check out Apple’s new ads here, or watch the YouTube video embeds below.
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iPhone 4S Example Pictures

You’ve read the iPhone 4S review. Of the two standout features, the camera is the easiest to showcase. What amazes me is that anyone can pick up the iPhone 4S and snap a good picture. With patience and a photographer’s eye you can snap *great* pictures. It makes taking photographs fun.

Past the break, you’ll find lots of example images covering various scenery that should give you a good idea about what the iPhone 4S is capable of. I’ve tried not to touch up any of the photos, but I can’t promise that I’ve accidentally inserted one or two enhanced images. Scroll through, enjoy, and let us know what you think.

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Sony Camera Found In iPhone 4S Teardown→

Sony Camera Found In iPhone 4S Teardown

There was much speculation surrounding the supplier of the camera module of the new iPhone prior to the official iPhone 4S announcement, which confirmed the device has an improved 8 MP camera but didn’t give us any details on the manufacturer behind the component. In the months leading up to the iPhone 4S, you may remember Sony CEO Howard Stinger hinted at Sony producing the camera for the next-generation iPhone, though confusion arose as it wasn’t really clear whether he was being sarcastic in his statements or not. A report from June then noted both Sony and OmniVision – Apple’s main camera supplier for the previous iPhones – would supply a new 8 MP camera for the iPhone.

Following iFixit’s teardown of the iPhone 4S, Chipworks has put the camera module under a microscope, and confirmed that their unit has a Sony camera as seen in the die markings from the photos. This still doesn’t completely exclude OmniVision from the list of camera suppliers, but it seems to confirm rumors of a Sony camera were correct.

In order to get our readers the device manufacturer as soon as possible, rather than going through a fuming sulfuric acid chip deprocessing we chose to use our infrared microscope to look through the structure of this image sensor. What you see are the die markings on the base layer of the image sensor. The image isn’t beautiful, but it’s enough to tell us that Sony is in our particular iPhone 4S.

The iPhone 4S’ camera has been known to feature improved optics, allow for 73% more light through the lens and, overall, shoot sharper and crisper images, as well as 1080p HD video. You can check out Chipworks’ teardown and X-ray images here. [via]

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iOS 5: Improvements In Safari, Camera, Photos, Mail, Calendar, Music & Video

Today’s release of iOS 5 sees the inclusion of new apps such as Reminders, significant upgrades to existing apps such as the integration of iMessage in Messages and the introduction of iCloud, which is set to change the way we use our iOS devices. Yet amidst all these significant changes to the iOS platform, Apple hasn’t forgotten about the apps that have existed since day 1 of the first iPhone.

The Safari, Mail, Camera, Calendar, Music and Video apps have all received updates in iOS 5 and the updates range from addressing common complaints, tweaking the user interfaces, adding iCloud support to adding features that improve productivity and usability. Be sure to jump through the break to view the entire overview of changes to these apps.

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Apple’s iPhone Event: More Details And Some Things We Missed

As with every Apple event and keynote, there is a lot of information disseminated in a short period of time. Whilst we have already covered most of the information covered in yesterday’s iPhone event (just scroll the MacStories.net homepage to see how much there was), it’s time to have a roundup of what we missed and add some more details on information that we only briefly mentioned previously.

The iPhone 4S Camera

Devin Coldewey of TechCrunch has an excellent recap of the new and improved camera featured in the iPhone 4S. If you want a really in-depth understanding of all the features of it, be sure to jump over and read his article. The key points to take away though, are that it has an 8 megapixel camera (up from 5 MP that the iPhone 4 has) and can record 1080p video (the iPhone 4 could only handle 720p). Those two specifications are clearly the headline grabbers, but arguably more important is the improved sensor from Omnivision in the camera.

Apple claims this sensor features “next-generation backside illumination” which allows 73% more light and more light on the sensor means better quality images. Apple has posted some unedited iPhone 4S photos that show how great pictures can look, and they are certainly a notch above the quality of iPhone 4 photos. When Phil Schiller spoke at the event yesterday, he made note of how the sensor was “1/3rd faster”, and as Coldewey notes, this likely refers to the speed at which images can be processed. With the combination of the powerful A5 processor, new sensor and improved GPU, the iPhone 4S could be up to a second faster than other smartphones at processing an image.

The most important part of a camera is… the photographer — but right after that is the lens. And the lens of the iPhone 4 was already pretty solid for a camera phone: F/2.8 (apparently limited to F/3) at about 30mm equivalent focal length. The new one is f/2.4, about half a stop better, which doesn’t sound like much but at this point of the aperture scale counts for a lot. It’s a pretty big increase in the total amount of light hitting the sensor.

If you’ve ever tried taking a video with the iPhone 4 when in motion, you’ll have noticed how shaky the footage can turn out to be. The iPhone 4S features real-time stabilisation, and whilst not much is known about how it works, Coldewey presumes it will be “electronic stabilisation based on live image analysis” thanks to the A5’s power. We won’t really know how well this works until people try it out for themselves, but Apple has posted a demo of the new feature.

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A Look At Instagram 2.0 Filters→

A Look At Instagram 2.0 Filters

Owen Billcliffe at my glass eye takes an in-depth look at the new filters introduced in Instagram 2.0, as well as the updated ones:

Instagram said that all the filters have been completely re-written to work with the new live preview system and to output far higher resolution images, and it seems to me the re-writes just haven’t nailed the original look. I have a feeling this may be for technical reasons, that the new engine for live preview just can’t support certain features like textures. I suppose it’s also possible the Instagram guys wanted to make some tweaks deliberately but if they did then that’s not cool in my opinion. Users preferring the social side may not mind much, but I had some favourite filters that just don’t feel the same at all and I know I’m not alone.

I don’t use Instagram as much as I’d like to, but I’ve noticed the same issue Owen has with the new filters – Instagram 1.0 had more “personality” in that developers weren’t afraid to have absurdly colorful, contrasty, washed out filters. As Gruber notes, that’s what made Instagram fun. The new filters are less washed out and contrasty, some look very similar to each other – you should take a look at Owen’s gallery with comparison shots before and after the upgrade.

The Instagram developers have a good track record with updates and I’m sure they’ll listen to feedback. Although I do wonder if these changes are somehow related to Apple’s upcoming CoreImage support in iOS 5.

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Instagram Hits 10 Million Users in 355 Days - A Brief Retrospective

The Instagram developers have announced their photo-sharing service has now 10 million registered users:

Last October, we launched Instagram live in the App Store. Today, less than one year later, we’re happy to announce that the Instagram community now consists of over 10 million registered users.

The first version of Instagram, which I reviewed here, was released on October 6th, 2010, exactly 355 days ago. Last week, Instagram released a major 2.0 upgrade, which includes live filters, and updated UI, and several optimizations to the code. Here’s a quick look back at Instagram’s history in the past 12 months:

- October 6th, 2010: Instagram released on the App Store.

- December 7th, 2010: Instagram gets inline viewer on Twitter.com.

- December 21st, 2010: Instagram reaches 1 million registered users.

- January 27th, 2011: Instagram 1.1 is out with hashtag support and some optimizations.

- January 28th, 2011: Twitterrific, a popular third-party Twitter client for the Mac and iOS, adds native Instagram support for photo URLs.

- February 8th, 2011: Instagram announces its official API.

- February 26th, 2011: The first results of Instagram’s API are in.

- March 10th, 2011: Flipboard, Apple’s iPad app of the year, adds native Instagram integration.

- March 11th, 2011: Instagram 1.5 brings new effects and News Feed.

- April 2nd, 2011: Here comes the first Instagram client for Mac based on the API.

- April 15th, 2011: Instagram 1.6 focuses on performances.

- May 16th, 2011: Instagram 1.7 gets a new profile view.

- May 23rd, 2011: Instagram announces 4.25 million users.

- May 26th, 2011: Instagram 1.8 improves the comment section.

- August 3rd, 2011: 150 million photos have been uploaded to Instagram.

- September 20th, 2011: Instagram 2.0 released.

- September 26th, 2o11: Instagram hits 10 million users.

From the timeline above, I had to exclude several of the minor updates Instagram released, or amazing third-party apps that plug into the service to extend its capabilities (not to mention celebrities and brands). And as with last year’s original release, Instagram is still an iPhone-only app.

Has there ever been an iPhone app with such terrific third-party and user support in just 355 days?

FaceMan, Unofficial Photo Booth for iPhone, Gets 3.0 Update

Here’s a fun app that, for some reason, Apple still hasn’t delivered to iPhone and iPod touch users. FaceMan, created by fellow Italian developer Libero Spagnolini, is an unofficial alternative to Apple’s Photo Booth, which allows users to apply funny effects and distortions to their faces in real-time using the iPhone’s rear or front-facing camera. I first reviewed the app in January, but since then lots of work has been put into FaceMan – and a major 3.0 update released today adds a completely redesigned UI, a faster engine, and many optimizations to the code.

The new FaceMan lets you scroll between effects at the bottom (with live previews both on the effect’s thumbnail, and the bigger camera view at the top), and swipe vertically to change between effects, camera controls, and intensity slider. A new effect has been added, camera controls now rotate properly in landscape mode, and recording performance (FaceMan does both photos and videos) has been improved by 200%, the developer says. I haven’t been able to verify such percentage, but it’s clear FaceTime 3.0 is faster than the previous version on the same hardware (my iPhone 4). The app runs on the iPhone 3GS and iPod touch 4th generation, too, and requires iOS 4.1 or later. I have tested the app on iOS 5 beta 7, and it worked with no issues, although the developer told me more iOS 5-related fixes are on their way.

It’s not completely clear to me why wouldn’t Apple create a simpler port of Photo Booth for the iPhone and iPod touch. The software was previewed at the March 2 event as an addition to iOS for the iPad 2, and has proven to be a fun and delightful way to snap and share silly pictures with friends and family. The iPad 2 runs on Apple’s faster A5 processor, however, so that might be the reason why Apple’s official Photo Booth app hasn’t made it to existing A4-based hardware yet.

Still, FaceMan works nicely on the iPhone 4, and the new interface is fast and fluid at applying and switching between effects. If you’re looking for a Photo Booth alternative now, you should give FaceMan a try. It’s only $0.99 on the App Store.