Posts tagged with "camera"

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.

Instagram 2.0 Now Available: Live Filters, New Camera UI, Faster Engine

Instagram, the iPhone-only social network for sharing photos with your friends, has released a major new version of their app today, which reaches version 2.0 and adds a number of new features, updated interface design, and a new icon.

The most notable change in Instagram 2.0 is the implementation of live filters. In previous versions of Instagram, every time you took a new photo with the app’s dedicated camera UI you had to apply a filter after the photo was taken, and if the filter was not okay for the photo, you were obviously forced to go back to main screen and re-shoot. Having to retake a photo to make it play nice with a selected filter could lead to several problems – your favorite “moment” may be gone forever, and you’d end up with multiple shots to choose from. In Instagram 2.0, the camera screen has been completely re-imagined to accomodate live filters and tilt shift – meaning, you can see how a filtered photo will look like before you take it.

Thanks to iOS’ powerful live image editing and photo-taking functionalities, the developers have been able to develop a solution that lets you instantly see how filters will apply to your photos – no need to shoot and apply separately.

From this new camera view, you can scroll filters at the bottom, or play with a series of buttons along the top. These buttons let you snap a photo without borders, activate/disable flash, swap cameras, or tweak live tilt-shift. The latter option is particularly amazing when seen in action, as it updates the camera view in real-time with different types of tilt-shift as you tap on the screen.

Alongside being able to see how filters will look like before taking a photo, Instagram version 2.0 comes with four new effects (Amaro, Rise, Hudson, and Valencia). Users can still decide to take a photo without effects and apply them later (simply don’t tap on the filters icon in the toolbar), but from what I’ve seen so far, performances of this update on the latest iPhone hardware really make for a fast and smooth experience when playing with live filters. We tested the feature on an old iPhone 3GS and the transition between effects was very smooth on that device, too. The Instagram developers say the new filter engine is up to 200 time faster than before.

Since the day we launched, one core part of the app has remain largely unchanged: the camera. In the past, we’ve added filters & tilt-shift, but the base technology has never evolved. Today that all changes as we introduce a complete upgrade to Instagram’s camera with a brand new technology layer.

See the world through Instagram’s stunning effects before you even snap a photo. Simply select a filter, hold the camera up to the scene and see the world through Instagram’s visual effects. We’ve re-written your favorite Instagram filters to be over 200x faster so even after having taken a photo, switching between them takes no time at all.

The new Instagram is also geared towards giving users more control over how their photos are snapped, and shared with the world. Besides being able to remove borders and rotate a photo after it’s taken, photos are now saved at much higher resolution in a device’s library – photo size has been increased from 612x612 to 1936x1936 on the iPhone 4 (1536x1536 on the iPhone 3GS). This was one of the biggest complaints with the original Instagram, and the developers are surely on the right path to deliver an app that’s equally fast at sharing photos, and saving them at high quality.

As the service is now nearing 10 million users, it’s interesting to look back at my initial review of Instagram last year and see how much has changed. In spite of the new features introduced today – a refreshed interface, live filters, higher photo sizes – Instagram is still the same app that allows users to share photos with a new “social paradigm”. Instagram has reinvented the way photos can be “beautified” and shared on mobile devices to multiple social networks, ultimately building a social network on its own that’s now attracting millions of users and popular brands.

You can find Instagram 2.0 on the App Store.

Further Reports Of Two New iPhone Models, Supply Issues For The iPhone 5?

As the official announcement of the iPhone 5 inevitably creeps closer there has also been a flurry of activity in the past 24 hours with more rumors, supposed leaks and speculation from a wide variety of sources. Most recently, Nick Bilton of the New York Times wrote that a “fairly different” iPhone 5 with 8 MP camera is just weeks away.

Bilton’s suggestions are by-and-large consistent with most frequent of past rumors regarding the iPhone 5. Noting this, 9to5 Mac last night reported that they have heard that there will be two different iPhone models coming next month - a low-end, iPhone 4 look-alike and the new iPhone 5.

The iPhone 5 itself is a sight to behold, we’ve been told.  It is impossibly light, yet much firmer than Samsung Galaxy phones which are backed in plastic.  The camera rivals point and shoot cameras and will be a major marketing point for this device.

There isn’t anything inherently unique in their report either, claiming that Apple’s lower-end iPhone will be similar to the current iPhone 4 whilst the iPhone 5 will be tear-drop shaped, which has been claimed before. However they do say that this lower-end iPhone (the iPhone 4S if you will), is already being produced in high quantities, with 10 million expected on launch day. The iPhone 5 though, is apparently seeing “continued design and production delays, at least on one assembly line” with 9to5 Mac speculating there could be slight delays and shortages until 2012.

[Via 9to5 Mac]

“Fairly Different” iPhone 5 with 8 MP Camera, A5 Processor “Just Weeks Away”

In reporting about today’s allegedly “leaked” iPhone 5 design per Case-Mate’s product pages (later pulled), The New York Times’ Nick Bilton says an announcement of Apple’s next iPhone is “just weeks away”.

We’re just weeks away from the announcement of the new Apple iPhone 5, according to an Apple employee who asked not to be named because he was not allowed to speak publicly for the company.

Bilton then reports that according to descriptions he’s heard from Apple employees, the images posted today by Case-Mate looked “potentially authentic”. The cases indeed seemed to show an iPhone 5 in line with recent speculation surrounding the new device such as tapered edges, and thinner form factor. In the same article, Bilton mentions “an engineer familiar with the new iPhone” said the iPhone 5 would look “fairly different” from the previous-gen model. According to the engineer the iPhone 5 will feature an 8-megapixel camera as previously rumored, the faster A5 processor also seen on the iPad 2, and possibly NFC functionalities for mobile payments. NFC on the iPhone 5 was rumored before, too, but most recent speculation indicated Apple might save the feature for a future “iPhone 6” next year.

As I’ve written in the past, two people with knowledge of the inner workings of Apple’s next-generation iPhones say either the iPhone 5 or iPhone 6 will include a new chip that is made by Qualcomm.

Plenty of rumors posted in the past months failed to indicate whether Apple will soon announce a completely redesigned iPhone 5, and iPhone 4-like device with slightly improved specs, or both to address different market segments. You can read more on this in our iPhone 5/4S rumor roundup and retrospective. [image via]

Apple Developing “Scanner” iOS App with OCR?

9to5mac reports “a source at Apple” informed them the company is working on a native “Scanner” app for iOS devices, which would allow users to use an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad camera to scan documents or business cards on the go, and have them recognized & exported as PDF, or to other iOS apps like Pages and Contacts. The report says “it isn’t certain” when this app will be released and if it will be directly bundled into a future version of iOS, however the website suggests such scanning functionality would require a better camera other than the existing 5 MP one on the iPhone 4. The iPhone 5 is widely expected to have an 8 MP camera.

The user opens the app and holds the iPhone over the document or object they want scanned.  They then snap a picture of it.  Apple’s on-board software then resizes the image to ‘letter’ or business card, A4 or whatever depending on original document.  Resizing includes aligning edges that get skewed by a single scan point rather than traditional scanning methods.  The user can then manually change the size of the document or the use.

This “Scanner” app would also use either local / cloud-based OCR (optical character recognition) to separate images from text and make scanned text available for copying and pasting across iOS applications. Notably, iOS comes with an “Open in…” menu that enables third-party and native apps to communicate with each other’s supported documents and file types – 9to5mac does suggest the Scanner app would be capable of scanning a business card, and automatically add a new entry to the Contacts app.

There are a number of apps in the App Store that can turn iOS devices into portable scanners, some of them we’ve reviewed on MacStories before. Apple has also been granted a series of patents related to a possible scanning functionality for mobile devices.

OmniVision Reveals New 8 MP Image Sensor, Better And Smaller Than Ever

OmniVision today revealed details of a new 8 MP image sensor that is 20% thinner than modules available on the market today. The 8-megapixel OV8850, which they are marketing as “the first CameraChip™ sensor built on a 1.1-micron OmniBSI-2 pixel architecture” is just a quarter of an inch thick and designed for implementation and smartphones and tablets.

With our new OmniBSI-2 architecture, we have further miniaturized our pixels while delivering a 20 percent improvement in peak quantum efficiency in all color channels, a 35 percent improvement in low-light sensitivity and a 45 percent increase in full-well capacity in an extremely compact and power efficient package

The module has also made improvements in its power efficiency and image quality – further making it a good fit for next generation mobile devices. 1080p/30 video recording is also supported but more interesting is that it supports 720p/60 with electronic image stabilization.

This new image sensor is set to go into mass production early next year, so it probably won’t feature in this year’s iPhone refresh – but it gives you an idea of how these tiny cameras are constantly improving and shrinking in size. An OmniVision image sensor currently resides in the iPhone 4 and reports from earlier this year suggest the company (perhaps with Sony) will also contribute an image sensor to the iPhone 5.