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Apple just announced the latest version of their smartphone, the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, and you might just be tempted to part with a grand. According to the hype, they are the strongest, fastest, and most capable camera phones yet. Oh, and finally, they got rid of the lighting port in favour of a USB-C.
The two phones are made of an invincible-sounding titanium. The 15 Pro starts at $999 with 128GB of storage, and the Pro Max at $1,199 with 256GB of storage.
Apple had its big keynote for 2023, and amongst all of the usual updates to the company’s computers, smartphones, tablets and watches, we saw something new. Apple Vision Pro. It’s an augmented-reality platform. Essentially, it’s a whole computer built into a headset. Based on the Apple M2 chip – along with a new R1 chip – it turns your environment into your workspace for what Apple calls spatial computing.
But what’s particularly interesting about the Vision Pro announcement is that it was described as “Apple’s first 3D camera”. It’s so much more than that, though. It runs its own operating system visionOS, that Apple says includes the same frameworks as iOS and iPadOS. This means you can use your smartphone and tablet apps right on the headset natively.
Apple is shutting down its cloud-based service My Photo Stream on July 26th. This means that if you use this service to store or share images on any of your Apple products, you cannot rely on your photos being saved. Although the switch-off is set for late July, images will not be saved from the 30 days before this date.
My Photo Stream has been around since 2011, which is admittedly a long time in technological terms. However, there are people who rely on this service still to share photos between devices (my mother, for example!).
Last April, Apple launched its self-repair service for residents of the USA. The service allows users to receive tools and spare parts directly from Apple in order to be able to repair their devices themselves. A handy solution for the tech-savvy who want to save a little money when their iPhone inevitably needs something fixed. In December, the service was extended across Europe.
In theory, it’s a great idea, and it seemed Apple was finally taking right-to-repair seriously. French regulators, however, disagree, citing “deceptive marketing and programmed obsolescence”. The issue stems from Apple’s practice of tying replacement parts to individual device serial numbers – which essentially changes nothing except to put the liability for the repair on the user rather than Apple itself.
This is not the news that anybody wants to really hear, but it looks like Lightroom alternative Darktable may no longer be available on the Mac soon. According to the developers of the software, it’s just getting too difficult to keep up. While Darktable is an open-source project with contributors in the community, for the last ten years, maintaining and compiling the Mac versions of Darktable has been down to a single person.
That person has done a wonderful job of keeping up with things for the last decade, but now he’s ready to move on and pass the mantle on to somebody else. This means that the next stable release of Darktable, version 4.2.1, is probably going to be the last one available for the Mac – unless they can find a replacement.
As the conflict between China and the U.S. progresses, lawmakers have now turned their attention to TikTok. A China-based company stands behind the super-popular app, so there are growing concerns that user data might end up in the hands of the Chinese government. Therefore, a Democratic senator recently urged on Apple and Google CEOs to remove TikTok from their app stores immediately.
ACD Systems has announced ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac 9. The newest version of the all-in-one photo editor for Mac comes with some major UI enhancements as well as facial detection and recognition for naming and organising your photos. A new Develop pane helps you to “easily take control of your Develop mode workflow” and lets you store snapshots of complex image operations.
Billing itself as “the go-to Mac product for all your photography needs”, Photo Studio for Mac 9 comes with a new Info Palette that helps you to keep an eye on the metadata of your photos. It also includes keyword and category filtering to help you organise and recall images more easily in the future. It also comes with ACDsee Mobile Sync for easily uploading your smartphone content straight to the desktop.
“Does anyone have an iPhone charger?” a person asks in a panic. Others shrug their shoulders because they have a house full of chargers – but they’re all USB-C. This is no longer going to happen. Well, at least not in Europe.
The European Union has reached a landmark agreement that wants to unify various consumer electronics and make them feature a USB-C charging port. Yes, this includes the iPhone and AirPods, and it should happen by 2024.
When the pandemic began, everyone started offering software that turns your DLSR, mirrorless, or phone into a webcam. Apple has joined the 2-year-old trend and it will soon finally enable you to use your iPhone as a webcam. What do you mean, “improve the native Mac camera?” Nah, you can attach your phone to it for your Zoom meetings.
Who says the wristwatch is dead? Not Apple at any rate as they have just filed a patent application for a “watch having a camera” Yep, we have camera-phones, but now it looks like we may get a camera-watch in future. But don’t worry, it will probably be more James Bond than Flight of the Concords. Apple isn’t planning to actually glue a point and shoot onto a watch, they’ve come up with several different ideas for how to execute it.
One of the designs depicts the camera placed in the digital crown part of the watch (that’s the side button for the uninitiated), where it can operate whilst the wristwatch is being worn, which does seem logical to keep it out of the way.
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.
John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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