Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
“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.
Keeping your gear safe and secure seems to be one of the biggest challenges facing photographers today. It’s not a new problem, but it seems to be one that’s on the rise as the popularity of photography and expensive camera gear has grown over the last couple of decades since the photography world went digital. Sure, we have insurance for when it goes missing but the chances of getting it back are often very slim.
Camera accessory company, Nine Volt, wants to help try and change that and they’ve designed a camera body cap, called the AirCap, that appears pretty normal from the outside but it contains a hidden compartment that lets you store an Apple AirTag, letting you track your stolen camera wherever it may be.
Yet another lawsuit has arisen against Snap, and this time, Google and Apple have been sued, too. A 16-year-old girl and her mother sued the three companies after a grown man, an active-duty Marine, had manipulated the girl into sending him nude photos since she was 12. The lawsuit claims that the companies failed to protect teen users from “egregious harm” and the spread of Child Sexual Abuse Materials (CSAM).
When last we met, I pointed out the perils of using Apple’s iCloud Photos for photo backup for one simple reason: if you delete an image off your iPhone, Apple will in turn also delete it from iCloud*.
This time I’d like to go over the best alternative photo backup options for you in more detail, because like it or not, in today’s world, just like paying for food, shelter and taxes, if you snap photos on your smartphone or camera, you will be paying for online storage. And paying more in the coming years as well, as you snap more images.
There’s no such thing as free backup anymore.
The big news amongst the general creative world this week has been the release of the Apple Mac Studio, carrying its shiny new M1 Ultra chip. There have been a number of totally unbiased “reviews” of the new system all over YouTube but Max Yuryev at Max Tech has actually taken one apart so we can take a look at its insides.
The new Mac Studio comes in a very tiny package for the amount of power that it boasts, but the teardown reveals that at least parts of the system might actually be upgradeable, thanks to two SSD ports found internally in the system – against official Apple advice.
This one definitely falls under the “No Sh*t Sherlock!” category. According to a Washington Post-Schar School survey, the majority of Americans don’t trust any of the large social media companies such as Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, but are torn because they still wish to access and use their products and services.
Earlier this year, Apple announced that it would scan your iPhone and iCloud photos for child sexual abuse. A fierce backlash ensued, and now it looks like that the company has ditched the project completely without telling anyone.
So, the freebie that gets thrown in with even the cheapest low budget lens is now a $19 Apple accessory. Of course, Apple isn’t marketing it as a simple lens cloth. This is a “soft, nonabrasive” material for cleaning the glass and displays on your Apple devices. There’s even a “compatibility” list. Surprisingly (or not, knowing Apple folks), it’s completely sold out until late November.
It appears that the cloth is primarily designed for their Pro Display XDR with nano-texture glass (which is a $5,000 monitor), in accordance with their screen cleaning guidelines. Yes, they have screen cleaning guidelines. But if you lose it and want a replacement – or if you want to get one for your iPad, iPhone, etc. it’s going to cost you $19.
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