After Apple admitted that BeautyGate is the real thing, the company announced that the bug will be fixed with the next software update. The iOS 12.1 for iPhone and iPad now out, and just as promised – the iPhone XS and XR don’t beautify your face automatically any longer.
Can iPhone XR take better photos than a $5,000 full-frame Canon?
We are witnessing the rapid improvement of smartphone cameras (and more of them being added to each new phone that gets launched). But have we come to the point where smartphone cameras can take better photos than full-frame DSLRs? Tyler Stalman tested the iPhone XR against the Canon 5D Mark IV. And when it comes to dynamic range – the smartphone sure does a pretty impressive job!
Apple admits “BeautyGate” is real and it’s a camera bug
After iPhone XS was announced, some users noticed that its front camera beautifies selfies by default. The coin “BeautyGate” for this was soon coined to refer to this bug, but former Apple designer Sebastiaan de With explained that it’s a consequence of noise reduction. However, Apple has now admitted: the so-called “BeautyGate” is real, and it’s indeed a camera bug.
The iPhone XS & XS Max cameras don’t beautify you, noise reduction does, says Halide camera app designer
So, it turns out the camera in the iPhone XS and XS Max doesn’t suck. Nor is the software “Beautifying” you. It’s just overly aggressive noise reduction. At least, that’s according to the man behind the Halide camera app and former Apple designer, Sebastiaan de With.
He’s taken a closer look at the new iPhone XS camera and argues that the camera itself is actually better than the old one. But the way it processes images, the computational photography side of things, reduces detail by its very nature. And it doesn’t just do this to faces, either, but everything that you photograph with it.
iPhone XS camera forces “beauty mode” by default; and you can’t turn it off
Last month, Apple announced its latest iPhone models. There’s the iPhone XR, the iPhone XS and the iPhone XS Max. There aren’t many changes in comparison to the iPhone X’s camera, to be honest. But Lewis Hilsenteger of Unbox Therapy noticed something strange about the latest models. It looks like the “beauty mode” is always activated, and you can’t turn it off.
Apple announces the iPhone X… again. But with more fake bokeh
It’s that time of year again when all the fanboys flock to San Jose for the annual iPhone announcement. This year, they’ve announced three new iPhones. There’s the iPhone XR (an iPhone X with one camera), then iPhone XS (an iPhone X with more fake bokeh), and the iPhone XS Max (an iPhone X with a big screen).
They’ve received a new processor, of course, and some new computational photography features that’ll probably filter down to their other iPhones in some variety, too. But aside from a tiny bump to ISO performance on the wide angle camera, that seems to be about it, really.
