Apple’s SVP of Worldwide Marketing, Phil Schiller, is unveiling Apple’s sixth-generation iPhone at a presser at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and he just took the wraps off the handset’s camera subsystem. As suspected, Apple refined the existing camera unit by making it thinner while adding a bunch of software-based features aimed at further improving the quality of photos, especially in low-light conditions… Read More
Imagine being able to take a picture on your iPhone, and then quickly turn it into a Polaroid picture without having to connect the handset to a printer. Now stop imagining. Such a product exists. Well, sort of.
Introducing the new Impossible Instant Lab, a new Kickstarter project. It’s essentially a printer that can grab pictures from an iPhone and then quickly turn them into real photos. You have to see it to believe it… Read More
Nokia has always been the smartphone imaging king so no wonder the ailing cell phone giant emphasized advanced camera capabilities as the headline feature of its new flagship Lumia 920 smartphone, launched earlier today.
PureView technology debuted last year on Nokia’s Symbian-driven PureView 808 handset. It’s based on a pixel oversampling technique which reduces an image taken at full resolution into a lower resolution variant in order to enable lossless zoom and improve light sensitivity and crispness.
Though the new Lumia 920 only has a 8,x-megapixel sensor versus a whopping 41-megapixel on the PureView 808, it still takes in five times more light than other camera phones and taps image signal processor for some cool image stabilization technology (the iPhone 4S also does that).
Unfortunately, Nokia has gone too far in promoting PureView’s ability to stabilize shaky video, as proven by its latest commercial… Read More
I’ve always found it rather peculiar that there is no native timer built into iOS’ stock Camera app, but leave it to the jailbreak community to come through with a solution.
CamTime is a simple jailbreak tweak that places a timer directly to the left of the shutter button. It’s not the prettiest tweak in the world, but it can get the job done in a pinch. Read More
Over the past two years, Instagram has provided a mobile platform for millions of people to share filtered photos of everything from sunsets to cups of coffee. And yes, even food.
And now, the folks over at D2M are trying to provide a way for you to share these photos in a different way, with their Android-based, Instagram feeding photo frame… Read More
Though we are fairly confident that we know what the next iPhone will look like, there’s no way to know all of its features and what it’s capable of until Apple announces it next month.
But that didn’t stop Adam Sacks from speculating. The artist has produced a familiar-looking parody of what he thinks the big feature of the iPhone 5 will be. And it’s quite funny… Read More
I bet you never though that sworn enemies such as Apple, Samsung and Google would ever go to bed together, especially given an erupting fight between Apple and Google over Kodak’s patents. But anything is possible in this crazy word, chiefly when the benefits of such an unusual partnership include cost savings plus joint, harmless ownership of more than 1,000 Kodak patents related to digital imaging.
The odd bedfellows are joined by a few other firms (LG, HTC and more) and the usual suspects that specialize in IP transactions. The consortium is organized so no company could exclusively own the patents and assert them against other members in litigation… Read More
Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January and Apple’s been attempting to transfer its patent dispute with the imaging company out of bankruptcy court ever since, but to no avail. As Kodak now looks to sell off a trove of 1,100 patents related to digital cameras, smartphones and tablets, bidders are lining up, including the usual suspects, technology giants Apple and Google… Read More
In its heyday, Kodak controlled more than 90% of the US film market, and 85% of all camera sales. But a lot can change in 35 years, and unfortunately, time has not been kind to the Rochester, New York company.
Kodak is currently in the process of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and looking to sell off its patent portfolio in hopes to restructure its business. But as it turns out, those patents may not be worth as much as it thinks they are… Read More
Sometimes it seems like the list of things our iPhones can do is endless. Third-party apps turn our devices into heart monitors, sleep machines, scanners and more.
Apparently, there’s even an app that can help you detect cancer. UMSkinCheck for iPhone promises to help you easily detect skin cancer without the need of a trained professional… Read More
Between its 8MP sensor and internet connectivity, the iPhone 4S is one of the best point-and-shoot cameras around. It can download thousands of photo-editing apps and upload images to a number of services.
But the lack of interchangeable lenses, a weak flash, and other missing features means that the iPhone won’t be replacing your DSLR anytime soon. Unless, of course, you had something like the 3RDi camera kit… Read More
A pair of reports from Asia claim that Apple is looking to tweak the new iPad with a re-worked LED backlight and a revised battery. The new SKU is reportedly meant to address the overheating woes which blew up shortly following the launch, due to criticism by Consumer Reports… Read More
Those of you longing for more news regarding the ongoing court battle between Apple and Kodak over image patents will be happy to hear that we’ve just received an update on the case.
It appears that the judge, today, has denied the struggling camera company’s request to fast-track the trial, meaning that Kodak could go broke before a decision is reached in court… Read More
It’s always interesting to see the different patent applications that Apple submits to the USPTO. Even though most of them rarely make it into consumer products, they give us a glimpse inside Apple’s top secret R&D labs.
The latest one to surface in the United States Patent and Trademark Office database covers a device with a removable back panel, which could bring about swappable camera lenses and other attachements… Read More
Don’t feel like waiting for iOS 6 for native Facebook integration? Then try FacebookThis on for size.
While it won’t give you system-wide Facebook integration at the level that’s bound to be present in iOS 6, it will lend you the ability to easily share your photos directly from your Camera Roll. Want to see how this jailbreak tweak works in action? Take a look inside for a hands-on video walkthrough… Read More
With the LinkedIn privacy scare and Google’s 3D maps taking over news today, we’ve seen little updates concerning Apple’s upcoming iPhone. Enter KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who argues in today’s note to clients that the next iPhone will use back and front cameras re-engineered with thinness in mind.
And if you’re new to iPhoneography, you’re probably thinking that a higher-resolution CMOS sensor is also in the cards. Not so fast… Read More
I’ve never been particularly fond of the new Lock screen camera “grabber” feature on iOS 5.1 and above, and frankly, I never find myself using it. In fact, I never used the camera shortcut that appeared with a double press of the Home button on firmware below iOS 5.1. Call me crazy, but I’m just not a big fan of using the camera directly from the Lock screen.
NoCameraGrabber is a jailbreak tweak designed with people like me in mind. It completely removed the camera grabber feature from your iPhone’s Lock screen, and it doesn’t even bring up the camera button with a double press of the Home button. NoCameraGrabber is a great way to completely eliminate camera shortcut functionality from the Lock screen. Take a look at our video preview for more info… Read More
Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu writes in today’s note to clients that Apple is working on a “notable upgrade” to its stock Camera and Photos apps which come included with the iOS mobile operating system powering iPhones, iPads and iPods.
This isn’t terribly surprising given that “notable upgrades” are presumably needed to enable new photo and video sharing functionalities recently mentioned by more credible sources.
I guess Wu’s a regular reader of the Wall Street Journal newspaper, which reported last month that iOS 6 will bring the ability to synchronize video clips across devices through iCloud, as well as share sets of photos with other iCloud users and comment on them… Read More
Dater is a recently released jailbreak tweak that adds a few nifty identification features to the photos in your camera roll.
First and foremost are the timestamps. Dater adds timestamps to all of the photos contained within the camera roll, and it will even retroactively add stamps to photos that already exist prior to installing the tweak. Don’t worry; the timestamps aren’t hardcoded on your photos, so they don’t actually appear when you export or print them.
The timestamps are a very nice feature, but not alone worth the $0.99 asking price. Fortunately, there’s more to Dater than what initially meets the eye… Read More
As noted by The New York Times, Facebook has announced a new standalone application for the iPhone and iPod touch called Facebook Camera. The app is intended to make it easier to take and share photos on the social network.
Facebook members will be able to use the new software to upload high resolution photos — up to 2048 x 2048, choose from a selection of 15 filters (makes sense), and pipe the images directly into their Facebook photo albums… Read More
