iPhone 7 Review: Headphone Jack—I Hardly Missed You

Fall is here and we all know what that means: a new iPhone out on the market. With ten years of the iPhone closing in, many doubters thought Apple might be getting a little "boring." While the iPhone 7's design looks eerily similar to its two predecessors, there are enough changes here that make it the best iPhone to date.

When I preordered the iPhone 7 (matte black), I decided to experiment a little by going back to the iPhone 5s from my iPhone 6s. I used it for a couple of days and came to a few conclusions. While I like the one handed use and form factor, the 4-inch screen was too small for my liking. I really missed the 4.7-inch screen real estate used for reading and watching videos so when I got my iPhone 7 a week later, I knew it was the perfect size phone for me.

Headphone Jack

Image courtesy of Spencer Platt via Getty Images.

Let's cut straight to the point, the lack of headphone jack will be a deal breaker for some people. While Apple isn't the first company to remove the headphone jack from the mobile phone, they are getting pretty much all of the flack for doing so. With the headphone jack gone, Apple was able to move some components around and incorporate new things such as Optical Image Stabilization, stereo speaker, bigger battery, and even a second camera on the iPhone 7 Plus.

Apple has removed many things in the past, most notably the optical and floppy drive, FireWire, and ethernet ports, and often to much criticism. But as time often shows, people move on and forget about the things Apple took away from their devices.

One of the most common problems iPhone 7 users have is that they can't listen to music and charge their phone at the same time since the EarPods/adapter utilized the lightning port. To get around this, Belkin has a dongle ($39.99) that will let you do this or use Apple's Lightning Dock ($49). Not ideal—and it's still a problem—but there is a way around this.

I've had this phone for a week now and to be honest, I haven't missed the headphone all that much at all. Apple did it right by including lightning EarPods and a lightning to 3.5mm adapter for your existing headphones. The only real inconvenience I came across is that while using the lightning EarPods, I couldn't use them with my MacBook Pro since it didn't have a lightning port. The only workaround was to carry around 3.5mm EarPods (or your choice of headphones) and use the included adapter. Again—not ideal. But looking ahead a few years, this is something that will go away as more and more products ditch the analogue audio jack.

Design

A quick glance will tell you that the iPhone 7's design doesn't look all that different from the previous two iterations. While the dimensions are the same, your old iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s cases won't fit because the camera lens are larger so it won't align with the cutouts on previous cases.

The antenna lines have been moved to the top and bottom of the phone so it looks a bit more hidden and streamlined. However, you can barely notice it especially on the matte black and jet black versions. Despite the disappointment that we'll have to wait until next year to get a true iPhone redesign, it's hard to fault Apple when its device looks this good and feels this good in the hand. The only real complaint here is with the "Jet Black" version, which has a glossy finish across the case and is a serious fingerprint magnet.

As much as we are all excited for what Apple does with the 10th anniversary iPhone next year, you most likely won't hear complaints from the average consumer, who all love their iPhones anyways.

Hardware

The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus both have the A10 Fusion chip that, according to speed tests, is faster even than the 9.7-inch iPad Pro. Even though the iPhone 6s was fast already, the iPhone 7 is noticeably faster especially when launching apps like Snapchat where you might be trying to capture a moment quickly.

The chip has four cores—two for high performance and two for efficiency saving you precious battery life. Speaking of battery life, Apple says the new iPhone 7 has one to two extra hours of battery but in my weeklong testing, it was closer to the one hour mark, which is still pretty crucial.

The display shows a wider range of colors to support the upgraded cameras but still has a 1334 × 750 pixel resolution, which is low compared to competitors like the Samsung Galaxy S7 (2560 × 1440 pixels). The wider color gamut looks better and increases the brightness by 25%.

The Taptic Engine exudes more haptic feedback throughout iOS, which I like a lot, when doing things like ticking an option on/off, pull down to refresh in some apps, scrolling through items like setting an alarm, etc. Apple is also including the APU for developers to take advantage of the Taptic Engine so they can incorporate taptic feedback in games and other apps.

Another new feature of the iPhone 7 are the speakers. The speakers are much louder now with an additional speaker on top, which utilizes the earpiece you use for phone calls. It is two times louder than the ones on the iPhone 6s and like the speakers on the iPad Pro, it senses when the phone is being viewed in landscape mode and adjusts the sound output accordingly. While playing music and podcasts through the speakers, the sound is noticeably louder, but it does not distort it in any way.

Home Button

Aside from the headphone jack, the new Home button was another talking point on the new iPhones. It is now a solid state button so it is essentially a stationary piece of glass and is no longer mechanical so it doesn't click like its older counterparts. This is to help improve water resistance because the home button is essentially not a button anymore and is less prone to break down and get flimsy over time.

The Taptic Engine vibrates every time you "press" on the button to give you feedback (you can adjust the settings to light, medium and firm). It kind of reminds me of the faux buttons on my old Nexus One screen where the buttons came up on the screen only when needed and it vibrated every time I pushed them. This along with the Raise to Wake feature, I believe Apple will remove the home button all together in the near future.

Water Resistance

One feature that is much welcomed to the new iPhone is water resistance. Apple touts the new iPhone 7 has a IP67 rating, which means it is dust resistance and will not breakdown to a depth of one meter for more than 30 minutes. So you can say goodbye to the days of putting your soaked iPhone in a bag of rice hoping it will turn on again the next day. While it is water resistant, I would not recommend taking it for a swim even in the shallow end and DO NOT expose it to salt water because it will start to eat away at the components.

Also note that Apple will not cover any iPhones that are water damaged even if you have AppleCare and wait up to five hours before charging a wet iPhone. However, you don't have to worry about taking your phone out in the rain, spilling a little water on it while at a restaurant, or even dropping it in the toilet. For this review, I ran some water over it in a sink and even took it in the shower with me to listen to a podcast and in both instances, it came out fine.

Camera

Both cameras on the iPhone 7 have been upgraded from the iPhone 6s. The rear camera is now a 12 megapixel camera with a larger f/1.8 aperture letting in more light. The front-facing camera is now a 7-megapixel camera, which is a much needed improvement considering how selfies are a huge thing nowadays. Along with that, it has a six element lens allowing it to capture a wider color range for more vibrant and detailed pictures and the smaller iPhone has optical image stabilization for still pictures and videos whereas it was reserved only for the larger iPhone 6s Plus in the past.

The True Tone flash has also been updated to four LEDs resulting in a 50% brighter and farther reaching flash. And yes, if you've seen the pictures, the "camera bump" is still there and it's even bigger than last year's model but Apple has built it into the bezel so it is more natural looking. When taking pictures especially night shots, more details show up than ever before.

Lastly, you also get a bokeh effect, built into the Camera app, as shown above. Just select "Portrait" and you'll see the camera grab onto a close subjective and blur the background.

And if you are lucky enough to get your hands on the iPhone 7 Plus, the dual cameras make it a dream for amateur (and even professional) photographers since it is the camera that people have with them at all times. With the 7 Plus, you get an optical zoom, which means you'll finally get a zoom that isn't terribly blurry.

But even with just the 7, you're still getting a significant camera update that pushes the iPhone back into that coveted number one spot for best smartphone camera. The Galaxy Note 7 and Galaxy S7 are still great cameras, but Apple's newest batches of cameras are hard to beat, especially in lowlight situations.

Software

The design of the phone might not feel all that different, but iOS 10 makes some substantial changes to how your phone feels and functions. There aren't many iPhone-specific features, but that doesn't mean the overall smartphone experience still isn't one of the very best you can get. There are a ton of new features—and we won't get into all of them right now—but most of the basic apps got updates, including Maps, Photos, and Apple Music.

Control Center also got an update, along with notifications and how you interact with them. Apple still hasn't completely figured out notifications, but with each update they get better and better. The lock screen is where you'll notice more significant changes though. iOS now has widgets from third party apps, as well as shortcuts to your most used apps. It's all done in iOS's attractive clean style and Apple has done a good job of not letting all the information make your phone look to cluttered.

The biggest change though is to iMessage, which has gone from standard text messaging app to a Facebook Messenger competitor. There are all sorts of new ways to communicate, most of which are silly and fun. But helpful features like support for rich links and playable YouTube videos (without leaving the app), actually make iMessage feel like a legitimate messaging app.

Configurations

Image courtesy of Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno / Stringer via Getty Images.

The 16GB iPhone is now gone from existence! But I have some bad news for you, 32GB is the new 16GB. I opted for the 32GB version and while i have about 60 songs saved offline on Apple Music, no movies, most of my photos and videos backed up on Google Photos, I was left with about 8GB of free space. I tend to shoot a lot of video and if I wanted to shoot 4K, I wouldn't have that much space to do so.

With people taking more pictures and videos, I can see why even the 32GB model would be a problem with a lot of people. In fact, I am regretting not shelling out an extra $100 for the 128GB version. On a side note, one solution that I have been talking about for a while is that we need a way to clear caches from apps like Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter where pictures and videos may take up more than a gig of space especially if you are following a lot of people and/or using the apps a lot.

While the increase in storage doesn't have an effect for the iPhone 7 (32GB; $649, 128GB; $749, 256GB; $849), there is a $20 increase for each model of the iPhone 7 Plus ($769, $869, $969).

Verdict

Like Apple says, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are the best iPhones out there right now. I was skeptical about the headphone jack at first and was dissuaded from even pre-ordering at first but I went through with it and am very glad I did so. Aside from the speed and performance, the camera upgrade especially the optical image stabilization was a huge welcome since it was reserved for the Plus models last year. I can see this being a huge hidden factor for the average user because you don't know how great it is until you re-watch the footage and see how smooth it is.

I will gladly give up the headphone jack in exchange for a better camera, battery life, and performance and I'm sure most iPhone 7 users will agree. If the headphone jack is that important to you, then you're in luck because the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are still great phones. There is a wide range of iPhones out there that will suit everyone's needs, that's why Apple released the iPhone SE. There were a group of consumers who still loved the smaller 4-inch screen so instead of forcing them to get larger iPhones, they updated it so those people could enjoy better performance, cameras, etc.

If you have a 6s and are on the fence, don't do it unless you really want the new camera features. If it doesn't really matter, hold on to it. If you have a 6 or older and don't care about the headphone jack, then upgrade because you'll notice the improvements right away. The iPhone 7 probably won't convince Android users to switch over, but it will surely please the hordes of people who love their iPhones.

Source: iPhone 7 Review: Headphone Jack—I Hardly Missed You

UMI Releases OTA Updates For UMI Super & UMI Max, Brings New Camera App

Chinese smartphone brand Umi has released major updates for two of its smartphones namely Umi Super and Umi Max. The size of the update file is around 300mb and looking at the size it can be considered a major update and an important one as well. So let us take a look at what this new update brings for both of the above-mentioned smartphones.

Umi Super V3.02_20160923 firmware 

Changelog-

New, advanced stock camera app with Pro mode

Improved camera performance

New touch screen driver

Improved fingerprint sensor performance

Updated GMS (Google) apps

Other minor bug fixes

Following is the update for Umi Max.

Umi Max V1.01_20160923 firmware

Changelog-

New, advanced stock camera app with Pro mode

Improved camera performance

New touch screen driver

Improved fingerprint sensor performance

Other minor bug fixes

For most of the buyers today, the camera on the smartphone is the deciding feature and it appears from the update that Umi has been working hard on this aspect as the camera has been totally overhauled. There are certain improvements in fingerprint sensor as well as touch response of the phone but it seems like improving camera performance has been the focus of this update.

Now coming to the camera, the earlier stock camera is replaced with a new upgraded and feature packed camera app which comes with the new manual controls implemented in the freshly released Umi Plus.

The new camera app is certainly a good news for the camera lovers who shoot a lot of stuff with their smartphone cameras as this camera app comes with a manual mode dubbed as "Pro-Photo" by Umi. Via this mode, you can adjust most of the settings manually depending on the situations thus giving you much more flexibility in comparison to the previous camera app which lacked these features.

Read More: Umi Plus battery test reveals good battery life

On the new camera app, you can manually adjust the photosensitivity, exposure value, saturation, contrast, brightness, focal point and the white balance which just gives the much-needed freedom to people interested in smartphone photography.

Source: UMI Releases OTA Updates For UMI Super & UMI Max, Brings New Camera App

11 best paid iPhone apps on sale for free today

Today's list of the best paid iPhone and iPad apps on sale for free is a solid one, packed with 11 different apps that span all sorts of categories. And of course if 11 apps aren't enough for you for some reason, you'll find even more freebies in yesterday's post that haven't yet expired.

DON'T MISS: No one is talking about the game-changing new iPhone 7 Plus feature coming in iOS 10.1

These are paid iPhone and iPad apps that have been made available for free for a limited time by their developers. There is no way to tell how long they will be free. These sales could end an hour from now or a week from now — obviously, the only thing we can guarantee is that they were free at the time this post was written. If you click on a link and see a price listed next to an app instead of the word "get," it is no longer free. The sale has ended. If you download the app, you will be charged.

SaveStagram

Normally $1.99.

Download photos & videos from Instagram with ease! Simply enter the Instagram link, press 'Download Instagram', and the photo & video is saved. The photo & video can then be viewed or saved to the Camera Roll for use in other apps!

Features:• Simple, slick interface• Small app size, lightweight• Fast downloader• Photos & videos are saved to the Camera Roll, making them easily shareable across applications (Messages, Mail, etc.)

To use with the official Instagram app, select Copy Share Link. Then paste the link to download!

Download SaveStagram

Labels Stickers

Normally $0.99.

Add labeler stickers to your messages to add a little fun into your conversations.

Download Labels Stickers

LoryStripes

Normally $1.99.

*** From the creators of Fragment, Tangent and Matter, previous App Store Editors' Choice and App of the Week ***

Transform ordinary photos into sharply styled, elegant artwork with curving 3D graphic stripes and ribbons that you can scale, rotate and position in your photos.

Simply choose an image from your Camera Roll, select a stripe, adjust it, and weave it throughout the different elements in your photo. LoryStripes is a unique and fun way to take any photo, draw out the best parts, and make it into something people instantly talk about.

LoryStripes features:

• 70 beautifully crafted stripes• 210 stripe presets, or "Styles", to quickly select the right stripe for any photo• 70 stunning colors and 10 different shadings and blends for every stripe• Complete customization via 3D rotation, scaling and repositioning• Highly precise masking tools for interweaving stripes and ribbons• Restripe feature supports layering multiple stripes• Sharing on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter

Also included in LoryStripes is Pixite Source, a free resource for professional quality images, textures, and overlays that you can use in your edits.

LoryStripes is the brainchild of Italian architect Laurent Rosset and brought to you by the photo app wizards at Pixite.

Download LoryStripes

mr.Toolkit

Normally $5.99.

mr.Toolkit － Handy tools in the pocket.

Contacts Cleaner | Flashlight | QR Code Scanner | Mirror | Alert | Proverbs | Storage Info | Battery Status.[Key Features]:—————————————

* Flashlight（1）Brightness tuning: 10 levels（2）Strobe tuning: 10 levels（3）S.O.S strobe mode supported（4）Screen light mode supported

* QR Code Scanner（1）Scan history auto saving（2）Scan QR Code from Photos（3）Backup & Restore scan history（4）Share scan history

* Contacts Cleaner（1）Batch deleting contacts（2）Batch sending message to selected contacts（3）Backup contacts & Restore contacts（4）Batch sharing contacts

* Proverbs（1）Scrolling selected proverb on your iPhone（2）Copy & Share proverbs supported

Download mr.Toolkit

Tiny Runner

Normally $0.99.

An endless running game. Tap the screen to jump and avoid all obstacles on the way. How far can you run?!Let's start an adventurous and exciting journey!Enjoy!

Features:– Fun, challenging, random and endless tracks.– Simple controls.– More roles available.– An Universal App with hd optimized for retina resolution.

Download Tiny Runner

VR Pro

Normally $1.99.

VR Pro is a high definition Virtual Reality Video Player that can be used with any vr Product, and even 360° LIVE streams.

Now, you can use your phone as an HD virtual reality headset OR move your phone around without a headset like holding a window into another world.

Features:

– Support 2D/3D photos and videos– Supported formats: mono, side-by-side, over/under– Read local files or call up remote URL's– Stream in 360° events live.– Activate voice commands– Subtitles support (.srt and .smi format)– Ambient lighting effects

Download VR Pro

Circles

Normally $1.99.

Circles turns your device into an exceptional timepiece. Designed in the pursuit of clarity, beauty and precision, Circles is one of the most iconic smartwatch faces of all times.

*****

TechCrunch about Circles: "While Your Wrist Waits For A Worthy Smartwatch, Check Out This Stylish Timepiece App" June 04, 2014

*****

Access different time functions in the small smartwatch face:

– Planetary Positions– Moon Phases– Sunrise Sunset– Seconds– Timer– Date– Alarm Clock– Second Timezone– Stopwatch

Intuitive gestures for a modern time:

– Swipe left to change small smartwatch face– Tap on small watchface to exercise functions– Pinch-to-Zoom to enlarge small chrono

Please note that for the functions alarm clock and timer it is necessary to keep the app open for the ringtone to be heard.

Download Circles

Split Wizard

Normally $0.99.

SplitWizard is the best app to magically split even the most complex checks and bills between multiple people.

BEST NEW APP in 16 countries! Number 1 Finance app in 3 countries. Top 20 Finance Apps in US and Top 10 in 25 countries (including France, Greece, Italy & Netherlands). Featured on the App Store in more than 150 countries… and counting!

Restaurants, road trips, group BBQs, parties and much more! SplitWizard is handy in any situation that requires splitting expenses.

SplitWizard allows you to calculate the tip and to simply keep track of who paid for what (and who owes who).

SplitWizard: the ideal companion for your travels and everyday activities!

FEATURES:– 2 apps in one! 1) Equal split with tip calculator + 2) Complex split between multiple people with different expenses– Stylish and original tap&swipe interface– No internet connection required– Lightweight (less than 5MB)

REVIEWS:***** " Split Wizard, the Absolute Best Expense And Bill Splitter Yet " – iAppsclub.com***** " The best Bill splitter ever? We think so! " – DailyApps.net***** " A must-have app to save friendships and prevent families from breaking down " – Mobileappreview.co.uk***** " The perfect app to split checks and expenses when we are in a group " – iSpazio.net***** " No need to whip out multiple calculators and sheets of paper to try to figure out the numbers. This app does it all for you " – AppPicker.com

Download Split Wizard

AfterIt

Normally $0.99.

Simply focus where you want.Which provide a narrow depth of field and soft background blur that is so loved by photographers everywhere.

Easy operation

1.An alternative view mode highlights the regions that will remain in color with a red tint.

2.erase use one finger.

3.Apply 28 filter for your photo.

Simple Aperture ControlAdjust the aperture in FocusMe with a single gesture to instantly change the blur level of the out-of-focus area. This great tool turns simple-looking backgrounds into atmospheric backdrops.

Download AfterIt

StarMap 3D

Normally $1.99.

Use your iPhone's compass and gyroscope to find planets, constellations, and more with crisp, colorful, high-definition Retina graphics that use every pixel of your iPhone! Hold the universe in your pocket!

• Try StarMap 3D Plus for iPad support, more stars, thousands of Deep Sky Objects, and original constellation artwork.

StarMap 3D is the portable star atlas for beginners or advanced astronomers. Use StarMap 3D to find the planets, stars, constellations, star clusters, galaxies, and nebulae visible to you based on your location and time. StarMap 3D will even use the compass to automatically align the map!

• Retina Display Compatibility

• Over 15,000 stars, with detailed information for each of them

• 303 deep sky objects, with details such as distance from Earth, diameter, apparent size and orientation, and morphology

• All 88 modern constellations, with lines based on the outlines from "The Stars: A New Way to See Them" by H.A. Rey

• MacRobert and Classic constellation lines also available

• Location-based-services (LBS) / Global Positioning System (GPS) support, or manually enter your longitude and latitude

• Adjustable date and time of day

• Also adjust time instantaneously and interactively with the Time Scroll feature

• Compass support, if present

• Planetarium Mode for seeing only objects visible to you, or browse the entire celestial sphere

• 3D Mode for visualizing the universe in three dimensions

Download StarMap 3D

Swipe

Normally $0.99.

Swipe the screen in the direction of the Arrows! Make sure not to let the arrows disappear or swipe in the wrong direction. If you do it is Game Over. Compete against your friends to get the highest score!

Download Swipe

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Source: 11 best paid iPhone apps on sale for free today

Airwheel C5 smart GoPro helmet with action camera To Create Perfect Photography

Years' of assiduous work of Airwheel finally bears fruits. Since its establishment in 2004, Airwheel has grown into a leading smart transportation vehicle manufacturer who has announced that the company will enter the wearable device business.

So far, Airwheel has successfully completed the chain integration and brand globalization in portable intelligent transport industry. Over 30 million players from 168 countries benefit a lot from riding Airwheel intelligent electric scooters. Airwheel launched Airwheel C5, an intelligent helmet for road safety, at the CeBIT 2016 in Germany, marking its first step in the wearable device area.

Have interest and click the website to consult:http://lr.zoosnet.net/LR/Chatpre.aspx?id=LEF97767077&lng=en

Speaking of the wearable device area, GoPro, Inc. is a household name who manufactures eponymous action cameras and develops its mobile apps and video editing software. GoPro is developing its line of action cameras, and eventually video editing software. In the wearable device sector, though Airwheel C5 smart helmet is a maiden attempt, it has won good appraisal.  Apart from the basic safety protection during the ride, Airwheel C5 smart bike helmets is more popular with the people who are fond of selfie and willing to share their photos and videos with their kin and kith. Under the selfie-obsessed and adventurous culture, Airwheel is soon catching on to those people. Airwheel C5 is equipped with 2k (2304X1296) camera, combined with 150°FOV recording every splendid moment in riding.Airwheel C5 sport camera integrates the function of taking videos and photos in the professional level. OV4689 provides timing framework for full resolution HDR capture using the "sequential HDR" or line based "interleaved HDR", and 1/4 HDR using the " interlacing HDR". These modes produce high quality, full resolution and high pixel HDR video for extreme changes in light and dark conditions, ensuring high contrast and excellent scene reproduction. Compared with the camera on the phone, Airwheel C5 helmet is wearable and thereby it is more stable than the phone camera when the user takes photos.Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/embed/hw1nDxoDCXQ

Of course, the accompanying App enables riders to control the video, take pictures and retrospect the wonderful images in simplified operation. Riders also think highly of the specially designed denoiser microphone and Bluetooth speaker. Like GoPro camera or GoPro helmet, Airwheel C5 action camera is to present high-contrast and high resolution shooting performance, recording every moment of your journey and providing an immersive experience to others.

Media ContactCompany Name: Airwheel Holding LimitedContact Person: EricEmail: Send EmailPhone: +8618651968700Country: United StatesWebsite: http://www.airwheel.net

Source: Airwheel C5 smart GoPro helmet with action camera To Create Perfect Photography

Nexar app turns your phone into a smart dash cam

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Dashcams are popular in other parts of the world, but advances in technology are making them smarter and more prevalent in the U.S.

If you've seen someone using a dashcam, chances are it was in an Uber or Taxi. The tiny cameras have been around for years, but here in the United States it's mostly professional drivers who use them.

But that is all about to change, according to Eran Shir, founder and CEO of Nexar. His company has created a free app for Android and iOS that turns your phone into a smart dashcam.

"You want evidence on your side when you're involved in a difficult situation," explained Shir.

Image from Nexar dash cam app

Nexar automatically records your drives and stores the video on your phone, but if it senses an incident it will automatically use your cellular connection to instantly upload the video for sakekeeping to the cloud, where you can securely access it later.

"We can reconstruct and provide you with a report that tells you exactly who hit whom at what force… we can even estimate what are the chances you got hit and got whiplash," explained Shir.

The Nexar app also goes a step further - it uses artificial intelligence to analyze the driving situation around you. For instance, the app keeps track of drivers via their license plates and if it notices that there is a potentially reckless driver nearby, it will alert you to stay away from that vehicle.

I drove around with the Nexar app several times and found it a bit confusing to use, but I love the idea behind it. I purchased a $30 mount from Best Buy to keep my iPhone secured to my windshield while driving. I noticed in the video I captured that it was extremely shaky - not sure if that was the road I was on, the mount I got, the camera in my iPhone or a combination of all three. Also, it was a hot day when I used the app and my iPhone went into a temperature overheating mode.

Still, I see what Nexar is trying to accomplish and it is likely the future of driving. More information at our disposal, and many, many more hours of dashcam videos for insurance companies and investigators to pour through after an incident.

Image from Papago dash cam

I also tried driving around for a few weeks with an "old fashioned" dash cam. It was a model from Papago. Basically, you just attach the tiny camera to your windshield and forget about it. When you plug it into your lighter socket, it automatically turns on and off with your car and starts and stops recording without any user intervention.

But it was tough to forget about it. I constantly found myself "looking" through the tiny back screen of the device, mesmerized by the way my drive looked through the little camera. I did love the idea of having a record of every drive I took, although having the camera in my car did make me self conscious on several levels. First, I no longer wanted to sing along with the radio. Could you imagine the laugh the cops would have upon reviewing the tape of any accident I might be involved in? Second, I felt like I had to be on my absolute best driving behavior since a camera was capturing my every move.

Although I didn't drive around with it, there is another camera I checked out from a company called Pyle that is just perfect if you're driving Uber on the side. It attaches to your rear view mirror and has two tiny cameras that record simultaneously so you get a front and rear seat view.

Overall, these dash cams are just an in between technology to what's really going to happen - software will eventually tap into the cameras manufacturers are already installing into the front and back ends of cars. Each car will roll around with a DVR inside, recording every drive and software companies like Nexar will employ their smarts to slice and dice the data from every drive.

Mentioned in the segment:

Nexar Smart Dash Cam App

PAPAGO! GoSafe S30 Dash Cam

Pyle Dual Camera DVR

Source: Nexar app turns your phone into a smart dash cam

Snapchat turns snap.inc, launches camera enabled goggles

Snap said Spectacles captures video in a new circular format that can be viewed full screen whether holding a phone upright or on its side.

Following the footsteps of search engine giant Google, the Social media app, Snapchat, now known as Snap Inc, has released its own video-recording glasses called "Spectacles". The best part is that you can upload the footage directly to the Snapchat app via WiFi or bluetooth. Recording is as simple as tapping a button near the hinge and, since Spectacles will be wirelessly linked to your smartphone, the Snaps are then automatically added to your Memories.

"Imagine one of your favorite memories", the announcement on the company's website reads. "It's one thing to see images of an experience you had, but it's another thing to have an experience of the experience". That's why we built Spectacles. "Now that we are developing other products, like Spectacles, we need a name that goes beyond just one product", he wrote in a blog post.

Snapchat announced it is changing its name to Snap, Inc., Friday, to reflect business plans beyond its core app, and immediately announced its first hardware product: Spectacles. In the case of Spectacles, the company developed a new camera to allow for more immersive video - certainly an expansion beyond smartphone apps. The specs will feature an integrated video camera with a 115-degree lens created to match human visual perspective.

A limited number of Spectacles are expected to be available later this year and will cost $129.99 per pair.

Spectacles, expected to be in limited supply when they hit the market, would put pressure on GoPro, whose mini-cameras are created to let people capture video of endeavours from personal perspectives. "We're going to take a slow approach to rolling them out", Spiegel told The Wall Street Journal.

The Spectacles, which come in three different colours (red, blue, and black), are expected to go on sale in limited quantities in the US later this year, priced at $130 (£100).

And even if you're not a Snapchat aficionado, you have to admit that these things look pretty cool.

Source: Snapchat turns snap.inc, launches camera enabled goggles

Top great iPhone apps gone free for September 24th

90s Camera

[Normally $0.99]

90s camera is a vintage camera and photo draw app that takes your photos to another level with its old school effects and Polaroid frames. Take your iPhone into the past and get more followers in present with most unique vintage effects.

Make any subject look classy with the professionally designed retro effects and fine-tuned to perfection filters inspired by old-school analog photography. 90s camera app provides one-stop service with user friendly interface to get you amazing retro pictures with a few taps:

• Take a photo directly from the app or choose from the gallery • Apply a high quality Polaroid effect • Get creative with a draw tool • Share pictures instantly to Instagram or Facebook • Count the likes!

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Best awesome iPhone apps gone free for September 22nd

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Great iPhone apps gone free for September 21st

Great app deals are constantly popping up on the

Source: Top great iPhone apps gone free for September 24th

Best third-party camera app for Android

Take better photos with a great third-party camera app on Android!

Shooting with your Android camera is usually great, but third-party apps can pack a punch in places you didn't even know you needed! From manual controls to real-time filters, to creative extras and so much more, you can achieve a lot more than you think you can with your phone photography by shooting with a third-party camera app.

Best overall Open Camera

Free

Download now

Effortless to shoot with and packed with plenty of useful features, Open Camera is a free app that helps you take your phone photography snapshots to the next level.

With features like automatically taking photos with voice commands like 'CHEESE!', shooting RAW files, overlaying grids, locking orientation, volume key configuration, and so much more, Open Camera turns your Android into an even more powerful camera.

You can even use Open Camera to make shooting your videos smoother and simpler, as it supports some external microphones, helps with manual exposure time, and effortlessly focuses to get the perfect video clip every time.

Bottom line: If you're looking for an app that makes your photos and videos look great without confusing the pants off of you, Open Camera is a great call.

One more thing: You can add the date and timestamp along with location coordinates and text to your pictures.

Why the Open Camera is the best

Free, functional, and fun – the way phone photography should be.

Being able to take complete creative control of your Android phone's camera is a rare and sometimes challenging thing to do. There are plenty of third-party apps that exist out there competing to take the place of your standard camera, but very few make things so straight-forward while still allotting the user ample room for creative photographic expression.

The features Open Camera has are pretty vast depending on what you want to shoot, how you want to shoot, and your particular shooting style and taste. You have the option to record your videos in HD while simultaneously zooming with a single-touch control, or shoot RAW (DNG) files along with manual distance focus (if your phone supports it), manual exposure timing, and manual ISO.

Open Camera isn't just for people who know and understand all the bells and whistles of professional photography: it also has some extremely fun and quirky features that make shooting with your Android phone a creative adventure.

Set up remote photo taking with a voice command or a noise – all you have to do is whistle, and your Android device captures the perfect photo! The app also has optional geotagging so you can keep track of when and where you took your photos, while basic, yet practical, features like overlaying a grid disabling the shutter sound makes your entire camera experience smoother and more customized to what you're comfortable with.

At the end of the day, Open Camera does a good, straightforward job of getting users to be more creative with their shots, try out more professional-grade settings, and experiment with their phone photography. What else can you ask for with a camera app?

Best for fun Prisma

Free

Download now

In the last few months, you've probably noticed more and more photos of people, places, and food (what else is social media for?) being uploaded to Instagram and Facebook with hints of different art styles.

Some photos may look like vivid watercolor paintings, while others resemble rough, charcoal sketches. Some are reminiscent of a specific artist's look and feel, while others mesh mediums like anime to cartoon-ify your photos.

Prisma is an app that works by turning your photos into modern works of art using art style filters. Just shoot your photo with the app – your image will be shot as a square – and then pick and choose the filter you think will look best on your photo! There are dozens of different options to choose from, so try a couple.

Bottom-line: If you want a camera app that mixes creativity and art with simple shooting, then Prisma is your gal.

One more thing: Prisma is an awesome app for social media — spice up your selfie a bit and slap a Heisenberg on that baby.

Best for Manual Controls Manual Camera

$2.99

Download now

Manual Camera gives whoever is behind the screen complete control of almost all settings. It's almost like having a little DSLR in your pocket, which is perfect for pro phone photographers or people looking to get better versed in photography!

While the standard camera app for Android allows you to control a few settings, Manual Camera takes the basics up a notch with complete manual control of shutter speed, focus distance, exposure compensation, ISO, and white balance.

Unfortunately, this is the only app on the list that costs something, but it's worth noting that you'll be using several different professional settings to capture the clearest photos.

Bottom-line: If you're looking for a professional camera app that lets you adjust your settings and add more than just a few colored filters to your photos, check out Manual Camera.

One more thing: The app runs quickly, so you won't have to worry about waiting for it to load as you miss your perfect shot.

Best for Social Media Candy Camera

Free

Download now

Fun, straight-forward, and super filter friendly, the Candy Camera is a great tool for shooting the perfect selfie or snapping the ideal social media post!

Candy Camera is a third-party tool that works by overlaying flattering filters overtop of your photos in real-time. That means you can test out what filters look best, and if need be, layer them with other filters before posting.

With the Candy Camera, you also get a couple of insta-makeup editing tools: you can slim your face, whiten your teeth, add concealer, lipstick, blush, eyeliner, mascara, and more!

Bottom-line: Candy Camera is the perfect partner for social media posts and popularity.

One more thing: You can also decorate your photos with stickers in the app. New stickers are even added every update!

Conclusion

Shooting with third-party cameras is important for several reasons: they help you get creative, they help expand your photography horizons, and they help turn your Android phone into the powerful little photography tool it really is.

Best overall Open Camera

Free

Download now

Effortless to shoot with and packed with plenty of useful features, Open Camera is a free app that helps you take your phone photography snapshots to the next level.

With features like automatically taking photos with voice commands like 'CHEESE!', shooting RAW files, overlaying grids, locking orientation, volume key configuration, and so much more, Open Camera turns your Android into an even more powerful camera.

You can even use Open Camera to make shooting your videos smoother and simpler, as it supports some external microphones, helps with manual exposure time, and effortlessly focuses to get the perfect video clip every time.

Bottom line: If you're looking for an app that makes your photos and videos look great without confusing the pants off of you, Open Camera is a great call.

One more thing: You can add the date and timestamp along with location coordinates and text to your pictures.

Source: Best third-party camera app for Android

Which smartphone camera do YOU think is the best?

We're putting the latest and greatest smartphone cameras to the test — but this time, we want you to tell us which one you like best.

There are a lot of great smartphone cameras out there these days, no matter your preference of operating system. As is our custom, we've put together an extensive photo comparison of each of the major players, but we're doing it a little differently this year.

Instead of us snapping photos, comparing them, and telling you which we prefer, I want you to tell us which photo you like best. Below, we've snapped images with four recently-released smartphones with high-end cameras — but we're not telling you which pictures came from which phone.

The images below have been randomized for every question — and we've stripped their EXIF data, too, so no cheating. We took every picture with the phone's primary camera app and automatic settings, shooting hand-held, just like most users snap photos today.

Which smartphone takes the best photos? We want your help: Pick your favorite for each section by selecting the radio button above each image, then hit the Submit Survey button. (You can also blow up the photos to full resolution by clicking on them directly.)

Next week, we'll compile our results and announce the smartphone champion as picked by our readers — so stay tuned!

If things aren't displaying correctly for you, try accessing the survey directly.

Source: Which smartphone camera do YOU think is the best?

Park Bo Gum and B1A4’s Jinyoung show off their fun side on the camera app

Park Bo Gum and B1A4's Jinyoung show off once again that they are friends in real life!

In their current drama "Moonlight Drawn By Clouds", Park Bo Gum and Jinyoung are rivals but in real life they are almost best of friends.

The two recently released a handsome selca and they follow it up with a cute video from the popular app Snow Camera wherein the two are using the mustache filter.

The Twitter video that was uploaded by Park Bo Gum has captions, "#Moonlight Drawn By Clouds #Rocky Friendship."

Check out the two cuties below!

Source: Park Bo Gum and B1A4's Jinyoung show off their fun side on the camera app

Canary's Flex is a small, weatherproof security camera

Rated IP65, the Canary Flex can withstand splashes of water, and thanks to the included weatherproof cord, it can remain plugged in even when it's wet. If you'd like to go wireless, you can use the bundled rechargeable battery, which should last two to three months of average use, the company said. When it's running on batteries, the Flex runs on a low power WiFi state to stay connected to the servers without sucking up juice, and also uses a passive infrared (PIR) sensor to detect incidents before triggering the rest of the system. Otherwise, the Flex uses the camera (or "computer vision," as Canary called it) to monitor activity when plugged in. When triggered, the Flex will record HD video to the cloud.

Unlike its predecessor, the Canary Flex is compact, and fits comfortably in your hand so you can easily move it around should you need to. It also has a magnetic base that lets it swivel 360 degrees in its companion mount. However, you'll lack the siren that the original camera had, as well as what Canary called the home health sensors. The latter relay feedback on your house's temperature, humidity and air quality. Those who already own the older Canary camera can use the same app with the new device, and no hub is required.

To make it easier to place the Flex around your house, Canary is also launching a series of accessories, such as a secure mount, a stake mount to stick your camera in your flower pot, and a fun twist mount to wrap your Flex around almost anything.

For those who want complete peace of mind, Canary is also launching a 4G LTE mount with Verizon that will let your Flex switch to cellular data in the event that your WiFi network drops out. The 4G mount can be plugged in, but also has enough onboard battery to last as long as the Flex's power pack will. This would be great for those who want to prepare for power outages. It'll be available shortly after the Flex hits store shelves.

One of the coolest things about this launch is Canary's new pricing model that does away with the industry's conventional tiers system altogether. Instead of making you pay more to store more of your footage like competitors do, Canary is letting you access the last 24 hours of your timeline for free. That's twice the 12 hours it previously let nonpaying customers have.

The company is also removing its previous limits on features such as saving and downloading clips, as well as sending them to other contacts. Those who want more support can pay $9.99 a month for one device ($15 for two to three cameras), and that membership will come with up to $1,000 in homeowners deductible reimbursement (for qualifying incidents), as well as dedicated agents who will follow you through your your incident report process. Members also get extended warranties and access to footage from the prior 30 days.

That's quite a big bump from the free version, and could give Canary a serious edge over its competitors. Both Nest and Canary's devices cost $199, but the latter says it is working on a more personable approach to security that could make its outgoing alerts more meaningful. Some of these upcoming improvements include refined object, people and animal recognition, as well as better understanding of new versus repetitive motions. These changes will soon roll out to the Canary app as well. In the meantime, you may want to finetune your security camera settings so you're not getting buzzed for every time your neighbor's dog jumps, or for random tree branches smacking against your window.

*Verizon has acquired AOL, Engadget's parent company. However, Engadget maintains full editorial control, and Verizon will have to pry it from our cold, dead hands.

Source: Canary's Flex is a small, weatherproof security camera

Two Apps That Are Utter Shit If You're An Asian Dude: Tinder & Snapchat

Humunahumanahumana Two Apps That Are Utter Shit If You're An Asian Dude: Tinder & Snapchat BY Dominic 09/19/2016 0 Comments

Look, I (like everyone I know) love my phony-phone, I love Facebook, I can't even remember how life went without social media, I'm a convert, is what I'm saying, I'm not a luddite preaching against new softwares. But I can't escape the evidence that some hawt-trending-millennial apps and the cultures surrounding them are, if you're an Asian-American guy, really terrible. As a lifelong Asian-American guy, I can't keep quiet on this anymore: Tinder and Snapchat, both extremely popular apps, are both completely useless, utterly irritating, toxic-racist-douchebag shit.

Tinder is horrible mainly because of the NOPE animation, which is nothing but superfluous looks-shaming. And the fact that by swiping left or right you're making indulgent snap judgements (masquerading as "decisions"), in place of the more participatory model of most dating sites, where you can take a little time to know you are being checked out, check out who's checking you out, and let something grow. NOPE, Tinder don't have interest in that, or in ugly people! And in function, Tinder is just as worthless for the less-preferred ethnic groups as Every Online Dating Thing.

"Sexual Racism" has not ascended into popular usage yet to the degree that terms like "White Entitlement" and "Cisgender Privilege" have. Sexual racism is a very tricky topic to discuss, because it's all about about personal preferences, attractions, and concepts of "hot." But the bottom line of sexual racism in America is, Asian dudes and Black women are highly disadvantaged in online dating, for no reason other than their race. By disadvantaged I don't mean we have horrible dates, or can't find someone to love/lust after. I mean we don't have any opportunities for dates because we are hardly chosen. And, before I revive an awful kerfuffle by appearing to label all African-American women — who live through a myriad of experiences I know zero about — I'll stress that this assessment is based on statistical data which gathers people into broad racial groups, and has nothing to do with the actual culture of us as people. And also, the reasons behind the se disadvantages are very different, not even comparable. And also, Asian dudes are far and away dead LAST. It's not like there are two groups both hovering around the bottom; Asian Dudes are far less-preferred in online dating than Everyone Else, taken as racial groups, and it's not even close. And being gay doesn't change the curve, generally. (It's a closer call at the top, where Asian women, white women, and white men could all make a strong argument for being the MOST preferred, but let's not go there right now.)

But still you gotta try, because you need the eggs, right? So as an average-looking Asian dude you might reluctantly struggle with Match and OKCupid, but then you get on Tinder for two days and it's like Holy shit, now I feel extra-terrible about my life. Because Tinder, again, is utter shit. AND BEFORE YOU SWIPE AWAY LET ME TRY TO SAY WHY:

– It validates your dismissal of people with that little "Nope" animation when you swipe left. Your little self-puffing-up from saying "No way, dude! Not in a million years!" is reinforced with every negative swipe. The same thing people feel when they're dismissing Asian dudes at first glance, based on a negligible first impression, because of systemic sexual racism. All Asian dudes (well, maybe not Daniel Henney) know exactly what it means to be shut down long before you even get started — we don't need any more of it validated by Tinder. Would you say "Nope!" to everyone you weren't immediately attracted to in real life, within one half-second of meeting them? Why not?

– As an experiment, I liked as many people as it's possible to like on Tinder over 3 days, within the daily limit, on a weekend with a lot of promising "party" and "social event" potential. So, several hundred people. Without a lot of choosing, a wide spread of types and ages. I don't even know what my intentions were if someone had matched me, but it didn't matter, because zero matches. I don't really know how Tinder functions if you do match with someone, because have had zero matches ever. (Okay, as of this writing, it's been 1, but it was a professional sex service.) It's not like I was expecting something different from my experiences with other dating services, and I realize that the apps perform an important filtering service, especially for women. But the thing that really doesn't "match" is, that zero is not who I am. I'm not Supa-Unicorn-Dude, but I am a guy who can meet people IRL, and talk to new people on the internet, and can make A. Sin gle. Connection. With SOMEBODY, if the sample size is 300-500 people. Again, for experimentation's sake, I've liked 100s of profiles for a reason, and also 100s of profiles without a reason. Zero.

– People are blathering about their Tinder experiences all the time, to which, if you've tried but never matched once, so are unable to have any kind of Tinder experience, one can't help but feel, "Why not me? What's wrong with me?" (Psst! The cure-all for this is to just STOP BLATHERING ABOUT YOUR "TINDER DATES" — It's just called "dating," Tinder doesn't own it.)

– So, without dismissing the ideas that I might be "doing it wrong" or "barking up the wrong trees" or "being whiny" (all, in some way, true) I maintain this opinion that Tinder is SEXUALLY RACIST, TOXIC BULLSHIT. And the NOPE part, and the judgey culture of it, make Tinder much MORE TERRIBLE CRAP than any of the other date-apps. 'Cause it's not me, Tinder, it IS ACTUALLY YOU.

(Btw, The Lobster is a fantastic movie.)

AND THEN THERE'S CRAPCHAT. Let me be clear, my beef with Snapchat is more because of its doucheiness than its racism — I mean, if it were a little less racist, it would still be remarkably douchey. But it IS racist too, so let's chat about that:

The filters – The "Bob Marley" filter? The "anime" filter with the slitty eyes? (YO, ANIME CHARACTERS HAVE HUGE EYES. IF YOU KNEW ANYTHING ABOUT ANIME, YOU'D KNOW THAT, SNAPCHAT BROS.) Wow, how neat! It's almost as awesome as a white person cosplaying as Luke Cage because he doesn't see color!

(I wish I was making up that part about white people cosplaying Luke Cage, but it's actually happening. There are, photographically and sociopolitically, a lot of things wrong with this picture:)

Faceswap – basically a way for white people to celebrate how normative their faces are, while the rest of us pine for an app that could really for real switch our face with someone else's. Because, according to faceswap, the face we have is NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

A few of my good friends are regular snapchatters, and a couple times they've tried to faceswap with me, and lemme say, it takes a while for Snapchat to recognize the Asian guy's face. It doesn't "acquire" easily. There's a history to this; facial recognition software is really cool, but it still privileges people with big eyes, big smiles, symmetrical face — the standard of Western beauty. These female friends (the ones who like faceswap the most) are white or Asian and really pretty, by all the standard metrics of face-prettiness, and all camera apps love them. So I get it, it's validating. It's just the opposite of validating when the piece of crApp won't recognize that you have a face.

Remember the "someone's got their eyes closed" problem, as brought to light by Jozjozjoz? It's still with us.

And aside from the other racial, privileged doucheiness of Snapchat, it's just STOOPID. As a filmmaker (by which I mean, videomaker) the idea of a thing which erases your shots after you've shot them is offensive, disgusting, and a little trauma-triggering. Last week I took the most beautiful long handheld shot of a cosplay karaoke singer, everything about it was gorgeous, the performance, the lighting, my unusually adequate camerawork, it was probably one of the 5 best single takes I've ever been involved in — and then the memory card failed, the camera crashed, and the shot was just gone.

You know what that was, that disappeared piece of video artistry? THAT WAS A SNAPCHAT. That's how fucking awesome the idea of Snapchat is. A lost shot, a once-in-a-decade shot, killed by random gear failure (The second take, desperately cobbled together, was prettttttty good, but now we'll never know the alternative).

And Snapchatters. Do that. On purpose. Because….? "PRIVACY"? Oh for Pete's sake. If it's worth shooting a video of, it's worth keeping the video, okay? If it's not worth keeping the video, why don't you just NOT snapchat it and live in the fuckin' undocumented moment?!?!

And don't even get me started on #HALLOWEENCOSTUMES. 🙂

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Source: Two Apps That Are Utter Shit If You're An Asian Dude: Tinder & Snapchat

Microsoft updates camera app for iOS 10

This should solve slow performance and slow UI issues within your older iPad running iOS 10. The biggest change by far is the addition of a bunch of apps. There's now an App Store for messages, which is just to the left of the text bar. It can also makes coordinating plans very easy.

Since iOS 10 is new and quite raw as of now, it is possible that more bugs may be discovered in the coming days. Irate users thronged Apple support forums to complain and reveal that a network connection was only established after they rebooted their iPhone. "ORCRP0017763-topic.html" class="local_link" >WhatsApp to send a message on that network. Users can now see the lyrics of the song they are listening to, plus it now contains a search tab to make it easier to find that specific song. It also enables you to avoid autocorrection when using multiple languages.

Ability to delete standard apps that you never use, such as "stocks", that take up valuable real estate on your home screen, and that until now you could not delete. Unfortunately, certain keywords being searched in the iOS 10 GIF library were returning pictures of pornography. From there, hit the three-dot icon in a circle and choose "Markup".

In order to upgrade to iOS 10, users will head to their devices' Settings General Software Update, but they can also download the update via iTunes. However, users who don't want to wait for the automatic phased update, rolling out on newer devices first, can download the new version manually.

Keep in mind that reducing these effects may kill off some fun effects you might otherwise enjoy.

Close all the tabs: If you do a lot of mobile browsing, chances are that you've really stacked up a lot of tabs on your Safari browser.

Previously, you just had to tap the Home button, and then you were into your device.

The first customers to buy the iPhone 7 pose at Apple Store on September 16, 2016 in Sydney, Australia. After that task was complete, my iPhone 6S feels roughly that same as it did on iOS 9, but I feel my battery is draining faster, and I'm still seeing the occasional hiccup with apps loading.

You can also send doodles to people, use Digital Touch feature to send small animation, and send stickers.

Source: Microsoft updates camera app for iOS 10

Camera app makers tap into RAW power with iOS, and look forward to dual lenses

Developers behind several popular, well-reviewed iOS camera apps eagerly incorporate short-term photo enhancements and anticipate more to come.

iOS 10 finally turns the iPhone into a real camera. Before you get the pitchforks and torches out, let me explain: it's the first release that gives iPhone owners access to the same rich, deep information that standalone cameras have offered for years via unprocessed RAW images and, in some cases, wide-gamut color. Many photographers prefer to shoot in RAW and use editing programs like Lightroom to "develop" a photo with the white balance and exposure balance they prefer. And, seemingly uniquely in iOS, Apple only allows effective access to its image sensor data through third-party camera apps—it's like throwing RAW meat (sorry) to app developers.

Broadly speaking, capturing RAW data and retaining and displaying wide-color gamut image data for in-phone editing expands an iPhone (and the 9.7-inch iPad Pro) from a high-quality snapshot camera that can be pushed to the limit with often remarkable results, to a fully professional image-capture and editing system that, when paired with a laptop, starts to rival a standalone cameras with fixed-focus lenses. The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus push quality even further with a sharper six-element lens system and a larger-aperture wide-angle lens, while the 7 Plus opens up opportunities with the addition of a second telephoto lens.

The Manual app is already out with a RAW shooting option that allows RAW only or RAW+JPEG.

Graphics giant Adobe released Lightroom Mobile 2.5 earlier this week to support RAW and wide-color processing. The Manual shooting app, which allows easy access to iOS's camera settings, was updated Tuesday with RAW support. ProCamera just pushed out a major overhaul in its current release on September 10 (version 9.5), but expects its 10.0 release with RAW and wide color support to head to Apple on Friday. (The App Store is currently backlogged.) The developers of Camera+ opted to wait until they had new iPhones in hand to tweak their work before shipping, but expect a release not long after. VSCO is less specific, but says it's "coming soon."

Starting in iOS 10, the six 12-megapixel camera models of iPhone and iPad can allow apps to enable a DNG (Digital Negative) format camera mode, in which the effectively unfiltered image sensor data is captured directly, resulting in about a 12MB file, rather than process that data through Apple's algorithms and compress it into a roughly 1MB to 5MB JPEG. The models are the iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, SE, 7, and 7 Plus, and the 9.7-inch iPad Pro. No earlier iPads or iPhones can have RAW enabled. (RAW is a generic term for mostly unprocessed image data, not an initialism; DNG is an Adobe-initiated open file format standard.)

The iPhone 7 Plus will deliver images from both its wide-angle and telephoto lenses simultaneously in RAW shooting mode, opening up huge post-processing possibilities for app developers.

The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus and the 9.7-inch iPad Pro will also gain the ability in iOS to handle Apple's wide-color gamut, introduced with models of the iMac. Known as P3, and used in the film industry for cinematic color, the wide-color gamut includes about 25 percent more hues than the sRGB colorspace that's effectively become a consumer and professional standard for all devices outside of film and video.

P3 better represents intense aspects of red and green that are missing, and thus compressed to fewer hues in sRGB; orange is especially underrepresented. iOS 10 revised all its image-processing pipelines to support P3, which requires more bits per color channel to express than sRGB as well.

RAW-ring to go

The makers of many camera apps spent the summer contemplating what an imagined but unknown two-lens iPhone might mean, but focused their practical work on having updates ready or nearly ready to go that worked with RAW and wide color.

John Casasanta, the founder of tap tap tap, which makes Camera+, says its approach will add a special RAW "lab" inside the app, instead of pushing RAW images into the current workflow. The app will preserve the original RAW file and allow exporting in multiple formats, including a 16-bit-per-color-channel TIFF to preserve wide-color gamut data. "We're putting some fairly extensive support inside there to do a lot of editing on RAW photos, to make them look as good as possible," he says.

This scene was shot with the Manual app and then adjusted using similar settings in Photos for OS X. The RAW image (above) could be adjusted to retain a more full tonal balance and detail; the JPEG image (below) remains blown out in highlights. Click the images to enlarge.

Casasanta believes most of the app's users will either capture only and edit elsewhere or capture and edit together. He doesn't think people will both edit in Camera+ and then take the high-color-depth TIFF or original RAW and re-edit or start from scratch again.

He notes an interesting issue with RAW versus JPEG capture: One mode allows both to be captured simultaneously, but the two images might not be identical. He says Apple applies a variety of algorithms that can lead to the camera taking multiple pictures (as with a high-dynamic range or HDR image and potentially when monitoring image stabilization) to create a JPEG, but will only retain one RAW image. "The RAW photo in those instances when they do something is the photo taken at one point in time," he says.

Manual app developer William Wilkinson says one RAW limit he found in updating his app is that iOS's built-in filter to render RAW is "a little soft—it's not decoded as well as the equivalent JPEG." He hopes to add lookup tables (LUTs) in the future that would improve on that, but it may be impossible within the current iOS framework.

Nicolai Bönig, the communications director at Cocologics, maker of ProCamera, says the company's wanted to get a version that supports RAW and wide-color update out as soon as possible, but they plan to investigate the format much further in future releases. The initial ProCamera 10 release, which will work only in iOS 10, excludes RAW from a few of its custom shooting modes, like HDR and low light. But Bönig says developers are eager to dig into the intricacies of Apple's DNG.

App developers vary in how RAW files will wind up in the iOS Camera Roll. Manual offers an option for RAW or RAW and Apple's normal JPEG, and writes both automatically and immediately to the Camera Roll. ProCamera's upcoming version offers RAW only, but saves to the Camera Roll. Lightroom has a DNG button that enables RAW shooting, but retains the DNG only internally; all sharing and exports are as a JPEG, although it can sync the DNG via a Creative Cloud account. Other apps' choices are still evolving.

Two great shots in one

By default, the iPhone 7 Plus will fire off both cameras for every shot and deliver a single JPEG image. At the keynote, Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, discussed the synthetic zoom range between what Apple is calling 1x (wide angle) and 2x (telephoto). Intermediate zooms are calculated from both captures to produce a crisp result.

Apple didn't mention then, however, what it describes in its programming documents: many images may involve some kind of computational photography, akin to HDR but using two or more simultaneously captured, different focal-distance pictures. Apple notes the iPhone 7 Plus supports "automatic switching between cameras to obtain a higher quality image for the current combination of zoom factor, light level, and focus position."

Camera apps that shoot RAW can bypass this automatic mode and produce their own derived images, and the new A10 Fusion processor and the 7 Plus's 3GB of internal memory should provide the cycles necessary to preview and render relatively complex possibilities.

Apple

Once camera-app developers get their hands on the iPhone 7 Plus, watch out. 

App developers haven't had time yet to absorb the implication, and none I spoke with had advance access to an iPhone 7 Plus. They're all eager to get their hands on one and start understanding the full impact.

Wilkinson noted that he shoots with a RED digital video camera, and it offers the ability to shoot effectively two separate video tracks at once by capturing two frames within very short intervals at different exposures. This allows either using one or the other track later, or combining for HDR video. Wilkinson so far is just thinking about how the Plus's performance and multiple cameras might offer anything analogous.

Other app makers so far are thinking just about enabling or disabling zoom: The Manual app shoots at 1x or 2x, but doesn't offer the in-between range. Bönig says ProCamera will take advantage of the taptic engine in a variety of ways—when people swap lenses, for example—but won't offer that intermediate zoom.

Camera+ will offer a switch. Casasanta notes, "If someone is using digital zoom on a smartphone, they don't get it, and they don't really care so much about having the utmost depth of quality at that point." Camera+ has a wide range of users, and doesn't want to lock the mode out.

A future that doesn't fit in a frame

The excitement among developers is palpable. The updated cameras, RAW shooting, and wide-gamut color bring more possibilities than any hardware and iOS update in years. "It's a step in the next dimension of photography," says Bönig. Once they and others get their hands on the hardware, we should see a remarkable flourishing of experimentation in camera and photo-editing apps.

Source: Camera app makers tap into RAW power with iOS, and look forward to dual lenses

First Look: Adobe DNG Support for Lightroom Mobile App Proves Raw Photography on iPhone Is Superb

Adobe recently released a new version of its Lightroom Mobile app that takes advantage of the raw image support in Apple's just-released iOS 10. Taken on an iPhone 6S running the developer GM seed of iOS 10 (10.0.1), these images show just how good your mobile photos can now be. You'll need to have the latest versions of iOS 10 (running on an iPhone with a 12 MP camera) and Adobe Lightroom Mobile to do this yourself, but we're providing comparison files for testing purposes for those without such access. Tell us what you notice.

Let's jump right into examining these files. To follow along on your computer with my comments below, please feel free to download and view the files for yourself. Those here are only the JPEG files. Together, there are two sample images, each with a JPEG and DNG comparison. One outdoor photograph is available as a JPEG and a DNG by clicking on those links. An indoor photograph in darker, mixed light is similarly available in JPEG and DNG formats. Feel free to view, edit, and post your findings in the comments!

The first thing I noticed is the much nicer flattened color and contrast profile of the DNG files. The photos taken from within the Lightroom Mobile app, which is one of the first apps to support raw image-taking in iOS 10 (even Apple's stock Camera app won't do that), are noticeably sharper, void of the harsh noise reduction and subsequent super-sharpening that gets applied to every cell phone image.

The noise that is present in the low-light DNGs is rather pleasing in comparison to the blotchy spots that are indicative of too much noise reduction when viewed at 100 percent. A moderate noise reduction in Lightroom provides a much better result that shows what these sensors can really do when not required to throw out a ton of data in the JPEG conversion. For reference, the JPEGs are each around 2 MB, while the DNG files are about 15 MB each. Needless to say, there's a lot more data in the DNG.

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Both of these files were lightly edited for contrast and to somewhat match color. Notice the increased sharpness in the lips and teeth in the DNG compared to the JPEG. You can download both original files in the links provided at the beginning of this article.

In the outdoor portrait, we have the opportunity to see what this sensor can do at its base ISO. Despite being just a quick snapshot (thanks, Max), we can see how sharp the file is even without any noise reduction or sharpening in post-production. In fact, none of that is even necessary. Already, the file looks quite good — as good as or even better than a high-end micro four thirds camera. Increasing contrast through highlight, shadow, and blacks adjustments brings out a pleasing result devoid of the yellow-orange skin tones that we're used to from cell phone-produced JPEGs.

To see the increased sharpness of the outdoor image compared to that of the indoor photograph is to be expected. Apart from differences in bokeh and depth of field, smaller image sensors can do almost as well as larger sensors in bright situations where they can shoot at their lowest native ISO setting. This is a big reason that sensors such as those used in drones and GoPros can get away with such small image sensors: most of the shooting they do is outdoors in bright sunlight. Get those same cameras in low-light situations, and the story completely changes. The small size of the pixels on these sensors inhibits their light-gathering capabilities where they might be needed most: indoors. To combat this, Apple (and other cell phone manufacturers) apply a combination of heavy noise reduction and sharpening. While some of this would be okay, their metric of comparison for an acceptable amount of image processing always appears to be whether or not the image looks good displayed as a full-screen image on a particular device.

Notice the difference between the original DNG file ("before" on the left) and the original JPEG file ("after"). The JPEG has much less noise, but also suffers from a lack of detail and a general smoothness across all the image thanks to the heavy noise reduction.

Here, you can compare the original JPEG image ("before") from the camera with an image exported after minor noise reduction, color noise reduction, and sharpening was performed in Lightroom on the DNG ("after"). While the granularity of the noise remains, it is still pleasing compared to the JPEG's cartoon-like smoothness, especially considering the increased detail across the image.

Unfortunately, this crushes the file quite a bit, since even today's retina displays do not display the 12-megapixel iPhone image at anywhere near 100 percent. While this looks acceptable in most mobile applications and social media sites, cropping abilities are severely hampered by this post-processing. And cell phone images on the desktop can rarely pass as images taken by more advanced cameras with larger sensors. There hasn't been a way around this on Apple devices until the company finally introduced raw image support in iOS 10 with Adobe's Lightroom Mobile app being the first to take advantage of this. It's about time.

One thing to note is that I did have a few issues with Lightroom Mobile syncing. Quitting the app and restarting it a few times with a few re-login attempts solved the issues somewhere along the way. But bear in mind I have been using a version of iOS 10 that is not necessarily the final release. Hopefully, you won't have similar issues.

The differences between JPEG and DNG images on the iPhone 6S are probably going to be much greater than any difference you might notice between the iPhone 6S and iPhone 7. But there's no doubt that the iPhone 7's camera is even more improved (especially when considering the iPhone 7 Plus' dual camera setup). Still, you can check out all the newest features of the iPhone 7 here. Better yet, learn how to have cash left over after upgrading to the iPhone 7.

Don't forget to do what you want with the files linked above and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Source: First Look: Adobe DNG Support for Lightroom Mobile App Proves Raw Photography on iPhone Is Superb

500px’s new iOS camera app lets you earn money for your photos right from your phone

Since it launched in 2009, 500px has steadily grown its global photography community to 8 million members. In addition to hosting shutterbugs' portfolios, it also allows them to license photos to clients for commercial use and profit from their work.

It's now launched RAW, a free iOS app that lets you shoot photos as well as upload them to 500px, complete with a commercial license and model releases. The idea is to streamline professional photographers' workflow and help them start earning revenue from their shots as quickly as possible.

A new era of tech events has begun

We're back in New York this November for the 4th edition of our growth-focused technology event.

The company offers members a chance to earn up to 60 percent commission on each image sale. One might argue that 500px is eating a lot of their lunch, but it does take a lot of strain out of preparing photos for commercial use.

RAW features a simple camera interface with a grid, flash, as well as manual focus and exposure controls that you can adjust using on-screen sliders.

It also offers a wide range of processing tools, including controls to adjust exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, sharpening and more. There's also a collection of filters built by community members, and options to create your own and reuse them on your other shots.

Securing a model release on RAW only takes a minute

Submitting your photo to the 500px Marketplace for commercial use only takes a few additional painless steps, as compared to sha ring it with the community for feedback. You can create a model release by filling out a form and having your model sign their name on your phone, and generate a license in seconds.

RAW will certainly be a boon to photographers who are looking for more ways to monetize their work. Being able to upload a commercially licensable photo while on the go means you don't have to return to your desk to submit work so clients can view and pay for them.

Andy Yang, CEO of 500px said:

We quietly rolled out our global photography on-demand service a year ago to preferred clients and the uptake has been unbelievable. RAW is the first of a number of products rolling out in the coming months to support this service. It's a new way for photographers to secure paid work for doing what they love.

One of those initiatives Yang is talking about is an upcoming feature in RAW, which will notify users when they receive a request for a commissioned shoot, and allow them to accept these assignments and complete them as well.

RAW is free to use, and is now available in the App Store.

RAW on 500px

Read next: Play Android games on your PC with Remix OS Player

Source: 500px's new iOS camera app lets you earn money for your photos right from your phone

iOS 10: How to use stickers, iMessages apps, Digital Touch, rich links, and more in the new iOS 10 Messages app [Video]

The Messages app is the most frequently used app on iOS, so it makes sense that Apple would lend it plenty of attention in iOS 10. It's safe to say that the stock Messages app received, by far, the most significant overhaul of all default apps in iOS 10, as it is now a feature-laden package that leverages photos, videos, and Snapchat-inspired markup elements.

Messages in iOS 10 even brings about a dedicated iMessage App Store for adding additional functionality such as stickers, animated GIFs and third-party app extensions that run right within the Messages app interface. Updated emoji features, inline music and video playback, and brand new effects add a new dimension to Apple's most popular iOS app.

If you've steered clear of the betas and have yet to use iOS 10 up until now, then you have a lot of new exciting things to learn. Because iOS 10's Messages app refresh is so deep and engaging, we've created an in-depth written and video walkthrough. Be sure to watch the full video to gain a solid grasp of many of the new features and enhancements found in Messages for iOS 10.

Exciting new features Rich links

iOS 10 brings rich links to videos and websites, along with inline playback of Apple Music tracks. On previous versions of iOS, a web URL, Apple Music URL, or a YouTube URL would show nothing but the address when sent as a message. With iOS 10, those ambiguous addresses have been replaced by rich links that lend more context to the content being shared.

This means that web links now feature artwork and extracted titles from the corresponding website. Rich links are especially nice for videos from services like YouTube or Vine, which can now be played inline without leaving the conversation.

Inline rich links are a much-welcomed new feature

Per-contact read receipts

New to iOS 10's Messages app is the ability to enable or disable read receipts on a per-contact basis. On previous versions of iOS, read receipts were only available as a global setting. Now it's easy to enable read receipts for individual recipients that you deem worthy to receive such insight.

Only send read receipts for those who you designate

Identifying conversation participants

You'll now notice icons at the top of each conversation to indicate conversation participants. When you have an excess of conversation participants, the icons will display in a compact view. Tapping on the group of icons will reveal an expanded scrollable view that allows you to easily identify each participant.

Conversation participants are easily identifiable

Interactive notifications

This isn't exclusive to the Messages app, but the new iOS 10 interactive notifications greatly benefit Messages app users when responding to text messages. Not only are notifications in iOS 10 more legible, containing more content, you'll find that notifications can be expanded by means of a 3D Touch gesture.

Quick reply now provides more context and allows you to carry on conversations

Quick reply has been around since iOS 8, but you could only see one message and you could only type a single response. In iOS 10 you can see the entire conversation via the expanded notification. You can respond, wait for conversation participants to respond, and continue a conversation.

Notifications while in a conversation

If you receive a message from a conversation participant while in an expanded presentation style that takes up the full screen, you'll receive a special type of notification that appears right near the conversation participant icons near the top of the Messages app interface. This special type of notification will only appear if you receive a message for the conversation that you're currently viewing while in full screen presentation style.

You can still receive message notifications while in presentation style (get Anitate on App Store)

Video walkthrough

Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more iOS 10 videos!

3x bigger emoji

If you send a message with less than four emoji and without any corresponding text, the emoji characters will appear 3 times larger in the transcript. This allows conversation participants to see more character detail for emoji-only responses.

Larger emojis show more detail

Emoji predictions

Quick Type continues to provide text predictions, but with iOS 10, you now get emoji predictions in the Quick Type interface as you type. For example, if you type "Want to go to the mov…" you'll be provided with a 🎥 emoji in the Quick Type predictive interface above the keyboard.

Tap to replace

After you've typed a full message, you can spice up the content of the message by replacing certain words with emoji. Instead of manually replacing words, however, iOS 10 employs a new tap to replace feature that will automatically highlight emojifiable words.

To use tap to replace, simply tap on the emoji button, and iOS will automatically highlight all of the words that can be replaced with emoji. Once the emojifiable words appear, simply tap the highlighted words to quickly turn them into symbols.

Tapping to replace emoji is a time-saving and brilliant new idea

If more than one emoji character relates to a word, then you'll be presented with a pop-up that allows you to select the correct emoji. If you change your mind, you can always tap the emoji character again to revert it back to text.

Send with effects

In iOS 10, it's now possible to add some flair to the individual messages that you send. By utilizing a 3D Touch gesture on the Send button, you can choose between several different bubble effects to change the way that your message is presented on-screen. Sending messages with effects helps to alter the tone of your message, something that is traditionally lacking with basic text communication.

Effects can help lend much-needed context to a text message

There are two primary types of effects that you can use in iOS 10 — bubble effects and full-screen effects. Bubbles effects only affect the current message that you send. Screen effects, on the other hand, affect the entire Messages app interface.

Bubble effects Full-screen effects Slam Balloons Loud Confetti Gentle Lasers Invisible Ink Fireworks – Shooting Star Celebrations

When you send or receive specific iMessage phrases, a full-screen celebration, similar to some of the five previously mentioned full-screen effects, will occur. For example, sending or receiving the word "Congratulations" will cause the Confetti full-screen effect to be invoked automatically.

Tapback

Sometimes a quick reaction to a text message is more appropriate than a full text response. For these occasions, Apple has implemented a new feature into Messages called Tapback. Tapback allows you to quickly react to a message with one of six available reaction glyphs.

Tapback makes it easy to send quick responses to messages

With a simple double tap on an incoming message bubble, you can attach a heart, thumbs up, thumbs down, a "haha" laugh, exclamation points, or a question mark to a message in the transcript.

Handwritten messages

When you place your iPhone into landscape orientation while in the Messages app, a new handwriting interface will appear. The handwriting interface allows you to send handwritten signatures and notes that appear to the recipient in an  animated written fashion.

Once you send a handwritten note, the note will be retained within a shortcut area beneath the handwriting surface. You can then tap the shortcut to quickly recall previously written notes. Apple includes several canned notes that automatically appear in the shortcut area to help get you started.

Handwritten notes lend a personal touch to outgoing messages

If you wish to delete a handwritten note shortcut, perform a long-press on a shortcut to enter edit mode, and tap the 'x' in the upper left-hand corner of the shortcut to delete it.

It's also possible to exit the handwriting interface while in landscape mode. To do so, simply tap the keyboard button in the bottom right-hand corner. To get back into handwriting mode, tap the handwriting button.

Notice the new handwriting button in the bottom right-hand corner

Apple has put a lot of effort into the handwritten ink animations that appear after sending a handwritten note. Not only will you notice the writing animation, but you'll also see how the ink settles in to the transcript as if the ink is drying on a piece of paper. As it does with other types of messages, Apple includes a special handwriting "now typing" bubble indicator to let users know when a conversation participant is in the middle of composing a handwritten message.

Revealing new options

By tapping the chevron button that rests to the left of the transcript box, you'll reveal three new drawers for adding media to a conversation. There you'll find the Camera drawer, Digital Touch drawer, and App drawer buttons. In the remaining part of our iOS 10 Messages app tutorial, we'll focus primarily on these three areas.

Tapping the chevron reveals the Camera, Digital Touch, and App drawers

New camera and photo interface

Photos and videos remain a huge part of the iMessage experience, and in iOS 10 it's even easier to share precious moments with friends and family.

Tapping the Camera drawer button reveals the new and improved photo and video sharing interface. The first thing you'll notice is a new live camera viewer for framing and capturing quick photos to share.

Although the live camera viewer features a shutter button, tapping anywhere in the frame will capture a photo. Just as you would expect, tapping the camera selector button, located in the upper right-hand corner of the camera frame, allows you to quickly switch between the iPhone's front and rear-facing cameras.

The live camera viewer makes it easy to snap quick photos…

Upon taking a photo with the live camera, it'll be sent directly to the transcript. From there, it's just a matter of tapping the Send button to share any queued up photos.

To remove a photo from the transcript, tap the 'x' button in the upper right-hand corner of the photo. You can also toggle the Live Photos option by tapping the Live Photo button in the upper left-hand corner of each photo.

Accessing the full camera or photo library

To access your full camera or photo library, swipe right to reveal the Camera and Photo Library buttons. From there, it's easy to access the full camera for taking photos or videos, or for accessing your entire photo library.

…but the full camera and Photo Library are a mere swipe away

Sharing recent photos

To the right of the live camera, you'll see a list of recent photos from your photo library. To share a recent photo, tap on the photo that you wish to share, and it will queue up in the transcript. You can also tap and drag the photo into the transcript. If you'd like to send a recent photo immediately, tap and drag the photo directly into the conversation, and it'll be instantly sent without needing to confirm.

If you'd like to edit a photo before you add it to the transcript, perform a long-press on the photo to view editing and markup options. From this view, you can also swipe and select recent photos to add to the transcript box.

Marking up and editing photos

Sometimes you'll want to markup, crop, or edit a particular photo before sharing it. The Messages app in iOS 10 makes this super-easy to do.

There are two ways that you can invoke the markup and editing interface for photos that you wish to share in the Messages app. The first way is by adding a photo to the transcript and tapping it once. The other way, which was mentioned above, involves performing a long-press on one of the recent photos displayed next to the live camera view.

Of course, it's also possible to edit and markup photos that are snapped using the full camera interface, or when accessing photos from the full photo library. In other words, it's possible to markup and edit any photo that you wish to share with Messages in iOS 10.

Being able to markup and edit an image without leaving Messages is a huge time saver

On the editing and markup view, tap the Markup button in the bottom left-hand corner to invoke the markup interface for a photo. Markup allows you to draw on photos with various pen sizes and colors, along with adding text and magnification.

Once you've finished marking up a photo, tap the Save button in the upper right-hand corner to save your changes. You can also use the undo button in the upper left-hand corner to undo changes made to the photo. After saving, your marked up photo will be queued up in the transcript box ready for sharing.

Digital Touch

The iOS 10 Messages app features Digital Touch gestures borrowed directly from the Apple Watch interface. At its core, Digital Touch allows users to send sketches and various flair to conversation participants.

To access the Digital Touch interface, tap the Digital Touch drawer button—the heart with two fingers.

Use the black rectangular gesture surface to sketch a drawing with your finger. Once you begin a sketch, you'll notice seven color options appear to the left of the gesture surface. By tapping any of these seven colors, you can quickly switch to a new color to add more variety to your compositions. If you've yet to draw a stroke, you'll see a circle button representing the currently selected color. Tap the circle button to choose from the additional colors prior to drawing a stroke.

Apple Watch users will find a familiar interface in iOS 10's Messages app

To access an even larger color palette, long-press one of the six colors (white not included) in order to access an advanced color picker. Use the wheel to select your desired color, and tap Done to apply the color change.

Once you're finished with a Digital Touch drawing, tap the blue Send button to the right of the composition surface to send the drawing to your recipients. After your recipients receive your drawing, they will see it as composed from start to finish.

If you'd like to abort an in-progress composition, tap the 'x' button in the upper left-hand corner to cancel it and start over.

Gestures

You can use special gestures on the gesture surface to send flair to iMessage conversation recipients. Below is a list of all of the available gestures:

Digital Touch flair Required gesture Sketch Draw with one finger Tap Tap with one finger Fireball Press with one finger Kiss Tap with two fingers Heartbeat Tap and hold with two fingers Heartbreak Tap and hold with two fingers, then drag down

On the right side of the Digital Touch interface, you'll notice several gesture instruction guides that highlight how to use each gesture. If tapped, a full screen Digital Touch interface will be invoked along with more detailed written instructions.

Digital Touch gestures can add additional pizzaz to conversations

To invoke the full screen Digital Touch interface without the instruction overlay, tap the chevron in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. The large Digital Touch interface makes it easier to create more detailed compositions due to the larger gesture surface area.

Digital Touch + Photos and Videos

Beneath the circle button for selecting colors on the left side of the interface, you'll notice the Camera button. The Camera button allows you to take photos or videos and mark them up with Digital Touch gestures.

Tapping the Camera button also invokes the full screen Digital Touch interface, which makes it easier to frame shots, and lends more room for creative compositions.

You can even markup photos and videos à la SnapChat

Taking a shot is as simple as tapping the shutter button in the bottom left-hand corner of the interface. To take a video instead, tap the red record button to the right of the shutter button. You can toggle between the front or rear-facing cameras by tapping the Camera button in the bottom right-hand corner.

Digital Touch gestures can be added to a photo before or after the shot is taken. Videos require you to use Digital Touch gestures before, or while the recording is in progress. It's also possible to send photos or videos devoid of any gestures. Videos, like Snapchat and Instagram Stories, can be up to 10 seconds in length.

If you'd like to exit the camera interface, yet remain in the full screen Digital Touch view, tap the 'x" in the upper left-hand corner of the frame. If you wish to recover the camera interface while in full screen view, a quick tap of the Camera button in the bottom left-hand corner will bring it back.

Once you've finished your composition, press the Send button in the bottom right-hand corner to send your finished masterpiece.

Replaying and responding to Digital Touch messages

When you receive a Digital Touch message, it will begin playing back as soon as it's viewed. Digital Touch video are muted by default, but audio can be enabled by tapping the un-mute button in the upper right-hand corner of the message bubble.

Digital Touch messages are ephemeral, once entirely viewed, a message will be automatically purged after two minutes. If you wish to keep a Digital Touch message, you'll need to tap the Keep button located underneath the message bubble.

To view a Digital Touch message in full screen, tap the message bubble once. Full screen Digital Touch videos will continuously loop until you tap the 'x' button in the upper right-hand corner to stop them. Standard Digital Touch messages played back in full screen will play once, and feature a replay button in the upper left-hand corner if you wish to watch more than once.

The full screen interface not only allows you to view Digital Touch messages on a larger canvas, but it can also be used to facilitate a quick reply.

iMessage Apps & Stickers

Perhaps the biggest new change to iOS 10's Messages app is the addition of the App Store for iMessage. By tapping the App drawer button, users can access the iMessage App Store. There, you can download sticker packs created by artists, and full iMessage apps that leverage the power of the iOS SDK.

Already, there are many iMessage apps and sticker packs available for download

Artists can create static or animated sticker packs without needing to know how to code, and developers can create dedicated iMessage apps, or traditional iOS apps with iMessage or sticker pack extensions.

Some apps are only available as standalone iMessage apps

Apple includes a couple of stock iMessage apps. These include a Music app for pasting inline links to recently played songs, and an #images app for searching for and sharing GIF animations. You'll also find a Recents app for quickly finding recently shared items.

iMessage App Store

Tap the App drawer button, followed by the Store (+) button, to access the iMessage App Store. Once there, you'll find two tabs: Featured and Manage.

The Featured tab is the main interface for the iMessage App Store. If you're familiar with installing apps via the traditional App Store, then you should feel comfortable installing apps from the iMessage App Store.

The iMessage App Store features stickers and real apps that can be used within Messages

The Manage tab contains a list of all of the iMessage apps that are currently installed. It also contains a switch for enabling auto iMessage app installs when you have apps on your device that feature iMessage app or sticker pack extensions. This option, which is enabled by default, is available at the top of the Manage tab.

To uninstall an app, slide the switch to the off position, tap Done, and the app will be removed. If the app is an iMessage-only app, meaning it isn't an extension of a larger app installed on your Home screen, then the app will be removed completely from the Manage tab. If the app is an extension to an app installed on your device, then the app will remain in the managed tab in an off position.

You can access your full list of iMessage apps from the Purchased section of the traditional App Store. Apple includes a handy link to that section at the bottom of the list of installed apps under the Manage tab.

How to search for iMessage apps

Although Apple showcases many iMessage apps under the store's Featured tab, you can search for apps as well. To search for apps in the iMessage App Store, launch the store, and tap the search button in the upper left-hand corner of the interface.

Use the search feature to locate specific apps

Rearranging and uninstalling iMessage apps

You can rearrange apps in the App drawer by long-pressing an app icon within the iMessage app interface to enter edit mode. Tap and drag an app icon to move it to a different location within the App drawer. Additionally, you'll see an 'x' in the upper left-hand corner of each app while in edit mode. Tap the 'x' to remove the app. Removing an app in this manner is the same as turning an app's switch off in the Manage tab of the iMessage App Store.

Presentation styles

The iMessage app interface features two presentation styles: compact, which lets users swipe left and right to switch between iMessage apps, and an expanded mode that lends a full-screen view of a selected app's interface.

The Apple Music app allows you to share recently played music inline with other users

To switch to expanded presentation mode, tap the chevron in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. To switch back to compact mode, tap the chevron in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

Stickers

Stickers can be sent as standalone messages, or peeled and attached to already existing message bubbles found in a conversation. To send a sticker as a standalone message, tap the sticker to add it to the transcript, along with a comment if desired, and tap the Send button.

Stickers can be sent as standalone messages, or peeled and placed on message bubbles

To peel a sticker and attach it to a conversation bubble, long-press the sticker that you wish to use, and drag and drop it on a message bubble. Before you release the sticker, you can use a pinch or swipe gesture to resize and rotate the sticker.

Removing stickers

To remove a sticker attached to a message bubble, long-press on the sticker and tap Sticker Details to invoke the Sticker Detail interface. You can then use a left-swipe delete gesture to delete each individual sticker attached to the message bubble.

Removing stickers requires several actions

You can also delete the corresponding message bubble to delete any attached stickers. To delete a message bubble, long-press on a sticker and tap the More button. This will place the conversation into edit mode, with the corresponding message bubble selected. Tap the Delete button to remove the message bubble and any attached stickers. If you send a sticker as a standalone message, this is the method that you'll need to use to remove the sticker.

Not just stickers

As mentioned, iMessage apps are real apps that can take advantage of the iOS SDK to access the Camera, Apple Pay, etc. Some apps require that both the sender and recipients have the app. For example, the GamePigeon app, which lets users play 8-ball, poker, a version of Battleship, and various other games, requires that each player have the GamePigeon iMessage app installed.

There are a variety of turn-based games available on the iMessage App Store

Turn-based gameplay

Games on the iMessage app store are generally turn-based affairs that allow for multiple participants to take turns making. moves. After making a move, each player confirms the move by tapping the Send button to send the game to the other participants in the conversation.

Turn-based gameplay allows multiple people to join in on the fun

When a move is made, the Message bubble containing the game is updated and movement is passed on to the next player. In other words, you won't have a ton of different message bubbles containing game content, because only one bubble is dedicated to the game as it is played.

Attribution

When you send a message using an iMessage app or sticker, the recipient will see an attribution footnote under the message that links to the app on the iMessage App Store for easy discovery. Games and apps that require all parties to have the app will utilize this attribution link if the app isn't installed.

Attribution links point directly to the iMessage App Store location for downloads

Conclusion

The Messages app in iOS 10 is a ridiculously deep experience. Although it may take a while for new iOS 10 users to get used to everything the app now offers, it's worth investing the time to learn. In my opinion, the revamped Messages app alone is reason enough to upgrade from older versions of iOS, but as you'll learn from many of our upcoming walkthroughs, it's just one piece of a bigger puzzle. Stay tuned for more coverage of everything iOS 10 in the coming days and weeks, and sound off in the comments section below with your thoughts and opinions.

Source: iOS 10: How to use stickers, iMessages apps, Digital Touch, rich links, and more in the new iOS 10 Messages app [Video]