Two anonymous sources are claiming that Twitter was looking to acquire Camera+, one of the top iPhone photography apps available. This, of course, would be in response to Facebook recently snagging the hugely popular iPhone app Instagram. Unfortunately, the folks that make Camera+ are all over the world, and few were willing to move to San Francisco as a part of the deal.

Twitter has a long-standing mobile lineage, so it makes sense that they're looking to the world of iOS apps to expand their workforce. They reportedly even had talks with Instagram (as did Google) before Facebook swooped it up. Sure, Camera+ only has a fraction of the userbase Instagram enjoys, but really any devs with experience creating filters could significantly upgrade the embedded photography functions of the native Twitter apps for iOS. Camera+ already plugs into Twitter, includes geotagging support, and has offers image stabilization when taking your picture.

Even if these talks fell through (if they happened at all, that is), it's entirely possible that Twitter execs will continue to hunt for savvy app developers to upgrade Twitter's mobile photography experience. Maybe the guys at Camera Awesome would be open to that kind of conversation....

Twitter has a history of buying mobile apps and taking on their developers, after all. They bought Loren Brichter's Tweetie for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and they bought Tweetdeck, darling of the social marketers.

How often do you guys share pictures on Twitter? Which cloud service do you usually upload to? Is there a particular iOS app you use to take your snaps? Do you tend to apply artsy filters when you share mobile pics online?

Source: Bloomberg

A two year old boy has been rescued after falling down a narrow well thanks to an iPhone and some quick thinking rescue workers. The boy was playing with some friends when he fell down a 40 feet deep well, became stuck, and needed emergency assistance to get out.

The incident happened in Yunnan Province near Mengzi City, China. Local villagers tried in vain to get the boy out of the well while they waited for rescue teams to arrive. Once the fire-fighters arrived an hour later, they fed oxygen down the narrow shaft to enable the boy to breathe. They tried to lower a harness down the well but as it was an adult harness the boy kept slipping out of it and proved too dangerous to use.

In a move of brilliance, one fire-fighter attached his iPhone to a rope with the video camera enabled and lowered it down the well. The video was then played back and this let the rescue team to see exactly how the boy was positioned in the shaft and guide rope into the correct position and complete the rescue.

The boy escaped with only minor bruising; so was extremely lucky that the recuse team had such great vision and of course an iPhone. As they say, all’s well that ends well…….

Source: App Advice

The new iPad has a built-in Camera app that not only lets you shoot 5 megapixel photos, but does a surprisingly good job at recording 1080p video as well. What's more, the built-in Photos app lets you trim your videos right on the iPad. And if you need more powerful editing, complete with titles and transitions, there are a couple of great App Store apps for that!

How to record video

Recording video with your iPad is very simple.

1. Tap the Camera app on your iPad's home screen
2. On the bottom right had corner you'll find a toggle to switch between photo and video mode. Tap it to switch it to the right and under the video icon.
3. To the right of this switch, you'll see the button that switches between the front, FaceTime camera, and the rear, iSight camera.
4. I recommend holding the iPad with the home button on the right so that your hand doesn't obstruct the view of the camera.
5. In the middle of the right side of the screen (and right next to the home button) you'll see the record button. Tap this to start recording. Tap it again to end recording.
6. To watch the video you just recorded, tap the thumbnail in the lower left corner. You can also find the video in your **Camera Roll* in the Photos app.

How to trim a video

Apple has included the basic editing ability of trimming your videos with the iPad. Any other editing will need to be done on a 3rd party app (see below).

1. Access your video from either your Camera Roll in the Photos app, or from the Camera app by tapping the thumbnail after recording a video.
2. If you don't see the bar at the top of the screen, tap anywhere (except on the play button)
3. In the middle of the toolbar at the top of the screen, you'll see a timeline for your video. The curser in the middle indicates which part of the video you're watching (or will watch if you hit play).
4. Surrounding the timeline is a gray border with ends that have little handles. Tap one of these handles.
5. The border will turn yellow and you can drag the handles along your timeline.
6. Hold your finger down on one of the handles to zoom in to the timeline for more precision.
7. Once you've adjusted your endpoints as desired, tap the play button to the left of the timeline to preview your selection.
8. When it's exactly how you want, tap Trim in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
9. You'll then be prompted to select Trim Original or to Save as a New Clip. Tap your choice.

How to edit your videos

If you want to edit, add titles or transitions, or otherwise make your videos even more fantastic before uploading, you can do that right on your iPad with either Apple's iMovie or Avid Studio.

• iMovie for iPad and iPhone review
• Avid Studio for iPad review

How to share you videos

Once you're done and your videos are perfect, the iPad also makes it really easy to share them in a number of different ways.

1. If they're in your Camera Roll, you can sync them with iTunes on your Mac or Windows PC, and from there, do anything you want with them.
2. If you have an Apple TV you can use AirPlay to wirelessly beam them to your big screen HDTV for full on home theater viewing experience.
3. If you have the Apple HDMI adapter, you can plug your iPad directly into any HDTV or display that has HDMI ports and get the same results.
4. If you want to share them with the internet world, you can upload your videos directly to YouTube or Facebook with just a few taps.

Additional resources:

• All new iPad tips and how-tos
• New iPad help and discussion forums

One of the features of the new iPad that Apple brags about is the new camera. The FaceTime front-facing camera is still a poor quality VGA camera, but the rear camera has been upgraded to a 5 megapixel iSight camera with a f/2.4 lens and 1080p video-recording capabilities. Although it's not as good as the iPhone 4S' 8 megapixel camera, it's still a huge improvement from the poor camera featured on the iPad 2.

The new iPad features a much improved 5 megapixel f/2.4 aperture, 5 element lens and hybrid IR-fliter

The first thing I found interesting is that even though both the new iPad and the iPad 2 have a VGA front facing camera, it was clear that the new iPad has a better sensor because the image looked a lot brighter. What didn't come as surprise was how much better the rear facing camera was on the new iPad.

I recommend watching the above video in full screen so that you can really see the difference between the two video cameras. One thing I noticed is that when recording video, the new iPad has a tighter (closer) crop than the iPad 2, but when taking still photos, the new iPad has wider crop than the iPad 2.

Speaking of images, the iPad's new lens blow's the iPad 2's VGA lens out of the water. The iPad 2 produces dull, grainy images and the new iPad actually takes some pretty nice photos. No, they aren't quite as good as the iPhone 4S, but I'd venture to say that they're better than the iPhone 4 -- although, I haven't officially done any head-to-head tests.

Here's a couple examples that show just how much better the new iPad is at taking taking photos. In each pair, the photo on the right is taken with the new iPad and the photo on the left is with the iPad 2. (Click the images to see larger versions).

The first photo really shows how much more detail the new iPad picks of up in its images. Look at the trees and grass -- the iPad 2's version look blurry and pixelated.

This next one demonstrates that the new iPad produces much better bokeh (out of focus area), and has a shallower depth of field. This is why in the new iPad's version, the flowers really seem to pop.

No words are needed to describe this next pair. Just look at how dull and boring the iPad 2's image looks. Gross.

So I think the video and images speak for themselves -- the new iPad's camera is a huge improvement over its predecessor. But the real question is -- will the improved camera actually give you the confidence to walk around taking photos with a big ol' iPad?

The camera quality on the iPad 2 didn't really impress anybody, but some sample shots from the new iPad have surfaced, and show a definite improvement in quality. These pictures were taken on the new iPad unboxed in Vietnam yesterday, which also gave us benchmarks revealing processor and memory specs.

The camera in the new iPad weighs in at 5 megapixels, but otherwise uses the same optics as the iPhone 4S, which as many of you know, are really good. That said, the 0.3 megapixel shooter on the iPad 2 never really stood much of a chance. While you aren't likely to be using the new iPad as a gigantic, unwieldy point-and-shoot camera on a day-to-day basis, it's great that the few times you do need to use the camera, it won't let you down. Obviously we'll have our own hands-on time with the new iPad this Friday, but until then, the camera is shaping up to be pretty nice.

Those of you upgrading to the new iPad - will the improved quality of the camera increase how often you use it? Do you often take pictures or video with your current iPad? There are a few more samples below.

Source: Tinh te; Flickr/a>; screen caps

If you've been looking to upgrade your iPhoneography from the built-in iPhone Camera app to something a little more flexible and powerful, then check out the just released Camera+ 3. Built by photographers for photographers, the latest update not only continues Camera+'s great features and filter sets, but adds the ability to lock focus and exposure, mulit-photo imports, improved social sharing, app integration (so you can get to Camera+ from within other apps), and more.

Camera+ has long had the ability to set your exposure and focus separately while taking a photo, but today's update now allows you to lock these settings in place, independently of each other so that you can fine-tune your composition without fear of these settings changing.

The update now also allows you to important multiple photos from your library at once versus just one at a time. Also related to workflow, Camera+ now gives you the option to edit a photo immediately after capturing it, or to take many photos in a row and decide on your own when you wish to start editing.

Sharing to Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr has also been greatly improved. You can now share to all services at once -- even multiple accounts of any service at once.

The folks at tap tap tap have also released new app integration API's that allows developers to integrate Camera+ into their apps. For example, when choosing to upload a photo in Tweetbot, there is now an option to take the photo with Camera+. After you're done taking and editing the photo in Camera+, it will automatically take you back to Tweetbot and insert the photo into your tweet. Other apps that utilize Camera+ integration include WordPress, Twitterrific, Foodspotting, and Twittelator Neue.

I'm very impressed with the update so far and will spend more time with Camera+ over the coming weeks. Camera+ has always been one of those apps that was great in theory, but the UI and workflow never really clicked with me. With these added improvements, I'm willing to give Camera+ another shot.

$0.99 -Download Now

"The Mujjo fisheye is a great little novelty lens that's cute, small, easy to carry, and a lot of fun to play around with, especially for kids."

The Mujjo fisheye lens is an incredibly inexpensive way to try out fisheye photography on your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad -- or almost any smartphone or tablet. A fisheye lens is designed to take extremely wide-angle pictures, so wide that it becomes almost spherical for still photographs. That means, however, you can get a lot more content -- people, scenery, etc. -- into a shot than is possible with a standard lens. It also means that pictures are often warped to almost comical levels. But that's really the point.

With this Mujjo, it's not about the quality of the glass or the "I can't believe it's a camera phone" pictures -- it's about having fun. If the best camera is the one you have with you, and your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad is what you have with you, that's great, but it can also get a little boring at times. That's where the Mujjor fisheye comes in. It's not for high-end photographers (they've already got lenses that cost more than the iPhone!), but for people who want to experiment, add a little spice, and switch things up from the regular old Camera app shots.

It's also adorable. Available in green, blue, white, red and black, the Mujjo fisheye comes with a stretchy, bungee style cord that lets you easily attach to a keychain or anywhere convenient so you have it with you and don't need to worry about it getting lost. It attaches to your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad with a gummy type adhesive that keeps it reasonably well attached without leaving unsightly residue on your precious mobile device.

To take a fishey picture, just stick the Mujjo onto your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and use the built in Camera app or any App Store app you like -- Instagram would be a really fun choice!

You can fit way more into the picture with a Mujjo fisheye lens... even if it does warp around you.

You'll notice right away that you can fit a lot more into the picture, even if it's massively distorted. Video is a little different, however. Because the iPhone 4S crops the capture size down to 1080p, and the iPhone 4, iPad 2, and iPod touch 4 crop it down to 720p, you only get the middle of the fisheye effect. That makes video look much less warped than photos but still fits much more in the frame.

Again, it's not a high end lens, it's just a lot of fun to play around with, a great way to get started to see if you like specialty lenses, and something especially fabulous and inexpensive to let kids play around with.

The good

• Inexpensively priced
• Cute design
• Highly portable
• Works with any smartphone or tablet

The bad

• Sticky backing needs to be kept clean from lint and dust
• Not a high quality lens

The conclusion

The Mujjo fisheye is a great little novelty lets that's cute, small, easy to carry, and a lot of fun to play around with, especially for kids. It works with the iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, or any smartphone or tablet, and is a cheap way take your mobile photography in a new direction.

It's not for pros, but it is for anyone just starting out, and would make a great novelty gift, stocking stuffer, loot bag treat, or just rainy day surprise.

€9.95 - Buy now

For more on iPhone photography, check out:

• How to take better pictures with your iPhone
• Photography help and discussion forum

Giveaway

We've got some Mujjo's to give away! Leave a comment below telling us what you'd like to photograph with a fisheye and you're entered for a chance to win!

The iPad 3 rumor mill is chugging a long a full speed, this time showing us what's supposedly Apple's next generation tablet side-by-side with an iPad 2. These photos highlight a slightly thicker casing and more tapered edges, which falls in line with previous image leaks.

If accurate, these images from M.I.C. Gadget likely confirm that Apple will be modifying the casing of the next iPad to offer a thin feeling while ever-so-slightly extending the thickness of the device, most probably to allow room required for a higher quality 8 megapixel camera, Retina display, battery, and possible 4G LTE networking

The iPad 3 is expected to be announced on March 7th shortly before Apple is rumored to push out iOS 5.1 to the masses.

Source: M.I.C Gadget

Adding fuel to the blazing hot iPad 3 rumor fire, NextMedia claims to have gotten actual pictures of Apple's next-generation tablet, along with specs indicating the rear camera will be 8 megapixel. Physically, the casing looks very much like the iPad 2 but with shaper, more tapered edges.

They also echo the March 7 event date iMore heard previously, as well as the Retina display and quad-core Apple A6 processor. They don't seem to mention anything about 4G LTE, though the Wall Street Journal has previously confirmed that.

Going from the 1 megapixel camera in the iPad 2 to 8 megapixels in the iPad 3 is quite the jump. If the optics are anywhere near as good as the iPhone 4S Apple's tablet will have gone from a photographic joke to a serious shooter in one generation flat. It won't be anywhere nearly as convenient to use as an everyday camera, the way the iPhone is, but it will be great for when you need to take a picture, capture a document, or shoot some -- presumably 1080p -- video.

Source: NextMedia via Apple.pro via MacRumors

Everything you need to know about using your iPhone Camera to take great, memorable photos

With the new iPhone photography -- or iPhoneography -- series we're running on iMore, we have a lot of new iPhones users, and burgeoning photographers joining us. So, Leanna and I thought it would be a good idea to team up, take a moment, and go over the basics so that everyone gets up to speed just as quickly as possible. If you're new to the iPhone or new to taking pictures, here's everything you need to know to get started. Bookmark it. If you're already an expert, save the link for a friend, and jump right into our iPhoneography Forum and share your work!

The iPhone 4S camera

The iPhone 4S has an 8 megapixel camera. A megapixel is 1 million pixels, so that means the iPhone 4S camera captures images that are 3264x2448 pixels in size. That's enough to print an 8x10 picture at 300 dots per inch (dpi), or fairly high quality. (Low quality color images print at 150-300dpi, high quality at 300-600+ dpi)

The aperture on the iPhone 4S camera is f/2.4. The f stands for "focal ratio" or "f-stop". The lower the f-stop (which is actually a larger aperture), the more light that can be let in so you can get better pictures in a wider range of settings. For example, combined with the iPhone's macro abilities, you can be obtain a shallow depth-of-field (where the subject is in focus, and elements in front of and behind the subject are blurred). The iPhone 4S also has 5 elements in the lens, helping to keep photos sharp.

An infrared (IR) filter helps produce more accurate color, and combines with software that optimizes dynamic range and white balance. So, you basically have a camera that could previously only be found on a dedicated point-and-shoot, built right into your phone.

• iPhone 4S camera hands-on

Quick Camera access

Quickly launch your iPhone camera by double clicking home then tapping the camera button

With iOS 5, Apple's made it easier and faster than ever to access your camera when you need it, even when your iPhone is locked, and even if you have a passcode set.

• Double click the Home button
• Tap the Camera button

That's it. Two clicks and a tap and you're in the Camera App and ready to shoot.

• Yes, this does leave you open to pranks

The Camera app

Tap the Camera icon on your iPhone Home screen to launch the Camera app. The Camera app is the built-in, default way to take photos on your iPhone. Even in other apps, like Messages, if you tap the camera button to take a photo, you'll be taken into the Camera app.

The Camera app opens to a live-view screen, similar to the LCD display you see on a point-and-shoot or DSLR camera. Controls are available right on the screen to take a photo, set the flash, access advanced options, and switch to the front-facing camera. Other controls are also available, including a hardware shutter and digital zoom. We'll walk you through all of them.

Geo-tagging

When you first launch the Camera, you'll be asked for permission to use your current Location for geotagging

The first time you launch the Camera app, it will ask for your permission to use your current Location. That's because, if you let it, your iPhone will store the GPS coordinates of every photo you take, so you can always easily refer back to it later. This can be great for keeping track of vacation shots, but not so great if you're posting pictures online and don't want the entire internet to know your address.

Whether you choose to enable geo-tagging for now or not, you can always change your mind later.

• How to to geolocation on or off for your iPhone Camara

Taking a photo

To take a photo, either tap the Camera button or click the volume up control

There are two ways to take a photo with the Camera app. Both of them will fire the shutter and save a picture to your Camera Roll library.

1. Tap the Camera button on the live view screen
2. Click the volume up hardware button on the side of your iPhone

Bonus tip: If your iPhone headset has a volume up button, you can use it to take pictures remotely!

Pinch to Zoom

Pinch to zoom activates the digital zoom, and shows you the zoom slider

The iPhone has a mediocre digital zoom but if you absolutely have to zoom in, it can be very slightly better than nothing.

• Touch your thumb and forefinger to the screen and pinch them together to zoom in.
• Spread them apart to zoom back out.

Once you've activated the zoom feature, a slider will appear giving you linear control, if you prefer it.

Macro

You can automatically take macro shots by getting in close... though the focus seems glitchy on close ups

The iPhone will automatically adjust for macro photos. Just bring the camera close to the object you want to shoot and take the picture.

Note: There appears to be a glitch in iOS 5 that causes problems focusing extremely close for macro photos. It locks for a moment, then blurs again. Hopefully Apple is fixing this for the next update.

Changing auto-focus and auto-exposure

To focus and set exposure on an object, just tap on it. The square indicates the current target.

The iPhone camera has automatic focus, exposure, and facial recognition. It will always try to take the best possible photo it can, but it may not always know which area of the photo you want to target.

Changing the target is simple.

• Tap the screen

That's it. Any area you tap will be surrounded by a white square and your iPhone will automatically refocus and re-balance the exposure for that area.

If your iPhone detects a face -- or up to 10 faces -- it will put a green square around it and automatically refocus and optimize the image around the face.

Locking auto-focus/auto-exposure

Sometimes the auto-focus and auto-exposure on the iPhone is more blessing than curse. For example, when there's a lot of movement, or when the center of the photo you want to take is exceptionally bright or dark. When that happens, you can lock both the auto-focus and auto-white balance so that, when you move the camera around, they no longer change.

• Place your camera one the area that has the focus and exposure you want to lock onto to
• Tap the square to make sure the focus and white balance are set.
• Hold the square with your finger until it turns blue and pulsates.

The words AE/AF Lock will appear at the bottom the screen to confirm you've done it correctly. Move the camera and take your photos without worrying about the auto-focus or auto-exposure balance any more.

To remove the AR/AF Lock, just tap the screen outside the square.

• More on how to use the iPhone AE/AF camera lock

Setting the flash

To toggle the LED flash between On, Auto, and Off, tap the current setting at the top left of the live screen

Your iPhone has an LED Flash that can be set to off, auto, and on. It's not a great flash and as will any point-and-shoot camera, light is your friend -- especially lot of daylight. If you're in a really dark place, however, and really want or need a picture, it's easy to turn the flash on.

• Tap the Flash button at the top left of the live view screen.
• Tap the On button to turn the flash on, or the **Auto button* to put it into automatic mode.

Taking HDR photos

To enable High Dynamic Range, tap Options, then toggle HDR to On.

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and involves taking a series of pictures, one right after the other, both slightly overexposed and slightly underexposed, and combining them together to reveal more light and shadow information than a standard single-exposure photo would allow. So basically, you can see detail in the bright sky and in the shadow under the tree, rather than having one blown out or the other lost to black.

• Tap the Options button at the top center of the live view screen.
• Slide the HDR toggle to On.

The bottom of the screen will show HDR so you'll know it's enabled.

Note: The multiple exposures take a short amount of time to combine, so after you take an HDR photo you'll see a your iPhone say "Saving HDR". If you need to take a lot of photos quickly, you'll want to make sure HDR is set to Off.

An example of a regular vs. HDR photo, with the HDR photo on the right revealing far greater detail in the sky

Displaying the grid

The grid allows you to use the "rule of thirds" to better compose your photos

The grid is useful to help you align your photographs and achieve better compositions. For example, by using the "rule of thirds".

• Tap the Options button at the top center of the live view screen.
• Slide the Grid toggle to On.

Two sets of vertical crossed by two sets of horizontal lines will divide your screen, and you'll be ready to compose your shot.

• How to use the "rule of thirds" to better compose your iPhone photos

Camera Roll and Photo Stream

Photo Stream is a great way to backup and instantly get all your photos onto all your Apple devices... just handle with discretion for now.

Once you've taken a photo, it gets stores in your Camera Roll, and optionally your Photo Stream.

To access the Camera Roll from inside the Camera App:

• Tap the Thumbnail button next to the camera button.

To access the Camera Roll from the Home screen:

• Launch the built-in Photos app
• Tap the the Camera Roll tab.

Photo Stream is part of iCloud and keeps the most recent photos from your Camera Roll, up to 1000 of them and for up to 1 month, in a special album that's stored up to Apple's servers and pushed down to your other iOS 5 devices. It can also stream photos to an Apple TV 2 without keeping any local copies, and will store all your photos, without limit of number and time, in iPhoto or Aperture on Mac, and on a Windows PC.

Think of it as a photo only (no video) duplicate of all the Camera Rolls of all your iOS devices -- including photos you've saved to the Camera Roll from email and the web -- all in one place.

Unlike Camera Roll, however, you currently can't delete photos from Photo Stream (that will change with iOS 5.1 later this spring). That means if you take any risqué photos you don't want store online, you'll have to reset your entire Photo Stream via iCloud.com in order to get rid of them.

Photo management and editing

You can manage your photos, including emailing, tweeting, iMessaging, deleting, creating and filing into folders, and even basic editing like red-eye removal, rotation, cropping, and auto-ehance, right in the built-in Photos app. There are also several excellent photo editing apps in the App Store.

We'll cover more on that in a future article. For now, we just want you to focus on taking photos.

Other Camera apps

A sampling of Martin Reisch's (@safesolvent) awe-inspiring Instagram gallery.

While the basic, built-in iPhone Camera app is all you really need to get started, there are several other well regarded Camera apps in the App Store. They typically provide more or better features than the built in app. Here are two of our current favorites.

• Instagram is a popular, free iPhone app for applying distinctive filters to your photos, squaring them, and quickly sharing them to the Instagram network, as well as via Twitter and Facebook. You can also see some amazing examples of other people's iPhoneography. Read more - Download now
• Camera+ has a lot of great features, including separate focus and exposure settings, image stabilization, enhanced zoom, scene modes, and a bevy of sharing options. - Read more - Download now

What's next

Now that you have a basic idea how the iPhone camera works, go shoot some photos. Shoot tons of photos. Still life, portraits, landscapes, wild life, sports, anything and everything that catches your fancy. The secret to success here is definitely practice!

• Check out our weekly iPhone photography projects to learn more
• Share your work, tips, and advice in your iPhone photography forum

If the camera on your iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS has stopped functioning you can DIY repair it in about 20 minutes and it'll cost you far less than getting an out-of-warranty repair from Apple, or giving up and buying a new iPhone. All you need are the right tools, the right parts, and the right guide. Just like taking care of your old car can keep it on the road for years to come, taking care of your older iPhones can keep them in service for you, or the family and friends you hand them down to, or keep their value higher for resale.

Here's how.

Disclaimer: As with any repair, iMore nor PXLFIX can be held responsible for any damage you may do to your device. It’s also worth considering that opening up your device to perform any repair or modification can and will void your Apple warranty. If you don’t feel comfortable opening your device, don’t. Use extreme care and caution when performing a repair on any device.

What replacing a camera will fix

• Distorted pictures *A blacked out camera lens

It's always worth first trying an iOS restore to rule out a possible software issue before performing a hardware repair. Also, if you cracked the actual glass over the camera lens this won't help you. You'll need to replace the actual back housing of your device instead.

What you need for a DIY camera repair

PXLFIX recommends using only quality and genuine parts from a reputable supplier like eTech Parts. They have quality parts, tools, and much more for all your repair needs.

• A sad iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS
• A replacement camera assembly - iPhone 3G camera, iPhone 3GS camera
• A #00 Phillips screwdriver
• A suction cup
• A plastic pry tool or spudger
• A SIM removal tool or paperclip

Power off your iPhone

Before performing any repair, always power off your device before removing any screws or parts.

Remove the dock connector screws

Using your #00 Phillips screwdriver, remove the 2 screws located on each side of the dock connector.

Remove the digitizer & LCD assembly

This part can be a bit tricky so please do this with extreme care so you don't tear any cables during the process. I highly recommend using the suction cup method unless your screen is cracked above the home button for some reason and you can't get a proper seal with the suction cup.

Suction cup method (recommended):

The easiest way to remove the digitizer assembly is by using a suction cup.

1. Position the suction cup on the screen directly above the home button.
2. Using your other hand, hold down the frame while gently pulling up on the suction cup.
3. The goal is to get the bottom of the digitizer loose. Do not pull directly up. There are 3 cables attached in the top right of your iPhone. You do not want to tear these. Just pull up until the bottom of the assembly pops out.
4. After you have the bottom up you can remove the suction cup.

Spudger/razor blade method (only use this method as a secondary method):

ONLY use this method if your screen is cracked above the home button. If this is the case, you'll need to use a razor blade or spudger in order to remove it. And while you're at it, replace that broken screen!

1. Starting in the bottom left hand corner, insert a plastic spudger and gently pry up. Once the first side is starting to pop up, do the same on the bottom right side.
2. Run your pry tool along the bottom of the device in order to pop up the bottom of the assembly. Take special care around the home button area.

Remove the cables that attach the digitizer assembly to the logic board:

Once you have the bottom of your digitizer assembly popped up we can remove the cables attaching it to the logic board.

1. Gently lift up your digitizer enough to have a clear view of the 3 cables in the top right of your iPhone.

2. With your plastic spudger or pry tool, you'll need to pry up the first two cables that attach the digitizer and LCD. They should be labeled with orange stickers numbered 1 and 2. Simply pop them off the logic board gently.

3. Underneath these cables you'll see one other labeled as cable 3. This one is a bit trickier as it is clipped down. You'll need to gently pop up the clasp holding it into the fastener. It is a tiny white clip. Simply pop it upwards and the number 3 cable should then slide right out.

4. Remove the digitizer & LCD assembly and set it aside.

Remove your SIM card

Using your SIM tool or a paperclip, either works, remove your SIM card and tray from your device.

Unclip cables from the logic board

1. Towards the top left of the logic board, use your pry tool to pop up the two cables labeled 5 and 6.

2. Towards the bottom of the logic board, 3G owners will only see one cable to the left labeled 4. 3GS users will see two cables (one on each side of the dock connector) labeled 4 and 7. 3G users will just pop up the number 4 cable while 3GS owners will need to pop up both the number 4 and 7 cables.

Remove your logic board

1. Remove the 8 screws outlined in the video that hold the logic board in place. One of the screws is under a Do not remove sticker at the bottom right by the dock connector. Obviously you'll have to remove the sticker to get to it.

2. Make sure you place the screws in an order you will remember. They are different sizes in some instances so you'll need to make sure you put them back in the correct order.

3. Notice the screw holding the camera in place has a metal bracket underneath it. Just take care not to lose this as you'll need to put it back during reassembly.

4. Gently pop your camera up with your spudger or pry tool.

5. Insert your pry tool in the space between the dock connector and logic board and gently pry upward to loosen the logic board.
6. Gently grab the bottom of the logic board and slide it out downwards to remove it.

Remove the old camera and connect the new one

The camera on both the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS is connected by a single cable attached to the under side of the logic board. Pop off the old camera with your spudger or pry tool and connect the new one.

And... done!

All that's left to do is to put your iPhone back together. You can watch the complete repair and re-assembly on video below. And if you run into any issues or have other suggestions about mods or repairs you'd like to see us cover, you can check out our brand new mod and DIY forum.

For questions or to inquire about mail-in repairs through PXLFIX, please follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook or e-mail us directly! Of course, you can like us and follow us just because you think we're cool too!

Kenisngton and Chelsea College in the UK is planning a new course which will be devoted entirely to taking photographs with the iPhone’s camera. The course in "iPhoneography" is thought to be the first ever course of its kind in the United Kingdom.

The college says many iPhone owners struggle to use the camera properly. Students will create images using the iPhone camera and a range of "apps". Tutor, Richard Gray, said: "all you need is a passion for photography and a creative mind." Students are required to have their own iPhone to do the course which will begin next month. "With the right apps and skills, the iPhone can be a powerful creative tool," said Mr Gray. "It is a great levelling force within photography. No longer do you need expensive or complex equipment to produce great images," he added.

Mr Gray is planning on teaching students the basic rules of composition, color and light as well as editing skills using various iOS apps. He sees the iPhone as revolutionising photography by the way it allows you to take a picture, edit it and post it online all within minutes; no matter where you are. Mr Gray will also be holding a free workshop at the Apple Store in Regent Street, London in the near future.

We've been saying that here at iMore for years, of course. We even have a dedicated iPhone photography forum available for you to discuss the subject, share tips, and start projects. With more to come!

Source: BBC

Some fresh pictures of a camera-equipped iPod nano have slipped out, indicating that Apple's music player may be due for an update soon. Apple usually updates the iPod nano every fall, but this year the iPhone 4S hogged the spotlight at Apple's traditional event. The 2009 iPod nano had a camera, before ditching it for the current form factor in 2010. Aside from the camera, the overall design doesn't seem to have changed much from the previous generation.

As Georgia aptly points out, the iPod nano isn't really hurting for a camera; instead, the iPod nano really should start changing into a smartwatch accessory, complete with notifications pushed over Bluetooth, hosting lightweight apps, while still playing music. Motorola and Sony Ericsson have both taken a stab at this idea, but Apple will likely be able to pull this off in a way that really resonates with their fans.

Anybody out there own an iPod nano? Do you ever find it lacking in functions, or does it already do what you need it to? Is a camera really needed?

Source: Apple.pro via MacRumors

According to Adam Lashinsky, author of the upcoming book, Inside Apple, the late Steve Jobs arranged a meeting with Ren Ng, a Stanford graduate and the CEO of the incredible Lytro light-field camera company.

The company’s CEO, Ren Ng, a brilliant computer scientist with a PhD from Stanford, immediately called Jobs, who picked up the phone and quickly said, “if you’re free this afternoon maybe we would could get together.” Ng, who is thirty-two, hurried to Palo Alto, showed Jobs a demo of Lytro’s technology, discussed cameras and product design with him, and, at Jobs’s request, agreed to send him an email outlining three things he’d like Lytro to do with Apple.

Lytro, if you've not heard of them, uses radical new imaging technology that involves capturing the entire light field into one single file. Edits can then be made post-production, including refocusing the image or any portion of it.

Given the nature of their technology and how it works, it all seems like something Steve Jobs would have been interested in, especially when you consider the amount of attention Apple gave to how the iPhone 4S camera worked.

According to Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs had three things he wanted to reinvent - the television, textbooks and photography. We've bared witness to the beginning of one of those things at Apple's education event with the introduction of iBooks 2 and  iBooks Author for Mac OS X. And Apple Television has been rumored for a while now.

One could argue that Steve Jobs and Apple have already changed the photography world with each iteration of the iPhone, as the cameras got better with each new release. The the iPhone 4S has an 8 megapixel camera equipped with a fast f/2.4 lens, and is certainly capable of taking great shots and that photo taking ability has caused some folks to drop their point & shoot cameras and strictly use their iPhone for shots as needed.

Could we see a portion of Lytro's camera technology in the some iteration of the iPhone and possibly even the iPad? It's quite possible - but we'll have to hold on for that. One meeting does not a next-generation iPhone 5 camera make.

• Inside Apple - Amazon link

Source: 9to5Mac

Sony has announced a new 13 megapixel back-illuminated CMOS image sensor, which could one day allow for thinner iPhones that take even higher quality photos and HDR (High Dynamic Range) video.

This image sensor layers the pixel section containing formations of back-illuminated structure pixels onto chips containing the circuit section for signal processing, which is in place of supporting substrates for conventional back-illuminated CMOS image sensors. This structure achieves further enhancement in image quality, superior functionalities and a more compact size that will lead to enhanced camera evolution.

The setup separates the CMOS sensor from the imaging circuits which, along with a bit of optics-magic, results in higher quality images. It also thinner, which means iPhones and iPads, if Apple implements it, could be thinner.

Source: Sony

According to a report by the Jakarta Globe, the iPhone 4S will soon be available in Singapore without a front or rear facing camera. One small carrier in Singapore even went live with a web page displaying pricing for a version of the iPhone 4S with no camera; it was later taken down. Whilst it was live, it showed a 64GB version of the iPhone 4S with no camera going for $900. It is thought that these models of iPhone are being made available for those in the armed forces where smartphones with cameras are banned from army camps.

Currently, Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) servicemen are allowed to take only no-camera smartphones into camp. Because of this, many own two phones - one for use in the camp and another outside.Those with no-camera smartphones are able to tap into the Wi-Fi networks, now covering more camps, to surf the Internet.

Source: Jakarta Globe

Snappy5 for iOS 5 is a new jailbreak mod in Cydia that brings instant access to the iPhone camera no matter what you're doing.

Never miss a photo opportunity again!

It is a camera application that launches quickly, without having to exit your currently running application. This is a free upgrade, but it is not compatible with 3.x and 4.x iOS versions.

Although Apple does include camera access from the iPhone lock screen in iOS 5, the app still technically needs to be launched before you'll be able to snap a photo. As such, it still takes a measurable amount of time to launch the camera.

Snappy5 rids this issue by implementing a mobile substrate extension tie-in, which gives near-instant access to the camera no matter where you are. Another great feature is snap on launch, which takes a photo the moment Snappy5 is called up. If you're in an app, at your home screen, or have your iPhone locked - you won't have to worry about missing that special moment with Snappy5.

If you run into any trouble you can always jump into our Jailbreak and Unlock forums or post it in the comments!

• $.99 -- Cydia Store Link

Photography app specialists Interealtime has just released an update to its highly acclaimed True NightVison app. The app uses special light capture techniques which allow much darker photographs to be taken using the iPhone camera.

Looking for powerful light amplification tech that fits in your pocket? You came to the right place. True NightVision features advanced image enhancement AND unique light gathering modes. Combined, they make this the most potent night vision app available on the App Store. How does it work? It uses a live camera view and special photo enhancement techniques capable of producing a decent image at high speed (we're talking fluid 30fps action here!) even where it's way too dark for the iPhone's camera app.

• Speed: For full motion, 30fps action use
• High: Balances speed and light enhancement, good for regular use
• Still: High level light enhancement, but requires a steady hand
• Max: Ultimate light enhancement for stationary use
• Improved zoom: Up to 8x zoom on iPhone 4/4S, up to 4x on 3GS
• Enhancement is now set to 50% initially
• Speed fix for iPhone 4s

• App Store link

Jeremy Horwitz from iLounge has posted rumors about the iPad 3 and what his sources say we should expect.

Some of the changes included were upgraded front and rear cameras with HD FaceTime on the front and an 8MP sensor on the rear. His sources believe the rear camera may in fact be the same as the iPhone 4S.

Horwitz, who has had good information in the past, also dispels rumors of the next iPad hitting in January or February, and instead suggested it will follow the same March/April release cycle the iPad has been on since it debuted in 2010, and that the iPad 2 will stick around at an entry-level price of $399.

Source: iLounge via @horwitz

Now that iPhone 4S has come and launched, iPhone 5 (or whatever Apple ends up calling the next generation iPhone), concept designs are once again starting to pop up. This one comes from designer Antonio De Rosa, who created the above iPhone concept and has given it the title of iPhone SJ, as it is Steve Jobs inspired. He imagines it having an A6 processor, a 10 MP camera, and a polycarbonate body. I don't particularly feel that an A6 processor or a better camera are out of the question for the next iPhone.

I don't think polycarbonate would be a bad choice for the body as it's extremely lightweight. It would allow Apple to create an even larger device and subtract weight. I'm not sure I would want a larger screen as that has its disadvantages too. Overall, I think the design is great but I'm not sold on Apple making a larger screen that would inhibit one-handed use. You can visit ADR Studio's site for more images of his design.

Source: ADR Studio

A newly discovered timestamp security bug may leave your iOS device photos exposed regardless of whether or not your device is passcode locked. Ade Barkah, a Canadian tech consultant, has figured out that changing the time on your device will leave any photo taken in the "future" accessible via the quick camera toggle on the home screen.

The quick toggle is a new feature in iOS 5 that allows you to double tap your home button to access your camera app. From there you can tap into your image gallery. If your device is passcode locked, you will receive a message asking you to unlock your device to view photos. Unless you change the time on your device. Anything taken after that time stamp will be viewable as the phone will assume nothing exists after that point in time.

Turns out Apple’s restriction is just a simple filter based on the timestamp when the Camera app was invoked. You’re allowed to see all images with a timestamp greater than this invocation time. Yet that leads to an immediate hole: if your iPhone’s clock ever rolls back, then all images with timestamps newer than your iPhone’s clock will be viewable from your locked phone.

This could be a potential issue for anyone that travels frequently or has a need to change timezones. You can test this by simply changing the time and popping into your quick toggle even when the device is locked. Better get to deleting those inappropriate pictures!

Source: Peekay.org via CNET

ChangeWave has come out with a new survey polling customer satisfaction among new iPhone 4S owners, showing an overwhelming 96% satisfaction rating and propelling the iPhone 4S into "nosebleed territory".

Overall satisfaction with the iPhone 4S showed 77% of users being Very Satisfied and 19% being Somewhat Satisfied, compared to 72% and 21% respectively for the iPhone 4 that launched in 2010.

When asked about which features were enjoyed most in the iPhone 4S, users pointed to Siri as the big seller, and 'general ease of use' coming in second at 39%. The beefed up 8MP camera was also a big seller (33%), but interestingly enough, Apple's new iCloud service came up at just 19%.

In terms of dissatisfaction, users pegged battery life being too short as a big drawback in the 4S, although Apple has been hard at work investigating the issue. Additionally, the lack of 4G support was a downer for some users (30%), but that shouldn't be an issue next year. When looking at dropped calls, the iPhone 4S compared well against its predecessor with only 2.5% of calls dropped compared to 5.2% in July under the iPhone 4.

Overall, it seems that most iPhone 4S users are pretty happy with their purchase despite some battery life hiccups, but it's clear the positives far outweigh the negatives here. How satisfied are you with your new iPhone 4S?

Source: ChangeWave

Belkin has announced its LiveAction Camera Grip and Camera Remote accessories for the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 and iPod touch. We already knew that the Camera Remote was in the pipeline however the Camera Grip is something new and quite unique. Both accessories can only be used with Belkin’s LiveAction app which is available in the App Store.

The Camera Grip is designed to make your device feel more like a traditional camera. It features a grip that attaches to the dock connector and even fits over the top of most cases. This offers an easier way to hold your iPhone as well as offering dedicated buttons to shoot photographs and capture video. The grip also has a built in tripod mount that works with any standard tripod.

The Camera Remote is a Bluetooth enabled remote camera shutter. It has the ability to remotely initiate the iPhone or iPod touch camera shutter from up to 30 feet away. Again it has two buttons, one to control the camera and the other for video capture. The Camera Remote also comes with a stand to prop up your device to obtain the best angle for your shots.

Each of the new accessories will cost $49.99.

• Order the Belkin LiveAction Camera Grip from Amazon now

Camera+, the popular photography iPhone app has been updated to include VolumeSnap, the ability to trigger the camera's shutter with the volume buttons - again.

Last year, tap tap tap submitted a version of Camera+ that included VolumeSnap and Apple rejected it. Then tap tap tap tweeted about a hidden easter egg that would turn on the feature with the then-current version. Apple got wind of it and removed Camera+ from the App Store entirely.

Months later, Camera+ was allowed back into the App Store and Apple also also brought the functionality of VolumeSnap to iOS 5. Now, Apple has accepted the update for Camera+ that includes VolumeSnap.

VolumeSnap is back, beyotches!!

Even without VolumeSnap, Camera+ is quite a fantastic photo editing app. One of my favorite features is the ability to expose separately from focus.

Camera+ is available on the iPhone and on sale for $0.99.

[App Store link]

Have an app you'd love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

Turns out there's a way to enable that as-yet unsurfaced iOS 5 panorama mode in the Camera app without having to Jailbreak -- though you do have to be comfortable opening up iPhone backup files, editing plists, and restoring the modified backup. It's not difficult mind you, just a little be of time and effort.

If you're itching to get your tinker on, hit the link below for all the details.

Source: Funky Space Monkey via 9to5Mac

iPhone hacker @conradev has found a way to enable the "secret" panorama mode within the iOS 5 camera app. At the moment, you can only enable it on a jailbroken iPhone by tweaking a plist file, com.apple.mobileslideshow.plist, and setting 'EnableFirebreak' to YES, but an easy-to-use hack should appear on Cydia at some point tomorrow.

Don't worry, if you're not on #ATeamJailbreak -- hopefully Apple will officially enable Panorama Mode in an iOS 5.1 or iOS 5.2 update at some point in the not-so-distant future.

Source: Twitter

Belkin is set to release a remote camera shutter controller for the iPhone according to information found in an FCC filing. The small accessory will work over a Bluetooth connection to your iPhone and it can activate the camera shutter or trigger video recording remotely.

The camera remote is set to work exclusively with Belkin’s LiveAction app which is already available in the App Store. The camera remote will also come with a detachable iPhone stand to enable you to prop up your iPhone at various angles to capture the best shot. It could come in very handy if you like to take group photographs that you also wish to be included in. This would be a much better option than rushing around after setting the camera's self timer.

There is no information as to when this may be released or any pricing information at this stage. We will let you know as soon as we hear anything more.

Source: FCC via Engadget

Apple has released 3 more iPhone 4S commercials, a second on Siri along with one focusing on the new 8mp, 1080p camera, and one on iCloud.

• iCloud highlights automatic iTunes Music downloads across devices, Documents in the Cloud propagating updates, iBooks bookmarks copying themselves from iPhone to iPad, and Photo Stream taking the pictures from iPhone and popping them into iPhoto.

• Camera shows the fast camera access from the Home screen, pinch-to-digitally-zoom, on-device cropping and red-eye removal, and Twitter integration.

• Siri focuses on "what does may day look like", pulling up the day's appointments, "can I walk to the Belvedere Hotel from here", pulling up Maps and directions, "read me that text", reading the last last SMS message, and "do you think it will snow today", bringing up the Weather app.

All of this, of course, "on the most amazing iPhone yet". Check them out below.

Source: YouTube

Camera+ has thrown together some great comparison photos depicting just how much the iPhone camera has improved over the years.

The comparison photos really speak for themselves, and the difference is especially noticeable with the iPhone 4S photos when compared to older models. They even go on to compare with more expensive DSLR cameras for reference. As expected, from the original iPhone to the latest iPhone 4S model, the camera quality has obviously improved immensely.

Feel free to drop into our iPhone 4S pictures forum for even more evidence of how well the iPhone 4S camera performs.

Source: Camera+

JOBY GorillaMobile

• iDUSCRAFT

Complements of JOBY! To see the other entries and to share some of your great photos, head on over to our forums.

Jawbone JAMBOX

• Munchkinsdad

Skyfire Web Browser

• giriz
• Himoe04
• Matthew G.
• Kharib126
• Ncasazza2002

Steve Jobs biography

• The God of Thunder
• Mitch
• crateish
• Link2012
• kathy

More chances to win

• Want a FREE Jawbone ERA headset from TiPb?
• LifeProof case for the iPhone 4S review [giveaway]
• App Giveaway: iDownloader Pro
• App Giveaway: ReaddleDocs for iPad
• App Giveaway: TouchBase Calendar for iPhone
• App Giveaway: The Early Edition 2 for iPad
• App Giveaway: DM1 – The Drum Machine
• New and updated iPhone and iPad apps for Monday, October 17 [giveaway]
• App Giveaway: iQuick Tweet

Trying to figure out how to take a high quality self-portrait with the iPhone, and the low-quality front-facing VGA camera just isn't cutting it? One of the new features of iOS 5 is the ability to trigger the iPhone's rear facing camera with the Volume Up button, and that means it's easier than ever to get the perfect self-portrait. Here's how:

1. Launch Camera app
2. If the front facing camera is activated, tap the rotating camera icon in the top right corner
3. For best results, put the iPhone in your right hand and turn it around
4. Hold the phone out from your body while positioning your thumb over the Volume Up button. The iPhone's camera has a wide enough angle that it is not necessary to stretch out your arm completely. You may want to bend your arm a little so that the inside part of your elbow on your outstretched arm and does not appear in the photo.
5. Look directly into the lens and smile (or not)
6. Press the volume up button

If there's a mirror near by, you can even see what the camera is seeing on the screen and adjust accordingly.

Bonus Tip: If you're wearing headphones with volume control, you can hit the volume up button on them instead.

There you go! Now you're all set to take the perfect self-portrait! You can say goodbye to the grainy, front-facing VGA camera and only use the rear facing camera.

Now go snap some pics and update your Facebook and Twitter profile pics!

Thanks to the quick Camera access and power of Siri as a virtual assistant, iOS 5 and iPhone 4S are more convenient than ever -- but they also leave you open to everything from pranks to data theft. We've talked about this extensively on the iPhone Live podcast but it's worth repeating here.

Double clicking the Home button and tapping the Camera icon bypasses a Passcode Lock and instantly lets you take pictures. You can't access anything else, but if you leave your iPhone unattended, a friend or passerby can easily prank you by taking an inappropriate picture (from innocuous "funny faces" to to full on "junk attacks" -- don't ask.) If you have Photo Stream enabled, that prank picture can quickly propagate to all your other iOS devices, your PC, and your Apple TV, and the only way to remove it is to delete the entire stream.

You can't currently disable the fast Camera access. You can disable Photo Stream by going to Settings, iCloud, and toggling Photo Stream to Off.

Holding down the Home button to activate Siri also bypasses the Passcode Lock, and while Siri is prohibited from doing things like deleting contacts or performing web searches without the lock code being entered, Siri can still call numbers, delete alarms, and perform other tasks unencumbered. If someone knows a contact's name, they can get access to their email address(es), phone number(s), etc. Even if they don't know a contact's name, because relationships can be set, they can simple ask for "mom" or "boss" and get the data that way.

Friends and strangers alike can also prank you by telling Siri to address you by some funny or rude name.

You can disable Siri's Passcode bypass. Go to Settings, General, Passcode Lock and flip the Siri toggle to Off.

Convenience and security are always at opposite ends of any feature list. Each individual has to decide for themselves how much convenience they want and how much security they're willing to give up for it. (Some people choose to not even use a Passcode Lock, after all.)

Disabling Siri's Passcode bypass reduces its speed and ease of use but increases its security. You can't just hold a button and start talking to have Siri take an email, for example, while you're driving. You have to enter the unlock code first, and perhaps each time depending on your settings.

Unfortunately, Camera access and Photo Stream need to wait for Apple to provide an easy off-toggle, and a way to delete individual pictures from the stream. Disabling Photo Stream contains any pranks, but means you lose the backup and multi-device replication of the feature.

In the meantime, the best practice is, of course, to never leave your iPhone unattended, especially around people you don't know -- or people you can't trust not to prank you.

Just switch over to iPhone from BlackBerry or Android and wondering how to get an LED notification for new messages? While it's not quite the same things, with iOS 5 on the iPhone 4S or iPhone 4, you can take advantage of your camera flash as an indicator. If you find yourself missing messages due to not hearing the sounds, or would rather skip the noises and just see a light, check out a few simple steps to get yourself going.

1. Open your settings and scroll down to Accessibility.
2. Scroll to the middle and look for LED Flash for Alerts, and switch to on.

Just like that you can now take advantage of utilizing your LED from your camera as a message indicator for new incoming messages. Luckily you can easily switch the options off and on easily while on the go, so if you want to turn it off at any point you can without an issue.

Daily Tips range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Full review of Apple's 2011 iPhone 4S: Faster, better camera, smarter antenna, and Siri

iPhone 4S is minor spec bump over last year's iPhone 4. Except it's not. It's a full on assault of the senses, with eyes, ears, and feel far beyond any previous mobile device. Yes, the hardware bumps specs to be certain -- faster chipset, better camera -- but it's what Apple's iOS 5 software and iCloud services do with that hardware that makes iPhone 4S so compelling, including one feature in particular that makes it the biggest leap forward in mainstream computer interfaces since multitouch on the original iPhone -- Siri.

It's fast, the antenna is rock solid, the camera is amazingly good, and Siri just might be the next big leap forward computer interfaces.	It's the same design as last year, including the glass backing, which may rankle potential buyers who'd hoped for a change.
Apple has produced an incredibly compelling upgrade from feature phones, and the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. iPhone 4 owners have little reason to upgrade unless speed, camera, or Siri are unusually important to them.

Previously on iMore

iPhone 4S is the 5th generation iPhone, and one of three models on the market for 2011. While an incredible amount has changed, there are still a lot of features that have carried over from years past. Here, then, are those reviews.

• White iPhone 4 review (May 2011)
• Verizon iPhone 4 Review (February 2011)
• AT&T/GSM iPhone 4 Review (June 2010)
• iPhone 3GS review (June 2010)

iPhone 4S hardware

From the outside, the iPhone 4S looks almost identical to the iPhone 4. It's the same iconic shape, the same Braun- and Leica-inspired slab of glass and stainless steel. It may no longer be as fresh as it was when it debuted some 16 months ago, but it's still among the best designed and certainly the best built hardware on the market. It's also just as fragile, with chemically treated glass on both front and back, and an exposed antenna array all along the sides.

There are some small, subtle differences between iPhone 4S and iPhone 4. They're both 0.37 inches (9.3 mm) thin at 4.5 inches (115.2 mm) high and 2.31 inches (58.6 mm) wide but iPhone 4S is just a tad heavier at 4.9 ounces (140 grams). That's 0.1 ounces (3 grams) heavier than the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS.

Like the original AT&T/GSM iPhone 4, all iPhone 4S models have a microSIM tray. Like the later Verizon iPhone 4, the iPhone 4S has symmetrically aligned gaps in the external antenna array -- two on both sides.

All the buttons and ports are where you'd expect them. 3.5mm headset, noise-canceling mic, sleep/wake button, microSIM card slot (even on CDMA models, see below), speaker, 30-pin dock connector, phone mic, volume up and down buttons, and the ring/silent switch. On the front, below the screen there's still a home button. Above the screen is the ear speaker and the VGA camera. On the back is the LED flash and the new 8 megapixel still, 1080p video camera.

Sensors also remain the same, with aGPS, a digital compass, ambient light, proximity, accelerometer, and gyroscope.

Design evolution

While iPhone 4S is the 5th generation iPhone, it's only the 3rd major casing design in the product's history. Here it is compared to the original iPhone (2007) and the iPhone 3GS (2009).

8 megapixel, 1080p camera

Apple chose not to improve the front-facing iPhone camera. Even though Macs have gone to FaceTime HD in 1280x720 (720p), iPhone 4S remains disappointingly 640x480 (VGA).

The rear-facing camera is another story entirely. It's been increased to 8 megapixels and is capable of recording 1920x1080 (1080p) video. Apple has also improved the backlight sensor, added an f/2.4, wide angle lens to capture as much light and picture as possible, and added an extra piece of glass into the assembly to increase sharpness. There's also an infrared filter to improve colors, face detection for better exposure and focus on portraits, and image stabilization to keep your videos from shaking.

We asked our app editor and resident photographer, Leanna Lofte to put it to the test.

• Complete iPhone 4S 8 megapixel camera review
• Complete iPhone 4S 1080p video review
• iPhone 4S photography examples

Overall, the iPhone 4S did a phenomenal job with landscapes, especially considering the broad range of lights and darks. With HDR (high dynamic range) enabled, the results were excellent. The f/2.4 lens lacks manual controls but handles motion far better than last year's iPhone 4.

Face detection works impressively well, even when the subject is moving around and the face partially obscured. The improved backlight sensor does far better in low-light situations, capturing shots that were impossible with iPhone 4.

Macro photography, however, proved to be more of a challenge. They look great if focus locks on, but often the iPhone 4S fails to lock focus. This might be an iOS 5 issue, and if so, hopefully Apple will fix it in a future update.

The 5x digital zoom and flash are serviceable if you really need them, but are really only useful when you have no other options.

For video, the iPhone 4S 1080p camera did a terrific job adjusting between shade and light, though under bright backlighting the video remained slightly underexposed. Image stabilization worked well for walking and panning but couldn't compensate for more extreme motion like running.

Low-light was better than iPhone 4 but wasn't great. There was visible grain, and image stabilization didn't work as well in low light conditions, but iPhone 4S' ability to compensate for color distortion was impressive and a huge improvement over iPhone 4. Again, macro video was incredibly sharp but iPhone 4S had trouble locking focus on very thin objects.

Apple has also focused on reducing the time it takes to get your photo or video. You can now double click the home button and tap a new Camera button right on the lock screen to go directly to the Camera app (bypassing Passcode Locks, so beware of pranks if you leave it unattended). You can now also take photos with the Volume Up button. The time it takes the shutter screen to "open" -- previously a area of frustration -- is also dramatically faster. And, according to Apple, a dedicated Image Signal Processing chip speeds up picture taking, with the first photo taking only 1.1 seconds and subsequent photos taking only 0.5 seconds.

Overall, for impromptu, casual photo and video taking, low end point-and-shoots have just been made redundant. Even for special occasions, vacations and other events, non-photographers and non-videographers can realistically rely on an iPhone 4S and be well served. Apple has done a terrific job here, giving iPhone 4S an incredible new eye.

Antenna and reception

If iPhone 4 had an achilles heel it was the external antenna band. At 5 bars, touching the right antenna junction could drop it down to 3. At 1 or 2 bars, it could literally became a network pause-play button. Yes, the mainstream media blew it completely out of proportion, and a case made it go away completely, but it was a flaw.

And Apple has addressed it by adding a second antenna and giving the iPhone 4S the ability to intelligently switch between the two to make sure reception is more reliable, more often. It also doubles the previous HSPA 7.2 speed to 14.4 Mbps.

• iPhone 4S intelligently switching antenna hands on

The new Qualcomm RTR8605 chipset is technically HSPA+, but doesn't include the much faster HSPA+ 21 or 42 Mbps data speeds. So data is faster if not dramatically so. In most areas those top speeds remain theoretical anyway, but it's a shame people who can get them, can't get them with iPhone 4S.

For CMDA users on Verizon and Sprint, none of this matters anyway, because iPhone 4S is still stuck on the 3 Mbps EV-DO rev A network, with all the limitations that come with it. These will likely only be overcome in 2012 or beyond, when LTE 4G (Long Term Evolution) chipsets are thin and energy efficient enough to meet Apple's requirements.

However, the new Qualcomm chipset does support dual-mode CDMA/GSM. That makes it a world-phone, and means if you travel outside the US you can roam on international GSM carriers. Verizon and Sprint may even unlock the GSM radio for you, if you're a good enough customer and ask nicely enough. Then you can use a local microSIM when you travel and avoid paying data roaming altogether.

Even so, you can't switch between Sprint and Verizon, or put in an AT&T SIM and have it just work. The carriers are still locking that down. (Time will tell if the Jailbreak community can set it free.)

Here are the supported bands:

• UMTS/HSPA at 850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz
• GSM/EDGE at 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
• CDMA/EV-DO Rev. A at 800, 1900 MHz

The AWS 1700 MHz band used by T-Mobile the USA, and Wind, Videotron, and others carriers in Canada, is still missing. That means T-Mobile is now the last major carrier in the US without an iPhone to offer, and it means that if you do run an unlocked iPhone 4S on T-Mobile US, it can still only run on the old, slow EDGE 2G network.

Wi-Fi has stayed the same as last year, with 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi. The 802.11n also remains 2.4GHz only. The Bluetooth radio on the other hand has gotten a boost and now supports Bluetooth 4.0, which offers lower power consumption and lower latency.

Speaker and mics

Every year we hope the inventor of the iPod will put a decent mic and speaker system into the iPhone, and every year we get made fun of by BlackBerry, and more recently, Android Beats users.

While there haven't been any audio announcements by Apple, or stage demos by Apple executives similar to the kind afforded the optics, iPhone 4S does show real signs of improvement. The speaker is louder and clearer, making it easier to do hands-free calls.

The noise canceling mic does an excellent job in keeping both phone conversations and Siri voice commands functioning even in busy, noisy rooms.

And the vibration motor, which has reportedly been redone in a linear rather than rotational arrangement, is less annoying when it goes off, yet every bit as noticeable.

Audiophiles might still be waiting for Phil Schiller to give them the attention photographers got this year, but for average users the sound is an improvement.

Apple A5 System-on-a-chip

The iPhone 4S gets the dual core Apple A5 system-on-a-chip (SoC) that was first introduced last spring alongside the iPad 2. Reportedly based on ARM's Cortex A9 central processing unit with Imagination's PowerVR SGX 543MP2 graphics processing unit, Apple will only say it provides 2x the computing power and 7x the graphics power of iPhone 4. This lets it power everything from AirPlay Mirroring to the Siri virtual assistant.

Doing bigger things isn't the only point, however. Doing more smaller things faster makes a difference as well. Launching apps, rendering and scrolling through web pages, playing games -- all these things are palpably faster. Near-instant, in fact. You'll feel it right away, and if you ever go back to an older iPhone or smartphone, you'll miss it immediately.

Interestingly, Apple's stuck with the same 512MB of RAM for the A5. While competing phones are sporting 1GB these days, Apple seems to believe they don't need more RAM for better performance, or perhaps don't need the potential tradeoff in power consumption. Given the immediateness of its feel and its ability to keep a large amount of everything from web pages to apps in ready and available, it's hard to argue. Still, developers will keep pushing the silicon and it would have been interesting to see what 1GB would have let iOS 5 games achieve.

Battery power

With the monstrous new Apple A5 SoC, and demanding new features like location-based Reminders and voice-crunching Siri, battery life should be a legitimate concern. Apple impressively claims very little change from the iPhone 4, though standby time seems to have taken a very large hit (down 33%).

• 3G talk time: 8 hours
• 2G talk time: 14 hours
• Web browsing: 6 hours
• Video watching: 10 hours
• Audio listening: 40 hours

In our tests it's hard to get a handle on. Reminders, Siri, and the other new features are so useful you end up using them more often, which leads to faster battery drain. If you stop using them (or turn them off in the Settings app), the battery seems just below iPhone 4 standards, but you lose out on all that great functionality.

If you charge frequently you can enjoy the best of both worlds, a phone doing what you need with power enough to do it when you need it. If you can't get to power, you'll have to moderate your usage.

We'll keep an eye on battery life going forward and update.

Accessory compatibility

While iPhone 4S is almost identical to iPhone 4, it's that almost that can get you. Depending on how well a manufacturer followed Apple's tolerance guidelines, most iPhone 4 cases should fit iPhone 4S, with Verizon iPhone 4 compatible cases likely providing the best fit. If in doubt, check into the specific case you want and ask about iPhone 4S compatibility. Here are some examples.

• TiPb iPhone 4S Accessory Store
• Amazon iPhone 4S Accessories

Sticker skins, cables, chargers, and headsets should all be compatible, and with better Bluetooth support, track information and other features should be better than ever before.

Likewise, the iPhone 4S gets not only the iPad 2's AirPlay Mirroring feature to get content to Apple TV and onto the big screen, but is compatible with the HDMI out Digital AV Adapter as well.

iPhone 4S Software

iPhone 4S ships with iOS 5, Apple's fifth generation mobile operating system and arguably the biggest update in the history of the platform. It includes features like unobtrusive Notifications, iMessage, Twitter integration, and a location aware Reminders app. Check out our massive write up on all the new features:

• Complete iOS 5 feature walkthrough

iCloud

iCloud isn't unique to iPhone 4S but it's launching at the same time and for the first time it makes online services and integral part of iOS. From eWorld to .Mac to MobileMe, Apple's previous Internet history has been one of high price and relatively low adoption. iCloud aims to change all that by not only being free, but far more functional than ever before.

We included iCloud in our iOS walkthrough, linked above, but here are the highlights:

• PC Free. iPhone 4S is the first iOS device you can take straight from the box and activate and setup with out ever plugging it in to a Mac or Windows PC. Backups and restores can likewise be done on-device and without a PC, and iCloud will also handle software updates over the air as they become available.
• Documents in the Cloud. For any app that supports it, like Apple's own iWork productivity suite of Numbers, Pages, and Keynote, any file created on one device -- iOS or Mac OS X -- will be effortlessly stored up on iCloud and pushed down to every other device.
• iTunes in the Cloud. Previously applicable only to App Store apps and games, in regions where Apple has secured the licensing, you can now also re-download previously purchased music, and in some areas, even TV shows to your iPhone 4S.
• Find my iPhone, Find my Friends. While Apple has been letting you track your iOS devices for a while, now you can also share location with your friends, either persistently or temporarily. Privacy controls are friend by friend, time restrictions down to the hour, and a kill switch is always on hand.
• Photo Stream keeps the last 30 days or 1,000 images available on all your iOS devices, and all your iCloud-enabled images backed up in iPhoto or Aperture on the Mac (but not both at the same time). Other than deleting the stream or logging out, however, there's no way to delete potentially awkward or embarrassing images -- or stop them from appearing as your Apple TV screen saver, for example. So shooter beware.
• Mail, contacts, calendars. Previously the largest part of MobileMe, Apple @me.com accounts can now be created on, or converted to, iCloud accounts. (Sadly, there's still no way to combine multiple accounts, for example MobileMe, iTunes, FaceTime, etc.)
• iTunes Match. Apple's music locker service, while announced, is not yet publicly available. When launched, it will scan your iTunes desktop library and, for $25 a year, make it available to you via iCloud -- in 256 bit ACC if it's part of iTunes massive collection.

All in all, iCloud seems to be a solid foundation for Apple. It's limited and has some flaws, like most first generation offerings. Hopefully it will grow to provide easier multi-device sync for things like game scores, and hopefully webOS-style Synergy services where multiple data types can be independently pulled, stored in separate silos, but presented in both single and combined views for users.

AirPlay Mirroring

AirPlay mirroring lets the iPhone 4S share it’s screen -- any screen on any app -- with the Apple TV over Wi-Fi. Since the Apple TV is designed to be plugged into an HDTV, this means you get your iPhone 4S content on the big screen.

While on the surface AirPlay mirroring might not seem like a major feature, it takes the personal, intimate experience of everything from gaming to FaceTime and makes it social. A keynote presentation projected in the boardroom or a group of friends playing a board game around the TV are just some of the obvious uses. Companies like Firemint are continuing to push the envelope as well, with concepts like multiple-device-to-Apple-TV Party Play. That's where iPhone 4S becomes a controller, and iOS starts to become a serious threat to traditional consoles in the casual space.

Siri

Siri is a natural language interface for iOS that combines powerful voice recognition (rumored to be powered by industry leader Nuance) and synthesized speech with an artificially intelligent query and response engine designed to become your “virtual assistant”. It replaces the previous Voice Control feature introduced with iOS 3 on the iPhone 3GS.

Siri is also the single biggest feature of the iPhone 4S. The speed is impressive, the camera a remarkable eye, but the voice and ear of Siri is what could define the next generation of computer interfaces. While that may sound hyperbolic, it's no more so than when Apple mainstreamed command line interfaces with the Apple II, mice and windows with the Mac, or multitouch with the original iPhone. All were derided as "toys" by those who lacked vision or merely disliked the idea of democratizing technology.

If Siri were simply a voice control and dictation system, like Android has had for a while, or like apps such as Vlingo or Nuance itself have previously made available on a variety of platforms, including iOS, that would be one thing. But Apple has imbued it with an almost Pixar-like humanity, a personality that while unmistakably artificial is also undeniably charming and engaging. That's probably why Apple, atypically, didn't rename Siri after purchasing the company behind it. Asking Siri a question creates a connection that would be far more difficult to achieve with a nameless "assistant" app.

Siri understands context. It understands relationships. It understands a smiley face. It can joke, even if canned. It makes you feel, for the first time, like you can have a conversation with your computer. You can ask Siri to tell your mother you're running late and it will address an iMessage. You can ask Siri to wake you up in 15 minutes and it will set an alarm. You can ask Siri to find you breakfast and it will search for local restaurants. You can ask Siri for the cast of the movie you're watching and it will query Wolfram Alpha. You can ask Siri her favorite color, and she'll tell you. She'll even present widgets, unique to her interface, if you prefer to tap than to reply.

Siri is activated by pressing and holding down the Home button, or by bringing the iPhone 4S up and to your ear, like you would to make a phone call. You can activate the dictations feature alone by tapping the new microphone button on the system-wide keyboard.

Siri is, of course, by no means perfect. It's still in beta with limited language and even more limited location support. Siri's voice is female in the US and male in the UK and you can't alter that (unless you alter the region and your accent). Siri relies on servers that sometimes seem to be struggling to keep up with demand. There could be a customer insight play behind it. And, like humans or Pixar characters, it's fallible and frustrating at times. It makes mistakes, and it tries to "learn" going forward.

Also, Settings can't be toggle by Siri yet; there's no turn on/off Wi-Fi or Airplane mode. It can't launch apps to update your Facebook status or get you back into a game. It can't plug into the camera for Google Goggle's type searches, or into Apple's Faces technology to find a photo of your child. Siri is at her beginning, but it's a beginning that we've only ever seen in Star Trek. And that's exciting.

Apps and games

iPhone 4S is compatible with all the hundreds of thousands of iPhone apps contained in Apple's iTunes App Store. It's still not ideal -- there remain no upgrades, no demos, and Apple as single curator sets itself up as both bottleneck and -- though increasingly infrequently -- rejector of all apps on the platform.

With the power of the Apple A5 GPU, however, games have never looked better, and with the functionality of iCloud, apps have never been more useful. So while the app and game count remains the same, the potential has never been better.

• Complete TiPb app and game coverage
• Top 5 app and game lists

iOS also remains the most web app-friendly platform in mobile, with an incredibly powerful HTML 5 rendering engine and fast Nitro JavaScript engine now available within Safari, embedded Web Views, and web apps saved to the Home Page.

Accessibility

Apple finished the iPhone 4 FaceTime video by showing a deaf person signing to a loved one. Apple finished the iPhone 4S Siri video by showing a blind person replying to a message through voice alone. They've also added custom vibration alerts, AssistiveTouch gestures, and other features. I'd be hard pressed to think of another company in consumer electronics doing as much to increase accessibility as Apple. They once again deserves a ton of praise for continuing to make this a priority.

Pricing and Availability

iPhone 4S is getting the widest, fastest distribution in Apple's mobile history. Starting October 14 in the US, Canada, Japan, France, Australia, and Germany, it will spread to over 70 regions by the end of 2011.

As always, Apple kept the pricing the same as previous years, offering more phone for the same money. This year, however, they've added a 64GB model for $399 on contract. And, while last year's iPhone 4 drops down to 8GB and $99 on contract, they've taken the unprecedented step of keeping the 2009 iPhone 3GS on the market, also at 8GB, but at $0 on contract. That's an iPhone at every price point from nothing to four hundred. No umbrella indeed.

Apple has also added Sprint as a carrier in the US, making it the 2nd CDMA carrier after Verizon.

• Sprint iPhone 4S review

They're also shipping the white model day and date.

Should you upgrade or cross-grade?

Overall, if you're thinking about upgrading from a feature phone or an iPhone 3GS or earlier model iPhone, do it. You'll be getting a spectacularly improved experience and feature set. If you're thinking about upgrading from an iPhone 4, then you need to make sure the major new features -- speed, camera, antenna, and/or Siri -- are compelling enough to warrant the cost. For most mainstream consumers, they won't be. For gadget lovers or geeks, you've likely already found a reason to justify it.

If you're thinking of crossing over from webOS, you should also do it. Now that Sprint is available and HP is floundering, iPhone 4S is a great choice. For BlackBerry lovers and Android aficionados, if you're not tired and ready for a change, wait and see what RIM's new QNX/BBX superphones and Google's Ice Cream Sandwich powered Galaxy Nexus-lead generation brings to the table.

Either way, here's some help in deciding which, if any, iPhone is for you:

• Should you get an iPhone 4S?
• Spec Wars: iPhone 4S vs. Samsung Galaxy S II vs. BlackBerry Bold 9900 vs. HTC Titan vs. Pre3
• iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, or iPhone 3GS: Which should you get?
• AT&T vs. Verizon vs. Sprint: Which iPhone 4S should you choose?
• Verizon and Sprint iPhone 4S and the limitations of CDMA
• 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB: Which iPhone 4S capacity should you get?
• Black or white: Which iPhone 4S color should you choose?

If you do decide to go with an iPhone 4S, here's some help getting started.

• iPhone 4S glossary
• How to setup your new iPhone 4S
• How to transfer your data over from your old iPhone to your new iPhone 4S
• How to transfer your data over from your old Android, BlackBerry, webOS or Windows Phone to your new iPhone
• iOS 5 for iPhone and iPad walkthrough
• Top 10 best tips and tricks for new iPhone owners
• Top 10 best apps for new iPhone owners
• iPhone Live! podcasts (with video!)

Conclusion

iPhone 4S may be evolutionary hardware, faster than iPhone 4, with a better camera and more resilient antenna, but iPhone 4 was a great phone and iPhone 4S is even greater. While the design remains one of the best in the industry, it also remains unchanged. If you like Apple's aesthetic, then you'll be very happy. If not -- if you would have preferred a larger screen or physical keyboard or a greater amount of standard ports -- than Apple has done nothing here to win you over, and likely won't ever on most of those counts.

In terms of software, almost everything about iOS 5 feels broader and better, and not only more functional, but more personal and more tactile as well. Apple has added more granular levels of control to things like Location Services and Data Storage, so you can keep private what you want to keep private and delete what you want to delete. They’ve also added more direct touch manipulation to the UI in Calendar and Mail, so the interactions are viscerally intuitive. At the same time they’ve increased the social, sharing aspects of iOS with services like AirPlay and apps like Find My Friends. It’s a clever balance. So is the interface, which Apple has kept as easy for novice users as it was in iOS 1 in 2007, and yet added ever greater layers of complexity for power users, including Fast App Switcher in 2010 and Notifications in 2011. For my sister, an iPhone makes calls, plays music, and takes photos. For me it can increasingly do almost anything.

Again, I can't help but come back to Steve Jobs, the man whose vision and singular will drove Apple to create the future of consumer electronics, device by device, app by app, culminating in the iPhone 4S announced just a day before his passing.

Like Jobs did, it stands at the juncture of technology and liberal arts, powerful and yet accessible, capable and yet beautiful, incremental new hardware brought to life by ambitious new software.

It's certainly not the device for everybody, but increasingly the iPhone is the device for most people.

• Our podcast feed
• Download Directly
• Subscribe via iTunes

Rene, Seth, Leanna, and Matthew from TheNextWeb.com talk Cingleton, iOS 5 redux, and then dive into iPhone 4S, the launch, Siri, that new camera, and the Apple A5 chipset. This is iPhone 4S Live!

Meta

• Cingleton

iOS 5 recap

• TNW Review: A complete guide to Apple’s iOS 5 with iCloud, an OS 14 years in the making
• iOS 5 for iPhone and iPad walkthrough

Sponsor

• Visit Hover for 10% off your next domain registration

iPhone 4S

• Complete TiPb coverage
• Complete The Next Web coverage

Hosts

Sponsor

Thank you to Hover for sponsoring this week's iPhone Live. We've used Hover to register the domain names for ZENandTECH.tv, Iterate.tv, and Superfunctional.tv, among others. Clean, clear, and civilized, give them a try and you won't look back. To support iPhone Live and for 10% off your next domain, visit http://www.hover.com/tipb.

Credits

Our music comes from the following sources:

• I Called You -- iPhone Remix by Pete Leidy
via Sneakmove iPhone Ringtone Challenge

One of the new features of the iPhone 4S is an 8 megapixel camera equipped with a fast f/2.4 lens. Without question, this was the feature I was most excited about, and I almost immediately started snapping pics.

For sample photos and a summary of my thoughts, follow along after the break! (All photos are original; none have been edited in any way beyond being resized to fit the page.)

Landscapes

The iPhone 4S does a phenomenal job with landscapes. These have the potential of being tricky for cameras because of the broad range of lights and darks, but even with HDR turned off, the iPhone 4S produces great results. The two photos above were taken without use of HDR.

HDR

That leads us to HDR. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and refers to the range between the darkest part of the photo and the brightest part of the photo. Camera sensors can only record so much of this range, so if a photo's dynamic range is too big, darks will be too dark and brights will be too bright. With HDR enabled, however, the iPhone 4S will take two photos, one exposed for the darks, and one exposed for the brights, and merge them together as one photo.

The photos above, although not the most interesting of subjects, does a great job of demonstrating the capabilities of the iPhone 4S HDR. The first photo was exposing for the shade, and thus blew out the sky. With HDR turned on, both the shade and sky look good.

Movement

Since the iPhone 4S is equipped with an f/2.4 lens, it has the ability to let in more light and speed up the shutter speed. Theoretically, this would mean that the iPhone 4S should do a better job of freezing motion. Without having full control of the settings, however, this can be hard to achieve.

In the end, I'm impressed with how the iPhone 4S handles motion. The above pic does have a little motion blur, especially on my face, but it's not too bad. Below is a picture of my daughter that I took while she was bouncing up and down. On the iPhone 4, it would have never come out that clear.

Face Detection

The iPhone 4S now has the ability detect faces and use them as the focus and exposure point. It works great! I was impressed with how it recognized my daughter's face even when she was moving around or when I was taking a profile shot with only one eye visible.

Macro

The Macro capabilities of the iPhone 4S camera are very impressive - when it can lock a focus, that is. Unfortunately, I was continually disappointed with the iPhone 4S's inability to focus. I understand for objects that are very tiny and blend in with the background, but the camera even struggled with focusing on larger items that stood out from the background, like in the following image.

Digital Zoom

First of all, it's important to emphasize that the iPhone 4S is equipped with a 5x digital zoom, not optical zoom. The difference is that the lens is not capable of zooming, but the software is. So using the digital zoom on the iPhone 4S is equivalent to taking the photo without the zoom and cropping it. This greatly reduces the quality of the photo and there are very few situations where you would want to use the digital zoom.

However, since the iPhone 4S has been upgraded to an 8 megapixel camera, there is an improvement to the digital zoom over the iPhone 4. The first photo above was taken with 0x zoom and the second one was taken with 5x zoom. You can see obvious damage done to the quality of the image, but it is, admittedly, better than I was expecting. I also believe that this is an example of a situation where you might want to use the digital zoom if you wanted to, say, show your kids a picture of the duck you saw earlier in the day.

Low Light

The iPhone 4 has a great camera, but it was always lacking in low light situations. I was very excited to test out the iPhone 4S in low light since it's equipped with an f/2.4 lens and better sensor. I am definitely impressed with the improvement. My living room has the worst lighting on the planet and I could never get a decent photo of my daughter with the iPhone 4 while indoors at night. But with the iPhone 4S, I was able to capture the above shot! It doesn't take much movement to make your shots blurry, however, but that should be expected.

Here's an example of a macro shot in low, bad light.

Flash

The last thing I tested was the flash and it worked well! Just as with the iPhone 4, it is very slow and your photos are guaranteed to show any small amount of motion blur. I tend to hate camera flashes, but if you're trying to capture a memory in a dark environment, it's often times your only choice. For those times, the flash on the iPhone 4S will get the job done.

Conclusion

The iPhone 4S is equipped with a very nice camera that takes beautiful photos. The macro lens has the potential to be incredible, but struggles with focus more than I was expecting. At 8 megapixels, the iPhone 4S has the ability to produce nice 8"x10" prints that can be displayed in your home.

The camera was the feature of the iPhone 4S I was looking forward to the most, and it has delivered - it turned out to be my favorite feature of the iPhone 4S. Yes, I like it even more than Siri.

Have you been taking some amazing shots with your iPhone 4S? Head on over to our forums to show them off!

One of the new features of the iPhone 4S is a 1080p HD video camera. This new camera sports an f/2.4 lens and improved sensor to capture more light. It also has video stabilization to steady those shaky shots. To see me put this new camera to the test, check out the video above.

Extreme lighting

The first thing I tested was how well the camera deals with harsh lighting - meaning environments that have both dark, shaded areas and brightly lit, sunny areas. The iPhone 4S did a fantastic job of adjusting the exposure to bring in more light in the shade and less light in the sun. However, I did notice that if I was filming my daughter in an area that had bright backlighting, the video was a little underexposed even if I tapped to expose on my daughter's face.

Video Stabilization

The next thing I tested was video stabilization. First I tried out a non-extreme situation that has a similar amount of movement that the average person may experience - walking backwards while my daughter runs towards me. There was definitely still some camera shake present in these shots, but it wasn't too bad. My stomach tends to be pretty sensitive when it comes to bouncy film, but these clips didn't affect me.

However, the next test I did was to run down the street, and this one was pretty bad. It was still very shaky and I couldn't image watching an entire video like that, but I also couldn't imagine filming an entire video like that. This was an extreme scenario that expect not too many people will find themselves in.

The video stabilization performed best when panning the camera around. I was particularly impressed by the clips of me panning around the camera to follow my daughter as she walked past me. These were nice and smooth.

Low light

Next up was low light. The quality of the video in the low light environments of my house were not the best, but they weren't particularly horrible, either. Camera shake was a little more obvious and the clips were grainier, but overall, I was satisfied with its performance as a cellphone camera. I was particularly impressed with how the camera was able to compensate for the pink lighting in my daughters room and choose a good white balance setting. This was a huge improvement over the iPhone 4.

Macro

The macro lens on the iPhone 4S camera is incredibly sharp - when it's able to actually lock focus. On larger items, like leaves, the iPhone 4S has no issue focusing, but with smaller, skinnier items like twigs and sticks, the camera really struggles with grabbing a focus and often times never does. I tried to focus on some berries hanging from a bush for several minutes with no luck. It doesn't seem to make a difference between direct sunlight, shade, or overcast light, the iPhone 4S seems to frequently have issues with focussing. This is a huge disappointment.

Conclusion

Overall, I am very impressed with the iPhone 4S video camera. It handles the changes in harsh lighting, poor lighting, and movement quite well and also has great audio quality. The biggest disappointment is that the macro lens frequently has issues focusing. However, when the lens does focus, it looks amazing.

It's time to retire my Flip Video camera for good.

Have you been recording some amazing video with your iPhone 4S? Head on over to our Photography and Video forum to show them off!

Apple has announced that the new iPhone 4S, set to be released on October 14, is equipped with an 8-megapixel camera - well, that's what people keep referring to it as, anyway. In fact, this camera is so much more than a simple 8 MP camera; Apple sums it up great as:

The you-can’t-believe-it’s-on-a-phone camera.

The biggest thing that wowed me about the iPhone 4S camera is that it is equipped with an f/2.4 lens. This has many great benefits:

• The aperture will open wider, allowing more light to hit the sensors which means better, brighter photos.
• The shutter will be able to move faster, ensuring that those action shots are crisp and lacking of blur.
• Even in dark, low-lit environments, you will be able to capture photos without using a flash.

This lens, combined with the A5 processor chip and it's digital signal processor, will allow you to snap photos with virtually no shutter lag (Apple says 1.1 seconds for the first picture, less for subsequent pictures). With the additional added feature from iOS 5 that gives quick camera access to the lock screen, you can say goodbye to missed moments.

Another great feature of the iPhone 4S camera is face detection. This isn't new to point-and-shoot cameras, so it's definitely a welcomed addition to the iPhone. When taking a portrait or group shot, the camera will focus on the most prominent face and balance exposure across up to 10 faces.

Some other improvements to the camera include a hybrid infrared filter and advanced algorithms in iOS 5 for even more color accuracy, better white balance, and greater dynamic range.

In my opinion, the least exciting thing about this camera is the bump to 8-megapixels. However, it is nice to know that I'll be able to get decent 8"x10" prints from the iPhone 4S camera or crop them down without causing too much damage to the final image.

I hate to say it, but for the average user, the iPhone 4S's camera will, in many ways, be better than most DSLR cameras equipped with a kit lens.

Hit the link below to check out the sample photos on Apple's website. They're stunning.

Source: Apple

Last night on iPhone Live we were talking about how many photos we had in our iPhone Camera Roll and I admitted to being a bit of snapshot addict. I have over 1800 pics in my Camera Roll, everything from friends and family to clouds and sunsets to clothes and fashions to nails and hair I like and want to remember.

I know some people prefer Instagram or Camera+ or another App Store app, and while the filters are really cool and interesting, and I think I'm going to give them a try soon, right now I just like the simplicity of capturing a quick pic into my Camera Roll. I take pictures anywhere and everywhere with my iPhone... and I sometimes remember to sync them over to my Mac. I've actually run out of space on my 16GB iPhone 4 several times!

I hope iCloud and Photo Stream will help with that, but I'm not sure 5GB will be enough!

How many photos do you have in your iPhone Camera Roll? Do you use the built-in Camera app or something else? Do you sync them? Help me figure out a better way to do photos on the iPhone TiPb Nation, you're my only hope!

Pocket Now has found what they think is an iPhone 5 camera test photo taken by an Apple engineer. What makes them so suspicious?

This (very attractive) photo claims to have been taken by an iPhone 4, but the rest of its EXIF data tells a different story: although the image has been cropped to 2235x2291 (5.12 megapixels), the original picture was a much larger 3264x2448 -- or just shy of eight megapixels. What's more, the lens was recorded as a 4.3mm f/2.4, which is closer to that of a point-and-shoot than the iPhone 4's actual 3.85mm f/2.8.

iPhone 5 has long been rumored to be getting an 8 megapixel camera, lets just hope Apple keeps prioritizing photons over size and we get a great sensor to go with it.

[Pocket Now]

Stem Innovation has announced its latest iOS accessory and this time it comes in the form of a wireless connected, app controlled video camera. What is special about this video camera is its ability to be activated via sound or movement and it can record directly to YouTube.

iZON is incredibly easy to setup and use. iZON can be placed on any horizontal surface or mounted to a ceiling. It tilts and swivels easily on its unique magnetic base. Download the free Stem:Connect App, then simply plug iZON in and set it up on your local wireless network. A few simple steps help you to create a secure user account and begin streaming live audio and video. iZON is peace of mind, connecting you to the most important people, places and things in your life.

[Stem Innovation]

Annoyed by the Camera app storing double pictures in HDR mode and wondering how to stop it? Apple introduced an HDR (High Dynamic Range) setting to the iPhone 4 camera with iOS 4.1 and if used in the right circumstances can produce some much improved camera shots. Unfortunately, the way it works can cause a problem if your device is short of storage space. When HDR is turned on, the camera is actually taking four pictures, combining three of them into the HDR picture and saving the normal image in your camera roll. If you don’t want to save the normal picture in your camera roll as well as the HDR version, there is simple way to stop it happening, read on and we will show you how.

1. Open up Settings
2. Click on Photos
3. Right at the bottom there is a toggle switch, slide this to the off position

That's it, if you take a picture with HDR turned on, only the combined HDR picture will appear in your camera roll. This will save on storage space and clutter in your camera roll.

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

InstantCam is a new app that claims to decrease the time it takes for you to take a picture with your iPhone. One of the loudest complaints about the iPhone camera, is the time it takes from pressing the camera icon on the home screen to actually being able to take a picture. This app claims to dramatically speed up the process.

Have you ever missed that special moment just because it took too long to start the camera app and press the right button? Do you have children and find it difficult to keep up with their pace? Then this app is perfect for you! InstantCam allows you to launch and start shooting pictures lightning fast! If you want you can even let the app shoot pictures automatically as soon as it's possible! InstantCam is also very smart and saves the images in memory to be as fast as possible when you need it. The images are then saved when the opportunity arises or in the background after closing the app.

• Minimalistic user interface so that you can concentrate on whats important
• Continuous shooting (burst) of images (automatic or manual) with variable speed (up to ~1-2 frames/s). All in full resolution!
• Gestures to easily control the camera functions
• Photograph by tapping the screen
• Start burst mode using long press
• Focus on double tap. If you want you can even have the app take a photo as soon as the focus is found!
• Toggle Light/Torch by swiping the screen (if supported).
• Flash the screen on capture

The app costs $0.99 and is compatible with the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad 2.

[$0.99 - iTunes link]

Every week a few of us from team TiPb will bring you our current favorite, most fun and useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch related, they’re fair game.

To see what we picked, and to tell us your pick, follow on after the break!

Wunderlist – @chrisoldroyd

This app was inspired by Leanna's App for That post last week and I can see why she chose it. This app is superb for creating, sharing and syncing lists of to do items between users.

My wife and I share the grocery shopping in our home. We now make lists which are synced between out iPhones automatically. Once we have a list, either of us can add to it and it always stays in sync across our devices.

When you are in the store you can open the list and check off the items as you get them; and it works perfectly. I have been looking for an app like this for some time and now I have it. What's even better is that it is multi-platform and free! Now the wife nags me silently with Wunderlist so my ears are saved! (Hope she doesn’t read this)

Wunderlist syncs between iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, and Windows. Syncing is seamless and in the cloud. If you’re concerned about security, Wunderlist has got you covered with SSL 128 bit encryption over HTTPS too.

[Free - iTunes link]

Day One - @sethclifford

I love, love, LOVE apps that hook into Dropbox, because it means that I don't have to worry about re-syncing data when I restore devices (and lately, that's often, since it's beta season). I've got all kinds of note-taking apps, but I decided I wanted a different way to capture thoughts and little things that happen on a daily basis; more of a journal/diary type of app that I could look through by date and just recall the events of the day. I found Day One recently, and it's wonderful. It's a universal iOS app that not only syncs with Dropbox, but also has a companion Mac app that is available in the Mac App Store. It's an elegantly designed system that is simple enough to quickly jot down what's on your mind, and the fact that it's on all three platforms makes it very easy to capture items before you forget them. You've got a passcode lock, so your more private thoughts are protected, and with TextExpander support, you can save even more time. It's just text for now, but iCloud sync, tags, and photos are coming soon, and the developer was very responsive to my questions about future features. If you're looking for a nice little way to log some ideas, Day One is a contender.

[$1.99 - iTunes link]

Google+ web app - @iMuggle

Ok, it isn't an official App Store app (yet), but it's still implemented a lot better than that "other" social network's default iPhone app that constantly crashes or fails to push me notifications. To be honest, I use the web app version of Facebook more than the native app. Google+ is still one of the better mobile web apps I've seen.

I may not have push notifications (yet) but the layout is clean and easy to navigate. You can easily create a Google+ shortcut on your homescreen for easy access as well. While we all wait for Google+ to go public and for the native app to appear, the web app has managed to keep me entertained and meets my needs just fine for now. I actually find it quite enjoyable to browse and use.

Procreate - @reneritchie

Savage Interactive is going to be our guest on this Monday's episode of Iterate, our new mobile design podcast, and so I've been spending some time this week using the app as preparation. And loving it. There's such a visceral thrill that comes from finger painting with digital ink, with pushing colored pixels around an iPad canvas, from layering, from smudging, from bending it to your will until it realizes your imagination.

There are a lot of bitmap painting apps in the App Store, but Procreate offers all the power you'd expect in a UI that's both apparent and approachable. Your tools are all neatly laid out around your canvas, they quickly come up when you call them, and they quietly go away when you tap out of them. No fuss, no muss. Just fun.

And I do mean fun. There's something incredibly liberating about having the grid and the mouse and the pixel precision of Photoshop taken away from you. You're left to explore the touch and the color and the spaces negative and positive, and the feel of the medium. Cool screen, hot results. Just ask my little friend, the dragon....

[$4.99 - iTunes link]

Camera - @Alli_Flowers

More and more I use the iPhone's camera, not just for taking video or photos, but as a document camera. I realized how dependent I had become on this feature during a recent visit to relatives.

Both my nephews received shiny new laptops from their doting grandfather, and his first recommendation was to register them. I could barely contain the laughter watching these two boys tipping their laptops up so they could copy the registration number from the bottom into the form on the screen. Both of them have smartphones with cameras, so I showed them how I deal with this kind of issue. Tilt the laptop once, snap a picture of the serial number tag from the bottom - return to productivity. Not only can you now comfortably copy the serial number (and enlarge it with a simple pinch if the numbers are too tiny to read), but by saving that .jpg, you now have a permanent record in case of loss or theft.

I do this in my classroom as well. Best idea I ever had, since the person responsible for inventory loses her database at least twice a year, causing us to have to send her serial numbers for our computers, printers, smartboards, etc. I now have a file with photos. Every time she requests serial numbers, I just email her the whole folder (which, yes, I have backed up in multiple locations).

Your iPhone's camera can be your ticket to replacements with your insurance company. In case of theft or fire, they want a list of your losses - along with serial numbers. Start now!

Numbers - @llofte

As many of you know, I am a math instructor and part of being a teacher is keeping track of grades. Numbers on my iPad is perfect for this. I have my spreadsheets set up to find the totals of each grade category and calculate their final grade. I even specifically designed them so that they determine the students' current grades so when I'm inevitably asked "what's my grade in the class right now", I can whip out my iPad and give them an immediate answer.

Students (even college students) also occasionally forget to put their names on their quizzes. So while I'm returning the graded quizzes, someone ends up claiming the unnamed quiz. Before, this would be a pain for me because I'd have to write down who gets the score and remember to add it to my spreadsheet at home. Now I just pull out my iPad during class and update their grade right there.

[$0.99 - iTunes link]

Flipboard - @Moe_NYC (Reader's Choice)

My pick of the week is Flipboard. It is the best way to access news, magazines and your social networks in a gorgeous magazine-style interface. You can add your networks and your desired content which will be added to the app desktop into tiles that look great.

In addition to the most popular social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, etc.), you have access to ever increasing content from news sources, magazines, editor's picks and much more. The new update provides an always accessible red ribbon which you can tap to access content broken down into categories.

Flipboard is the way I would like to see online news (CNN, NYT, WSJ) done on the iPad. This is just perfect.

Your pick?

You’re part of the team as well, so we will be choosing one reader to make a submission each week! Just look for the announcement on twitter or our Facebook page each weekend for a chance to be picked! In the meantime, let us know your pick of the week!

Apple's iOS 5 built-in a lot of new, basic functionality previously filled by 3rd party App Store apps, which effectively "Sherlocked" those apps, rendering them redundant in a post-iOS 5 world. Or did it? There's a world of difference between basic functionality that serves the needs of only the most casual user, and advanced functionality with enough control and features to satisfy a hardcore pro.

What Apple did with iOS 5, as with previous generations of iOS, is take away the entry-level business of several prominent 3rd party apps, but still left them with the premium, higher order market. While it's always dangerous creating an enterprise based on glaring functionality holes Apple will almost certainly fill at some point in the future, there's just as much opportunity building a great product that Apple's entry into the space can benefit.

Here are a 5 apps (and a couple things more) I think could make that case.

Instapaper

Marco Arment's excellent read-it-later client, Instapaper, which strips away everything but body content from web articles and lets you store it on his web service and access it via a paid iOS app, at first glance, looks threatened by Apple's new Reader and Reading List features in iOS 5 for iPad and iPhone, and OS X Lion Safari. However, as any long term Instapaper user knows (and Arment himself will tell you), Instapaper goes far beyond the bare-bones, Readabiliy-derived, bookmark-synced implementation Apple is providing. Arment uses the example of how Apple baking RSS into Safari and Mail hasn't hurt dedicated RSS readers like Google Reader, Reeder, NetNewsWire, etc., and it's not a terrible. While Google's entry into navigation (with the free Google Maps Navigation) was met by a similar response from traditional turn-by-turn navigation vendors, Instapaper isn't a recurring monthly charge or a massive up-front expenditure. It is well regarded and has a devoted install base, and more importantly it has a passionate and creative developer who's probably as happy to occupy the high end against Reader/Reading List the way MacBook's occupy it against cheap netbooks.

Arment was smart, however, to drop the free version before Apple launched Reader/Reading List.

Camera+

Just like Apple put a hurt on HDR (high dynamic range) app makers with iOS 4, the addition of Twitter integration, gridlines, and basic photo editing tools will be challenging for App Store apps that previously filled those post-production and easy sharing niches. There's an especially bitter irony here for Camera+, however, as the Lisa Bettany-driven, Tap Tap Tap built, filter-filled shooter was previously removed from the App Store for using a private API that enabled the volume button to be used as a shutter switch -- something Apple has now added as default to the built-in Camera app in iOS 5. Whether you consider that fair or foul, in a post iOS 5 world, Camera+ still offers those previously mentioned filters. And as for the elements iOS 5 does include, some still seem to prefer Camera+'s implementation. So neither Camera+, nor other popular apps like Hipstamatic or Instagram are in immediate danger.

(Ironically, Apple's iBooks did much the same to Tap Tap Tap's Classic following iOS 4 [Hat tip, @arnoldkim])

LockInfo

LockInfo, the brilliant lock screen information and pull-down notification manager by David Ashman, was the primary reason I jailbroke under iOS 4.x. iOS was (and still is, outside the iOS 5 beta) a modal, interruptive bag of notification hurt, and LockInfo was my salve. With iOS 5's Notification Center, however, Apple has taken almost direct inspiration, offering both the lock screen info and the pull-down notifications that made LockInfo so indispensable. But again, Apple is -- so far -- only covering the basics. As Ashman told us during our video interview at WWDC 2011 there's a lot that LockInfo does that Apple's Notification Center still doesn't do. LockInfo provides quick access to full mail texts, for example, and has a plugin architecture for extensibility. Those who only need very basic, unobtrusive notifications will be fine with Notification Center. Power users will still want LockInfo's fuller feature set.

Todo

Whether you're a fan of Appigo's Todo, or of another app like Omni's OmniFocus, Cultured Code's Things, you probably thought there was no way Apple would ever enter their space. They hadn't in 4 versions of iOS, after all, and since Steve Jobs has assistants to manage his lists, there was a slim chance he even noticed the gap. (That's a joke, I know he doesn't code the entire OS himself. He has people for that too...). Enter Reminders in iOS 5. Time aware, location aware, it will help you get things done whenever, and wherever you need, and unlike Things it offers sync -- with iCal, after a fashion -- from day one. But it's rather spartan. It does what it does simply and elegantly (if you like paper textures), and that's about it. One-trick list-making apps and alarm apps are in a lot of trouble, but deep, highly productive, nerdy apps like Todo and Omnifocus, and even more able alarm apps like Due will still be required for more complex time management. Even Omni's premium price probably won't cause them too many problems since at that price people who get OmniFocus want OmniFocus, they don't want Reminders.

[$4.99 - iTunes link]

Kik

BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) is such a platform lock-in for RIM that it's not surprising astute developers made direct messaging apps for iPhone, including Kik, Whatsapp, and the now Facebook-owned Beluga. That's probably the very reason Apple introduced iMessage in iOS 5, to provide platform users the ability to quickly, easily, and cheaply text each other. (Roshambo'ing the carriers by building it into the previously SMS/MMS-only Messages app was no doubt the cherry on that feature Sunday.) But here's the thing -- Kik isn't a platform owner, so they have no vested interest in locking their users into a platform. Instead, they want to lock them into the app/service, and so they make them cross-platform (though RIM has pulled Kik from BlackBerry App World due to a legal dispute). This means, while they're still proprietary and you're still locked in, you can message people on non-Apple mobile devices, and if you ever switch to a non-Apple mobile device (perish the thought), you can bring your contacts with you. BBM might eventually go cross-platform, Twitter might one day supplant messaging apps, or -- please, oh please -- someone might actually build a great service with non-proprietary pipes on top of Jabber (or something similar), but for now only iOS-to-iOS only users will have any incentive to switch.

Jailbreak

Right before the WWDC 2011 keynote I asked Saurik, founder of Cydia, if Apple was out to make Jailbreak irrelevant. He didn't think they could, and neither did I, but Apple is certainly going through the list of compelling reasons to Jailbreak and checking them off in the stock software, at least some of them, at least to some degree. I already mentioned LockInfo, but Apple still doesn't offer any form of quick actions, like BiteSMS does for responding to text messages without having to switch to the Messages app. Apple doesn't offer quick access either, like SBSettings does for toggling Wi-Fi, Blue Tooth, Airplane Mode, etc. Apple doesn't offer themes beyond wall papers. And like a host of other apps do for a host of other features Apple can't or won't yet support. Nor do I think Apple wants to kill Jailbreak. Aside for their not going out of their way to kill recent exploits (with the exception of easily targetable malware vectors like web-based PDF attacks), it gives Apple a free expert mode and public test bed -- an incubator to see ideas and metaphors tried out on a scale their own secrecy would never allow. They have to have some way of vetting features for next year's iOS 6, right?

Android

As I was writing this article, Seth Weintraub joked that, with iOS 5, Apple tried to Sherlock Android. It's fair to say that however many checkboxes Apple was trying to take away from Jailbreak, they were trying just as hard to take them away from Google's competing OS. While Android's "openness" is disingenuous, their relative freedom and powerful feature set are inarguable. You can still do more on a stock Android device than you can on a stock iPhone, but the gap narrowed with iOS 5. (Ignoring for the moment rooting vs. Jailbreak which is a different conversation). Android still has widgets, it still has skins (a mixed blessing but an important one to many users), it still offers tons of customization options, and hooks into the OS Apple will probably never provide. It's a different OS, operating under a different model, but that will no doubt appeal to a different type of user. And most importantly for iOS, it will keep pushing Apple to check off those boxes and narrow that gap even further.

Who's Sherlocking who?

With iOS 5, Apple certainly killed the low-end, casual market for a lot of iPhone and iPad apps. (Just like they've done with previous generations of iOS, including Installer for Jailbreak when they released the App Store with iOS 2.) For the best-in-class, however, for the premium apps with the pro-level functionality, it's possible Apple's entry into their space will validate their functionality and introduce them to a much larger audience. Only time will tell if they ultimately lose any sales to the new built-in apps, or gain even more customers due to increased awareness. But this has happened before and it will happen again, and the really savvy developers will have positioned their really great apps to take full advantage, and perhaps kill a certain lucrative segment of the built-in apps' user base.

iPhone is the best camera since its the one you have with you, but what's the best, most must-have camera app to take your photos with? Some are instant, some are clean, some have filters, some are just for fun. Whether it's for tourism, for art, or for those special family moments, the choices are almost endless.

That's where TiPb comes in. Read on for our top 5 favorite, most recommended photo apps for iPhone!

Camera

Ok, let's face it, the stock camera app on the iPhone has gotten a lot better over the past two years with the new features of auto focus, tap to focus, and HDR. And with iOS 5 it's poised to get even better. Quick launch from the lock screen, volume button as a shutter, grid lines, basic image editing including rotate, auto enhance, and crop, the list is getting longer and longer.

It's still not perfect, still doesn't offer filters, panoramas, or higher level editing, but it's solid and it looks like Apple is putting time into it.

Camera+

Camera+ offers up to 6 times zoom, a stabilizer, a timer, a burst option, the use of iPhone 4's LED flash, and the option to use both the front and rear facing camera. The picture quality is better than that of the stock camera app, and for only $0.99 it is definitely worth the purchase. In addition filters hand picked by Lisa Bettany, Camera+ also makes sure all the pictures you take get saved into the app itself, it does not automatically save them to the camera roll. In the options menu, it allows you to pick and choose which pictures you want to save to your camera roll. It also allows you to share pictures to Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, SMS, or email. The app also allows you to copy and paste pictures you have taken.

[$0.99 - iTunes link]

ProCamera

ProCamera brings a lot of precise settings to the iPhone, which is nice for the experienced photographer. It has anti-shake, which is nice for those of us who can't seem to hold still while taking a picture! It also has a timer, a grid option, a video camera option, the option for full resolution when in zoom, and auto horizontal calibration.

It does not have the option to share pictures from the app, or to pick and choose which pictures you want to save to your camera roll, but the other features it offers makes up for it in the long run.

[$2.99 - iTunes Link]

Quickpix

Quickpix has its own zoom built into the application, as well as support for the iPhone LED flash. It also has a really cool feature which allows you to take video and shoot pictures at the same time. This is really handy for events where you want the video but would also like a few snap shots, or if you're not sure what you want to take and would rather have the capture streaming, ready for anything.

[$0.99 - iTunes link]

Instagram

Instagram is what all the cool kids are using to take pictures, apply filters, and share photos with friends and social networks such as twitter and Facebook. Instagram has tap to focus, zoom, and makes use of the iPhone 4 LED light. The coolest thing about Instagram, however, is the use of filters. Take a picture using the Instagram app and go into your settings options, you have the option to edit the photo and apply effects right from the app.

[Free - iTunes link]

Your top apps?

So there you have them, our top 5 best iPhone camera apps to get you started. Be sure to check out our Picks of the Week and iPhone App and Games Forum for more recommendations, and if we missed any of your favorites leave them in the comments below!

It's often said iPhone is the best camera because it's the one you have with you, so that makes me curious -- TiPb nation, how exactly do you take pictures with your iPhone?

• Do you use the built in Camera app or do you use something like Camera+ or Instagram that offer more or different features?

• Do you spend a lot of time composing that perfect picture or do you snap away hoping to capture that special moment?

• Do you prefer the look of a "normal" photo or do you like the cool filters that give it that something extra?

• Do you crop or enhance your photos before sharing or using them, or do you just shoot and send?

• Do you use apps that add cartoon bubbles or funny props?

And if you don't use the built in Camara app, will the iOS 5 Camera app, with its volume key shutter, crop tools, auto enhance, and other features make you consider switching back to it?

Let me know what apps, effects, additions, you use to take pictures with your iPhone!

When Apple announced that iOS 5 would let you snap pictures with the volume up button, it was only a matter of time before some enterprising developers discovered the ability to use a headset equipped with volume remote control as a camera shutter release.

Using the stock Apple headphones that come with your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, you simply:

1. Open the Camera app
2. Click the volume up remote to release the shutter
3. Enjoy your long distance picture taking power

So camera enthusiasts, is this a big deal for you or just a nice to have? Will it change the way you take pictures with your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad?

[MacRumors]

Every day, TiPb gets flooded with announcements for new and updated iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games. So every day we pick just a few of the most interesting, the most notable, and simply the most awesome to share with you!

• Reincarnator: Which one you like? Monitor,Wood,Football,Washing machine,... Just select right objects and get to the final point.reincarnate objects to eachother and solve the puzzles. [$0.99 - iTunes link]

• Camera+: Now you can share via SMS! [$0.99 - iTunes link]

• ProCamera: Now with RapidFire mode, QuickFlick album, social networking support and iPad 2 support! [$2.99 - iTunes link]

• Death Rally: Now with a new car, challenges, achievements, paint jobs, and more! [$0.99 - iTunes link]

Any other big apps or game releases or updates today? If you pick any of these up, let us know what you think!

Scott Fortsall has just made a lot of iOS camera users out there happy during the keynote from WWDC 2011. In total five new features have been added to the iOS camera -- one of which, was hotly debated among app developers for a while now. Yes, in iOS 5 you can now make use of the volume up button in order to go ahead and take pictures. In addition to that function, you can now also edit photos directly on your device by using the built in photo editor. You can can crop, rotate, reduce red-eye and it even has a one-click enhancement button should you choose to go that route.

If you're a security conscious person, unlocking your device to snap a pic is now a thing of the past -- iOS 5 will bring a lock screen shortcut for image taking but keeps all your already existing photos safe and secure from viewing. one final feature added to the iOS 5 camera app, is the increased functionality of the auto-focus and auto-exposure settings. In iOS 5, you can pinch-to-zoom right in the app, and if you hold on a part of the photo you can then adjust the exposure settings on just that portion alone. All in all, some great additions there that is sure to please a lot of folks.

Wondering how to take better pictures with your iPhone camera? Ever found yourself taking a picture with your iPhone only to discover the photo came out less than perfect? Sometimes you only have one opportunity to capture a moment, so you want to ensure everything is right and your photo doesn't come out looking like it was taken with a cheap and flimsy digital camera. The iPhone camera has come a long way since the original iPhone in 2007, currently sporting a 5 megapixel sensor with flash in the iPhone 4, but there are still a few things you can do to make sure you're getting the best shot possible.

In this tip we'll go over a few pointers to help you in taking better pictures with your iPhone -- find out how after the break!

Ready, steady, go!

I've been in situations where I've had to quickly whip out my iPhone in order to snap a photo on the go, but sometimes I wasn't keeping my hand steady enough (hello Mr. Blurrycam). One thing you can do is use a tripod, but not everyone keeps one handy when out and about. Camera+ ($1.99 -- iTunes link) helps by including an image stabilizer, monitoring how steady your hand is and taking the photo when you're making the least amount of movement. However, if you're using the default Camera app then you're on your own. As such, keeping your iPhone as steady as you can is a good way to make sure you're getting the sharpest image possible, especially in low light conditions. Speaking of lighting...

Light is your new best friend

Lighting is a big factor in taking great pictures, and it's important to understand the basics when using your iPhone camera under certain lighting conditions. Taking photos where there isn't enough light can heavily impact the overall picture quality, so make sure there's as much light as possible. Although the camera baked into the iPhone 4 is (in my humble opinion) the best in its class, you'll still notice some noise in low light conditions.

If you're in a dark environment, make sure you're taking advantage of the iPhone 4's built-in camera flash. For older iPhone models without flash, getting a usable photo in low light may take a little extra work but you'll be glad you made the effort... Take a look at Darkroom (free -- iTunes link) to help you out with this problem. Just like Camera+, it features a 'Steady Mode' to help avoid blurry photos in low light conditions.

In addition, you'll want to make sure your subject is properly lit. For example, the light source should be directed at your subject (not at you) to help draw focus on whatever you're shooting.

Get up close and personal

The iPhone camera features tap-to-focus in addition to decent macro ability with the iPhone 4, so don't be afraid to get up close and personal with your subject. This is especially true when shooting portraits or close-ups, where letting your subject consume the majority of the photo really goes a long way.

To zoom, or not to zoom

Most point-and-shoot cameras feature an optical zoom of around 3x-5x, which is great for shooting at a distance. However this unfortunately isn't so with the iPhone (and all smartphone cameras, for that matter). When Apple released iOS 4 they threw in a digital zoom feature for the Camera app, but I've never found myself actually using it due how the pictures usually turn out. When you use the digital zoom feature you'll be losing a significant amount of quality, so unless it's absolutely necessary, try to stay away from using digital zoom as much as you can.

Edit, edit, and edit some more!

The iPhone has a number of awesome photo apps in the App Store, some of which we mentioned above, but which ones should you use for editing and refining your photos after you've taken them? Using the iPhone touchscreen to manipulate photos can be a rather delightful experience, so here are a few photo editing apps we recommend checking out:

• ColorSplash - ($0.99 -- iTunes link) ColorSplash lets you take any regular photo and turn it into a colorful work of art. You start off by selecting your desired photo or taking a picture from within the app, to which ColorSplash strips away the color and turns it into a black and white. You then touch whatever area of the picture you want to fill in with color, creating unique images that really stand out from the crowd.
• PefectPhoto - ($0.99 -- iTunes link) This app really shines when it comes to the number of options and effects you can work with. My personal favorite is the Spot Healing feature which lets you fix any blemishes or artifacts in your photo. Have a great shot of you and your best friend but want to get rid of that horrible zit that's taking all the attention? PerfectPhoto is the editing app for you! You can also crop, align, edit exposure and gamma along with a number of other great editing options. There's even a few noteworthy effects like Bloom and Vintage, taking your photos to a new and fully personalized level.
• Adobe Photoshop Express - (free -- iTunes link) Photoshop Express for iPhone is a gem of a photo editing app, and to top it off it's completely free! A good example of its editing power is reducing noise and smoothing out your pictures so they're easier on the eyes. This is another great solution for taking pictures in low light conditions, letting you smooth out those darker photos in your collection and making them much more attractive.

Know of any other iPhone picture-taking pointers or suggestions we might have missed? Also let us know what your favorite photo editing apps are, or apps that can help get around some of the issues we mentioned above in the comments!

Bonus Tip: Clean your lens! Having a dirty camera lens can dramatically lower the quality of your pictures, so take a microfiber cloth and some screen cleaner to your iPhone to help your photos look less washed out. We recommend the iKlenz Cleaner Solution Kit to get the job done. You'll immediately notice a difference, so give it a try!

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to news@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Ever wanted to unlock your iPhone simply by having it look at you and recognize who you are? A jailbreak mod called RecognizeMe will be hitting Cydia soon and promises to bring biometric facial recognition security to the iPhone 4. The mod will allow you to unlock your iPhone by scanning your facial features with the front-facing camera and verifying who you are before giving you access.

The tweak offers settings for dialing up the level of security (facial matching), which we're assuming requires a bit more processing time, but the app definitely appears to deliver on its promise of facial recognition security for the iPhone 4. The mod looks a little slow at the moment, but hopefully the developers are able to optimize the code before an official release.

Check out the video after the jump, and let us know what you think in the comments!

[Thanks @adamelter]

Are you using the cameras on your iPad 2? Apple really didn't go out of their way to provide great cameras, basically using exactly what they had in the iPod touch 4 instead of the much better camera in the iPhone 4. But they say the best camera is the one you have with you and from time to time, that will be the iPad 2, right? No, really? Perhaps you have seen our TiPb TV tourist episode and gained some inspiration?

If you've made regular use of your iPad 2 cameras for still pictures, shooting video, FaceTime calls, Augmented Reality apps, or anything else, let us know!

Wondering how to make your iPhone camera launch faster? Often find that you've missed the perfect shot because the camera app took too long to open? It turns out there's a way to instantly call up the iPhone camera without any load time at all using a lightweight jailbreak tweak called Snappy -- hit the jump to find out how it's done!

Snappy is a jailbreak modification that lets you do a few different things with the Camera app, but its main function is having the camera available no matter what app you're in -- you can even use the camera instantly from the iPhone lockscreen!

(If you're not sure what Jailbreak is, then check out our jailbreak starters guide first.)

To get started, go into Cydia and search for Snappy. The app uses the Cydia Store and costs $1.99 to purchase.

After you've installed Snappy, Cydia will prompt you to respring before the modification can take effect. After that you should see the Snappy icon on your springboard, but I use SbSettings to remove the icon from my iPhone altogether. Snappy uses Activator gestures so you won't really need the icon once you've set it all up.

Once Snappy is ready to go, follow these quick steps to get Activator set to your needs:

1. Go into the Settings app and scroll down until you see an option for Activator.
2. In the Activator menu pane, select 'Anywhere'.
3. From here you'll see a number of options including gestures, button presses and tap commands. We're going to set Snappy to activate whenever you tap and hold anywhere along the statusbar, but you can choose whatever gesture you prefer.
4. To quickly find Snappy just swipe up to reveal a search bar, run a quick search and then choose whether to default to photo or video taking once Snappy is activated.
5. Now close out of the settings app completely (tap once to go to homescreen, double-tap to call up the app switcher then tap and hold the settings icon until it starts to wiggle to kill the app).
   
6. Enjoy instant access to the camera from anywhere on your iPhone!

That's it! No more waiting around for the Camera app to load and no more missing those perfect shots while on the go!

Bonus Tip: Snappy has a few other nice features including the ability to set the volume buttons as the camera shutter, making it even more convenient to take photos on your iPhone. To do this, activate Snappy and make sure the option for 'Volume shutter button' is on under settings. You can also set Snappy to use your current location or snap a quick photo upon launch.

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

9to5Mac's Seth Weintraub was watching the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg interview Sony CEO, Sir Howard Stringer, when stringer let slip that cameras meant for Apple iPhone and iPad would be delayed due to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

Paraphrased: “Our best senor technology is built in one of the (tsunami) affected factories.  Those go to Apple for their iPhones…or iPads.  Isn’t that something?  They buy our best sensors from us?”

Sony doesn't currently supply iPhone or iPad optics but had been rumored to be supplying iPhone 5 with 8 megapixel sensors. Rumors spread last week of a possible "delay" in iPhone 5 release from the usual summer schedule to a Fall, or possibly later date. If the "delay" (unannounced products can't be delayed, but internal schedules can be pushed out and historic cycles can be broken) is real, and the Sony image sensor is accurate, could this and potentially other component related problems be part of the reason?

[9to5Mac]

AppleInsider has discovered patent applications showing that Apple may be interested in including dual rear-facing cameras and additional sensors for a new 3D image technology in mobile devices such as the iPhone.

The hardware-based system would be an improvement over recent Android devices that include 3D camera technology due to software that takes "guesses" at how to conduct stereo disparity compensation on 3D images. The more guesses needed to process these images result in loss of quality and artifacts.

Apple's documented patent, entitled "Systems and Methods for an Imaging System Using Multiple Image Sensors", would provide higher quality 3D images based on multiple image sensors and hardware processing, eliminating artifacts and other quality issues. The patent also describes 3D video recording capability. (This would require Apple to include a 3D display on the iPhone.)

If Apple were to pack this technology into the iPhone 5 would you actually use it, or are 3D cameras on mobile devices just another gimmick? Let us know in the comments!

[AppleInsider]

The photo editing iPhone app Camera+ released a big update today that brings Clarity, a new feature that automagically brings drastic improvement to your photos.

We created Clarity to help turn all the shots you take into perfect photos. Clarity analyzes your photos and makes several intelligent adjustments that magically bring out details and breathe life into dull photos. There’s no need to futz with complicated and confusing controls… behind the scenes, we do all that and more for you through innovative “smart-processing”.

Other features include:

• Added a ‘+’ button to the touch focus control to enable you to easily split it into focus and exposure controls
• Multiple photos are now saved to your Camera Roll according to the order they were selected
• Made it clearer when your camera is autofocusing
• Improved Pinhole effect
• Improved Vintage border
• Bug fixes

If you pick this one up, let us know what you think!

[$0.99 - iTunes link]

The TiPb forums are naturally a great place to talk, commiserate, celebrate, get help, and offer advice to your fellow iPhone users. In order to create a new thread of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is easy and free so if you haven’t already, head on over and register now!

• Many users are reporting that their new iPads have a bad case of light leak, most notable with a dark background. Does your iPad suffer from this screen defect?

• Disappointed with the iPad 2's camera quality? You are not alone.

• If you've made the switch from a Android device to a iPhone, congratulations on the upgrade! Tell us how your experience is going!

• One of the most popular topics within our forums is Jailbreaking so be sure to visit our Jailbreak and Unlock forum!

See you in the forums!

One of the new built-in apps for iPad 2 and iOS 4.3 is a Photo Booth app for use with its new cameras.

Things are about to get pretty twisted. Photo Booth takes snapshots of you and your friends in ways far from ordinary — from funny to artsy to really bizarre. Make a few faces, snap a few snaps, and see your wacky side.

The iPad 2 has two cameras, a front-facing VGA camera and a 720p HD rear-facing camera. According to Apple, Photo Booth uses the front-facing camera, but the screenshots seem to point to the ability of using the rear-facing camera as well.

Using Photo Booth is simple. Just hold up the iPad and snap away. When using the front-facing camera, Photo Booth will flash the screen white just prior to taking the photo to add light to your face, much like the Mac version of Photo Booth.

Once you're done twisting up your face, doubling your head, or making yourself look like an alien, a comic book character, or an X-ray, share your photos via email or assign them as contact photos. Everything in Photo Booth is saved in your photo library, so sharing to Facebook, Twitter, or other social platforms will also be a breeze.

Photo Booth will be a fun addition to iPad 2 for children and adults alike. Are you looking forward to playing around with Photo Booth on the iPad 2?

Follow along for a few more screenshots!

[Apple]

Every day, TiPb gets flooded with announcements for new and updated iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games. So every day we pick just a few of the most interesting, the most notable, and simply the most awesome to share with you!

• FX Photo Studio HD: Now updated to 3.0.0 with 41 new photo effects and much more! [$2.99 - iTunes link]

• Camera+: Update to 2.1 brings performance enhancements, interface improvements and a limited time sale! [$0.99 - iTunes link]

• Hipstamatic: Updated with Quicksta snap queue, camera bag organization, and limited edition FreePak [$1.99 - iTunes link]

• Adobe Ideas: This digital sketchbook is updated to include VGA Out and the option to purchase a feature that will give you 10 drawing layers. [Free, with in-app purchases - iTunes link]

• Tax FAQs: Have the answers to the 50 most frequently asked tax questions at your fingertips. [$0.99 - iTunes link]

Any other big apps or game releases or updates today? If you pick any of these up, let us know what you think!

Remember that annoying bug that causes a blue tint in the center of photos? It looks like it may have been fixed in the new version of iOS that is running on the Verizon iPhone 4.

For many people running iOS 4.2.1, there is a blue tint in the center of images - most notably of subjects that are white. There have been mixed reports of the lighting situations that cause it. For some, it's only in the presence of fluorescent lighting. For others, it's only when using the flash, and for the incredibly unlucky, it's for all lighting scenarios.

I tried every lighting situation I could imagine with the Verizon iPhone 4 and never had an image tainted with a blue spot. Hopefully this is a sign that the bug will be fixed in iOS 4.3.

Any of our Verizon iPhone wielding readers getting the horrid blue spot in their photos? Let us know in the comments below!

The latest iOS 4.3 beta 2 released to developers yesterday, reveals a Camera app, PhotoBooth app and a FaceTime app will all be included in iPad 2.

The evidence comes from an image found in the latest beta. The image (homeScreenOverlayFaceTime~iPad.png) is used to preview home screen wallpaper changes, and clearly shows icons for the Camera, PhotoBooth and FaceTime apps. The current image found in iOS 4.2 does not have these icons.

The PhotoBooth app is an interesting addition, PhotoBooth is a Mac OSX app that lets you take photographs and video. You can then apply filters to create fun images and videos with different effects and backdrops and email them straight from the app. FaceTime will allow iPad 2 users to video chat with iPhone 4 users, latest gen iPod touch users and Macs.

So that pretty much confirms the camera story, not that we needed any further confirmation; what is still left up in the air, is how many cameras the next iPad will have. One or two, what do you think? Let us know in the comments!

[MacRumors]

Following repeated rumors that the iPad 2 will be equipped with a retina display, 9To5Mac has made a discovery that may prove otherwise. After digging through the latest iOS 4.3 SDK, they found plenty of references that point towards the iPad 2 having the ability to take photos and shoot video; however, the size of the camera shutter images is 1024 x 768 - the exact same resolution of the current iPad.

So, either Apple has intentionally placed these images in the SDK to throw us off, or -- like TiPb has been saying for a while now -- the technology simply isn't there to support a full-on retina display on the iPad 2. What do you think?

[9To5Mac]

The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office published a patent submitted by Apple today that indicates the use of a facial recognition camera as well as a new speaker array for use with the iPad. The patent shows off three and four speaker arrays to help give off better audio at increased ranges. Also indicated in this patent is a camera that will include facial and location orientation. This will allow the camera to reorient itself depending on if you are chatting with it in landscape or portrait mode. Stay with us to find out what else Apple has patents on.

The patent goes on to explain that the orientation sensor may be provided by a compass, accelerometer, an inertial sensor, or other device. It would be provided by the selection of the orientation of the display, the shape of the touch input or image recognition of the listener.

The speaker array is simply a different arrangement for the use of three or four speakers placed around the device in a non-collinear arrangement. This would allow for the iPad's audio range to cover high range tweeter and a lower range speaker.

Also an interesting note in this patent appears to be a new iPad stand that utilizes a magnetic type backing to hold the iPad. It is unclear whether we will ever see this stand but it is interesting to see that Apple could be working on it nonetheless.

[ Patently Apple ]

Camera+, the iPhone photography application that was pulled from the App Store after tap tap tap programmed an easter egg which allowed the the volume buttons to be used as a shutter release, is on its way back into the App Store.

For those of you who’ve been clamoring to hear some news on the ultimate photo app, Camera+, we’ve got some great stuff for you… our newest version is now finished and in review in the App Store, so it should be available anytime now.

tap tap tap goes goes on to say that this is the biggest update for Camera+ yet and that it will not disappoint.

Who's looking forward to what the new and improved Camera+ has in store for us?

UPDATE: The update is out. Go grab it and let us know what you think!

[$0.99 - iTunes link]

[tap tap tap, thanks Arnab!]

More rumors out of the supply chain today suggest that iPad 2 might indeed have a camera -- front and back, actually -- and once again a better resolution display is being mentioned as well. Kelvin Soh and Argin Chang, reporting for Reuters, spoke to four people "familiar with the situation":

Two could only confirm they were ramping up for a new round of production in the first quarter for components previously supplied for the original iPad, while two said the ramp-up was for a new iPad.

One of those said the revamped model would feature cameras on the front and rear, while the other said the new model would be slimmer, lighter and have a better resolution display.

I'm sticking by my *Imagining iPad 2" predictions for now. 2 cameras, not as high end as iPhone 4, but giving the ability to FaceTime and switch between self-portrait and world view (hey! Look at those kids!). Still don't see a higher res screen because there's no way a 2048 wide display at iPad size is feasible and anything less than same resolution or pixel-doubled would be a nightmare for developers.

What do you think?

[Yahoo! Finance]

Yes, we've reached supposed case-leak season in the pre-iPad 2 hype cycle and a couple of these bad boys have been spotted sporting what looks like cutouts for rear-facing camera and SD card cut slots.

Apple doesn't give accessory makers advanced access to hardware like iPad 2, but since some of those case makers have connections to the factories that assemble iPad 2 hardware, who knows what they've heard, seen, or even fondled on the down-low?

As always, these cases could be spot on or complete wrong, real, fake or really fake, so check out the picture and let us know what you think. Will we be getting a rear-facing camera and SD card slot on iPad 2?

[iLounge, MacRumors]

360 Panorama for iPhone just issued a large update to their popular panorama app that uses the built-in gyroscope feature. This essentially allows you to capture more accurate panoramic photos much easier. It can take a bit longer than a standard stitching app but the overall quality seems to be better. As iPhone photography becomes even more prominent and mainstream, good photography apps tend to do well. 360 Panorama is definitely an app to check out if you enjoy editing and taking photos on your iPhone.

iTunes Link

When you first load the app you'll be presented with a 360 view grid with an image in it. You'll simply select capture and the app will capture what you're viewing as a panorama in real time. The app has built-in light sensing too as well. This will automatically help the app adjust for low light settings. In good light settings, you should have no problem panning continuously to get a pretty good shot. In low light, I tended to go a bit slower to prevent seeing seams in the image.

Occipital has also mentioned that holding your phone at an angle also allows you to maximize capture area. This is a great feature if you have good light quality. In a low light setting, this feature wasn't too great and I'd still recommend holding it in portrait.

After you've finished creating your panoramic shot, you can view it live in the app as a 360 view image. Simply rotate your phone and the gyroscope feature will automatically pan the live shot for you (refer to video for example). You also have the option to save the image to your camera roll as a regular image, e-mail it, or upload. Some uploads allow the full 360 view as well. Nice little add on for those who want an interactive photo.

Overall, I'd say this is one of the better pano apps I've used on my iPhone. The only issue that really bugged me was that when you attempted to move the phone up and down a bit in order to maximize a capture area, the image didn't line up very well and you'd be left with overlapping elements. But for a simple 360 shot, this app will be a great addition to anyone's photography app portfolio.

Pros

• Extremely easy to use
• You have options when it comes to sharing your photos in-app
• Rendering time is faster than other similar panoramic applications
• Overall quality is much better (in most situations) than stitching applications

Cons

• When creating a pano, if you move your phone up and down, sometimes the seams don't match up properly
• In low light settings, seams can be noticeable if you pan around too quickly

Digitimes are running an interesting iPad 2 rumor, this time claiming that Apple has another camera component manufacturer in place for the next iteration of the iPad. A few weeks ago we heard that PC Board manufacturers had been appointed. Now Digitimes claim rumors point to Largan Precision being the sole supplier for the camera lens. Largan Precision currently supplies a  lens for the iPhone 4.

Largan Precision has declined to comment on market rumors indicating the company will be the sole lens module supplier for Apple's upcoming iPad 2 tablet with shipments to kick off in the first quarter of 2011, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE).

At this stage, we do not know anything definite about the next generation iPad. It is widely expected to have at least one camera on board. This will more than likely be a front facing camera to enable FaceTime; who would bet against Apple providing both front and rear cameras for augmented reality applications as well as normal camera functionality.

What would you prefer, one camera or two?

[Digitimes]

A couple of New Yorkers have introduced a very slim and elegant solution for iPhone 4 photographers with their invention of the Glif tripod mount and stand. Glif is an iPhone 4 accessory that works as both a standard tripod mount and kickstand. The minds behind Glif put together a promo video that showcases using the Glif to participate in activities such as hands-free FaceTiming, watching videos, making movies, and using your iPhone as an alarm clock.

The idea for the Glif was first formed when we realized the iPhone 4 is literally the best camera we've ever owned. With the addition of HD video recording and High Dynamic Range photography, it's clear Apple is positioning the iPhone as a very high quality portable camera. But because of its small form factor (and Apple's minimalist design approach) it will never contain a threaded nut for attaching a tripod - standard on almost all photo and video cameras. Solutions for mounting an iPhone to a tripod exist (DIY or otherwise) but they are typically bulky and cumbersome. Our goal was to create something small, simple, and elegant.

And something small, simple, and elegant they did!

Not only did Tom and Dave invent a fantastic accessory, but they have a story that is just as amazing. After designing the Glif, they put it up on Kickstarter in an effort to raise the $10,000 needed to put the Glif into production. The design was so popular, they received almost $140,000 in pledges! Incredible. The Glif is now in full scale production and available to order for $20.

This accessory truly is amazing with such a great story and I can't wait to get my hands on one.

Check out the video after the break!

[Glif via TUAW]

Glif Montage from Glif on Vimeo.

[Vimeo link]

Clearcam for iPhone is an app that compliments the already existing camera app. Instead of tapping camera, you take your pictures through Clearcam. I found myself using this app when I wanted clearer pictures or when I was in an area that pictures came out either blurry or dark. The concept is quite simple, it'll take several shots of the same thing and either overlays the shots or chooses the best one (depending on what setting you choose).  The app claims to up quality of the camera from 5MP images to around 11MP images.

When first loading Clearcam, it looks somewhat similar to the iPhone camera app.  It adds a few options that are the basic foundation of what the app really does.  You'll see the shutter button and then two options.  One labeled "quick" and one labeled "enhanced".

The quick setting is just that.  It will take 3 shots in rapid succession.  It will save the best one to your camera roll.  It works like it says it does and typically always gets a good shot.

The enhanced mode will take 6 shots quickly and it will take the best parts of each one, essentially stitching them together to create a better all around image.  In my experience, it was somewhat touch and go.  I also would take the same picture with my stock camera app.  In some scenarios, it seemed like the stock camera app took better pictures than what Clearcam stitched together.  It was rare, but it did happen occasionally.  I'm not sure if maybe the app has trouble stitching certain pictures together or rendering them, but there's definitely a bug there.

The app performs better in low light settings than the default camera in all instances (at least in my experience).  I'd probably attribute this to the fact that it's picking either the best picture or rendering 6 pictures together to create the best possible image.  If the exposure was a little dark in some places, it will pull the better pieces from another picture.  Having this app in low light settings is enough to justify purchasing it in my opinion.

(*Side note about pictures, most of them are better quality than shown here, we have a limit on image uploads so I had to downsize some of them which will reduce the quality a bit)

[iTunes Link]

Pros

• Increases the quality by a landslide, especially in low light situations

• App is responsive and doesn't take forever to save to the camera roll like other photo apps

• Increases quality in darker pictures

• Very simple to use

Cons

• Some photos come out blurrier than the default camera app (assuming this is some kind of bug)

• No settings other than Quick and Enhanced and tap to focus, would like to see some native contrast and saturation settings to make up for the lack of settings in the default camera app

Camera+ is no longer in the iTunes App Store following a bizarre week that rejection, revelation, feature requests, and possible take down.

Here's the short version -- Camera+ pushed out an update that would let users take photos via the hardware volume buttons. Apple rejected the update because it does not currently allow that functionality. Camera+ developers TapTapTap posted about the rejection and said they'd filed a feature request with Apple to change the policy and allow volume buttons to be re-assigned. They also let slip on twitter that a little easter egg would allow the volume buttons to be re-assigned in the current version of TapTapTap. Then they deleted the tweet, but the internet had already picked it up and propagated it.

Apple has a policy on easter eggs. If they're disclosed and innocuous they're fine. If they're undisclosed and used as a way to circumvent the review process and App Store policies, they'll get you removed. Basically, if the feature wouldn't get approved out in the open, don't try to sneak it in as an easter egg.

So now either Apple has pulled Camera+ or TapTapTap has taken it down themselves to proactively remove the easter egg. We'll likely have to wait until they let us know.

And that's where I start to wonder if it's really a story, or media manipulation as marketing? They've already made a reported $500,000 in sales, and this little round of publicity -- should they get back into the App Store -- won't hurt. Except, of course, when the press starts to feel played, it will eventually backfire.

Maybe that's the real easter egg?

[9to5Mac, thanks maj0!]

Developer tap tap tap submitted an update for their app Camera+ which included a new feature called VolumeSnap. VolumeSnap allowed users to use the volume controls to take a photo, a feature that many iPhone users have asked for. Apple, however, does not approve of using the iPhone's hardware in this manner. Here's what they had to say to tap tap tap:

Your application cannot be added to the App Store because it uses iPhone volume buttons in a non-standard way, potentially resulting in user confusion. Changing the behavior of iPhone external hardware buttons is a violation of the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement. Applications must adhere to the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines as outlined in the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement section 3.3.7

The iPhone Human Interface Guidelines states:

Users use the device’s volume buttons to adjust the volume of all sounds their devices can play, including songs, application sounds, and device sounds. Users can always use the volume buttons to quiet any sound, regardless of the position of the Ring/Silent switch.

Using the volume buttons to adjust an application’s currently playing audio also adjusts the overall system volume, with the exception of the ringer volume. (Using the volume buttons when no audio is currently playing adjusts the ringer volume.)

Although tap tap tap is disappointed that their app got reject, they are appreciative of the fact that Apple was very informative regarding the reason behind the rejection.

Flashlight apps that use the iPhone 4's LED flash were originally in violation of Apple's policy, but it got changed after a developer encouraged Apple to review it. So tap tap tap is encouraging developers and users alike to submit a feature request to Apple to get this policy changed.

So there you go, if the ability to use the volume buttons to snap a photo is something you desire, make your voice heard!

UPDATE: Flo from shimanke.com just let us know that there is way to enable VolumeSnap on the current version of Camera+. Just visit camplus://enablevolumesnap in mobile Safari. Doing so will launch Camera+ and VolumeSnap just works. There is a possibility that doing this will disable the volume control to your iPhone, but closing Camera+ from the multitasking dock quickly fixes it. To disable VolumeSnap, visit camplus://disablevolumesnap in mobile Safari.

I've tried it and it works flawlessly. In fact, I didn't even lose volume control. If you try it out, let us know how it works for you!

[tap tap tap via @justin_horn]

Camera+ for iPhone is a photography application that allows you to take photos and edit them. tap tap tap claims Camera+ is "all about one thing - GREAT PHOTOS!" How does Camera+ hold up to this expectation? Follow along to find out.

When you launch Camera+, you will be looking at the back of camera with a view finder. Under the viewfinder, where there would normally be a screen on a digital camera, there are two options: take photos and Lightbox. Behind the camera, you can see a little of what your iPhone's camera can see. Inside the viewfinder, you'll see a very small version of exactly what your camera sees. Tap on the viewfinder or "take photos" to take a picture.

When taking a photo, there is a 3x3 grid to help line up your shot (optional). There is also a stabilizer which will not snap the picture until the iPhone is held still. This is great for low light situations or when you are zoomed in (up to 5x).

The Lightbox is where you go to view all the photos you've taken with Camera+. The Lightbox is designed with filmstrips containing 3 photos each and is very visually appealing. None of the photos save to your camera roll until you tell it to. This is great for keeping your camera roll clutter-free of photos you don't want. Tapping a photo brings up options to edit, save, copy, or share. Double tapping a photo makes it larger and provides the same options.

There are 4 different ways to edit your photos: scenes, crops, effects, and borders. Scenes is similar to the different modes you might find on a digital point and shoot camera: auto, flash, sunset, night, backlit, portrait, beach, scenery, concert, food, and text. There are 9 different common crop ratios available. The 21 different effects are categorized as color, retro, and special. I am impressed with all the options and quality of these effects. They are fun and look great. There are 7 different borders to choose from. Most are very basic; the only "fun" one being "instant" which makes your photo look like it was taken with a polaroid camera.

Overall, I was impressed with Camera+. The plethora of good effects makes the app worth it alone. Camera+ does a great job of producing great photos.

[$1.99 - iTunes link]

Pros

• Unique UI
• 5x zoom, stabilizer, and grid available when taking photos
• Creatively designed Lightbox to scroll through pictures
• Many scene modes, crop ratios, borders, and effects
• Share to Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr
• Support for multitasking, Retina Display, flash, and front facing camera on iPhone 4
• Access photo library to edit photos not taken with Camera+

Cons

• Landscape only supported when taking and viewing photos
• Cannot view photos in full screen
• Saving a photo to camera roll removes it from the Lightbox

While iPhone 4 has stolen the spotlight these days, iPhone 3GS is still equipped with a great camera, especially for a phone. However, we never imagined a photographer using the iPhone 3GS during a professional photo shoot. Lee Morris, a professional fashion photographer and writer for f stoppers, has done just that!

The idea behind the shoot was to prove to his readers that a professional camera is not required to get professional photos. He assembled a team of professionals including professional model, Olivia Price, hair and makeup artists, a retoucher, and videographer, all of whom volunteered their time for the project. Morris also used his a studio and lighting equipment.

Morris also admits to using photoshop in post production. He claims that Photoshop is a "necessary tool" for his line of work. "I am in the business of making money and my clients do not care if I got it perfect in the camera or made it perfect in post, they simply want a perfect image."

Morris made sure to stress that the point of this shoot was to show that a photographer should not be limited by his camera; in fact, "the most expensive camera in the world is capable of taking bad pictures." He does a great job proving his point, but your average low budget photographer will not be able get the same results without the thousands of dollars of studio equipment that Morris used. He did mention that he may do a similar shoot in the future using only natural light. I would find that much more interesting and believe it would make a bigger impact. I also hope he uses an iPhone 4 next time!

Nevertheless, the images Morris produced are stunning and even more impressive because they were taken with an iPhone 3GS. You can see the entire set of high res photos on Flickr.

Follow us after the break to see a video of the shoot!

[f stoppers via 9To5Mac]

The TiPb forums are naturally a great place to talk, commiserate, celebrate, get help, and offer advice to your fellow iPhone users. In order to create a new thread of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is easy and free so if you haven’t already head on over and register now!

• Still on the hunt for a new iPhone 4 case? Look no further than the following thread: iPhone 4 Cases.

• The iPhone 4 has one of the best smartphone cameras currently available so after you've taken advantage of it's camera why not post some of your pictures in our forums? Show off your iPhone 4 pictures here.

• The whole reception issue debate continues with some people effected more than others. Chime in on this poll thread and let us know if you are one of those who are suffering with poor reception.

• Miss your jailbreak on your new iPhone 4? Sound off in this poll thread!

See you in the forums!

The new iPhone 4 is equipped with a much improved 5 megapixel camera with 720p HD video recording capabilities. In addition, there is a built-in LED flash to help in low light situations. We have put the camera and the flash to the test in almost every way except when using the flash to illuminate a poorly lit room while recording HD video. That is, until now!

I have recorded a quick video to see just how well LED flash works in combination with the video camera. As expected, the light does not make much of a difference on items more than a few feet away; but for objects that are close, the little light does an excellent job.

Have you tried your iPhone 4 LED flash out yet? How's it working for you?

The iPhone 4 was officially launched today and after picking mine up, I was eager to test out the new cameras. The rear camera is 5 megapixels and features 5x digital zoom and 16:9, 720p HD video recording. It also has a built-in LED flash that can be used for photos or video. The front-facing camera is VGA quality and can be used for both 1.4 megapixel stills and 360p video as well.

So how do the iPhone 4 cameras perform? Find out after the break!

Photos

Photos taken with the rear camera are beautiful. They are very crisp and the iPhone 4 does an excellent job with exposure and focus. As with the 3GS, I am extremely impressed with the macro ability of the lens. Here's a few pictures I took with the 5 megapixel camera.

The quality of the VGA front-facing camera also impressed me. The photos are, as expected, not as good as those taken with the 5 megapixel camera, but they are still very nice. This self-portrait was taken with the front-facing VGA-quality camera:

The LED flash is much better than expected. I have not been able to test it while recording video because it's still daylight, but photos taken with the flash look great. Here's a sample of a photo taken with and without flash.

I will admit to being a skeptic about the 5x digital zoom. Optical zoom is so superior to digital zoom that I expected it to look horrible. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that software behind the digital zoom does a great job with the photos. Clearly, they are not as good as they would be without the the zoom, but not too bad. Here's a series of photos I took in increments of 1/4 of the full 5x digital zoom.

Video

HD video recording on the iPhone 4 is a dream come true. The ability to record 720p video with my iPhone feels like such a luxury. The video comes out crisp and beautiful and is so easy to edit with iMovie directly on the device. My only complaint is that the tap to focus feature can be a bit touchy (pun intended!). When standing still while recording, tap to focus works wonderfully. However, if you've walked around for a bit and then decided to tap to focus, the iPhone sometimes struggles to grab a good focus. I demonstrate this in the the video below.

The VGA-quality front-facing camera also captures video, and although it's not HD, the quality is still pretty good.

Here's a video I put together with iMovie for iPhone with video and photo samples. What do you think? If you've put your iPhone 4's video recording to the test, we want to know your experience and thoughts as well. Sound off in the comments below!

iPhone 4 is the most significant hardware revision to Apple's widescreen iPod, breakthrough internet communicator, and phone since the original iPhone 2G was released in 2007. But how significant is it? Apple CEO Steve Jobs said there were over 100 new features and singled out 8 for special attention. We'll take the most interesting of both and see just how important they are, after the break.

(For more on the software, see our massive iOS 4 feature walkthrough).

In typical Apple hyperbolic fashion, they introduce iPhone as changing everything, and they have a video to prove it. Beyond the hyperbole, the thought they place into every detail of what they make is impressive. New mixes of stainless steal. New technologies for battery life. Manufacturing procedures that create unmatched build quality. And consider this: how many companies have a Senior Vice President of design?

YouTube link

FaceTime

FaceTime got the Steve Jobs "one more thing" bump at this year's WWDC so it's a fitting place to start the feature discussion. Now Apple didn't invent video calling, of course, but once again they're taking what has been a niche technology and making it mainstream. There are a couple of huge challenges this time: at the moment it's Wi-Fi only and iPhone 4 only. "At this time" because Apple indicated they were trying to push it out to the carriers and their 3G (and upcoming 4G) networks next year, and they've built it out of -- and are releasing the resulting work back to -- open standards so it can be implemented into other clients and devices. (If you're curious as to which standards, Apple lists them as H.264 video codec, AAC audio codec, SIP signaling protocol, STUN and ICE for NAT traversal, TURN for TCP/UDP data receipt, RTP and SRTP for audio and video packet delivery.)

In typical Apple fashion, however, the end user isn't supposed to worry one bit about all those acronyms mean or how hard it is to do what they're doing -- the end user is simply supposed to press the FaceTime icon and talk to their parents or grandparents, see their children and grandchildren, or tap the switch button to flip from front-facing to rear camera to watch the first footsteps or see the winning goal. That's how Apple is marketing it and they're usually very good at marketing.

Yes, on Wi-Fi you could just use your laptop webcam or MacBook iSight, but iPhone 4 will be infinitely more portable. You won't be (or at least you shouldn't be) chasing your 2 year old around the garden with a 5 lbs pound computer. And we won't even get into what it could do for long distance romances...

Apple should add FaceTime to their Mac iChat app eventually (though with their current iOS focus, the resources may not be there at this point). Skype might just be looking at supporting it as well, which would be huge. As an open standard, Android and Palm apps might come along for it as well. And if you paid attention during the keynote, Steve Jobs said 10 million Apple devices -- not just iPhones -- would support it by the end of the year. So yes, the iPod touch might finally get a camera and get into the fun.

Now there's no word from Apple about recording FaceTime calls so that may not be available at launch (and hordes of impetuous young Hollywood stars should stop and thank Jobs for that), but it's something that's easy to see them adding in the future.

Maintreaming video calls, especially locked to Wi-Fi and a singe device at launch, is a huge challenge and it could be called a gimmick if it were anyone but Apple. (Their focus on small feature sets usually prevents gimmicks from creeping into the roadmap). Unlike mobile web browsing, apps, and video recording, there's no guarantee FaceTime will take off with the masses. But it's so scifi you just have to love the attempt.

YouTube link

Retina Display

All previous generation iPhones shipped with 320x480 displays and with Android increasingly going 480x800, conventional wisdom assumed Apple would have to meet that resolution. They didn't. To lift Apple Senior Vice-President of iOS Software, Scott Forstall's favorite line -- they blew it away. The new iPhone has a 640x960 display at 3.5" diagonal size and 3:2 aspect ratio for a whopping 326 pixel density per inch (that's 78 microns wide for pixel geeks). Topping it off is an 800:1 contrast ratio so whites are whiter and blacks are blacker.

That means, very literally, where last year's iPhone had 1 pixel, this year's will have 4. For developers this is huge because older apps will look the same as before, if not slightly better because Apple will automatically re-render text and UI elements at the higher resolution. New apps will just look phenomenally better.

Apple is calling this set of technologies "Retina Display" because they day the pixel density is so high your retina can't distinguish the dots anymore -- it looks like a photo or magazine page. There's some debate about wether or not the Retina Display claim is scientifically accurate (it depends a great deal on how sharp your eyes are and how close you hold it) but for all intents and purposes, it doesn't matter. It's sharp enough that most people won't notice the pixels -- until they go back to other displays.

Apple is also using the IPS (in-plane switching) technology they mainstreamed in the iMac and iPad along with LED backlight to create an incredibly wide viewing angle. Where other devices look pretty much blank from the side, iPhone 4 is still legible. For those trying to hide the documents they're reading on planes, privacy films will no doubt sell like hotcakes. For those who want to share a movie or webpage with their family and friends, it'll be hugely appreciated.

For their next trick, Apple has used optical glass that's not only been treated for even greater scratch resistance, not only using their oil-resistant coating, but is laminated directly onto the screen so that there's no longer a gap in the display. The pixels are right underneath the glass, minimizing reflections and making it feel more like you're looking at it and not through something into it.

What this means for users is that the iPhone 4 will look better more often, text will be easier to read in a wider variety of circumstances, and apps will appear the same as before if they haven't been updated, and crisper and clearer than ever before if they have.

Multitasking

Steve Jobs highlighted multitasking as one of iPhone 4's eight new features but that's software not hardware, and it will work on iPhone 3GS and iPod touch G3 as well, so I'm covering it in TiPb's iOS 4 walkthrough.

Still, it should look and work even better on the iPhone 4, and here's hoping a post-release teardown reveals Apple was good enough to go with 512MB of RAM this time to really keep it snappy.

Cameras front and back (with LED flash)

The big news with iPhone 4 is that Apple introduced a front-facing camera into the mix. It's only VGA resolution -- 640x480 -- but for self-protrait profile shots for social networks like Facebook and Twitter, and FaceTime video calls, it should be more than enough for now.

The bigger news is the rear-facing camera, and that iPhone 4 feels like Apple is finally taking digital imaging seriously. The first two generations of iPhone camera were outstanding only in their convenience, with low megapixel counts and serviceable if limited software. Apple kept hiring engineers, however, and while the iPhone 3GS raised the bar to 3.2 megapixels and introduced tap-to-focus and all manner of automagical white balancing, iPhone 4 is a leap beyond. And not just in megapixels.

Sure, other devices already have 8 megapixels, but anyone who loves photography already knows megapixels are meaningless after a certain point (unless you're shooting billboards, and then you have something in the 23 range already, don't you?) In the megapixel spec race, just like with dedicated cameras before, hardware makers take the same lens and cut it up ever-smaller, meaning the number of pixels goes up even as the light captured by each one (i.e. the quality of those pixels) goes down. Canon and Nikon are (thankfully) shifting away from megapixels and racing now towards ISO/low-light performance and it appears Apple is following suit.

iPhone 4 is getting a 5-megapixel camera, but instead of chopping the iPhone 3GS lens up even more, they've increased the physical size of the rear-facing lens and more than that -- added a backside illuminated sensor to really up the low-light levels. They've also added an automatic LED flash, which is a good casual option. It's not the dual flash some other devices have, and its not the sun-like torches the big boys of SLR carry shoe-mounted, but it harkens back to the original iPhone camera -- good enough given the convenience of having it built in. (Speaking of which, there's also a 5x digital zoom which is, eh, a digital zoom -- since they obviously can't do optical given the narrow depth of the phone -- but it's there if sneaker zoom isn't possible).

720p video recording and editing

The bigger 5 megapixel camera on the iPhone 4 means not only will it do bigger stills but it can now capture 720p videos as well. Apple isn't specific on its tech spec page, but it looks like they've gone from the iPhone 3GS' 3:2 VGA aspect ratio to a full on 1280x720, 16x9 which will be great news to casual videographers. (Everyone else is carrying around a Mark II as well now for 1080p, right?)

The LED flash can be turned on to brighten dark moments, and while the mic doesn't seem improved, overall it's a good upgrade and might even make the iPhone 4 good enough to replace your Flip MinoHD.

Also worth noting, just like with iPhone OS 3.0, iOS 4 will let you trim and share your clips right on device. Apple is also introducing the $4.99 iMovie for iPhone app for more advanced video editing, theming, transitions, and titling.

We'll cover the built-in functionality in our iOS 4 walkthrough and as soon as iMovie for iPhone ships, we'll get you a full review. Suffice it to say, if you don't mind working on a 3.5" screen, the demos look fantastic.

Folders

iOS 4 has the same 11 home screens as iPhone OS 3.0 but thanks to Folders you aren't limited to 180 apps anymore -- you can shove 12 into the space that previously took only 1, meaning 2160 is you new limit. Strangely, only 9 apps are shown on folder icons instead of the 12 that lurk inside, but thanks to the Retina Display those tiny 9 should look incredibly sharp and clear enough to identify even without the smart folder naming.

However, while Jobs again singled this out as an iPhone 4 feature, it should work (if not as sharply) on all iOS 4 devices and so we're covering it in our iOS 4 walkthrough instead.

Noise-canceling microphone

It turns out two microphones on the iPhone 4 are more than twice as good as one. The reason is, like some other devices before it, iPhone 4 is using that second mic for noise cancelation. Whatever sounds it pics up that aren't picked up by the main mic at the bottom -- the one you're talking into -- get digitally removed from the audio meaning the person at the other end has a far better chance of hearing more of what you're saying and less of the party, traffic, or other commotion going on around you.

Gyroscope

Being able to more precisely control position in 3D space on iPhone 4? Terrific. Watching Steve Jobs play Jenga on the WWDC stage? Priceless. Both come courtesy of the new gyroscope included in the iPhone 4, no doubt at the behest of game developers. It will do for the iPhone what Wii Motion Plus did for Nintendo -- make good control much, much better. With 3-axis detection, rotation around gravity, advanced motion sensing is a reality. (If you're not a gamer, that translates into augmented reality apps, which should find fine use of it as well).

Even better, Apple has packaged it up along with the accelerometer to create CoreMotion API for developers so it can be more easily integrated into apps, and more elegantly degraded down to accelerometer alone for previous generation devices that don't have a gyro. (Just like CoreLocation does if GPS isn't present).

Stainless steel antenna bands

When Apple says things like they created their own stainless steal alloy for the iPhone 4 band, it just sounds like they're showing off. When they explain that not only does the band form the main structure of the device (allowing for more room inside), but the gaps -- as complained about in earlier device leaks -- are caused by it being part of the antenna system of the phone, it's exactly them showing off.

The structural part is a take-off of the unibody technology that debuted with the MacBook Air in 2008 and has since spread across the MacBook line and into the iMac and iPad. The antenna part? Well, we'll have to wait and see what difference if any it makes in the iPhone 4 reception -- particularly on AT&T. If it improves that there likely won't be a single complaint about the gaps, not ever again.

Apple A4 processor

The Apple A4 system on a chip (SoC) debuted with the iPad. While Apple isn't making their own components (yet?), they are taking the ARM Cortex A8, revving it up to 1GHz, and pairing it with an Imagination PowerVR SGX to incredibly performant, even more incredibly power saving results.

Apple truly believes that people serious about software make their own hardware, and with iPhone 4 they're starting to take that down to the silicon level.

Battery life

Thanks to the Apple A4 and the larger battery crammed into the iPhone 4, battery stats look better than ever, and even match the iPad for video playback.

• Talk time: Up to 7 hours on 3G, 14 hours on 2G
• Standby time: Up to 300 hours
• Internet use: Up to 6 hours on 3G, 10 hours on Wi-Fi
• Video playback: Up to 10 hours
• Audio playback: Up to 40 hours

Other specs

A few more iPhone 4 specs deserve mention.

Size

• Height: 4.5 inches (115.2 mm)
• Width: 2.31 inches (58.6 mm)
• Depth: 0.37 inch (9.3 mm)
• Weight: 4.8 ounces (137 grams)

So, essentially the same size as previous iPhones, but 24% less depth. Which is crazy. There has to come a point where increasing the components, and size of the components in the device becomes more important than thinning it out. Right?

Colors

Like previous years, iPhone 4 comes in black and white. Unlike previous years, iPhone 4's white option isn't back-only -- even the glass front plate comes in white.

Cellular and wireless

• UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz)
• GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
• 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi (802.11n 2.4GHz only)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR wireless technology

Pentaband radio is almost as crazy, and certainly good news to people in countries like New Zealand where the additional frequencies will be most welcome. People hoping for the 1700 MHz band for T-Mobile 3G will unfortunately remain disappointed.

802.11n is welcome, the 2.4GHz only is not. That's the same, busy, interference-laced band most of the slower 802.11 protocols slum around in, not to mention microwaves and garage door openers. Now that dual-band routers (like Apple's own Airport Extreme since 2009) can support both older standards and the newer, higher bands, it's unfortunate we're not going to get to use them on iPhone 4.

TV and Video

It looks like iPhone 4 supports the same PCM stereo audio in .avi file format as iPad, which I thought was for importing footage from older video cameras via the Camera Kit USB dongle. If it is, then does that mean the Camera Kit will work with iPhone 4? (It doesn't with iPhone 3GS under iOS 4).

VGA cable support is listed, so apps that choose to make use of it can be output through the dock to VGA adapter that was released alongside the iPad. Carrying presentations around with the iPhone will be a great ultra-mobile solution. (Hollywood probably won't let too many of their movies escape that way, however).

Conclusion

Steve Jobs was right, iPhone 4 is Apple's biggest leap forward since the original iPhone 2G they rightly claim re-invented the smartphone market. Is it big enough to re-re-invent it? That's impossible to answer until we've reviewed it but the odds are long -- that type of thing typically only happens once every decade or two, not year or three. Still it's one of the most significant pieces of engineering to date and that's saying a lot.

TiPb will have a complete iPhone 4 review as soon as Apple makes it available and a buyers guide before it goes up for pre-order to help you decide if and when to buy it or upgrade to it.

In the meantime check out TiPb's iOS 4 preview to see the software Apple's bringing to bear on this amazing piece of hardware.

(And if I've missed anything in this preview, point it out in comments so it can be added in).

It was only a matter of time that developers searched through the latest iPhone OS 4 beta to find secret goodies and this time we see that the next generations of the iPod and iPad both may receive a LED camera flash (which we guess also presupposes they're receive cameras, right?). The code is as follows:

FLASHDISABLEDiPad = "The iPad needs to cool down before you can use the flash.";

FLASHDISABLEDiPod = "The iPod needs to cool down before you can use the flash.";

Knowing that it is highly likely the next generation of iPad will contain a camera with flash, anyone out there regretting picking up the first generation? Or after the iPod touch incident last year, can we even be sure it'll make it into the next shipping product? Sound off in the comments!

[9to5Mac]

Another iPod touch with a 2 megapixel camera has been leaked, this time from Tinhte in Vietnam who also brought us the second iPhone HD/iPhone 4G leak. We saw something similar just before September 2009's iPod touch G3 announcement -- sans camera -- and again on eBay later.

Rumors persist that Apple pulled the camera from the iPod touch at the eleventh hour, perhaps due to quality or availability of parts, and if true it stands to reason a few prototypes with camera are still floating around -- it's just amazing Apple has lost control of so many of them.

And that Vietnam appears to be the latest hotspot for Apple device leaks.

More pics and video after the break!

[Tinhte via Engadget]

YouTube link

What with that iPhone HD/iPhone 3G showing up on Gizmodo and now two prototype iPod touch devices temporarily showing up on eBay, we'd sure hate to be Apple's prop master right now.

Oh, you didn't hear about the iPod touch (with cameras!) yet?

Someone has put up two semi-working iPod touches WITH cameras and a development version of the iPod OS on Ebay. They are marked with 'DVT-1' and 'DVT-2', 'Apple Development Team' and one is running some sort of 'switchboard' OS window.

They've been pulled of course, which isn't unexpected, and they seem to look like that prototype from last year that got out shortly before the official, camera-free iPod touch G3 debuted in September.

So is this from the same 2009 batch or a new 2010 batch? We're thinking the former, and we're also wondering just who is losing all this secret Apple test gear?

Gallery after the break!

[9to5Mac]

Apple has finally gotten around to making the iPad camera connection kit available for pre-order and you can expect it to ship in late April. The kit supports all of the standard photo formats including JPEG and RAW and it sells for $29. Conveniently two connections are included:

• The Camera Connector features a USB interface. Just plug it into the dock connector port on your iPad, then attach your digital camera or iPhone using a USB cable (not included).

• Use the SD Card Reader to import photos directly from your camera's SD card. Connect it to your iPad, then insert your digital camera's SD card into the slot.

Why it's taken Apple this long to get this particular accessory up for pre-order is beyond us but never the less, it is now available for pre-order.

[Via Mac Rumors]

While I was busy enjoying the subtler UI details, AppleInsider noticed that last night's iPad commercial debut showed what might be some of the pricing inside the new iBooks Store:

The commercial showed Sen. Edward Kennedy's "True Compass: A Memoir" for $14.99, the novel "I, Alex Cross" by James Patterson for $12.99, and "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Journey to Change the World... One Child at a Time" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin for $7.99.

For comparison, "True Compass" currently sells for $19.25 for the Amazon Kindle, "I, Alex Cross" costs $9.99, and "Three Cups of Tea" costs $7.19.

Whether or not that was final, or merely mocked up pricing for the commercial, remains to be seen.

TUAW also notes a New York Times button at the bottom, presumably to access a special New York Times Bestsellers section of the iBooks Store.

Lastly, 9to5Mac notes the My Documents button at the top left of of the Pages iWork touch app (good for PC users?). And -- gasp! -- another smudge that's likely still not a camera.

So, did the iPad commercial do it's job and make anyone more interested in picking up a magical, revolutionary new piece of gear on April 3?

Patently Apple brings another interesting Apple proposal to our attention -- this one involving using the iPhone camera to detect swipes backward, forward, and the accelerometer to detect pause or play for things like Voice Mail without having to move the iPhone away from your ear. But that's not all:

Consider the following example of navigating the display screen. If the user wishes to scroll down on a webpage or text document, then the user would simply move their finger across the camera lens in an upward direction (i.e., towards the top of the screen 200). This would be consistent with moving the page "up" so as to bring a bottom portion of the page into view. To move the page down (and thereby bring a top portion of the page into view), the reverse needs to occur, i.e., the user needs to swipe across the lens in a downward direction. Note that navigation on the display screen (using a finger swipe across the camera lens) need not be limited to straight up and down, but rather could be performed in other or additional directions (e.g. left and right). Now that Apple is introducing "iBook" – think of flipping the page of a book using this method so that you don't even have to move your hands from the iPhone or future camera based iPad.

So now we've heard of case gestures, bevel gestures, and camera gestures... Of course Apple patents tons of stuff we haven't and may never see in real products, but are any of these starting to interest you?

[Patently Apple via MacRumors]

WhenWillApple has found an interesting screen in the just-released iPhone 3.2 SDK for the iPad -- one that once again hints at camera functionality.

We don't want to set anyone up for anticipointment, so we're seriously not expecting any last minute camera additions before next months iPad launch, but the regular stream of rumors sure isn't helping!

UPDATE 1: 9to5Mac has found settings for making a picture your Lock Screen background, Home Screen background, or both.

UPDATE 2: MacRumors has found references to camera flash and zoom in the strings, and shows those accept/decline video iChat we linked to previously.

So, did Apple once again intend to include a camera and pull it at the last minute? Could there be a surprise in March or will we have to wait until the 2nd gen iPad to see it again?

[Thanks Justin for the tip!]

According to Mission Repair, Apple's iPad has a space for an iSight webcam/camera inside the device. Based on parts seemingly obtained through unofficial channels, the frame appears to have a very similar area to the MacBook's existing iSight webcam enclosure.

If true, this is almost the exact same situation that occurred with the iPod touch G3, which was widely rumored to be getting a camera, ended up being introduced without one, and was torn-down after release to show the area where a camera was ready to go.

In that case, it was said Apple wasn't pleased with the quality of the cameras they'd received, and so pulled them at the last minute. Could they have received a second bum batch for the iPad? Could they have tested out the awkward camera angle enforced by holding an iPad flat on the lap and decided no one needed to see the undersides of their chine? Seriously, people, we're running out of ideas as to why there aren't any cameras on these devices. Let us know what you think!

UPDATED: Did the demo iPad shown off by Steve Jobs have that missing iSight camera? Florian sent us a link to screen shots from the keynote that show... something. Check it out after the break...

[Mission Repair via MacRumors]

Not content to allow France to hog all the 4th generation iPhone rumor attention, Korea Times claims carrier KT reveals (we read that as wishes rather than knows) the following specs:

They said the coming 4G iPhones will be equipped with organic light emitting diode (OLED) screens on surface and live video chat functionalities, while removable battery is highly likely.

The new 4G iPhone is also going to be loaded with dual core processors and higher and powerful graphic chips that can deliver higher video resolutions and better "still" images when taking pictures.

Let's make this clear again up front (lest we be smited), no one outside of a tiny group at Apple and maybe Foxconn brass know exactly what the 4th gen iPhone is going to be, and even then it's subject to change (like the iPod touch G3 losing it's camera at the eleventh hour). So, while OLED and a better camera make sense given the competitive environment, multi-core chips are already on the roadmap, and a chat cam is always rumored for each new device, it's hard to imagine Apple would make a removable batter now given how much effort they've put into making long-life, built in batteries for iPods, iPhones, and now MacBooks as well. Carrying extra batteries isn't a maintream reality.

Still, let us know what you think. We likely know as much as anyone outside the illuminati at this point!

[Thanks to the Reptile for the tip!]

AppleInsider is hearing that Apple is looking to acquire LED flash camera components for the 4th generation iPhone, assumed to be announced this June/July during their WWDC event, and perhaps it's iPhone touch G4 which would come later, in September:

People familiar with Apple's initiative claim the electronics maker is seeking allotments of LED camera flash components in the tens of millions for delivery during the 2010 calendar year, meaning future iPhones -- and possibly the iPod touch -- are the most likely recipients of those parts, due to their sales volume. Those same people say that Philips' Lumileds Lighting sector is believed to be the front-runner for Apple's business and may have already secured the design win.

The Amsterdam-based firm is well-regarded for its LUXEON LED camera flash technology, which was the first to combine the brightness of regular lighting with the long life and small footprint of LEDs. The technology is commonly coupled with 5+ megapixel cameras and has seen shipments of over 200 million units worldwide.

LED flash would be a competitive move for Apple, since HTC, Nokia, and other manufacturers have been delivering better and brighter versions with each iteration. Now, whether it would be incorporated into a "Glowing Apple Logo" or not remains unknown

Digitimes is reporting that OmniVision has received an order from Apple for 40-45 million CMOS sensors packing 5 megapixels, bound for next year's 4th generation iPhone. That's nearly double the unites -- and a huge increase in pixel count -- from the iPhone 3GS cameras OmniVision currently supplies.

As with all next-gen iPhone rumors, take this one with an iTablet-sized grain of salt, but it does make competitive sense for Apple to bump the camera next year, among other things (cough iPhone HD cough).

(Personally, I prefer lower pixel counts and higher sensor sizes; cutting them up so much results in bigger pictures, not better. Low light should be the arms race here, manufacturers.)

Of course, we'll never know for sure until WWDC 2010 when Steve Jobs (or Phil Schiller) hoists it up on stage.

Apple is no stranger to lawsuits, and today is no exception as St. Clair Intellectual Property Consultants have slapped them with a lawsuit that claims the iPhone infringes upon four digital camera patents that the company holds. The four include the ‘459, ‘219, ‘010 and ‘899 patents.

• 459: Take image contained within lens and store in some type of memory.
• 219: Display the picture that will be taken in some type of display window.
• 010: Push button in order to capture image.
• 899: Make images contained within some type of memory and make them viewable in some sort of digital camera roll.

St. Clair is a veteran of suing over patent infringements as they successfully squeezed 25 million out of Sony back in 2001 and in 2003 they sued Canon and were awarded $34 million in damages. They also have gone after companies such as Fuji, Kyocera, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Casio, Samsung, Panasonic, Nokia, HP, Kodak, LG, Motorola, RIM, Palm, and various others.

[Via Loopinsight]

Like horrible holiday movie sequels, iPod touch camera rumors just keep getting spit out the mill with the same tired old plots and ever weaker impact. This time, the Examiner claims an "inside source" who claims that the iPod touch with camera was delayed last year from quality assurance reasons, but will return this spring with an iPod nano-like video recording capability.

Our take? Yeah, the camera was bumped from last year's iPod touch G3, but Apple likes its product cycles so we probably won't see a camera again until the iPod touch G4 is introduced in September 2010 (and we surely hope it's not the low-res, video-only nano camera by then either -- not on the flagship device, no sir!)

[Examiner via 9to5Mac]

The 5 megapixel, dual LED flash Verizon/Motorola Droid camera beats the iPhone 3GS 3 megapixels on specs alone, right? Not according to the Chicago Sun/Times' technology columnist, Andy Ihnatko, who put some side-by-side comparison shots up on Flickr.

Ihnatko also seems to share many of my opinions about the Droid's dubious introduction commercial, though he writes it out ever so much better. About the camera specifically, he says:

But does the Droid actually take better pictures than the iPhone? Overall, no. Over the past few days I’ve shot lots of scenes with both phones and the iPhone consistently produced prettier images. Where software inside the Droid is easily bamboozled by uncooperative lighting, the iPhone’s camera app almost always finds a workable and attractive solution.

Droid Day in November 6th. Android Central has one in the house, and Casey's already crowing about it, so stay tuned for more!

[Via Daring Fireball]

Everyone, including Steve Jobs, has very reasonable sounding theories as to why the third gen iPod touch camera was removed. Rather than rehash it again, however, we thought we'd let our minds wonder into parody, and consider what might have happened in a world only slightly more cartoonish than ours...

Steve Jobs, fresh from his recent leave of absence, comes crashing back into Apple's Cupertino campus, and after fixing the typography on the iPhone 3G S 3GS, tweaking some pixels on the Snow Leopard UI, and spending time meditating deep in the iTablet vault, he heads over to the scorched closet that used to be reserved for iPhone A2DP testing...

"64GB a go?" he demands. "Good"

"Is it thinner?" grumble. "Next year..."

"What about those ultra-tiny auto-focus 3 megapixel sensors we received?" Massive frown. "They don't work? Not any of them? Then what's this prototype using?"

The room goes dead silent.

"The iPod nano VGA camera? In a premium, flagship product, that runs the iPhone OS and supports gorgeous stills and breathtaking video?"

The silence is broken by the sound of the iPod touch with camera prototype ricochetting off the head of the hapless white-coat who had the temerity to offer it up.

"Yank it, bozos." Jobs strides from the room, Dark Force lightning blistering the air around him. "And let's try to raise the intelligence in this room by next spring, shall we?"

And, boom, no camera, not even a nano-style VGA one in the iPod touch this fall. If that's the case, however, it's hard to argue with Jobs (or whomever made the final decision?) that an iPod touch class device demands an iPhone 3GS, and not iPod nano class camera.

That's not the way Apple plays cricket. They don't do choppy 15-frame a second video on the iPhone 3G, and they won't put a nano camera in the iPod touch.

[via Engadget and Macrumors]

Yesterday we heard a rumor that Apple may be experiencing problems with the iPod's new camera feature, and those problems could cause a delay.

Today, Hardmac [via MacRumors] threw in some rumored details about the rumored problems:

The issue would be linked to the new camera module. We did not get any further details, but the problem has been spotted in the first dozen of thousands units produced. Those units have been put aside.

Again, even if true, this would likely only cause a delay in the release of the third generation iPod touch, not its announcement at tomorrow's "It's only rock and roll, but we like it" special music event. This has happened in the past when products weren't quite ready or had last minute spec changes necessitating a delay.

Still, we'll only know for sure when Apple hits the stage.

The iPod touch, iPod nano, and now it sounds like the hard-drive based iPod classic are all set to receive cameras, presumably at Apple's September 9 music event. We've heard rumors of the iPod touch before, of course, and even the iPod nano, but the iPod classic as well?

That's what Digitimes (via MacRumors) is reporting:

OmniVision will be the sole supplier of 3.2-megapixel CIS products for new iPod nano, iPod classic and iPod Touch models which will be launched in September, the sources indicated.

So, the take away -- if these rumors pan out -- is that those of you who want apps (touch), portability (nano) and now, massive storage capacity (classic) might all have uber-convenient picture snapping in your future.

It was just over a year ago that the iPhone became the undisputed champion of cell phone cameras on Flickr. Without a doubt, the modern day cell phone camera has become a serious photographic tool and thanks to the release of iPhone 3GS, the iPhone has stepped into 1st place in upload popularity of all cameras just ahead of Cannon's Digital Rebel XTi.

Now we all are aware that the three megapixel camera on the iPhone 3GS is not the best out there but it does it's job fairly well. The main reason for it's popularity on Flickr is convenience. Not only do you carry your iPhone everywhere you go, unlike a regular camera, you also have the ability to upload directly from the device. Convenience reigns supreme.

It was only a matter of time before iPhone was crowned the undisputed overall champion of the Flickr world.

[Via Electronista]

Does the iPhone 3GS camera constantly buffer live video data, in effect pre-caching the images you want before you take them? Birdhouse developer Adam Lisagore thinks so, and says so via his Lonely Sandwich blog:

from the moment you launch the Camera app, data is not only streaming to the viewer, but being cached to memory at full resolution, much like a TiVo with a live broadcast. Where there’s been latency in previous versions of the iPhone hardware/software due to processing limitations, those limitations have been overcome in the iPhone 3GS, closing the gap between intention and result by processing the streaming input from a microsecond before the shutter was released. In essence, the iPhone is constantly storing the picture you want before you even take it.

Daring Fireball confirms this, and after-the-fact, it lines up with a lot of our experiences here at TiPb as well.

Clever indeed, Apple...

Rumors of the third generation iPod touch getting a camera -- even video camera -- is nothing new, however Wired.com now claims they may be getting a built-in microphone as well:

A well-connected source tells us those rumors are on the money, and that Apple’s factories in China are already manufacturing iPod Touch models with integrated cameras and microphones. An Apple spokesman declined to comment when reached by phone.

With the addition of video to Camera, and the Voice Memo app, combined with a built-in mic making VoIP even easier, we'll come out and say it -- ultimate non-phone handset is nigh.

Apple typically unveils new iPod touch models once a year at their special music event, alongside other iPods and related announcements -- which last time, at Let's Rock included the iPhone 2.1 firmware and iTunes 8.

[via MacRumors]

AutoStitch Forum Review by msbaylor. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

AutoStitch is the only application in the App Store that gives the ability to stitch multiple rows of photos in any orientation in creating your panorama, meaning you don’t just get the normal one row, 360 degree view that Pano or the Panorama apps produce.

I was completely taking off guard when I found how utterly simple it was to use the application! Literally you “select & stitch” that all you do, no take one photo, stitch, take another photo, stitch, etc.

Overview

On the main screen you navigate to your photo album and tap to select photos, they don’t have to be in any particular order. The application will then load it into app (bottom half of screen) once that is complete; you can tap the “stitch” button. If there are photos you want to remove, just tap on the photos in the bottom pane and confirm that you want to delete it.

There is a progress bar at the bottom that I found quite accurate and you can watch you panorama build right in front of you.

Once the panorama is complete, it might be odd shaped, but you can crop it later via Photoshop or GIMP- one of the options that is really lacking. At this time you can also zoom in to view the stitching and if you want to replace a photo, you can go back and go through the process again.

There is a progress bar at the bottom that I found quite accurate and you can watch you panorama build right in front of you.

Once the panorama is complete, it might be odd shaped, but you can crop it later via Photoshop or GIMP- one of the options that is really lacking. At this time you can also zoom in to view the stitching and if you want to replace a photo, you can go back and go through the process again.

Once you are satisfied with your result, it’s time to save the photo

Here are some tests (4) that I conducted with the app

1) 4 “rows” of photos, 360 degrees horizontally:

I tool 57 photos and had it stitched into the photo below. Each iPhone (3GS) photo has a resolution of 2,048 x 1,536 (~1000kb each). The photo that I ended up with is 2,406 x 831 (784kb). So my end result is nearly smaller than the initial size of one iPhone photo – not cool. Test Grade: C-

2) 3 Rows of photos, 100 degrees horizontally:

Now the photo below, I took a total of 19 photos taken at the same resolution (obviously), ending result was a 2,350 x 851 photo – just as large as the previous panorama with less photos. I assume that the application is capping the size of the photo to reduce the RAM usage. Test Grade: C+

As In the first test photo I captured about 100 degrees vertical by 360 degrees horizontal, while the second one is only about 30 degrees vertical by 100 degrees horizontal. I am not a fan of this at all.

3) “Normal” one row panorama: The app did a good job at just creating a single row panorama Test Grade: B

4) “Really bad photographer” panorama

I decided to take a number of shots that were taken diagonally, horizontally & vertically. The result I was very pleased with: Test Grade: B-

At first, I thought this app was amazing, but after doing a thorough analysis of the app through the tests, I wasn’t happy with the results. I expected a little more on the resolution side of things. As a reference point, the photo below was created using the Panorama App – its resolution is 3,004 x 832 by combining only 5 iPhone photos, considerably better resolution over the Autostitch app.

If you are someone that’s likes taking panoramas occasionally or would like to get into taking panoramas, this is a nice app to start with; however, if you are a photography kind of person, this isn’t the best app – namely due to the resolution issue, it’s just too low to do anything “more” with it.

Conclusion

Overall I found this application to be groundbreaking on the iPhone, even if it’s not the first Panorama application to come to the App store market – it has raised the bar for other Panorama apps. The application is simple enough for anyone to use. My main complaint is the lack of cropping and picking of resolutions. I assume rendering into a larger resolution would eat up the RAM, but it would be a nice option, especially for the 3GS users. I noticed a lot of blurry areas in my pictures – this is caused by one of two issues – 1. I took a blurry shot or 2. The photo blending didn’t work out to well. Two bucks is a good deal for this tiny, yet powerful app.

Tips on Taking Panoramas with this app

• If using the 3GS, try to set the exposure on a foreground object (which initially appears darker) or vice versa
• If using the 3GS, try to focus on the furthest object, such as the horizon. Obviously this can't always happen especially if you are following the point above.
• Try to hold the iPhone as steady as possible in low light situations

Pros:

• Incredibly simple to use
• Don’t have to have photos in order to stitch
• Add photos all in one go
• Watch the building of the Panorama as it’s created
• Save to photo album is quick

Cons:

• No advanced options
• Alignment isn’t always dead on
• No cropping ability
• Resolution of panorama is low
• Only one resolution option

TiPb Review Rating

Autostitch is available for $1.99 from the iTunes App Store.