Source: Daniel Bader / Android Central
What you need to know
- A TikTok New Year's Eve AR effect was the first to take advantage of LiDAR technology on the iPhone 12 Pro.
- It showed confetti effects that interacted with the real world.
A TikTok AR effect used over the New Year has revealed the awesome power of LiDAR in the iPhone 12 Pro.
TikTok showed off the 2021 confetti effect on its Twitter account, yesterday.
From TikTok:
To ring in 2021 we released our first AR effect on the new iPhone 12 Pro, using LiDAR technology which allows us to create effects that interact with your environment - visually bridging the digital and physical worlds. We're excited to develop more innovative effects in 2021!
As noted, this is the first TikTok effect to take advantage of LiDAR and the results are incredible. You can see from the video how the scanner takes in the surroundings of the room, allowing the confetti in the video to fall on different places including the human subject in the photo. They even fall to the ground when they move away!
As noted by TechCrunch, Snapchat has previously used LiDAR to make better filters, releasing a Lens last year that would show flowers and grass growing on your surroundings and even climbing up the walls.
Apple added the LiDAR scanner to its iPhone 12 Pro lineup when it was released in October. From Apple:
An all-new LiDAR Scanner comes to the Pro line, offering the ability to measure light distance and use pixel depth information of a scene. This technology delivers faster, more realistic AR experiences and improves autofocus by 6x in low-light scenes for more accuracy and reduced capture time in photos and videos. This advanced hardware, combined with the power of the Neural Engine of A14 Bionic, also unlocks Night mode portraits, rendering a beautiful low-light bokeh effect.
The feature offers big camera improvements to features like portrait mode as well as opening up opportunities for AR fun!

Leaked iPhone 14 cases show Pro models' insanely huge camera bumps
Apple is roundly expected to announce a new iPhone 14 lineup later this year and a new leak claims to show some of the cases that are being built for those new handsets. And as we've been expecting, they show the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max devices will both come with massive camera bumps.

'The Big Short' investor Michael Burry has $36 million bet against Apple
Infamous investor Michael Berry has bet against the fortunes of Apple's share price to the tune of 206,000 shares.

Beta testers will likely wait until July to get their hands on iOS 16
If all goes according to previous years we can expect Apple to release the first developer beta of iOS 16 on June 6, the same day that it will be announced. That's the date of the WWDC22 opening keynote but those who are part of the public beta program look set to be waiting a little while longer.

Get a grip on your iPhone with these phone grips
No matter which model iPhone you have, you'll get a better grip on it with one of these.