iPhone

iPhone-related tips and news for everyone interested in Apple’s iPhone or looking to make your iPhone experience even better.

TMO Deals

iPM PU Leather Wallet Case for iPhone 11 with Kickstand: $12.99

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal on the PM Leather Protective Wallet Case. This wallet-style case is made from PU leather, and it includes slots for credit cards, ID cards, and one large pocket for your bills. It also has a kickstand function for propping your iPhone up. We’re linking to the black case for the iPhone 11 for $12.99. There’s a pulldown menu for iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max, too, as well as several color choices.

Cool Stuff Found

The iPhone 11 Glows Thanks to its Glass Back

Andrew Orr ·

Someone noticed that their iPhone 11 glows when you turn on the flashlight. The latest models have a special matte glass material on the back. While the iPhone 8 and later have had a glass back, it wasn’t matte and so didn’t produce this effect (Or at least, this is the first time I’ve seen this).

When you turn the flash light on, the iPhone 11 glass back glows. Not sure if the iPhone XR did this too, but I thought the effect was pretty cool.

You can watch it in action on YouTube here.

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Deep Fusion Appears in Latest iOS Developer Beta

Andrew Orr ·

Apple’s Deep Fusion technology blends multiple photo exposures together in a way that gives you more details than regular HDR. It requires the A13 chip so it only works on the iPhone 11 models. It appeared in the developer beta that was released today.

On wide lens shots, it will start to be active just above the roughly 10 lux floor where Night Mode kicks in. The top of the range of scenes where it is active is variable depending on light source. On the telephoto lens, it will be active in all but the brightest situations where Smart HDR will take over, providing a better result due to the abundance of highlights…

The overall result, Apple says, results in better skin transitions, better clothing detail and better crispness at the edges of moving subjects.

This is some “next level” stuff for iPhone photographers, and I can’t wait to see comparisons of Deep Fusion: On versus Deep Fusion: Off photos.

Cool Stuff Found

Earbuds Commercial Shot on iPhone 11 Pro Max

Andrew Orr ·

An ad for noise-cancelling earbuds from Koss Heaphones was shot on the iPhone 11 Pro Max by videographer Martin Moore.

Recently shot this Koss Headphones Commercial on an iPhone 11 Pro Max using FiLMiC Pro on FiLMiC Extreme 4K 24fps, Zhiyun Smooth 4 3-Axis Gimbal. Edited in FCPX and exported with Apple ProRes 422.

Mr. Moore is known for shooting commercials with iPhones. Last year he created several using the iPhone XS Max. It’s a great way to show off the video capabilities of Apple’s devices. You can check it out here.

Podcast

Answers and Tips for iCloud, iOS 13, iPhone 11, macOS, and More – Mac Geek Gab 781

John F. Braun & Dave Hamilton · · Add Comment

Lots of new stuff from Apple this week… and lots of technical landmines to navigate. Thankfully, you’ve been sending your questions into John and Dave, and they’ve been doing the research to get you answers. Listen to the answers to your questions – and everyone else’s, too! Press play, and enjoy learning at least five new things… one that might even save your bacon this week!

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A Deep Dive Into Apple's A13 Bionic Chip

Andrew Orr ·

Om Malik wrote a great dive into the A13 Bionic chip that powers the latest iPhones.

Apple’s new chip contains 8.5 billion transistors. Also, there are six CPU cores: Two high-performance cores running at 2.66 GHz (called Lightning), and four efficiency cores (called Thunder). It has a quad-core graphics processor, an LTE modem, an Apple-designed image processor, and an octa-core neural engine for machine intelligence functions that can run over five trillion operations per second.

Big numbers are amazing, and I still marvel at the fact that this chip can do five trillion operations per second. That is astoundingly fast. Five trillion seconds is 158,550 years. Just one trillion seconds ago (31,710 years) was before written history, before the pyramids were built.

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Apple Moves to Trademark 'Slofie'

Andrew Orr ·

Apple wants to trademark ‘slofie’, it’s term for slow-motion video clips you can now take with iPhone 11.

Apple has applied to the USPTO for a trademark on the term “Slofie” in terms of “downloadable computer software for use in capturing and recording video.” Don’t worry, it’s not trying to own the cultural landscape — rather, this is largely to prevent app developers and phone makers from ‘borrowing’ the term for their own features.

At least Apple isn’t trying to pull an Ohio State University, which was recently denied its effort to trademark the word “the.”

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Why The iPhone 11 Pro Has 3 Cameras

John Martellaro ·

Just what are the two cameras on the iPhone 11 doing? What’s different about the three cameras on the iPhone 11 Pro? TechCrunch explains.

On the back of the iPhone 11 Pro can be found three cameras. Why? Because the more light you collect, the better your picture can be. And we pretty much reached the limit of what one camera can do a little while back. Two, three, even a dozen cameras can be put to work creating a single photo — the only limitation is the code that makes them work.

Podcast

Journalist & TMO Contributor Charlotte Henry (#2) - TMO Background Mode Interview

John Martellaro · · Add Comment

Charlotte is a London-based technical journalist. A self described media junkie, she writes about Apple—and now for the Mac Observer as well. She has also written for City A.M. (London’s daily business tabloid,) Computer Business Review, and the Independent on Sunday. Her new book is: Not Buying It.

In this special edition of BGM, Charlotte chats about her reactions to Apple’s September 10 iPhone event. She noted how Apple is in a new balancing act, promoting hardware to sell services—and vice versa. Charlotte told me about how pleased she is with the new iPad and plans to buy one. Then we took a closer look at the value proposition comparing the iPhone Xr to the iPhone 11. Charlotte also filled us in on her experience watching the event in the Apple London flagship store.