The iPhone 13 Camera is For TikTokers and Oscar Winners

Much of the discussion around the iPhone 13 has been around the camera, as it was the part of the device that got the most notable upgrade. Apple’s VP of camera software engineering Jon McCormack and VP of camera hardware engineering Graham Townsend gave British GQ an insight it how it was made.

“The planning has to start about three years ahead, because that’s when we actually fix the specification of the silicon,” says Townsend. “So, for instance, the sensor gets defined at that point and the A15 Bionic processor is also frozen. That’s when we have to begin to talk with Jon and predict the experiences that we want. Obviously when we designed the new ultra-wide lens, we were going to deliver macro photos. But how is that going to work both in stills and video?”

[iPhone 13: How Cinematic Mode Was Made]

Brazil Fines Apple For Not Including a Charger in iPhone 13 Boxes

Brazil is issuing a fine against Apple for not including a charger inside the iPhone 13 packages. They also fined the company for the same thing with iPhone 12.

Following Brazil’s fining Apple $1.9 million for not including a charger with the iPhone 12, the company was forced to offer chargers to anyone requesting it. Now, the Procon-SP regulator plans to do the same over the iPhone 13.

According to local publication TechTudo, the $1.9 million fine that was issued in March 2021, was the maximum allowable under Brazilian law. The fine is also limited in how it cannot be applied again fewer than six months after issuing.

Chargers, and also cases. By slightly repositioning the buttons on the iPhone 13 so iPhone 12 cases don’t work anymore, Apple flips off the environment and uses its corpse for Tim Cook’s footstool.

iPhone 13 Review Shows Impressive Battery Results

We saw Apple executives on stage mention one or or one-and-a-half extra hours of battery with iPhone 13 models. This review proves it.

Apple was careful not to promise any specific battery life on the new iPhones. I think that’s because of 5G. Depending on 5G frequency and signal quality, the battery life you get can be much shorter than you see here—and the 5G situation is so confusing across different carriers and countries that I don’t think Apple was willing to make a generalization. Of course, you can always turn off 5G.

iPhone 13: How Cinematic Mode Was Made

Cinematic mode was one of the big new features in the iPhone 13. In a new interview with Techcrunch, Apple VP Kaiann Drance and Human Interface Team designer Johnnie Manzari explain how it was made.

“We knew that bringing a high quality depth of field to video would be magnitudes more challenging [than Portrait Mode],” says Drance. “Unlike photos, video is designed to move as the person filming, including hand shake. And that meant we would need even higher quality depth data so Cinematic Mode could work across subjects, people, pets, and objects, and we needed that depth data continuously to keep up with every frame. Rendering these autofocus changes in real time is a heavy computational workload.” The A15 Bionic and Neural Engine are heavily used in Cinematic Mode, especially given that they wanted to encode it in Dolby Vision HDR as well. They also didn’t want to sacrifice live preview — something that most Portrait Mode competitors took years to ship after Apple introduced it.

Here's Why iPhone 13 120Hz ProMotion Display Matters

Rebecca Isaacs has written a helpful explainer about the iPhone 13’s 120Hz display and why it matters for customers.

One of the major selling points of this technology is that it allows you to dynamically vary refresh rates based on what you’re doing. For instance, basic web browsing can be handled at an undemanding 10Hz to 60Hz, while gaming can take advantage of the full of 120Hz. The Apple Watch can even hit a low of 1Hz with the always-on screen.