New Apple iPhone software features you'll want to know about
Plus two camera apps you want to know about!
Apple this week announced a slew of new software features that will be coming to both old and new iPhones in the fall, so many, it can be mind-numbing just to read them all.
Luckily, we’re here to help you sift through them, and tell you about the ones you really should care about. Because as Apple has done in the past, the new features are available not just on the next iPhone, but for older models as well, post the iPhone 11. (If you have an older X, XR, 8 or later, you’re out of luck.)
The headline at the event for what is being called iOS26 (the new naming will now be based on the coming year) was a re-designed app menu, which I’ll get into in a minute, but I’ve got to kick this off with the most important upgrade to anyone reading this newsletter. Namely, a re-designed, streamlined Camera app.
As the Camera app has become the most widely used camera in the world, Apple has added tons of features to it, to the point where it’s now a bloated mess for the majority of consumers, who have to toggle through features like “Time Lapse,” “Slow Motion,” “Cinematic,” “Portrait Mode” and “Spatial” (raise your hand if you know that one, when all they just want to do is take photos or video.
So in the next version of the App, available in mid-September, Apple has cut it down to just those two options: Photo and Video. If you want more, like the options mentioned above, plus video frame rate, aspect ration and other features guys like care about a lot, you’ll have to dig into sub-menus to grab them.
I’ve seen some people grumbling about this move online, but they’re missing the point. The iPhone camera is aimed at worldwide masses, not photo/video geeks like you and me. I think this is a brilliant move.
(And in case you’ve been wondering what exactly Spatial means: that feature lets you take 3-D like photos that you can only see on Apple’s rare bomb, the $3,500 Vision Pro headset.)
Let me tell you about the other new iOS features I think you’ll care about:
—Use your AirPods to snap the shutter. Great for selfies and remote group shots, soon you’ll be able to touch the AirPods to get the job done instead of reaching for the Camera button. Love this.
—Call screening: Like Android phones have done for years, you can now direct the iPhone to ask who’s calling and to state their business before letting them through. As someone who suffers through way too many spam calls every day, but still has the curiosity to answer, I say Thank You Apple. However, remember that this screener will only apply to people in your Contacts list, so if you get cold calls from someone outside of there, they will get the third degree from Apple’s robots.
—Hold Music: While on endless hold to support calls, Apple will turn the tables on the wait time by simply notifying you when it’s time to pick up.
—Liquid Glass. This was Apple’s headline, a visual refresh, and it sounds and looks nice, but I’ll take my call screener and some of the text message tools, which I’ll outline below, over this any day.
—Testing: Apple will offer live translation, in real time, in text messages, which will be invaluable on foreign trips, or just living normal lives in places like California, where many people speak their native languages. That said, you could just as easily download and use Google’s free Translate app to achieve the same goal.
—Polls in group texts: A bunch of you want to go out for lunch? You can start a poll in a text message, and let everyone vote.
A public beta for the new iOS usually is available in mid-July, and the public gets a final version in mid-September, usually a week before the release of the next iPhone.
In my weekly Scripps News tech segment, I talked about the new iOS features with anchor Holly Firfer.
More Camera Apps: Adobe
For several years, Google’s Snapseed has been a go-to app for creative looks, but it hasn’t been updated in some time. This week that all changed, when Google unveiled a total refresh, with some new features and older ones in new places. The app is way more full-featured than Apple’s Photos app, more akin to Adobe Lightroom, but with even more tools. And its free, without nags to upgrade.
New tools include film simulations and the ability to add edits selectively on an image.
Adobe’s new Indigo is similar, with tons of free features the company will clearly be charging for in the near future. I’m especially intrigued with Adobe’s twist on Night Mode, the Apple feature which keeps the shutter open longer in dark situations for amazing results.
For Snapseed and Indigo, visit the Google Play or iOS App Stores, and either download (for free) or update your existing app.
New Mexico on a Fuji GFX vs. iPhone
This week on the LIVE show, we had the great photographer Robbie Green, talking about his wonderful Route 66 photos.
Reader Kevin mentioned that the photo of the Curio shop in Tucumcari was so great, “is it really real?”
Indeed it is, snapped on a Fuji GFX camera, considered to be a “medium format” camera like the old Hasselblad’s and Rolliflex’s, with an image sensor double the size of mirrorless cameras from Canon, Nikon and Sony, and many, many, many times larger than that of an iPhone.
On the show, viewers wanted to know how Robbie fared taking similar photos with his iPhone. Obviously, with the sensor size difference, the Fuji is going to win. The body also sells for $5,000 and lenses aren’t cheap either.
That said, I recently photographed in Tucumcari with just an iPhone. Robbie’s photos will always win out, but hey, I still contend that if you treat the iPhone like a pro camera, take the image at the right time, and in my case, put the phone on a tripod and use a cool feature like Night Mode which keeps the shutter open for longer, giving you cooler colors, I think you’ll do really well. And you’ll save thousands of dollars and the bother of lugging big heavy camera gear. What do you think readers?
And speaking of New Mexico, be sure to tune in to Photowalks on Scripps News Sunday to see the latest episode from our Route 66 journey, Part IV, all about the Land of Enchantment, from Tucumcari to Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Gallup. The show airs at 10 a.m. ET on Scripps, which is available wherever you get your streaming, on the Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Roku app, plus smart TVs from Vizio, Samsung, LG and others. (As always, you can see the replay on YouTube and then some on our PhotowalksTV channel.)
Next stop: a return to the heartland!
We’re back on the road again today, flying to Chicago and spending just under two weeks exploring the Midwest for future episodes of PhotowalksTV.
We’ll be attending the IPW travel conference in Chicago (and running as fast as we can to Pequod’s first for the amazing deep dish pizza) then it’s off to Detroit for a few days, Columbus, Ohio, home of the great cousin Leslie, and finishing up in Cincinnati, the former home of my late grandfather Stanley, and his sister, who everyone just called Sis. (Do they have good ice creams and shakes in the midwest?)
If you’re in any of these places, please reach out and say hi! Drop me a line at photowalkstv@gmail.com
Thanks as always for taking the time to watch, read and listen!
Jeff
“As someone who suffers through way too many spam calls every day, but still has the curiosity to answer” — as if it’s a moral obligation to answer 🤣🤣🤣