The iPhone for Sports
Apple is doing it Saturday
My basic mantra on Photowalks has long been that people should leave their big cameras at home—the iPhone (or Galaxy or Pixel) are perfect for travel and family photography.
However, where they still far short is in the area of sports.
Imagine filming the Super Bowl or World Series on an iPhone? How would you get those incredible closeups of players?
Well, today, May 23, Apple is set to prove me wrong, by filming a Major League Soccer match on iPhone 17 Pro for broadcast on Apple TV. Not one camera, not two, but actually 15 iPhones in total.
The match between the Los Angeles Galaxy and Houston Dynamo FC will be the first time the iPhone will be used to capture the entirety of a major professional live sporting event broadcast, per Apple.
But when you watch, if you do, don’t feel bad that your iPhone footage doesn’t look anything like this. Remember that Apple spends a fortune on production, and uses expensive, studio-grade accessories that most of us don’t have access to. I’m talking video and audio mixers and processors, the best heavy duty tripods, professional gimbels (not the cheap $150 models from DJI and Insta360 that do basically nothing) and ultra-pricey lighting gear.
Apple says the main benefit of using iPhone 17s for this production is getting the little device into areas where big broadcast cameras couldn’t fit, including team warmups on the pitch, player introductions, in-net goal angles, and the atmosphere inside the stadium.
And what about closeups? I’m assuming you’ll see fewer of them in this soccer match, with fixed cameras in key positions. I’ve asked Apple if it was using any accessory lenses, like that new Reeflex 300mm-600mm lens, but the company didn’t get back to me.
Apple first experimented with iPhone and live sports broadcast for a September 2025 matchup between the Boston Red Sox and the Detroit Tigers, using iPhone 17 Pro to “capture select moments from the game and cinematic in-stadium footage.” For this, Apple was rewarded by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, which added one of the broadcast iPhones to its permanent collection.
For the baseball game, Apple used one of my favorite apps, Blackmagic Camera, which is free, and has way more pro tools at its disposal than the native Apple Camera or Final Cut Camera apps, and housed the phone in Beastgrip cages, like the one seen in the above photo.
For shooting video, Apple offers pro tools that most consumers skip, like filming in higher resolution, professional grade ProRES, which makes the files huge, and Log, which produces a file that needs to be processed for better color reproduction.
For the soccer match, Apple says it will be filmed in Apple Log 2, and presumably processed in real time with the help of the Blackmagic app and accessories.
The game airs at 7:30 p.m. PT.
The new Google
Did you notice any of the breathless headlines this week about how search as we know it has changed forever?
This all happened because Google staged its annual I/O developer conference, where it shows off its latest to the world.
The big headline is that the Google Search we’ve loved for 25 years is going away, replacing simple queries and answers with an endless conversation.
Google says the new tools are “rolling out” to consumers, which translated means it could be awhile for you to find them. (You can get a sneak peek by using the AI Mode within Google search.)
Love it or hate it, Google is changing the way we search to be more in line with ChatGPT, with straight answers and a robot that remembers you, your interests and what you just asked.
“These things are going to do a lot more for you than what we were able to do for users 10 years ago,” Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet, told the New York Times.
Where the I/O conference got really confusing was when it went deep into the weeds, with technojargon that I believe is over the heads of most.
CBS News ran this little story, which I’d like to translate for you.
“Google’s Gemini Spark AI tool could be a game-changer for consumers wading into the world of agentic AI, according to technology experts.
Google announced the new tool — the internet giant’s answer to OpenClaw, the autonomous AI agent being hyped by tech enthusiasts and developers — this week during a rollout of new AI features that Google said can complete tasks for users.”
What the reporter is saying: by using Google’s AI, you are getting a more complete conversation, since Google ties the AI into your Google services like Gmail, Calendar, Drive and Photos to know where you’re going, who you’re talking to, what pictures you are taking. And these AI features don’t end up with the prompt: Google can say, plan a trip for you in the background and let you know when it all comes together. In the future, it will even be able to book the trip for you in the background.
Who’s excited about handing our credit card over to a robot? Oh boy.
It’s not just Google that is playing this game, although it can do it better than others due to how much we use Google services. This e-mail arrived from ChatGPT today, offering to “automatically search your memories, past chats, and files to pull in relevant context for more helpful responses.” I gave it a try, but most of the answers were irrelevant. I asked which cities I should visit next on Photowalks: it suggested Detroit, Savannah and Newport, RI, all places we’ve visited in the last year.
What do you think of the Google changes? Yay? Nay? Let me hear from you.
Would You Pose for a Picture Like This?
How does your stomach feel watching this?
Next stop: Indiana and Kentucky
There are so many highlights to the next Photowalks road trip, but it will be hard to top the return to Evansville for the first time in eons, which is where it all started. If you’re in any of these spots, reach out and let’s meet up. (I also hope to make it to Popcorn, Indiana. And the first stop, the town they call Valpo, has a statue of Orville Redenbacher in the town square, because this is where his popcorn empire was first created. I’m expecting some great Grilled Cheese, Vanilla shakes and of course, tasty popcorn on this trip!
Thank you Google for creating this graphic and Bryan Perelberg from Best Western for making it all happen!
Hello/Goodbye Colbert and Friends
We said goodbye (although I don’t think for long) to Stephen Colbert this week, and when it comes to a show finale, I think was one was about as good as it gets—if not better.
For most of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert show, it was fun to see the cameos, but many of the comedy bits fell flat. And that’s okay, because there’s nothing like music to end on the highest of notes.
Having Paul McCartney on stage singing a classic Beatles song from the Ed Sullivan Theater with Jon Batiste and Louis Cato, plus Elvis Costello and Colbert was just joy. If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s your chance.
Thanks as always for taking the time to watch, read and listen.
Jeff