Photography’s future
Apple is really, really proud of iPhone photography. I realize this sentence probably doesn’t come as a surprise, expecially if you’ve watched the keynotes where Tim Cook and his colleagues talk at length about how the iPhone is the most popular camera in the world, and showing off photos from its “Taken on iPhone” campaign – before going into great depth about the technical details that make its cameras so good. Pretty much only companies like Canon and Nikon dive into as much detail as Apple does about sensors and filters and digital signal processors during product launches. But Apple doesn’t just talk the talk about being proud of iPhone photography; it absolutely walks the walk too. I’m writing this on a journey back from one of Apple’s corporate offices that was recently refurbished, where the walls are covered in huge prints of beautiful photos, all taken on the iPhone 6s. When you first enter, it’s striking portraits, all from different angles and working with different colors, but focusing on people. Round the corner is a gigantic panorama shot of the sea – it must be five feet long, taking up most of the corridor. There are more dotted throughout. These aren’t display pieces in an Apple Store window where they help sell the iPhone. They’re in an office where not many people outside of Apple employees will see them. They’re not there to market; they’re there because Apple is really proud of what people are doing with its products.
Our guide to making easy pro-level tweaks to your images on iOS is intended to help ensure that you’re equally proud of the photos you take – using extensions, we’ll show you how to go way beyond what Apple’s default tools can do, to create striking pictures without ever having to leave the Photos app.
If want to get less arty and more practical, we’ve also got our in-depth look at how to customize OS X, making it look and work the way you want. And even more practical than that is our guide to creating your own Time Capsule using Raspberry Pi - it’s a really fun project for a quiet weekend. I hope you enjoy the issue!