Year: 2019

Apple announces winners of the “Shot on iPhone” challenge

Dan Uff February 26, 2019 1

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/02/apple-highlights-best-photos-shot-on-iphone-around-the-world/

iPhone photographers around the world shared their best photos for the Shot on iPhone Challenge, capturing remarkable moments with the world’s most popular camera. The 10 selected winners will be featured on billboards in select cities, in Apple retail stores and online. The winning shots came from a range of models, from iPhone XS Max to iPhone 7, showcasing the quality of cameras across the line.

The top 10 winners came from countries including Singapore, Germany, Belarus, Israel and the US, highlighting the global community of iPhone photographers that participated. These photos capture colorful city scenery, curious animals, creative reflections, the beauty of the ordinary and more.

Our international panel of judges — Pete Souza, Austin Mann, Annet de Graaf, Luísa Dörr, Chen Man, Phil Schiller, Kaiann Drance, Brooks Kraft, Sebastien Marineau-Mes, Jon McCormack and Arem Duplessis — gave some insight on why they loved these shots.

Shot on iPhone Challenge - The Winners

Alex Jiang (US), iPhone XS Max

Chen Man says: “This is a photo filled with lovely color and sense of story in the composition. Zooming in, you can see details of each family and their unique touch. The basketball hoop is placed right in the middle of the photo, adding more stories behind the image.”

Annet de Graaf says: “The narrative in architecture. There is actually life behind the surface of an average apartment building in an unknown city. Vivid colors and a perfect composition with the basketball board right in the middle! Great eye.”

Blake Marvin (US), iPhone XS Max

Austin Mann says: “This image took a lot of patience and great timing … with the iPhone’s zero shutter lag and Smart HDR, we’re able to see both the raccoon’s eyes and the deep shadows inside the log … something that would have previously been nearly impossible with natural light.”

Phil Schiller says: “The stolen glance between this raccoon/thief and photographer is priceless, we can imagine that it is saying ‘if you back away slowly no one has to get hurt.’ A nice use of black and white, the focus on the raccoon and the inside of the hollow log provides an organic movement frozen in time.”

Darren Soh (Singapore), iPhone XS Max

Phil Schiller says: “A reflection that looks like a painting, two worlds have collided. You are compelled to think about where and how this photo was taken, the bird flying in the corner provides the single sign of life in an otherwise surreal composition.”

Chen Man says: “Distortion and reflection at a strange angle — this photo creates a fantastic feeling.”

Nikita Yarosh (Belarus), iPhone 7

Austin Mann says: “I love how accessible this image is: You don’t have to travel to Iceland to capture something beautiful, it’s right under your nose. The way the lines intersect, the vibrant color, the sense of old and new … this is just a great image.”

Luísa Dörr says: “I like the simplicity of this image, the composition, light, details, everything looks good. Then you see one small line that looks wrong and makes me think what happened, where is this place, who was there. For me a good image is not only one that is strong or beautiful, but makes you think about it — and keep thinking.”

Dina Alfasi (Israel), iPhone X

Sebastien Marineau-Mes says: “Love how the heart shaped water puddle frames the subject, capturing a glimpse of the world as the subject hurriedly walks past.”

Brooks Kraft says: “A unique perspective and a new take on the popular subject of shooting reflections. I like that the subject is evident, but you are not really sure how the photo was taken. The puddle is the shape of a heart, with nice symmetry of the subject. The depth of field that iPhone has in regular mode made this image possible, a DSLR would have had a difficult time keeping everything in focus.”

Elizabeth Scarrott (US), iPhone 8 Plus

Brooks Kraft says: “A portrait that captures the wonderment of childhood in a beautiful setting. Great composition that shows both the personality of the child and the experience in the surroundings.”

Pete Souza says: “Nice portrait and use of background to provide context. The placement of the child’s face is in an optimal place — lining her up so the background directly behind her is clean and not distracting. The setting is a familiar — I’ve probably stood in this exact spot. But the picture is not like any I’ve seen from this location.”

Andrew Griswold (US), iPhone XS

Jon McCormack says: “This image is very well thought through and executed. The background pattern holds the image together and the repeated smaller versions of that pattern in the water droplets create a lot of visual interest. The creative use of depth of field here is excellent.”

Sebastien Marineau-Mes says: “Very unique composition and color palette, playing to the strengths of iPhone XS. What I find most interesting is the background pattern, uniquely magnified and distorted in every one of the water droplets. I’m drawn to studying and trying to elucidate what that pattern is.”

Bernard Antolin (US), iPhone XS Max

Kaiann Drance says: “Looks like a simple scene but a good choice of using black and white to elevate it with a different mood. Helps to bring out the dramatic contrast in the clouds and the surrounding landscape.”

LieAdi Darmawan (US), iPhone XS

Luísa Dörr says: “I feel like this landscape was treated like an old portrait. The texture of the mountains evokes an old wrinkled face. Portraits and landscapes are the oldest way of creative representation by humans. There’s something about it that belongs to the realms of the subconscious mind, and this is mainly what appeals me of this picture; the part that I’m not able to explain.”

Robert Glaser (Germany), iPhone 7

Kaiann Drance says: “Gorgeous dynamic range. There’s detail throughout the photo in the meadow, trees, and clouds. Beautiful deep sky and pleasing color overall.”

iPhone offers tools to help anyone take great photos with state-of-the-art cameras that offer advanced photography techniques. Innovations like Smart HDR create photos with more highlights and shadow detail, Depth Control allows users to adjust the depth of field both in real-time preview and post-capture,1 and advanced depth segmentation in Portrait mode enables more sophisticated portraits with professional-level bokeh using the A12 Bionic chip and its next-generation Neural Engine.

Security flaws in 4G and 5G allow attackers to intercept calls and track phone locations

CompuScoop Staff February 26, 2019 0

A group of academics have found three new security flaws in 4G and 5G, which they say can be used to intercept phone calls and track the locations of cell phone users,” Zack Whittaker reports for TechCrunch.

“The findings are said to be the first time vulnerabilities have affected both 4G and the incoming 5G standard, which promises faster speeds and better security, particularly against law enforcement use of cell site simulators, known as ‘stingrays,'” Whittaker reports. “But the researchers say that their new attacks can defeat newer protections that were believed to make it more difficult to snoop on phone users.”

“The paper, seen by TechCrunch prior to the talk, details the attacks: the first is Torpedo, which exploits a weakness in the paging protocol that carriers use to notify a phone before a call or text message comes through. The researchers found that several phone calls placed and cancelled in a short period can trigger a paging message without alerting the target device to an incoming call, which an attacker can use to track a victim’s location,” Whittaker reports. “Torpedo opens the door to two other attacks… [that put] even the newest 5G-capable devices at risk from stingrays…”

Read more in the full article here.

Apple claims that iOS 12 installed on 80 percent of compatible devices

CompuScoop Staff February 26, 2019 0

Adoption statistics released by Apple on Monday reveal 80 percent of compatible iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices are now running the company's current generation iOS 12 mobile operating system.

The figures, announced in an update to Apple's App Store support webpage, also show iOS 12 as installed on 83 percent of devices released during the last four years. As with past iOS versions, adoption rates of the current iteration operating system have enjoyed a steady upward trajectory since launch in September.

Usage of last 2017's iOS 11 is down to 12 percent, while older operating systems occupy a 5 percent share of devices released in the past four years and 8 percent of all compatible devices.

Apple's statistics were gleaned from App Store visits logged on Feb. 12, 2019.

The latest iOS 12 has seen comparatively rapid uptake over its lifetime. Adoption rates hit 53 percent less than a month after initial release, a number that jumped to 70 percent in December. By comparison, iOS 11 was installed on only 59 percent of devices in December 2017.

Third-party market research firms estimate even faster upgrade rates, with figures from Mixpanel putting iOS 12 adoption at 75 percent in late November.

Most recently, official statistics issued in January pegged adoption rates at 78 percent of devices released over the past four years and 75 percent of all devices.

Introduced alongside iPhone XS and XR in September, iOS 12 delivers a host of new features to customer smartphones and tablets, including powerful photography tools, a system to monitor and manage screen time, Group FaceTime, the ARKit 2 augmented reality platform, new Memoji characters and more. Perhaps helping to explain the year-over-year increase in adoption is Apple's focus on improved OS performance for older devices, a tentpole feature for iOS 12.

Apple continues to build on its latest OS release, with the current iOS 12.2 beta tipping a redesigned Remote interface for Control Center, Siri recommendation integration for Today at Apple sessions, UI tweaks in News and minor bug fixes.

Via: Appleinsider.com

T-Mobile postpones US 5G rollout launch until 2nd half of 2019

CompuScoop Staff February 25, 2019 0

The U.S. branch of T-Mobile is delaying its 5G rollout until the second half of 2019 due to lack of compatible phones, according to Neville Ray of T-Mobile.

One of the first 5G phones, the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, relies on higher-frequency bands that mostly limit it to AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint.

T-Mobile's focus on a lower band is deliberate, since while the millimeter wave technology used by AT&T and Verizon has faster speeds, its range is short. T-Mobile has a small number of millimeter wave towers.

"You can't go to a U.S. consumer and charge them a big premium and it works on three street corners," Ray commented.

One of the carrier's rivals, Sprint, will likewise skip millimeter wave when it deploys 5G in May. Even without it, devices may be able hit speeds as high as 430 megabits per second — considerably faster than most 4G connections. Sprint CEO Michel Combes said that if a merger with T-Mobile goes through, Sprint will be able to deploy 5G faster and with wider coverage. That deal faces opposition from parties concerned about shrinking competition in the U.S. telecoms industry.

Apple isn't expected to add 5G to iPhones or iPads until 2020. That's probably because of its ongoing legal battles with Qualcomm, slow modem development at Intel, and the fact that general 5G coverage should remain small by the time this fall's iPhones are ready.

5G is considered crucial to the advancement of technologies like self-driving cars and augmented reality, both of which Apple is known to be working on.

Via: Appleinsider.com