IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 6, 2023--

By Alexander Marrow The rouble weakened on Wednesday, heading back past 96 to the dollar and well away

The iPhone is a lot of things. It's a social networking portal, it's a games console – sometimes it's even a phone. For Apple's Jon McCormack, Apple's vice president for camera software engineering, it's "primarily a camera that you can text from". It wasn't always this way. When Steve jobs introduced the iPhone in 2007, he famously described it is an iPod, a phone and an internet communications device; the first iPhone had a camera, new iPhones are cameras. The pictures that first iPhone turned out were more useful than beautiful. Today, however, the iPhone's pictures have grown up, and it is now the most popular camera in the world. Now the question is how sharp the pictures should be, and there has even been some criticism that the pictures it turns out are too sharp, if anything. The iPhone's camera is no longer just a useful addition but is used in professional contexts, and is often given as the main reason to upgrade to new models. The new iPhone 15s, in particular the premium Pro and Pro Max, continue Apple's mission to turn its smartphones into cameras like nothing in the history of photography. They have new image formats, the addition of extra focal lengths, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max even includes a 5x lens that makes use of a "tetraprism" lens that bounces light around inside the phone to add dramatically more zoom without making the phone any bigger. All of that additional hardware works in collaboration with improved software: users no longer have to click into portrait mode, for instance, because the camera automatically captures depth information when taking a picture of people, so that background blur can be added and edited even after the photo has been taken. Apple has also added a host of features that many people are unlikely ever to even look at, let alone use, but are important to professionals. They include the addition of Log encoding and the Academy Color Encoding System – both key to those who need them. Apple also says that the new iPhone has "the equivalent of seven pro lenses", despite really only having three; what they mean is that you can choose different crops, which is in part an attempt to appeal to those professional photographers who stubbornly say that they will only ever work with a 50mm lens, for instance. (Those new lens choices are not only a cropped version of the existing lenses, says McCormack, since the phone also has custom neural networks specifically designed to optimise images at that focal length.) Those complex new features are a reminder that the iPhone is many things to many users: some may simply want to remember important events, or snap pictures of their pets. Others might be truly professional photographers, needing to rely on their iPhone to capture valuable and fleeting events. Some people are, no doubt, both – and Apple is aware that the iPhone has to be both, too. "For us, what we feel is really important – especially since computational photography started to blur the line between hardware and software, and really enable anybody to take stunning shots with minimal effort – is making sure that that tool that we have in your pocket is adapting to your needs," says Maxime Veron, Apple's senior director for iPhone product marketing. "So if you're just trying to take a quick photo of your kids can get out of the way and just allow you to do that. And if you want to create a professionally created Hollywood style video, it can also give you the customisation and the power to do that." McCormack says that Apple builds the camera from "the core belief that everybody has got a story that is worth telling". For some people that story might be their child taking their first steps, captured in a video that will be shared with only a few people. Or it might be a photojournalist taking images that are going to be shared with millions. "Our belief is that your level of technical understanding shouldn't get in the way of you being able to tell that story," he says. High-end cameras have often required their users to think about a whole host of questions before they even get to actually pressing the button to take a picture: "the temperature of light, the amount of light, the direction of light, how fast is the subject moving? What are the skin tones?" notes McCormack. "Every second that you spend thinking about that, and playing with your settings and things like that, are seconds that you are drawn out of the moment," he says. "And what we want to create is this very deep connection between the photographer, the videographer and the moment." He points to the action button on this year's Pro models, which can be programmed to launch the camera with a push. "It's all about being able to say all of this crazy complexity of photography, or videography – Apple's taken that, and understood that, and hidden that from you," he says. "You as a photographer, you get to concentrate on the thing that you want to say, and finding that decisive moment, finding that beautiful framing, that says the thing that you want to say. "But the motivation for all of this and using all of this crazy, great computational photography, computational videography, is that we don't want to distract you from telling the story that you want to tell." That has meant building the iPhone's camera in a way that the features "unfold", he says. "Out of the box, we are going to give you an amazing thing that is going to cover most of your moments, with lots of dynamic range, lots of resolution, zero shutter lag, so you can capture the moment. "But of course, there are folks who are going to look at this and say, you know, I've got a very specific and very prescriptive vision," he says. He points to a variety of new tools that are built into the phone, such as the ProRAW format, which makes huge files and is not especially useful to most – but can be key to someone who really wants to ensure they are able to process every detail of a photograph after it is taken. Those are hidden within settings, there for the people who need them but not troubling those who don't. Veron also notes that many of those extra features are enabled by "an amazing ecosystem of third party partners" who make apps that allow people to get features they are looking for. It is a reminder of just how much is going on as soon as someone takes a picture with the iPhone. First, light travels through one of Apple's three lenses and hits a 48 megapixel sensor – but that's just the beginning of a long process of computational photography that analyses and optimises that image. The picture that is taken is not just the one image, for example: it is actually made up of multiple exposures, with more or less light, that can then be merged into a picture with the full dynamic range. "This year for the first time, we merge them in a larger resolution," says McCormack. It takes one image in 12 megapixels, to give a fast shutter speed and plenty of light, by combining pixels together; then it grabs a 24-megapixel frame, which collects the detail. "Then we register those together and use a custom machine learning model to go and transfer the detail from the 48 over into what has now become a 24." That creates something like the negative in old camera terms, which the iPhone’s processor can then get to work on, using parts of its chip focused on machine learning. "We use the neural engine to go decompose that photograph, bit by bit." It will notice if people have different skin tones, and develop those parts of the image accordingly; hair, eyes, a moving background and more are all taken to pieces and optimised on their own. (The intensity of that process has occasionally led to questions over whether the phone is working too hard to make its images look good.) Then there's yet more work for the camera system. The iPhone uses tonemapping to ensure that images pop on the bright screens of modern iPhones, but also that they still look bright on a compressed image that might be sent around the internet; one of the many changes that smartphones have brought to photography is that, for the first time, the photos are mostly looked at on the same device they were taken with, but that they can also be sent and seen just about anywhere. If the image is taken using night mode, then there's even more work, with new tools that ensure that colours are more accurate. And that isn't even mentioning portrait mode, which when it registers that there is a person (or a pet) in the frame will gather the relevant depth information to ensure that the background can be manipulated later. That whole process – those five paragraphs, and thousands of calculations by the phone – happen within the tiniest moment after pressing the button to take the photo. The phone may look as if it is serenely offering up an image to its users, but it has been busily working away in the background to ensure the picture is as accurate and vibrant as possible. All that work done by the camera and the rest of the device depends on a variety of choices made not only by the iPhone but by Apple, which accounts for the look of the modern iPhone picture – Veron says that its aim in making those decisions is to make "beautiful, true-to-life memories in just one click". McCormack is clearly keenly aware of the responsibility of that task; his vision decides what the world's memories look like. "This is your device that you carry with you all time the time, and we want to be really, really thoughtful of that," he says. That responsibility carries into the design of the camera within the phone: rumours had suggested that this year's model would include a "periscope" design for the long zoom, bouncing the light through the length of the iPhone, but McCormack says that Apple went for the five-way prism to ensure that it could "both retain the industrial design that we want, to just make iPhone feel so good in your hand, but also be able to get that extra focal length". "It is just of one of those crazy things – only Apple is going to do something like that. And I'm really glad that that's the way we think about product." Read More Tim Cook says Vision Pro release is on track: ‘I watched Ted Lasso Season 3 on it’ Apple Store goes offline as Apple opens pre-orders for iPhone 15 Apple to update iPhone 12 after fears over radiation iPhone 12 is not emitting dangerous radiation, Apple says, amid fears of Europe ban France’s iPhone 12 ban could spread across Europe, regulators say Everything Apple killed off at iPhone 15 event

Federal authorities say the man charged with killing his mother at sea during a 2016 fishing trip off the coast of New England has died

TYSONS, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 12, 2023--

The Mets may end up sellers at the trade deadline. Here are three players they should deal and two players they should avoid trading.Before the 2023 season, the New York Mets were looked at as World Series contenders. They featured a pitching staff anchored by two legends and a lineup with veter...

Dining halls. Communal bathrooms. Random roommates. Cramped spaces. These are a few things that immediately come to mind when we think about the *typical* college experience — and, let’s be honest, they don’t always feel glamorous. But elegance aside, whether you’re opting for shower shoes and classic dorm living, or winging it at a local off-campus property, what really matters is making your living space feels like home.

ROCHESTER, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 13, 2023--

An attorney representing the family of one of the teens killed in the murder-suicide in Henryetta has made shocking revelations. The Oklahoma State of Bureau Investigations confirmed last week that convicted rapist Jesse McFadden shot dead his wife Holly Guess, 35, and her children Rylee Elizabeth Allen, 17, Michael James Mayo, 15, and Tiffany Dore Guess, 13 before turning the gun on himself. McFadden also killed Ivy Webster, 14, and Brittany Brewer, 15, who were at the home visiting Tiffany for the weekend. Following the gruesome discoveries on 1 May at McFadden’s property, reports emerged that he was facing fresh soliciting and child porn charges after he was caught exchanging lewd images with a 16-year-old in 2016 while serving time in jail for the rape of another minor. McFadden had an early release in 2020, despite the severity of his previous crime and pending charges. Over the weekend, dive teams with the OSBI were spotted using sonar devices at one of the ponds neighbouring the scene of the heinous crime, KJRH reported. The second processing came after KFOR revealed that authorities left behind a trove of stomach-churning evidence at McFadden’s property after releasing the scene. While touring the residence, a crew of reporters found hand restraints, sex toys and drug paraphernalia that have since been seized by Okmulgee Police. Cameron Spradling, an attorney representing the Webster family, has now divulged that 32 different cell phones and individuals used McFadden’s “house of horrors” as their location address. The findings have been handed to the OSBI, Mr Spradling. The mishandling of McFaddens’ sex crimes and confusion regarding leadership in the murder-suicide investigation have caused outrage in the community. Ivy and Brittany’s parents have said they did not know McFadden had been convicted of raping a minor, while Guess’ mother has said she only found out very recently. In a statement to The Oklahoman after the deviant findings at McFadden’s residence, Mr Spradling said: “The family of Ivy Webster were shocked to discover that computers and cell phones had not been seized by law enforcement when they viewed the inside of this house of horrors. No words can express this family’s fear that the sexual assault of their baby girl has been placed on the dark web. We demand that law enforcement seize all electronic devices and hunt down all sexual predators who have witnessed the suffering of Ivy Webster.” A neighbour of McFadden also told KJRH last week that six months ago, they saw somebody digging the pond where police excavation teams were seen this past weekend. When confronted, the individual reportedly said they meant to expand the pond, despite there being no apparent reason to do so. A family of the victims also found a ledger at the crime scene with a list of unknown names and ages — the last final names being those of the six victims shot dead by McFadden last week before he turned the gun on himself, according to the network. The Independent reached out to the OSBI for comment on the possibility that McFadden may have been the individual digging the pond last year, and whether the agency is investigating other potential crimes at the property. The agency declined to address the questions. McFadden, who was on the state sex offender registry, was initially sentenced to 20 years in prison for rape in 2003. After his early release in October 2020, McFadden was arrested the next month and then released on a $25,000 bond pending trial, which was repeatedly delayed, partially due to the Covid-19 pandemic. McFadden’s rape victim Krystle Strong and cellmate James Fleming told The Independent last week that they separately contacted several law enforcement agencies in a fruitless attempt to stop his release and warn authorities that he was a danger to the community. A spokesperson with Henryetta Police Department said that McFadden’s address was located in an unincorporated part of Okmulgee County, where his registration was up to date, and deferred to Okmulgee Police Department, which did not answer The Independent’s request for comment. “Due to his home address. Henryetta Police Department would have no records kept of his registration,” Henryetta Police said in a statement. Several departments in the District 25 task force were initially put in charge of the investigation, according to KFOR reporter Erin Christy. Ms Christy said that she was deferred to the OSBI by the Okmulgee County Sheriff’s Office after Sheriff Eddy Rice declined to clarify the confusion surrounding which agency had the eadership of the case. “Ultimately, someone needs to say we’ll go through this or that. What did you miss? And if you have people outside your jurisdiction, it doesn’t work well,” Former Tulsa Police Department homicide detective Dave Walker told KFOR. “You gotta be in charge of everything or you’re not in charge of anything.” Read More Dive and excavation teams spotted at Jesse McFadden’s property as mysterious list with victims’ names found Jesse McFadden’s obsession with sex alarmed his jail cellmate. Why was he released early? Jesse McFadden raped me 20 years before his Oklahoma massacre. My pleas to keep him locked up were ignored

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A day after being controversially disqualified from the French Open for inadvertently hitting a ball girl with a ball, an emotional Miyu Kato struggled to answer questions about the incident.

Here's how to slide in Madden 23 for all available platforms to make sure you protect your ball-carrier in crucial situations.