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What photo/video features would you like to see in future iPhones?
Every year, it seems like the photo and video features of our iPhones get just a little bit better. We'd like to know what you think would be the best possible feature to add to future iPhones. Take the poll, and be sure to share your answer with your friends on Twitter or Facebook. What photo/video features would you like to see built into future iPhones?
Daily App: Snippit mixes music with photos in a very social way
If you're the social type that loves mixing music with your photography, then you may want to take Snippit for a spin. The app allows you to take a photo, overlay 10 seconds of music and then share the result with the world. Snippit is first and foremost a social network for you to share your music-infused photography. You must sign up for an account in order to use the app and you quickly gain followers within the first few days of joining. There is a running posts feed of new snippits that you can view as well as a browse feature that allows you find new snippits based on music genres, hashtags and both popular and latests trends. When you find a snippit you enjoy, you can favorite it or comment on it. You also can tap on the user profile to dig deeper into who they are and what type of music and photography they enjoy. When you are viewing a user's profile, you can view all the posts this person has created. You also can filter the content and only browse the posts you have favorited from this user, their tagged posts and their posts with location information. If you like what you see, you can choose to follow the user, adding their posts to your feed. After you've gotten a feel for the app, you may be ready to create your first snippit. Just tap the big music icon in the center of the screen to start compiling the media. Pick your music track, using either your own iOS music library or the 30-second music preview available for all iTunes tracks. Each snippet can be 4 to 10 seconds long and you get to choose which section of the track you want to clip. Once you've selected the music, you are ready to add your photo by taking a new photo or importing an existing one from your camera roll. You also can write a caption for your photo, add location information, tag friends and share to social networks all with just a few taps. Once you hit publish, it takes less than a minute for your clip to show up in the stream. If you don't like what you just posted, you can easily delete it. Snippit is available from the iOS App Store for free.
Horizon is a new video-recording app that'll eliminate portrait recording forever
Horizon is a new video-recording app from Evil Window Dog that shoots your video in horizontal mode, regardless of how you hold your phone. It's a lifesaver for those spur-of-the-moment shots when you accidentally pick up the camera and start recording in the wrong orientation. Horizon uses a neat trick to always record in horizontal mode. The app has a rectangular indicator that always stays in the center of screen. It's within this viewport that the Horizon app is capturing. No matter how you rotate the device, this box stays centered on the screen. When you start shooting in portrait mode, for example, all you will capture is the horizontal content within the viewport. The viewport box does tilt as you rotate your phone, so you want to avoid rotating while recording. If you tilt while you shoot, the area that is being captured will adjust in response to your movement. As a result, your video's field of view will expand and contract as you move. Horizon is best suited for filming with your phone in one orientation per clip. Options within the app are plentiful, but not overwhelming. You can toggle between the front and rear camera as well as turn the flash on and off right from the main screen. You can change the size of the viewport from a smaller, fixed frame to an extended frame that takes up most of the screen. If you want to shoot in portrait mode for effect, you can even disable the horizontal lock. Within the settings, you can also change the resolution of the video with values that range from the maximum 1080p to the lowest 480 x 480. Last but not least, there are filters that you can apply in real time. The quality of the video that I recorded was very good, as good as the iOS Camera app in most circumstances. The only problem I noticed was that, when compared to the iOS camera, some videos from Horizon had a noticeable amount of shake. I saw it primarily on close-up shots -- for example, when I was filming my favorite coffee cup to see how the app captured colors and maintained focus. The shake was not noticeable when I was filming my kids playing outside. I believe the shake was the result of my filming technique, but it's something you should be aware of. When filming, I discovered that I focused on the viewport box instead of the phone. The viewport box moves slightly as you move, and I was always trying to keep the box straight. I believe I was inadvertently moving the phone enough to introduce some shake into the video. This didn't happen in the iOS Camera app as I focused on the whole frame of the video and didn't move the phone as much. Horizon is available for US$0.99 from the App Store. It's a universal app that supports the iPhone 4s or newer, the iPod touch fifth generation, the iPad 2 or newer and iPad mini or newer.
How to turn on the grid lines in the iOS 7 Camera app
If you are a camera buff who is dabbling with iOS 7 for the first time, you may be spending some time in the Camera app, checking out the features available for your mobile photography needs. One feature that is not readily apparent, but important to photographers, is the grid lines. The grid lines help photographers get the correct horizontal and vertical balance, allowing photographers to avoid having to rotate a photo in post-processing. The grid lines also are helpful for photographers who follow the Rule of Thirds, which uses the grid to help line up a shot. This Rule of Thirds states that the most important subject in a photo should be placed along the gridlines or at their intersections. Earlier versions of the iOS Camera app placed the gridline toggle button in the options, which was accessible from the main screen of the Camera app. This placement changed in iOS 7 and the toggle is a bit harder to find. To turn on the Camera grid lines in iOS 7, you have to open the Settings app and then scroll down to "Photos & Camera." Tap on "Photos & Camera" to access the settings and scroll down until you see "Grid." You can turn the Grid on or off using the toggle. You'll know it's on when the toggle is green. When the grid is turned on, you'll see the familiar lines in your Camera the next time you open the app. Unfortunately, the placement of the grid option in the settings does not make it easy to toggle the feature on/off. I end up leaving it turned on and learned to ignore the lines when I don't need them. Do you use the grid lines with the Camera app on iOS?
eBay Deals Blog: Smartphone cameras perceived as "good as DSLR"
eBay Deals Blog recently ran an online survey, having readers compare images taken by the Apple iPhone 5s, HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4, Sony Xperia Z and a Canon 5D Mark II coupled with a Canon EF 24-70 lens without knowing which device took each photo. The blog made the results of that survey available to TUAW, and the results are surprising. The blog hired a professional photographer to take 10 controlled images, including different lighting conditions, landscape and portrait shots and macros. It then asked 1,000 readers to vote for the best result for each image. The iPhone 5s came out on top in three different photos, Samsung's Galaxy S4 in two and the HTC One and Xperia Z in one each. The DSLR, which sells for about US$2,800 without a lens, took the top photos in three situations, roughly tying the iPhone 5s.The conclusion from the survey? On the merit of the pictures alone, there surprisingly was no resounding victory for any party. While the Canon produced the most consistent high quality images, the iPhone ended up garnering the most votes overall for the images. Smartphone cameras continue to close the gap in how we take our photos. And for everyday use, the convenience of a smartphone smashes its heavier, more expensive counterparts. So unless you're looking to take professional-grade photos, hold your phone up proud and filter away. TUAW readers are invited to look at the eBay Deals Blog post and view the images for themselves. There's no doubt that smartphone cameras are getting better all the time. Last week, photography website DPReviews posted a comparison of the cameras in the iPhone 5s and Nokia Lumia 1020 smartphones against a number of classic DSLRs. While the bottom line of that post was that smartphone cameras still have a long way to go to even match current DSLRs, smartphones with cameras are outselling digital cameras 13 to 1, so chances are good that R&D by Apple and other companies will quickly fill that gap.
How to secretly take photos and videos with your iPhone
Here's a quick and fun tip only available in iOS 7. So if you're one of the few people still hanging on to iOS 6 for dear life, perhaps this will convince you to jump ship. Thanks to iOS 7's affinity for translucency, you can now take photos or videos with your iPhone while no one's the wiser. To do so, open up the Camera app. Oh look, some vibrant flowers just begging for a photo. Next, all you do is swipe downwards to access iOS 7's notification center. The camera app remains active and I can easily take a photo of the flowers with no one being the wiser by pressing the "+" volume button. Note that this trick also works in video mode. What's more, you can pull down the notification center while a video is still recording and the camera will keep on rolling.
Olloclip's Macro 3-in-1 Lens is a powerful little stocking-stuffer
TUAW's staff is made up of a lot of fans of the accessory lens products from Olloclip. They're designed to work perfectly with various models of the iPhone, and are nicely designed and well built. Now the company has announced the Macro 3-in-1 Lens kit (US$69.99 SRP) for the iPhone 5/5s, made specifically for taking those really close-up shots of everything in the world around us. Things start off with a 7x macro lens, bump up to a 14x lens and then go into the realm of the microscope with a 21x lens. Since it's often difficult, if not downright impossible, to get properly focused on your subject when using macro lenses, Olloclip includes a pair of translucent focusing cups that make it much easier to hold the lenses the correct distance away. As usual, Olloclip machines the lens casings out of aluminum and uses ground-glass, multi-element lenses. A small bag for the lenses is included, as are lens caps to keep everything dust- and smudge-free. On one side of the Macro 3-in-1 Lens is the 7x macro, while the other side has the fixed 21x macro. To bump the magnification of the 7x side to 14x, you simply screw on the 14x lens and its included focusing cup if desired. Rather than talking about how this lens works, I decided to put it to the test taking photos of two objects -- an Icelandic 1000 Kroner note and a euro coin: In each case, the images are taken first at 7x, then at 14x and finally at 21x. As you can see, the amount of detail that the lenses can pick up at the higher magnifications is nothing short of remarkable. The images are razor-sharp at the center, but do have a tendency to lose focus at the periphery of the photos. Conclusion Dedicated iPhone photographers will find a lot to like in Olloclip's Macro 3-in-1 Lens. It's extremely well constructed, includes the novel focusing cups to aid in focusing on subjects and, all in all, works beautifully as a set of three macro lenses. Pros Reasonable price point, considering the quality of the lenses Translucent focusing cups are useful in holding the lens at optimum focus point Includes lens caps for protection Cons Focus is a little off on the periphery of images Who is it for? Anyone who uses the iPhone 5 or 5s as their primary camera and wants to have the ability to take macro shots with the device
A guide to street photography: Gavin Harrison's smartphone art
Street photography is the purest, most spontaneous way to create art with a camera. No studios, no props, no poses; all you need is the right equipment and a street with people on it. In this original series for Engadget, we'll follow three seasoned street fighters and try to glean some practical wisdom about what engages their eyes, brains and fingers in the moments before they shoot. The third and final street photographer in this trilogy represents a very different (and non-deferential) way of doing things. As you're about to see, Gavin Harrison doesn't stick to traditional ideas of what a street shot should look like, or to what sort of camera should be used to capture it. In fact, he spends more time thinking about smartphone apps than about lenses or exposure settings, and there's a lot he can teach us.
Daily iPhone App: TimeShutter helps you capture the same image over time
I enjoy taking photos of things as they change over time -- the leaves on a small tree, a building as it's being built or my children's faces. The most challenging part of this process is making sure you get the same shot each time. Inevitably, I take multiple shots at different distances with different angles and lose the continuity of the shot. I recently stumbled upon TimeShutter, which helps you keep that consistency between each photo. TimeShutter is a simple app, but it is effective. The app has a basic camera UI with one important difference -- it has a guideline that is lifted from your last photo or a photo that you choose. It is this guide that is the key to the app's ability to reproduce the same photo over and over again. All you have to to do to take the next photo in your series is line up the guides from the previous photo and snap away. You can adjust the opacity of the guidelines, allowing you to be as precise as you need. There is also a reminder feature so you don't forget to take your photo on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Once you are finished taking photos, you can view the series as individual photos in your Camera Roll or compile them into a movie or an animated GIF. TimeShutter is definitely a unitasker, but it is worth having in your arsenal of photo apps, especially if you are like me and enjoy recording how things change over time. TimeShutter is available for free in the iOS App Store, but plan on paying US$1.99 via an in-app purchase to unlock all the features of the app. You check out the app in this promo video.
Daily iPhone App: Pxture will put your photos inside text
Pxture is a very clever free app that does some complex Photoshop-style text effects right on your iPhone. Select a picture from your camera roll, or take a fresh one using the app. Type some text, and the image appears inside the text. All the masking and complex stuff is done for you, and it's a nice effect. The app lets you move the text over the photo, change colors of the text or flip the effect so the letters are solid and appear over your photo. Of course, the app developers will be glad to sell you some additional masks and fonts for US$0.99 each, but I got along fine with what was provided for free. If you wish to explore more effects, the extras may appeal to you. I found Pxture easy to use, although the adjustments for line and letter spacing didn't seem to do anything. The finished product looked great, though. You can save the final images to your camera roll and send them via email or the usual social networks. For the photographer who is looking for something different in terms of effects, this is a nicely done app. It requires iOS 6.1 or later. It's not universal, but is optimized for the iPhone 5.
Daily iPhone App: LVL Cam allows you to take ruler-straight photos
Sometimes when taking a photo, you want to line up the objects in the shot on a perfectly straight plane. Most standalone cameras and even iOS 7's built-in camera app use gridlines to help you line up your shot, but you have to eyeball it to make sure the shot is level. If you want a level line in your camera app, then you should check out LVL Cam. LVL Cam is a lightweight camera app that adds a level line to the camera interface. The app finds the center of the frame and places a circle right in the center. You must move your phone and tilt it so the level lines up with this center circle. Once you are lined up, you can tap the shutter button to snap a shot with the focus on this center point. The app has a few bonus features that allow you to line up your photos and set a different focus point, and a handy ghosting feature that helps you take two photos that are lined up exactly the same. There's also an auto-shutter option that'll automatically snap a photo once you lineup the level. This last feature is a lifesaver if you are using your iPhone camera without a tripod. With unsteady hands, it is difficult to keep a shot lined up perfectly while you fumble to find the shutter button. LVL Cam is available for US$0.99 in the iOS App Store.
Apple iPhone among most important digital cameras
PopPhoto recently compiled a list detailing the 30 most important digital cameras of all time. Not surprisingly, and quite deservedly, Apple's original iPhone made the cut. Sure, manufacturers like Nokia and Sony Ericsson had long been producing camera phones with better optics and more features when the iPhone launched, but Apple made camera-phone imaging the mainstream medium it is today by combining a simple camera interface, intuitive downloading and sharing tools, and, in 2008, a highly accessible platform for third-party photo apps. While Apple's iPhone has made tremendous strides with respect to picture quality over the years, the original iPhone didn't exactly produce eye-popping photographs at every turn. Nonetheless, the popularity of the iPhone meant that more people than ever before were equipped with cameras at all times, ready to take photos at a moments notice. By the time the iPhone 4 rolled around, the iPhone was already the most popular camera on Flickr. Even today, the iPhone 4, 4s and 5 are the three most popular cameras on Flickr. With respect to cameraphones in particular, iPhone models occupy four of the top five spots. Undeniably, photography on the iPhone has come a long ways, and it all got started with the paltry 2-megapixel camera on the original.
Laptopmag.com photo shootout finds iPhone 5s camera beats vaunted Nokia Lumia 1020
You've probably seen the Nokia Lumia 1020 ads with the neon-lit motor scooters being photographed with the smartphone, with a tag line that says the photos are better than you'd get from an iPhone 5s. Well, the guys from Laptop decided to check out the cameras in a number of real-life situations, and they found that the iPhone 5s camera roundly beat the capabilities of the Lumia 1020. The team did 10 separate tests with identical lighting conditions and subjects. The iPhone 5s won eight of the tests (one was a tie), while the Lumia 1020 ended up winning three. What was the big difference? Well, the colors were more accurate on the iPhone, with the Lumia 1020 showing a blue color cast on a number of images -- even after a firmware update that was supposed to resolve the issue. Laptop also said that "Apple's device also excelled when delivering detail and contrast." Laptop notes that the Lumia 1020 allows recomposition of images after taking a shot due to the 41-megapixel resolution of the camera, but the iPhone 5s "snapped better-looking images in a wider range of conditions." The Lumia offers the user the ability to manually adjust ISO, shutter speed, white balance and other settings, but the testers note that the iPhone 5s is a "better everyday smartphone camera" because you don't need to make those adjustments.
Sports photography with the iPhone 5s
The 10-frame-per-second burst mode of the iPhone 5s camera makes it possible for it to capture action like no smartphone camera has done before, and for at least one photographer, that's stirring up thoughts of replacing a DSLR with a big zoom lens with an iPhone. Jim Zellmer of Madison, Wisc., doesn't think the iPhone 5s is ready to replace those expensive cameras and big lenses you see on the sidelines of sports events, but conjectures that the next generation or two might just do the trick. Zellmer normally uses a Canon DSLR with a 70-200 mm f/2.8 zoom lens to shoot sporting events, but recently tried some shots with the iPhone 5s burst mode that look almost pro quality. He notes that the "lack of a big zoom requires quite a bit of moving around, something that is not always possible in an active sports venue." Rather than use the big glass to shoot a tennis match, Zellmer got about 20 - 25 feet away from the players, used the digital zoom of the iPhone 5s, and then used the burst mode to capture a series of images. The result, seen in the image at the top of this post, shows just how well the 5s works for action photography. The tennis player is literally captured in the air, the ball frozen in place just before it is hit with the racquet. Zellmer speculates that some current technologies (including light field photography) applied to future generation iPhones could be just what is needed to make Apple's smartphone the go-to camera for sports photographers. Image © 2013 Jim Zellmer, Zmetro.com
DPReview takes a detailed look at the iPhone 5s camera
DPReview is well-known for its exhaustive camera reviews that analyze both the hardware and the resulting images produced by that hardware. Beside traditional point-and-shoots and DSLRs, DPReview also examines smartphone cameras with the same amount of detail it uses with its traditional camera reviews. The photography review site recently turned its attention towards the iPhone 5s in a 10-page review that features 78 sample images. Not surprisingly, the reviewers found the iPhone 5s to be a very capable camera in the smartphone category. DPReview concludes, The iPhone 5s features a very good camera that's easy to use and delivers strong results with little user intervention. It's a logical extension of the Apple design philosophy, with evolutionary performance increases and feature extensions. iPhone photographers looking to trade up will find much to like in the 5s, but it's not likely to lure users who prefer larger screens or are committed to other mobile operating systems. You can read the entire review on DPReview's website. [Via The Loop; Image from DPReview]
Motrr Galileo robotic iPhone mount to finally ship in November
Today seems to be the day for delayed Kickstarter projects to announce that they're finally going to ship. Earlier it was the Narrative Clip (neé Memoto), now the long-delayed Motrr Galileo robotic iPhone platform is available for pre-order at 10 percent off list price at US$149.95 and will ship next month. The device caught the attention of the iOS community last year when the remote control mount was first outed on Kickstarter. Galileo can pan and tilt a full 360° at speeds of up to 200° per second. An app will provide controls for the mount, or a web browser can be used from anywhere to aim your iPhone. There will be two different versions of Galileo; one that has a 30-pin connector and another equipped with Bluetooth. Both can be mounted on a standard tripod, can work to charge your iPhone or iPod touch and have a lithium-polymer battery to power the precise pan and tilt motors. Motrr has a full SDK for developers who wish to build support for Galileo into their apps. Already, the company has announced two in-house apps -- Motrr and Motrr LIVE -- and supports AirBeam, CollabraCam, RecoLive MultiCam, TimeLapse and DMD Panorama. Support has been announced for Sphere -- which will create 360° spherical photos -- FiLMiC Pro and IguanaLapse. TUAW hopes to have a full review of the Motrr Galileo after it ships next month.
iOS 7's rebooted Photos app is its unsung gem
The release of iOS 7 has brought many wanted and desperately needed features to the waiting hands of iPhone fans. But the most exciting part of iOS 7 for me wasn't the new Control Center or enhanced iCloud options; it was the redesigned Photos app. The iPhone has a wonderful camera. It's a trusty alternative to having to carry around a point and shoot. Thanks to its remarkable picture quality and the myriad of apps and filters available for use, it's easy to end up with more photos than you know what to do with. Thankfully the Photos app for iOS 7 takes into account that when you're having fun taking photos, your brain isn't focused on organization. The app has been redesigned to naturally group your photos into collections organized by time period. When you select a collection, say the photos taken June 27 - September 19, 2012, your photos are further broken down into smaller collections for easy sharing, bulk deleting, and viewing. If you've got geotagging turned on for your photos, these collections are also titled with the location they were taken. If you'd like to see all the photos you took in New York, simply tap the word "New York" and an image map is drawn up of all your pictures matching that tag. In a wonderful touch there are tiny thumbnail images grouped under each collection for quick scanning. This auto grouping makes finding the exact photo you want quickly easy and fun. Best of all, when you select a given "moment" collection all of the photos in the grouping can be easily deleted or spread across the web thanks to the ability to automatically "select all." As a nice minor final touch, videos and panoramas have been given their own smart folders. When you select a photo you're given the option to either edit or share the image. We've covered the iOS 7 camera's editing capabilities already, so head over here for that information. Sharing from the Photo app is simply a joy. When you select the "Sharing" button you are given a slide show view of your photos. Check the ones you'd like to share and then tap "next." Your sharing options are separated into two groups -- apps you can export pictures to and local options. You can send photos through message, mail, iCloud, Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr. Below those sharing options you'll find the local features like AirPlay, slideshow, copy, print, assign to contact, and use as wallpaper. If you've selected more images than an app supports, Photos will let you know. Twitter, for example, only allows one photo to be uploaded at a time. If you select more than one photo to share, the Twitter sharing option just wont be available. Photos in iOS 7 is a joy. It features subtle improvements that dramatically enhance the user experience without increasing the learning curve to utilize those features. It makes sharing fun and finding forgotten moments a breeze. While everyone is harping about how nice the new interface looks or how nice it is to quickly be able to adjust the brightness, remember the unspoken hero of iOS 7. Its wonderful Photos app.
iOS 7: Camera changes make it better, but it still loves to crash
A very strange thing happened during the three months I tested the revamped Camera app in iOS 7. I started out relying, as usual, on Camera+. It's been a mainstay on my iPhone for several years. But as the weeks went by, I found myself using that popular app less and less until it's now sitting a bit lost on the home page of my iPhone. While the built-in Camera app isn't that far removed from its iOS 6 counterpart, there are a number of changes that make it better than what it was. Option buttons that were once on the picture itself now rest on a semi-transparent panel that overlays the image. In Square mode, these bars are black. You're presented with four camera modes that you swipe among: Video, Camera, Square and Pano for panorama. Those who get the iPhone 5s will get a fifth option: Slo-mo. iPad and iPhone 4 users do not have the Panorama option. In Photo and Square mode, you can apply a live filter to an image before you take it, a feature that Instagram fans are used to. When in landscape mode, most of the options flip to accommodate the new view -- except for the mode toggles. Those remain in portrait orientation, which is a bit odd. The iPad gains HDR mode, but it doesn't have the live filters. If you take a photo with a filter and don't like it, you can remove or change it after the picture is taken. Those who have an iPhone 5 or newer will be able to zoom in and out while shooting video. You can use burst mode on older models of the iPhone, and it works pretty well, but you don't get the speed nor the auto-selection mode that burst mode on the iPhone 5s has. As in earlier versions of the Camera app, you can do some limited editing. For the most part, unless you're planning to push your photo to social media right that second, you're better off doing post-processing through Snapseed, Camera+ or iPhoto. The main thing that keeps me from completely singing the praises of the new Camera app is that, at least for me, it's still very crash-happy. Not in burst mode, as I expected, but when toggling among filters and using Panorama. But, part of me wonders if it's because I'm using an iPhone 4S for this review and not a 5. Regardless, it shouldn't be crashing this much for a phone that's still being offered by Apple. Still, I find that I'm not relying on third-party camera options as often as I used to. There's some things that they still excel at, but I no longer feel that the built-in Camera is a poor alternative to these apps. Still, if you want decent post-processing, you're better off doing so in another app.
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-QX10/DSC-QX100 smartphone lenses to ship later this month
Rumors have been flying about a pair of camera lens accessories from Sony that will work with the iPhone and Android phones. Now AppleInsider is reporting that details have been leaked on the Cyber-shot DSC-QX10 (about US$250) and DSC-QX100 (about $500), both of which are set to be announced tomorrow and launched later in September. The news was initially published by SonyAlpha Rumors earlier today, complete with an advertisement showing how the lenses work. They can be used totally detached from a phone and controlled by the Sony PlayMemories Mobile app (free), which allows the iPhone to be used as a real-time viewfinder. The lenses use WiFi to connect to the iPhone or an Android device, but can also store images on a microSD card of up to 64 GB capacity. The entry-level DSC-QX10 has a 1/2.3-inch Exmor CMOS sensor and a Sony G 9 lens. That combination gives the lens 18.9-megapixel images and a 10 times optical zoom. The DSC-QX100 has a 1-inch Exmor sensor capable of grabbing 20.9-megapixel photos, and has a Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T lens with a fast F1.8 aperture, although not as much of an optical zoom range. Should you decide that you'd like to have the lens attached to your iPhone "DSLR-style," there's a camera attachment case that the lens snaps onto. These lenses are a fascinating photography accessory for the iPhone that will bring iPhoneography to a higher level. Check out the video demonstrating the DSC-QX10 and DSC-QX100 below.
Night Vision Camcorder offers low-light iOS video capture, sleazy marketing
For US$1.99, the Night Vision Camcorder app does exactly what it says on the label. It enhances sensors so you can better see and record low-light sources. The marketing for this app, which was developed in Russia, is frankly appalling. It shows numerous young "hotties" in a low-light club atmosphere. Cynicism and misogyny drip from the app screen shots. Feel free to ignore the skeezy marketing. For two bucks, what you get is actually a really cool and useful tool that you can use for finding items that have dropped to the floor under your desk or for capturing video and photos without deploying a flash. The app offers numerous features, including a user-guided amplifier, front and rear camera pickers, LED flash control, zoom and more, making this a solid value -- despite the creep-out.
