iPhone 14 Pro models feature a telephoto camera lens with 3x optical zoom, allowing users to take close-up photos of far-away objects without compromising quality.
Such telephoto features are limited to Apple's Pro models, but thanks the latest update to popular third-party camera app Halide, users with non-Pro iPhones can now also get in on the action.
Halide 2.11 comes with a new feature called Neural Telephoto, which adds virtual lenses to the app's interface that enhance details in shots by applying the same machine-learning that powers Halide's macro mode.
Normally, when you use digital zoom to enlarge an image area, the number of megapixels decrease, which lowers the quality of the image, resulting in blurry, jagged shots with visible pixels.
Neural Telephoto takes these shots and enhances them with its machine-learning system, providing much better results at a virtual 2x zoom, according to the app's developers.
Neural Telephoto shots are zoomed and enhanced using machine learning in HEIC and JPEG, but the feature also captures unedited, non-zoomed full RAW files. By default, Halide shoots in RAW and JPEG mode, which provides users with an unaltered RAW file along with a zoomed and enhanced JPEG file.
The feature is available now as a free update for all existing users. For new users, the Halide app is priced at $2.99 per month or $11.99 per year, or $49.99 as a one-time purchase.
Thursday January 29, 2026 10:07 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple today confirmed to Reuters that it has acquired Q.ai, an Israeli startup that is working on artificial intelligence technology for audio.
Apple paid close to $2 billion for Q.ai, according to sources cited by the Financial Times. That would make this Apple's second-biggest acquisition ever, after it paid $3 billion for the popular headphone and audio brand Beats in 2014.
Q.ai has...
Monday January 26, 2026 1:55 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple today introduced its first two physical products of 2026: a second-generation AirTag and the Black Unity Connection Braided Solo Loop for the Apple Watch.
Read our coverage of each announcement to learn more:Apple Unveils New AirTag With Longer Range, Louder Speaker, and More
Apple Introduces New Black Unity Apple Watch BandBoth the new AirTag and the Black Unity Connection Braided...
Monday January 26, 2026 3:56 pm PST by Juli Clover
Alongside iOS 26.2.1, Apple today released an updated version of iOS 12 for devices that are still running that operating system update, eight years after the software was first released.
iOS 12.5.8 is available for the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 6, meaning Apple is continuing to support these devices for 13 and 12 years after launch, respectively. The iPhone 5s came out in September 2013,...
Tuesday January 27, 2026 2:39 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Update: Apple Creator Studio is now available.
Apple Creator Studio launches this Wednesday, January 28. The all-in-one subscription provides access to the Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Motion, Compressor, and MainStage apps, with U.S. pricing set at $12.99 per month or $129 per year.
A subscription to Apple Creator Studio also unlocks "intelligent features" and "premium...
Thursday January 29, 2026 2:40 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
On an earnings call with equity analysts today, Apple CEO Tim Cook responded to fast-rising RAM and SSD storage chip prices in the supply chain.
Prices for RAM and NAND storage chips are surging lately due to high demand from companies building out AI servers, resulting in supply constraints.
Cook said that rising memory chip prices had a "minimal impact" on Apple's gross margin in the...
No matter how you rename “digital zoom”, it won't give you real details
Phone photography is no longer photography. At best it's an AI assisted image generation based on camera input. The amount of magic that now goes into it sets it light year sapart from a good DSLR / mirrorless, and not in terms of quality. It's just physics, there's only so much they can squeeze from these tiny optics.
Here are examples I just took with my iPhone 13 Mini. The first two photos were taken at 2x, and the 2nd pair are at 3x. The first of each pair (photos 1 & 3) are the iPhone's native camera app. The 2nd photo of each pair (photos 2 & 4) are taken with the Halide app.
Notice the green on the chrome edges of the barstools and on the edges of the window frames. Those are the Halide photos. I'll take the less smoothed native photos over that green artifact in the Halide photos!
