Linked List: October 1, 2019

Tuesday, 1 October 2019

Halide 1.14’s Lens Switcher and Field-of-View Guides ★

Speaking of Halide, version 1.14 is out and has some sweet UI ideas for the 3-camera system on iPhone 11 Pro. Ben Sandofsky:

At a glance, our lens switcher looks the same as before; we kept it in the same spot so it doesn’t interfere with your viewfinder and is within easy reach. Keeping the viewfinder clear of any obstructions is one of our highest priorities.

It works similarly, too, at first glance: just keep tapping to cycle between 1x, 2x, and 0.5x sizes.

Unfortunately, switching cameras has a bit of a delay. If you’re composing a shot and want to compare the 0.5x and 1x lenses, cycling past that 2x lens feels slow and clunky. No sweat. Haptic touch (or in common parlance, long press) the lens button to bring up our lens switcher.

This is a really clever bit of UI, very well-implemented. And part of that, as Sandofsky notes, is that it never obstructs the viewfinder.

Deep Fusion Coming to iPhones 11 in iOS 13.2 Beta 1 ★

Matthew Panzarino, writing at TechCrunch:

Apple is launching an early look at its new Deep Fusion feature on iOS ~~today~~ soon with a software update for beta users. Deep Fusion is a technique that blends multiple exposures together at the pixel level to give users a higher level of detail than is possible using standard HDR imaging — especially in images with very complicated textures like skin, clothing or foliage.

It requires the A13 chip, so it’s iPhones 11-only. I spoke with Apple this morning about it, and Panzarino’s description of how Deep Fusion works matches my notes exactly. Just read his write-up.

Here’s an interesting tidbit: Deep Fusion only works with the telephoto and regular wide lenses — it does not work with the ultra-wide lens. Because of that, Deep Fusion is not compatible with “Photos Capture Outside the Frame”, because the outside-the-frame content is usually captured with the ultra-wide lens. So I think we now have two reasons why “Photos Capture Outside the Frame” is not turned on by default:

Apple believes that Deep Fusion will improve more photos for more users than Capture Outside the Frame will, so Capture Outside the Frame is off by default. Deep Fusion is not a mode or even an option like Night Mode is — it will simply apply automatically when the Camera app thinks it should. For the wide angle lens, that’s in mid-range indoor lighting conditions; for the telephoto, Deep Fusion will be applied in all but the brightest outdoor conditions. (So, if you want to compare the effect of Deep Fusion, one way to do it is to capture the same scene with and without “Photos Capture Outside the Frame” enabled — only when it’s disabled will Deep Fusion kick in.)
Privacy. Someone framing a still photo might have something outside the frame they would not want captured — anything from a shirtless portrait where the ultra-wide image would reveal the subject is pantsless as well, to an object on your desk or countertop where the ultra-wide image might reveal an envelope with your home address.

Sandwich ★

Adam Lisagor:

We used to be Sandwich Video. In fact, we’ve been Sandwich Video since 2010, officially. But today, I’m so proud to announce our new name. A shorter name. Leaner, more agile. Why? Just feels right. […]

Eventually the ambiguity wore off and Sandwich Video had established itself as the upstart little production company for hot new tech companies to get great bespoke videos. We called them “videos” then because what else could they be? Demos? Promos? Probably not “commercials” and definitely not “content”. We made videos for clients, and our output had its own built-in subgenre: if you went to Sandwich Video, you ended up with a Sandwich video. And our style was distinct, so everybody knew it was a Sandwich video. Video video video.

I absolutely love the new Sandwich logo. It’s just perfect. It looks great, it fits the feel of the company to a T, and there’s a timelessness to it. Fun without being goofy or silly is a hard thing to pull off in a logo, but this mark does it. They could be using this logo decades from now and it’ll still look right. The new website is a model of good design and honest copywriting. (Don’t miss Agency Mode.)

I don’t even know why I am over-rationalizing this… it made me smile, it made me happy, and it makes me want a sandwich.

Bloomberg Promotes Michael Riley, Co-Reporter of Last Year’s Bullshit ‘The Big Hack’ Story ★

Erik Wemple, writing for The Washington Post:

Nearly a year ago, Bloomberg reported that China had penetrated the U.S. high-tech infrastructure via a hardware hack affecting some brand-name companies including Apple and Amazon Web Services, as well as prominent server-maker Supermicro. The “Big Hack,” however, sustained denials from the companies themselves, top government officials and cybersecurity experts. Apple chief executive Tim Cook called for a retraction. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the owner of the Washington Post).

Responding to setback after setback, Bloomberg issued the same statement: “We stand by our story and are confident in our reporting and sources.”

Now we know that Bloomberg’s external show of confidence matches its internal thinking. In a memo to staff on Monday, Bloomberg News Editor in Chief John Micklethwait announced that Michael Riley — the second co-byline on “The Big Hack” along with Jordan Robertson — would be taking on the expanded role of cybersecurity czar at the news outlet.

Wemple is being generous, if not euphemistic, in describing Bloomberg’s “The Big Hack” story as “challenged”. It’s more than “challenged” — it is disputed by all parties involved and one year later, not one whit of evidence has been produced that a single word of it is true, nor has there been a single corroborating report from another publication. Security researchers and competing news publications have spent countless hours over the last year searching for any proof of these “grain of rice”-sized chips on motherboards that grant backdoor access to servers, and found nothing.

You can’t prove a negative, but by all appearances, “The Big Hack” was complete bullshit. Bloomberg reporters Jordan Robertson and Michael Riley were sold a bill of goods by government sources looking to make China look bad and ran with it, and Bloomberg, as a publication, has closed its eyes and stuck its collective fingers in its ears for the last year, refusing to do what they obviously need to do and fully retract the story.

And now they’ve promoted Riley to “cybersecurity czar” for the entire outlet. Jiminy.