Apple’s Next Product Launch Event Will Take Place on September 14

Apple's annual fall event is slated to take place on Tuesday, September 14 at 10 AM Pacific Time as noted in an official company announcement. It will be a wholly virtual presentation titled "California Streaming."

Apple's fall event typically takes place in September but was slightly delayed into October last year likely due to the coronavirus pandemic. The company seems back on track this year, however, and is expected to announce its new iPhone models.

In addition to an official invite that has been sent out to media, Apple's Senior Vice President of Marketing also announced the timing in a tweet.

We’re California Streaming on September 14th. See you real soon. 🏞 #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/OjOvJFXlHd

-- Greg Joswiak (@gregjoz) September 7, 2021

The iPhone updates are all but certain as Apple releases a new smartphone every year, but what the device will actually change from last year's iPhone 12 are still hotly debated. Rumors from late August allege that Apple will not name the phone the iPhone 12S but will instead skip right to iPhone 13, though the validity of this claims is not known.

Some rumors from earlier this year allege that the new iPhone models will feature sensor stabilization on all rear-facing cameras, while the ultra-wide camera will also get autofocus. It is also possible that the iconic and oft-maligned notch on the front of the phone will get downsized as the FaceID chip and selfie camera are rumored to have been shrunk. Apple is unlikely to fully remove the notch, however. Another rumor promised that the iPhone 13 would be slightly thicker and feature a larger camera bump than the previous model, but an increase in resolution won't come until 2022.

Apple's invite to press | Apple

Perhaps the most reliable rumor of what to expect in the new iPhone came courtesy of Bloomberg 's Mark Gurman, who reported that Apple plans to focus much of its camera technology efforts on its latest handheld in software, and will implement a video version of the company’s Portrait Mode still photo feature, add ProRes video recording support, and add a filter system to its photo editing interface. The filter system won't act like previous photo filters, but will instead leverage artificial intelligence to give images an edit that is more true to life rather than a blanket filter that can affect white balance.

Gurman also says that the new Macbook Pros with in-house chips likely to be dubbed M1X are also poised to launch in the coming months. No mention of pro-oriented iMacs was mentioned, however.

Whatever the case, Apple will make all of its announcements public during the live stream on September 14, which is likely to be a busy day for photography fans as Canon is also rumored to announce its EOS R3 the same day.

Image credits: Header image via Apple.

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Apple Granted ‘Periscope’ Compact Zoom Lens Patent

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted Apple a patent for a compact camera that uses a set of prisms to "fold" light and compress the amount of space needed for a telephoto lens. This type of lens is typically referred to as a "periscope" lens in smartphones.

As some background, “periscope” is the term used to describe a “folded” lens system that can squeeze greater zoom capabilities into the tiny camera arrays found in smartphones by redirecting light sideways through the body of the device via a sequence of lenses and mirrors or prisms. The concept has been used in other smartphones not made by Apple, like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra’s 10x optical zoom.

Earlier this year, famed Apple expert Ming-Chi Kuo said that Apple was at least two years from implementing the technology in its devices, meaning it is highly likely that Apple users will be stuck with low-powered two to three times optical zoom for the next couple of years. Apple has filed multiple patents for a periscope-like lens system in the past, and today's latest is just another added to the stack. One of its patents was filed back in 2015, and yet no iPhone has yet to use the tech.

The patent, reported by Patently Apple and spotted by DPReview, describes a "folded" camera lens that may be used in small form factor cameras, like smartphones. It uses two light folding elements -- in this case, prisms -- and an independent lens system ocated beetween them that includes an aperture stop and lens elements with refactive power mounted in a lens barrel.

The prisms "fold" the optical axis for the camera and reduce the z-height of the system. Inside the stack are one or more refractive lens elements mounted in a lens barrel.

The stages by which the periscope system works.

Somewhat disappointingly, Patently Apple reports that this particular patent only describes an optical zoom of 3x, which isn't much more than the 2.5x optical zoom found on the iPhone 12 Pro Max. Considering that periscope camera systems are capable of considerably more zoom compressed into a tight space -- as mentioned, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra achieves 10x optical zoom with its periscope camera -- 3x zoom feels far short of what consumers would likely expect out of a periscope system in an Apple device. It's one thing to be late to the game -- which Apple already is -- but another to be late as well as worse.

Whatever the case, if Kuo is to be believed, this patent along with the other periscope designs Apple has patented thus far won't see use in a camera system until at least 2023.

#mobile #news #technology #2021 #apple #appleiphone #applepatent #iphone #iphone12 #iphone12pro #iphone12s #patents #periscope #periscopecamera #periscopelens