Back at WWDC, Apple announced all of the big 2022 updates for its major operating systems. Among them are iOS 16, watchOS 9, and of course, macOS Ventura. Also known as macOS 13, Ventura packs all kinds of new features for Mac users like Stage Manager, Continuity Camera, and much more.
MacOS Ventura: Release Date and Availability
Developer betas have been available since WWDC, as is always the case. But now, we’re getting pretty close to the actual release, which means a couple things. For one thing, the beta is available to both developers and the public now. The other is that the builds are getting more stable as we get close to having a release candidate.
If you’re not willing to be a beta tester, the answer is that macOS 13 Ventura is coming in October. Typically, Apple releases its new iOS and watchOS updates the week after its iPhone launch in September. macOS tends to come a little bit later though. This year, we’re expecting it to be timed with an event where we’ll see new MacBook Pro refreshes, along with new iPads. It will be a free update for supported Macs.
Those supported Macs include the following:
iMac
2017 and later
iMac Pro
2017
MacBook Air
2018 and later
MacBook Pro
2017 and later
Mac Pro
2019 and later
Mac Mini
2018 and later
MacBook
2017 and later
Mac Studio
2022
Being that all supported Macs have to be made in 2017 or later, there are a fair bit of PCs that aren’t supported anymore. With macOS Monterey, support went back to 2015.
What’s new in macOS Ventura
Stage Manager
Stage Manager is another way to organize the apps that you have open. It’s going to take all of your open apps and place them into groups on the side of the screen. So now, those will sit on your desktop, and you can easily use them to switch between apps.
Continuity Camera and FaceTime Handoff
macOS Ventura is going to let you switch between iOS, iPadOS, and macOS in FaceTime calls. So now, if you’re talking to someone on your Mac and you want to get up and show that person something in the other room, you can transfer your call to your iPhone. I think we’ve all wanted to handoff a FaceTime call at one point or another.
That’s not all, because there’s a new feature called Continuity Camera, which will actually let you use your iPhone as a webcam. That’s right; you’ll be able to strap an iPhone to your Mac and use the camera for whatever it is you’re doing, giving you a significant boost in video quality, at least with most Macs.
That also means that Center Stage – which allows the camera to move the field of view to focus on you – will be available to all Macs, using the phone you probably already have. Indeed, it’s not just about camera quality. It also adds portrait mode and studio light, and there’s a Desk View feature that works as an overhead camera.
Freeform is a new whiteboarding app
Freeform is a new collaboration app that Apple is making, aiming at a new take on whiteboarding. You can add text, files, links, photos, and so on. And naturally, you can collaborate in real-time with this.
Mail improvements
As usual, Mail is getting a bunch of new features. There’s better search functionality, which gives you better results and will give you suggestions as you type. You can also now unsend an email, schedule messages to be sent, and get reminders to return to a draft. It’s also going to notice when you’ve forgotten to include an attachment. A lot of these features seem to be inspired by Gmail.
Spotlight improvements
Spotlight is getting a bunch of improvements. If you search for images, you’ll find pictures from Photos, Messages, Notes, the web, and more, and you can use Live Text to search for text inside of the image.
You’ll also find new quick actions in Spotlight. You’ll be able to search and quickly start a timer, create an alarm, find the name of a song in Shazam, and more.
Safari improvements
As usual, Safari is getting some improvements. Passkeys are a feature that lets you sign in to services and they’re end-to-end encrypted, making them way more secure. Moreover, Apple says they work on non-Apple devices.
You’re going to be able to share tab groups from Safari, and you’ll even be able to start a FaceTime call to collaborate on something. The people that you’re collaborating with will be able to add their own tabs to the group as well.
Messages improvements
It’s official; iMessages are getting an edit button before Twitter does. Yes, you’ll be able to change a message after you send it, although, of course, this doesn’t apply to those green SMS messages. You can also mark a message as unread, in case you don’t have time to respond at the moment and you don’t want to leave the sender on read.
Apple is also bringing SharePlay to Messages. This will let you chat about things while you’re watching something with friends. In fact, Apple seems to be gearing up Messages as the place where you can text friends while still doing things together. Adding onto the Freeform app and Safari features above, there’s a broader range of collaboration features you can use. If you have a shared project, there will be a button to chat in Messages or start a FaceTime call.
Photos improvements
Apple has announced iCloud Shared Photo Library, which is pretty self-explanatory. You can share photos with up to five people at a time, and while sharing photos isn’t new, the ability to edit them is. This is proper collaboration-style sharing, rather than just sending an album to someone and letting them download it. Obviously, edits sync instantly.
You can choose what’s in the album you’re sharing based on things like people in photos, so it’s intelligently figuring out who’s in the picture. And when you tell Photos what you want in the album, you’ll see more in the For Your Shared Library tab.
We’ll continue to update this page as we learn more, but ultimately, macOS Ventura is getting pretty close to release, so we don’t antincipate having that much more to say.
The Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 is a delightful laptop to use, packing AMD’s latest Ryzen 6000 processors and an all-new design. Indeed, I first saw the bronze frame with the vegan leather lid back in January at CES, and it was one of those things that I just couldn’t wait to get my hands on. After all, when you think ThinkPad, you rarely associate it with modern. It’s more likely that you associate it with a black design, the red TrackPoint that’s a relic from an age when touchpads were awful, and things like that.
The ThinkPad Z13 comes with a haptic touchpad, and unlike other ThinkPads, the tocuhpad isn’t shrunken down to accommodate two physical buttons. Thanks to the haptic touchpad that’s used, that space at the top can either be buttons, or it can be an extension of the touchpad.
It’s not perfect though. The biggest issue is one that we find with all mobile Ryzen processors. Performance takes a dive when it’s not connected to power, and you’ll feel the difference. Unfortunately, this doesn’t result in better battery life either.
But as long as you’re connected to power at least most of the time, the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 is delightful.
The Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 was designed in collaboration with AMD, and packs a lot of modern features like a haptic touchpad, a brand-new design, an FHD webcam, and more.
The ThinkPad Z13 starts at $1,355.40 and it’s available now
On Lenovo.com, the ThinkPad Z13 currently starts at $1,355.40, although that price does fluctuate. The company is always running one deal or another. And when I say always, I mean it. The listed normal price is actually $2,259, but you’ll never be asked to pay that price. The base model comes with an AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 6650U, 16GB LPDDR5, a 256GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD, and a 1,920×1,200 display.
The model that Lenovo sent me for review includes the same FHD+ display, but it has a Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U, 16GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD. This one will run you $2,099 from Costco, although to be fair, it’s actually about $1,754 on Lenovo.com right now. With ThinkPads, and any business laptop for that matter, it helps to look around.
The Z13 comes in Vegan Leather Black, Grey, and Black.
Discrete TPM 2.0 (TCG certified, with Microsoft Pluton integrated in chipset), Touch style
fingerprint reader in keyboard key, BIOS Security, E-Camera shutter, IR camera for Windows Hello
Battery
51.5 Wh, supports Rapid Charge (80% in 1hr)
Material
Aluminum (top), Aluminum (bottom)
Color
Bronze with black vegan leather (top), black (bottom)
OS
Windows 11 Pro
Price
$2,099
Design: The Z13 is the sexiest ThinkPad in history
With a two-tone design that has a vegan leather lid, it breaks from ThinkPad tradition
It has USB4, making it one of the first AMD laptops that’s not lacking from Thunderbolt
When you think of a Lenovo ThinkPad, you probably think of something along the lines of a ThinkPad X1 Carbon. And let’s face it. When you’re thinking of an X1 Carbon, you’re basically thinking of pretty much every other ThinkPad too. You’re imagining a matte black laptop with a gray logo stamped in the corner of a lid. Sure, there’s the aluminum ThinkPad X1 Yoga and there’s the foldable ThinkPad X1 Fold, but 99% of the time, ThinkPad design is very conservative.
I remember a few years ago, someone was asking me which laptop to buy. At the time, I said a ThinkPad, and was met with the response that ThinkPads are ugly. This was before the X1 Yoga was even made out of aluminum, so there very much was one look for a ThinkPad.
While there have been those modest changes in certain models, the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 is a big change. It comes in grey and it comes in black, but there’s a third model that’s made to be sexy. This one has a bronze frame and a black vegan leather top. It’s the most beautiful ThinkPad ever made.
The ThinkPad Z13 is the most beautiful ThinkPad ever made.
Part of me wants to call it the sexiest laptop on the market. HP used to do a two-tone design on its Spectre x360 laptops with those bold accents, but the company toned it down a lot with the latest generation. If you want that kind of eye-catching look, this feels like the way to go.
Also, I really want to note that when it comes to PC design, I really think Lenovo is the 2022 winner. That’s saying a lot because in previous years, I’d have told you that the company makes some of the best, yet ugliest laptops there are. On the consumer end, it felt like everything was a bland gunmetal gray, and that’s been replaced by the stunning Yoga 9i. On the business end, we had bland black ThinkPads, and now we have this stunner. I love to see it. I love any time companies get creative with laptop design.
It weighs in at 2.78 pounds, which is about average for a light and premium ultrabook before you move onto materials like carbon fiber and magnesium. It’s right around what a MacBook Air weighs. It feels great to carry in a bag, and it also feels great to hold. I really enjoy this year’s theme of laptops that aren’t wedge-shaped, that have a uniform depth throughout the device. It’s a nice touch.
Now, let’s talk about ports because this is pretty important. Historically, this is an area where AMD-powered laptops have come at a significant disadvantage, because they don’t have Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt is a staple for a premium Intel-powered laptop, as you can connect an external graphics card, you can connect two 4K displays on a single port, you can get 40Gbps data transfer speeds, and more.
AMD’s new Ryzen 6000 processors support USB4, which is more similar to Thunderbolt 3. Here’s what you need to know about that. Thunderbolt 3, USB4, and Thunderbolt 4 support data transfer speeds of up to 40Gbps, but with Thunderbolt 4, that’s actually the standard. But with the introduction of USB4 and it being open to everyone, that means that lacking Thunderbolt doesn’t mean what it used to. I no longer have to ding AMD laptops in pros and cons lists for this.
The Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 has two USB4 ports, one on each side. And yes, I always think it’s a plus when you can charge a laptop from either side. On the right side, you’ll also find the power button and a 3.5mm audio jack.
There’s no USB Type-A on this, which I wouldn’t expect. While business laptops tend to have more legacy ports, this is designed to be more modern.
Just to sum things up, I really love the design on this laptop. With the bronze accents and the vegan leather cover, it’s just beautiful.
Display: There’s an option for OLED
The screen is 13.3 inches and 16:10
You can get a 2.8K OLED option too, but the base model is FHD+
The screen is probably the least exciting thing to talk about on the ThinkPad Z13, because the one that Lenovo sent me has an FHD+ display. The more exciting configuration is 2.8K OLED, which I’m sure is beautiful. But for now, we have the FHD+ one, which I’m starting to think Lenovo sent for battery life purposes. Obviously, you get more battery life from fewer pixels than more, and I don’t love what I’m seeing from Ryzen 6000, which we’ll talk more about in a bit.
The screen is pretty good. It supports touch, and as you’ll see from my tests results, everything about it is solid. It doesn’t really stand out in any way, but there’s nothing bad about it.
From my testing, it supports 100% sRGB, 79% NTSC, 84% Adobe RGB, and 84% P3. Those are all good scores. Again, I’m sure the OLED model is all in the 90% range.
Brightness maxed out at 466.9 nits, which is really great considering that Lenovo only promised 400 nits. Contrast ratio maxed out at 1,670:1. All of these are solid marks.
There’s a 2.1MP webcam, which there’s a bit more room for in the top bezel thanks to Lenovo’s reverse notch design. 2.1MP means that it supports FHD resolution, something that’s critical in the age of working from home. Intel-powered PCs were pushed to do this through the new Evo spec, so I’m glad to see it in an AMD laptop as well.
Keyboard: Finally, no more buttons above the touchpad
The keyboard has 1.35mm keys
It’s a haptic touchpad with no physical buttons
The Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 has a keyboard with 1.35mm keys, which is the correct depth for a ThinkPad keyboard. It debuted in the ThinkPad X1 Nano and the ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga, and we’ve seen it in other new designs more recently such as this one and the ThinkPad X13s. Older designs like the ThinkPad X1 Carbon and the ThinkPad X1 Yoga use a 1.5mm keyboard, and some ThinkPads are 1.8mm.
The keyboard is comfortable and accurate, and like I said, 1.35mm is the proper depth for the keys. Lenovo needs to use this keyboard across the entire ThinkPad lineup. It’s more modern, and it’s really well done.
The one thing about this laptop that’s decidedly not modern is the TrackPoint, which sits between the G, H, and B key. It’s been this way for every ThinkPad, ever, and it’s a relic from the age when Windows touchpads weren’t good. It needs to go away at some point, but that time is not now. Companies like HP and Dell still use one, but those companies limit it to certain mainstream models. Lenovo still includes is on every ThinkPad.
One other thing I want to point out is that the Ctrl button is to the left of the Fn key. On most other ThinkPads, the Fn key is on the left, which is really annoying because it’s a deviation from how every other laptop works. It’s nice to see the Ctrl button in the proper place for once.
We’ve also got a modern take on the ThinkPad touchpad. For one thing, it’s a haptic touchpad now, which feels great to use. As you can see, there are also no physical buttons at the top, which are traditionally there for use with the TrackPoint. Thanks to the haptic touchpad, you can use that space as buttons, or you can use it as an extension of the touchpad. It’s a very welcome change, since ThinkPads tend to have small touchpads because of that valuable real estate being taken up by buttons.
Performance: Ryzen 6000 is a beast, most of the time
Performance with Ryzen 6000 is great, but once again, AMD fails to deliver when not connected to power
Battery life isn’t very good
Just like we saw when Ryzen 5000 and Ryzen 4000 came out of the gate, Ryzen 6000 is a winner. In most benchmark tests, you’ll see it beat out its Intel counterpart, and it has the exact same flaw as its predecessors too: performance drops in a meaningful way when you’re not connected to power. You’ll see in the benchmark chart below that this laptop scored 6,281 in PCMark while it was plugged in and the power slider was set to best performance. Running on battery, it scored 5,340.
The ThinkPad Z13 is a true pleasure to use.
That’s almost a 15% hit, which is actually better than a lot of Ryzen 5000 laptops I’ve used. Still, you won’t experience this much of an issue on an Intel laptop. I was on a meeting a few days ago, and our EIC Aamir Siddiqui pointed out that my internet must be having a rough day, as I looked terrible. He was pretty surprised when everything was fixed when I connected a power cable to the laptop I was using.
I don’t want to bash the performance loss when not connected to power too much, although I do want to be clear that it is noticeable, but let’s be fair. When it’s connected to power, this is a really well-performing laptop. I used it a lot for photo editing in Adobe Lightroom Classic and Photoshop, and it did great. It didn’t miss a beat. For general productivity, it’s even better.
After all, general productivity is really what U-series processors are supposed to be for. And when working in productivity applications like a Chromium web browser, OneNote, Slack, Skype, and more, it just feels so fast. This laptop is a true pleasure to use.
As you can see, the PCMark score, when plugged in, is far away from anything else, including Intel’s 15W U-series, 28W P-series, and AMD’s Ryzen 5000 U-series chips. It’s not perfect though. While I noted that the Z13 drops to 5,340 when not connected to power, HP’s Spectre x360 13.5 only dropped to 5,368 when using the battery, a much smaller decline. Also, Intel still holds the lead in single-threaded performance, which is really important in regular tasks.
Battery life was not great, something that’s a bit surprising considering how much AMD throttles everything when power isn’t connected. Also, to be clear, I do battery testing by doing my normal work load and measuring how long it takes for the battery to die. In most cases, I set the power slider to balanced, but with AMD chips, I’m forced to set it to best performance.
The absolute best I got was 245 minutes, which is just over four hours. It was the only time I got over four hours in all of my use. The worst I got was 170 minutes, which is under three hours. As you could probably guess, average was around three and a half hours, which isn’t great for a 51.5WHr battery.
Who should buy the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13?
The Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 is a pretty sweet laptop. It checks the right boxes for design, performance, keyboard, and more.
You should buy the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 if:
You’re looking for a stylish business laptop
You want productivity performance, and you’re plugged into power most of the time
You use a dock to connect to a larger workstation
You’ve thought about getting a ThinkPad, but have held back
You should NOT buy the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 if:
You’re not connected to power the vast majority of the time
You require a more subtle design
To be fair, the Grey model does offer the more subtle design that a lot of business users need. The Vegan Leather Black one is sexy, and it’s really nice to see because business laptops are usually pretty bland. Of course, the biggest drawback is that performance takes a meaningful hit when it’s not connected to power, an issue we’ve seen with plenty of AMD Ryzen processors over the years.
The Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 was designed in collaboration with AMD, and packs a lot of modern features like a haptic touchpad, a brand-new design, an FHD webcam, and more.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 may not be a radical improvement over its predecessor but it brings a lot of subtle yet meaningful upgrades to the table. The camera array on the Galaxy Z Fold 4 is finally on-par with other flagship devices on the market. It’s still catching up to what the rest of Samsung’s flagships offer, but it’s a welcoming change. It essentially matches the camera array on the Galaxy S22, meaning it can capture some stunning photos and videos. It offers a lot of versatility with its software too. If you’re wondering what it is like to use the Galaxy Z Fold 4 cameras and the software then you’ve come to the right place. From Expert RAW to a bunch of different shooting modes within the stock camera app, here’s everything you can expect to see while taking pictures and recording videos with the Galaxy Z Fold 4:
The Galaxy Z Fold 4 borrows the same camera system as the Galaxy S22 Plus to deliver a flagship-grade experience. The main camera is a 50MP sensor with an f/1.8 lens and optical stabilization. It’s not up to the level of the main sensor on the Galaxy S22 Ultra, but it should be a noticeable improvement over the Galaxy Z Fold 3. The 10MP telephoto lens offers up to 3x optical zoom and 30x Space zoom, which is once again better than what we got last year with the Galaxy Z Fold 3. Lastly, there’s the 12MP ultra-wide camera that we’ve already seen on other Samsung flagships. It has an f/2.2 aperture, a 123-degree field of view, and a 1.12µm pixel size with which it produces some solid results with a lot of details.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 also comes with two camera sensors for selfies. There’s a 10MP shooter on the cover display and a 4MP under-display camera (or UDC) that’s hidden under the main screen. The company has masked the UDC better this time around by arranging more pixels on top of it. You won’t really notice it unless you’re specifically looking for it. The quality of this 4MP UDC, however, is still not that great. It will do in a pinch for video calls, but we suggest you turn to the other 10MP sensor on the cover display for selfies. Alternatively, you can also unfold the phone and use the cover display as the viewfinder to snap selfies using the main camera system at the back. It works very well and I’ll show you how to do it in the following sections.
You can take a look at some camera samples captured using this phone in our Galaxy Z Fold 4 review that’s linked earlier in this article. With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the camera features and different shooting modes offered by the Galaxy Z Fold 4.
Samsung One UI stock camera app is packed with features
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 comes with the same stock camera app that you get on the other Galaxy devices with the OneUI software. It scales very well to take advantage of the bigger main display on this phone so I recommend you open the display to frame your shots or explore the options unless you’re rushing to capture an unmissable moment. The stock camera app comes with a lot of different functions and modes to choose from. I’ve set the app to default to the “Photo” mode every time I relaunch it to frame my shots from scratch. Other modes including portrait and video show up at the bottom along with a “More” button that lets you see other modes.
One of the best things about the Samsung camera app is that you can also drag and drop these modes or rearrange the position of the existing ones according to your preference. A lot of other camera apps on the market don’t let you do this, so I am glad to see Samsung putting more thought into its features to allow customization.
Let’s take a quick look at some of the camera settings that you may want to explore on the Galaxy Z Fold 4 before starting to shoot with it. You can access the camera settings page by choosing the Setting cog on the top of the viewfinder. The options here are very similar to the ones you get on the Galaxy S22 series. They are a lot of options to explore but Samsung also gives you a quick summary of each option to help you get a better understanding of what they do before you can toggle them on or off.
In my case, as you can see, I’ve enabled the Scan QR option which is something I used a lot even on the Galaxy S22. With this, you can simply open the camera app and scan any QR code without having to download or look for a dedicated app to do just that. I also recommend checking out the “Settings to keep” option in which you can tell your phone to remember some of the previously used settings within the camera app.
Additionally, you can also disable the “Location tags” option if you don’t want the phone to add the location information to the metadata. Regardless of your saved preference for the location data, we suggest you strip the EXIF data from your images before sharing them online. You can check out our detailed guide explaining how to remove EXIF data to learn more about it. There are a lot of other options to explore, so be sure to take a good look at them before you begin shooting with the Galaxy Z Fold 4.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 offers a lot of shooting modes
The Galaxy Z Fold 4 has a ton of different camera modes to shoot with. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the modes that you can use other than the usual photo, video, and portrait modes:
‘Pro’ and ‘Pro Video’ modes: These modes, as the names suggest, will give you more granular controls for taking photos and recording videos, respectively.
Portrait video: This one’s just a portrait mode for videos. It lets you set your focus on any subject in the scene and adds a soft focus on the rest to give a cinematic look to the video. It’s similar to what Apple is trying to achieve with its Cinematic mode on the iPhone 13 Pro. But it’s not as reliable so I suggest sticking to the regular or the ‘Pro Video’ mode for videos on this phone for now.
Night: The night mode, as you probably already know, will allow you to capture better-looking photos during the night when there’s not enough light in the scene. I noticed that the Galaxy Z Fold 4 automatically shows a night mode button on the main photo mode when there’s not enough light.
Food: This is one of my favorite modes as it allows you to capture some great-looking photos of the food that you’re eating. It allows you to add a blur effect around the food and even lets you adjust the color temperature of the image before capturing it.
Panorama: The Panorama mode has been around for quite some time now and it allows you to pan across the frame to capture a wider perspective. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 will automatically switch to the ultra-wide lens as soon as you enter this particular mode.
Hyperlapse: Just like the Galaxy S22, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 also gives you some good options in the Hyperlapse mode. You can record in either FHD or UHD resolution and use either the main or the ultra-wide camera. You also get an option to select the speed of the recording, which is quite handy.
Before we move on to the next section, I want to highlight the Galaxy Z Fold 4 exclusive feature that lets you use the rear cameras to take selfies. The outer screen becomes your viewfinder in this mode and lets you frame your selfies very easily. This is what I use to capture selfies on the Galaxy Z Fold 4 as the main cameras are significantly better than both selfie shooters on this phone. Just note that your phone will remain unfolded for this to work, meaning you’ll have to be more careful not to drop it because, you know, there’s a good chance it’ll break or get scuffed if it falls flat.
Even if you managed to grab one of the best deals for it, there’s no denying that the Galaxy Z Fold 4 is one of the most expensive phones out there. So keeps your hands steady. In fact, I wasn’t very confident while using this mode to grab a selfie when I didn’t have a case on the device. I highly recommend picking up one of the best cases for it to get a much better grip on the phone for this.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4’s ‘Cover screen preview’ feature
You can enable this mode by tapping on the ‘Cover Screen Preview’ button on the top. Here, I’ve highlighted it in the screenshot below:
Expert RAW camera app works on the Galaxy Z Fold 4 too
Samsung’s Expert RAW camera app is also available for the Galaxy Z Fold 4. You can download it from Samsung’s Galaxy Store provided you have a Samsung account set up on the device. This particular camera app, for those that don’t know, is the company’s advanced camera app that’s targeted at professional users who know their way around cameras and different options to tweak an image while capturing. You don’t get any exclusive features for the Galaxy Z Fold 4 on this app, meaning it offers the same set of features found on other flagship devices including the ability to shoot RAW images, more granular control, and more.
According to Samsung, the Expert RAW camera app adds a wider dynamic range to add more details to the images. That’s good for those who want to preserve as much as RAW details of an image as possible for future edits. The resulting images, however, are 16-bit RAW files that can take up as much as 30MB a piece on your phone.
The Expert RAW camera app only lets you take photos. So you can’t use this app to capture portraits, night shots, selfies, and even videos. It’s very limiting unless you are a professional photographer wanting to shoot RAW photos from your smartphone for post-processing possibilities. I am not a huge fan of capturing RAW photos mainly because I don’t plan on making powerful edits to my images after the fact. It is available for free of cost, so feel free to download it and play around with the settings to get used to shooting in manual mode.
Closing Thoughts
Well, that brings us to the end of this Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 camera walkthrough. I hope you find this guide useful if you’re new to the world of flagship phones and find all the camera settings a bit too overwhelming. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 offers a powerful set of cameras that allows you to capture some impressive photos. Samsung’s stock camera app that ships with OneUI is one of the best options out there. It should be enough for most users as it offers all the essential tools that you’d need to capture good photos and videos.
So which Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 camera mode are you planning to explore first? Let us know by dropping a line in the comments below. I’ve been using this phone as my daily driver for the last couple of weeks and trying out new features. The phone offers a great user experience out of the box but I encourage you to check out our collection of the best chargers and accessories to pair with the Galaxy Z Fold 4. I can personally vouch for a lot of items mentioned in that collection and I am sure they’ll improve your experience overall.
Ahead of the release of the new iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro devices, Apple has updated the terms of its AppleCare Plus service plans. Previously, the plan would only cover up to two incidents of accidental damage every 12 months of coverage. Now, the plan will cover unlimited incidents for the term of the plan. While this is a big improvement, and Apple is not charging an extra for this change, users will still be required to pay associated service fees for each incident.
Although most Apple products come with a one-year warranty, the firm does offer service plans that cover a lot more. With AppleCare Plus, the device will be covered for any manufacturer defects plus any kind of accidental damage that might occur. That means that if you drop your phone and something happens to it, Apple will try to repair it. If it cannot be repaired, Apple will replace it. Apple also offers AppleCare Plus with Theft and Loss, which covers everything that the previous plan does and adds coverage for a phone that is either lost or stolen.
In addition to the cost of the plan, there are service fees that must be paid in case something happens outside of the standard coverage. For example, under either AppleCare Plus plan, if the screen or back glass gets damaged somehow, users will be required to pay a service fee in the amount of $29 for a repair. For any physical damage outside of that, Apple will charge a $99 fee. Finally, if your phone is lost or stolen, Apple will require you to pay a fee of $149. If you live near an Apple Store or an authorized service center, most of these repairs can be completed on the same day. But, if you’re not keen on having your device repaired at a store, you can always mail it to a service center or have a replacement sent to you. The price for AppleCare Plus will depend on the phone that you own, but it starts at $79 and can go as high as $199 for a two-year plan. AppleCare Plus with Theft and Loss will start at $149 and will go as high as $269.
We are just a few days away from the release of Apple iOS 16, and now, it looks like things are being pushed back. Luckily, iOS 16 will still be launching on September 12, however, the iCloud Shared Photo Library feature will be pushed back to a later date. Apple has not commented on the delay, only quietly changing its website to reflect that the feature will be “coming later this year.” The change was first spotted by the folks at AppleInsider.
If you aren’t familiar with iCloud Shared Photo Library, it is a new way to collaborate with friends and family members. Each group can have up to five members, and every group member can add photos and videos. Members can choose the photos and video they want to add or have them added by default starting from a specific date. This makes sharing seamless without ever having to second guess whether a special picture or video was sent to those closest to you. Furthermore, within iCloud Shared Photo Library, every member of the group will have the ability to edit, organize, delete, and more.
While the delay might come as a surprise, this isn’t the first thing that Apple has delayed this year. While iOS 16 will launch on September 12, iPadOS 16 will not come out simultaneously. Apple has confirmed the delay but has not given a specific date on when it will arrive. Most sources point to an October release, coinciding with an unannounced iPad event. Although iCloud Shared Photo Library won’t be included in the upcoming iOS release, there is still plenty to look forward to with the new OS, like a redesigned lock screen, focus enhancements, message upgrades, and more. If you want something completely new, you might consider pre-ordering a new iPhone. The pre-orders started today, and most of the new iPhones will be released on September 16.
According to Esper’s Mishaal Rahman, Google is working on a new ‘Clear Calling’ feature to help reduce background noise during calls. Although the feature is currently in development and not live in the latest Android 13 beta release, Rahman has managed to enable it manually.
Google is working on a feature called “clear calling” that will reduce background noises during calls. It works “for most mobile networks” but it’s “not available for Wi-Fi calling.” Contents from your calls are “not sent to Google.”
As you can see in the attached screenshots, the upcoming Clear Calling feature will appear in the Sound & vibration settings on Pixel devices when it rolls out to users. Its description states that it will reduce background noise during calls and work “for calls on most mobile networks.” However, it will not be available for Wi-Fi calling.
Credit: Mishaal Rahman
The Clear Calling settings page further reveals the feature will not send content from your call to Google. This suggests that the feature will likely utilize onboard AI/ML models to identify and reduce background noise during calls. But we don’t have any confirmed details about its inner workings at the moment.
As mentioned previously, Clear Calling is not live in the Android 13 QPR1 Beta 1 release. So, you won’t find it on your Pixel, even after installing the update. Google might roll it out with a subsequent beta build, and we’ll let you know as soon as it’s available to users.
YouTube has evolved over the past decade, going from a place to just find entertainment to a platform where you can learn about nearly anything. Now, YouTube is investing in the educational segment by catering to the educators on its platform by introducing YouTube Player for Education. The new feature will keep educational environments free of ads, external links, or recommendations. Before it rolls out to all educators on its platform, YouTube will first partner with educational technology companies in the United States like EDpuzzle, Purdue University, Purdue Global, and more.
The goal of YouTube Player for Education is to eliminate distractions from educational videos, giving learners a better experience. Going forward, it will also enhance the experience it offers in Google Classroom. Furthermore, qualified creators will be able to offer courses starting next year. The courses can be free or paid and will give educators a new space to provide a structured learning environment. The courses will first be available to those in the United States and South Korea as a beta, with the service expanding to more regions later. If this kind of learning platform sounds familiar, it’s because it already exists with services like MasterClass, Skillshare, or Coursera.
In addition to the new changes, YouTube will implement Quizzes. It will allow creators to create quizzes to test viewers. This service could help viewers to better understand what they learned and also what they might need more work on. Quizzes will roll out to users as a beta in the next few months. Creators with access to the Community tab will have access to this feature starting next year. While it is great to see YouTube making new tools for educational creators on its platform, it will be interesting to see how courses on the platform will work.
