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The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra seems set to lose a headlining feature
The 10x zoom camera is likely to get nerfed
Samsung is widely regarded as a pioneer of zoom photography on smartphones, making hardware innovations such as telephoto lenses and folded optics mainstream as early 2020 with the Galaxy S20 Ultra. In the years that followed, the Ultra series continued to offer improved zoom camera performance. However, it seems like the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra might not continue that trend.
What is a periscope camera and how does it work?
From the Pixel 7 to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, this might be the next big thing in mobile photography
Ever since the first camera was put in a mobile phone, manufacturers have been in a perpetual arms race to include the best camera system on their devices. This has been great for consumers when almost every phone available today can take decent photos (especially compared to the 1MP cameras we had in the early days). The cutting edge of mobile photography mostly lies on the computational side of things, but one hardware advance, in particular, is changing what we can do with our smartphone camera and how we use it: the periscope camera. Let's explore what this camera is all about.
Why the periscope zoom lens is more controversial than any other smartphone camera feature
Are periscope telephoto cameras a waste of resources, or a stepping stone to something great?
Last week, we learned that next year’s Galaxy S24 Ultra might drop the 10x telephoto setup Samsung’s used in its past few Ultra flagships in favor of a more restrained 5x option, much like what’s on offer in the new iPhone 15 Pro Max. It got us here at Android Police talking about super telephoto lenses in phones — and two of us in particular aren’t seeing eye to eye about it. Here, we discuss.
Periscope will shut down its dedicated app because no one uses it
Its core functionality will live on in the Twitter app
Periscope was originally released by Twitter as a standalone livestreaming app, before most of its functionality was baked into the main Twitter mobile app in 2016. Since then, Periscope's dedicated community has mostly shifted to Twitter and other platforms, and now the app that started it all is going away.
For all the fanfare ultra wide angle cameras receive on the internet, it’s getting closer that has long presented the greatest frustration in smartphone photography. Digital zoom has been the stuff of tech-savvy humor for years, a feature reserved for those so illiterate in their usage of cameras as to not understand that it achieves the same end effect as cropping an un-zoomed photo with a simple editor. Why zoom at all, we say, when the camera isn’t able to gather any more data, but instead actually destroys it, and all for the sake of a noisy, blurry photo? While this has a strong ring of “technically true,” I also believe it fundamentally ignores and misunderstands why people use zoom in the first place - and also why I believe optical superzoom systems are the future of smartphone cameras.
In case you've forgotten about it, Periscope is Twitter's somewhat-unpopular streaming platform designed for use on iOS and Android devices. There haven't been any major feature additions in well over a year, but that changes today. Periscope users can now invite guests onto their streams, similar to what Instagram added in 2017.
The Android Police Podcast has been running semi-regularly since 2012, but earlier this year we implemented some changes. Previously, the live streams were only available on the AP Podcast YouTube channel, with audio versions hosted on SoundCloud (and available through Play Music/iTunes/Pocket Casts/etc.).
How do you tell a Periscope streamer you like what they've got? Hearts. How do you tell them you really like what they've got? Super Hearts. The latter is a new item in the Periscope app, and it'll cost you. Twitter has added in-app purchases for Super hearts to its live streaming app to squeeze some revenue out of the previously free service.
What's cooler than running a live stream from your phone? How about a live stream from your phone in 360 degrees? Periscope has been testing the feature with select accounts for a few months now, and just recently opened it up to all iOS users. Now the Android app supports broadcasting in 360 degrees as well.
After Periscope's full functionality was added to the Twitter mobile apps, Twitter promised users that the Periscope app would continue to be a hub for discovering livestreams, as well as serve users that don't want to use Twitter. Keeping that promise, Twitter has updated the Periscope app several times since then, now adding multi-window support to the Android app.
Earlier this month, the official Twitter mobile apps were updated to support livestreaming without having the separate Periscope app installed. Now the company has added support for 360-degree streams to both the Twitter and Periscope apps.If you've ever watched a 360-degree YouTube video, you should be familiar with how this works. Desktop users can pan around the player with the mouse, and mobile users can tilt their phone to change the video angle. As of yet, there seems to be no support for any VR headsets in the mobile apps. Twitter teamed up with Alex Pettitt, a notable Periscope streamer, to show off the functionality for the first time.
No, #GoLive is not a trending topic about bringing back Adobe GoLive. Instead, it is related to Twitter bringing the full streaming abilities of Periscope to the mobile Twitter apps. Starting today, a new 'Live' button is visible when composing a tweet, which allows you to start a live stream. As far as functionality goes, it is the exact same as starting a stream from the Periscope app.
Ever since Twitter integrated Periscope's streaming and viewing abilities into the Twitter mobile apps, there isn't much of a reason to have the separate app installed. Just in case you still use it, Twitter has released version 1.8.1 of the application with two new minor features - app shortcuts and new options while broadcasting.
Instagram, once a social network dedicated purely to posting pictures of food, has become prone to feature creep (not unlike Facebook's other properties). Back in August Instagram added Snapchat-like stories, and earlier this month Boomerang support. Today the company announced two new features for the app - Live video on Instagram stories, and disappearing photos/videos in direct messages.
Periscope is Twitter's popular live streaming platform, and today it's getting a few new features. Everyone will be able to enjoy automated highlight reels and easier embedded broadcasts, but Android users in particular will also get autoplay functionality in the Periscope app.
After an initial test back in May, Twitter has begun rolling out its new Periscope button to everyone on Android and iOS. When composing a tweet, users will now be greeted with a "Live" button within the media picker, serving as a shortcut to directly launch the Periscope app (or to download it if it isn't installed) and immediately begin live broadcasting to any audience.
Facebook wants you to share more - specifically, more photos and videos. With that in mind, the Wall Street Journal is today reporting that Facebook is working on a dedicated camera app to compete with the likes of Snapchat and Periscope, who are stealing the limelight away from Facebook's much-touted video platform.
VentureBeat is claiming to have wind of a new app by YouTube, named 'Connect.' The app will reportedly be used for live-streaming, in much the same way as Periscope and Facebook. According to VentureBeat's sources, Connect has many of the same features as those two apps, including a 'news feed' to see which of your subscriptions are streaming or have shared video, and chat among users.
Periscrope is Twitter's app for broadcasting live streams. Something's happening. You pull out your phone, you turn on the camera, and you show the world what's going on. Or at least the people who come across your account.