We already know that the iPhone is a versatile piece of kit with a powerful camera capable of capturing highly impressive video.
That quality, coupled with the phone’s small size compared to conventional movie cameras, has been inspiring a growing number of filmmakers to use Apple’s handset for at least some of the shots in their grand productions.
Take Danny Boyle, the British director behind the 28 horror trilogy about a deadly virus outbreak and its aftermath. For the most recent installment, 28 Years Later, Boyle used a range of cameras, including three special rigs kitted out with iPhones.
One had eight iPhones and could be easily carried by one person, another had 10 iPhones attached, and the largest had 20.
“There’s an incredible shot in the second half [of the film] where we use the [20-camera rig], and you’ll know it when you see it,” Boyle told IGN in a recent interview. “It’s quite graphic but it’s a wonderful shot that uses that technique, and in a startling way that kind of kicks you into a new world rather than thinking you’ve seen it before.”
The acclaimed director likens the 20-camera rig to “basically a poor man’s bullet time,” a reference to the classic bullet-dodging scene in The Matrix where time appears to slow down.
“It gives you 180 degrees of vision of an action, and in the editing you can select any choice from it, either a conventional one-camera perspective or make your way instantly around reality, time-slicing the subject, jumping forward or backward for emphasis,” Boyle said, adding that as 28 Years Later is a horror movie, “we use it for the violent scenes to emphasize their impact.”
The director said he also likes the rig because “for a moment, the audience is inside the scene, the action, rather than classically observing a picture.”
28 Years Later hits screens on June 20, allowing fans to dive back into the chaos, while also discovering Boyle’s skill at deploying the iPhone as a moviemaking tool.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.
Apple's next cheaper iPhone could get a brand-new processor while keeping its most stubborn display compromise. Digital Chat Station tips the iPhone 18e for a 2027 release with a 2nm A20 chip and a 6.12-inch OLED screen still limited to 60Hz.
The rumored camera setup includes a single 48MP rear camera and a possible 24MP selfie camera. There's new hardware to consider, but buyers hoping Apple would extend that upgrade generosity to smoother scrolling could be disappointed.