Short winter days got you down? Apple’s latest iPhone photo contest will give you a reason to stay out late and celebrate the dark. The company has put up a call for entries looking for the best Night mode photos shot on iPhone 11, 11 Pro, or 11 Pro Max.
From now until January 29, submissions can be made via Instagram using the hashtags #ShotoniPhone and #NightmodeChallenge. Contestants are advised to note the model of phone used to produce the photo in the description. Images can also be submitted in high-resolution via email. See the original Apple blog post for details.
Photos will be reviewed by a panel of 10 judges made up of a mix of working photographers and Apple employees. Five winning photos will be selected, with winners announced on March 4. The images will be displayed on Apple’s Instagram account and may be used online, in print ads, or on billboards, according to the company.
It makes sense that Apple would want to draw specific attention to Night mode, a critical new feature in the latest iPhones that allows for handheld long exposures. Night mode produces dramatically brighter, sharper, and more colorful images when the amount of light is insufficient for a standard exposure, and was a highlight of our iPhone 11 Pro review. In addition to granting exposure to the winning photographers, the photo contest will give Apple more content to advertise Night mode in future “Shot on iPhone” campaigns.
While Night mode comes on automatically when conditions call for it, Apple does offer a few tips for getting the best results. To let even more light in, tap on the yellow Night mode icon to gain access to the exposure time slider. Here, you can set a longer exposure than what the iPhone would select by default. To maintain sharpness for the longest exposures, prop your iPhone up or use a tripod adapter. This will ensure no motion blur gets into your image.
Apple’s isn’t the only iPhone photo contest. The independent iPhone Photography Awards has been running since the time of the original iPhone. If you’re looking for more phone photography tips and tricks, we spoke with a past winner about his techniques for getting award-winning photos.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
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.