One of the oldest and most used tools in Photoshop is the pen selection tool. Throughout its existence, it cemented itself as the go-to solution for making precise cuts within images.
Until now, the pen selection tool has been mainly limited to desktop computers, but thanks to an appropriately titled app Exacto, you can now precisely cut out subject matter on your iOS device.
Developed by Samer Azzam, the man behind ProCam 4, Exacto is a single-purpose app for iPhone and iPad that brings the desktop-pen functionality to mobile devices. It’s not the most simple solution to editing out certain components of an image, but what it lacks in convenience, it attempts to make up for in precision.
Much like the desktop version of the pen selection tool, Exacto lets you meticulously create points around the selection of an image you want cropped out. Unlimited undo and redo make it easy to correct accidents and the autosave feature ensures no image gets left behind in case you close out of the app to answer a call or catch the bus.
Layers are also available, making it easy to cut out multiple areas of an image for more precise control and the live preview option lets you see what the image selection will look like against a transparent background.
In a brief trial run with Exacto, we found the process to be a little less than convenient. Even on an iPad Pro, tracing the subject of a photo proved challenging. But with a little practice and more importantly an input device like an Apple Pencil, it would absolutely simplify the process.
Exacto is available in the iOS App Store for $3.
Affinity’s new all-in-one creative app is finally coming to the iPad, nearly a year after Canva launched the redesigned desktop version for Mac and Windows. Creatives have been asking for the iPad release ever since, especially because files created in the new Affinity app cannot be opened in the older V2 iPad apps.
Affinity already has Photo, Designer, and Publisher apps on iPad, but the new release combines those tools into the same unified app that Canva launched on desktop last year.
Touchscreen laptops have been around for years. You can get them in all sizes and shapes. Just not from Apple. For years, the Cupertino giant has treated the idea of a touchscreen MacBook the way I treat a meeting that could have been an email: with open contempt. However, Wednesday looks like the day the company could finally change its mind.
The latest Apple invite puts the “Pro and Tell” showcase in Los Angeles at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) on October 28, 2026. Instead of a regular live-streamed keynote, it is an invitation-only, hands-on event for a handful of press and creators (similar to what the company did for the MacBook Neo earlier this year).
Apple has just launched its latest iPad mini with a notable set of upgrades, including an OLED screen, improved speakers, and a more resilient build. It also gets a new chip, and the whole package costs $200 more than its predecessor. But if you look closely at Apple’s online store, you’ll realize that $699 isn’t enough to get you the most powerful version of the A20 Pro chip inside this tablet. In fact, even if you pay $800 for the 256GB model, you still won’t get the beefiest variant. Only when you jump to the 512GB trim, which costs an absurd $999, do you get the most powerful flavor of the A20 Pro.
The $999 model gets more than extra storage