ABC turns to Apple for help producing ‘American Idol’ from home during COVID-19 — 9to5Mac

The entertainment industry continues to rely on Apple products and services to continue production amid the COVID-19 pandemic. A new report from Deadline today details how ABC is working closely with Apple to continue production of American Idol from home. more… The post ABC turns to Apple for help producing ‘American Idol’ from home during…

ABC turns to Apple for help producing ‘American Idol’ from home during COVID-19 — 9to5Mac

“People ask me or sometimes muse to themselves, “What’s the best camera?” And the answer is always, “The one you have”

I’ve said it time again in a long back-and-forth email with a friend of mine who teaches photography and art in Higher Education. We both come from a background of making do with limited resources. But at the same time there’s this overwhelming desire in Higher Ed to always give student access to “tools” they couldn’t or wouldn’t ever buy for themselves. But in fact, it’s really a desire to make purchases using capital equipment budget that provide the largest number of “units” for a set number of enrollees for a class that’s capped typically at 20-25 students. You get 25 students, you buy 25 cameras and they use them for their class work. You collect up 25 cameras at the end of the semester. And people get to use a digital SLR that they could never justify buying themselves. But some percent may 1-2 students out of the class will later budget buy the same camera they used. Others, maybe 1-2 will already own a camera equal to or BETTER than the cam you bought. The remaining 20 or so students will turn in the camera and NEVER buy a digital SLR. They’re not hardcore photographers. They wanted to “learn” photography, but they aren’t going to pursue it in a concerted lifelong kind of way. Or they take the class because it’s a pre-requisite, a requirement for another class in their major, their minor, or cluster for graduations. So there is that “market” for digital SRL’s. And that will never change, it’s status quo kind of thing.

But whither the casual user who has budgeted and saved for a current or even factory refurbished top of the line iPhone? Given all these little “slips” of info about shows, commercials, film producers adopting iPhones in same way. Maybe as a one-time “joke” or trick to see if it could work, but you hear these things. And then you see things. And you realize it’s not a joke or a trick. iPhones with 128GB of storage, 3 cameras built-in, lidar time-of-flight sensors for “AR” style functions. These devices are an untapped magical treasure box just dying to be used for making art. And literally ARE the camera you have. You have it, it’s already there, it’s yours, it’s paid for. You’re using it as a smartphone or an entertainment device. But it’s a tool, every bit as much as a digital SLR. So what it doesn’t have a glass prism view finder, interchangeable lenses, all the doodads, gimcrack and gewgaws. That’s immaterial. You can still take a picture, compose and capture an image. What are you waiting for. You already have the best camera in the world, Right Now.