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Thoughtful, detailed coverage of everything Apple for 35 years
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Category: Media Creation

Adam Engst 11 comments

Apple Introduces Studio Display XDR and Refreshes Studio Display

Apple has refreshed its Studio Display with minor improvements and introduced the Studio Display XDR at $3299. The XDR brings mini-LED technology and HDR capabilities from the $5000 Pro Display XDR to a 27-inch 5K display, making professional display technology accessible to more users.

Adam Engst 78 comments

Apple Bundles Pro Apps into New Creator Studio Subscription

The new Apple Creator Studio subscription bundles Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, and more for $129 per year, but one-time purchases remain available for the Mac versions, so it’s worth doing the math before subscribing.

Adam Engst 62 comments

Canva’s Affinity Combines Photo, Designer, and Publisher into One Free App

The new Affinity app from Canva replaces Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and Affinity Publisher, which already shared most of their core code. It’s free to use, requires a Canva account, and reserves integrated AI features for paying Canva customers.

Adam Engst 16 comments

Apple Discontinues Clips Video App

Apple has discontinued Clips, its video creation app that struggled to find its footing between the demise of Vine and the rise of TikTok. The app’s fate may reflect broader issues with Apple’s approach to social media and app development.

Adam Engst 13 comments

iPhone 16 Pro Slightly Outperforms iPhone 17 for Macro Photos

Adam Engst finds that, despite similar specs on paper, macro photos from last year’s iPhone 16 Pro edge out those from the new iPhone 17—but the difference is sufficiently subtle that it might not matter to most people.

Adam Engst 13 comments

Tracking My iPhone Camera Usage With a Deep Dive into EXIF Data

Adam Engst investigates whether his choice to downgrade from a triple-camera iPhone 16 Pro to a dual-camera iPhone 17 was justified by analyzing a year’s worth of photos using EXIF metadata.

Adam Engst 2 comments

Everything Kevin Kelly Knows About Publishing

Drawing on his extensive experience with both traditional and self-publishing, Wired co-founder and long-time author Kevin Kelly offers a comprehensive look at today's publishing landscape and how to navigate it successfully.

Adam Engst 26 comments

New Organizational Features in Photos in macOS 15 Sequoia

Adam Engst explores Photos in macOS 15 Sequoia, detailing how new organizational features like Days, Trips, and People & Pets groups work (or don’t) in practice, along with practical tips for managing your photo library.

Adam Engst 12 comments

AirPods Max to Support Lossless Audio and Ultra-Low Latency Audio

Apple’s AirPods Max will gain support for lossless audio and ultra-low latency audio through a firmware update in April, but only the USB-C model and only when physically connected to devices.

Adam Engst No comments

AppBITS: PolyCapture Simplifies Multi-Source Recording

Need to record from multiple sources at once? PolyCapture handles multiple cameras, mics, and screen captures simultaneously, saving each input as a separate file for production flexibility.

Adam Engst 24 comments

Enhance Your Images with Apple’s Clean Up Tool in Photos

Adam Engst evaluates the new Apple Intelligence-based Clean Up tool in Photos, highlighting situations where it excels and falters and offering tips for optimizing results. Learn how Clean Up can enhance your photos.

Adam Engst 24 comments

Apple Acquires Pixelmator, Speculation Begins

What precisely will come of the acquisition, no one outside Apple knows. At a minimum, Apple will be acquiring top engineering talent in the image editing space, but it's an opportunity for the imagination to run wild.

Adam Engst 14 comments

Understanding the iPhone 16 Pro’s 48-Megapixel Macro Photography… and Reverting to 12-Megapixel Shots

Although the iPhone 16 Pro’s new Ultra Wide camera enables 48-megapixel macro photos, taking them requires more manual steps, and Adam Engst’s testing shows that the 12-megapixel macro images are often better anyway.

Adam Engst 83 comments

First Impressions of the iPhone 16 Pro

After spending a weekend with the iPhone 16 Pro, Adam Engst feels even more confident in his earlier recommendation of the iPhone 16 for most people. The iPhone 16 Pro’s increased size and weight, along with the lack of noticeably better macro photos, make the standard model a better choice for most.

Adam Engst 37 comments

Finale’s Finale

MakeMusic has announced the end of life of its music notation app Finale and is offering a crossgrade discount for competitor Dorico Pro.