Genius iPhone app rubs out people ruining your photos – and is Apple’s ‘BEST app of 2019’
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APPLE has announced the best iPhone app you can download right now: Spectre Camera.
The tech firm’s top app for 2019 was unveiled at a special awards ceremony held in New York.
Spectre is a camera app for the iPhone that lets you shoot pro-style snaps.
It’s designed for taking long exposures – photos captured over several seconds.
On a busy street at rush hour, it can completely remove traffic.
And for night scenes, Spectre will create stunning light trails that usually only a DSLR camera could capture.
The top apps are selected by Apple’s team of in-house App Store editors.
That means the prize isn’t simply based on download numbers, but experienced eyes who spend all their days testing apps.
Spectre creates long-exposure images in a really unique way.
With a normal pro camera, the shutter simply remains open for a longer period of time.
But Spectre takes hundreds of photos during the exposure time and then merges the results.
So you don’t just get a final still image, but a video of the entire exposure too.
You can then share the results as a photo or video.
Spectre also intelligently chooses the best mode depending on what scene you’re looking at.
For instance, a beach scene will blend shots so you get a smooth water effect.
Alternatively, if you’re snapping a “lively cityscape” then you’ll get blended light trails.
Photography geeks will know that shooting long exposures usually requires a tripod – to stabilise the camera and eliminate blur.
But Spectre uses artificial intelligence to stabilise your shots, so you can do a 9-second exposure while holding the phone by hand.
Apple's App Store – a brief history
Here's what you need to know...
- The App Store is Apple’s iconic platform for distributing apps on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
- It lets users browse and download apps for their gadgets – some free, some paid-for
- Although the original iPhone was released in June 2007, the App Store didn’t open until July 2008
- There were just 500 apps at launch – today there are more than 2million
- Apple redesigned the App Store with iOS 11 in September 2017
- This introduced more focus on daily highlights, as well as recommendations, guides and interviews from Apple’s in-house app teams
- Anyone can create apps and submit them to the App Store
- However, Apple reviews and approves all apps
- Apple reveals the most popular apps and games on the App Store in December each year
- For 2019, the most popular free app was WhatsApp, and the most popular free game was Mario Kart Tour
Spectre is made by the same studio that built hugely popular camera app Halide.
And Halide was invented by ex-Apple designer Sebastiaan de With and former Twitter engineer Ben Sandofsky.
The Spectre Camera app is available to download in the UK and US for £2.99 / $2.99.
You can get them here:
- Spectre Camera at App Store for £2.99 –
- Spectre Camera at App Store for $2.99 –
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In other news, a tech blogger has revealed the possible design for next year's iPhone 12.
If you're looking for a handset you can actually get your hands on, check out our iPhone 11 review.
And for those with more money to burn, take a look at our iPhone 11 Pro review.
What’s your favourite iPhone app of the year? Let us know in the comments!
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