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With almost no fanfare, Apple has quietly released a new feature for the iPhone, and it’s one everyone will have a chance to see.
ANKARA, TURKEY – OCTOBER 19: A woman takes a selfie with an Apple phone after Apple released the iPhone … [+]
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With any iOS update, Apple can add new features, as well as fix bugs, troubleshoot, and increase security on iPhone. The latest iOS 14.2 update did just that with the changes announced in the release notes. But one feature did not appear in the notes. An upgrade to the FaceTime selfie camera.
Picked up by MacMagazine, Apple has increased the video resolution of the forward-facing camera for video calls to 1080p resolution on older iPhone models. Rafael Fischmann reports (translated):
Although the hardware of the front cameras of the iPhones 12 mini, 12, 12 Pro and 12 Pro is practically the same as that of the previous generation, Apple brought them a great novelty: video calls through FaceTime in Full HD resolution (1080p) , both via Wi-Fi and via 5G.
“It would be a very typical Apple software limitation, but this time it was great and quietly released FaceTime HD (1080p) to all owners of 2nd Gen iPhones 8, 8 Plus, X, XR, XS, XS Max, SE, 11 , 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max. “
Obviously the hardware hasn’t changed so 1080p capability has been secretly hidden in the phones, only to be on now. This is not an unknown area for Apple; the iPod Touch originally shipped with bluetooth hardware, but was not activated until a later software update; and several Macs had 802.11n support turned on in 2007 (via $ 1.99 software download).
The iPhone 12 family is still the only iPhone to offer 1080p FaceTime while on a cellular network, but with this update, phones coming back to the iPhone 8 will now be able to use the higher resolution over Wi-Fi.
Given the rise of ‘Work from home’ and the use of video calling for business and personal use, the increase in resolution is welcome. The question now is whether the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro updates expected in 2021 will increase the resolution of FaceTime cameras on laptops from the weakest 720p to match the iPhone.
Now read the latest iPhone headlines in Forbes’ weekly Apple Loop column …
