Without even adjusting your phone, your camera can also somehow provide a desk view (wide angle lenses, perhaps?). This may be useful for a math teacher, for example, who wants to write out the steps to solve an equation without hooking up a tablet. In practice, it probably won’t look as nice as it did at the keynote — whose desk is actually organized?
Apple’s webcam on the new M2 MacBooks has been improved, but those of us still using our old MacBooks will be able to utilise our iPhones as webcams (assuming we don’t want to peek at our phones during a Zoom conference). Apple will start selling a Belkin mount that allows you to connect your iPhone to the top of your MacBook later this year. Then you’ll be able to use iPhone camera features like portrait mode, centre stage, and studio light, a new feature that highlights your face while darkening the scene behind you, when on FaceTime chats from your laptop. Other MacOS programmes, such as Zoom, can also use your iPhone camera.
Highlights
These features are expected to be available later this year, along with the Belkin mount. While this is all fun and good, perhaps next time Apple can just put a better camera into the laptop itself.
Continuity Camera is, as its name suggests, part of Apple’s continuity tools. The company will also introduce a handoff feature, which makes it easy to jump between devices while on a FaceTime call. So if you’re FaceTiming on your iPhone, for example, you can place your phone close to your MacBook and seamlessly transfer the call to your laptop, rather than hanging up and calling again.
