We’re lower than a month away from WWDC 2025, the place Apple is ready to announce a redesigned and much less glitchy iOS 19 alongside what it’s been cooking over the previous yr for its different working programs.
Whereas rumors abound concerning what’s to return to iOS 19, there’s one characteristic I hope to see make its method into the brand new system. Sadly, it’s most likely not going to occur.
HDR is superb…
Apple launched HDR video playback assist within the iPhone 8 and iPhone X in 2017, the identical yr Apple TV gained the characteristic.
In a nutshell, HDR, or Excessive Dynamic Vary, is a know-how that expands the vary between darkish and brilliant areas, dealing with each concurrently with out dropping element in shadows or highlights.
It additionally enhances coloration accuracy, which is nice should you’re watching a film or TV present that basically goes the space to fastidiously take advantage of this thrilling functionality.
If you happen to’ve watched the ultimate season of Higher Name Saul, what I’m speaking about.
It didn’t take lengthy for the streaming world to undertake HDR. The truth is, Apple labored with streaming platforms and film studios to take advantage of this new characteristic. Right here’s Eddy Cue, on the September 2017 particular occasion:
To expertise 4K with HDR, you additionally want nice content material. And we’ve been working with the big Hollywood studios to deliver all of their 4K and HDR film titles to iTunes. (…) Along with iTunes, we’ve been working with main streaming suppliers like Netflix to deliver their 4K HDR titles to Apple TV and, later this yr, Amazon Prime Video, with all of their 4K HDR titles and originals as nicely.
When Apple launched HDR video recording to the iPhone 12, the YouTube app added HDR playback assist immediately, which was nice for creators who go the additional mile to create one thing that basically stands aside.
Then, in 2022, Snapchat received assist for it. That’s when issues began going awry.
…till it’s not
Right now, each main social platform helps HDR, which sounds nice in concept. In apply, it simply means each third casually taken picture or video appears uncomfortably brilliant because it zips throughout the display. Not like a correctly mastered present, film, or perhaps a YouTube video.
And whereas it is smart that social apps would add HDR assist, since they’ve been attempting to compete with precise streaming providers, at present, having that enabled on Instagram, as an example, makes for an uncomfortably worse expertise than if all the things was in good outdated SDR.
In a great world, Apple would enable for individually choosing which apps would get to show content material in HDR in Settings. However truthfully, at this level, I’d accept a worldwide toggle.
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