iOS 10 paves the way for advanced mobile photo editing

By Anthony Thurston Published June 15, 2016

Android users have been enjoying raw support for a while now, and as was recently announced, iOS 10 will bring raw image support to the Apple ecosystem as well. This will, among other things, mean that iOS users will be able to enjoy better image quality and more advanced photo manipulation directly on their mobiles — no need to send it to a computer first.

But the iOS update doesn’t just bring raw support to the operating system, it also opens it up for app developers to take advantage of. This means that your favorite photo editing apps will soon be able to support the editing of raw files in the same way that many of them have been able to do on Android for a while now. Some new information about this raw capturing (shooting of raw images) capability was made available yesterday evening:

It won’t just work out of the box with apps; third-party developers will be able to shoot and store raw photos, but they will need to add that functionality into their app on their own.
Shooting RAW and JPEG simultaneously will be possible
Only the iPhone 6S, 6S Plus, SE, and the 9.7” iPad will be able to shoot RAW (for now)
Adobe’s Digital Negative (DNG) file format will be the filetype captured by your iOS device

lightroom mobile — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Moving beyond apps for just editing images shot with your phone, this also paves the way for users to be able to edit raw images taken with their expensive mirrorless and DSLR cameras. Adobe’s Lightroom Mobile has huge potential now on an iPad Pro for example, where users could take advantage of the large screen and pen apparatus to process raw files while lounging on the couch, or enjoying a day in bed.

Recommended Videos

Of course, this update only opens the capability up to app developers, and it will be up to each developer to add the functionality into their app. It’s not hard to imagine that many will jump on this pretty soon after the update is made available, though, so we wouldn’t worry too much about having to wait for this on your favorite apps.

This is of course just one of the many feature improvements coming in iOS 10, and for more information on the update and everything coming in Apple’s next mobile OS update, you can check out our previous coverage here.

Anthony Thurston

Former Contributor

Anthony is an internationally published photographer based in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Specializing primarily in…

Topics

Mobile

iOS 18’s best AI tools arrive in December, but Siri has a longer wait

Apple Intelligence on iPhone 15 Pro.

The Apple Intelligence toolkit has witnessed a staggered mix of delayed features and underwhelming perks. But it seems that the most promising set of those AI tools that Apple revealed at WWDC earlier this year is right around the corner.

In the latest edition of his PowerOn newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman writes that the iOS 18.2 update will start rolling out via the stable channel in the first week of December.

Mobile

Android 16 might give its own spin to iPhone’s Dynamic Island alerts

The DynamicSpot Dynamic Island at the top of the Pixel 7 Pro.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve come across some interesting details about the next major build of Android. Currently in development under the apparent codename of Baklava, Android 16 will reportedly bring a cool new feature called Priority modes for notifications.

If that sounds familiar, that’s because Apple already offers a bunch of focus modes toward the same goal and bolsters the system with AI-assisted priority notifications in iOS 18. It seems Google doesn’t want to be left behind, and in doing so, could very well lift from a popular iPhone trick.

Mobile

iOS 18 gives your iPhone a super-handy charging feature. Here’s how it works

The display on the iPhone 16 Pro.

Now that iOS 18 is rolling out, we're finding new features that are even more exciting than some of the larger-scale changes -- like a new setting that alerts you if you're using a slow charger on your iPhone.

If you're anything like me, you probably have a lot of old charging cables and bricks around the house. You might not realize that some of those are dated and aren't capable of supporting fast charging, especially if you tend to power your phone up in the evenings while you sleep.