#selfie-camera-placement

#selfie-camera-placement

"If millennials pursed and pointed our smackers in a way that resembled the bill of a duck, Gen Z-ers are adopting a pout position that looks more like the mouth of a platypus."

In the collision repair industry, your visual portfolio is your entire sales pitch. If a stressed vehicle owner visits the website of a local auto body shop, the very first thing they look for is evidence of past miracles. A compelling before and after photo does the heavy lifting of building trust before they ever pick up the phone to ask for an estimate.

Instagram's new 'Shop the Look' feature and recent algorithm shifts highlight the vulnerability of social media reliance, where creators fear brand dilution from automated tags while companies like Oddity faced a massive stock drop due to the instability of rented social spaces.

The new camera features, on the other hand, are neither of those things. They're something worse. Something scarier. On this episode of The Vergecast, Nilay and David discuss the new phones, then dive into the ways in which the S26's AI camera features seem to be clearly designed to change the whole idea of what happens when you try to take a picture.

Introduced yesterday, Photoshoot uses Google's powerful generative AI tools, including Nano Banana, to create "professional" images of a product. Users simply click on 'Create a Product Photoshoot' and upload a photo of their product. It can be any photo, no matter how bad. "Don't worry about polish - we'll take care of it," Google says facetiously. From that user-generated image, Photoshoot will create various shot templates, including 'Studio', 'Floating', 'Ingredient', and 'In use'.

It's our job to be translators of science so people understand what's happening and why it's so important. It's a global ocean. Just because something's happening in one place, doesn't mean it's not going to have an effect elsewhere in the world.

The rise of TikTok and YouTube has dramatically changed the lives of content creators by turning social media into a legitimate career path rather than just a hobby. These platforms allow ordinary people to build massive audiences without traditional media connections, often through algorithm-driven exposure.

In recent years, smartphone photography has become increasingly dominated by software. Computational imaging, AI processing, and post-capture optimisation now play a central role in how images are produced. Yet as these techniques become more widespread, camera hardware is once again emerging as a key differentiator. The REDMI Note 15 Pro 5G Series reflects this shift clearly, placing renewed emphasis on sensor capability and optical fundamentals rather than relying solely on software to define image quality.

DJI's Osmo Pocket 3, launched back in 2023, has been an incredible hit with vloggers and YouTubers, thanks to its good video recording quality, gimbal stabilization, and pocketable form factor. DJI is expected to come out with a highly anticipated successor any day now, but in the meantime it looks like it's getting some new competition. vivo has confirmed to Chinese media outlets that it is working on a vlogging camera of its own.

Samsung's Galaxy S20 Ultra wasn't the first phone to feature a periscopic telephoto lens - both Huawei and Oppo beat the Korean company to it - but it was the first in the US to make such a big deal about it. Almost all of Samsung's marketing for the S20 Ultra centered on its so-called Space Zoom, its 5x optical folded periscope lens, capable of digitally zooming much further.

But Meta has confirmed that it is internally experimenting with a new, separate app called Instants, which would enable users to share quick snaps with their connections. As displayed in this listing, which was shared by app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, among Meta's display of other apps (accessed via Instagram), there's a mention of Instants, which is not released publicly as yet.

One of the first points is uncomfortable but practical: sometimes the fastest way into a new lane is a short, intentional stint working for free. Ranft frames it as an access trade when the door is locked, not a lifestyle, and he's blunt about using discretion so you don't get exploited. The emphasis is on choosing situations where the learning is real, the stakes are real, and the experience creates proof you can show later.

Forget the film camera revival that never quite materialized at scale. The defining hardware trend of 2026 will be the continued adoption of C2PA (Content Credentials) signing in camera bodies beyond the flagship tier. Leica and Nikon have been early movers here, with Sony engaged in the broader Content Credentials ecosystem. This year, we are likely to see signing capabilities expand from flagship and select professional models into higher-volume lines as implementation costs fall and workflow integration matures.