When technological advancements give us new ways to tell stories, it is always exciting to see what smart storytellers do with the new medium. The introduction of synchronized recorded sound to movies, starting with The Jazz Singer in 1927, led not only to hearing actors speak but also to special effects and incredible soundtracks. The addition of color to movies brought not just the obvious depth that comes from using a full palate but also choices on how to tint the film to make the movie, and sometimes even the movie watcher, feel colder or warmer. For some advances, such as HD and then 4K, it often seems like there is no good reason to ever go back to the older technology. For other advances, like 3D movies that use polarized glasses, the effect can be impressive in some contexts but obnoxious and unnecessary in other contexts. A few nights ago, Apple released the first scripted film captured in Apple Immersive Video, a short film called Submerged. Written and directed by Oscar winner Edward Berger, Submerged tells the story of a crew on a submarine during World War II when, well, let’s just say that something bad happens. But the real story here is that it is an immersive, crystal clear, 180º experience. It isn’t really fair to say that you “watch” this movie; instead, you become a part of this movie. It takes place around you. Yes, you will often decide to look at one of the characters as the director may have intended, but you can look anywhere, and when you do so, you see additional details that become a part of the experience. Plus, being so close to the action results in emotions that I don’t think I’ve ever felt before when watching a movie. Much like the other changes in mediums over the last century, you need to try it yourself to really understand it. But make no mistake: this is a major and important advance in movie storytelling. I think that an immersive movie makes the most sense in contexts in which it makes sense for you to be close to the action, but I have no doubt that people more creative than I am will come up with lots of amazing ways to use this technology to tell stories in new ways. I look forward to seeing additional titles released in the coming years as Apple Vision itself gets smaller, lighter, less expensive, etc. Kudos to the entire team behind Submerged for being the first to do this, and they did it well. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Victoria Song of The Verge did a good job describing what made Submerged special.
- Lance Ulanoff of TechRadar also did a great write-up on Submerged and even included some Q and A with Edward Berger, the writer/director.
- Jason Snell of Six Colors points out that when you are watching a part of this immersive movie in which you are close to the actors, the feeling is “much more of a live theater performance than a film,” and I agree. I can definitely see future immersive movies that have more in common with the stage than the movie screen.
- If you have any of the four new iPhone 16 models, you can change the Photographic Style used to take a photo. Yes, this is similar to a filter, but don’t let that deter you. You can substantially change and improve the look of an image by changing the Photographic Style that is applied. In a recent episode of The Talk Show, host John Gruber talks about this Photographic Style feature in detail with photographer Tyler Stalman. As Stalman points out in that episode and on Threads, even if you do nothing else, try taking one of your photos and then make three changes: (1) change to style to Amber, (2) change Tone to -50 to -60, and (3) change Color to 20. (Leave Palette at the full 100.) For about 95% of the sh1ots on which I made this change, the image came out looking better, and sometimes much better.
- After taking several weeks to gather his thoughts, Jason Snell of Six Colors wrote a good review of the iPhone 16 Pro.
- Jason Cross of Macworld reviews the Apple Watch Series 10 and recommends upgrading if your current Apple Watch is more than three years old.
- I did not realize that one of the new features of iOS 18 is support for event tickets in the Wallet app with a “richer” experience. Ticketmaster announced in a blog post that it is about to start taking advantage of this new feature so that your ticket can provide you with even more information about an event.
- The Apple Pencil Pro, which normally costs $129, is on sale on Amazon for only $96.
- David Phelan of The Independent interviewed numerous Apple executives to discuss the various improvements that have allowed the Apple Watch to assist with monitoring your health.
- In an article for Digital Trends, Nirave Gondhia shares a few examples of how his Apple Watch saved his life such as (1) alerting paramedics to the medications he was taking (and thus preventing an adverse drug interaction), (2) calling emergency services when he fell, and (3) helping his doctors to adjust the dosage of a beta blocker based on when his heart rate was dropping too low.
- For many years now, Apple Pay support at Home Depot has been on-again-off-again. Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports that Home Depot is now rolling out support to all of its stores and registers.
- And finally, in a new video, Apple shows how you can use 4K 120fps Dolby Vision on the iPhone 16 Pro to capture cinematic slow motion: