Microsoft's Pix app helps iPhone users take better people photos

PanARMENIAN.Net - Microsoft released Pix, a replacement camera app available for iPhones and iPads, and in short, it promises better photos of the people around you without any extra work on your part, Engadget reports.

It'll run on just about every iOS device from the iPhone 5s on, and an Android version is in the works too. (Microsoft didn't have a firm answer when I asked if these features would make their way into the Windows 10 Mobile camera.)

The most important thing you need to know about Pix is that it's been tuned to make your pictures of people look better.

"There are things the Apple camera does that we don't do and might not ever do," Microsoft GM Josh Weisberg told Engadget. "The goal was around people photos -- can we make better people photos than the stock camera? And we succeeded."

From the moment you start Pix, it's capturing what your camera is pointed at. Once you press the shutter button, Pix snaps 10 frames, and Weisberg says that's where the magic really kicks in. Algorithms evaluate those ten frames for obvious things like sharpness or exposure, but also underlying characteristics like whether a person in the shot seems happy or sad. When that near-instantaneous process is done, you'll be given up to three "Best Images." The image data from the leftover photos is used to enhance those winners before being deleted. All of this happens on the fly and without any extra fiddling, so you don't need to be a photo buff to snap some great shots.

If the app detects multiple similar photos, it'll stitch them into a Live Image, but only when it thinks what's going on in the photos is interesting. The Hyperlapse feature that Microsoft has been working on for years is here again too. This time, though, you can turn existing photos into time-lapses, or just use it to stabilize video you just shot, Engadget says.