Credit Suisse: Instagram ads = billions for Facebook

Credit Suisse's analysis indicates that monetization of Instagram is accelerating. Other near-term growth drivers include Premium Video and Dynamic Product ads.

The firm believes that mobile ad revenue continues to be a near-term growth driver for Facebook. Credit Suisse analysts forecast that first quarter mobile ad revenue will grow 78 percent year over year versus just 3 percent on desktop.

Credit Suisse expects mobile ad revenue to account for 82 percent of total ad revenue for the first quarter of 2016. The firm maintained its outperform rating and slightly raised its price target from $140 to $142.

Source: Credit Suisse: Instagram ads = billions for Facebook

Huawei P9 Leica Camera Is Manufactured By Sunny Optical

The Huawei P9 was officially introduced nearly two weeks ago, and unlike the majority of flagship phones unveiled this year, the Huawei P9 is equipped with a dual-camera setup on the back panel as well as a "selfie" 8-megapixel sensor on the opposite side. Needless to say, with the release of the P9, Huawei has put more thought into the camera department, which is only natural considering the fact that its biggest rivals have already pushed the limits of mobile photography to new heights. There's no secret that the optics featured by the Huawei P9 have been certified by Leica (and the phone has been labeled to reflect this characteristic), but according to new data, the dual-camera setup has actually been manufactured in China by Sunny Optical Technology.

Both cameras found on the back of the Huawei P9 have a resolution of 12-megapixels each, and as it was confirmed during the smartphone's official presentation, each of these cameras relies on a Sony IMX286 sensor featuring 1.25-micron pixels. However, while the sensor may have been sourced by Sony, according to a new report from MyDrivers, the camera modules have been manufactured by Sunny Optical Technology – a Chinese camera manufacturer authorized by Leica. Sunny Optical Technology has also been one of Google's collaborators for the creation of Project Tango, along with Bosch, JBL Robotics, and AutoDesk just to name a few. Project Tango is a 3D mapping technology developed by Google, and although not much has come out of Project Tango since it was officially introduced in 2014 – aside from the so-called "Peanut" phone and the Yellowstone tablet dev kit – it was previously confirmed that Sunny Optical Technology was among the main collaborators working on the Proje ct Tango cameras.

In any case, the creation of the Huawei P9 marks Leica's first partnership with a China-based OEM. Assuming that the smartphone will be received well by the market, and if the Huawei P9's camera setup will continue to impress, it's possible that Leica might maintain its partnership with Sunny Optical Technology and perhaps even attempt to supply other smartphone makers with similar optics in the following quarters.

Source: Huawei P9 Leica Camera Is Manufactured By Sunny Optical

Here's how the two best Android phone cameras compare to each other

We'll keep you updated as and when the company decides to officially announce the phone and its price in India.

In March, we reported rumors that the upcoming HTC handset is dropping the HTC M10 moniker for HTC 10; but now there is no more confusion, the company has confirmed that it is HTC 10 without the "M". "Still, without a groundbreaking innovation, launching later than its competitors, and lacking their marketing resources, it's unlikely that HTC 10 will reverse the fortunes of the company". It needs this device to be flawless.

According to TIME, it could be the Android to beat. The device takes the shape and design of M9 and A9, both released a year ago, but the HTC 10 is complete with chamfered edges and a diamond cut polish to finish the rear casing. HTC's flagship phones have drawn good reviews in the past, but it's had trouble translating those into sales. The Sense software is still one of the best skins of Android on the market, having been refined over years into a fluid experience that does not detract from the best features of the operating system.

Based on our first impressions, the HTC 10 has a chance to join with the firm's Vive VR headset as one of the best one-two punches in recent consumer tech history.

To help you make a decide if it's the Android phone for you, we've compared the HTC 10 to the Samsung Galaxy S7, LG G5, and Huawei P9.

HTC 10 comes with a 4GB RAM with two storage options ─ 32GB and 64GB. The phone also has a bio-metric sensor to keep all your data safe just like the iPhone 6S, although Android yet, does not have an iCloud keychain and Apple Pay equivalent. The HTC 10 feels more like bare aluminum. Duplicate apps have been eliminated and now you have Google Chrome as your default internet browser instead of the standard HTC one.

RAM: With 4 GB of RAM on both phones you'll be able to multitask easily, game like a pro and kiss lag goodbye. There's no denying that it has lost the signature HTC "look" at the front - some have even said it's ugly.

It's the new flagship for the company with all sorts of premium features and a focus on camera and audio quality. More so, the two smartphones come with the same spec sheet under the hood (for the USA variant of the Galaxy S7). The HTC 10 has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, dual-core 2.15 GHz Kryo & dual-core 1.6 GHz Kryo.

The Taiwanese phone manufacturer launched the device on April 12 and boasts its best features such as 24-bit Hi-Res sound within a brand new all-metal body as well as state-of-the-art mobile photography. It can be recharged to its half in just 30 minutes.

HTC has stuck to what it knows, and the HTC 10 is crafted from a single piece of metal.

Aside from major changes in the internals, the HTC 10 Lifestyle maintains some features and the form factor of the HTC 10.

Source: Here's how the two best Android phone cameras compare to each other

Tips and apps for better mobile phone photography

Ask any photographer what the best camera is and you will likely receive the same answer: The one you have with you. Fortunately, most parents always have a camera with them these days in the form of their phone. Luckily, most mobile phone cameras are very good and capable of producing print-worthy images with a few quick tweaks in the way you shoot and edit.

Julia Kelleher of Jewel Images is a family photographer who teaches mobile photography through CreativeLive. Here, she shares her top four tips for getting better pictures of your children with your camera's phone:

Set focus and exposure in camera. To set focus and exposure in your camera, touch the camera's screen on your main subject until a yellow box appears. This step is very fast and will make a huge difference in how your photos come out. If your child frequently looks too dark in photos, simply tapping her face on the screen before snapping your photo will brighten her up. This tip also helps ensure that your child is in focus rather than a tree in the background.

Turn on the Grid: In most phones' settings, there is a feature to turn on a grid with nine squares and four intersecting points, like a tic-tac-toe board with equally sized spaces. The interesting points on the grid are places where viewers' eyes tend to land. Placing your main subject at one of these points will instantly improve your photo. Photographers frequently use this compositional technique, called the Rule of Thirds, and if you keep the grid turned on you can effortlessly use it for your photos as well. Other compositional rules for taking great photos, particularly of children, can be found here.

Use indirect light to take a picture in a darkly lit room. Flash can create harsh shadows. If a room is dark, light the person from the side rather than using the flash. According to Kelleher, "This tip is great for when you're out at dinner with friends or family and the room is dimly lit with candles. Simply have one person hold the flash onto your subjects, and then take a picture with your [mobile phone] with the flash off."

Use color to impart feelings into your images. Basic familiarity with the color wheel can make a big difference in your photos. "I will often photograph children with complementary colors because it makes them seem alive and happy and very vivacious," Kelleher says. This color wheel is interactive and quickly shows complementary color combinations so, for example, you can see that if your son is wearing an orange shirt placing him in front of a blue wall or against a bright blue sky will create a vibrant image.

It's nearly impossible get a perfect photo straight out of the camera and even professional photographers make a few tweaks to their photos to help make them better. Here are some easy to use apps that can help you make your pictures go from good to fantastic:

Camera+: Camera+ for iPhone is a favorite of many photographers for use in mobile photography because it offers many advanced options for in-phone editing.  Camera+ also has great features like built-in image stabilization, a self-timer, and an integrated flashlight function that enables users to avoid the use of a flash in low-light situations. For those who love filters, Camera+ allows users to stack filters and control how heavily they are applied.

Snapseed: Snapseed is a free, very popular editing app and is available for iPhone and Android. One of the best features of Snapseed is its new Stacks feature, which allows users to keep track of the edits they make and go back and undo any they don't like. So if you saturate the colors in your photo as a first step then decide you overdid it later on you can go back and tone down the colors later. Snapseed also has several advanced editing features.

Photoshop: Adobe's Photoshop is the best known and most widely used editing program by professional photographers. There are three free Photoshop apps available for iPhone and Android that bring many of Photoshop's powerful editing tools to your phone. Photoshop Express allows users to crop, adjust color, change the brightness photos, and has filters. The free Photoshop Fix allows retouching photos by removing stray hairs, wayward toys, and even photo-bombers from photos. Finally, Photoshop Mix allows users to combine photographs, which allows for fun possibilities.

ProCamera: ProCamera is a free app for iPhone that has several advanced features and some very practical ones as well. Night Camera helps users get photos in low-light conditions, Fullscreen Trigger helps users get the shot quickly by tapping anywhere on the screen, and a 6x zoom allows users to increase the zoom capabilities of their built-in camera.

The best way to figure out how to best take photos, just keep snapping. With so many available apps and the wonderful portability of our now-essential smart phones, the possibilities are endless.

Jamie Davis Smith is a Washington D.C. mother of four. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

Like On Parenting on Facebook for more essays, advice and news. You can sign up here for our newsletter. You can find us at washingtonpost.com/onparenting.

You might also be interested in:

9 ways to organize your photos. Really.

The best photo books for all those photos languishing on your computer and phone

Source: Tips and apps for better mobile phone photography

HTC 10 Claims Top Spot at DxOMark, Has OIS Front & Rear Cameras

HTC paid a lot of attention to the camera tech in the latest HTC 10, and it shows. Within just three days of its release, the smartphone has already claimed the top spot on the DxOMark Mobile rankings.

The first thing you'll hear about the HTC 10 will sound a bit gimmicky: it has OIS not only on the rear, but also the front-facing camera. But while a "stabilized selfie cam" makes for good alliteration and a fun headline, the phone has a lot more to brag about than that.

The 1/2.3-type rear sensor weighs in at 12 megapixels, each of which are "ultrapixels" meaning they measure 1.55 micrometers. That sensor sees the world through an extra wide f/1.8 aperture and, yes, the rear camera is optically stabilized.

Additional camera-focused specs include contrast detect autofocus that's helped along by a laser that measures how far away your subject is standing, 12-bit RAW image capture, and 4K video capability.

Which brings us back to the front-facing camera, which is actually quite impressive. At 5 megapixels resolution, 1.34 micrometer pixel size, f/1.8 aperture, and with optical stabilization built in, it's definitely the most impressive "selfie" cam on the market.

Here's HTC's President Chialin Chang introducing the phone and all its features:

All of these features together have helped the HTC 10 climb to the top of the DxOMark Mobile charts, tying the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge for first place with a photo and overall score of 88.

"The HTC 10 offers outstanding mobile photography for both stills and video," writes DxOMark. "[It] excels for autofocus and texture preservation, making it a great choice for shooting moving subjects, or capturing detailed landscape and architectural shots."

You can read the full DxOMark report here.

The HTC 10 will be available in Carbon Grey, Glacier Silver, Topaz Gold, and Camellia Red. It's already available to pre-order unlocked direct from HTC for $700, but you'll be able to get it for cheaper on contract from all the major carriers when the phone ships in mid-May.

Source: HTC 10 Claims Top Spot at DxOMark, Has OIS Front & Rear Cameras

HTC to soon launch 4G smartphone HTC 10 in India

We do wish it were able to get a bit brighter, though. The 10 is also flatter and excusably heavier by just a touch, again due to the larger display. It isn't the lightest phone around, but it isn't unusually heavy either.

It's been interesting to watch HTC's product strategy over the past couple of years. Sporting a sleek unibody metal design, upgraded front and rear cameras, and Hi-Res audio.

The biggest change is on the front, where HTC ditched the trademark front-facing speakers for a cleaner look - and a fingerprint sensor.

Evan Blass, a famous twitter user known by the name of @eyleaks who is known for leaking tips about new devices, wrote that the new HTC will probably come with a 3,000 mAh battery, but this information is yet to be confirmed by the company.

At the time of writing, the company was still undecided about what variant of the phone to bring to India. Smaller forehead, smaller chin.

When you see the device and begin using it you will see a strong rem resemblance to the HTC One m7. That said, to our eyes, the HTC 10's camera is similar to the iPhone's. All of that info is better left for a full review, so here's what you'll find in the box.

The 10 also matches Samsung's latest flagships with 4 GB of RAM.

"With an overall DxOMark Mobile score of 88 points, the HTC 10 offers outstanding mobile photography for both stills and video".

The microSD slot is back. There isn't much chance of you popping in a 2TB card, though, since they still don't exist. The HTC One has a 12-megapixel main camera and a 5-megapixel front shooter while the Nexus 6P has a 12.3-megapixel main camera and an 8-megapixel front shooter.

The HTC 10 boasts a camera which can steady your selfie-taking wobbles, with technology called Optical Image Stabilisation.

HTC is scheduled to launch its global sales of the HTC 10 Friday. In terms of unique features, great specs and a worthwhile design, HTC 10 is truly a compelling phone.

With HTC's Zoe Capture you can combine still pictures with moving. We love the new setup.

To recap, there are two versions of the HTC 10.

In the "little things mean a lot" department, the power switch on the HTC 10 is textured so you can feel more easily which is the volume switch and which is power.

This is the current price for last year's M9, not its launch price from a year ago. With a next-generation camera, top-of-the-line processor, better battery life, and the potential to expand its storage capacity to 2 TB, the HTC 10 will easily be part of the conversation about the best smartphones along with Apple's iPhone 6s and Samsung Galaxy S7. With the HTC 10, audio can be increased to 24-bit quality and you can create custom audio profiles so that save the sound settings you love to hear.

Source: HTC to soon launch 4G smartphone HTC 10 in India

Dual-camera phones are the future of mobile photography

Tweet Share Share on Facebook Tweet Share Pin Share

Smartphone cameras can do astounding things nowadays, however they are starting to reach some hard physical limits. There's only so much you can achieve within the tight constraints of a device that's 7mm thick, and phone companies are looking for alternative means to keep improving. This spring, LG and Huawei have led the way with their new Android flagships, introducing two very different dual-camera systems that nevertheless signal the direction that the entire industry is about to head in. Apple's iPhone 7 Plus is rumored to be following their lead later this year. One day soon, we'll look at dual-camera phones the way we think of dual-core devices today: just a logical progression with nothing remarkable about it.

LG's G5 will be remembered for its modular Friends ecosystem, but in any other year the big highlight of this new phone would be the presence of a second rear camera. An 8-megapixel wide-angle camera sits alongside the main 16-megapixel module, making it easier to shoot bigger group, landscape, or architecture shots.

Regular phone lenses are fixed at the same zoom level, and this supplementary hardware is necessary because phones have no easy way of adding zoom to their cameras. Zoom lenses require greater depth than modern phone designs can afford, and digital zoom trades away image quality. With the G5, LG adds a second prime (i.e. zoomless) lens, which it can do because there's more horizontal space to play with inside the handset. The phone's camera bump is, in fact, most probably required by the main camera's more sophisticated optics and stabilization.

Vlad Savov

Huawei's P9 doesn't have a camera bump at all, but it also has two cameras on the back. This is actually the more exciting device of the two because it's targeted at improving image quality, the holy grail of all photography. A combination of one monochrome and one color sensor captures three times the light of an ordinary camera, resulting in much better sharpness and clarity. The prominence of these improvements will depend on the circumstances — they are most apparent when shooting closeups — but it's already clear that Huawei has built its best camera yet and the secondary sensor is the critical part responsible for it.

The truly impressive thing is that the P9 is one of the thinnest flagship phones out there while still fitting a big 3,000mAh battery and this dual-camera assembly. If there's a physical cost to the second monochrome sensor in this handset, it's not an obvious one.

The unifying feature connecting LG and Huawei's new phones is that they've added secondary cameras without sacrificing much in the way of design. It's always a good sign when additional function doesn't break a device's form, and on the early evidence of these two smartphones, the future for dual-camera systems is bright. Here's an example of the difference LG's extra camera makes in terms of capturing a wider field of view:

Shot with LG G5: 16-megapixel main camera on the left, 8-megapixel wide-angle camera on the right (in HDR mode).

The wide-angle shots that it provides would usually require an external accessory, so having that function built right into the G5 is a legitimate convenience. Somewhat ironic for a phone making its name around external plug-in modules, but it's still true that LG gives G5 users flexibility that others lack.

Cropped segment from Huawei P9 photo. Click for full-size image.

To see the quality and value of Huawei's dual-cam, you have to zoom in real close. In the above, poorly lit, sinfully yellow scene, the P9 exhibits amazing control over image noise. Pay particular attention to the iPhone's volume buttons on the left — how they stand out from the speaker grille behind them — and the crisp definition of each icon label on the screen. This is the sort of performance that any mobile (or even dedicated) camera designer can be proud of.

Hardware means nothing without good software, and the other encouraging thing about the G5 and P9 is that their extra sensors are already well integrated. LG has baked a number of very cool functions into its camera software that combine the shots from the two cameras for a stylistic framing effect or to create easy collages. The accessibility of LG's interface means that even neophytes can jump right in and start creating and experimenting with its new hardware.

HTC 10 shot with the Huawei P9. https://t.co/dARMEW3Wfl pic.twitter.com/St2Evvarp6

— Vlad Savov (@vladsavov) April 12, 2016

What distinguishes today's dual-camera LG and Huawei phones from yesteryear's 3D-imaging devices is that the output is still a flat, universally compatible photo. Unlike Apple's Live Photos, you can share G5 or P9 dual-cam pictures without having to worry about the device they'll be seen on. And though the speed of capturing images with two cameras isn't quite as lightning-quick as using just one, the difference is not substantial enough to put anyone off.

Rumors about Apple's iPhone 7 Plus have included the suggestion that it would include a dual-camera system much like Huawei's. If that scenario comes to pass, Apple's substantial influence will serve to accelerate the trend and stimulate others to try it, too. But even without the iPhone's endorsement, the addition of extra cameras is already proving itself valuable to the user (and apparently economical to the producer).

The more distant future might hold an even greater number of lenses and sensors — as proposed by the Light L16 camera — but for the near term, it's looking increasingly likely that dual-camera systems will take over the task of pushing mobile photography forward. When technology reached the speed limits of single processor cores, they were made more efficient and eventually multiplied in number. The same strategy seems to be developing now with respect to smartphone cameras.

Verge Reviews: LG G5 More from The Verge

The secret rules of the internet

Developers are adapting Oculus Rift exclusives to work on the HTC Vive

Godzilla looks big, ugly, and scary as hell in new trailer for Japanese reboot

$13 million Kickstarter project for a cooler continues to be a disaster

Phone-friendly movie theaters for millennials are coming

A quick and dirty guide for understanding Doctor Strange

Amazon's Kindle Oasis is the funkiest e-reader it's ever made

TheLatest

Headlines

LG's 15-inch MacBook lookalike is now on sale from $1,100

Europe's plan to collect airline passenger data raises privacy concerns

Google gives its little-used beacon technology a security upgrade

Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs plans to build the ultimate high-tech city

US government tells Windows users to uninstall QuickTime as Apple stops support

Verizon customers can use Android Pay for 2GB of free data

The best of Verge Video Facebook's new gigabit Wi-Fi system HTC 10 review Building the ultimate Star Wars lightsaber SpaceX lands rocket at sea, makes history LG G5 review

Facebook's new gigabit Wi-Fi system

HTC 10 review

Building the ultimate Star Wars lightsaber

SpaceX lands rocket at sea, makes history

LG G5 review

Discuss at Verge Video See more videos [%= data.comments.length %] COMMENT[%= data.comments.length > 1 ? "S" : "" %] [% var len = Math.min(data.comments.length, data.settings.autoUpdateAlertMaxShown) %] [% for (var i = 0; i [%= comment.user.display_name %] [% if (comment.parent) { %] replied to [%= comment.parent.user.display_name %] [% } else { %] posted a new comment [% } %] [% } %]
Source: Dual-camera phones are the future of mobile photography