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The 2016 iPhone 7 Plus was the first Apple smartphone to feature a dual lens camera, and this year's iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X followed suit, improving upon last year's design with larger sensors and better signal image processing. The iPhone X also benefits from added optical image stabilization and larger aperture on the telephoto lens.

In what may come as a surprise to most casual snappers, the telephoto lens in Apple's dual camera isn't always activated when the 2x zoom is selected in the native Camera app. In some low light scenes, iOS opts to crop a wide angle image instead in an effort to obtain a better image with less noise and a lower likelihood of blurring.

With this in mind, Studio Neat designer Dan Provost recently conducted an experiment to see how much the telephoto lens in the iPhone X improves upon the one in the iPhone 7 Plus. To do this, he looked at how much light is required before an iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone X switches to the telephoto lens when the 2x zoom mode is selected. This would show Provost if the frequency of cropping an image is at all reduced in Apple's latest smartphone.

I placed an object (in this case, an old Rolleiflex camera) on a white backdrop, and flanked it on both sides with two LED studio lights. I set up the iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone X on tripods (using the Glif, natch) and positioned them to keep the framing as similar as possible. Then, starting from a completely dark room, I slowly raised the light levels and observed when the lens switched on each camera. The results are in the video below.

"This is obviously great news, and speaks to how improved the second lens is after just one year," says Provost. "In my own use of the phone for the past couple weeks, it does indeed seem to be the case that I am very rarely presented with a 2X cropped image."

You can learn more about Provost's iPhone X low light photography experiment over on the Studio Neat website.

Apple has updated its website to indicate that the iPhone X launches in three additional Latin American countries in early December.

Namely, the iPhone X will be released in Colombia starting December 1, Chile on December 7, and Brazil on December 8. The device will be available from select carriers and authorized resellers in each country.

In Brazil, the iPhone X will also be on display and available to purchase from the country's two Apple Stores at VillageMall in Rio de Janeiro and the Morumbi shopping center in São Paulo. Inventory will likely be extremely limited.

iPhone X will start at 6,999 Brazilian reals in Brazil, the equivalent of slightly more than $2,150 USD based on current exchange rates. That's more than double the iPhone X's starting price of $999 in the United States.

Apple's prices in Brazil being significantly higher than in the United States is partly the result of the country's 60 percent duty on imported products valued up to $3,000, and likely other factors such as stricter labor laws.

Apple hasn't provided iPhone X pricing information for Chile or Colombia, or release dates for other countries in South America.

iPhone X first launched November 3 in the United States and over 50 other countries. The device was also released in Israel today and arrives in 13 additional countries, including Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, and Turkey, tomorrow.

iPhone X orders on Apple's website now ship in an estimated 1-2 weeks around the world, down from 5-6 weeks after the device first launched.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Popular writing program Ulysses received an update to its iOS app today, bringing a revised interface and full compatibility with iPhone X.

Various interactions in the Ulysses UI have been reworked, and the app now fully complies with the all-screen design of the iPhone X's OLED display.

Beyond the changes induced by the iPhone X screen, the update brings redesigned editors for objects like images, annotations, notes, and footnotes. The text counter has also been tweaked based on user feedback, as has the automatic fullscreen mode.

In addition, Ulysses now also supports Face ID, Apple's new facial authentication system, to complement its privacy options, which previously only offered passcode protection. With Face ID enabled, writers can unlock their text libraries with a simple glance.

Lastly, the app ships with a new default editor theme, featuring sparsely applied colors and bold black headlines, which the developers say is simpler, cleaner, and more typographic.

Ulysses can be downloaded for free on the App Store and the Mac App Store. After a 14-day trial period, a subscription is required to unlock the app on all devices. A monthly subscription costs $4.99, while a yearly subscription is $39.99. Students can use Ulysses at a discounted price of $11.99 per six months. The discount is granted from within the app.

Apple supplier Foxconn says it has stopped interns from working illegal overtime at its factory in China, after reports emerged that at least six students worked eleven-hour days on iPhone X production lines.

Today's announcement follows a Financial Times report earlier this week that revealed around 3,000 students worked at its iPhone X assembly plant in Zhengzhou, as the firm struggles to catch up with demand for the smartphone after production delays.

"Apple is dedicated to ensuring everyone in our supply chain is treated with the dignity and respect they deserve," the tech giant said today in a statement given to the BBC. "We know our work is never done and we'll continue to do all we can to make a positive impact and protect workers in our supply chain."

Foxconn, which operates the intern program, told the BBC in a statement that it had taken "immediate action to ensure that no interns are carrying out any overtime work". It added that "interns represent a very small percentage" of its workforce in China and that the breach of labour laws was inconsistent with its own policies.

Foxconn is thought to hire large numbers of seasonal workers each year to assemble the latest iPhone models in time for the busy holiday shopping season. The FT report, citing an anonymous Foxconn employee, said there can be up to 20,000 workers producing up to 300,000 iPhones per day. However, this year it appears the manufacturer has found it particularly challenging to keep up with demand for the iPhone X, which Apple has described as being "off the charts".

As per its supplier responsibility efforts, Apple requires manufacturing partners like Foxconn to limit working hours to no more than 60 hours a week, with a mandatory rest day once every seven days.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Amazon has made its Echo Buttons, the company's "first Alexa gadgets", available to pre-order on its U.S. website. First announced in September, the $20 accessories come in packs of two and are designed to allow Amazon Echo owners to play family trivia games with the voice-activated smart speakers.

About 3 inches (76mm) wide and 1.5 inches (38mm) tall, the Echo Buttons each have a multi-color LED on top that lights up the push button. The devices are powered by two triple-A batteries and connect to Echo speakers via Bluetooth.

Amazon says the buttons will work with four Alexa skills when they ship on December 19 in time for the holidays, including name-that-song game "Beat the Intro" and "Fourth Down Football Trivia", with support for more sound effect and quiz games expected further down the line.

The Echo Buttons are compatible with all old and new Echo devices as well as the forthcoming Echo Spot, but they don't work with the Amazon Tap, Amazon Fire TV, or any other non-Echo device.

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Facebook is continuing its seemingly relentless trend of copying Snapchat with the testing of a new feature that plays on the latter's chat streak challenge, which encourages users to "keep your streak going" when messaging friends.

Facebook Messenger streaks include an emoji status to indicate friends that a user is currently in a streak with – who they've messaged for at least two days in a row – and encourages them to keep chatting to keep the streak alive.

"For example, a lightning bolt may appear next to the name of a person you've messaged with for at least three days in a row, and a counter will indicate how many consecutive days you've been chatting. We're interested to see if people enjoy this insight, but we don't have any additional information to share at this time."

Streaks have been a popular feature with younger Snapchat users for some time, with many seeing them as a fun, addictive challenge to see how long they can make a streak last for. Whether or not the trend catches on with the wider age demographic of Messenger users is a different proposition, and will undoubtedly dictate the chances of a wider rollout.

In its last straight-up feature clone, Facebook created a facsimile of Snapchat's day-long, vanishing post idea in Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram, which gained 100 million users following the Snapchat-like update last year.

Popular third-party iOS podcast app Overcast reached version 4.0.1 on Thursday, bringing some much-requested features including a new true-black dark theme and sleep timer option.

As before, users who like to change things up depending on the time of day (or night) can swipe up or down with two fingers to quickly change between a light and dark interface – the only difference being that the Light-Switch gesture now simply chooses the most recently used dark theme.

In another neat UI appearance tweak, users can now also opt to turn on the system font for whichever theme they choose.

Elsewhere, there's a new sleep timer option that stops playback at the end of the currently playing episode, plus a bunch of smaller improvements including one that's supposed to fix auto-resume playback after taking a call.

Overcast 3.1 is available as a free ad-supported app for iPhone and iPad from the App Store. [Direct Link]

The latest Black Friday deal has gone live today, and this time it's for the Apple Watch Series 1, which debuted alongside the Series 2 in September 2016. The Series 1 models lack the advancements of 2017's Series 3 -- like LTE and a faster processor -- but the older Apple Watch is still a reliable device, and now with a cheaper entry price over at Macy's, it makes for a great holiday gift.

The retailer has the Apple Watch Series 1 discounted by $70 beginning today, with 38mm models running for $179.00 and 42mm models priced at $209.00. In terms of overall Black Friday deals, we know that Target will match this $70 off Series 1 deal beginning tomorrow when sales there go live. So if you're looking to get some shopping done a little early, Macy's offer is the first notable Apple Watch Series 1 deal happening this holiday season.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with LivingSocial. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Here's every Apple Watch Series 1 device available in Macy's sale:

• 38mm Silver Aluminum Case with White Sport Band - $179.00, down from $249.00
• 38mm Space Gray Aluminum Case with Black Sport Band - $179.00, down from $249.00
• 38mm Gold Aluminum Case with Midnight Blue Sport Band - $179.00, down from $249.00
• 42mm Space Gray Aluminum Case with Black Sport Band - $209.00, down from $279.00
• 42mm Silver Aluminum Case with White Sport Band - $209.00, down from $279.00
• 42mm Rose Gold Aluminum Case with Pink Sand Sport Band - $209.00, down from $279.00
• 42mm Gold Aluminum Case with Midnight Blue Sport Band - $209.00, down from $279.00

As a point of comparison, the new non-LTE Apple Watch Series 3 models are priced at $329 (38mm) and $359 (42mm). Sales on Series 2 models have been appearing frequently throughout the fall, with the most recent dropping 38mm cases to $229 and 42mmm cases to $259. Until Black Friday sales, no notable deals had yet to arrive for the Series 1 devices following the launch of Series 3 in September.

If you purchase the Series 1, be aware that in comparison to higher-cost versions it has a slower S1P processor, lower water resistance (so it is not suitable for swimming), a display that doesn't get as bright, slightly lower battery life, and no LTE or GPS support. Otherwise, you'll be able to access all of the expected Apple Watch features like activity tracking, notification and phone call support with a connected iPhone, and more.

Also of note is an Apple Music deal going on at LivingSocial, where you can get a four month subscription to Apple's streaming music service for free. This deal essentially adds one extra month (priced at $9.99/month) onto Apple Music's existing three month free trial, and is only available to new subscribers signing up for an individual membership plan.

As always, you can visit our Black Friday Roundup to keep track of the latest deals going on heading into Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Some sales will begin going online a bit early today, but the bulk will see activation when retailers first open their doors tomorrow night between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. local time.