I'll be honest: Photography has always felt like somewhat of a blind spot for me. While I take my fair share of photos, and can do a decent job with framing—or, at least, not cutting off anyone's heads—I've never been one to whip out a DSLR instead of the phone in my pocket.

That's why the apps below are just my speed. They don't require pro-level photography chops, but they can all improve your photos or videos in tangible ways. Check them out if you need some new sources of inspiration while you've behind the cameraphone:

Record with both cameras: For those times when you can't be in the picture, Camera FrontBack lets you record video or snap photos from both the front and rear cameras simultaneously. Your face appears in an adjustable thumbnail view (with a variety of shapes and sizes to choose from), and you can freely drag your face to any part of the screen. Camera FrontBack isn't the only app of its kind, but I like its simplicity and its lack of ads or in-app purchases, which make it well worth the $1 asking price.

I've yet to find any equivalent app on Android, but Samsung's new Galaxy S21 has a "Vlogger mode" that can do shoot through both cameras simultaneously. (In fact, that's what got me thinking about this story idea in the first place.)

Get perfect lighting: Once it's warm enough to venture outside for a photo session—or you're lucky enough to be somewhere warm right now—check out Magic Hour for iOS or Photo Time for Android. Both apps will alert you to your location's "golden hour," when you'll catch warm lighting from the sun being just over the horizon. It beats having to make the calculations yourself.

Straighten up the shot: When you need to take perfectly-level photos on an Android phone, check out Camera MX. The free app offers a wide range of photo tools, but the one I found most useful was the tiltmeter, accessible by hitting the vertical "..." menu, then hitting the grid button twice. Once enabled, the on-screen grid will align itself to the floor and turn green when your phone is lined up straight.

On iOS, the $9 ProCamera app offers a similar feature, but if you're looking to take level overhead shots, Apple's own Camera app has a hidden tiltmeter built in. Head to Settings > Camera, then turn on the "Grid" toggle. When your camera's pointed toward the ground, you'll see a couple little crosshairs that turn yellow when they're perfectly lined up. Your birds-eye view food photos will never look better.

After-the-fact background blur: Most high-end phones these days offer portrait modes that automatically blur the background behind the subject, but what if you've already taken a photo without that mode enabled? With Focos for iOS, you can add background blur to existing photos from your camera roll. The app automatically recognizes objects in the frame, then lets you select a focus point and adjust the "aperture" for depth of field effects.

On Android, check out AfterFocus instead. The free app also offers automatic object recognition and background blur—make sure to choose "AI" when selecting a photos—and you can also manually "paint" the areas you want to remain in focus.

Cheap VHS gimmickry: This is just kind of goofy, but I've always been amused by apps that add a VHS tape effect to your videos, complete with pixelated timestamps and distortion effects. Try E240 on iOS or Tapee on Android, as both offer functional free versions with no annoying ads. If you really want to relive the 80s, both offer extra video effects with a one-time in-app purchase.
 

Old favorites: Although I've mentioned them in these pages before, here are a few other camera apps I've enjoyed using in recent years:

• NeuralCam brings night mode photography to iPhones with older camera systems, such as the iPhone XR and 2020 iPhone SE, so you can take decent flash-free photos in dimly-lit environments.
• PhotoShop Camera for iOS and Android lets you apply all sorts of wild filters to your photos, but I mostly like it for its subtler enhancements, such as the food mode that makes your culinary endeavors pop.
• Slow Fast Slow is an old but still-great iPhone app that can add slo- and fast-mo to existing videos, including the ability to have multiple speed changes in a single video.

Did I miss any other exemplary apps? Are you a diehard photog who can convince me to use a RAW camera app like Halide? I'd love to hear from you; just reply to this email to get in touch.
 

ADT's camera creep scandal: Via Buzzfeed, here's a disturbing story about an ADT technician who used his security privileges to spy on hundreds of female customers through their home security cameras. The now-former technician has pled guilty to federal computer fraud charges, and three of the lawsuits allege that ADT tried to buy customers' silence with confidentiality agreements.

I want to be very clear about not blaming the victims here—this was a major failure of oversight on ADT's part—but the incident does underscore my own unease about putting up security cameras inside the home. With that peace of mind also comes some risk of hacking or abuse, even when reputable brands like ADT are involved. At the very least, consider cameras that include a physical shutter (like SimpliSafe's SimpliCam), have visual recording indicators (as Google's Nest cameras do), or can avoid uploading videos to the cloud (as with Netatmo's indoor cameras). That way, you'll at least have some extra protection against a company's security failures.

Galaxy S21 Ultra accolades: Looking back at last week's newsletter—and at early reviews—perhaps I was overly dismissive of Samsung's new top-tier phone. The reviews are glowing, with writers praising both the display and the camera in particular. Unlike last year's S20 Ultra, the S21 Ultra manages to offer super-smooth 120Hz refresh rates even at full resolution, and it can vary the screen's refresh rate to preserve battery life. On the photo front, even notorious camera stickler Ray Wong felt that the S21 Ultra beats the iPhone 12 Max on the strength of its optical zoom features. (I got a couple details wrong in last week's writeup: The S21 Ultra camera has a second telephoto lens and laser autofocus, neither of which appeared on the S20 Ultra from last year.)

I'm still not a fan of Samsung's heavy-handed software or its privacy practices, neither of which the S21 adequately addresses, but the company seems to have at least put itself atop that Android hardware heap with this year's Ultra.

A universal chat app: Eric Migicovsky, the former founder of Pebble, has launched an interesting new service called Beeper that tries to mash multiple messaging sources into one app. That means you can have one inbox for Slack messages, WhatsApp groups, text messages, Facebook Messenger conversations, and more. It even works with iMessage via an elaborate workaround involving either an always-online Mac or a jailbroken iPhone.( As The Verge notes, another service called AirMessage uses a similar trick to offer iMessage on Android and the web.)

The catch—and the reason I'm filing this under news instead of as a tip—is that it's launching by invite only at the moment, and the service will cost $10 per month if you get in. Still, it's an interesting idea that could solve a real problem for a lot of people.
 

Squash Safari cookie warnings: If you've ever been bothered by the "Accept Cookie" pop-ups that appear when you're trying to read an article online, a relatively new iOS and Mac app called Hush can help. The free extension for Safari automatically blocks those annoying messages, along with similarly-obnoxious newsletter sign-up prompts and notification permission requests. After installing the app, head to Settings > Safari > Content Blockers, then turn on the "Hush" toggle.

Similar nag blockers are also available for other desktop browsers (check out the "I don't care about cookies" extension for Chrome or Firefox), and I've previously written about using a browser bookmarklet to block those pop-ups manually. Hush, however, is the first option I've seen for iOS that doesn't involve setting up any complicated ad block filters.

As for Android, you can try switching to the Opera browser, which has its own cookie dialog blocker built in.
 

A new tab toolkit: My fascination with alternative new tab pages is well-documented already, but here's a neat new example called Tabwave. The free extension for Chrome and Firefox replaces your standard new tab page with a handful of productivity tools, including a task list, a notepad, and a Pomodoro-style focus timer. I don't see this replacing Tabliss as my new tab page of choice, but maybe it'll do the trick for you. If you're not ready to install the extension yet, you can try a free-standing web version first.
 

Auto-transcribe your meetings: I've long been a fan of Otter.ai, a tool that can automatically generate text transcriptions from recorded audio. Now, Otter has released a slick Chrome extension that integrates with Google Meet. Once installed, you can click the Otter extension button during a Meet call to open a sidebar menu, where you can record the meeting and view the transcription in real-time. There's also a Closed Caption button that shows a live transcription directly underneath the video feed.

Otter is free for up to 40 transcription minutes per recording, and 600 minutes per month, and Pro plans with more recording time start at $13 per month or $100 per year. (Otter also offers a Zoom integration, but only with paid plans.)

One more phone trick: After sending out last week's newsletter, I was kicking myself for not including one more tip, which reader Phil B. kindly pointed out to me: While using the iPhone keyboard, press-and-hold the space bar to create a cursor, which you can drag to any point in your text. While the cursor is open, you can also select text by tapping with a second finger on the start and end points of your selection.

Google's Gboard keyboard offers a somewhat similar feature on both iOS and Android: Just hold the space bar to pop open a cursor, then slide it left or right to move backwards or forwards in your text.
 

• The iPhone 12 can disrupt pacemakers when held too close.
• Apple adds celebrity-guided walks to Fitness+.
• If Facebook logged you out over the weekend, you're not alone.
• Google's mobile search site is about to get bubblier.
• TV makers are confusing everyone with inconsistent HDMI 2.1 support.
• Lifehacker: Don't leave people hanging with ellipses ... in your text messages.

eBay currently has a killer deal on a three-pack of Amazon's Eero Pro mesh Wi-Fi routers. They're on sale for $250, which is half-off the original price and $150 less than the current price on Amazon.

Although these aren't the latest models (which cost $600 for a three-pack) and don't support the latest Wi-Fi 6 standard, they should still do an excellent job covering a large area, with Eero advertising up to 6,000 square feet of coverage.

Other notable deals this morning:

• Adorama is bundling Sony's WH-1000XM4 wireless noise-cancelling headphones with a 20,800 mAh battery pack for $278.
• The Apple Watch Series 6 (blue, 44mm) is on sale for $376, a savings of $54.
• For Android users, Samsung's Galaxy Watch 3 on sale for $300 and up, a savings of $100.
• Grab a self-emptying, room-mapping Shark robot vacuum in refurbished condition for $270.
• This Anker wireless charging stand also has a pair of USB-A charging ports for $30, matching record lows.

Before I go, I'm proud to share a new personal code of ethics that I posted to the Advisorator website over the weekend. Editorial integrity has always been essential to me, and this document clarifies things like whether anyone pays me to write about their products (nope), whether I accept free gadgets for personal use (also no), and whether I invest in any of the companies I write about (definitely not). Please take a look if you're curious about how this newsletter operates!

Speaking of the website, remember that you can log in to read every past issue of Advisorator. If you subscribed before mid-November, and haven't set up an account yet, you can get password setup instructions through this link.

Thanks again for reading, and if you have any tech questions for me, don't hesitate to reach out via email or the Advisorator chat room on Slack.

Until next week,
Jared