Technologies

Your Old Phone Can Still Take Excellent Photos With These Pro Tips

Don’t count out the camera on your older phone. It can still take fantastic photos.

The iPhone 14 Pro, Google Pixel 7 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra are among the best camera phones you can buy in 2023. Packed with multiple lenses and amazing AI software, these phones can take shots that rival professional mirrorless cameras.

However, these top phones come with huge price tags that make them out of reach for many of us. Worry not. Even if you’ve got an older iPhone or Android phone or a budget-focused model without all the bells and whistles, there’s a lot you can do to still take beautiful images. After all, as any photographer will tell you, it’s not just the best camera that takes the best photos.

Still, you’ll need to put in some effort yourself to elevate your shots from simple «ho hum» snaps to «oh, wow!» pieces of art.

Here, then, are my top tips for how to get the best images from an older iPhone, Galaxy phone or any older Android phone.

In this shot, taken on the iPhone X, the road snaking its way into the frame helps to add a leading line that guides the eye up toward the cloudy mountains.

Andrew Lanxon/CNET

Nail your composition

You can take a photo using the most advanced camera system on the planet, but if you’ve messed up your framing, you’ll still get a bad photo. After all, if you’re taking a photo of a lovely church and you manage to chop off the spire, no amount of editing will bring it back.

Don’t just snap away wildly at your photo location. Instead, slow down, walk around and consider the scene in front of you and how you want it to appear in your shot. Taking a landscape shot? Look for leading lines such as pathways or old stone walls that snake their way into the scene. Or perhaps there’s some interesting rocks or flowers that could add some interest in the foreground.

20190620-161930 — Taken on the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus. I used the curving rock face as foreground interest, shooting through the gap that points toward the reservoir in the distance.

Andrew Lanxon/CNET

You can also turn on a «rule of thirds» grid overlay in the settings to help line up the different elements in your scene in a visually pleasing way — or simply to help keep your horizons straight.

If you’ve got multiple rear cameras that offer a zoomed-in or wide-angle view, experiment with these different options. Maybe zooming in can help eliminate distracting elements, or perhaps that wider view can capture more of the beautiful scene in front of you.

With no wide-angle lens on the iPhone 11 Pro, I used the panorama mode to capture a much wider scene here.

Andrew Lanxon/CNET

If you don’t have a wide-angle view, try using the panorama mode to get a wider shot than the standard camera can achieve — or use clip-on lenses, as I discuss below.

Tell a story

The most impactful, iconic images through the years aren’t simply the ones taken with the best camera, but the ones that tell a particular story or capture a moment in time. And sure, maybe you’re not trying to win a photojournalism prize on your summer vacation, but thinking like a photojournalist can help you take images that you’ll want to look back on in years to come.

Perhaps you’re heading to the beautiful Italian coast this year. Of course, you’ll get a nice snap of the ocean from your hotel terrace, but keep in mind what else has made your trip so memorable; the plates of delicious food, the old, dusty streets, the musician playing in the square or the vibrant colors of the fruits and flower stands at the local market. All these elements will make for great photos that capture the heart of the location and tell a great visual story when you look back through them.

This beautiful, shaggy Highland cow wasn’t the reason I visited Scotland, but this was a great opportunity to capture an image of an iconic animal. And the shot really adds to the story told by the images I took on that trip. Taken on the iPhone 11 Pro.

Andrew Lanxon/CNET

And it doesn’t have to be something you do only on a big family vacation. A weekend walk downtown to the street-food market will offer up great storytelling opportunities, from the graffiti art you see along the way to the plates of vibrant cuisine you choose on arrival. And none of these things require the latest camera hardware to capture beautifully.

Use the light to your advantage

Though today’s top phones can take great nighttime images, older models likely won’t have night modes. As a result, darkness won’t be your friend when you’re trying to get great images. If you’re heading to a viewpoint overlooking the city, try to get there during the day, perhaps when there’s a lovely blue sky sprinkled with fluffy clouds.

Though the middle of the day isn’t always a great time for landscape photos, you might capture moments of peace like this. Taken on the iPhone X.

Andrew Lanxon/CNET

Middle-of-the-day photography is often avoided by landscape photographers because of its harsh quality, but if you’re exploring city streets, it can offer some great opportunities to look for contrast caused by shadows, which could make for dramatic images.

No multi-camera iPhone? Use clip-on lenses

Older iPhones might lack the multiple lenses found on the most recent models, but you don’t just have to make do. Companies like Moment and Olloclip make lenses that attach to your phone, providing wide-angle, telephoto and even macro views.

img-2269-copy — Using its standard lens (left) the iPhone X can only fit so much in frame. But with the Moment wide angle adapter (right) we get a much wider view.

Andrew Lanxon/CNET

Sure, you have to carry an extra little item in your bag or pocket as you explore, but adding a clip-on lens is a great way to get a superwide view for those sweeping cityscapes without having to splash the cash in upgrading your phone.

Shoot in DNG raw, even on old phones

Apple’s ProRaw image format, introduced on the iPhone 12 Pro Max, uses computational imaging techniques like HDR but still provides you with a DNG raw file that’s much easier to edit in apps like Adobe Lightroom. It isn’t a function found on older iPhones, but those of you on older phones can still shoot in regular raw if you’re keen to do your own edits.

You can’t shoot in DNG raw in the standard camera mode, so you’ll need to use a third-party camera app that offers raw shooting. I usually use Lightroom itself, as its camera shoots in raw and automatically imports the images into your library. But I’ve also had good results with the Moment app.

img-2026-2-copy — By shooting in DNG raw, I had even more flexibility in Adobe Lightroom to make this portrait of my sweet bundle of beautiful wonder look even more heartacheingly gorgeous.

Andrew Lanxon/CNET

Shooting in raw allows you more flexibility to adjust white balance and color tones while generally making it easier to tone down bright highlights or lighten up shadowy areas. Those of you looking to squeeze every ounce of quality from your phone camera should consider using raw — as long as you’re willing to spend the time editing.

Keep in mind, though, that raw files are larger than their JPEG counterparts, so you’ll quickly fill up your phone’s storage if you shoot everything you see in raw.

Get creative with editing apps

Taking your photo is only part of the process, and a keen eye in the editing stage can make all the difference in creating beautiful photographic art. If you want to maintain a more natural looking photograph, look toward apps like Lightroom or Google’s Snapseed. These raw image editors give you control over colors, exposure and contrast and let you fine-tune your images to suit your taste.

prisma-edit-app — Edited in Prisma, the abstract art style means it doesn’t matter if the original image isn’t amazing quality.

Andrew Lanxon/CNET

Or you can take your creativity to a whole other level with apps like Prisma, which transforms your shots into often psychedelic-looking scenes, or Bazaart, which lets you easily create wild photo collages that can look really cool. You can check out my roundup of my favorite image editing apps for more inspiration.

The great thing with editing is that there’s no right or wrong way to do things, and you can always go back to your original image if you don’t like the changes you made. But using some of these techniques can turn an otherwise forgettable shot into something that really stands out. My advice is to make a cup of tea, settle into a comfy chair and play around with the sliders in your app of choice and see what you can come up with.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for March 18, #1011

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 18 #1011.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is pretty tricky, but musicians might find the blue group easy. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Time between two things, maybe.

Green group hint: That smarts!

Blue group hint: Rockers know these well.

Purple group hint: You might write one out to pay a bill.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Interval.

Green group: React to a stubbed toe.

Blue group: Guitar effects pedals.

Purple group: ____ check.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is interval. The four answers are patch, period, spell and stretch.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is react to a stubbed toe. The four answers are curse, hop, wince and yell.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is guitar effects pedals. The four answers are delay, reverb, wah and whammy.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ____ check. The four answers are blank, coat, rain and reality.

Toughest Connections puzzles

We’ve made a note of some of the toughest Connections puzzles so far. Maybe they’ll help you see patterns in future puzzles.

#5: Included «things you can set,» such as mood, record, table and volleyball.

#4: Included «one in a dozen,» such as egg, juror, month and rose.

#3: Included «streets on screen,» such as Elm, Fear, Jump and Sesame.

#2: Included «power ___» such as nap, plant, Ranger and trip.

#1: Included «things that can run,» such as candidate, faucet, mascara and nose.

Technologies

My Kid Wanted Video Games. I Was Against It. This Console Gave Us Both the Win

The movement-based Nex Playground might be the antidote to parental screen time guilt.

When our 8-year-old started asking for video games, I knew we were about to engage in an uphill battle. Anytime we’ve been to friends’ houses with gaming consoles, he goes full zombie mode, then has an epic meltdown once the sensory overload wears off. And since he inevitably ropes his 6-year-old brother in, we’re essentially sealing both their fates.

So when our neighbors started raving about a movement-based gaming console called Nex Playground, my first instinct was to shut it down. The words «gaming console» alone were enough to put me in a mental block. Add in my own memories of Wii tennis sessions where I nearly took out the ceiling fan, and I was firmly in the «no» camp.

But after doing a little more research, I was intrigued enough to try it out.

Screen time isn’t something I take lightly. With three kids ages 2 to 8, my husband and I have always been intentional about how and what they watch. They don’t have their own tablets, and most of their screen time happens on our family TV, which means whatever the oldest is exposed to quickly trickles down to our toddler. So anything we bring into the house has to work for all of them. Tall order, I know, but the Nex Playground gets surprisingly close.

Getting started is easy

The console itself is refreshingly simple. It’s a small cube, slightly larger than a Rubik’s cube, with a circular camera and motion sensor, a light indicator and two ports for power, and an HDMI connection to the TV. There’s no controller beyond a basic remote for navigating menus. For most games, your body is the controller.

Setup is quick. Plug it in, connect it to your TV, and you’re ready to go. It doesn’t store video or upload footage to the cloud, which was an immediate plus. It also comes with a magnetic privacy cover that you can put on the lens when it’s not in use.

At $250, it’s not cheap, but it’s less than some of the popular gaming consoles for this age range, like the Nintendo Switch 2. That gets you a five-game starter pack: Fruit Ninja, Go Keeper (soccer), Starri (think Guitar Hero for your whole body), Party Fowl (an AR emoji frenzy) and Whack-a-Mole. Additional games require a subscription: $89 a year or $49 for three months, which unlocks a library of 50-plus games and counting. New titles dropped even as I was writing this.

The library spans a surprisingly wide range. There are board game adaptations like Connect Four and Candy Land, character-driven games with Peppa Pig, Bluey and the Ninja Turtles, and sports like baseball and, yes, tennis — minus the ceiling fan hazard. There’s even parent-friendly content like Zumba workouts, which I may or may not have fully committed to on a rainy afternoon.

Even my toddler has gotten in on the action, mostly bouncing her way through Hungry Hungry Hippos when her brothers finally concede.

Gameplay is where it wins

The movements range from swinging your arms to keep a ball in motion, hopping or full-body launches that are far more aggressive than what the game actually requires. (I’m not about to tell the kids otherwise.) After a 45-minute session, my kids are tired and sometimes even drenched in sweat. The Nex Playground entertains and burns energy in one fell swoop.

The graphics also seem intentionally simple and arcade-like, which fits the minimalist play experience. There’s no POV storyline to get lost in, no leveling up into a new world at 9 p.m. on a school night. Some games keep score, which awakens my kids’ competitive streak, but the vibe is more collaborative and hasn’t been the catalyst for more fighting like other games. If anything, it’s done the opposite.

I still don’t love defaulting to a screen when my kids are bored, so we try to use it in moderation. In our house, piano practice is the only thing that unlocks weekend play time, and the fact that they’ll sit at the piano for a full hour tells you everything you need to know.

The verdict that matters most

But the real test: Does it hold up to an 8-year-old who was dead set on a Nintendo Switch?

Short answer: yes. At least for now. He’d still pick the Switch if you asked him, but not for the reasons you’d expect.

«The Playground is more tiring,» he told me, which only helped seal the deal for me. His current favorite is Homerun Hitters. «It’s basically a baseball game where you go against ranked global players. Me and my brother are really good at it.»

This from a kid whose primary hobby is annoying his younger brother. The fact that he said «me and my brother» as a collective was an unexpected bonus.

The Switch may still show up on the Christmas list this year. And realistically, I know I’m on borrowed time. As kids get older, «cool» becomes the currency, and a motion-based cube probably won’t hold up against an Xbox or a Switch once playdates turn into side-by-side gaming sessions.

The Nex Playground isn’t a replacement for those. It’s more of a detour; it gives them a taste of gaming without all the usual side effects. Even if I do eventually cave, I can still see it sticking around for the occasional family game night or as a rainy-day sibling diffuser.

In the meantime, I’ll relish this simpler version of gaming while I still can. He’s not exactly rushing me to return this review unit. More importantly, neither am I.

Technologies

Don’t Wait for New Emoji in iOS 26.4, Here’s How to Create Them on Your Own

If your iPhone has Apple Intelligence, you can create your own emoji now.

Apple will likely add new emoji to your iPhone when the company releases iOS 26.4. Those new emoji could include an orca, a distorted smiley face and more. According to Emojipedia, there are 3,953 emoji with more on the way. The current list of emoji include smileys, sports players, weather conditions and flags. But there’s no emoji for a dog wearing pajamas, a plate with burgers and fries and many other things. But if you have Genmoji on your iPhone you can create these emoji and many more.

Apple released iOS 18.2 in 2024 and the company introduced its own emoji generator, called Genmoji, to Apple Intelligence-capable iPhones at that time. The Unicode Standard, a universal character encoding standard, is responsible for creating new emoji, and approved emoji are added to all devices once a year. With Genmoji, you don’t have to wait for new emoji to appear on your iPhone each year. You can just create them as you need them.

Read on to learn how to use Genmoji on iPhone to create your own custom emoji. Just note that only iPhones with Apple Intelligence, like the iPhone 17 lineup, can use Genmoji at this time.

How to make custom emoji

1. Open Messages and go into a chat.
2. Tap the plus (+) button next to your text box.
3. Tap Genmoji.

You can then type a description of an emoji into the text box near the bottom of your screen and tap the check mark on your keyboard to enter that description into Genmoji. You can also tap different suggestions and themes that are right above the text box. And with iOS 26 or later, you can also combine and use emoji to create others rather than describing a new emoji or using suggestions.

Your iPhone will generate a series of new emoji for you to pick from according to your description, and you can swipe through these new emoji. When you find the one you want, tap Add in the top right corner of your screen and the new emoji will be available to use as an emoji, tapback or a sticker. Now you don’t have to wait for the Unicode Standard to propose, create and bring new emoji to devices.

For more iOS news, here’s what to know about iOS 26.3.1 and iOS 26.3. You can also check out our iOS 26 cheat sheet for other tips and tricks.