Apple’s next flagship smartphone is shaping up to be its most ambitious camera upgrade in years. New details about the iPhone 18 Pro point to a significant hardware overhaul — and a behind-the-scenes attempt to acquire a beloved third-party camera app that could have changed the iPhone photography experience entirely.
Apple reportedly tried to buy Halide
One of the more striking revelations to emerge this week is that Apple held talks last summer to acquire Lux Optics, the app development studio behind 1. Halide, a widely used pro photography app for iPhone, 2. Kino, a video shooting app, 3. Spectre, built for long exposure shots, and 4. Orion, which turns an iPad into an external HDMI monitor.
The talks, reported by The Information, did not result in a deal. By September, both cofounders had agreed that continuing to develop Halide independently could increase the company’s value and negotiations ended there.
What makes the story messier is how it came to light. Halide cofounder and designer Sebastiaan de With announced two months ago that he was joining Apple’s design team. Shortly after, his cofounder Ben Sandofsky filed a lawsuit alleging misuse of company funds, claiming de With was placed on leave and eventually fired in December. The lawsuit also alleges that de With left with confidential materials related to the company’s future product development, as well as an Apple Design Award won by Lux Optics.
It is an unfortunate situation for one of the App Store’s most celebrated apps. Halide built its reputation largely on de With’s design instincts and marketing sensibility, and the legal dispute raises genuine questions about the app’s future.
Why Apple wanted pro camera software
The acquisition interest makes sense when viewed alongside what Apple is planning for the iPhone 18 Pro’s camera system. According to The Information, Apple’s built-in camera app currently offers mostly basic controls and as the hardware pushes further into professional territory, the software needs to keep pace.
Halide’s core appeal is the precise manual control it gives users over the iPhone camera’s hardware, something Apple’s native app has long been criticized for lacking. Acquiring Lux Optics could have helped Apple fast-track improvements to its first-party photography tools. Instead, the company appears to be pursuing those upgrades internally, with de With now reportedly part of that effort at Apple.
Whether his influence shows up first in camera software or elsewhere across iOS remains to be seen, though many are watching WWDC 2026Â expected to run from June 8 to June 12Â for early signs.
What the iPhone 18 Pro camera hardware will look like
On the hardware side, the leaks paint a compelling picture. The iPhone 18 Pro is expected to introduce a variable-aperture lens on the primary camera — a feature long associated with high-end dedicated cameras that allows the lens opening to adjust based on lighting conditions, giving photographers far more control over depth of field and exposure.
The ultrawide lens is also getting a supplier change, moving from Sony to Samsung. And the telephoto camera, which featured a 48-megapixel sensor with 8x optical zoom on the iPhone 17 Pro, is expected to receive an enlarged aperture that could meaningfully improve low-light performance producing sharper, brighter images in conditions where current iPhones tend to struggle.
Taken together, the camera system Apple is building for the iPhone 18 Pro represents a genuine step toward matching the capabilities of professional-grade cameras not just in terms of resolution, but in the kind of physical control over light and optics that photographers have historically needed dedicated hardware to achieve.
More from Apple this week
Beyond the iPhone 18 Pro, it was a busy week across Apple’s product lineup. The company launched the AirPods Max 2, which are designed with creators in mind and include studio quality audio recording, remote camera controls, improved noise cancellation, and the H2 chip the same found in the AirPods Pro 3. Apple also highlighted the sustainability credentials of the new headphones, noting the use of 100% recycled rare earth elements in the magnets and recycled materials throughout the build.
Apple also rolled out its first ever Background Security Improvement update for iOS, iPadOS, and macOSÂ a new type of update focused exclusively on urgent security fixes, including a critical WebKit vulnerability that could have allowed attackers to access sensitive information across browser tabs.
And for existing iPhone users, iFixit confirmed that the iPhone 17e’s back panel is compatible with the iPhone 16e, meaning 16e owners can upgrade to MagSafe support simply by swapping one component a rare and welcome bit of repairability news from Apple.
