macOS Tahoe 26.2 Gets Edge Light Feature for Video Calls

[attila]

This is cool, but Facetime is a mess on Macs.

My colleagues and I usually end up giving up on Facetime and switching to Zoom or Google Meetings.

This is not just for FaceTime but for the camera settings that go into effect when using the FaceTime camera.

Little green camera icon in the menu bar.

 

[PieVsCake]

Also known as the "Flash Bang" feature, many testers are reporting migraine headaches and loss of vision after prolonged periods of "Looking into the light". Pundits are split on the feature while some flat earthers are saying users should use head mounted solar panels to provide additional passive charging to the Macbook users of the feature.

 

[555gallardo]

This is going to be a great feature when used with... an OLED display... for a MacBook.

 

[MacLoveMacHate]

Edge Light + new OLED Macbooks = lots of screen replacement business for Genius Bars.

“And our customers are returning for new models, year after year.“

 

[applesith]

This is very cool and I would love to try it.

 

[lungbutter]

TLDR; So how would the fancy ring light work on a 32" monitor? Apologies but haven't read deeply about it yet. Is it just the FaceTime window or the entire desktop. That would seem unfinished and screw up the rest of the desktop which has too much crap on it. 😉

 

[lungbutter]

Maybe AI will just lie to you and tell you you look great. Like a real assistant.

LOL. What AI?

 

[chelsel]

My Logitech GlowLight https://amzn.to/47F65ej turns on as soon as I initiate a video call using any platform (FaceTime, Teams, Zoom, WebEx)... love it. Although when traveling light and without my glow light this is a good backup.

 

[mjs916]

The Mac's Apple Neural Engine is able to detect your face, relative size, and location in the video frame to position the light appropriately…

The feature is available on Macs that support Apple silicon, and it works with both webcams and external cameras that are connected.

I’ve opened a blank Pages app to do this for years 😂

It doesn’t auto-adjust but adjusting the window size did that just fine.

 

[coolfactor]

Stop saying AI like it's the answer to everything.

That would be the case if AI was just one thing, but it's not. The recent advent of "generative" AI overtaking the world has cast a cloud on the many types of AI (actually "machine learning") that has been employed in our devices for years.

Yes, the phrase AI has become overused, but it's still an umbrella term for machine learning, and would be perfectly applicable to this situation. But why fake it when you can have actual light, which this is?

 

[adrianlondon]

Stop saying AI like it's the answer to everything.

Companies like to say their products use AI. Whose fault is that? Ours 😁. People must look for "uses AI" as a purchase decision, otherwise they wouldn't bother.

Rarely, AI is deep learning, usually it's Machine Learning, often it's an excel macro, and occasionally it's just a simple formula. I have a good example of the latter ...

I bought a cheap fan a few months ago. When it was delivered, I saw the box said "AI controlled fan!" in big letters. Basically when the temperature is over 18°C, the fan speed will increase "using AI" by one speed setting for each degree above 18 the temp is.

So, basically, my 12-speed fan has ... "fanSpeed = temp - 18" in its code. I hope that's not melting data centres somewhere.

 

[macduke]

Looking forward to people saying this feature burned in their OLED M6 MacBook Pro.

 

[p.willis]

i cant see the issue here.

it's an added feature using existing hardware.
turn it on, see if you like it.

if you dont, turn it off. simple.

but some people are probably going to find it useful.
all the time or sometime.

 

[spunkybart]

The article literally says it does:


You can probably just trigger it from the menu bar whenever your camera is active.

Yep -- this is from a MB Air on 26 beta