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• Apps & Updates
• Apps and Updates
• Google Apps
• Google Photos
• photos
• Shared Albums

Shared Albums in Google Photos gain commenting and smart suggestions

Abner Li May 11 2016 - 12:15 pm PT

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Launched at the end of last year, Shared Albums in Google Photos will now let people comment on pictures. As part of the Android and iOS update, a new smart suggestions feature will also recommend the right photos to add to a Shared Album.

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• Apps and Updates
• Facebook
• photos
• Accessibility
• automatic alt text

Facebook’s Android app will soon be able to identify photo contents and voice descriptions to blind users

Ben Lovejoy Apr 5 2016 - 4:05 am PT

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At a time when so many Facebook posts comprise a photo and a brief comment, there’s one group of people who get rather left out of the picture: those who are blind and partially sighted. That’s a problem Facebook is determined to fix.

From today, the company’s iOS app uses artificial intelligence to figure out the content of photos, and Apple’s VoiceOver feature to read aloud a description of them – and it says the same functionality will be coming to the Android app.

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• Apps & Updates
• Apps and Updates
• Search
• photos
• Google Images
• images

Pinterest-like image saving and tagging feature added to Google Search on the web

Abner Li Mar 28 2016 - 12:56 pm PT

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Last year, Google added a Pinterest-like photo saving and tagging feature to Image search. It was first available on the mobile web for Android and iOS, but starting today Google is rolling out the feature to desktop search.

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• Tech Industry
• photos
• Machine learning
• Neural networks
• Geolocation

Google created a neural network that can accurately guess where a photo was taken

Abner Li Feb 25 2016 - 9:40 am PT

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Google has trained a neural network, named PlaNet, to figure out where an image was taken down to the city and even exact street level. The machine only needs to analyze a photo’s pixels in order to accomplish the task.

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• Apps & Updates
• Apps and Updates
• Google Photos
• photos
• Picasa
• photo apps

Google is finally shutting down Picasa on May 1, but many of its features will still work

Abner Li Feb 12 2016 - 11:20 am PT

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Before Google Photos, there was Google+ Photos and prior to that Picasa. Google acquired the desktop photos management app in 2004 and made it free. While Google announced today that they are shutting down Picasa, diehard users will still be able to use quite a few features.

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• Apps & Updates
• Apps and Updates
• Google Photos
• photos
• Snapseed
• filters

Google Photos adds quick access to pics taken on same day, Snapseed gains new automatic features

Abner Li Feb 4 2016 - 1:49 pm PT

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Both of Google’s excellent photo apps received an update this week. Version 1.13 of Google Photos adds a new feature to easily look at other photos taken on the same day when in search, while Snapseed now has several new automatic features, like face detection.

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• Apps & Updates
• Google
• Google Apps
• Gmail
• Google Plus
• Google Photos

Inbox by Gmail adds Photos-integreated attachment picker, posts can be pinned to Google+ Profile

Abner Li Jan 15 2016 - 11:51 am PT

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Google has been sprucing up their web apps this week as the first new updates of 2016 start to trickle in. Inbox by Gmail on the web adds a super convenient photo and attachment picker, while Google Plus now allows users to pin posts to their profiles.

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• Android
• Apps and Updates
• update
• photos
• Snapseed

Google’s Snapseed now has support for editing RAW photos on Android

Stephen Hall Oct 29 2015 - 9:52 am PT

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Snapseed 2.1 is now rolling out on the Play Store, and there’s one big feature addition: support for editing photos in RAW. In case you didn’t know, RAW support was first brought to the platform with Android Lollipop’s release, and now Google’s own photo editing app is also supporting the format.

Here’s the word, straight from Google’s Anton Daubert:

Today is a big day for Snapseed users! Snapseed 2.1 brings RAW photo editing to your Android device.

Traditionally, shooting and editing RAW photos has been the domain of DSLR cameras and desktop software. But with the RAW capabilities that were added to Android 5 last year, RAW is now becoming important for mobile photography, too.

Snapseed now allows you to edit those RAW photos in the DNG file format right on your mobile device. You can also edit DNGs that were shot on cameras or converted from other RAW formats.

If you’re not exactly familiar with photography format terminology, RAW formats are traditionally associated with DSLR cameras, and they are the most pure form of a photo that preserves everything that the camera captured. This allows you to do more complex edits that would otherwise be impossible with other, more lossy formats.

Google says that in addition to RAW editing features, Snapseed also has “some slight polishes throughout the app” in this version to make navigating it just a bit easier. You can get the app on the Play Store for free.

• Android
• OnePlus
• smartphones
• Leaks
• photos

OnePlus X photo leak shows white model for the first time

Cam Bunton Oct 19 2015 - 2:55 am PT

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We’ve seen plenty of rumors and leaks for the upcoming OnePlus X. The controversial Chinese Android OEM is expected to announce the new phone at an event in London next week. It seems this phone will be a direct replacement for the OnePlus One, offering some of the same specs as the original ‘flagship killer’, but in an updated form factor. A new photo leaked over on Chinese social media site, Weibo (found by GizmoChina), shows both black and white versions of the device side-by-side.

Up until now, only the black version of the phone had been shown in any leaks. With a white one likely to be on the way, it heavily supports the theory that this will, indeed, replace the OnePlus One at the bottom of the company’s product line. The image also suggests the back of the device will be all-glass, similar to the iPhone 4/4S, with a metal frame all around the device, with antenna bands.

Other specs we’re expecting include a Snapdragon 801 processor, 3GB RAM and 16GB storage, as leaked previously by Chinese retailer, Oppomart. The OnePlus X will purportedly also feature a 5-inch 1080p display, measure 6.9mm thick and cost just $249 when it launches at the end of this month. Like many new non-Nexus phones, it’s likely the phone will be released with Android Lollipop (with the OxygenOS on top), rather than a Marsmallow-based operating system.

• Apps & Updates
• Android
• Apps and Updates
• Google Play
• Microsoft
• photos

Skype for Android updated with personalized ringtones and easier photo sharing

Ben Lovejoy Aug 19 2015 - 7:15 am PT

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Skype has updated its Android app to version 5.10, allowing you to create personalized ringtones for specific contacts, and making it easier to share photos.

Customize incoming call sounds for a contact by selecting a ringtone from your device. In a conversation, tap the lower right and select “Ringtone options” then “Set custom ringtone”.

Share photos from chats with other Skype friends and family who may not be in the conversation. Just tap and hold on the photo you want to share and select “Forward photo”.

Avatar colors for group chats have also been changed, to make it easier to tell your different conversations apart.

The last significant update was the visual refresh and performance boost last month. A week ago, the company made available to enterprise customers a preview of its updated Skype for Business Android app.

The new app is a free download from Google Play.

Photo: TNW

• Android
• Apps and Updates
• Facebook
• photos
• Mobile device

Add a beautifully illustrated cover art photo to your Facebook Event from Android

Tom Maxwell Aug 17 2015 - 11:42 am PT

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More than 75 million pages for private events were created on Facebook last year, and to keep its Events product growing the company is rolling out something that it believes will increase engagement for user-created events without much extra work on the part of the host: cover art themes.

If you’ve ever visited a group, event, or personal page on Facebook, you’ve seen cover art. The big photos which act as banners on these pages provide users with a little added personalization while keeping things within reason (*cough* MySpace *cough*). But at least in the case of events pages, it hasn’t been easy to add cover art from a mobile device — especially considering how the Events product is buried in a “More” menu within the Facebook app. And you have to find a good photo to use in the first place. With the addition of cover art themes to the Facebook app on Android, finding a beautiful, relevant photo to enhance your event is as easy as telling Facebook what the theme of your event is. The app will then present you with a pack of illustrations designed in-house and by outside designers.

The different cover art themes include everything from “Seasons,” which features illustrations of everything you might associate with the different seasons like summer and backyard BBQs, to “Recreation,” which within you might find an illustration of people jumping into a pool. There are 36 pieces of cover art to initially choose from, organized into categories like the aforementioned seasons and recreation. Facebook says it will periodically be adding new themes and illustrations over the coming months.

The big thing that Facebook wants to emphasize with the release of these cover art themes is engagement. The company says that it has found through feedback from users that adding a cover art photo to an event positively impacts the engagement (i.e. RSVPs) it sees. Launching this new Events product feature first on mobile makes sense simply because 55% of all Events activity (and most activity on Facebook period) happens from mobile devices. It’s Android and US-only for now, and will be coming to iOS soon.

• Android
• Samsung
• Samsung Galaxy Note 5
• rumors
• Leaks

Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge+ leaked in new photos

Cam Bunton Jul 23 2015 - 9:00 am PT

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Samsung’s Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge+ have been shown off in a bunch of new photographs. Early leaks and rumors pointed to both devices taking on design cues from the smaller Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. For the most part, that’s what we seem to have in the leaked pics.

What’s interesting to note (pun not-intended) is that — although it has a S6-esque metal frame — the Note 5 still retains the style and shape of the Galaxy note series. Corners are much squarer than the Galaxy S series phones. In fact, from the front, it looks virtually identical to the Galaxy Note 4. The only real difference is the placement of sensors and front facing camera on the top. The two sensors near the earpiece have swapped over to the left side, while the camera is much further from the corner that it is on the current model.

As for the S6 Edge+, that just looks like a big version of the S6 Edge. Corners are much more rounded than the Note, and it has the iconic curved display edges on both sides. Like the current S6 and S6 Edge, it also seems to have a reflective, pearlescent finish.

Both the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ are widely expected to launch at an event in August. If most recent rumors are to be believed, the event will take place in New York City on August 13th with a retail launch in the following weeks.