latest
Google Photos’ Memories redesign rolling out more widely
It began showing up on people's phones in September
Google Photos is used by people at all ends of the smartphone and smart device spectrum, from Google Pixel 8 Pro owners who have everything in their life revolving around the Google ecosystem, to iPhone 15 Pro Max owners who can’t deny how useful Photos is for storing and backing up memories. To us at Android Police, there’s nothing better. It’s the Swiss Army Knife of gallery apps. Have you ever seen the Mona Lisa in person? If not, you probably have seen a picture of it shared by someone who stored it in Photos. The app actually deserves its own spot at the Louvre, if we’re being honest. Months after the newest Google Photos app redesign launched in September, it seems to just now be widely rolling out to the masses.
How to remove or change photo metadata on your phone
Hidden in your photos lies a trove of information called EXIF data! Learn how to view and delete it
When you use the best camera phones to take a photo, it also captures pertinent information related to that photo. The captured data includes the lens information, the camera mode, shutter speed, ISO, focal length, geolocation, and other information. Your smartphone saves this information in standard EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) files.
I haven't been the biggest fan of Google Images since it removed direct image links, but the service has been working on a few useful features behind the scenes. Starting this week, contextual information about images will appear when you tap on them, similar to what you would get from regular web searches.
The universal truth about Google's messaging efforts is that they're all over the place. However, its video calling app Duo has seen more growth and praise, which is likely why the team behind it is forging on with quirkier additions to the service. The app already lets you record and send video and audio messages to your contacts, and now you'll also be able to share self-destructing photos with them.
Motion Photos are an interesting addition to our photography tools. Tap the shutter button on your phone's camera, and it won't just save a pic, but also a short video around that moment. If you're photographing kids, pets, fast-moving objects, and other important moments, the animations can provide you with context that a static snap can't. But since each company has its own implementation of Motion Photos, some aren't compatible with each other or with Google Photos. That was the case for Samsung, but it's changing now.
Read update
- One day ahead of Nokia's MWC press conference, the company's teasing another photo sample. This one's not quite the epic scene that our last pic was, and instead looks to be highlighting low-light performance. Of course, just how impressive it really is depends a lot on how dim the original scene was. Not knowing more, we'll just have to patiently await tomorrow's announcements.
Just earlier today, nature photographer Konsta Punkka published an impressive-looking sample to Instagram that was "captured and edited entirely on a [unnamed] Nokia phone." It's a little speculative, but with our expectations of an MWC announcement for the camera-focused Nokia 9 PureView, it's possible that the photo came from the phone. Previous teasers and leaks of the device have shown off a huge 5-camera layout with Zeiss optics.
Now that renders have shown what the G8 ThinQ will look like, LG has revealed more about the upcoming flagship that will be unveiled at MWC. The new handset will feature a time-of-flight sensor, which is expected to offer fast and precise facial recognition.
Instagram nowadays is synonymous with three words: Stories, filters, and ads; and the first two are at the crux of the latest addition we spotted in the app. After allowing you to apply filters à la Snapchat while taking photos and videos for your Stories, Instagram has added the option to use those filters after the fact.
Daredevils open your wallets: GoPro announced three new cameras on Thursday with the Hero7 line. With a price range of $200 - $400, GoPro’s Hero7 line provides power and performance updates over the previous Hero6 lineup. The flagship Hero7 Black is distinguished visually as the only model featuring a front-facing LCD screen.In addition to the information screen on the front, the Hero7 Black ushers in several firsts for GoPro:
Pixel 3 XL details have been leaking from Google like a sieve recently. Just earlier today, our Canadian friends at MobileSyrup were tipped off with a set of photos showing a phone which looks to be the Pixel 3 XL in all its exceptionally notched glory. This is also the first time we've spotted one in the expected black colorway in use, as the previous engineering sample leaked back in June was unable to boot.
If you have an especially normal memory, you might be able to dig back far enough in your mind's history to last month, when news of a doodling, AI-powered camera was making the rounds. It was called Draw This, and the camera worked by visually recognizing objects in a scene, feeding those object names back into Google's "Quick, Draw!" dataset, and then placing them together in a similar configuration. The resulting photos were printed onto thermal paper, giving you an instant Polaroid-style doodle. Well, turns out all of us can enjoy those doodles for ourselves, as enterprising developer Eric Lu has turned it into a website called Cartoonify.
The so-called Active Edge functionality on the Pixel 2 and 2 XL which allows you to squeeze the body of the phone to activate Google's Assistant is pretty polarizing. Even here at Android Police, our general staff consensus is that we trigger it more frequently by accident than intent. Not being able to easily remap the trigger is also a huge downer. But worse than that is the fact that right now in Google's own Camera app, it doesn't even do anything.
One of the more vocal complaints leveled against Google's Pixel 2 phones was the display's default color calibration. Although some might prefer the over-saturated vibrance of less accurate color profiles, Google opted for a more calibrated default that was closer to sRGB as a means of providing color-accurate backward compatibility with apps that didn't immediately declare their color space.
If there's one thing our readers love more than phones, it's a phone giveaway. And if there's one thing they like more than that, it's an international phone giveaway. Huawei and Android Police have teamed up to give one lucky reader, from anywhere in the world, a Mate 9. Whatever far-flung destination you have in mind, Huawei's phone is up for the trip. And once it's there, you can even use it to enter into the Huawei Museum photo contest.
The HTC U Ultra was released earlier this year, and reviews of the device were mixed at best. However, the company's second 2017 flagship, code-named 'Ocean,' is yet to be released. But now we know what it will look like.
OPPO just announced that it was planning to announce a new phone soon. That's the gist of the story really. I guess the company wanted to jumpstart the CES news cycle by a couple of hours, without being ready to fully unveil all the specifics.
Here's a surprise for you. For once we're not talking about a photo editing app that has come to Android after being available on iOS for months or worse yet, years. How novel! Overam is the name of said app and it's being released on Android first (maybe only?).
Last month an interesting rumor circulated on El Androide Libre. According to a tipster who got in touch with Libre by email, Google was working on a new service called Tablescape - an apparent extension of Google+ aimed at foodie photographers.
It's no secret that Adobe hasn't exactly done a stellar job at keeping parity between its collection of apps for iOS and Android. iOS users, for instance, enjoy Adobe Illustrator Line and Draw, Color CC, Premiere Clip, Brush CC, and many more that have yet to see the light of day on the Play Store.