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How to record audio from Android apps
It's easier than you might think, as long as the app allows you to record audio
Recording external sounds is easy on Android if you use one of our favorite recording apps, and since Android 10, recording internal sounds is straightforward. We walk you through the entire process so that you can record audio from your apps. These apps work on any Android device. Some even work on Chromebooks, so you can record audio from your laptop with the same app you use on your phone.
Your phone and tablet are now your best filmmaking and photography accessories
Professionals are putting all the power of our common gadgets to use
Smartphone cameras may be making impressive progress thanks to computational photography and plenty of innovation in sensor technology, but they're still not usually chosen for shooting professional photos and videos like we see in the movies we rent and stream. Dedicated cameras with large sensors and top-tier lenses remain the obvious choice at that level, but smartphones and tablets have been creeping into the production process. Gear makers are regularly inventing new ways to turn our pocket-sized gadgets into indispensable accessories for photography and filmmaking.
The Pixel 6 is Android's best chance to stop the iPhone 13 Pro from dominating video
It should be great, but will it be enough for everybody?
Tuesday's iPhone 13 announcement brought out plenty of opinions, but the phrase I've seen repeated the most often is, "it's boring." While I admit that most of the presentation fell flat for me, largely because I'm not really interested in switching to an iPhone, there were two segments that highlighted exactly what it is I wish I could get from the phones I do buy: better video creation.
Students can now record Google Meet classes on some Workspace Education accounts
The feature needs to be enabled by an administrator
Nothing beats a live meeting for rapid communication, even if you have to do it through a webcam. But it's also handy to have a record of what happened, especially if you know you'll be Asked Questions Later. To that end: the latest addition to Google Workspaces Education (previously known as G Suite for Education). Students can now record Google Meet sessions.
Google Recorder now has a companion web app for storage and sharing
You'll need the latest v2.2 update
Google Recorder has quickly become one of the best audio recording applications on Android, even though it's only officially available on Google's own Pixel phones. Backup support was announced earlier this week, and now it's finally rolling out.
Google Phone could soon record all calls from unknown numbers
A toggle will let you turn this option on
The Google Phone app that comes preinstalled on Pixels and some other smartphones is a true boon for people constantly bothered by robocalls as it's capable of blocking them automatically. But the company has expanded its calling app with other features as well: It recently added call recording, rolling out to select phones and regions since the beginning of 2020. It looks like the developers are now working on automatic recordings if you receive calls from unknown numbers not in your contacts.
Some Google Nest cameras are still having issues following last night's outage
The company is aware of the problems and working on a fix
Starting last evening, Google's Nest cameras started suffering widespread issues with both live feeds and recorded video history. Although the issue resolved for many overnight, some are experiencing problems accessing video recordings and, in some cases, live feeds as well. Google currently claims a "small portion of cameras" are still having trouble, and it's working on a fix.
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- Google has just published a support page to address the reported issue. The company assures pre-order customers that their units won't be affected, and the defect should be limited to the batches given out at Made by Google events, which presumably includes 4,000 Home Minis distributed at the donut pop-up events as well as the ones from the October 4th press event.
When the first home assistants were announced, I was excited. A device I could wake up with a simple hotword that would answer my questions, set reminders, turn on the TV, and dim the lights, all without me having to get off the couch, sounded fantastic. Amazon's Echo and Echo Dot, Google's Home, and a myriad others, most recently the Home Mini, have invaded our kitchens, living rooms, and bedrooms. Heck, I put one in the bathroom.
If you've got a Moto G or Moto E, your phone has an FM radio built right into the design. Motorola's official app for using the FM tuner isn't much to write home about, but it's become considerably better today. The updated app (version 02.00.0045, according to the Play Store) updates the player's user interface to a fresh Material Design theme, now with a fetching teal and white color scheme.
A couple of months ago, we posted one of our early Google Search/Now rumors, and it was something of a long range rumor compared to others. While things like parking reminders, proper timer management, and bill pay reminders have already seen their public release, the ability to set contact-based reminders ("remind me when I'm with this person"), hasn't come forward yet. But it will likely appear very soon with a new feature in Android called Nearby, which will allow new interactions between you and nearby people, places, and things.
There are a lot of self-styled "action cameras" out there, most of which are trying to catch at least some of the thunder of the wildly popular GoPro. GPS specialist Garmin has thrown its hat in the ring with VIRB, a deluxe, ruggedized, mountable HD video camera with a plethora of bells and whistles. Like the competition, the Garmin VIRB now has an official Android app for remote control, viewfinding, and recording.
Android 4.4 has a new screen recording function for developers, but as the CyanogenMod team has already demonstrated, it can be adapted for more general use. Well-known developer Koushik "Koush" Dutta has taken advantage of this for Mirror, a new screencasting app for KitKat that allows any rooted user to either record video directly on a device, or stream to an Apple Airplay-compatible receiver like Apple TV. No custom ROM required.
We've all heard the story before. A brand new, very popular device rolls out to the public and everybody hurries to get their hands on it. Shortly thereafter, people start to notice some of the more serious issues that degrade the experience or even make the gadget unusable. When that device is a phone and one of those issues is audio quality during calls and recordings, people can become justifiably angry. It seems this is exactly what's happening with quite a few Nexus 5 owners, as audio going into the built-in microphone is plagued by hissing, popping, loud static, and very low volume.
Do you live your life to the fullest? Do you wish you could remember every day of it? Are you doing the opposite, wasting your life away and wishing you could turn things around? Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, you can do all of these things! 1 Second Everyday is a video-recording app that asks users to record just one second of their life everyday, and at the end of the year they will have a six-minute video of how they lived their life that year. Interested? Just wait, there's more.
SoundCloud may not be the most famous app around, but when it comes to sharing a simple audio clip or a song, it's hard to beat. Now, the company's mobile app is getting an overhaul and with it comes a shiny new interface that doesn't suck. The UI upgrade makes use of the action bar, side navigation panel, notification controls and all the other fancy new features that we've grown used to since Ice Cream Sandwich and beyond.
So, Songify - have you heard about it? It's pretty popular on iOS, something 9 million people love it (or so I've heard). Basically it's autotune, but more fun. What's more fun than autotune, you ask? Autotune plus music, that's what.
Paper Camera, a crowd favorite for novelty photo shoots, is preparing for an update that will bring video recording and Android Beam support, along with a few other tweaks. We got the chance to go behind the scenes and give you, our lovely, smart, beautiful readers a preview of the new features.
Popular screen recording app, Screencast, has just received an update with some pretty sweet additions. Those of us who use this powerful app know how awesome it already is, but it just got better with a new time lapse recording feature. I'm sure some users have been waiting for this for some time now, and it sure is welcomed. It'll definitely add a whole new element to app and game demos. In addition, the speed of video processing has more than doubled with this update, and some minor bugs have been exterminated.
While I was tapping away on my laptop trying to keep up with the Ice Cream Sandwich event earlier today, the desktop machine was happily recording it for future reference. This should hold us over until Google posts the official HD version - the video is about 1 hours long, but almost every minute of it is totally worth it (at least once you get to the juicy ICS bits):
Screencast is quickly becoming the ultimate app demo tool.