animatedgifs
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Giphy Cam finally lets you make GIFs from videos
Giphy Cam, the app that lets you become a master GIFs-man (or woman, it doesn't discriminate) has just released its first major update. Before, users were only able to create GIFs using the native camera, either capturing 10 second full-motion clips or 5-shot bursts that are then stitched-together. Now users can import photos and videos from their camera rolls. What's more, people are able to trim their clips, apply more than one filter to the GIF and add text, giving their creations even more personality. Giphy Cam is still only available on iOS devices with no mention of when it'll cross platforms. In the meantime, Android users will have to rely on the Giphy bank of pre-made GIFs to express their animated points.
Giphy Cam wants to be the Instagram of GIFs
Everybody loves a good animated GIF but they're just such a pain to create from a mobile device. Or rather, they were a pain to create on mobile devices now that Giphy's new mobile camera app is available. The Giphy Cam is a free iOS app that allows users to create and share animated gifs as easily they do overproduced shots of their lunches.
Giphy has come to Gmail and lo, it is glorious
The best thing to happen to your email client since spam filters just did! Giphy, the ubiquitous search and discovery site for animated gifs, has released a Chrome extension that allows you to easily insert moving pictures directly into your electronic mails. After installing the extension, users will find Giphy's rainbow icon in their edit bar; click that to bring up a search bar and a few trending animations which can then be inserted inline. And with an internet's-worth of animation at your fingertips, who needs emoji?
Cinemagram update takes all the work out of making animated gifs
Playing around with Cinemagram's moving photo feature is pretty darn fun, but it comes at a cost: effort. Unlike publishing a Vine or an Instagram video, you need to think about it; what part of this photo do you want to animate? Did you map out the moving area correctly? It's a lot of work. Well, it used to be. The app's latest iOS update takes all the guesswork out of creativity, adding a new camera mode that automatically creates Cinemagrams without your input. Presumably, the update will make it easier to snap and share moving pictures on the fly, giving you a reason to pick it over its competitors. The update gives users the ability to add captions to Cines as well as the ability to share to Pinterest -- unfortunately, the app hasn't automated that just yet.
Flipboard iOS app update introduces animated GIF support
Flipboard users with Android devices have been able to enjoy the mindless fun of animated GIFs for some time now, but their iOS counterparts have only been able to look on in envy. Casual hyperbole aside, Flipboard's latest iOS update -- available today -- brings GIF support to the app along with a slew of GIF-friendly magazines for your perusing pleasure. Now, GIF aficionados (is there such a thing?) can enjoy titles like Just GIF It, GIF Pop and GIF Me a Break. The update also includes top stories in the tech, news, business and sports sections as well as the obligatory bug fixes. You can get your paws on the update by clicking on the iTunes link below.
The Stilly-est camera app ever
no, no, No, No, NO! It all started innocently enough this morning when Dave Caolo pointed out a Tumblr page devoted to GIFs from an app named Stilly (US$1.99). Now, thanks to Dave's keen eye for the absurd, I have wasted untold minutes looking through a long page of GIFs and started making my own with Stilly. The app is simple, making an animated GIF of whatever motion happens to flash in front of your iPhone camera when you push the large red-and-yellow shutter button. You really have only one setting -- you can choose to change colors between your images, resulting in an even more jarring GIF than usual. The eyebrows of doom! Your final product is stored to the Photos app camera roll, and you have a choice of sharing the GIF to Tumblr or sending it as a message. Note that choosing the Tumblr destination actually gives you the opportunity to send your images to many more places: other camera apps, Google Drive, Dropbox, Path and more. The jittery GIFs won't be popular with everyone; some of them are almost enough to make you want to cough up a hairball. But Stilly is just enough fun to be worth the two bucks.
Cinemagram expands its horizons to Android, lets you create animated GIFs on the fly
The iOS legion has been able to play around with Cinemagram since February of last year, but now it's finally time for Android users to also experience what the app's all about. And while there are certainly other animated applications on the platform that are somewhat similar, Cinemagram stands out from the majority due to its built-in social features -- think of it as an Instagram of sorts, where other users can easily comment on and keep up with your recent four-second creations. What's more, the app allows other tidbits like special effects to be added to videos, while the ability to share these "GIFs on steroids" to Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr are also options within Cinemagram. It's even already had one update, adding the ability to delete creations within the app. Hey, perhaps this could be the solution to all your Vine-induced sorrows.
PBS traces the history of animated GIFs: deal with it (video)
PBS's Off Book has a new short doc available online called Animated GIFs: The Birth of a Medium which, as you may have guessed, traces the history and evolution of the animated GIF over the course of a very informative six and a half minutes. The makers don't settle the dispute over pronunciation (and, really, who could), but they do mine its origins as relic of internet eras past to a post-modern staple of web 2.0 culture. We could tell you more, but that would just ruin the fun. Head on after the break to watch the episode in full.
Safari Extension highlight: Stop animated GIFs, make your own CSS
Earlier today I was looking for a Safari Extensions that could stop animated GIFs, and another to allow me to override CSS on a particular page. After a fruitless search of the official Safari Extensions page, Google turned up both Deanimator and User CSS. Deanimator takes care of my first request. Namely, it stops animated GIFs dead. Meanwhile, User CSS lets me override a page's CSS. I can use it to change fonts or colors, hide ads and more. Both are quite useful. The next time you're searching for an extension to complete a particular task, consider checking out the Safari Extensions Tumblr site. That's a great site that keeps growing. As an aside: I've got 22 Safari extensions installed, and exactly half of them are designed to make the web less annoying.
