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Recommended Reading: Google's biggest hardware flop
Recommended Reading highlights the week's best writing on technology and more.
Oppo explores phones with removable camera modules
An Oppo patent envisions phones with removable camera modules, letting you take selfies without even looking at your phone.
Google will make clearer when you've edited a selfie
Truth is, lots of images online are edited, and some smartphone cameras turn on some sort of filter or smoothing effect by default.
Apple gets a patent for taking group selfies while you're socially distant
Apple has received a patent for creating group selfies when your friends are miles away.
Fujifilm's slimmer Instax Mini 11 features automatic exposure
It's been a while since we heard anything from Fujifilm's Instax arm, but three years after the launch of the colorful, selfie-friendly Mini 9, its successor has arrived. The Instax Mini 11 (it's not clear why they jumped the 10) offers up the same fun instant-photography experience, but with a few notable improvements.
Why are we obsessed with Instagram's ‘What are you?’ filters?
We're barely one month into 2020, and one social media trend has truly taken the definition of 'viral' and rammed it down our collective throat: Instagram's "What X are you?" story filters.
Snapchat's Time Machine lens lets you slide between young and old
Earlier this year, the FaceApp filter that made people look old and wrinkled in selfies went viral. Then we learned that the Russian-developed selfie-editing app was uploading users' photos to the cloud and that it required "full and irrevocable access to their personal photos and data." That temporarily killed the craze, but now, Snapchat is ready to introduce a new aging filter.
Apple wants to trademark 'Slofie'
You might have rolled your eyes when Apple mentioned that the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro could do "slofies," but the company is taking things slightly more seriously. Apple has applied to the USPTO for a trademark on the term "Slofie" in terms of "downloadable computer software for use in capturing and recording video." Don't worry, it's not trying to own the cultural landscape -- rather, this is largely to prevent app developers and phone makers from 'borrowing' the term for their own features.
Snapchat makes your selfies more animated with new 3D effects
Get ready for your selfies to have a little more pop on Snapchat. Today, the company is introducing 3D Camera Mode, a new feature which lets you take Snaps that can change perspective and appearance as you move your smartphone around. To make this effect happen, Snapchat is taking advantage of Apple's TrueDepth camera system, which the Cupertino firm uses for features such as Face ID and Animojis. Naturally, this means the new 3D Camera Mode only works for Snapchatters with an iPhone X and above, although these three-dimensional Snaps can be viewed by anyone on the app. So, if you have an Android phone, you can enjoy your friends' 3D selfies, you just can't create any of your own.
Google's poetry algorithm automates teen angst
Roses are red, violets are blue, poetry is hard, but now a machine will do it for you. From today, you can use Google's AI to create a unique "poem portrait," an ethereal image of your self-portrait overlaid with an exclusive poem generated from a word of your choice (so basically a recreation of every image ever from DeviantArt circa 2002).
Amazon asks delivery drivers to verify their identities with selfies
Amazon is asking its delivery drivers to take selfies so it can verify their identities using facial recognition. The rules apply to drivers in the Amazon Flex program, through which they make deliveries with their own cars as independent contractors, the company confirmed to The Verge.
Samsung imagines full-screen phone with a camera hidden under the display
Samsung is working on a "perfect full-screen" phone that will be 100 percent display, with no notches, bezels or cut-outs. According to Yang Byung-duk, the company's display R&D vice president, "Technology can move to the point where the camera hole will be invisible, while not affecting the camera's function in any way."
YouTube Stories now have Snapchat-like filters
YouTube creators can now apply AR selfie filters to their YouTube Stories. The animated masks, glasses and 3D hats are similar to those you've seen elsewhere, like on Snapchat or Instagram. But Google promises its machine learning capabilities make these the best selfie filters yet.
Panasonic's FZ1000 II 16x superzoom targets Sony's RX10
If you're looking at Sony's RX10 IV but don't want to pay 1,700 freaking dollars, Panasonic might have the camera for you. It just unveiled the FZ-1000 II, an upgrade to the 2014 FZ-1000, that costs nearly half that. It's got a 1-inch, 20.1-megapixel "high-sensitivity" CMOS sensor and 16x 25-400mm f/2.8-4.0 (35mm equivalent) Leica zoom, only a bit less than the 24-600mm reach of its rival. It also has a fully articulating 3-inch touchscreen ideal for selfies and vlogging, bettering the tilt-only display on the RX10 IV.
Inside Nike's DIY studio for Snapchat selfie Lenses
Snapchat's Lens Studio, which lets anyone create their own augmented reality filters, has been a big hit for the company. There are now more than 300,000 Lenses created by independent users, and those have been viewed over 35 billion times. Still, Snapchat wants Lens Studio to get even bigger, and what better way to help it do that than by teaming up with one of the biggest brands in the world: Nike. At NBA All-Star Weekend 2019 in Charlotte, North Carolina, Nike and Snapchat built a do-it-yourself studio for people to create AR Lenses on the fly.
Facebook Messenger's camera fakes portrait mode photos
Facebook Messenger's camera just caught up to Instagram's in a few key areas, and then some. To start, you can snap software-based portrait mode photos -- if you don't have a dual-camera phone (or one with clever AI photography), you can still get that blurred background for your headshots. You can also shoot animated Boomerang loops if you want to capture a brief bit of movement without recording a whole video.
NASA's InSight lander proves it's on Mars with a selfie
Next time you can't find the perfect angle for your selfie, just thank the universe you're not NASA's InSight lander. The spacecraft had to take 11 images with a camera attached to its robotic arm and then stitch them together to create its first self-portrait. InSight clearly took a cue from the Curiosity rover, which has years of experience taking composite selfies with the Martian landscape as its background. You can clearly see InSight's solar panels on full display in the photo, which was captured on December 6th, along with some of its science instruments.
Huawei is working on a smartphone with a circular camera cutout
With manufacturers trying to make bezel-free smartphones, the dreaded notch has become the most popular way to install front-facing selfie cameras. We're about to see an all-new design, though, it seems. Huawei has unveiled a teaser showing a circular camera cutout placed at the top left corner of the screen, spotted by Twitter user Ice Universe and see on Chinese social network Weibo. On top of that, Samsung's Galaxy A8S might have a similar design.
Snap is bringing augmented reality Lenses to the desktop
Fresh off its Q3 2018 earnings report, in which it broke a revenue record, Snap Inc. is making another major announcement. Meet Snap Camera, a standalone application that will bring the company's popular augmented reality filters, aka Lenses, to the desktop. Interestingly enough, the new app won't require a Snapchat login, a move Snap says is part of its vision to expand the Lens ecosystem beyond mobile.
Snapchat's filters can now recognize your cat
What do you do after you lose three million daily users in three months? You start focusing on people's pets. Snapchat filters can now recognize your cat. You can insert your moody feline companion into a slice of bread, put fancy eyeglasses on them and more.
