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Google will shut down its AI-guided Photos printing service on June 30th
Google is ending its AI-guided Photos printing trial service on June 30th, but it might lead to a similar feature in the long run.
Facebook now lets everyone export media to Google Photos
Facebook's tool for sharing media to Google Photos is now available to everyone.
Google Photos now offers more control over album sharing
Google is giving Photos users more control over who can see their albums with a new direct sharing feature.
Facebook lets users in the US and Canada move media to Google Photos
Facebook users in the US and Canada can now transfer their photos and videos to Google Photos thanks to a new data portability tool. The feature is part of the Data Transfer Project, an agreement between Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter to simplify data transfers. Facebook introduced the tool late last year, and it is already available in several other countries.
Google Photos test subscription prints your best pictures every month
Online photo services with printing options usually revolve around on-demand printing for special occasions, but Google appears to be trying something different: printing photos every month no matter what you've taken. A 9to5Google tipster has revealed a Google Photos test subscription service that automatically selects your 10 best pictures for printing each month. You just tell Google whether you want to focus on faces (including pets), landscapes or a "little bit of everything" -- so long as you're willing to pay $8 per month, you'll get a collection of related 4x6 prints on matte cardstock. You can edit images before committing to the print process.
Instagram's Layout feature adds collages to your Stories
Today, Instagram is rolling out new Layout feature that will let you include multiple photos in a single story. When you open the Stories camera and select the Layout option, you'll be able to choose between two and six photos to combine in a grid-based collage.
Apple's latest acquisition could lead to crisper iPhone photos
Apple has reportedly purchased a UK-based startup, and it could lead to brighter and sharper iPhone photos. According to Bloomberg, the tech giant has snapped up Spectral Edge Ltd., based on filings which show that Apple is now in control of the company. Spectral developed a technology that takes infrared shots and blends them with standard photos using machine learning to produce crisper images with more accurate colors.
Google Assistant will place Dunkin' Donuts orders, finally
Google just added a handful of voice control features to Google Assistant. You can now manage notes and lists in select third-party apps, ask Assistant to search your photos, search for podcasts by topic and set reminders for the whole family. You can also place Dunkin' Donuts orders -- just what everyone was hoping for.
Facebook is fixing a bug that turned on phone cameras
Early this month, some Facebook users began to notice a glitch when they were using the iOS app. Users shared on Twitter that when they were watching videos or looking at photos, their cameras were activated behind the Facebook app, CNET reports. Facebook has acknowledged the bug and says it is submitting a fix to Apple today.
DJI’s Mavic Mini is so small it doesn’t require FAA registration
DJI's new drone, the Mavic Mini, is a palm-sized device that's so light it doesn't require FAA registration. DJI hasn't officially announced Mavic Mini, but it hasn't done a great job of keeping it a secret, either. Today, a listing on the online retailer Newegg's Canadian site confirmed rumors about the tiny drone and leaked photos.
Former Yahoo engineer hacked 6,000 accounts in search of sexual content
A former Yahoo engineer pleaded guilty to hacking into roughly 6,000 accounts in search of sexual photos and videos. According to court documents, Reyes Daniel Ruiz, 34, used his employee access to Yahoo's internal network to crack users' passwords. He then downloaded explicit photos and videos to a personal hard drive, which he stored at home.
Lenovo’s Smart Clock becomes a more capable home hub
The Lenovo Smart Clock already won Best of CES 2019 and earned our approval, but it's not done adding features. Today, Google announced a few welcomed updates that bring the device more in line with the Google Home Hub.
Facebook releases tools to flag harmful content on GitHub
Facebook wants to rid the internet of garbage. But it can't do that alone. So today, it's making two of its photo- and video-flagging technologies open-source and available on GitHub. It hopes the algorithms will help others find and remove harmful content -- like child exploitation, terrorist propaganda and graphic violence.
Google Gallery Go is a lightweight, offline Android photo manager
Google Photos is a great way to organize and store your photos, but it's a bit on the beefy side, taking up space and needing constant access to the cloud. So it's not ideal for people with mid-tier phones, or those who don't have a reliable data or internet connection. Enter Gallery Go, a lightweight photo gallery that boasts a lot of the features of Google Photos, and is designed to work offline.
Google Photos will let you manually tag faces it doesn't recognize
Google Photos' product lead David Lieb took advantage of some downtime this week to start a surprisingly open dialogue on Twitter. Yesterday, he asked users what they want to see next from Google Photos -- new features, bug fixes, performance improvements, etc. The conversation lasted for hours, and it shed light on a few changes coming to the service. One of the most notable is that Google Photos plans to add a manual face tagging feature that will let users tag faces it doesn't recognize.
MIT made an AI that can detect and create fake images
Creating digital renderings and editing images can take hours, but researchers from MIT and IBM want to change that. They've trained AI to generate photographic images from scratch and to intelligently edit objects inside them. While this could be beneficial for artists and designers, it also offers insight into how neural networks learn context, and the team hopes to leverage the tool to spot fake or altered images.
iOS 13 makes it easier to browse, view and edit photos and videos
Aside from the introduction of that system-wide dark mode in iOS 13, Apple is also making it easier to browse, view and edit your photos and videos. At WWDC 2019, the company showed off a new version of its Photos app that's designed to "remove duplicates and clutter and focus on your best shots." Powered by machine learning, this feature will put your best shots front and center, and you can narrow them down by selecting the new Days, Months and Years tabs. With Days, for instance, the pictures or videos that system thinks you'll like the most will get more real estate on your screen. And you can pinch-to-zoom to view all of your pictures in one go, as well.
Adobe's latest Lightroom smooths skin without the 'plastic' effect
Instagrammers and portrait photographers alike use Facetune-style skin smoothing techniques on photos, but it often gives your subject an overly unnatural "plastic" effect. Adobe is addressing that issue with a new plugin called Texture in its latest release of Lightroom and Lightroom Classic. It lets you do subtle retouching on portraits to reduce wrinkles and blemishes without eliminating them completely, while preserving or enhancing fine detail in pores and hair.
The best lenses for Sony FE mount
More often than not, there's no wow factor to standard zoom lenses. But that's not necessarily the case with the Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8GM lens, which is designed to be ideal for portrait and travel photography. The best feature of this G Master glass, without a doubt, is the ability to keep the same exposure and depth of field even at its widest aperture of f/2.8. That should give your great level of bokeh, a signature feature of all G Master lenses, including the FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM. Like that lens, the FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM is also priced at $2,200. READ ON: The best lenses for Sony FE mount
Twitter lets you add GIFs to retweets
As of today, Twitter users can include GIFs in their retweets. Users can also include up to four photos or a video. The update is rolling out on iOS, Android and mobile.twitter.com, and accounts like @GameOfThrones and @NASA are already putting it to the test. It's a function many Twitter users have called for and just one of several recent changes the platform has made.
