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The Pixel's release doesn't mean your Nexus is completely toast
Google unveiled its fancy new Pixel phone during a press event on Tuesday. If you haven't seen it yet, it's an impressive handset, with VR capabilities, a fast-charging battery, supposedly the best-ever phone camera, a super-smart AI assistant and Android 7.1. It's also the harbinger of death for the current line of Google Nexus smartphones.
Google is shutting down Picasa in favor of Photos
Google has been steadily migrating its resources towards the Photos ecosystem since the company first announced it at last year's I/O developers conference. It's already shut down Google+ photos in lieu of the newer service and linked Photos to your phone's native camera app. Today Google announced that it will shut down Picasa. The move will occur over the next several months, beginning on May 1, 2016. Take note, however, that the Picasa desktop application won't work after March 1st. Current Picasa users simply have to log into Photos -- all of their content has already been moved over. Update: The Picasa desktop app will continue to function, but after March 15th, you shouldn't expect any more updates. It also sounds like the download link will be going away, so you might want to also keep the install file stashed somewhere safe.
Google buys Fly Labs, Photos to get in-app video editing
The team at Fly Labs announced on Friday that Google had acquired their company and will be rolling their image-editing technology into Google Photos. "We'll be pouring the same passion into Google Photos that we poured into Clips, Fly, Tempo and Crop on the Fly," the company wrote in a blog post. Existing users should note that while Fly Lab's existing suite of tools will remain free and available in the App Store for the next three months or so, there will be no more updates. Furthermore, if you've already downloaded the apps, they'll continue to work even after this three-month grace period. You won't, however, be able to re-download them once they've been removed from the App Store so make sure you don't go accidentally uninstalling them.
Picasa's Web Albums work again for some reason
Back in 2013, Picasa users suddenly found themselves being automatically redirected to Google+'s web albums rather than the site they were familiar with. Of course, in light of Google's subsequent announcement that Google+ Photos would be supplanting the Picasa service as the company's go-to picture-storage platform, nixing the older Web Albums made sense. Of course, Google once again switched its photo hosting app to just Photos (which doesn't require a Google+ account) late last month. Now however, fansite Google Operating System reports that the Web Albums page no longer redirects to Google+. What's more, its search feature appears to work as well (albeit only for your own pictures and videos). So, for now, you can totally go back to using Web Albums if you want. Though given Google's historically scattershot approach to its photo management sites, who knows how long it'll stay online this time.
Incredimail launches for iPad with a photo inbox and built-in browser
Many of us whose parents discovered the internet in the past decade are all too familiar with Incredimail, mostly through the excessively cute stationery that would come attached to virtually every message. It's time to shake some of those old preconceptions now that an iPad version is here. The tablet port has stationery for anyone who craves it, but it's more focused on becoming a one-stop shop for everything associated with communication: it centers on a unified inbox for IMAP-based email accounts (POP3 soon) that shows quick peeks of both mail and any included links. Users won't have to leave the app at all for a few common non-messaging tasks. There's both an integrated web browser as well as a photo inbox that currently shows Facebook images, with plans to support Flickr, Instagram and Picasa in the long run. Those on Android devices or the iPhone will have to wait for their eventual turns at Incredimail, but everyone using Apple's tablet can give it a whirl today, for free -- even if they have no intentions of sending messages that could be confused with greeting cards.
Google's Picasa URL now redirecting to Google+ photo albums
In yet another bid to seemingly sunset its Picasa branding, Google's redirecting Picasa users who head to its direct URL. Hilariously, that redirection is to Google+ web albums, which ... well, let's just say we haven't been using our G+ photo albums all that much. But perhaps you have, and that's just capital, given that Google is keen on you using that over its flickering, dimmed former star. Of course, should you really, really wish to access the old Picasa directly, you can head to this URL to bypass the redirect. At least until Google forces the end of Picasa through a Google+ Photos push, that is.
Google research pane for Docs adds personal content, integration with Presentation and Drawing
Building off of the web search capabilities of its research pane for Docs, Google is now giving users the ability to search for and insert their own personal content. For example, if you're working on a presentation in Drive and want to add a photo from your Picasa album, or a quote from a friend's Google+ profile, you'll now have the option of adding personal content from within the research pane without leaving your project. This new search feature pulls information from your personal Picasa albums, Drive and Google+ accounts, and users will also find that the research pane has been extended to Presentation and Drawings. Unfortunately, Google Apps customers will still be limited to web-only search results, as personal content search is intended for individual accounts. However, if you're a starving student heavily embedded in Google's ecosystem, this time saver just might shave a few minutes off of your weekend cram session and that's always a good thing.
Google retires more services, consolidates others in continued efficiency bid
When you run as many services as Google does, every once in a while you're going to have to do some pruning. Evidently Mountain View's got the secateurs out, having just announced the next batch of its projects that will be getting axed wound down. For the chop are: AdSense for Feeds, Classic Plus, Spreadsheet Gadgets, Places for Android, and +1 Reports in Webmaster Tools. Other services are being merged into existing properties to prevent overlap, such as Google Storage for Picasa and Drive -- which are now consolidated -- and Insights for Search is now part of Google Trends. Naturally, the search giant claims this is all about streamlining, and improving other core products. If the retired service involves a paid subscription, or legacy data, then you'll need to check the specifics on the official blog to find out how this will affect you, which fortunately for you, is just a tap of the source link away. [Image Credit: Shutterstock]
Google buys Snapseed developer Nik Software, raises the eyebrows of Instagram shutterbugs
Google makes a lot of acquisitions, some of them more important than others. Its latest purchase might skew towards the grander side, as it just bought imaging app developer Nik Software. While the company is known for pro photography apps like Capture NX and its Efex Pro series, the real prize might be Snapseed, Nik's simpler image tool for desktop and iOS users. Both Nik and Google's Senior Engineering VP Vic Gundotra are silent on the exact plans, but it doesn't take much to imagine a parallel between Facebook's buyout of Instagram and what Google is doing here: there's no direct, Google-run equivalent to Instagram's social photo service in Android or for Google+ users, and Nik's technology might bridge the gap. Whether or not Googlegram becomes a reality, the deal is likely to create waves among photographers of all kinds -- including those who've never bought a dedicated camera.
Embracing geotagging: how to journal your trips (and contribute to Google Earth) with snapshots
Geotagging. It's not exactly a long, lost art, but it's certainly not something most folks bother to do after a trip. Avid travelers, hikers and the general outdoorsy crowd have been embracing the feature for years, though, and it's actually seeping into the mainstream without most individuals even noticing. How so? Smartphones. Given the proliferation of iPhones, Android handsets and Windows Phone devices making their way onto the market -- coupled with the explosive use of geo-minded social networks like Path, Instagram and Foursquare -- an entire generation is now growing up in a geotagged world. Phone users have it easy; so long as there's a data connection and an embedded GPS module (commonplace in modern mobile devices), there lies the ability to upload a photo with a patch of metadata embedded. Snap a shot at a national park, upload it, and just like that, viewers and friends from around the world now have an idea as to what a specific place on the Earth looks like. Solmeta N3 geotagging module review Columbia's GPS Pal app for Android and iOS Casio Exilim EX-H20G (with Hybrid GPS) review For travel hounds like myself, that's insanely powerful. I'm the kind of person that'll spend hours lost in Google Earth, spinning the globe around and discovering all-new (to me, at least) locales thanks to the magic of geotagging. It's sort of the photographic equivalent to putting a face to a name. By stamping latitude, longitude, altitude and a specific time to any given JPEG, you're able to not only show the world what you saw, but exactly when and where you saw it. It's a magical combination, and with GPS modules finding their way into point-and-shoot cameras -- not to mention external dongles like Solmeta's magnificent N3 (our review here) -- there's plenty of opportunity to start adding location data to your photos. For more on the "Why would I want to?" and "How would I best display 'em?" inquiries, let's meet up after the break.
Wi-Fi Media lets your Nexus 7 play movies on any screen via HTC's Media Link HD (hands-on video)
We're rather big fans of the Nexus 7 here at Engadget HQ -- it's just hard not to like a $200 tablet with a Tegra 3 SoC and 7-inch glass-bonded IPS display running pure Jelly Bean. Of the few missing features, there's one we're bemoaning more than the lack of rear camera, and that's the absence of any kind of HDMI or MHL video output. So far, watching movies with the Nexus 7's been relegated to using a Nexus Q and streaming content from Google Play or YouTube. Enter Wi-Fi Media, an app available for free on Google Play that lets most Android devices like the Nexus 7 play movies, music and stills on any screen via any Cavium PureVu-compatible streamer, such as HTC's $90 Media Link HD. We tested Wi-Fi Media with our Nexus 7 and Media Link HD and found it to work pretty much as advertised except for some caveats. First the app doesn't mirror your screen -- you're limited to playing content stored on the tablet or on the network via DLNA, which means no YouTube, Netflix or games. Second, the app doesn't handle some common file types -- like AVI, for example. While it supports watching movies, listening to music and looking at pictures, keep in mind that Wi-Fi Media is not a particularly polished app. In addition to playing local and remote DLNA content, you're able to login to Facebook and Picasa and stream images directly from these accounts, but that's pretty much it in terms of functionality. There's also no way to configure the Media Link HD, so you'll need a sanctioned HTC handset to setup the multimedia streamer before using it with a Nexus 7. Want to know more? Peek at our screenshot gallery below and hit the break for our hands-on video.%Gallery-160849% Update: Since there's some confusion in the comments, we'd like to clarify that the Media Link HD is not a DLNA device. It normally only works with select HTC phones like the One X, One S and EVO 4G LTE. WiFi-Media's primary purpose is to connect with a Media Link HD -- the app also just happens to support DLNA. [Thanks, Matt]
Syria gets previously blocked Google software, at least for now
Mountain View's just dished out some good news for Syrians, Picasa, Chrome, and Google Earth were officially made available for download in the complex nation as of yesterday. US export controls and sanctions had hitherto blocked that possibility, and there's sill no guarantee that smartphones won't be prohibited. That's of course assuming the whole internet won't just be turned off if the Syrian government doesn't like what's going down, but as of right now the software is live. Google put the same trio on tap this February in Iran after more than a year and a half of similar restrictions in that country. And we thought our internet-related issues were annoying.
Samsung ships QF20 camcorder with WiFi, toughened-up W300 pocket cam
Samsung's CES blitz included a tease of five new camcorders, but precious little in the way of launch details. Some of the mystery has ended, as two of the camcorders -- the QF20 and W300 -- are at last hitting US stores. The QF20 caters to the Internet crowd and, for $350, will let you upload your 20x-zoomed 1080p videos straight to Facebook, Picasa or YouTube without thrusting a computer into the process. If you're more concerned about your camera surviving a rafting trip than producing viral videos, the W300 will give you dustproofing, 15-foot waterproofing and 6-foot shockproofing in a pocketable form for a more frugal $160. We're still waiting on launches for the camcorders' closely-related F80, Q20 and W350 (pictured) cousins, but for now you can catch full details of the QF20 and W300 after the break.
Google Maps offers photo tours of popular destinations, won't make you leave the couch (video)
Looking to get a better feel for that Yosemite National Park expedition this summer? Google Maps is looking to go beyond the regular ol' snapshot and offer an experience that feels more like an actual visit -- only you won't have to leave your sofa. The folks in Mountain View have added photo tours to over 15,000 sites around the globe from Italy to the aforementioned Half Dome in California. A search for your virtual destination of choice will indicate whether or not a tour is available for that particular locale. How does it work? The outfit uses user-contributed Picasa and Panaromio photos -- only those listed as public -- alongside some fancy computer techniques to provide a 3D tour. Along the way, Maps selects the best possible path through the highest quality images. At the bottom of each photo, contributor credit is given and Goog says when more shots get shared, these tours will improve over time. You'll need Google Maps with WebGL to get the sightseeing started, though. If you're looking for a quick preview, hit the video just past the break.
Motorola engineer leaks Droid RAZR HD, could lose his desk
If you spent your weekend scanning Picasa for photos shot on a Motorola Droid RAZR HD smartphone, then ordinarily you'd have wasted your time. No phone by that name officially exists, and the PenTile Super AMOLED displays on both the standard Droid RAZR and the RAZR Maxx are distinctly not high definition. Surprising then, that when Blog of Mobile searched Picasa they discovered an album shot by a Motorola engineer supposedly using a RAZR HD. The photos have since been removed, leaving only the blurry desk image shown above, which is also attributed to a RAZR HD even if we can't be certain who shot it. Fortunately, the EXIF data was grabbed before the wipe, and if you glance past the break you'll see that it mentions a possible 'Vanquish' codename for the phone as a well as ICS build 4.0.3. There, just when you needed yet another reason to love EXIF.
D-Link releases budget-priced MovieNite streaming media player
Better late than never, right? D-Link has finally decided to join the likes of Roku and Apple at the media streaming party with its new MovieNite device. It offers 1080p video content from Vudu, Netflix and YouTube, plus music streaming from Pandora and access to Picasa as well. Connectivity comes courtesy of 802.11n WiFi and a 10/100 Ethernet port, and plugs into your TV via HDMI 1.4 or composite video connections. You can control the thing with the included remote or via your handset with the free MovieNite remote app for Android or iOS. At 4.8 x 4.6 x 1.1 inches in size, it's a bit bigger than the offerings from Apple and Roku, but its $59.99 list price provides a cheaper avenue to 1080p content than either. It's available now exclusively at Walmart, and is currently a bargain at $48 online, though your in-store mileage may vary. PR's after the break.
Samsung's WiFi-laced DV300F camera now available, priced at $200
After having launched in January, Samsung's WiFi-enabled DV300F camera officially hit the market today, according to a fresh announcement from the Korean manufacturer. As the latest addition to the DualView line, this 16 megapixel shooter features a 25mm wide angle lens with 5x optical zoom, and boasts a three-inch main LCD, along with that 1.5-inch front-facing display. The latter is specifically designed to make self-shots a bit easier to manipulate, but it also features some extra kids games in "Children Mode," to help keep the little ones at bay. And of course, there's onboard WiFi connectivity, allowing users to instantly upload shots to Picasa and Facebook, and an extra "Smart Face Recognition" function. According to Samsung, the device is now available on a "global basis," for a price of ₩299,000, or about $266. For more details, check out the full, but choppily translated PR, after the break. Update: We've received word that U.S. pricing has been announced as well, with the DV300F hitting stateside shelves for $199.99. That model, along with the $229.99 WB150F, are shipping now.
Keepsy Calendars: Doing something fun with all those Instagram photos
Every once in a while a product shows up unexpectedly at the TUAW Labs that makes me really, really happy. A flat white box arrived at my door a few days ago, and when I opened it I saw a calendar and something about Instagram. I didn't bother to actually look at the calendar until a few days later, and what I saw absolutely delighted me: a calendar of my personal Instagram pictures from a company called Keepsy. Starting today, Menlo Park, CA-based Keepsy opens the door on a new service that will take photos not only from Instagram, but other services like Facebook, Flickr, and Picasa as well, and turn them into attractive 12-month 11" x 8.5" wall calendars for US$19.95 (or an 18-month calendar for $25.95). The calendars are a new product for Keepsy -- previously they sold books made from Instagram photos. What I was impressed with was the layout and quality of the calendar. My wife makes a 12-month calendar every year from our trip photos in iPhoto, and the print quality of the Keepsy calendar was equal to what we've received from Apple. The layout was beautiful. Every page featured anything from two to 24 photos from my Instagram feed, and whoever at Keepsy did the layout used a great deal of thought in creating clever collections of travel, holiday, food, architecture, and other genres of photos. Keepsy allows customers to gift their friends with the Instagram calendars or books. To keep people from making calendars from Instagram photos belonging to celebrities and other people they don't personally know, Keepsy makes sure that an Instagram user follows the album or calendar creator. For more details, be sure to read the PR blast below, or check the Keepsy website. These calendars look like they'll make perfect holiday gifts for your friends or family. Show full PR text Keepsy launches Instagram Calendars November 1st, 2011 - Menlo Park CA If you're an iPhone user, you've undoubtably heard of Instagram by now. The hot photo-sharing application that has taken the world by storm now has over 10 million users and hundreds of millions of photos uploaded. While some experts are scratching their heads over how the free application will eventually make money, some intrepid companies are diving in head first. One such Silicon Valley startup is riding this wave with printed books and -- starting today -- with printed calendars. "We've been really amazed by the customer feedback on our Instagram books," said Keepsy CEO Peter Weck. "The print quality has been so high that introducing new products with Instagram photos was an easy next step for us." The award-winning site now offers 11" x 8.5" wall calendars starting at $19.95. Keepsy's integration with Instagram, Facebook, Flickr and Picasa allows seamless import of photos from these online services. "With nothing to upload or download, making a book or calendar takes only a few minutes," said VP of Product, Blake Williams. The first website to allow users to create Instagram books -- Keepsy is fast becoming a leading innovator in mobile-to-print technologies. This is the second announcement in as many weeks from the company, as they gear up for the holidays. Last week, Keepsy announced a new "Gift Book" feature that allows friends and family to make printed Instagram books -- and now calendars -- using each others' photos. To ensure that albums are only printed as personal gifts, Keepsy requires that a given Instagram user follows the album or calendar creator in order to access the photos.* "If you're part of the Instagram community, we can't think of a better holiday gift than getting your friend a surprise album or calendar of their best photos," said Williams. "And now that we're shipping to 22 countries, your friends can be just about anywhere." About Keepsy Keepsy uses the power of social networks to create custom, collaborative photo albums and calendars. People can create their own custom albums and invite friends to add their own photos and messages to the album. Keepsy was founded by Peter Weck, Blake Williams, and Kai Zhao. Keepsy's investors include James Hong, Tim Connors, and Dave McClure's 500Startups fund. To learn more about Keepsy, please visit http://www.keepsy.com *Other restrictions apply. For more information, visit http://www.keepsy.com/faqs#503
Google acquires PittPatt, wants to know you on a face-to-face basis
Google's quietly pitter-pattering its acquisitive ways back into the controversial realm of facial recognition technology. To do that, the company busted out its oversized wallet to fold Pittsburgh-based PittPatt into the Mountain View borg. Founded by a trio of PhD's from Carnegie Mellon University, this three-man strong outfit specializes in the sort of object recognition software you've come to know as "tagging." Is this a reversal of the Do No Evil tech giant's prior waffling on the dubious visioning tech, or just another massive weapon in its social networking crusade against Facebook? We'd err on the side of both, although the company's new employees aren't exactly playing their cards for us to see. A brief statement on the triumvirate's site makes vague mention of "computer vision technology" being core to Google's products and points to the tech's planned integration in photo, video and mobile applications. So, basically, expect to see Picasa, Goggles, YouTube and Google+ watch you as you flaunt your internet celebrity ways to that front-facing camera.
Sharing Instagram photos on Google+ automatically
Instagram (free) is a lot of fun, although it's often criticized as being the "auto-tune for photography." Google+ is the new social networking flavor of the week, so it's natural that the two services should get together. Wired's Gadget Lab has cooked up a recipe for more Instagram enjoyment by hacking a method of joining the two in unholy matrimony, as well as providing other fun hints. Before I divulge their other hints, let's get to the meat of the matter for those of you who are among the Google+ cognoscenti: getting your Instagrams to Google's Picasa photo sharing site so they can be shared on Google+. Yeah, hopefully this is added to Instagram in the near future. For the present, this is how you do it, folks. To have all of your future Instagram photos sent immediately to Google+, blogger Charlie Sorrel has you set up Instadrop, which automagically connects your Instagram and Dropbox accounts. Send a photo out on Instagram, and it shows up in a Dropbox folder named Instagram Photos. Next, pick up a copy of the free Picasa app for Mac. From the File menu, select "Add Folder to Picasa" and point it at your new Instagram Photos folder on Dropbox. The next step is to have Picasa watch that folder all the time. There's one fly in the ointment here -- this means that if you want true real-time updating of Picasa / Google+, your Mac has to be up and running continuously. Go to Tools > Folder Manager in Picasa, select the Instagram Photos folder, and then tell Picasa to "Scan Always." Finally, find the folder in the sidebar of Picasa, click on it, and then select "Enable Sync" from the Share drop-down in the main menu. That's it. Send a photo to Instagram, and through this complex chain of events the image eventually makes it to Google+, where it is re-shared and commented on by thousands of your friends and complete strangers. Sorrel has some other great tips in the post, including using your "real" camera to take photos, transferring them to an iPad using the Apple Camera Connection Kit, and then zapping them to Instagram. He also recommends the $1.99 Instaplus app to have much more control over the camera and filters.
