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'Live Message' on the Galaxy Note 8 lets you draw all over photos
While Samsung used to be known for loading up its smartphones with all manner of gimmicky software of questionable utility, the company has pulled back on its Android customizations in recent years. But with today's unveiling of the Galaxy Note 8, Samsung couldn't resist showing off a new trick to go along with the phone's impressive camera system. Live Messages lets you shoot a photo and draw on it, much like you can do in Snapchat and Instagram. Naturally, the S Pen and the large screen make this a little easier than it might be on other devices. But you're not limited to how you can share it: Live messages are converted to GIFs that you can send to anyone you want.
Facebook Camera adds GIFs, colorful text and the ability to go live
Facebook is beefing up its Camera functionality with a trio of Snapchat- and Instagram Live-inspired updates. Starting today, iOS and Android users have the ability to go live, create GIFs and share colorful blocks of text directly from the Facebook Camera.
Microsoft's Outlook.com beta is a smarter inbox with more GIFs
Microsoft already lets you preview versions of Windows and the Xbox interface before they're finished, so why not its Outlook.com email service? Sure enough, you're getting that chance. The company has launched an Outlook.com beta program that gives you a peek at future designs. The first preview is a whopper, too -- it's a significantly updated design that improves both search and your ability to express yourself.
Find 'Rick and Morty' rants with a quote search engine
Rick and Morty is chock-full of quotable moments, so it would only make sense that someone would eventually find a way search every single word, wouldn't it? Sure enough, it's here. The creators of the Simpsons and Futurama search tools (Paul Kehrer, Sean Schulte and Allie Young) have trotted out Master of All Science, a web engine that lets you find any Rick and Morty line and create a meme or animated GIF to match. If you want to share the existential despair of a butter robot or understand why the entire series revolves around Mulan, you just have to punch in the right keywords.
Giphy's GIF-making tool is now available in your mobile browser
Last October, Giphy reported that users made 100 million daily users serving 1 billion GIFs per day. But how many of those views -- and creations -- are on mobile? The moving image repository site has updated its GIF Maker to work while viewing from a device or smartphone, allowing mobile users to make joke animations on the go.
Google brings its fancy Motion Stills GIF-making app to Android
Motion Stills has existed in a strange space for the past year. It's a Google-made app but it's been available only on iOS, piggybacking off Apple's Live Photos function to create dramatic, stabilized GIFs and short videos. Android owners, Google's main user base, were left out of the fun entirely -- until today.
Facebook’s camera can now make GIFs
Facebook has sneakily added a new feature to its app's camera. Some people are now seeing an option that allows users to make a short GIF directly through the camera, which can then be shared on Facebook stories or on your page. You can also bump up the GIF with a number of frames and filters. However, the downside is you can only share the GIFs on Facebook. They only save as videos and can't be sent to other platforms through Facebook.
See how Tesla’s Model 3 has changed since its debut
EV fans and some 400,000 buyers are excited about Tesla Model 3 production and upcoming first deliveries, largely because it's one of the first affordable, long-range electric cars. There's also the Tesla mystique -- with the comely Model S and X EVs, Musk & Co. showed they have serious design chops. However, some folks were underwhelmed with the Model 3 design, particularly the stubby front end.
CNN will expose Reddit user if he ever trolls again
Over the weekend, Trump tweeted out a gif (that his staff found on Reddit) depicting an archive clip of him wrestling with WWE CEO Vince McMahon, whose face was overlaid with the CNN logo. The stunt quickly drew condemnation from both sides of the aisle and also instigated CNN to track down the person who initially posted the gif that Trump lifted without attribution, one HanAssholeSolo (or HAS). While the reasoning behind why he didn't call himself "HanAssholo" and save a syllable remain unresolved, we now know exactly why he's not going to be doing anymore trolling: it's because, if he does, CNN will tell the world exactly who he is.
Facebook rolls out GIF comments to everybody
Facebook has had strange relationship with GIFs over the years. For a long time, they weren't supported at all, but as the social network grew, they came to Messenger and then to comments -- as long as they were shared via a service like Giphy or Imgur. Earlier this year, Facebook made things more official by launching a dedicated GIF button, but again it was hamstrung by the fact it only extended to a small subset of users.
Giphy and Vimeo trade video thumbnails for GIFs
Ever gone to watch a video online and thought to yourself, "Man, this thumbnail could be a bit more animated?" If so, you're probably going to freak out a bit and think Giphy and Vimeo have been reading your mind. That's because starting today, Vimeo thumbnails will be brief, looping clips rather than static images. Or, as the press release puts it, "Now, you can watch what you're going to watch before you watch it." And given Vimeo's focus on the creator, these GIFs are directly tied to the origin video and feature attribution for the author.
Google's latest addition to Allo is custom GIFs of your face
It seems like Google hopes tickling your funnybone will keep its Allo chat app installed on your phone. The latest update adds selfie clips so you can add a personalized touch to your responses. Essentially, they're just looped GIFs made from a video of whatever's in front of your phone's camera. Allo's head of product Amit Fulay tweeted the info out earlier today, including the GIF below. In the thread, Fulay says that the update is available to all users. Now, it's worth noting that this sort of thing has been available via Giphy Cam before, but it being built directly into Allo (among the recent slew of updates) suggests that Google isn't giving up on its latest chat app just yet.
Facebook sprinkles GIFs everywhere with Giphy
Facebook is bloated. It's slowly morphing into the iTunes of the social media world. At F8, the company's annual developers' conference, the company added even more features to its core apps and said that many more are on the way. But there's one partnership that makes the increasingly confusing social network a bit more fun: Giphy in nearly everything.
Giphy's latest app is exclusively for animated stickers
When is a GIF not a GIF? Well, when it's pronounced JIF, for one; but also, when it's actually a sticker. Blurring this boundary is lord of the looping image Giphy, which recently introduced a neat, educational set of signing GIFs -- or a new toolkit for creating complex reaction memes, depending on how you look at it. Getting back to tomfoolery, the company is launching Giphy Stickers today.
VSCO brings GIFs to its main iPhone app
In October, Giphy reported that it has over 100 million users every day. Yes, GIFs are huge, and camera app VSCO wants in. That's why, back in 2015, it introduced DSCO. The iOS-only spin-off app allows users to create looping images and share them on the company's own portal or their favorite social networks. Today, VSCO announced that it's reducing phone clutter by bringing DSCO's GIF-making capabilities to its main app.
GBoard on Android catches up to iOS with GIF, emoji suggestions
It took around seven months for Google's GBoard to arrive on Android after its iOS debut. Following that tradition of tardiness, today's update adds features to the Android version that've been available on Apple devices since launch. Most notably, emoji and GIF suggestions that appear as you're banging out a text message to a pal -- even for languages read right-to-left. While those are all well and good, there are a few other new bits as well like improved voice-to-text, custom keyboard backgrounds and quick translation. Again, this is stuff that's been in the iOS version for awhile, but that shouldn't stop the Android faithful from appreciating them.
Google is making Allo chats a lot more animated
If you've been sad at how Allo manages your GIFs and emojis, a new upgrade for the mobile-only chat app is here on Android. Today's update brings an easier way to access GIFs, 10 new animated emoji and a shortcut to Google Assistant.
Giphy made 2,000 GIFs to help you learn sign language
A GIF can be more than a well-timed punchline for a tweet or group chat. Now, the looping clips can be used to teach people new languages. As Mashable reports, GIF provider Giphy has launched a new "channel" containing more than 2,000 educational sign language clips. They're all dead simple: just the hand movements and a text caption explaining what they mean. These bite-sized flash cards have been pulled from Sign With Robert, an instructional series for American Sign Language (different versions are used throughout the world). The hope is that people will pick up a word or two by sharing them at convenient moments online.
How an animated-GIF camera morphed into a nascent chip empire
Not many computers can thank GIFs for their existence. In 2013, Dave Rauchwerk worked on a San Francisco art installation that allowed people to record and project a GIF of themselves onto a building. It was popular and led to Rauchwerk joining with two friends to start a hardware company called Next Thing Co. Their aim? To create a camera that can capture GIFs for $100. After a long stay in China with the HAX Accelerator, Next Thing Co. launched OTTO, a $250 "hackable GIF camera" in 2014. It was the first product to integrate Raspberry Pi's Compute Module, and generated a lot of interest. Keen mathematicians may have noted the discrepancy in the intended and actual price -- $250 is many more dollars than $100 -- and the public did, too.
NFL loosens its policies on teams posting GIFs and videos
The NFL's current rules social media posts have been rather draconian, even after a recent rethink. Football teams couldn't post any video during the game window until the NFL made a sanctioned clip available on its servers, and they couldn't create any GIFs during game time. They couldn't post more than 8 clips on game day, either. However, the league appears to be changing its mind. Yahoo Finance has obtained a memo revealing that the NFL has once again loosened its policies. Teams can now post non-highlight GIFs and videos (that is, no on-the-field action) on their own, right up to a newly expanded 16-video cap. If they want to celebrate fans or the halftime show, they don't have to wait for the NFL to act first.
