Tag Archives: photos

Google Stops Syncing Between Photos and Drive

google, Photography, ,

How stupid is this? Google has announced that from July, photographs will no longer sync between Google Drive and Google Photos citing “the connection between these services is confusing”. What?

Sorry, but how is this confusing? Images are synchronised between Google Drive and Google Photos. If you do something in one, it’s also done in the other. How hard is that to understand? Seems straightforward to me.

And let’s not forget that you have to turn the syncing feature on. It’s not as if Google forces you to sync. Surely if someone finds “the connection between these services is confusing” they could turn it off? Drive goes out of its way to make sure that you understand the impact of, say, deleting a file.

I like this feature because it makes working with photographs as files so much easier, and apps only have to be compatible with Drive to work effectively. They don’t need to know about Photos explicitly. As long as you can navigate to the Googe Photos folder in Drive, there are all your photographs carefully arranged by year and month.

Perhaps they’re telling the truth but I’m a suspicious old dog and I think this is more about Google trying to stop people getting their photographs out of the service by making it as inconvenient as possible. And what really annoys me is that I pay extra for additional Google storage.

Maybe Google should remember that Microsoft’s Office 365 Personal is GB£5.99 per month, comes with 1 TB OneDrive storage and Office apps for PC and mobile. That’s much better value than £2.49 per month for 200 GB and copycat apps.

Ciao Google.

Nixplay Seed Wave Adds Sound at CES

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I always think of digital photo frames as cinderella gadgets that don’t get the attention they deserve. I’m a fan, especially when the frame can connect into services like Google Photos meaning there’s no need to copying photos about the place on memory cards. Smartphones are great for taking photos but all too often the photos stay on the phone.

Nixplay, the global market leader in connected photo frames, is introducing its all-new Seed Wave at CES, adding a new dimension in sound and music to its best-selling smart connected photo and video frames. The Wave gives Nixplay users the ability to add music and sound to their photos and videos, so the images don’t just look good, they sound good too.

Building on the best-selling design of the Seed line, Nixplay is adding two new premium 5-watt Bluetooth speakers with a dedicated bass and audio amplifier, to allow Nixplay users to stream music from their Bluetooth-enabled devices by simply pairing a phone, tablet or PC to their Seed Wave. The improved functionality also gives Nixplay users enhanced audio performance to watch their video memories, all on the popular, crisp widescreen frame. So much family fun.

“Nixplay owners can now entertain friends and family by sharing their precious memories paired to their favorite tunes from any room in their home,” said Nixplay CEO, Mark Palfreeman. “We know the mantelpiece is still considered the focal point of the home and the backdrop of our family photos so that’s why we created the Seed Wave to have a sleek, minimalist design that makes it the perfect addition to your mantelpiece.”

With the Nixplay mobile app, users enjoy on-the-go functionality and creativity. The app allows them to easily share photos and videos directly from the app to their Nixplay frame anywhere in the world over Wi-Fi. Note that currently the iOS and Android apps are not equal, and there are some limitations around video.

Other features include
– Dynamic Google Photos connectivity gives users Live Albums on their frame.
– 10GB of secure and free online cloud storage.
– Connects albums from all social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Dropbox, Verizon Cloud, and Google Photos.
– Works with Amazon Alexa.

The 13-inch Widescreen Seed Wave is available for $249.99 on Nixplay.com and Amazon.com now.

Google’s Live Albums Keeps Families In Touch

google, Photography, ,

Google’s Pixel 3 event today didn’t bring too many surprises on the hardware front: most had been leaked well in advance of the presentation. What caught my eye was not a device but a new a new software feature called “Live Albums”.

Dave Loxton, Google Photo Product Manager, explains, “Many of us share the same photos with the same people over and over, whether it’s photos of your children to their grandparents, or cute pics of your pup to your best friend. Every time, we have to find the photos, select the ones we want to share and send them to the right people. And that’s if we even remember to share them at all.

Live albums start out as ordinary albums – you select the special photos of friends, family and pets. Here’s the clever bit…once tagged as a live album, freshly taken photos will be scanned by Google’s AI smarts and if they include people in the live album, they’ll be added into the album automatically.

This is fantastic for those families wanting to share photos with far-flung relatives. Instead of constantly having to remember to send photos to granny in Edinburgh, create a live album of the grandchildren and share it with her. New photos of the children will be added in as they’re taken, and granny gets to see the photos straightaway.

Google touts its Home Hub as being the ideal picture frame to display live album, though it’s only 7″, which I think is a little small for a photo frame. Priced at US$149 or UK£139, the Home Hub is competitively priced against wireless photo frames from the likes of Nixplay. I can see the Home Hub taking market share this Christmas.

The updated version of Photos with live album support will be rolling out shortly, so wait for it to appear on your smartphone.

Europe Has a New Tallest Building: The Shard Featured on Instagram

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Today, July 5th, marked the official opening of the new tallest building in the European Union, although construction was actually completed back in April of this year.  Called “The Shard“, and formerly known by the name “London Bridge Tower”, the building is 309.6 meters tall with 72 habitable floors.  It also features a viewing gallery and observation deck on the 72nd story.

If you are wondering how this article fits into our normal tech news genre, well there are a couple of reasons.  First is the architecture, which likely couldn’t have been done in the pre-computer design era.  The long, thin pyramid design is beautiful to behold and a challenge to design and build.

Second, the pictures taken of the new building were picked up by web and mobile photo sharing service Instgram, who today dedicated a page to images of The Shard.  They announced this today through a post on their blog, and also added a few images, which you can see below.

Image Credit: Instagram Blog

Busy Week at Instagram

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Social photo service Instagram just had a big week, although not as big as the week of the billion dollar buyout, but it’s all relative.  This week the mobile app company released a slew of updates, including ones to their Android and iOS apps, as well as to their web site.  There were bug fixes and new features for everyone, and with the power and financial backing of Facebook behind them, they will likely be moving even faster with their updates and upgrades.

Updates to the android app included:

  • Improved search functionality
  • Support for location data taken from Gallery images when geotag is selected
  • Fix for HTC Sensation 4G freezing using tilt shift
  • Improved support and bugfixes for devices using the Instagram advanced camera
  • Addresses tilt shift issues on lower resolution images

iOS users can expect similar improvements.

  • Revamped profile tab
  • Search for users and tags in the Explore tab
  • Improvements to commenting
  • User search autocompletes based on people you follow
  • Visual improvements
  • Speed optimizations
  • Optionally share likes to Facebook (enable in your Profile > Sharing Settings > Facebook)

If you want to access the service from a computer then you got the biggest update of all.  Instagram has finally allows you to follow, comment and like from your web browser.

Instagram, now a property of Facebook, is the number one photo sharing service right now and they continue update and innovate in an effort to stay relevant in today’s ever-changing tech world.   Like other social networks, it’s free to use.

Instagram for Android Updates to 1.1, Adds Tilt-Shift

Android, Photography, , ,

Instagram launched their long-awaited Android app just a few weeks ago.  It was followed by several small updates to get it up and working properly, but today they have finally released the first feature update, dubbed version 1.1.  The latest version adds just one feature, but it’s an important one to anyone that has used Instagram – tilt-shift.

The name may be a bit cryptic, but tilt-shift is essentially an effect that adds depth-of-field to your images.  In other words, it’s that cool effect you get in high-end DSLR cameras that causes the background to be blurred, bringing the subject into better focus.  With Instagram this isn’t done at the time the image is snapped, but in post-production with a filter.

In you are interested in more in-depth information about using this feature then you can head over to the Instagram blog to read their tips for using tilt-shift.  Instagram is available for free from the Google Play Store.

Adobe Lightroom 4 Officially Released

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Adobe announced today the official final version of Lightroom 4 is now available.  Lightroom is a popular photo editing tool that is used by many amateur and professional photographers alike.  Lightroom is part of Adobe’s Photoshop family, but is a cheaper and more dedicated version geared specifically towards working with digital photos.

Adobe claimed they had 300,000 users of the public beta version of Lightroom 4 and used all of that feedback to make changes before their final release.  Changes made since the Beta version include:

  • Reverse geocoding now available in the Map Module
  • Revamped and improved auto tone in Develop based on new controls
  • Increased range of local white balance controls (temperature and tint)
  • Updated Develop presets plus added new presets for video
  • Maximum Blurb book size is now 240 pages
  • Over 800 bugs found and fixed!

Lightroom 4 is available now for $149.  You can also download a free trial version if you want to check it out first.  You can buy it or download the trial from Adobe.