Android
Google+ Update Makes Your Photos and Videos Shine
Today Google‘s own Vic Gundotra took the stage and announced tons of new features and changes to its social network Google+, mainly in the photography department, and sadly we didn’t get any news about Android 4.4 KitKat as rumors suggested. That aside, Google+ is getting better by the day and this morning a slew of new features and options were announced.
At Google I/O they showcased a new feature called Auto-Awesome which makes photos quite beautiful all automatically and with ease, and today that same feature arrived for videos. That isn’t all either. We have video highlight reels and action shots all edited behind the scenes to make awesome little highlight reels that look professional. Basically HTC Zoe features for every smartphone user. Below is a list of just a few of many new features coming to Google+
Editing photos right in Google+ will be easier than ever, and we’ll now be able to do the same with video. in addition to video we now have Eraser, Motion, Action, Auto Enhance, tons of new editing features, and of course Google’s also added full resolution backups. All for free. Never lose photos again, just sync them privately (or publicly) to Google+ and you’re set.
Auto Awesome
Auto Awesome was the main focus here, which is odd having a search, software, and hardware company putting so much effort into photography. But then again, the new Nexus 5 will have an 8 megapixel camera with optical image stabilization. So Android users should have some stunning mobile photography coming up soon. Here’s what’s new with Google+ and Auto Awesome for photos, and now video.
Auto Enhance
Before when you uploaded images to Google+ the auto enhance feature would sometimes get a little too excited, and overdue the photos and make it appear fake. The enhancements were sometimes too much, so we now have a slider to control the auto enhance. It’s still mostly automatic, but you can tone it down and perfect the enhancements with ease. So that’s awesome.
Users will now get a low, medium, and high option for controlling just how much the enhancement really does, to keep things minimal and perfect. This should improve photos across the board for all users.
We also have three brand new modes. Those being Eraser, Action, and Motion. This all works in part with all the Auto Awesome features that will allow you to make action photos come to live. We’ve seen this with Samsung Galaxy smartphones, but now all Android and iOS devices can enjoy this. Motion can be put all into a single photo, then you’ll be able to erase people that photobomb too. All of this and more is coming soon. Below is a motion shot turned into an action image, as well as the eraser features all on display.
Eraser should be extremely popular, and this has been another one of those most-requested features according to Google. Remove people from your photo to give you that exclusive look down a street in Paris, or remove those casual photobombers making funny faces behind you. All of this is simple, quick, and easy using Google+. This is pretty impressive for the social network, considering they usually don’t dabble in photography too much.Video
Then, as we mentioned above, tons of these automatic features have arrived for video. With Auto Awesome for video Google+ will take all your videos, or ones you choose, and automatically makes a hip and fun professional looking video highlight reel you can share with the world. Alternatively, you can customize all of this yourself with ease if you’d like, but Google+ can do it behind the scenes too. Below is a video of just how this works. Multiple videos blend into one beautiful highlight reel.
Pretty neat right? We’ve seen a very similar highlight reel type of feature for video and photos from HTC with what they call HTC Zoe enhancement. It looks like Google took this idea and ran with it for all smartphone and tablet users.
When Can You Get It?
While many of Google+ Auto Awesome features are already available as we speak, the new things outlined today will be rolling out all week long. We’re expecting many to appear later today, and then throughout the week a more gradual and massive rollout will be completed. Also, since many of the custom editing features are available on mobile, you’ll have to have an Android 4.3 Jelly Bean device to enjoy a few of them. Mainly the video editing effects, so those who are up to date should see a new Google+ shortly.
Google ended by saying the Movie features won’t arrive until the next major Google+ update, while the rest of these features will be added behind the scenes today and throughout the week. With Google touting more than 1.5 billion photo uploads per week, these new improvements should be quite popular.
