Google Photos Update Brings Faster Sharing and Movie ‘Creative Concepts’

Google has announced it is updating its Photos app to make sharing photos and videos faster, with a new movie-making feature based on creative concepts also on the way.

Usually, Google Photos users who want to share photos in the app have to call up the iOS Share Sheet and select which app to share through. Photos now offers an arguably faster alternative to that, with a new option that lets users select individual people they want to share media with instead.

If the people selected are on Google Photos they get a notification. If the user opts to share by phone number, people get a link to the photos and video via SMS, while email addresses get sent a link from Google Photos.

In addition, Google is bringing movie ‘creative concepts’ to the app that are similar to the Memories feature found in Apple’s Photos app on iOS 10.

Photos already features automatically generated movies made from users’ recently uploaded photos, but the update is introducing new themed movie concepts, such as watching kids grow up, capturing good times during the summer, and for formal events like weddings.

Google says it’s rolling out the updates today, with the first movie ‘creative concepts’ coming this week, and more on the way.

Google Photos is a free download for iPhone and iPad from the App Store. [Direct Link]

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Blackberry publishes full Argon specs online

We’ve known for a little while that Blackberry would be releasing a flagship phone this year but knew very little about what specs it would bring with it. Fortunately, Blackberry itself has saved everyone the hassle of guessing and predicting the features, after releasing the full list on its US website.

The list had to have been released accidentally, as in the URL it says “specifications-a-donotpublish”, so someone at Blackberry will be getting a slapped wrist. Oddly, the list hasn’t been taken down yet, perhaps the company has realised it’s too late to hide the specs.

• Blackberry’s next flagship, DTEK60: What’s the story so far?

They make for fine reading too, the Argon, which has the model name DTEK60 will come with a 5.5-inch touchscreen 2560 x 1440 Quad HD display with 534 ppi, no physical keyboard here. Under the hood there’ll be a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor with 4GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage which can be expanded up to 2TB and will run on Android.

The Argon will use a USB Type-C port for charging, but will come with a Type-C to Type-A adapter cable. Power will come from a 3000mAh battery which claims to last a full day under mixed use.

The rear camera will feature a 21-megapixel sensor and will be able to record 4K video at 30fps, while the front will be 8MP with an 84 degree wide angle lens.

• Blackberry DTEK50: Release date, specs and everything you need to know

The only thing the leaked list doesn’t tell us is when the phone will be released but previous rumours have pointed to an October launch and a £500-£600 price.

Kodak’s latest 4K action camera captures VR-ready video by itself

The Kodak Pixpro SP360 4K action camera had a branding problem. Yes, you could shoot 360-degree videos, but they weren’t spherical — you needed two cameras to do that, which made it less-than-practical for full virtual reality videos. You won’t have to do some extra shopping with the 4KVR360, though. The newly launched cam fuses a 20-megapixel sensor with lenses on both the front and back, letting one camera shoot fully immersive VR video all by its lonesome.

As you might hope, the camera is also very connected: there’s WiFi and NFC to help talk to your phone, and Bluetooth to talk to an optional remote control. You can record up to 128GB of footage on a microSD card, so you shouldn’t have trouble recording many of your adventures in VR. Kodak’s name might be historic, but it’s going up against mobile giants like Samsung and camera stalwarts Nikon.

The catch? JK Imaging (which oversees the Kodak camera brand) doesn’t expect the 4KVR360 to ship until sometime in early 2017, and hasn’t revealed a price. Though we’d expect it to be somewhere between the Nikon’s $500 and Sammy’s $350 though.

WhatsApp now lets you easily tag people in group chats

WhatsApp beta has picked up an update to 2.16.272 that lets users tag people in group chats. To tag someone in a chat, just use the @ symbol and start typing out the contact’s name. You’ll see suggestions pop up as you start typing, and you can even tag multiple contacts in the same message if you like annoying several people at once. Even if the intended contact has that particular group chat muted, he or she will receive the notification once you tag them.

If you’re like me and are enrolled in several WhatsApp groups that you have no intention of being in, the new update makes it harder to ignore conversations that have no bearing on your life. I’m sure there are individuals having meaningful conversations on WhatsApp. I just have trouble believing that they belong to this dimension.

Today’s “feature” should be making its way to the stable client in the coming weeks. Enjoy the solace while it lasts, folks.

HTC Desire 10 Pro + Desire 10 Lifestyle specs

There are two versions of HTC’s latest Desire phone — the Desire 10 Pro and the Desire 10 Lifestyle.

The HTC Desire 10 is official, and we’ve got full hands-on coverage of the latest in HTC’s line of mid-rangers. This year there are two flavors of the latest Desire phone — the speccy Desire 10 Pro, and the decidedly entry-level Desire 10 Lifestyle. Read on to see how these two square up.

HTC Desire 10 preview: Flashy outside, ordinary within

HTC’s new Desire 10 comes in two varieties, but chances are only one — the higher-end Desire 10 Pro — is worth your time.

HTC’s Desire family has seen it experiment with many polycarbonate-based styles over the past few years — from two-tone plastic to quirky micro-splash patterns more recently. Now it’s time for Desire to get a bit more extravagant, with a duo of new Desires borrowing their name from HTC’s flagship, and their look from the art deco style.

Meet the HTC Desire 10 Pro and Desire 10 Lifestyle — two new phones HTC hopes will bolster its mid-range brand.

Both Desire 10 models have a bold new visual style that’s sure to be at least a little polarizing. In a meeting ahead of the launch, HTC told me it’s inspired in part by art deco designs; and the influence is clear to see, with bold golden accents and a prominent lens bulge contrasting with a loadout of relatively reserved colors.

These are not second-class citizens.

HTC is enthusiastic about the design of its latest Desires; the company’s VP of Global Marketing, Darren Sng, told me “these are not second-class citizens” in the world of the HTC 10.

Yet they’re still plastic smartphones at their core. The metallic accents — laser-etched as they are — aren’t actually metal, and there’s something about the in-hand feel that seems a little insubstantial. Maybe I’ve just been spoiled by the barrage of recent (often really good) metal phones elsewhere in the mid-range world.

The Desire 10 hits the same stride as other members of its family — plastic, but not cheap-feeling nasty plastic. The gold accents are laser-etched to ensure tight tolerances, and the darker colors have a pleasant soft-touch finish that I’d almost forgotten existed from using so many glass and metal phones this past year (Nextbit Robin notwithstanding).

It’s not a universally appealing look. (To some, it’ll be gaudy — particularly in the glossier white color option.) But the Desire 10’s aesthetic grew on me in the short time I spent with the phones. The soft curves and ostentatious lines were a welcome respite from a market dominated by interchangeable slabs. Whatever you want to say about the Desire’s latest incarnation, you can’t deny it’s unique.

The look isn’t universally appealing, but it is unique — a respite from a world of interchangeable slabs.

So what’s different about the two models? Mainly it comes down to display, internals and camera. Both phones pack 5.5-inch screens, but on the Lifestyle you’re limited to a decidedly icky 720p resolution, and with it colors that appear a little dim next to the Pro’s 1080p IPS panel. And while the Pro packs MediaTek’s Helio P10 chip — a capable little processor, but one we’ve not seen in too many phones in the West — the Lifestyle uses an ancient Snapdragon 400. Yeah, as in the same three-year-old chip powering the original Moto G from 2013. Now, in my brief time with the phones neither seemed slow, but the use of a three-year-old, 32-bit processor doesn’t fill you with confidence over the Desire 10 Lifestyle’s lifespan.

Cameras are another point of difference — the Pro has a 20-megapixel shooter behind an f/2.2 lens, backed up by dual-LED flash and laser autofocus. It’s disappointing to see that there’s no OIS (optical image stabilization) included, which will likely limit its low-light performance, but in the moderately lit office room I tested it in, the Pro’s camera managed just fine. Same goes for the Lifestyle’s 13-megapixel shooter, though with images appearing somewhat grainier.

The Pro boasts fingerprint security, a better display, specs and camera. But the Lifestyle has the edge in audio.

And the Desire 10 Pro includes fingerprint security via a rounded sensor on the rear of the device — something I didn’t have the chance to test, but if it’s even close to the quality of the HTC 10’s sensor, I’ll be happy.

The Desire 10 Lifestyle does have one unique trick in its arsenal: the HTC 10’s BoomSound Hi-Fi speaker setup and high-resolution audio support, backed up by Dolby Audio tuning. The difference in playback quality between the two devices is subtle but noticeable, which makes it all the more baffling that the more expensive Pro lacks this feature.

More: HTC Desire 10 specs

When it comes to software, the Desire 10’s UI is a spitting image of the HTC 10’s layout, right down to the pared-back interface and lightning-fast speed, thanks to whatever secret sauce HTC packs into its devices. The latest version of Sense — which HTC isn’t numbering this time around — is lighter and closer to vanilla Android than ever, but augmented by features that matter, like the BlinkFeed reader, a loadout of themes, and the wacky Freestyle mode, in case you prefer cats and robots to icons.

It all adds up to a decent overall package, but it’s hard to know where to side on the Desire 10s without taking into account the price.

At the time of writing, all we know is that the UK price will be £249 (SIM-free) for the 3GB/32GB Desire 10 Lifestyle. That’s not horrible, but it’s a tough ask when the same money also gets you a Nexus 5X or Honor 5C with money to spare. It’s not especially promising given the ancient SoC and less than impressive display.

My hope is that the Desire 10 Pro will strike a more palatable balance in terms of pricing, but we’ll just have to wait and see. Obviously the competition is even hotter around the £300-400 mark, with the likes of the OnePlus 3, Honor 8 and Moto Z Play making up the main competitors there.

The HTC Desire 10 Lifestyle goes on sale September 20, followed by the Desire 10 Pro in October.

HTC Desire 10 hands-on photos