Google Brings Roving Text Effects to Apple’s Live Photos in ‘Motion Stills’ App Update

Google has released an update to its Motion Stills app that lets users create moving text effects for inclusion in their videos.

Motion Stills is designed to create unique GIFs from Live Photo images captured with the iPhone 7, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, and iPhone SE. The app was released earlier this year and its main features were subsequently integrated into Google Photos for iOS.

The update means that users can add motion-tracked text overlays to their high-resolution videos and fun gifs, as described and demonstrated in the company’s research blog post.

We’ve added motion text so you can create moving text effects, similar to what you might see in movies and TV shows, directly on your phone. With Motion Text, you can easily position text anywhere over your video to get the exact result you want. It only takes a second to initialize while you type, and a tracks at 1000 FPS throughout the whole Live Photo, so the process feels instantaneous.

The update also brings Google’s RAISR machine learning technology to the app to create super-resolution detail in images, adds 3D Touch support to the interface, and introduces fully automatic cinemagraphs – looping moving images in which the foreground subject moves while the background remains static.

Google’s updated Motion Stills app for iPhone and iPad can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct link]

Tags: Google, Motion Stills
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‘Ok Google’ now works in Android Auto

With its large icons and stripped back interface, Android Auto is a simpler, safer way to access music and maps in your car. It’s also designed for voice, and finally Google has enabled “Okay Google” commands for everyone. That means you don’t have to touch the screen, or your phone, to start speaking with Google’s assistant. The feature might sound small, but for drivers this could be a revelatory addition. Whether you want to switch playlists, check the weather, or settle an argument (how old is Obama again?) you can do this without taking your hands off the steering wheel.

The feature was announced at Google I/O, and a few weeks back it started rolling out to select drivers. As a post on Google+ indicates, it should now be available to everyone who has Android Auto set up in their car. That could be through a compatible infotainment system, or directly through your smartphone with the Android Auto mode enabled. If you haven’t already, maybe give it a whirl while you’re driving home this Christmas.

Source: Android (Google+)

Use Google Home’s voice controls to play Netflix

Google wants its Home speaker and virtual assistant to make you forget about Alexa. To do so, the device will need to add a bunch of new features to catch up to Amazon’s gadget. Just in time for your holiday binge watching, the company has added voice controls for Netflix. There’s one big caveat though: You’ll need to have a Chromecast connected to Home for your spoken commands to work.

If you meet that criteria, saying “OK Google, play The Crown from Netflix on my TV” or “OK Google, play White Christmas on Netflix on my TV” will begin streaming your show or movie of choice. You can also use spoken cues like “Pause this episode” to control playback when you need to grab a snack. Google says the ability to link your Netflix account to Google Home is available now in the speaker’s app for iOS and will arrive inside the Android version later this week.

Also using a connected Chromecast, Google Home can now display images from your Google Photos library on your television. Again, a simple voice command will sort out the task. Say something like “OK Google, show my photos of Joshua Tree on my TV” and you’ll be telling the stories from your vacation pictures in no time.

To keep you in the holiday spirit, Home will play Christmas music from your streaming service of choice when you give the command. “OK Google, play Christmas music” will queue up tunes from Google Play Music, Spotify, Pandora or YouTube Music. The speaker will also keep you up to date on Santa’s location next week with a little help from Google Maps. As you might expect, that info is accessible with by asking the connected device a question as well.

Source: Google

Google’s 2016 was defined by ‘Pokémon Go,’ Olympics and Trump

Google’s Year in Search summaries have a knack for capturing the cultural zeitgeist, and that’s truer than ever in 2016. The company has published its top search trends for the year, and it clearly mirrors a tumultuous 12 months defined by the unexpected, the tragic and the rise of technology. Notably, the biggest global search trend was for Pokémon Go — yes, the wildly popular mobile game did more to captivate the world’s attention than political upheaval or sports triumphs. Apple’s iPhone 7 was the runner up, followed by President-elect Donald Trump.

A dive into specific categories reveals some of the other hot-button topics of the year. It won’t shock you to hear that the US election dominated global news, but the Rio Olympics were seemingly omnipresent, making the top 10 for news, people (think Simone Biles and Michael Phelps) and, of course, sporting events. The UK’s Brexit, mass violence (such as the Orlando shootings and Nice attacks) and the Zika virus were also important in the news sphere. And avoid the 10 losses of the year if you don’t want to be misty-eyed: Prince, David Bowie, Muhammad Ali and Leonard Cohen are among the greats people mourned the most.

In the US, the trends were unsurprisingly different, if not what you’d expect. While politics and the Olympics certainly made the top 10, the biggest queries were for Powerball, Prince, Hurricane Matthew, “Pokeman Go” (no, that’s not our typo) and the web game Slither.io. As elsewhere in the world, Americans were at least as interested in entertainment and cultural news as they were earthshaking events.

Source: Google Year in Search 2016, Google Blog

iPhone 7 Tops Google’s 2016 ‘Year in Search’ Tech List, Loses to Pokémon Go in Overall Searches

Google has listed its annual “Year in Search” results, highlighting the most popular searches performed by people throughout 2016. As is usually the case, Apple-related search inquiries topped a few of the charts over the last twelve months, with Apple winning four total spots in the Consumer Tech category: the iPhone 7 topped the list ahead of the Freedom 251, iPhone SE, iPhone 6s, Google Pixel, Samsung Galaxy S7, iPhone 7 Plus, Galaxy Note7, Nintendo Switch, and Samsung J7.

Last December, the iPhone 6s ranked #1 in the same category, with the Apple Watch coming in at a high point at #3. Apple’s wearable was nowhere to be seen in the top Google tech searches in 2016, despite Apple launching the new Series 1 and Series 2 versions of the device.

In the Overall searches category, Pokémon Go came in first place in 2016 thanks to the height of its popularity and player base earlier in the summer, and the game’s continued updates and additions throughout the fall. iPhone 7 ranked second behind Pokémon Go, and was the only Apple-related item to be listed in the section this year. Other popular search terms in 2016 were for Deadpool, the Olympics, Slither.io, Prince, David Bowie, and more.

Check out the rest of Google’s Year in Search rankings here to discover the most popularly searched movies, news, tv shows, musicians, and more this past year.

Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tag: Google
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Chrome for Android now includes WebVR API support

Way back in 2014, Google announced it would start supporting virtual reality headsets like Oculus Rift and Google Cardboard natively within Chrome via the WebVR platform. After a few updates and a big commitment to VR at this year’s I/O conference, Google is finally ready to open up that WebVR API to developers looking to build immersive experiences into their web apps.

According to a post on the Chromium from Google’s “Virtual Reality Plumber” Brandon Jones, the latest beta version of Chrome for Android includes an Origin Trial that enables both the WebVR API and GamePad API extensions developers will need to access the position and orientation data from equipment like Google’s Daydream View headsets and Daydream controller. Although there’s only support for Android and Daydream at the moment, Google says desktop VR platforms and Google Cardboard will be supported in the next version of Chrome.

For developers hoping to build a little more 3D into the web, Jones points you to the WebVR developer site for tutorials and examples, or the Chromium bug tracker for feedback on the Chrome implementation specifically.

Source: Chromium Blog

Book your next workout right from a Google search

Google’s been transforming Search for a bit, making it easier to find TV listings, restaurant menus and plan a vacation. Next up the internet juggernaut is making it easier to book a sweat session — and maybe more than that in the future. For now though, Reserve With Google handles yoga and fitness classes in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay area and New York City. And, you guessed it, the feature will come to Maps and Search in short order.

Current fitness partners include Mindbody, Front Desk and Full Slate, with Genbook, MyTime and zingFit in the next round of additions. Sorry Soulstice fans, you’ll have to keep waiting.

Source: The Keyword blog, Reserve With Google

Recording industry writes Trump on the eve of tech CEO visit

According to multiple reports, on Wednesday a number of high-profile tech execs will visit President-elect Donald Trump. The list includes Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, Tim Cook, Sheryl Sandberg, Jeff Bezos, Brian Krzanich and a number of others. Before that meeting goes down, however, the “music community” consisting of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and friends decided this was the time to speak up. In a letter (PDF) to Trump, the industry made its case for how valuable music is, and how that value (for their member companies) is being siphoned away by tech companies that don’t do enough to make sure every note is paid for.

What they may have forgotten to mention is how common these letters are. This isn’t even the first letter from the industry to Trump, after members of the RIAA’s National Advocacy Committee wrote him at the end of November insisting that he take a look at the state of copyright. That’s not special treatment either, as the RIAA wrote Obama frequently, to congratulate him on appointing some of its lawyers to positions in the Justice Department in 2009, and in 2010 in favor of the (later rejected by the EU) Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

This time, as Billboard explains, instead of just piracy, it’s also focusing things like the consent decrees that govern industry licensing through ASCAP and BMI, and the “value gap” between what different services like Spotify and YouTube pay for music.

While there are many with concerns they’d like to have addressed by the Trump administration, it seems like this letter was really for publicly addressing those tech execs. If the RIAA wanted Trump to read its letter, they could’ve just had Kanye hand it to him when they had their meeting today.

Source: RIAA