Let's Talk Tech
Channeling my inner Bob Ross, to answer some recent questions I’ve gotten on how I edit photos before sharing them on Instagram. Our cameras can deliver some terrific shots, so here’ how I tweak them before uploading to a service which cuts all our shots into squares, and HEAVILY compresses the image quality!
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Instagram continues to ignore some of the best smartphone cameras on the market by letting their BETA app on Windows Phone continue to rot. With no updates for well over a year, we can hope they’re working on a Windows 10 app (at least porting over their iOS app), but in the meantime we have Windows Phone developer extraordinaire Rudy Huyn.
His third party Instagram client for Windows Phones 6Tag has long been the gold standard for sharing higher quality pics on Microsoft’s OS. Now his latest update brings video uploading to the table, alongside a few new photo filters.
6Tag has always been able to shoot video, but it was unable to upload previously shot video. A new video editing menu in 6Tag replicates that functionality from Instagram’s app on iOS and Android.
This feature is brand spanking new, and Rudy has already announced a minor bug fix has been submitted to Microsoft, but in the meantime, we’ve had no complaints using it on a Lumia Icon.
Chances are pretty good you’ve heard the work of Charles Martinet. He voices the popular Nintendo characters Mario and Luigi, a childhood staple of mine.
Well apparently he’s on the instagrams, and he travels around with little Mario and Luigi action figures, voicing their adventures I.R.L!
For example here’s Luigi discovering a tree covered in leaf cutter ants.
Hyperlapse is becoming something of a buzz word. It’s essentially a time lapse video, but with more (and smoother) movement. Microsoft recently showed off an incredibly complex and beautiful method to achieve fluid time lapse video. Now Instagram is taking the wraps off of their solution.
It’s novel in its simplicity. Many phones incorporate some form of electronic image stabilization. Instagram’s Hyperlapse app will use the sensors in your phone to detect movement, and then it’ll filter that movement out to give you a smoother tracking shot. As it detects movement in real time while recording, it’s unknown if the app will be able to import and smooth out previously shot video.
The UI is incredibly simple. Push big red button to capture video. Once Finished capturing, there’s a slider to change playback speed from 1X to 12X, and then you have the option to share that video with Instagram or Facebook.
As this is Instagram, it’s iPhone only for now, as they’re sorting out Android API’s, and it’s doubtful we’ll see this on Windows Phone (and those incredible Nokia cameras) any time soon. It is live now for you iOS folks though on the App Store.
See another sample from Hyperlapse below!
Continue reading “Instagram Shows Off Hyperlapse App to Smooth Out Video and Time Lapse”
Those cheeky little phone manufacturers.
Samsung will be unveiling SOMETHING with a ‘K’ at the Red Dot Design Museum in Singapore on April 29th. How better to tease the announcement? Why not show off a video of the Red Dot Museum, being zoomed in on by some kind of camera which can zoom in a lot? Perhaps some kind of Galaxy Zoom maybe? Possibly?
We’ll find out more tomorrow I suppose. In the meantime, we’ve seen a couple leaked photos of the S5 Zoom, showing a slimmer design than the S4 Zoom, and a new textured back plate which resembles the dimples on the Galaxy S5.
Samsung has been getting serious with their cameras lately, and they look like they’ll be trying to give Nokia a run for their money.
We’re only a couple days into playing with the Pebble, and we have a full video hands on coming soon, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take a look at a few apps for this little wunder-watch.
With all the customization options available, the first thing you notice, a lot of the watch faces aren’t anything special. Mostly just static images with a clock pasted on top. Examining the wares at MyPebbleFaces can be a bit daunting when you first search through the site.
One of the first watch faces I stumbled upon, using the 2.0 BETA firmware on my Pebble, was Blockslide. It has a fun, almost Atari-retro look to the clock, with a date below the time. Instead of the time just updating, smooth animations slide blocks around to usher in new minutes and hours. It’s not only pleasant, but it’s smoother than I thought the Pebble capable of.
One of my pet peeves with Pebble s the lack of a stock battery indicator. Blockslide includes one via wrist flip. Twist your wrist over, and the time will morph into a battery readout for a couple seconds before sliding back to the clock. It looks cool. It looks really cool.
If you’re sporting a Pebble, this is a fun free watchface which has garnered a reaction from everyone I’ve shown it to.
Blockslide 2.0 (for SDK2) on MyPebbleFaces
These were the top read and shared stories from SomeGadgetGuy last week! Kind of an eclectic round up. I love it!
Let’s jump in!
5 – Microsoft Support: If your Surface wont turn on, just tap on “”Settings”…
So much fun finding these little gems. Bad tech support advice direct from a major tech company. Microsoft is usually pretty good about this too, but this one slipped through. It seems like reasonable advice. Until you use your brain and think about it…
4 – Friday Fun – November Loot Crate Un-Boxing! CELEBRATE!
My second Loot Crate! I had to share what was inside! Each month a box of cool geeky gear is dropped off at your door. If you’d like to shop a Crate, you can save 10% by using promo code “SGLOOT” at check out!
3 – The argument for buying the most expensive phone you can…
The conventional logic would assume that if you’re not very tech savvy, then maybe you don’t need all the “bells and whistles” of more expensive gear. Here however, we take a look at what benefits there might be for shopping premier phones, with a few tips for saving cash while doing buying high end.
2 – Hands on Dreamwork’s ‘Dragons Adventure’ for the Lumia 2520
We’re entering another services and software era. Our phones and tablets are crazy powerful and come chock full of movement and location sensors collecting data. Now we’ll see more apps taking advantage of that raw power. We take a look at Dreamworks newest family game which uses geolocation tracking on a tablet and ties into a parents phone for participation.
1 – Instragram BETA for Windows Phone vs 6Tag and Instagram on Android
Nothing like a good old fashioned showdown, and this was the most shared story of the week! Instagram is finally on Windows Phone, so let’s see how the BETA app compares to the established 3rd party app 6Tag!
We’re nothing without you readers, and we certainly can’t compete against the big blogs by ourselves. We always greatly appreciate not only the likes, but the sharing on social sites like Google Plus, Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit. The more we get to talk with other tech fans, the better we get, and soon we’ll be able to reward that participation with some fun contests coming up soon!
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It’s finally here!
Always the ultimate tech irony, the best smartphone cameras in the world had no official native app to upload pics to the world’s most popular social photo service.
No longer. Instagram is finally officially on Windows Phone as an open BETA. Let’s see how it compares to the popular third party solution 6Tag, and what features the Android version might have that IG will have to catch up on!