Google brings selfie flash to Camera app

Google updates its native camera app to bring a new feature selfie lovers will like. The Google Camera now has a selfie flash. This feature (and the others that’ll be mentioned below) are designed to work for recent Nexus and Pixel devices that run Android 7.1.1 and above. What the app does is it adds a beige color light right after you take the photo to bring a bit more light into the shot. Google opted to use a warmer color instead of a flash of bright white to make it look a bit more natural. However, as The Verge points out, this feature doesn’t seem to have automatic white balance like that on the iPhone’s camera.

It’s easy to enable the feature, you just need to tap on the Flash icon when you’re in front-facing mode and toggle between automatic or on. You know the feature is enabled if a beige block is covering the menu bar at the bottom. Aside from this, version 4.4 of Google Camera introduces shortcut gestures like swipe to toggle between shooting stills and videos and double tap to zoom.

Google hires veteran Apple mobile chip designer

Google Pixel XL review

There has been rumours going around that Google is looking to design its own processors for its Pixel smartphone line and there might be some truth behind it with its recent hire. The company has brought on Manu Gulati, a veteran chip architect at Apple. Gulati, who has worked for Apple for the past eight years, is now the lead system-on-chip architect at Google. According to MacRumors, Gulati has been “instrumental” for the Apple’s development of its custom chips for the Apple TV, iPad, and iPhone. It’s expected that his expertise in the field will help Google create its own custom chips. Job listings from Google have also been spotted online for a “mobile SoC CPU architect” and other similar roles.

ROLI NOISE comes to Android, with a few caveats

Musician Grimes has been quoted before saying “ROLI BLOCKS will democratize music production.” And now the app to control this modular music studio, which makes it easy for anyone to make music, is on Android. The ROLI NOISE app comes to Google’s mobile platform but with a limitation: a compatible device. ROLI is only letting devices with “Pro Audio” to run the app and this is defined as a “set of requirements that handle complex audio data in real time.” And at the moment, there are only three devices that meet these requirements: Google Pixel, Google Pixel L, and Samsung Galaxy S8. According to ROLI, they are testing more devices to add to the list.

ROLI NOISE is currently in beta so you can’t expect it to work similar to how the iOS app does. But if you have a compatible phone and just want to try it out, the app is free to download and still works without the extra BLOCKS.

Source: Android Police

What our tech lovin' mommy friends want for Mother's Day

By Sonya Davidson

Ask any mom (myself included) what we want for Mother's Day. We will tell you that we'd like to stay out of the kitchen (especially the cleaning up part) and we'd really just like some time to do something we enjoy doing like reading, sleeping in, do something creative, watching movies, time to take care of ourselves without interruption by someone asking what's for lunch? Where are my soccer socks? or is the laundry done yet? We love you all but seriously, just a few hours of peace is bliss. 

So, when we asked some of our tech lovin' mommy friends what would be on their gift lists, it came to no surprise that their ideas tie right into our collective desire for "me time" and of course, the kids can shower us with all the hugs and kisses too!  

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