Google bringing ads to VR

It seems like an inevitable thing that Google is looking to include advertising into the virtual reality space. The company’s internal incubator Area 120 has a new experiment they call Advr. It’s a way to include ads into the VR space that they say aren’t disruptive for the viewers or hard to implement for the developers. One example they have is the ad cube, which users can opt to interact with. By tapping on the cube, a 2D video player pops up with the ad playing. For now, you can see there’s a “Close Ad” button but we can’t say if that’ll remain the same if or when Google decides to bring sto users.

Area 120 is supposedly working with some developers already but they won’t disclose who. They want the format to work on different VR platforms like Google Cardboard, Daydream, and Samsung Gear VR. Any developers who want to try it out can apply for an early access to the program here. Now, we just hope what they do develop something that isn’t obtrusive and useful.

Source: Tech Crunch + Android Authority

Google Photos puts machines to work with launch of new sharing options

Google has started rolling out Google Photos’s new sharing features, which they announced at the company’s I/O developer conference in May. The two new features—Suggested Sharing and Shared Libraries—put machine learning to the use and encourage the use of the app as more of a social experience instead of a backup tool for photos. Google used to use its virtual assistant to do things like turn photos into animations, collages; stylize photos; offer “throwbacks” to old photos; organize photos into album; and more. Now, it’s expanding its reach with these new functionalities.

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Nikon Canada hosts Night Photography tutorial at Mississauga HQ

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Ever wanted to learn how to do those stunning night landscape shots or even just to learn to light paint? Nikon Canada is hosting a Night Photography tutorial with its Product & Training Specialist Chris Ogonek. Happening on July 12, Thursday at Nikon Canada’s Mississauga headquarters from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., the class will tackle things like composition, camera settings to capture those star trails, as well as the complete list of gear needed for night photography. If you’re interested in joining, the event is free and open to the public. You can sign up at this link.

Quick tip: You can see songs that have been pulled from Spotify

Here’s a quick tip you Spotify users might or might not know. By default the music streaming service hides the songs that have been pulled from its service. But if you want to check if a particular song is out of its roster, you can head to settings, which is located at the cog wheel on the upper right corner of Your Library section and just select Show unplayable songs/Show unavailable songs in playlists. If you’re on the desktop client, head to Edit > Preferences and then scroll down to Display Options. From there, you can see grayed out song titles. It won’t show any information if the song is coming back or why it left in the first place. But if you want to see which songs you might want to download so you can have them in your collection, this is a good thing to turn on.

Source: The Verge