RØDE has made its Wireless Go II dual-channel microphone system even more capable and portable with a pair of updates. The first update is a new RØDE Central mobile app that makes it possible to fully customize and configure the wireless microphone system via a mobile device, while the second is new compatibility with the RØDE Connect desktop app, which enables you to use the system with podcasting or streaming software.
Until now, the RØDE Wireless Go II system required a desktop computer to change various settings, including recording mode, adjusting the gain settings and other granular controls. Now, all of these features, as well as firmware updates, will be possible with Android and iOS apps thanks to the new RØDE Central Mobile app.
The one notable function missing in the mobile app is the ability to transfer recordings directly to your mobile device from the microphones. It’s unclear if this functionality will be added at a later date, but as it stands, recordings will still need to be offloaded via the onboard USB-C port.
In order to connect with the mobile app, RØDE Wireless Go II systems will need to be updated one final time with the desktop app to enable wireless connectivity.
The next update is one to RØDE’s Connect desktop app, which makes it possible to record podcasts and stream audio directly from your computer. With this latest update, you can now use the Wireless Go II system to get professional-grade audio wirelessly during interviews, livestreams, podcasts and more.
Each transmitter can be assigned to its own channel for easier independent control and other RØDE microphones can be used in conjunction with the Wireless Go II system if additional audio is required.
The RØDE Connect update should be available for anyone who already has the app installed. If you don’t already have it installed, it can be downloaded for free on RØDE’s website.
Are you unable to send photos from your iPhone to an Android device? Do you have the ability to send text messages but not pictures? If you are a photographer or use your phone to take pictures, switching phones can be a nightmare, especially from an iPhone to an Android. Sending edited photos from iPhone to Android can be tedious Continue Reading Photodoto
One of the most-asked questions Profoto received after releasing its Profoto Camera app for iOS was: ‘when will it be available for Android devices?’ Now, four months after releasing the Profoto Camera app for iOS alongside the release of its B10/B10 Plus strobes, an Android version is here, albeit in beta and limited to a select number of Samsung devices, for now.
As with its iOS counterpart, the Profoto Camera app for Android beta makes it possible for Android users to trigger a number of its strobes, speedlights and compact LED lights using the company’s AirX Smart-TTL technology. Specifically, the app will work with Profoto’s A10, B10, B10 Plus, C1 and C1 Plus flashes, bringing full flash tube sync support.
Click to enlarge.
Getting this support wasn’t easy, says Profoto in its announcement post:
‘One difference in synchronizing external flash to a mobile device compared to traditional capturing devices like DSLR or MILC is that smartphone cameras require a much more flexible flash-length on different shutter speeds. This makes it more difficult to fire the flash at the exact time and duration to light the image. Up until now, attempts to synchronize the two have fallen short, making Profoto the world’s first company to successfully bring the full power of professional flashes to smartphones with their proprietary Profoto AirX technology’
The Profoto Camera app for Android is available for free in the Google Play Store as an ‘early access’ beta starting today for the following Samsung smartphones running Android OS 8 or later:
Galaxy S8 line
Galaxy S9 line
Galaxy S10 line
Galaxy S20 line
Galaxy Note 9 line
Galaxy Note 10 line
Galaxy Note 20 line
Profoto doesn’t specify when the app will likely be out of beta, nor when we can expect to see support for other phones. It’s likely going to be a slow-going process, as Profoto needs to create specific algorithms for each device to ensure compatibility with the onboard camera systems—no small feat considering the fragmentation of devices running Android OS.
Google has released an updated version of the Google Photos app for Android, bringing with it a few new features, including an after-capture Portrait Light mode, a one-tap editing feature and a slightly revamped editing interface.
As Google briefly demonstrated during yesterday’s Pixel 5 event, the new Portrait Light mode will edit the image to appear as though there’s light coming from a light source not actually in the image. While limited to Google’s new Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 devices for the time being, this feature lets you apply ‘lighting’ in post-production by editing the image to appear as though it’s coming from a specific direction.
As noted by PetaPixel, it’s possible this new adjustable lighting technology is derived from a research project Google participated in back in 2019. Google says this feature will be coming to other Pixel devices, but doesn’t specify which ones or a definitive timeframe.
Also included in this Google Photos update is a one-tap editing feature that uses ‘machine learning to give you suggestions that are tailored to the specific photo you’re editing.’ In its current form, only three suggestions are available: Black and White, color Pop and Enhance, but Google says more options for landscapes, portraits and more will be available ‘in the coming months.’
Google has also changed the user interface (UI) of the manual editing tools. There’s now a scrollable toolbar at the bottom with round buttons and icons, akin to the interface of Apple’s Photo app, VSCO and others. This updated interface, in theory, makes it easier to quickly find the settings you need and make the appropriate adjustments.
This update will go live in the Google Play Store this week. If you don’t already have the Google Photos app, you can download it for free; if you do, be sure to keep an eye out for updates. Google hasn’t specified whether or not we’ll see these new features and redesign make their way to the iOS version of the app.
Professional smartphone video capture app, FiLMiC Pro, has received a new update that adds the ability to stream a clean HDMI output to external livestreaming and recording solutions.
FiLMiC Pro version 6.12 supports a clean HDMI output over compatible HDMI adapters or over Wi-Fi using AirPlay (limited to iOS devices). You can even use multiple smartphones at once running FiLMic Pro to create a multi-cam setup that can be controlled by a livestreaming program such as OBS Studio or a hardware solution such as an ATEM Mini from Blackmagic Design. When paired with the FiLMiC Remote app (Android, iOS), it’s also possible to control each of the cameras wirelessly for more fine-tuned control.
A screenshot from the above tutorial showing how you can use FiLMiC Pro to turn your smartphone into a webcam with the help of an USB HDMI input adapter.
In addition to livestreaming and recording options, this functionality also means you can use your smartphone as a webcam when paired with an HDMI input device, such as an Elgato CamLink 4K. Output resolutions are limited by the devices being used, but in general, Lightning-based iOS devices are capable of 1080/60p output, USB-C iOS devices are capable of 4K/60p and select Samsung devices can max out at 4K DCI 60p.
FiLMiC Pro is available for both Android and iOS devices for $ 15. The update is free for existing users. If you want to find out more about FiLMiC Pro, head over to FiLMiC’s comprehensive support page.
The latest upcoming evolution of Android, version 11, will introduce a fairly small but unwanted change about which some smartphone owners are already complaining: elimination of the camera selection menu. Going forward, Android users will only be able to access the device’s pre-installed camera app when attempting to take a photo through a third-party app, something Google has confirmed and described as necessary for privacy and security.
Though Android devices come with a stock camera app, users have a huge number of alternative options available in the Play Store, including ones that feature ‘pro’ controls. When a user attempts to capture an image through a third-party app, such as an auction app that supports directly capturing images rather than uploading from the camera roll, they may be presented with a menu that asks which installed camera app should be used.
When the Android 11 update rolls out, however, this will change and users will no longer be given this option, as recently spied by Android Police. Instead, the third-party app will default to the device’s stock camera app. To get around this, users would have to first launch their preferred camera app, capture the images they need, then upload those images in the third-party app from the camera roll — a process that would take considerably longer than directly launching the desired app.
News of this change seems to have first surfaced on Reddit’s Android Dev community, where developers have expressed frustration and concerns about the restriction.
Google itself details this change on its Android Developer website, stating that, ‘Media intent actions require system default camera.’ In this case, ‘intent’ refers to the third-party app’s intent to capture an image, but its dependency on the device’s camera apps due to its own lack of built-in camera functionality.
When questioned about the change on its Issue Tracker website, a Google employee stated that the lack of third-party camera selection was an intended behavior and that despite potentially making things more complicated for developers, ‘we believe it’s the right trade-off to protect the privacy and security of our users.’
The idea is that while the Google Play Store takes steps to protect users from malicious apps, some still manage to get through to users. In addition, Android allows users to sideload apps that haven’t gone through the security vetting process, potentially putting themselves at risk. A malicious camera app may compromise the user’s privacy, gathering anything from images to location data.
Whether that risk is an adequate reason for restricting the third-party camera picker is a point of contention among developers. While some acknowledge the security benefits of ensuring users don’t accidentally use malicious third-party camera apps, others note that users are likely to blame developers for this restriction.
Beyond that, users are deprived of the freedom of choice that has made Android an appealing platform to many. Whereas Apple has historically restricted users in ways intended to protect their privacy, Android users have enjoyed more control over their devices, including the ability to load apps outside of the Google Play Store — even if it does come with risks that average users may not understand.
Some developers and users have expressed concerns that Google’s decision to restrict the camera picker in the name of security may indicate a wider change behind doors that could lead to additional restrictions in the future. Whether this ends up being the case is yet to be seen.
At this point in time, Google offers developers who are unhappy with this change an option for getting around it, but it would require them to have their apps directly check for other camera options by looking for their package names. This isn’t a terribly useful option as developers would have to choose which packages to look for ahead of time. If the developer fails to include the specific camera app the user wants to access, they’ll still end up using the stock camera app.
The post Great Android Apps for Adding Glitch Effects to Your Images appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Megan Kennedy.
In digital photography, glitches are usually avoided at all costs. However, there are some who welcome the whimsical aesthetic of glitch art. Here are four of the best Android apps that can be used to add artificial glitch effects to your images.
What is glitch art?
Generally, the word glitch refers to a visual or audio malfunction occurring in a media format.
Music, video games, and digital photography; all technology can succumb to glitches. While often viewed as an unwelcome occurrence, glitches have, over time, garnered a growing amount of creative interest. That’s where glitch art comes in.
Glitch art embraces the glitch as an artistic event spawned by the development of technology.
Glitch art is created by artists who embrace the nature of the glitch for its aesthetic and audible qualities. By either intentionally creating glitches or capturing them as they occur organically, artists elevate the status of the glitch from a technical irritation to an intriguing insight into the technology we surround ourselves with.
One of the earliest examples of glitch art was orchestrated by the art collective JODI. Founded by Joan Heemskert and Dirk Paesmans, JODI operated on experiments like deliberately causing errors on their website to evoke error messages. From there, artists have adopted the glitch aesthetic as a means of conveying ideas and exploring the technological landscape.
How is glitch art made?
Glitch art can be achieved in various ways.
For example, misalignment glitches are the result of a digital file being opened by a program that is ill-equipped to process that specific type of file.
Hardware failure glitches, on the other hand, are caused by tampering with the physical mechanisms of a machine itself.
Databending refers to the manipulation of file data with programs like hex editors.
An example of glitch art made with a hex editor.
The appreciation for glitch art has spread across the globe, with many glitch artists sharing their broad range of technical approaches to the format online. And with the growing number of glitch art apps available at little or no cost to the user, glitch effects have been an increasingly popular presence in art and social media.
Now let’s take a look at the best Android apps for creating glitch effects:
Glitch Lab
Glitch Lab operates on the central theme of being “simple to use yet at the same time endlessly configurable.” With an impressive amount of free presents and adjustments available to induce glitched imagery, all alterations can be tweaked with an easy-to-use interface, creating rich layers of visual chaos.
In addition, Glitch Lab offers some basic photo adjustments as well as a Generate function, which allows a user to generate glitch art from scratch, without the use of a photo as a starting point.
Glitch!
Simple to use and with a good amount of free features, Glitch! is one of the most popular glitch art apps available. With glitch effects like Scanner, Hacker, and Paintbrush, Glitch! realistically imitates manual glitching techniques. Premium functions include a Datamosh preset and video-based options.
Glitcho
The Glitcho app allows a user to glitch photos and videos in real-time, which can be handy for quick adjustments and previews. The app also offers a GIF-generating function, which animates some glitch effects applied to images.
Glitcho has a range of free glitch presets that can be applied to both photos and videos. The app also offers additional glitch effects that can be unlocked by watching ads or by upgrading to Glitcho Pro.
EZGlitch
Like Glitcho, EZGlitch provides glitch effects to create glitched photography and videography in real-time. The in-app purchases available in EZGlitch are balanced by the range of filters on offer at no charge to the user.
EZGlitch is also equipped with a simple-to-use Auto GIF function to generate animated glitchy GIF or MP4 files to save and share.
Conclusion
If you’ve recently looked for glitch-based editing apps on the Play Store, you’ll have seen a myriad of different options on offer.
While it may take some trial and error to find the glitch app that works best for you, these four apps are a great entry point, allowing for quick and easy glitch effects on your Android device.
The post Great Android Apps for Adding Glitch Effects to Your Images appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Megan Kennedy.
Adobe has launched its Photoshop Camera application for Android and iOS devices. The app, previewed last November, utilizes Adobe’s artificial intelligence technology, Sensei, to deliver highly-stylized and filters and camera effects in real-time as you capture images.
The Adobe Photoshop Camera app is designed to help users capture ‘gorgeous selfies, food and scenery shots, and more.’ The application includes numerous automatic image adjustment tools via a Magic Wand tool, such as portrait relighting and lens distortion correction.
The app includes different categories of ‘Lenses’, which act like filters: Portrait, Pop Art, Spectrum, filters inspired by Billie Eilish, Artful, Food, Scenery, Blue Skies and Reverie. Each Lens includes numerous filters, such as Blue Skies Lenses with different cloud formations. Users can also download additional Lenses created by various influential photographers and Instagram users.
Screenshot from Adobe Photoshop Camera app for iOS
Within the Photoshop Camera app, users can edit their captured images through a variety of basic editing tools. You can adjust shadow detail, highlight detail, clarity, vibrance, exposure, contrast, white level, black level and saturation. As mentioned earlier, there is also an automatic adjustment performed, which happens as soon as you view an image in your library. You can also tap a Photoshop Express button at the top of the display to take your image into the Photoshop Express app for additional and more in-depth adjustments.
In a hands-on with Photoshop Camera, the application worked well. The application made automatic adjustments and determined that the ‘Scenery Lens’ would be a good starting place for me to select from different filter options. I also tried out the ‘Artful’ lens, which was quickly applied to my image. In other photos, the app did a good job of picking out the sky, although unsurprisingly, its sky replacement is not as sophisticated nor as effective as what you find in Skylum’s Luminar software.
Speaking to The Verge, Adobe CTO Abhay Parasnis stated the goal of Photoshop Camera is to ‘bring the magic of Photoshop directly to your camera’s viewfinder.’ When Adobe introduced Photoshop Camera last fall, it notes the app’s role in broadening the appeal and overall platform strength of Adobe Creative Cloud, its subscription-based software ecosystem. Alluding to appealing to future Creative Cloud consumers, Adobe said, ‘We are committed to investing in accessible tools like Photoshop Camera built for the next generation of consumers and creatives.’
Adobe Photoshop Camera is available as a free download with in-app purchases for Android and iOS.
A number of Android smartphones are at risk of suffering a fatal system error if the user sets a specific image as their wallpaper. The discovery was first publicized by popular Twitter account Ice Universe and has since been confirmed by users who tested the warning for themselves. The issue, it turns out, is the image’s color space and Android’s current inability to deal with it.
There’s nothing inherently malicious about the image shared by Ice Universe; it shows an idyllic landscape complete with water, mountains and clouds. The problem, investigators have discovered, is that its color space is incompatible with Android, which currently doesn’t have a method in place to detect this incompatibility and convert the image to color space it supports.
Setting the image as an Android wallpaper will cause the phone to crash; it will reboot, but soon crash again, in most cases doing this too quickly for the user to change their wallpaper to something else. As a result, the user is forced to factory reset the device, losing any images and other data that wasn’t backed up beforehand.
WARNING??? Never set this picture as wallpaper, especially for Samsung mobile phone users! It will cause your phone to crash! Don’t try it! If someone sends you this picture, please ignore it. pic.twitter.com/rVbozJdhkL
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) May 31, 2020
As expected, this issue isn’t limited to only this particular image — any non-sRGB image may potentially cause the same crash. Android Authority recently spoke with a developer who shed light on the problem with a long, technical answer for those who are interested. Put simply: Android can only deal with sRGB images as wallpapers and doesn’t currently know how to handle certain non-sRGB images, triggering an infinite loop of fatal errors that forces the user to factory reset their device.
As noted by multiple Android developers, as well as 9to5Google, not all Android phones are vulnerable to this bug, though many major ones are, including older Google Pixel phones, Samsung smartphones and more. 9to5Google‘s Dylan Roussel reports that the Pixel 4 XL running Android 11 doesn’t not crash from this image while the Pixel 3 XL on Android 10 does.
In Android 11, the system will detect if the wallpaper’s color space isn’t supported and will convert it to something it does support. Though Android 10 doesn’t have this same capability, it seems Google is already working on a fix for this problem, which means older Android phones that don’t update to Android 11 will eventually be protected from the bug, as well.
Until that happens, however, there’s a big problem for Android users: now that the bug has been widely publicized, there will no doubt be some people who deliberately seed these problematic images to mobile wallpaper websites in an effort to crash devices.
Though the bug doesn’t totally brick the device, it does often force a factory reset; many users report being unable to resolve the issue in Safe Mode. This means that many users who aren’t careful may end up losing some of their data.
Ice Universe notes that when the image is uploaded to other social media websites, it is converted and becomes safe to use with Android; only the image uploaded to Twitter retains its problematic color space.
To protect one’s self, Android users can avoid publically offered wallpapers until the Android 11 update arrives, they can limit their wallpapers to their own images or official manufacturer theme stores or there’s always the option of manually checking that an image is compatible before setting it as one’s Android wallpaper.
Moment has revealed it’s discontinued the Android version of its Pro Camera mobile app. The reason, according to a statement shared on Moment’s help website, is the difficulty involved in supporting a wide variety of Android devices from different manufacturers, otherwise referred to as fragmentation.
A number of issues compelled Moment to discontinue Pro Camera for Android, the company said in a statement. ‘The short is that phone makers like to create their own flavor of Android, each with different amounts of access to select camera features,’ Moment said. ‘The result has been a random compatibility list where each phone has different features in the app by phone model.’
Moment explains that it repeatedly asked phone manufacturers to make their camera features available to the developer and to share the list of the changes they made to the devices. On top of that, each new Android update released by these companies ‘breaks these custom modifications,’ making things more difficult for developers.
Ultimately, Moment says that it does not have ‘the engineering bandwidth’ to continue supporting this app, but that it will continue to make it available in the Google Play Store, where it is sold for $ 4. The app currently has a low rating of 2.4 out of 5 stars, with users complaining about bugs and missing features.
