Shooting from Satellites - Main Blog

Yep, that heading is right, in this week's blog post I used satellites to shoot cinematic video! I was able to get access to a program that Google is working on called "Google Earth Studio"! There is a small community across the internet that is working on testing and helping develop this incredible software! This week's blog video is also available on YouTube as well as Rumble! Go to my blog to read about how I created a video in this software using the blue button! 

Adobe Accelerate #3

On Wednesday, I released the 3rd episode of Adobe Accelerate! In this episode I edited in Photoshop Elements 2020 which was my main editor for a while. In the episode you will definitely see that I forgot some things (vignetting). 😂 You can see the episode using the green button below:

Photo News!

Now for the photography/tech news! I missed some news last week, so let's start with that!

-Venus Optics has a new lens for Canon & Nikon dslr's! It is 14mm with a f/4...

-Last week I found out after sending the newsletter that the rumours for the Pixel 6 were hinting at a 5x telephoto.

-A WhatsApp beta came out, testing out a new system for multidevice login!

-Google did a huge redesign of more than 900 emojis for Android. They wanted to make sure that emojis were good for all cultures. One example is the updated pie emoji that used to be a classic American pie and now is a pie that represents US and UK pies! Also, Google just wanted to celebrate national emoji day!

-Fujifilm may be releasing another camera, despite rumours implying that they were done for the year. The price... well, we don't need to talk about the $4k price tag!

Now, for this weeks news!

-WordPress.com bought the Pocketcasts app so that bloggers like me could have more options for posting podcasts. WordPress has already struck a partnership with Anchor as well and that has been ongoing for a few months. The acquisition was a very smart move because Google, Apple, & Amazon are working heavily in the Podcast space and would have likely bought it out.

-Gmail GO reached 500 Million downloads from Google Play. This is a truly shocking number considering it is the low power version of Gmail. I honestly didn't think that there were that many low powered devices utilizing Google GO.

-The worldwide chip shortage is continuing to worsen. Samsung is going to ship 20% less phones than usual. We also have known for a while now that Google has been struggling a lot, despite them denying it. Google is expected to only release the Pixel 5a 5g (a possible upcoming Google phone) in the US and Japan. Xiaomi has increased the price of their smartphones by 8%. I do plan to do a blog post about this at some point (likely on Medium).

-Well, Intel is confusing us like crazy! A new "accidental" leak showed an October launch of Windows 11. This has been confirmed by other leaks as well, it is confusing since there is supposed to be a Windows 10 update then. It may be that Windows 10 will get the final feature update for users resisting upgrading to 11.

-Google is extending repair support for the Pixel 4xl because of the battery problems when the phone launched. For most people, I believe that the phone's software fixed the battery, but Google is luckily kind enough to give extra repair service for the 4xl users.

-Kodaks Instagram photo program has been discontinued due to recent controversy regarding a post.

-Google Hangouts has reached stage 4 of discontinuation. Stage four officially kills the mobile app, the webapp/extension, and notifies G-suite customers to move to Google Chat. The online version of hangouts continues to be available and will be until August 16, 2021. This gives all users plenty of time to move to Google Chat.

-Qualcomm bought out another AI company.

-The 2nd Generation Google Pixel Buds are no longer available to buy. There is no full replacement, but the Pixel Buds A that were released a few weeks ago carry most of the same features. It might hint at an upcoming release for flagship Pixel Buds, although it is unknown at this point.

-The Google Pixel foldable rumours have returned. It is still difficult to know just how accurate these rumours are... If you have followed Pixel leaks like I have, you will know that a lot of leaks (even from well known leakers). Anyway, this leaks hints at a 120hz display, which may be the best display that Google has ever put on a phone. Google is going to use a great camera too.

-Google released new wallpapers for Google Pixel's to celebrate National Friendship day!

-The Google Pixel heads-up feature is coming to all Android phones! Basically it ensures that people don't walk across the road while looking at their phone. I don't know how it will work on other phones because I think that Google Pixels use the eye tracking (maybe).

-Realme might be releasing a tablet! And it will run Android... why?! I am not entirely against  Android tablets, I just think that there are better OS's for tablets. I am thinking of Chrome OS.

-Google's famous dinosaur game is coming to Android as a widget! If you don't know, this is the game that any device on chrome get's when there is no internet. It is one of the most well known games ever at this point. It could come with some secrets to make it better than the IOS version. This isn't confirmed, just guessing.

-Is it just me or is the Huawei P50 getting the same leaks as the Pixel 6?! There is now a rumour for a 5x telephoto!

-The latest Twitter beta allows sign in's with a Google Account! Why did this feature not already exist???

-Adobe released an inspiration generator that comes up with ideas for artists! They encourage people to share it on social media, and the idea is to challenge people's art abilities!

-Apple has been put in a tough spot for iMessage security because Google Messages on Android has RCS technology which is more secure for possibly the first time in Android & IOS history! AT&T and Verizon are pushing it to users on phones that don't use Google Messages because messaging apps from Samsung and other companies are less secure! Google has made the point that it is a mistake by Apple not to adopt this new messaging system.

-Google is working on Google Lens desktop, which may sound dumb considering laptop/desktop cameras suck, but I think that this may genuinely work. I think that small text will not work, but larger things could be okay! This will also mean support on Windows tablet devices, which normally have okay cameras. It will likely be a webapp so I don't know if Mac users will get this. Of course, Chrome OS users will get this first, and it will likely be followed by Windows.

-HBO Max is making select episodes from shows available on Snapchat. Yep, your eyes do not deceive you, I did say Snapchat. They will have group watching and more, which is definitely smart advertising. To my knowledge, no other streaming service has done this. 

-While I am on the topic of Snapchat, a new Bitmoji update came out bringing "Pixar quality"

-Google Chrome V92 came out bringing "safety checks", web app file management, better transitions for web apps, and some other cool stuff! I am absolutely loving the 4-week update cycle for Chrome! Oh yeah, apparently this also did introduce Google Lens for desktop!

-The Google "my maps" app is shutting down and because of the browser just being able to do it all.

-Select Windows 11 devices may ship with dark mode and others with light mode!

-There is a new Robotic Photo Studio was made specifically for bike photography! That is definitely very niche!

-OpenAI has discontinued its robotics research team. They will continue working on software, like I showed off in my "letting AI edit my photos" post.

-Snapchat bought out yet another AR shopping company.

One last thing for this week, I want to give a huge thank you to Google again for the Google News for Windows app! Google has patched all the bugs since last week's newsletter which is incredible! 

Okay, that is all for this week! Thank you so much for reading! Have a fabulous week! 

-Digital Wonders & Smiles