Tech that...
A ROUND-UP OF THE LATEST NEWS IN THE DIGITAL WORLD
PIXEL CAMERA BOSS JOINS ADOBE
ONE of the best things about Google’s Pixel phone is the phenomenal software behind its camera.
Innovative features like Night
Sight and Portrait Mode have really allowed the hardware to shine, despite it not being as advanced as some other smartphone cameras. But now the computational photography genius behind much of this technical wizardry has left Google and joined Adobe. Marc Levoy is a computer graphics researcher at Stanford University and has worked at Google for six years. News of his arrival at Adobe, four months after his last day at Google, coincided quite neatly with Adobe’s release of its new cross-platform smartphone app Photoshop Camera.
Although Levoy did not work on that app, he’ll be part of the team to make it better – Adobe said part of Levoy’s remit would be to work on a “universal camera app”.
So instead of confining his genius to Android, he should now be able to spread it across all platforms. It’ll be interesting to see what he does...
Marc Levoy, with Annie Leibovitz
FIND HEADSPACE IN A SNAP
YOU can now get a bit of
Headspace inside Snapchat. Snapchat-makers Snap revealed last month that they’d be bringing some little apps that run within their social platform, called Minis, and this week four of them arrived. One of the most prominent of the Mini apps is a trimmed-down version of the meditation service, Headspace The app allows users to access some simplified versions of Headspace sessions, geared to addressing specific issues like panic or lack of motivation. The mini-meditations can be done alone or with friends. Snapchat says it’s been driven to partner with Headspace on the app because its research reveals a pressing need to tackle mental health issues. Other Mini apps are Prediction Master (a game to see which of your friends is best at predicting the future), Let’s Do It (a tool to help a group of friends decide what to do together next), and Flashcards by tembo (which allows friends to learn together).
You can access any app by searching for it, or launch it from a chat by pressing the rocket icon.