Two years later, Google+ is still significantly behind Facebook, but
Google is putting every possible effort into making it – at least
feature-wise – the best social network on the web. As of yesterday, over
540 million users are active (logged in at least once over the past 30
days), while at least 300 million are actively posting in the “stream”,
which is a good bump from last year. Yesterday, Google announced a bunch
of new photo/video-editing and sharing tools for Google+ that we’ll be
looking at in more detail after the jump.
‘Action’ takes a bunch of photos of an action sequence – such as a skater going down a ramp – and makes a single image out of app. It is pretty similar to the Sequence Shot feature in Galaxy S4 and Note 3.
‘Eraser’ allows you remove extra objects from a photo. Took a group photo at a busy intersection? You can remove people in the background with ease. This only works if you take three or more photos at the same spot, of course.
Auto Enhance – the feature that would automatically fix color, saturation, and sharpness – itself can now be toned up or down with a simple slider, so you can ensure Google+ doesn’t erroneously blow out all colors and sharpness out of your already near-perfect image.
Google+ on Android has offered full-resolution image uploads for a long time now. Google announced on stage yesterday that the iOS app will be getting it ‘soon’, along with background syncing. We’ll be covering the app whenever Google launches it on the App Store, so stay tuned.
As of right now, Google+ is really just so far ahead of Facebook. The only thing it lacks for now is the attention of your average Joe. Joe is happy with Facebook because it does everything he needs, even if not in the best possible way.
Auto Awesome Movies
Similar to Auto Awesome for photos that would make GIFs out of a sequence of photos, ‘Auto Awesome Movies’ goes through your uploaded photos and videos, and combines them together to form montages. Google+ will apply filters, add background music, and a theme. You can, of course, change these filters later on, re-order and edit sequences, and add your own music. It is similar to iMovie on OS X, and HTC One’s built-in video-editing features.New ‘Action’, ‘Eraser’ Tools & Improved Auto Enhance For Photos
‘Action’ takes a bunch of photos of an action sequence – such as a skater going down a ramp – and makes a single image out of app. It is pretty similar to the Sequence Shot feature in Galaxy S4 and Note 3.
‘Eraser’ allows you remove extra objects from a photo. Took a group photo at a busy intersection? You can remove people in the background with ease. This only works if you take three or more photos at the same spot, of course.
Auto Enhance – the feature that would automatically fix color, saturation, and sharpness – itself can now be toned up or down with a simple slider, so you can ensure Google+ doesn’t erroneously blow out all colors and sharpness out of your already near-perfect image.
Google+ for iOS Gets Full-Resolution Image Uploads
Google+ on Android has offered full-resolution image uploads for a long time now. Google announced on stage yesterday that the iOS app will be getting it ‘soon’, along with background syncing. We’ll be covering the app whenever Google launches it on the App Store, so stay tuned.
As of right now, Google+ is really just so far ahead of Facebook. The only thing it lacks for now is the attention of your average Joe. Joe is happy with Facebook because it does everything he needs, even if not in the best possible way.
