A Look Into: Google’s New & Improved Official Camera App

For any smartphone user, no matter which mobile OS you are on, the camera app is one of the more oft-used apps. Many of us opt for third-party camera apps because they are more solidly built than what the stock apps have to offer. But now, Android users may want to reconsider trying out the new and improved Google camera app, just released in the Play Store. If you cannot download the app via Play Store, download the APK file directly here.

It’s better, sleekier and has a few pretty cool feaures you would want to try out, like Lens Blur andPhoto Sphere. And better yet the official Google Camera app is no longer confined to Nexus and GPE (Google Play Experience) devices only. You can run it on any Android device running KitKat 4.4 and above.

New & Upgraded Features

The previous stock Camera was found wanting both in design and functionality, so this new Camera app is definitely a long-awaited improvement. Most of the app functions as a typical in-built camera app but what distinguishes this new revamped app from the previous version is the updated Photo Sphere and the new Lens Blur function. Let’s check out what this app has to offer.

Lens Blur

Lens Blur is finally here, a feature that allows your device camera to focus on a target while having the background blurred out. This is a common feature found on Single-Lens Reflex (SLR/DLSR) cameras, and it’s now available via this app.

In Lens Blur mode, you just have to shoot the subject, then slowly raise the device while keeping the subject in the center of the frame. The app will help guide you through the process with on-screen instructions.

You can adjust the blur level after you have captured the shot. The blur level will only focus onblurring the blackground, not the subject. That will happen as long as the camera can tell the difference between your subject and the background.

Photo Sphere

This one is an app that will give the panorama mode a run for its money. It’s far from a new feature but you’ll definitely love playing around with it once you get the hang of it.

The moment you fire up Photo Sphere, you will notice 4 dots on the four sides, left, ride, up and down, after you make a snapshot. These dots are there to help you focus your device camera to create the perfect Photo Sphere. Shift your camera to align with the dots and the app will help you stitch the images together. How far can you go with this? A full 360 degrees!

There’s more, the new Photo Sphere can now capture up to 50 megapixels, providing more details in your photo sphere picture. Here is an example.

Other Features

There are a few other minor tweaks to some of the other features, namely:

Improved Panaroma – The newly improved Panaroma mode, allows you to capture the full width of a scene in higher detail.

Google Says No To Vertical Video – Don’t you hate it when you take a video that ends up in the wrong orientation? Unlike photos, videos can’t be rotated just as easily. This Camera app will remind you to rotate the device when you try to capture a video in vertical mode. You can ignore the warning and still record your videos this way, but do reconsider by watching this video first.

Better Interface – Did the previous Camera app frustrate you with its interface? Fret no more. Features are now labeled properly, taking out most of the guesswork. Instead of the old sliding arc controls, the Camera features are now presented nicely in a menu by swiping to the right and by tapping on the menu button at the bottom right.

Of Edges And Sharp Corners – 20 Cool Geometric Art Pieces

Geometric shapes are widely used in graphic design these days. You can find them on items like t-shirts to coasters. It’s one of the big trends that is hard to define, encompassing complex and large-scale patterns as well as simple shapes.

An ordinary triangle or a circle can totally change a photograph or illustration giving it new mystery, depth and meaning.

Here, we’ve put together 20 clever art pieces showing how circles, squares, rectangles and triangles can create stunning alternatives of what we don’t normally see in art. In the list, we feature creative business cards, illustrations, posters and editorial pieces that feature geometrical forms.

Have a browse through these creative creations and who knows, maybe it’ll encourage you to create some awesome geometrically inclined designs of your own.

Wolf in sheep skin by Kevin Harald Campean

Mixed Media by Sarah Eisenlohr

neutral. by LyKy Dragos

Space Out by Ross Bruggink

Polyanimal Project by Matt Rudinski

Lumi – Killscreen Magazine by Nicola Felasquez Felaco

Alice no País das Maravilhas by oraviva! designers

Geomas Type by Josip Kelava

Geometric Reveries by Bob Sparks

Typeforce 4 Submission Announcement by Will Miller

Thrift Store branding & collateral by Ally Simmons

ANIMAL SLANG by Marc Vila

Working Simply by Design Etiquette

Sea Level Album Art by Jeremiah Shaw

Yosemite X Eason Lee by Eason Lee

Basement Jaxx Single Cover by Sam Aylard

Encounter Mara by K&i Design Studio

Tanagram Furs by Patrick Sluiter

Calling from The Wild by Adam W-E

Hipster Illustrations by Kristýna Konečná

Bloggers: 6 Free Editing Tools For Better Writing

After hours of researching facts and figures, organizing your notes like crazy, and hammering away at your keyboard, you’re finally done with your killer blog post. Congratulations for making it that far. Not all blog post ideas get turned into working drafts. Now, all you have to do is edit. That might take anywhere from a few minutes to an hour, depending on the quality of your draft.

Seems like a lot of work, eh? That’s not really an issue if blogging is nothing more than a hobby to you. But when your entire livelihood depends on your ability to churn out posts on a daily basis, spending too much time polishing each post is impractical and dangerous to your business.

Of course, quality isn’t something you should sacrifice, no matter how clogged up your blogging schedule is. To solve this dilemma, you can either hire an editor to clean up your work, or purchase editing software online.

But then, in those cases, there’s no real guarantee that you’ll get what you pay for. So what’s a blogger who’s strapped for time and cash to do? Why, use these free editing tools available online, of course!

1. After The Deadline

After the Deadline (AtD) doesn’t just flag and give suggestions for your spelling, grammar, and style. It also concisely explains the reasons behind the corrections given. That means that the longer you use AtD, the better a blogger you become!

According to the developers, AtD can:

• Recommend the right word 90 percent of the time;
• Detect approximately 1,500 misused words;
• Help you write clearly and concisely using thousands of rules in "Plain English" style
• Use statistics to find exceptions to grammar rules.

AtD is available as a plugin, add-on, or extension for platforms like WordPress, bbPress, Firefox, Google Chrome, OpenOffice.org Writer, and the IntenseDebate comment system.

2. ProWritingAid

Like AtD, ProWritingAid not only tells you what to improve, but also how to improve. It has the ability to generate a detailed analysis on overused words, sentence length, writing style, plagiarism, clichés, redundancies, "sticky" sentences, consistency, and the like.

Although you need to download the Premium version to enjoy all of its features, ProWritingAid’s free version is enough for most types of blog posts.

3. EditMinion

Don’t let the site’s inelegant design fool you. EditMinion takes only a few seconds to check your work for the usual signs of weak writing, like adverbs, overuse of "said", passive voice, ending with prepositions, tricky homonyms and more.

EditMinion generates a report card for your reference, and allows you to add "hashtags" for easier editing. As of this writing, though, the site is still in Beta stage, so use it with care!

4. HemingwayApp

Ever wish you had Hemingway’s terse yet punchy writing style? Well, your wish can come true now, thanks to the brilliant minds behind HemingwayApp. Here, your copy will be assessed based on readability, number of adverbs, number of complex words, and number of times you use the passive voice.

The app also detects spelling errors, although it’s not much help in the grammar department. In case you need to use it offline, a desktop version of the app is also available for $5.

5. WordCounter

Whether you want to check for keyword frequency, or you just have a tendency to be repetitive with words, WordCounter.com is the answer. As its name suggests, WordCounter counts and ranks words according to frequency. The apps is great for reducing redundancy and/or repetitive writing in your copy.

You can also include "small" words, use only root words, and adjust the number of words listed by the app. You can use this primarily as an analysis tool, checking your drafts as you keep honing them to perfection.

6. ClicheFinder

Do cliches drive you crazy? If "Yes", ClicheFinder might be a godsend for you. Just paste your post in the space provided, click the "Find Clichés" button, and presto! Every cringe-worthy phrase will be highlighted in red. You can either rewrite these phrases to make them sound simpler and fresher, or toss them into the back-burner like the blights on language that they are (har har)!

If you experience the message "Unhandled Exception: An unhandled exception was thrown by the application," don’t be alarmed. It’s possible that your text doesn’t contain any clichés at all, so the system’s going all wonky on you.

10 Virtual Instruments You Can Play In Your Web Browser

If you’re a musician, you probably know how annoying it can be to be away from your instrument(s). At times when you can’t have your instrument with you but you feel like you need to belt out a tune or two, perhaps you can seek solace in browser-based virtual instruments. If you ever feel the need to scratch that musical itch, you could do worse than play around with any one of these 10 virtual instruments.

Bear in mind that these virtual instruments aren’t quite ready to replace a good hardware or software instrument. They’re definitely good indicators of what may eventually be possible in the future though, as far as browser-based music is concerned. As you might expect, most of thesevirtual instruments are synthesizers, but that doesn’t stop them from being really fun.

Besides, who knows, maybe we’ll see a worthy browser-based recreation of an electric guitar in the near future?

1. WebSID

If you’re a child of the 80′s then the WebSID will definitely bring back some memories. The WebSID is a digital recreation of the iconic SID sound chip, as used in the Commodore 64. It’s very simple and easy to use, with a straightforward interface, and can be played using your computer keyboard. The on-screen keyboard also responds to touch if you’re accessing it on a smartphone or tablet.

WebSID also comes with a built-in delay effect for more sound design possibilities. WebSID is also available on the Chrome Web Store so that you can play the synth offline. Note that since it was built using the WebAudio API, it only works in browsers that support HTML5 audio.

2. Webotribe

The Webotribe is a digital recreation of Korg’s popular Monotribe analogue groovebox. Just like the hardware, the Webotribe is a monophonic synth, drum machine and sequencer, all rolled into one. The sound is relatively faithful to the original too. It’s not a very complex drum machine or sequencer, but it is intuitive and the simplicity makes it a lot of fun to play.

One interesting thing is that the designer of the Monotribe actually helped the developer improve his emulation of the Monotribe. The Webotribe is a Java applet, so you need to have Java installed. Aside from the Webotribe, the author also has a lot of other virtual synths on the website that you can play around with.

3. MZ-101

The MZ-101 is a monophonic synthesizer inspired by the monophonic analog synths of the 1970s and 1980s, such as the Roland SH-101. The MZ-101 won’t win any awards for complexity, but it’s worth remembering that a lot of hit records were made using synthesizers with similar features. The MZ-101 lets you load and save presets, and you can even share your presets on Twitter.

You can play the synth using your computer keyboard or by clicking on the on-screen keys. Like most browser-based synthesizers, MZ-101 relies on the Web Audio API and thus won’t work in browsers that don’t support the API.

4. Inudge

Inudge is an easy-to-use tone matrix. Think of it as a way to create looping musical patterns by simply clicking on a 16×16 grid and "drawing" the patterns you want. You don’t even need to know any musical theory; all the pitches are within the pentatonic scale so almost anything you come up with will still be in tune. Inudge has eight different sounds, including one drum machine.

Inudge also has a Get & Share feature that lets you email your creations to friends and family, as well as generate a link that you can post online. You can also embed the inudge widget using the HTML code provided. Inudge is a Flash application, so there shouldn’t be any issues with regards to web browser compatibility.

5. Sympathetic Synthesizer System Mk 1

The Sympathetic Synthesizer System Mk 1 is a simple-to-use synth with a sound that brings to mind the glory days of the 1980s and early 1990s videogaming. It doesn’t try and emulate any particular synth or chip, unlike the WebSID, but the sound it produces is definitely more reminiscent of videogaming than it is of the analogue synths of the same period.

You can play the Sympathetic Synthesizer System Mk 1 using either your computer keyboard or the on-screen keys. The Sympathetic Synthesizer System Mk 1 was built using the WebAudio API, so it only runs on browsers that support the API.

6. Patternsketch

Patternsketch is an audio sequencer and drum machine. You can create patterns or play the drumkit in real time using your computer keyboard. Patternsketch has a few different drumkitsto choose from, ranging from realistic Jazz and Live drumkits to electronic drumkits as well as drumkits based on the Roland TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines. Patternsketch also comes with a few premade drum patterns.

You can save and share your patterns, opening up the possibility of collaboration. You can alsoexport your patterns as WAV, MP3 or OGG files for offline listening, and you can even send your pattern directly to Soundcloud. Patternsketch works best in Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

7. TrueGrid

TrueGrid is definitely for experimental musicians and anyone interested in modular synths. In a nutshell, a modular synth doesn’t have a predeterimined signal path, and has individual modules that can be linked together in many different ways. TrueGrid is a digital recreation of a modular synth, letting you patch modules together to create many different types of sounds. While it doesn’t have a keyboard, you can use your MIDI keyboard to play the synth if you’re using Chrome.

TrueGrid is still in beta and still has some limitations. There aren’t that many modules available yet, and you can’t select modules from within the tool just yet. Instead, you’ll have to register on ModularGrid and use the site’s modular planner to create a synth. TrueGrid works best in Google Chrome.

8. WebModular

WebModular is a much simpler modular synthesizer that harkens back to synths such as the ARP 2600. WebModular, like TrueGrid, lets you create your own signal flow, but is geared towards more conventional sounds. It also has an on-screen keyboard and supports modern Music Macro Language(MML), so you can just write out a melody or riff, or even an entire song, and have the synth play it back.

WebModular has a few presets that you can load to help you get started. WebModular is built using the Web Audio API, but the developer is also testing a Javascript and Flash combination for browsers that don’t support the Web Audio API.

9. Patchwork

Patchwork is an advanced modular sound synthesis tool. Like TrueGrid, Patchwork lets you link together various sound generators, effects, sequencers and utility modules to create anything from dubstep-worthy basslines to otherworldly electronic soundscapes. The flexible and modular nature of Patchwork means that the only thing limiting you is your creativity.

Patchwork lets you save and share patches. Pressing the Share Your Patch button at the bottom of the screen will save the current patch on the server and generate a link that will automatically open the patch. Patchwork was built using Flash, so it should work equally well in all browsers.

10. Audiotool

Audiotool is a remarkably feature-rich music making tool that’s more than just a virtual instrument. Audiotool has four synthesizers and three drum machines. Audiotool also comes with effects that can be used to modify the instruments’ sounds such as distortion, reverb and delay. Audiotool also has sequencing capabilities, so you can sequence and compose entire songs.

If you’re not interested in composing and just want to noodle around playing one of the virtual instruments, pressing Caps Lock on your keyboard will let you play Audiotool’s instruments using your computer keyboard. Audiotool was built using Flash and should play nicely regardless of browser.

Personalize Your Gmail Interface With Gmelius

If you spend a lot of time in Gmail, composing and replying to emails, you’ve probably started wishing that there were certain things you could change in order to improve your Gmail experience. Maybe you miss the old compose window, or maybe you wish that you didn’t have to look at all those ads, or perhaps you’d like the option of tweaking the interface here and there to suit your needs and tastes. Well, you can stop wishing, because Gmelius is here.

Gmelius is a browser extension that aims to provide a cleaner and smarter Gmail experience. It lets you customize the Gmail interface, showing only the elements you need and hiding the rest. Whether you want to reduce clutter or just want to freshen Gmail up, Gmelius is the extension for you.

Getting Started With Gmelius

Gmelius is available for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Opera. All three versions of the extension should work identically; we’ll be taking a look at the Google Chrome version in this post. Note that you can also download the extension from the official website, which should detect the browser you’re using and offer the correct version for download.

Either way, once you’ve installed Gmelius, you should instantly be taken to its configuration screen. No extra logins or anything of the sort to worry about.

Gmelius Features

As you can see from the configuration screen, Gmelius has a lot of features, grouped into separate categories, that will help you get your Gmail interface just right. We don’t have the space to discuss every single feature in depth, so here’s a quick run-through of the more notable features.

All of the options in the Regain some space in Gmail category have to do with removing certain elements of the Gmail interface, freeing up screen real estate for the important things, namely the emails themselves. Amongst the interface elements you can disable include Ads, the People Widget, the footer, all the chat-related elements and the scrollbar.

There are also options that can tweak how the Gmail Header works. You can enable things such as an additional button to hide and show the Gmail header bar, the ability to automatically scroll to the top of your inbox by clicking the topmost light grey bar, as well as hide Google+ Activity.

The Gmail inbox category houses all the features that change the inbox itself. You can enable asubtle row highlight when you mouse over emails, homogenize all incoming emails, add text to and colorize navigation icons as well as restore the old Gmail compose window. Do bear in mind that the old compose window is still in beta, so you may encounter some small bugs here and there.

Finally, Gmelius also has the ability to add attachment icons to your inbox. By default, the Gmail inbox only shows that there’s an attachment with that small paperclip icon, without showing what sort of attachment it is. Enabling this feature changes this paperclip icon to an icon that matches the type of file that’s attached to the email. More than 40 filetypes are currently supported.

Premium Features

Gmelius also includes a few premium features. These features are free to use while the extension is in beta, but expect to have to pay for them once the extension leaves beta.

There are currently two options in the Make Gmail Smarter category. Firstly, you can enable the ability to search Gmail directly from the omnibox or address bar, which is a very handy feature that most will probably find useful. There’s also a feature that that automatically simplifies email addresses, replacing "[at]" and "[dot]" with the more readable "@" and ".", that’s enabled by default.

There’s also a Print cleaner emails option. This option removes the Gmail logo and modifies Gmail’s printing stylesheet to make your printed emails look more professional. The modified stylesheet also lets you include more text in a single page, quite handy for those really long emails. This feature is also enabled by default.

Conclusion

As you can see, Gmelius is a great solution for anyone who’s not entirely thrilled with the Gmail interface and wants to change things up a bit. Between hiding unused interface elements to tweaking the colors and behavior of the Gmail inbox, Gmelius has probably got you covered. Gmelius is currently free, with no charge for the Premium features yet, but you can donate to the developer if you like the extension.