Ever wanted to look at the way that Earth has changed over the years? Google has put together an interesting Timelapse series doing just that. In the blog post, the company states that they worked with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), NASA and TIME–continuing to relay that these were created from millions of images and trillions of pixels.
“…we sifted through 2,068,467 images—a total of 909 terabytes of data—to find the highest-quality pixels (e.g., those without clouds), for every year since 1984 and for every spot on Earth. We then compiled these into enormous planetary images, 1.78 terapixels each, one for each year.”
While most timelapses take place over a period of a couple of hours, this one goes for years. It clearly shows the erosion of coasts, the movement of clouds, deforestation, etc.
And when put this way, Google has created a scary but realistic sense of exactly what we’re doing to our environment.
Via the Verge
Just in case you had no idea the company who makes those fantastic Plugins also makes Nikons Capture NX software. That company is Nik and they were bought out by Google not too long ago. Just the other day Google showed off their new branding and pricing for their newly acquired company but didn’t let out a peep about Capture NX. Nikon has been working with Nik for some time now and even know their names are close they’ve have only been partners in software and nothing else. Someone reached out to Nikon Rumors after the announcement and it seems that development isn’t going to continue on a future version of Capture NX.
Now nothing has been made public or official about the future of Capture NX but we will have to assume there are delays up ahead for future versions. This is all hearsay for the most part anyway, some reports online state that Nik hasn’t done too much in the overall development but I’ve heard different during my time spent working closely with the company.
In the end it’s not a huge deal breaker, there are only a few people who actually use that software and depend on it.
Google has released version 4.3 of their Google+ social app with fancy new filters. The filters are very Snapseed like and have similar names. Filters can be tapped to shuffle the look between a few different styles. Along with the filters you can now rotate and crop images before they are posted to share with friends. Instagram competition, anyone?
Google+ for iOS seems to be the only one with the update at the time and it can be snagged here. It should also be mentioned that Snapseed for iOS has been updated today as well and it can be grabbed for free here.
Everyone can let out a big sigh now because Nik is still alive and kicking, that is of course under the Google brand. Along with the new name the Nik Collection is now an all in one bundle instead of individual products. If you currently own the latest version of Nik’s plugins there is no need to upgrade to this version, it is identical to their previous release.
Perhaps the biggest news besides confirmation that Nik is still alive is the new price. Instead of being priced around $100 for each plugin the entire suite is now available for $150. So for the price you now get HDR Efex Pro 2, Color Efex Pro 4, Silver Efex Pro 2, Viveza 2, Sharpener Pro 3 and Define 2. For more information about the collection please refer to Nik’s new homepage.
Just now Google decided to sunset their Reader service and decided to add a bit of Snapseed to the mix. You’ll have to excuse me because at the moment I’m seeing red because Google Reader is a part of my life.
To focus on the photography related news Google has retired only the Desktop version of the app. Im not sure what the motive is behind this but it looks like Google is attempting to streamline. They are trying to cut out the excess services so they can focus their people. Before Google bought NIK my good friend was the head of Snapseed but he left after the acquisition This should put some fear in the hearts of those of us who still use NIK’s plugins as an essential part of our workflow.
The only good news that I can share with our readers is that the NIK team at the moment is still alive and kicking. As a part of the beta team I can tell you that the community is still actively working on making the products better.
The image sharing wars are heating up even more. First, Instagram lost a ton of followers due to their TOS agreement change. Then a couple of days ago, we reported on a new deal between Google and Getty Images. When Google reported on the new deal on their Drive blog, they announced that “5,000 new photos of nature, weather, animals, sports, food, education, technology, music and 8 other categories are now available for your use in Docs, Sheets, and Slides.” But they weren’t clear on where the images were coming from.
Eventually it was discovered that they were coming from iStock photo. And the concerned comments numbered in the thousands. As a response to this move, users are organizing, and citing February 2nd as their very own, “D-Day.” At the time of reporting on this news, the thread is around 10 pages long. The users think that it is about quick profit and greed.
The users in the thread have mixed feelings. Some don’t want to deactivate all of their images, others will only do some, and more steadfast users are going to go all in and deactivate everything. Of any story in the image sharing world right now, this is the one to watch. iStock photo and stock photos to begin with aren’t very profitable these days, but they’ve sure angered a lot of users.
