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Researchers develop after-the-fact portrait relighting AI that works without 3D depth information

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When the iPhone X came along with its Portrait Lighting effects, a lot of people were very impressed. Apple was even claiming that you don’t need studio lighting at all anymore or any other fancy equipment. You just need your phone. And while the iPhone hasn’t taken over as the portrait photographer’s camera of choice, it’s an intriguing concept.

A concept so intriguing that researchers and engineers at UC San Diego and Google have taken it a few steps further. They’ve trained neural networks to relight portraits after the fact without requiring any 3D depth data and with a lot more control than a few Apple presets.

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Google Photos is sending your private shares public and you don’t even know it

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Researcher Robert Wiblin over at 80,000 Hours spotted something quite interesting about Google Photos recently. He noticed that privately shared links became publicly accessible. He told some friends who use Google Photos and they didn’t believe him. After all, why would Google allow such an oversight? Surely if you’re sharing privately with a specific person, then only that person can see it, right?

Apparently not. After doing a little digging, Robert was able to demonstrate that these privately shared links are publicly accessible from any Google account, or even if you’re not logged into Google at all – as shown when he was able to access a “private” shared link from an Incognito browser window.

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Google Drive is separating from Google Photos – Here’s how to keep your photos synced

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Remember when Google cloud storage used to be quite simple? You had one account to which you uploaded pretty much anything and then it was available everywhere? Yeah, well, not so much anymore. Starting from July 10th, Google will completely separate Google Photos from Google Drive. This means that if you currently back up your photos to one of them, they won’t be there in the other.

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This video explains Google’s Super Resolution algorithm in just three minutes

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There are so many new features coming to smartphone cameras these days that it can be difficult to keep up. You’ve got all kinds of HDR, fake bokeh, high resolution and high detail modes that all work in a bunch of different ways. Most of these features are there to overcome limitations in the tiny sensors that smartphones tend to contain.

One feature is Google’s Super Resolution algorithm. A computational photography technique that essentially replaces the demosaicing process used on most digital cameras. It’s quite fascinating, looks much better than most of the alternatives, and it’s pretty clever how it works.

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Google cuts off Huawei – Loses Play Store, Gmail and Android security updates

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Google has suspended business operations with Huawei, effective immediately, according to Reuters. They say that a source close to the matter has told them Google was forced to suspend business with Huawei that “requires the transfer of hardware and software products”.

What this essentially means is that all future Hauwei products are cut off. If you already have a Huawei, though, you might be ok. Probably. At least, for now. A Google spokesperson told Reuters that “Google Play and the security protections from Google Play Protect will continue to function on existing Huawei devices”

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Google disables “Photos” on Android TV after privacy bug exposes users

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Google has disabled Photos on Android TV temporarily due to a privacy bug. The bug allowed some Android TV users to view the profile photos and account names of “hundreds” of users. It was first spotted by Twitter user prashanth after trying to set up his new Android-based Vu TV.

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Google pulled 29 photo apps from the Play Store that stole photos and promoted scams

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Android’s openness is something of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it allows just about anybody to (relatively) easily write and publish mobile apps through the Play Store. But it also allows anybody to write and publish apps through the play store. And the checks to get apps approved aren’t quite as stringent as those found in Apple’s App Store.

But Google is doing something about it. They’ve just pulled 29 camera and photo apps from the Play Store after they were reportedly pushing intrusive ads, promoting porn, scamming users via phishing and even stealing content. But these apps have already been downloaded millions of times.

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Google used this crazy 5-phone case to tweak Portrait Mode on the Pixel 3

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When the Google Pixel 2 came out it was extremely impressive. Despite only having the single rear camera, it beat out everything else on DxOMark and held the position for quite a while. When the Pixel 3 was announced, it also had only the single rear camera. And despite one or two issues with the phone overall, Google made some great improvements with it.

Google has published a blog post on how they taught the Pixel 3 to predict depth for its Portrait Mode. Given that it only has a single camera, and not the dual cameras of other brands, it seems like it wouldn’t be possible, but the techniques used are pretty interesting. And involve a case that holds five separate cameras.

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Google’s Night Sight feature lets you shoot in the dark without a tripod or flash

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Google Pixel 3 may only have one rear camera, but it relies heavily on Google’s promising AI to deliver high-quality images. The latest feature Google launched for all three generations of Pixel lets you shoot clean and bright images in near darkness – even when you can barely see anything with your own eyes. It works on both front and rear cameras, and you don’t even need a tripod or a flash.

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