MacRumors

Google has updated its mobile photo and video cloud storage app Google Photos with a couple of new features, including burst photo support and a new cropping tool.

The 1.12.1 update means users can now make full use of the iPhone's burst mode capability by holding down on the app's on-screen shutter release button, as well as crop newly shot photos on the fly.

In addition, the company says Google Photos now loads faster, and users can expect reduced battery and cellular data usage when using the updated version on the go.

Google Photos was originally released last year to complement the company's web-based photo service. According to Google statistics, 200 million users have stored 13.7 petabytes of photos on the cloud platform, which offers unlimited storage.

The service supports videos in 1080p resolution and photos up to 16 megapixels, but recompresses images to increase upload speed. Meanwhile, users subscribed to a paid Google storage tier can upload 4K video and higher resolution photos.

Other app features include a visual search tool that can distinguish people, places and things without the use of tags, a movie, collage and animation creator, photo and video editing tools like filters and lighting adjustments, smart albums, Live Photos and Chromecast support.

Google Photos is a free download for iPhone and iPad available on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Google-owned Nest has unveiled Nest Cam Outdoor, its first new product since co-founder Tony Fadell left the company.

The outdoor home security camera is similar to last year's Nest Cam – now called the Nest Cam Indoor. The wired outdoor Cam captures 1080p HD video and features a two-way mic, 20-foot infrared night vision, and a 130-degree wide-angle viewing lens.

In addition, the Nest Cam Outdoor features waterproofing and a more rounded design, while a magnetized disc on the rear of the camera fixes it to external surfaces, such as house guttering.

Both cameras carry the same price tag of $199 and work with the Nest mobile app, which the company says will receive a redesign later this month. The app offers encrypted video streaming as well as additional $10-per-month, subscription-based video features, including upcoming features like wide-angle camera views and human profile detection.

The camera doesn't work with Apple's HomeKit, but Nest says it will work with Google Home, despite the camera running on its own proprietary platform.

Tony Fadell is credited as one of the original creators of the iPod, heading up the project as senior vice president of the iPod division at Apple from 2006 to 2008. He still holds a role as "advisor" to Nest, and left a two-year roadmap for the company's new CEO Marwan Fawaz, a former Motorola executive.

Apple last week added three new apps to the universal search function on the fourth-generation Apple TV, introducing support for Comedy Central, MTV, and VH1, three popular networks.

For those unfamiliar with universal search, it is a feature that lets users conduct Siri voice searches or text-based searches to find TV and movie content across a wide range of apps. At launch, universal search supported only a few apps, but Apple has been adding new apps on a regular basis.

With the addition of support for Comedy Central, MTV, and VH1, searching for shows available on those networks will now bring up options to watch content within the respective apps.

Apple maintains a dedicated support document that offers Apple TV owners a full list of content that can be found via Siri through universal search. Apple's universal search feature is largely limited to the United States. In most other countries, universal search only displays iTunes content, while Netflix is also supported in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the UK.

Facebook Messenger today was updated to version 79.0, bringing with it the debut of new Peek and Pop gestures within the messaging client. On the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, users will now be able to try out the pressure sensitive abilities of 3D Touch to more easily navigate through the app.

Within each conversation thread, 3D Touch allows for quick previews of any links or contacts posted within a message.

The company also noted that throughout the app, Peek and Pop will be available to "preview contacts, conversations, photos, videos, stickers, links and locations."

Facebook Messenger previously added 3D Touch support on its app icon with a few Quick Actions that present options to jump into recent chats, start a new message, or generate your personal messenger code to add a friend on the service.

Anyone who wants to check out the new 3D Touch features of Facebook Messenger can download the app for free from the App Store. [Direct Link]

One week after it launched in the United States, Pokémon Go is now the biggest mobile game in the country's history, in statistics focusing on the amount of daily active users (DAU) the app draws. Within the first 24 hours of launch, Pokémon Go beat out popular games like Slither.io and Clash Royale, but didn't have enough traction at the time to topple massive hits like Candy Crush Saga at its peak.

According to Survey Monkey, Niantic's app has officially done just that, breaching Candy Crush Saga's peak DAU as more and more users download the app. The numbers state that Pokémon Go has just under 21 million DAU in the United States alone, which dethrones Candy Crush Saga's peak U.S. numbers of approximately 20 million DAU (on a worldwide scale, King's app was reported to have 93 million DAU in its heyday). The record-breaking statistics make the new app "the biggest mobile game in U.S. history."

Next, Survey Monkey thinks it's possible for Pokémon Go to even topple Google Maps and Snapchat, as the augmented reality game's user numbers continue to rise in the wake of positive and enthusiastic word-of-mouth. How long the game will remain in the public consciousness -- particularly in comparison to the somewhat abandoned, first-party Nintendo app Miitomo -- is the main question mark in Pokémon Go's immediate future.

ABC today announced a rebranding of its Watch ABC app for iOS and Apple TV devices, now simply called "ABC," aimed at offering a wider breath of content as well as new, exclusive digital series for users who download the app. The interface has also been redesigned and the app is exclusive to iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV (via Entertainment Weekly).

One of the more interesting aspects of the new ABC app is that the network has added 38 full seasons of "throwback" shows, meaning that anyone can download the app and watch entire seasons of now-cancelled ABC series, without having to sign into a paid TV service account. Some of these old shows include Ugly Betty, Schoolhouse Rock, Ellen, My So-Called Life, and Dinosaurs.

“Our team has completely re-imagined the digital viewing experience for ABC fans,” said Karin Gilford, ABC’s senior vice president of digital media, in a statement. “In addition to the current ABC shows that fans know and love, we are introducing new ABCd original digital series that are fun, fresh and perfect for mobile, and we are making full seasons of all-time favorite shows available for binging.”

Otherwise, ABC will function much in the same fashion as its predecessor, allowing those who can provide proof of a TV subscription access to brand-new episodes of the latest TV from the network, like Scandal and Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., with the addition of new digital short-form video series. Users will also be able to stream live TV from within the app.

Ailing consumer electronics brand Polaroid has leant its name to a new motion photo sharing platform called Polaroid Swing which saw its release on the App Store yesterday.

Similar to Live Photos in iOS, the app lets users capture a one-second moment with their device's camera, which can then be shared over social media or in the new platform's Instagram-like social feed.

While its premise is nothing new, the quality of the motion captures is a step above that offered by typical GIF-creation apps, and records moments in 60 frames per second for smooth, crisp playback.

What's also unique to Polaroid Swing is the way users interact with the shots. Tilting the device left rewinds the moment, while angling it right advances the capture relative to the speed of the user's motion.

Floating the mouse cursor over a capture when viewed on a desktop, or sliding a finger over the shot on an iOS device, produces the same effect. Users can also embed Polaroid Swing moments as another way of sharing their experiences.

The developer team is comprised of former Apple engineers as well as the creator of Instagram's original filters and logo, Cole Rise.

Polaroid Swing is a free download for iPhone and iPad available on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Amid all the hype for Pokémon Go this week, one non-game release that's enjoying relatively quiet success in the App Store is a new photo editor called Prisma.

The brainchild of a team of Russian developers, Prisma describes itself simply as an "editor for Instagram", but has attracted far wider attention thanks to an impressive series of stylistic and art-inspired filters.

The app uses a server-side combination of neural networks and artificial intelligence to apply the 33 different filters, which can be changed in intensity using a sliding scale. The results can be immediately shared over Instagram or Facebook, or using the options found in the iOS Share Sheet.

The app is currently available in 25 different countries and has achieved 300,000 downloads each day in 10 of those markets, leading developers scrambling to double their server capacity to process all the information.

Once Prisma's developers have got to grips with the surge in popularity, the team says the app will soon add support for videos and immersive VR.

Prisma is a free download on the App Store for iPhone and iPad. [Direct Link]

Pokemon Go received its first update earlier today, fixing several bugs players had experienced since the app's release. Some users on Reddit (via The Verge) are now claiming that the update (1.01) includes a game-breaking bug that locks them out of the app.

Users who sign into the app via a Pokemon Trainer Club account rather than a Google account are now unable to access the game and its servers. Dogecoin founder Jackson Palmer debugged the network traffic and found that the app no longer sends an HTTP request when you log in with a Pokemon Trainer Club account. This indicates that the problem is with the app itself, rather than being a server issue.

Currently, the only way for users with Pokemon Trainer Club accounts to bypass the bug is to avoid updating the app to version 1.01. Due to Apple's App Store regulatory policies, it's unclear how long it will take for developer Niantic to deliver a fix.

Since its launch last week, Pokemon Go has quickly become a worldwide phenomenon, sending Nintendo's stock soaring and earning an estimated $1.6 million in daily revenue with approximately 7.5 million downloads in the United States alone.

Pokemon Go is available in the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

A judge in Amsterdam has ruled in favor of a Dutch woman [Google Translate] who sued Apple for refusing to replace her broken iPhone 6 Plus with a new model, and instead offering her a refurbished model as per its standard policy.

The court nullified the purchase agreement and ordered Apple to refund the woman the full €799 that she paid for the iPhone, which was purchased in December 2014 and stopped functioning nine months later in August 2015.

Apple being ordered to refund the purchase price plus interest and pay all of the woman's legal fees was specific to this case, but it is the precedent that could be set in the Netherlands and possibly elsewhere that is more important.

Apple's standard one-year limited warranty and extended AppleCare+ policies for iPhone in both the Netherlands and the U.S., and most other countries, explicitly state that repairs or exchanges may involve devices or parts that are either new or "equivalent to new in performance and reliability," otherwise known as refurbished.

It is common practice for Apple to replace defective iPhones with a refurbished model consisting of both new and recycled parts, and only rarely does the company provide a brand new replacement on a case-by-case situation. The court's decision in Amsterdam, however, could force Apple to change its policies.

The court filing in the Netherlands does not indicate if Apple plans to appeal the decision, but it would not be unprecedented for the company to exhaust all avenues in an effort to overturn the ruling. Apple has not publicly commented on the matter.

In 2011, facing pressure from regulators, Apple revised its warranty replacement policy for iPhones sold in South Korea, offering customers returning their defective phones within the first month of ownership the option of receiving a brand new replacement rather than refurbished units as had been standard policy.

(Thanks, Coen and Jasper!)