BLINK is a fun little camera app that came out of a summer project at Microsoft Research. It was demonstrated during the lead up to the release of Windows Phone 8 and was eventually released to the Store, receiving numerous updates over the past few months to improve things.
Today, version 2.0 has landed bringing with it a bunch of new features and new functionality. In short, it has basically become a ‘cinemagraph’ app now in addition to being able to grab the “perfect shot” as before.
Head past the break for the full change log and our quick video hands on for a tour of the new features!
Changelog
- Camera settings - change camera settings such as scene mode, exposure, white balance and ISO in capture mode
- Animation - Quickly set the motion range for animation in addition to selecting the best shot after capture
- Sharing - Share the animations to BLINK.so.cl, Facebook, or Twitter
- In-app viewing - View the animations in the in-app history, wait for a moment and they start animating!
- Web gallery - From the in-app history, view your shared BLINKs in the web gallery
- Save another - Your BLINKs are always saved within the app. Come back and save another shot to camera roll or change the animation range via "edit" in the in-app history
Dare we say, it looks like Microsoft took a page from Nokia’s book with their Cinemagraph app (though Nokia’s is still more advanced with its selective animations). Blink 2.0 builds off of the previous version nicely by giving users more control over the camera’s settings, which should make photo buffs happy.
With the animated BLINKs on board, one needs a way to share them with others (much like Nokia’s Cinemagraph issue), and so Microsoft has created a BLINK.so.cl server to upload the creations and to enable sharing with others. Unfortunately, things are still being “turned on” as our link brings us to a non-working “Private Beta” page, but that’s all backend stuff that can be sorted.
Anyway, head to the Store and pick up BLINK 2.0 for Windows Phone 8 here. Let us know in comments what you think!
Shopping for a budget laptop? Here's how to pick the right one.
Budget laptops can save you a lot of money and still be completely adequate, but there are also a lot of lemons to avoid. Here's what you should keep in mind next time you're shopping on the cheap.
Seven new HP X Series gaming monitors have been unveiled
Like flat and curved gaming monitors? Good news: HP has seven new models that have either just hit shelves or will be available for purchase in the next few months.
Everything you need to know about AMD Radeon RX 6000 GPUs
AMD has unveiled its new lineup of Radeon RX 6000-series graphics cards, with three new pieces of hardware to look forward to. Here's what you need to know.
These are all the best AMD Ryzen-powered laptops
Looking for a new laptop but you'd prefer to have something powered by AMD Ryzen rather than Intel? The choice isn't as wide, but fortunately, there are some excellent notebooks out there from which to choose.