Google brings Instagram like app for Android - Snapseed

Google has unveiled a content sharing app, named as Snapseed. Google brings Instagram like functions, which help users to edit images and share the same via Google+ or other social networks.

This new app has been developed by a company named as Nik Software, which has been brought by the Google previously. Last year the Snapseed application was even adjusted as the best iPad app, and was available for $4.99 for Apple devices. Although, this app is available for free on both iOS and Android platforms, and will challenge Instagram which was purchased by Facebook for a heavy amount.

As stated by the senior vice president of Google in an official blog post , "Having welcomed Nik to the Google family, we're excited to bring their Snapseed app (last year's iPad app of the year) to Android."

Snapseed has lots of new features like tune, straighten and crop, add creative filters such as drama, black and white, and vintage that users can apply individually or in combination to images. Users can also use one 'Point technology' to selectively enhance their photo-to brighten just a face, for example, or deepen just the sky. Gundotra stated," Google+ also will be adding a new feature called "Communities," which makes the "hangouts" feature of the social network into permanent locations".

He further added, "Google+ has always been a place to crowd around common interests and meet new people. What's been missing, however, are more permanent homes for all the stuff you love: the wonderful, the weird, and yes, even the things that are way out there. With Google+ Communities there's now a gathering place for your passions".

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One DIV, Holidays Calendar, Command & Conquer in HTML5, MapBox, 24 Ways and More

Every Thursday is Tech Thursday where we share a random assortment of technical links we found and liked.

• What qualities do you need to become a creative director and how do you become one? Expert creative directors share tips on how to be one.
• Five things you can do to make your terminal window more helpful.
• Dune II, one of the best games of all time, ">ported to the web by caiiiycuk using Emscripten
• 24 ways is the advent calendar for web geeks. Each day throughout December a daily dose of web design and development goodness is published to bring a little Christmas cheer to its readers.
• MapBox, is a site for designing and publishing maps that uses open source map data.
• A recreation of the original Command and Conquer game, entirely in HTML5 and JavaScript with multiplayer support using Node.js.
• A useful search tool for finding variations of domain names.
• Mozilla's @codepo8 has created a 2012 holiday calendar featuring one awesome demo or article per day.
• Is ramification something your site needs? Get in on Gamification and tips for building site badges.
• One Div is a site dedicated to single element logos created with just CSS and one DIV element.

You can propose links to us on Twitter (@YDN) or try bookmarking them on delicious with the tag "forydntt".

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iPad Mini is inexpensive, impressive - Review is here

Apple's iPad Mini will bring a lot more excitement and a little more confusion to the holiday shopping season. It only takes a few minutes playing with the iPad Mini to realize the scaled-down tablet computer will be a sure-fire hit with longtime Apple disciples and potential converts who've been looking for a more affordable entree into the mobile computing market.

With a 7.9-inch screen, the iPad Mini is perfectly sized to be stuffed in Christmas stockings. Recipients who will discover the pleasure and convenience of being able to take pictures, surf the Web, watch video, read books and listen to music on an exquisitely designed device that's pancake thin.

As enticing as that all sounds, the iPad Mini also causes a dilemma, albeit a pleasant one.

The new option will make it even more difficult for holiday shoppers to figure out which mobile device to buy for their loved ones -or for themselves.

I felt the pangs of indecision within a few minutes of picking up the iPad Mini for the first time.

As the company usually does at its product unveilings, Apple Inc. only provided reporters with limited, strictly supervised access to the iPad Mini on Tuesday.

That meant I could only experiment with it for about 15 minutes, but as an experienced user of the iPad 2, I could quickly see that the smaller tablet does just about everything its bigger brethren does.

Even though the Mini's screen is 1.8 inches smaller than the standard iPad, the movie The Avengers looked lush, even in a side-by-side comparison with the larger tablet.

When I pulled up the latest issue of the New Yorker, I didn't have to strain to see the text or pictures on the smaller screen. A quick check of other websites verified that the Mini's screen isn't so tiny that it's going to cause a lot of squinting.

After I took a very crisp picture of another reporter testing out a Mini, I decided to email it to her to test how easy it was to use the keyboard on the smaller screen. No problem there. Best of all, the iPad Mini can be held in one hand and is about half the weight of the larger iPad.

The Mini worked so much like my standard iPad that it immediately caused me to have second thoughts about a decision I thought I had already made.

I like my iPad 2 a lot, but it's just too big to carry with me wherever I am. But there have been times I really wish I had it with me, like when I spot something that would make a great picture or when I've needed to check something on the Web.

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