android kindle

Until now, vanity Google+ URLs were only for popular business, famous people, Google employees and some other special users. Now anyone can get a custom URL and replace the long Google+ URL with something more memorable. Unfortunately, you don't get to choose the URL: you can only pick from Google's preapproved URLs.

"If you meet the eligibility requirements, you can get a custom URL for your Google+ account or page. This means you can choose one of the custom URLs Google preassigns to your Google+ profile or page. Depending on the preassigned custom URL, you may also need to add a few letters or numbers to make it unique to you," explains Google.

For profiles, you need 10 or more followers, an account that is 30 days old or more and a profile photo. For pages, you need to link your page with your site or use Google+ Local and verify your local business.

Pages get Google+ URLs that are based on the site's URL. I got google.com/+GooglesystemBlogspot, but I haven't enabled it. Maybe Google will provide more options in the future.


"Once you meet the eligibility criteria, just visit your profile or page to begin the claiming process. If you don't see the option yet, don't worry: we're expanding availability throughout the week, and you'll see the in-product notice as soon as your custom URL is ready," informs Google's Otavio Silva.

{ Thanks, Tolis Nubis. }

Google+ continues to grow and the growth rate is impressive, according to Google's stats. Back in December, Google announced that "235 million [people] are active across Google (+1'ing apps in Google Play, hanging out in Gmail, connecting with friends in Search), and 135 million are active in just the stream." Now Google says that 540 million people are active across Google each month and 300 million people are active in the Google+ stream.

The number of Google+ users doubled in less than a year. Even if you use the conservative stream data and conclude that Google+ only has 300 million active users, that's still a lot. No other social network had so many users in 2 years and a half. Sure, Facebook has more than one billion active users, but the service got to 100 million users in 4 years.

Google has more than 1 billion users, so that's the upper boundary for Google+. It's unlikely that all the Google users will join Google+ and actively use it, but most of them will. Google+ is integrated with so many Google services and the YouTube integration will bring a lot more Google+ users. Google+ is now at the heart of Google's photo service, messaging service, local search and it will soon power core features of the most popular video sharing service.

Auto Awesome is a collection of features that create new images which use the photos you upload: panoramas, animations, HDR, better group photos. They're created automatically and Google now even sends notifications when they're ready.

There are 3 new Auto Awesome features: 2 of them are only for photos (action, eraser) and the third one is for both photos and videos.

Action is great for action photos. "Take a series of photos of someone moving (dancing, running, jumping) and Auto Awesome will merge them together into one action shot where you can see the full range of movements in a single image, capturing the movement in one captivating still."

Google combines these 6 photos:


and creates this awesome visual effect:


Eraser is useful when you want to remove people from photos. "If you take a sequence of 3 or more photos in front of a structure or landmark with movement in the background, Eraser will give you a photo with all the moving objects removed. It's helpful for those situations when you're trying to get a great shot of a landmark or other crowded place, but want to avoid including all of the people in the background of your photo."

These photos aren't great:


but they can be combined to get this:


Auto Awesome Movie is a bit like HTC Zoe, but it's a lot more advanced. In fact, it's the only Auto Awesome feature that lets you customize the result and the only feature you can trigger manually. Google creates a video that combines some of the videos and photos you uploaded, processes the videos, adds image stabilization and picks some appropriate music. "You can create Auto Awesome movies from the Google Photos app for Android, which are short films created automatically by editing together the videos and photos you capture around an experience. Choose the photos and videos you wish to make into an Auto Awesome movie, and let Google do the rest. You can change the theme, style, background music, or even remove, shorten, or re-order scenes. After your movie is created, you can choose to share or save it. Auto Awesome movies are currently only available for some devices running Android 4.3 and up, including the Nexus 4, Nexus 7, Nexus 10, and HTC One."


Auto Awesome shows that advanced features don't need complicated interfaces. It also shows the power of the cloud: Google+ Photos finds your best photos, enhances your photos, it lets you search your photos and it even creates new ones. All of this without buying expensive photo editors and learning how to use them.

Back in May, Google announced an impressive search feature that allows to find photos even if they don't include any useful metadata. "To make computers do the hard work for you, we've also begun using computer vision and machine learning to help recognize more general concepts in your photos such as sunsets, food and flowers." Here are more details: "This is powered by computer vision and machine learning technology, which uses the visual content of an image to generate searchable tags for photos combined with other sources like text tags and EXIF metadata to enable search across thousands of concepts like a flower, food, car, jet ski, or turtle."

Now Google announced that it detects more than 1,000 objects. It may not seem like a lot, but it's extremely difficult to detect objects algorithmically and do this with enough precision. Distinguishing between so many objects makes this task even more difficult. Google can now detect labradors and snowmen, tulips and umbrellas, laptops and shoes.



Google's announcement is strange because a Google post from June mentioned that the classifier already detected 1,100 classes of objects:

We came up with a set of about 2000 visual classes based on the most popular labels on Google+ Photos and which also seemed to have a visual component, that a human could recognize visually. In contrast, the ImageNet competition has 1000 classes. As in ImageNet, the classes were not text strings, but are entities, in our case we use Freebase entities which form the basis of the Knowledge Graph used in Google search. An entity is a way to uniquely identify something in a language-independent way. In English when we encounter the word 'jaguar', it is hard to determine if it represents the animal or the car manufacturer. Entities assign a unique ID to each, removing that ambiguity, in this case '/m/0449p' for the former and '/m/012x34' for the latter. In order to train better classifiers we used more training images per class than ImageNet, 5000 versus 1000. Since we wanted to provide only high precision labels, we also refined the classes from our initial set of 2000 to the most precise 1100 classes for our launch.

I'm not sure if there's some improvement I'm missing. It's likely that the search results are better, but the number of objects has not increased.

Miss Chile Maria Jesus Matthei: One of my favorite gowns of all the Miss Universe 2013 Evening Gown Portraits. This salmon pink colored chiffon gown with copper sequined neck-piece, waistband and shirred bodice is a stunner; very red carpet, very chic. Her high-ponytail hairdo makes her look rather severe but it works with this gown. I hope, however that for the Preliminaries, she doesn't do this hair style.


Miss Jamaica Kerrie Baylis: Now this is a GOWN! Mermaid-shaped black sequined applique with feathered bottom. It's a lot but...it works. Diva Fab for sure.








Miss Australia Olivia Wells: Sweet, elegant and "Elie Saab Lite"...in other words, I like. This off-white gown with side lace detail, sweeping train and metallic waistband is just right and very red carpet modern for a beauty pageant. Her hair style looks a tad "I'm Going To Lunch" but I'm OK with it. At least, she's not all bouffant "Pageant Betty".




Miss Colombia Lucia Aldana: This is a very nice gown on Miss Colombia. There's nothing extraordinary about this silver & lilac-hued sequined one-shoulder strap gown but there's also nothing wrong. It's "Pageant Safe" but Very Good Pageant Safe.






Miss France Hinarani de Longeaux: One of the favorites to win the crown--Hiranari, did not disappoint in her choice of gown for the Miss Universe 2013 Evening Gown Portrait. This blush-colored chiffon and sequined gown is both red carpet fab and very runway. It definitely sweetens her. I hope, however, that Hinarani VAMPS it up when it actually comes time for the Preliminaries and Final Telecast. This contestant needs to be ALL ABOUT SEXY Goddess! Maybe, she should think about borrowing this gown she wore at the Tony Ward Couture runway show:








Miss India Manasi Mogue: Manasi wore this silver sequined gown with high side slit and side peplum detail. I'm NOT A FAN of the stacked black pumps but the gown is a Razzle Dazzle of a gown! Impacting, showstopper and sexy fab! If she did away with those stacked heels, the dress would also be the right length.






Miss Israel Yityish Aynaw: Simply perfect. A caviar-beaded ivory gown. Simple, great fit and perfect for her. It's not Couture-directional but THANK GOODNESS, it's not "Pageant Barbie" tacky either. Sublime.






Miss Philippines Ariella Arida: Ariella's gown choice for her Evening Gown Portrait is a safe but good one. This royal blue chiffon gown with silver sequined brooch accents is pretty and elegant. If there is any critique, those big ol' dangling earrings were so not necessary, especially when there were enough "jewels" in the sequined brooches. Say NO to over accessorizing. Please. PS: her hair and makeup are quite lovely.




Miss Puerto Rico Monic Perez: Fabulosa! Monic chose this black gown featuring a charmeuse skirt, sequined applique top and ruffled peplum. It's two minutes from being a little "Figure Skating Costume-ish" but it works, especially with the entire styling, her side swept hair and gorgeous makeup.




Miss Thailand Chalita Yaemwannang: Chalita wore this teal-green mermaid shaped gown that was very Zac Posen/Vera Wang-ish in its style. This was very Sofia Vergara Va-Va-Voom. I liked this gown and all its details, I just didn't like her hair; A slicked-back chignon would have added A LOT of elegance to the entire look.




Miss Trinidad and Tobago Catherine Miller: This was a nice silver-and-nude gown choice for Catherine. The sequin detail is interesting and red carpet fab! On a negative note: it's too short. Note to all beauty pageant girls: I don't want to see those big ol' pumps! #Tacky.




Miss Singapore Shi Lim: I'm not sure what is happening in the front since this is a side view, but I like it nonetheless. This silver-gray jersey gown has a 1930s vibe in its cut and side arm detail that I appreciate. It's very elegant and right for her.





Miss Venezuela Gabriela Isler: Miss Venezuela wore this blush colored gown with silver sequin detail. It's a very nice gown and I have no problem with it (that's why she's here in my "Great" bunch) but I feel she's a little too covered up. I also don't like her hair. Gabriela modeled in the Tony Ward Couture show...




...and this was one of the gowns she wore and well, she looked A THOUSAND TIMES better in this--especially with slicked-back hairstyle. I hope she "brings it" like this above when it comes to the Preliminaries and Final telecast (if she gets one of the coveted Semi-Finalist spots).




Miss Vietnam Tru'o'ng Thi May: Finally this was one of my favorite gowns form this year's "Miss Universe Evening Gown Portraits". I loved the color, the silhouette and the fit. It was very impacting, elegant with a stage appeal and need I add...







**Up Next: My "Miss Universe 2013 Evening Gown Portraits" "Oh No She Didn't/Ayyy Mija!" Group...Stay Tuned!!

Continuing with this edition of my Skate Canada 2013 Costumes Recap, in my last post I talked about the Ladies and Pairs of 2013 Skate Canada and now, it is time to discuss The Men and Ice Dance...The boys featured some creative costumes and well, Ice Dance had a "Groundhog Day" of sorts, when it came to one of the teams.  Shall we get down to Costume business and discuss? Yes, let's do it:





The Men:





Patrick Chan Canada, Short Program: Patrick wore this costume above for his Short Program to "Elegie in E-flat minor" by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Patrick is not know for wearing costumes with lots of 'bells & whistles" (i.e sequined appliques, multicolored crystals, etc.) so I don't expect much when I see Patrick. But this look semi-impressed me; it was a beautifully made "tuxedo"-style shirt with ombre-shaded coloring and (wait for it!) tiny crystals throughout. 




Free Skate: For his Free Skate to "Concerto Grosso" by Arcangelo Corelli, I really liked this look. As you can tell, he never really changes his pants--almost always black--but where he and his costume designer get creative is with the tops. This was an interesting shawl-collared lilac-grey shirt with beaded flower applique. It had hints of the Baroque-style present in his music.




Jeremy Abbott USA, Short Program: Jeremy skated his Short Program to "Lilies of the Valley" from the Pina sountrack by Jun Miyake in this brown costume consisting of pants, textured "leather" vest, and v-neck stretch long-sleeve top. This is soooo very Jeremy...








Free Skate: For his Free Skate to "Exogenesis Symphony Part III (Redemption)" by Muse, again he didn't disappoint with his typical Jeremy Abbott Color Scheme (brown, gray). I liked the "leather" with grommets armhole shoulder detail in the gray heathered top he wore. And yes, this here also could work as one of Robin Hood's Merry Men.



Both his Short and Free Skate costumes were designed by Elise Fife. Now, in case you were wondering, Jeremy skated to this same music back in Season 2011-2012. He liked it so much, he brought it back. What kind of costume did he wear back then for that?








Nobunari Oda Japan, Short Program: For his Short program to "Cotton Club" by John Barry, Nobunari wore this fun look consisting of a beaded open dress shirt and bedazzled blue untied bow-tie, with black "tuxedo" pants. I liked the pop of color in his tie and the ode to the look of the days of the infamous nightclub during America's Prohibition Era.




Free Skate: Speaking of Robin Hood...Nobunari skated his Free Skate to the iconic "William Tell Overture" by Giacochino Rossini. I am never a fan of beige and brown in a costume, but his look was perfect for the music and theme. The brown stretch velvet pants were cut in line of the period costumes of the time,  and although the jagged hem of the shirt was a bit cheesy, it did look nice when he did his jumps and turns. I appreciated the gold sequined belt giving a bit of interest to the costume and I also loved that some of that gold trim was added as a "peek-a-boo" accent at the neck/shoulder.










Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri Italy, Free Dance: This Italian Ice Dance team skated their Free Skate to "Un giorno per noi" from Romeo and Juliet performed by Josh Groban and "Dance of the Knights" from Romeo and Juliet by Sergei Prokofiev. The costumes were elaborate, traditional and could never be mistaken for anything but Romeo and Juliet. Charlene's almost-see through sequined sleeves were gorgeous and I liked the Empire-waisted gold rope and the fact that her gold scroll trim also ended up in his costume to tie it all in.




Nelli Zhiganshina and Alexander Gazsi Germany, Short Program: For their Short Dance to "Le Jazz Hot" performed by the cast of Glee, Zhiganshina and Gazsi wore these costumes. Hers was an emerald green dress horizontally gathered in the front with back cascade ruffles in the back and his consisted of a patterned sweater vest, dress shirt with elbow patched, bow tie and black pants. I didn't quite get the connection between the two costumes. I understood the concept of him playing a geek, I just wish it connected to her costume more. Now, what did they wear for their Free Dance?




THE SAME THING!!!! Yes, kids for their Free Dance to "Carrigan & Dibs" from the Casper soundtrack by James Horner, "Mr. E's Dance Card" from the Batman Forever soundtrack by Elliot Goldenthal and "Clint Eastwood" by Gorillaz, they decided to wear the SAME COSTUMES. I may be wrong about this (I'm sure Figure Skating aficionados will let me know!), but this might be the first time in a long time, this has ever been done. Did their actual Free Dance costumes get lost? Did one of their suitcases not make it to Canada? Nope, according to them, their Free Dance is supposed to be a "continuation" or a "Part Two" of their Short Dance. And therefore, the same costumes. Well, that's a good story but I'm not sure I'm buying it. I will say, they are being very "Costume Recessionista" about it all.





Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir Canada, Short Dance: Canada's Virtue and Moir wore these costumes for their Short Dance to Selections by Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, including "Dream a
Little Dream," "Muskrat Ramble" and "Dancing Cheek to Cheek". I thought these were fun, appropriate for the music and went well together. Her feathered and sequined dress had a 20's flapper style quality with a little bit of 30's chic. And I liked that it was all tied in with his black bow tie, suspenders and high-waisted black pants.




Free Dance: For their Gold Medal-winning Free Dance to Seasons by Alexander Glazunov and "Piano Concerto in F-sharp minor" by Alexander Scriabin, they decided to go the almost "non-costume" route and wear these above. When they first came onto the ice, I was a bit disappointed (coming from my fashion designer perspective) but then, as their beautiful Free Dance progressed--lightly but assuredly--I got it. The music is very classical yet their looks are more on the contemporary side. If this was a modern dance/ballet, the dancers would have probably worn this as well in the performance. I guess, I just miss the very Modern and directional looks they wore in last season's "Carmen" Free Dance:

This weekend was the second of the I.S.U. Grand Prix of Figure Skating senior-level invitational competition: the 2013 Skate Canada International. Skate Canada 2013 took place at the Harbour Station in Saint John, New Brunswick Canada.




Canadians are big fans of figure skating and Canada has lots of top skaters in all the disciplines poised for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. Now, let's get to the Costumes! Last week, I wrote about the Skate America 2013 Costumes so now it's time for my Skate Canada 2013 Costumes Recap. First up the Ladies and Pairs.




The Ladies:




Akiko Suzuki Japan, Short Program: I loved Akiko's last season costumes, especially the feathered costume she wore to her 2012-2013 Short program to Music from "O" by Cirque du Soleil. With that in mind, I was hoping she would still "bring it" when it came to this season's costumes. For her Short Program to "Hymne à l'amour" she wore this blue-purple costume featuring heavily jeweled neck detail, side crystal "straps" and a busy flower applique side-waist accent. it was quite a lot. I didn't like the entire costume "package" but did like some of its details, especially the neck/shoulder jeweled accents.




Free Skate: I liked this costume that Akiko wore for her Free Skate to Music from the soundtrack of The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It had an ombre shaded skirt section and beautiful sequined bodice. I also loved the crystal web-like neckline.




Christina Gao USA, Short Program: I thought this costume Christina wore for her Short Program to "Close Without Touching" by David Arkenstone was quite nice. The deep wine colored side beaded costume had elongated sleeves and side-slit skirt section. It worked well with the music and program and made her look more mature--and in a good way. The costume was designed by Yumi Barnett-Nakamura.




Gracie Gold USA, Short Program: When I first saw Gracie step onto the ice, I would have bet money that she was skating to "Chicago" but nope, I was wrong; she skated her Short Program to "Three Preludes" by George Gershwin. While I actually wished she would have skated to "Chicago" since I really wasn't a fan of this choppy jittery music, I still liked her costume. It had lots of razzle-dazzle, stage impact and I especially like the asymmetrical lines that curved and hugged toward her back in all the right ways. Also note that she had nude GLOVES created for the costume. Lots of this season's ladies wore gloves as part of their costume and this was an ingenious way to wear them but look as if she wasn't.





Free Skate: Gracie skated her Free Skate to Music from Sleeping Beauty by Tchaikovsky. I loved this ombre lilac costume featuring intricate crystal "necklaces" in a web-like effect throughout the top section. I also liked the drop-shoulder sleeves. Both her Short and Free Skate costumes were designed by Gale Johnson and Denise Gold.





Julia Lipnitskaia Russia, Short Program: Fifteen year-old skating dynamo, Julia Lipnitskaia of Russia, skated her Short Program to "You Don't Give Up on Love" by Mark Minkov. The costume was sweet, girly and right for her age. I liked the heavily beaded detail of the top section, but I thought the costume itself could have had more flare and sweep at the bottom. And notice the gloves, THE Season 2013-2014 trend for Ladies Costumes. I also want to note that this sweet blue costume above was such a departure from what she wore last season and this infamous "cray-cray" bodysuit:










Free Skate: For her Gold Medal-winning Free Skate to Schindler's List by John Williams, Julia donned a red "jacket" costume mimicking the red coat the little girl in the film wore; a red coat is used to distinguish a little girl in the scene depicting
the liquidation of the Kraków ghetto. Later in the film, Schindler sees
her dead body, recognizable only by the red coat she is still wearing. I thought this was a proper "homage" of sorts. Julia's red "jacket" also featured black sequined trim--also mirroring the black trim in the movie's red coat. Notice Julia wore gloves, of course.




Kaetlyn Osmond Canada, Short Program: Speaking of gloves, Kaetlyn Osmond of Canada wore long white ones for her Short Program to "Big Spender" and "Rich Man's Frug". The black costume with side slits was well, "just there" for me; nothing spectacular, but not bad either.




Natalia Popova Ukraine, Short Program: Natalia skated her Short Program to "Concierto de Aranjuez" by Joaquin Rodrigo performed by Edvin Marton--yes the same music Michelle Kwan skated to years ago (lots of skaters skate to this but, it will always be--for me--Michelle Kwan's music!). I thought this was an original way to give España and not in such an overt way. The almost zebra-print like stretch devore velvet fabric, sprinkled with crystals, looked chic, very high fashion and still retained a slight nod to the lace mantillas of Spain.





Amelie Lacoste Canada, Short Program: Amelie skated her Short Program to "The Feeling Begins" by Peter Gabriel from Music for "The Last Temptation of Christ" and in case you're thinking it was "Groundhog's Day" all over again, you are right: she wore the same costume and skated to the same music last season for her Short Program as well...








Free Program: This pink costume above is what she wore to her Free Skate to Music from the Amelie Poulain soundtrack by Yann Tiersen. It had a beaded bodice and sequined applique neckline and strap. I thought this was "Figure Skating Betty 101"--in other words, the Figure Skating version of a typical Beauty Pageant gown bought from a Prom-and-Pageant store; it was sweet but oh-so-typical.



Pairs:



Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford Canada, Free Skate: For their Bronze Medal-winning Free Skate to Music from the Alice in Wonderland soundtrack by Danny Elfman and "Everlasting" by Two Steps from Hell, Duhamel and Radford wore these purple costumes influenced by Alice and the Mad Hatter, I assume. To be honest, I thought these costumes looked cheap. Her bodice "boned" detail seemed as if it was glued on (I'm sure it was) and didn't evoke an expensive corset quality. But I had more issues with Eric's ill-fitting jacket; it was too tight and not tailored correctly.




Sui Wenjing and Han Cong China, Free Skate: For their Free Skate to "Kalinka" (Russian Folk Music), this Chinese Pair wore these great costumes. These were my favorites! First off, let's just make a note that it might not be coincidental that they chose a RUSSIAN FOLK SONG for their Free Skate, leading up to the SOCHI RUSSIA Winter Olympics. Besides this, these were very colorful, festive costumes that only enhanced their great skate. Everything about it wanted you to join them in, on all the Russian Folk Dance fun. Outstanding.




Paige Lawrence and Rudi Swiegers Canada, Free Skate: For their Free Skate to Music from the soundtrack of Oz - The Great and Powerful, they wore these costumes. I liked the bright color of her costume as well as the neckline beading. However, I thought they could have done so much more, knowing the film and the costumes.




Haven Denney and Brandon Frazier USA, Free Skate: These costumes, which the US Pairs team of Denney and Frazier wore to their Free Skate to Music from Notre-Dame de Paris by Riccardo Cocciante were perfect! I loved that they were completely complimentary to each other.  The sequin work looked exquisite and expensive. Very good Costume work!




Stefania Berton and Ondrej Hotarek Italy, Free Skate: Red and Black for a Free Skate to Music from the Dracula soundtrack by Philip Glass, naturally. There could have been a little more creativity in regards to the designs of these costumes but I forgive them, especially, since they got the Gold. Vampire. Blood. Figure Skating...Done and Done.



**Up Next: Skate Canada 2013 Costume Recap Part Two: The Men and Ice Dance!