Microsoft Research has announced and released an update today for their Blink app on Windows Phone. If you have the app already installed (and over 1 million of you do), you’ll get the update soon. If you don’t have it installed, you can download it here for free from the Windows Phone Store. So what is the Blink app? Blink on your Windows Phone lets you capture a burst of images before you even press the shutter and then continues to capture images after you’ve taken your shot – helping you find the best shot or action. It also creates a short animated “Blink” that can be shared to Facebook, Twitter or on Socl (pronounced “social”).
New features: Focus lock and quick jump gallery view
Today’s update adds a few new features I think folks will enjoy:
- Fresh new look: New branding and refreshed UI elements throughout the app.
- New tutorial: To help people get started with Blink, the app now includes a tutorial that walks through how to use the app.
- Dual modes: Switch easily between two modes – Blink mode to edit and share your animations, and still mode to save and share the perfect shot.
- Focus lock: Tap on the screen to lock focus in that the region. Now no matter where you move the phone, that region will automatically be re-focused (a favorite new feature of mine!).
- Better stabilization: The image alignment algorithm has been improved so that all your Blinks play without any camera shake or jitter.
- Quick jump gallery view: A new gallery view has been added in the Blink roll for people to quickly jump through their captured Blinks.
- Live Tile: If you have Blink pinned to your Start screen on your Windows Phone, the tile will now show images from some of your previously captured Blinks.
This is in addition to existing features in Blink that current users enjoy, such as:
- GIF export: In addition to sharing Blinks on Facebook, Twitter and Socl, users can also export their Blinks in GIF format to OneDrive.
- Always-in-focus: Blink has continuous re-focus mechanism which tracks phone motion and uses face detection to keep the scene or subject always in focus.
- Metadata Tagging: Your photos from Blink are tagged with date, time and location information for easy sorting and organization in other applications.
- In-app gallery: Blink always retains all your captures in app, until deletion, so you can always go back and enjoy your favorite moments in the Blink roll.
For more on Blink, click here. Leave a comment with links to some of your Blinks!