Category Archive: Technology

1. Instagram Version 3.0

   Instagram have been working on a major new update for both Apple and Android devices.

   A new way to browse your photos has been added. Also there are updates to all screens to be more visually consistent and polished. To go with that there have been a few of back end tweaks to make for a faster experience.

   Photo Maps

   

   With Photomaps your Photo Map appears on your profile and lets you showcase your photos on a map. Also, you’ll be able to see other users’ maps from their profiles as well.

   This is a welcome addition for me. I love the idea of being able to track back through my photos to see where I was when I took a particular set of photos. The design and interaction that has gone into this feature is beautiful. The loading speed of the maps and photos is dependent on your connection speed and spec of your phone. Once you drill down to a particular set you are able to open up a lightbox which then allows you to go directly to the main photo. Pinch and zooming is also very fast and flexible.

   You’ll be prompted to review any photos you previously geotagged before your map is visible to the public. You can also remove any photos from your map at any time.

   New look for user profiles, the Explore tab, hashtag & location pages

   

   User profile pages have had a bit of a makeover and reorg. As you can see a new tab for your photo map is now here along with larger icons. Bigger grid photos also make it easier to browse large collections.

   New look for the photo upload screen

   

   Larger captions have been introduced. This is making it alot easier to write and edit them. Geotag is optional for each photo as well as the option to name the location which taps into Foursquare I believe. Not sure if this has changed since the acquisition of Facebook. Sharing to other social networks is still in place, but with larger icons for ease of use.

   As well as these features, there are a few other updates including the reporting individual comments as abuse or spam. Also, as I mentioned earlier a few under the hood updates have also been incorporated to make the app faster and smoother.

   All in all I’m impressed with the updates. Photo Maps are a welcome addition and something that needed to be incorporated.

   You can download Instagram here

2. Tweetbot for mac released

   Tweetbot have released a public alpha version of their popular iOS client, which  as it stands has a few bugs and incomplete features. They are looking for people to provide them with feedback and help shape it into a the fine twitter client will all know it eventually will be.

   For those that haven’t used Tweetbot for iphone I suggest you give it a try as it’s a fantastic Twitter client. Integration to Instapaper and geo tagging are some of the features that it offers.

   I will post back here with some updates once I’ve given it a trial…

3. Snapstagram

   

   Hearing the news of Facebooks acquisition of Instagram for a mind boggling $1 billon left many passionate Instagrammers questioning the future intentions of the owners, and their decision to sell out. The following came to me as a refreshing discovery.

   Being a bit of a iPhoneography fan. I was very excited to hear about the Kickstarter driven project known as Snapstagram.

   Snapstagram is looking to introduce a service allowing Instagram users to print their creations as opposed to simply uploading, waiting for likes/comments, then uploading some more.

   Users will log in via a desktop app, select their images then order 12 shot rolls of 4×4 inch photos. The rolls some very attractive packaging and will cost around $6 including free shipping, whether that free shipping is restricted to the US we will have to wait and see.

   A release date is yet to be confirmed, but I have a trip to Orlando and New York planned later this year and would love to be able to print some of my favourite snaps this way.

   Update: This project is now live!