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Camera+ boasts 8M copies sold in two years

Camera+ gets the bonus of selling its 8 millionth app on the same day as its second birthday. Quite an achievement in the face of other popular apps like Instagram and Hipstamatic, especially when the company has publicly refused VC funding and offers of acquisition.

The company's founder John Casasanta wrote in a blog post today that over the past two years, Camera+ has been approached by several companies looking to buy, including Adobe, Zynga, Google, and Twitter. Camera+ declined every time because of the company's goal to retain its independence. It also turned down its first round … Read more

Facebook doubles down on size of news feed photos

Facebook's news feed may have seemed a little different today...that's because it is. The social network has begun to brandish its new feed with larger photos.

"Starting today, we're rolling out an improved design for posts in news feed on the Web," a Facebook spokesperson told CNET. "Photos are up to two times larger and when a friend adds photos to an album, you'll be able to enjoy more of those photos directly from your feed."

Besides enlarging all photos, the new display also changes how albums are seen. Now, it … Read more

Instagram competitor PicPlz to shut down in July

Instagram competitor PicPlz will cease operation in July and delete all the images and data in its possession, the photo-sharing service announced this weekend.

The photo-sharing first announced the closure Friday on its Web site in a message that began, "It has been a pleasure bringing picplz to our users, but we have decided to move on to other projects and have made the tough decision to shut it down." The Seattle-based startup sent out a follow-up e-mail to users today:

On July 3, 2012, picplz will shut down permanently and all photos and data will be deleted. … Read more

The 404 1,064: Where just enough is more (podcast)

Today's show title is the design credo of Milton Glaser, the celebrated designer responsible for turning the "I <3 New York" graphic into a world-recognized symbol.

That ethos is also the inspiration for today's discussion topic about Apple's "faux-real" user interfaces that Tom Hobbs at Fast Company believes is stunted by skeuomorphs, or elements of design that retain parts of its inspiration.

We'll look at how Apple's desire to show off the look of its products may be hindering its principal innovations, why the Amazon Kindle uses its own basic layout to create a more immersive environment for its readers, and how apps harnessing nostalgia like Instagram and Hipstamatic are holding back the next evolution of technology.… Read more

Google fills search with Zagat ratings

It's time to rate your world on Google+ Local, double down on secrets and lose the hashbang:

Google+ has teamed up with Zagat to add a new feature encouraging users to review local establishments. It's called Google+ Local, and even if you don't use Google+, you'll start to see these ratings pop up around Google search and maps.

Apple CEO Tim Cook shared some interesting comments at the D10 conference Tuesday. To summarize, Cook didn't say if Apple was working on a television set, he vowed that the company will "double down" on … Read more

Facebook stock hits low before slight rebound

Facebook briefly hit another low today before rebounding.

Facebook's shares are up 0.7 percent to $29.05, up slightly from an earlier low of $28.25. Despite the slight gain, the stock is down nearly a quarter from its offering price of $38.

It's been a tumultuous ride for Facebook's stock and for any shareholders stuck with the stock at its offering price. Its first full week of trading ranked it as the worst performing IPO in a decade, and the stock fell below $30 for the first time yesterday.

The declines have largely stemmed from … Read more

FTC to investigate Facebook purchase of Instagram

U.S. antitrust regulators are hitting Facebook with more post-IPO angst.

The Federal Trade Commission is looking to give Facebook's proposed Instagram purchase "a lengthy investigation," Reuters reported today.

The commission sent a second request, dated May 16, to Facebook instructing the social-networking company to provide large amounts of data that the "regulators will sift through to ensure that the deal complies with antitrust law," according to an unnamed source.

This only heightens Facebook's woes, as the company's stock continues to slide, taking tens of millions off its $1 billion deal to buy Instagram.… Read more

Facebook's sliding stock takes Instagram below $1B price tag

Instagram founder and CEO Kevin Systrom might be wishing he'd taken more cash and less stock when he struck that $1 billion deal with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

No one is going to shed a tear for Systrom, who's going to make a fortune off his popular, money-losing app no matter how this plays out. But as investors again drove down Facebook's stock again today, the much talked about acquisition is suddenly worth a decidedly less cool $963 million.

When Systrom and Zuckerberg were working out terms for the deal, Systrom reportedly asked for $2 billion. But … Read more

How to send large batches of photos from your iOS device

Problem: You just snapped dozens of wedding/vacation/rave photos on your iPhone, and now you want to share them with friends and family members. But iOS limits you to five photos per e-mail. Now what?

Fire up Kicksend. This free app lets you send big batches of photos, plus documents or video, to an individual or group.

Update: Talk about timing -- Kicksend was just unveiled for Android. Looks to be quite similar in terms of features and operations.

Kicksend looks and operates a lot like Instagram, just without the fancy filters. After registering for an account (also free), you simply tap the camera button to take a photo or video, or choose some from your existing library.… Read more