photo-sharing

Instagram for Android imminent: Now taking sign-ups

Good news for Android users who've had to sit by the sidelines watching their iOS friends have all the Instagram fun. The company yesterday opened a sort of registration for Android users, giving them the chance to be "first in line" for the app made for Google's platform.

We knew Instagram for Android was coming really soon. Founders of the popular photo-sharing app, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, said as much at South by Southwest earlier this month. "In some ways, it's better than our iOS app. It's crazy," Systrom said about … Read more

Instagram clicks with Hipstamatic

The popular photo apps Hipstamatic and Instagram seem to have drawn a little closer.

Instagram has 17 filters to choose from for touching-up and enhancing photos before sharing, while Hipstamatic's free features include four lenses, three types of flash, and three kinds of film. The point here is this: there's a lot more people can do with photos using Hipstamatic, but there's been no one-step way to share them.

Until now, judging by a Hipstamatic tweet today:

Sharing is about to get easier! Tag Facebook friends & upload to multiple networks, incl. @Instagram http://bit.ly/yQunPt (@… Read more

Instagram coming to Android 'really soon'

In the near future, Android users will be able to start sharing photos on Instagram, according to TechCrunch.

The popular app is coming "really soon," the app's founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger said at a South by Southwest conference presentation today. "In some ways, it's better than our iOS app. It's crazy," Systrom said.

Instagram is a free photo sharing app that let's users touch up and share photos with other followers on the app; pictures can also be uploaded to social-networking sites like Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook. Some describe Instagram … Read more

Instagram possibly valued at $500 million

The free iPhone photo sharing app that boasts users such as President Obama, skateboarder Tony Hawk, singer Justin Bieber, actress Zooey Deschanel, and rapper Snoop Dogg might be getting new funding that will value it at $500 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.

One year ago, Instagram was valued at just $25 million. Despite this enormous growth and a base of more than 15 million users, the popular app has struggled to make money since its inception in March 2010.

Unlike other apps and social-networking sites, Instagram isn't well positioned to feature advertising, paid content, or other e-commerce … Read more

Flickr to get slicker in upcoming makeover

With Instagram, Google+, Picasa, and Facebook breathing down its neck, Flickr has had to play catch-up to stay in the photo game lately.

Flickr's head of product, Markus Spiering, told tech news site BetaBeat today that the photo-sharing Web site is planning a major makeover to begin rolling out next week. Big changes include larger photos, less white space, and a more polished photo layout. There will also be a new drag-and-drop upload interface, according to BetaBeat.

These changes come on the heels of Flickr lowering the cost of its Flickr Pro premium service last month and Yahoo reportedly … Read more

Adobe Revel gets Android importer

Adobe tosses a bone to Android users who subscribe to Revel (nee Carousel), its Apple-only photo-collaboration service. Its new Revel importer Android app does exactly what it says and no more: allows you to upload images from your Android device into your Carousels. You can set it to autoupload, as well as upload straight from the camera. When you select photos to upload, the app will indicate whether or not you've already transferred them.

That's pretty much it.

If you use Revel on multiple platforms, this is disappointing. Forget the editing capabilities: you still can't sync Carousels … Read more

How to share batches of iPhone photos

Batch is a new photo-sharing app, one that knows you take a ton of shots with your iPhone and have the need to share not just one photo at a time but a group or, say, a batch of photos. If you would like to share photos by the batch, give Batch a whirl. It's free and features a slick and easy-to-use interface.… Read more

Adobe Carousel offers only one cool horse to ride

After 20-plus years covering tech, I'm no stranger to the product pitch that effectively says "80 percent of people don't do X and our product is designed to appeal to them."

Here's my rule of thumb: 80 percent of those products will fail to appeal to them. Sometimes it's a bad interface, sometimes the wrong feature set for the money, and most of the time because people aren't doing something because it's just too much work. Usually it's a combination of all three. Adobe wants all those unmonetized people who've never uploaded an image from their phone--or at least never committed to a particular service--to adopt its Carousel photo-sharing and collaboration system. But in its initial incarnation at least, it's missing key features without really making sharing significantly less work. It does have some really nice editing tools, though.… Read more

How to get started with Flickr for Android

In the past, adding pictures to Flickr from your phone meant using third-party apps that integrated into the Android gallery or could cross-post to your Flickr account. Now there's (finally) an official app from Yahoo! for its Flickr photo sharing service. It's still obvious that the app is brand-new, given the appearance of some bugs, but it is a good step in the right direction. Here's how to get started using it:

Step 1: Grab Flickr (by Yahoo!) from the Android Market and log in to the app. If you don't have … Read more

Verizon Droid Bionic arrives finally

HTC files a lawsuit against Apple with nine new patents from Google, Adobe has released its pricey photo-sharing app and service called Carousel, and Verizon finally launches the Bionic nine months after the "super-phone" made its first appearance.

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded: