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Review: Take artistic shots with InstaRetro for Instagram

InstaRetro for Instagram has too many ads and doesn't do too well in the filtering options category, either. It sits squarely at the bottom of the barrel of apps of its kind.

Though the app name-checks Instagram, it seems to have very little connection to that popular app. Instead, it's a direct rip-off of that app. Unfortunately, the filters in this app don't look nearly as good on top of your pictures. The invasive ads that seem to litter the app really detract from the experience. They pop up whenever you change filters and fill banner slots … Read more

Top social photo sites for browsing and sharing

With high-quality digital cameras on every smartphone and apps that make your pictures even better, just about anyone can be an accomplished photographer. Sure, you may not be an accomplished photographer in any serious sense, but you can certainly upload your images to photo-sharing sites to get them out to the public and receive feedback to make your shots even better.

As most people know, there are a number of popular services already out there that let you take your shot, add effects and other enhancements, then upload it for all to see. But the other thing that's great … Read more

Hooked Up: The iPad-obsessed Christina Milian and her love of tech

In this week's Hooked Up episode, Kevin Frazier hangs out with Grammy-nominated singer, actress, and fashion designer Christina Milian. She talks about her love for technology, how she started off in AOL chat rooms during the early days of the Internet, and the technology and apps she can't go without.

She's also the social-media correspondent for "The Voice," and she talks about how it allows her to connect the performers to the audience in a genuine way.

Christina's truly a gadget girl and she's obsessed with Google Glass so I'll break down … Read more

Suspected ID thief exposed by food porn on Instagram

Those who steal your identity digitally are not nice people.

On the other hand, they are still people. Which often means that -- somewhere -- they have online enthusiasms which still take them over and reveal their own identities to the outside world.

IRS investigators say that a predilection for food porn created a digital footprint for a suspect whom they were trying to trace.

As Florida's Sun-Sentinel reports, the investigators were in pursuit of a man who was said to have 700,000 stolen IDs available for sale.

It seems that he was quite good at keeping his … Read more

Star Apps: Counting Crows

For some audiophiles, Counting Crows and The Wallflowers will forever be associated with the mid-1990s--along with Netscape Navigator, Hotmail, and of course, Windows 95. But don't call their joint summer outing a nostalgia trip. Velvet-tongued Counting Crows vocalist Adam Duritz, hot off the heels of The Outlaw Roadshow (alongside a slew of new indie bands), prefers to view his comparatively intimate Wallflowers double bill as a much-needed respite.

Other than sharing a decade, the comradely combos have shared previous tours, a track (Duritz sang on The Wallflowers' "6th Avenue Heartache"), and even a producer (T-Bone Burnett, back … Read more

Principal suspends teen for Instagramming her mug shot

I'm thinking of renaming this blog Technically HighSchoolWrecked.

No sooner does one odd controversy erupt in our teen education centers than another appears like a tardy bus.

The latest is a tale from Georgia. Please sit back. You may enjoy this.

An enterprising young man named Keandre Varner thought he'd discover whether his high school principal was, or ever had been, a criminal.

What joy, perhaps, for him to discover that there existed a mugshot of Jamille Miller Brown, principal of Riverdale High School, in Georgia.

If you were a mere teen and discovered your school principal's … Read more

Hipstamatic treads into social networking terrain with Oggl

Even though Hipstamatic and Instagram are photo-sharing partners, it seems like Hipstamatic is looking to add a little more social networking to its world.

The company announced Wednesday that it's launching a Hipstamatic spin-off app called Oggl for iOS. The idea is for people to take Hipstamatic-like photos and then share them with friends and family.

According to a Hipstamatic blog post by co-founders Lucas Buick and Ryan Dorshorst, Oggl is "a community for creative people to capture and curate their lives through photography." The company is clear that it doesn't want Oggl to be full … Read more

Impossible-to-kill plant and other Mother's Day gifts

The trouble with holidays that fall on a different day every year is they sneak up on you. At least that's how I rationalize my lack of preparation. So consider yourself warned, fellow slackers. Mother's Day is May 12 this year, and on behalf of moms everywhere, I suggest you start planning.

First, let's get something straight. I appreciate the standard, go-to gifts as much as the next mom, but nothing screams "I bought this 5 minutes ago" than flowers or a box of chocolates. Don't phone it in, people! Mother's Day may … Read more

Instagram sale to Facebook made Jack Dorsey 'sad'

It's been well-chronicled that when Instagram was sold to Facebook last year, it spurned similar interest from Twitter, probably leading to bad blood between the two companies and a tit-for-tat series of feature shutdowns and one-upmanship.

But a new Vanity Fair story by AllThingsD co-founder Kara Swisher spells out in detail just how disappointed Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey was upon learning that he'd lost out on the opportunity not just to buy Instagram, but to acquire the talents of the photo app's co-founder, Kevin Systrom, a friend.

Dorsey says the news was [hard] for him to take, … Read more