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Insert Coin: Instaprint offers portable photo booths for Instagram (video)
In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you'd like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with "Insert Coin" as the subject line. While the design hasn't changed much since we spied Instaprint precisely a year ago, the creators behind the Instagram-connected photo printers are now looking for cash -- your cash. Pitched as an event or party service, you can assign specific tags or locations to the printer, hopefully assuring all those instant snaps have at least a passing connection to whoever or whatever paid for all that photo paper. The technology is all a bit Polaroid, as the printers themselves are ink-free Zink types, limited only by however many blank sheets you have inside. Instaprint has set itself the heady target $500,000, with $260,000 of that sum going towards existing hardware and future production. The $399 investment option will net you your very own InstaPrint system, while sepia-tinted image obsessives can offer up £1,449 for the pro kit, containing one WiFi hub printer, three more connectable InstaPrint devices and 80 sheets of inkless paper for your premier cat photo collection/ food gallery get-together. See how it all works right after the break.
Instaprint goes to Kickstarter to fund its Instagram photo booth hardware
Almost exactly a year ago, TUAW posted about Instaprint, a location-based printer for Instagram photos. Brooklyn, NY-based ad agency Breakfast even set up a live stream showing images spewing out of their printer from around the world. Now the company is back again, printing any Instagram photos tagged with #instaprint while you watch. They've also started a Kickstarter campaign to start full-scale production of the printer. If you pledge US$399 or more of the desired $400,000 in funding, you'll get one of the first Instaprint devices for home use. At the $749 level, you get two Instaprints -- perfect for handling the traffic at small events -- while $1099 gets you three devices and $1449 ensures that you'll get a 4-pack good for big events. At the time of publication, the funding was up to $33,478 -- 8.3 percent of the total -- with 55 days left to go. Try out the printer and watch your Instagram photo show up on the wall below, then be sure to give the Breakfast club your pledge. <other/>
Instamatch turns Instagram into an engaging iOS game
Are you a fan of Instagram? I often find myself taking snaps with the app, adding some special effects, and then posting them for close friends and complete strangers to enjoy. Now the folks at Tiny Hearts, the developers of the fun Pocket Zoo app I reviewed last year, have come up with Instamatch -- a US$1.99 universal iOS app (on sale for $0.99 for a limited time) released today that turns those awesome Instagram photos into a fun and challenging matching game. Instamatch is a variation on the old "Concentration" matching game that has contestants matching similar Instagram photos. There are several ways to play -- you can either select photos from your own Instagram account, in which case you match two identical copies of photos until all photos are matched, or from a selection of photos of Nature, Food, Animals, Cities, or World Wonders. With the latter, you match similar photos of the same subject, like two different photos of the Golden Gate Bridge. There's also a search mode, so you can find and match photos of just about any subject under the sun. %Gallery-148161% To get a high score, you need to match all of the photo pairs as quickly as possible. It's also helpful to be lucky enough to match two photos without looking at them first -- the combos give you extra points that really add up. On the iPhone, the game can be played with one or two players, and there are three levels of difficulty -- Easy, with 12 photo cards; Normal, with 20 cards; and Hard, with 20 moving cards. For the iPad, up to four players can vie for the high score, and the Normal and Hard difficulty levels jump up to 30 cards. In multiplayer game play, the players take turns in succession so that a sharp-eyed player can watch for clues and then rack up extra points. There's Game Center support built into the app for shouting out your bragging rights for high Instamatch scores. I find Instamatch to be a fun time-killer. Individual games don't take that long, so it's the perfect game to play while you're waiting in a line and need to waste some time. An internet connection is required in order to grab the Instagram photos, so this isn't a game that you'd be able to play on an airplane unless it's equipped with Wi-Fi. The multiplayer game, especially on the iPad with 30 cards, throws a bit of strategy into play. The user interface is easy to understand and is beautifully designed, both of which add value to Instamatch. Especially at the 99¢ introductory price, Instamatch is a gotta-buy app for game lovers of any age.
The Love Box is an analog video mixer, house of mirrors for your iPhone (video)
There's something romantic about hacking the iPhone, especially when it means finding ways to personalize the massively popular handset. Apps like Instagram may help you realize artistic talent, but software just doesn't get those creative juices flowing like an old-fashioned piece of hardware can. Despite its taboo-sounding name, The Love Box isn't an adult toy in the traditional sense, instead serving as an analog video (and stills) mixer for your iPhone 4 or 4S. Consisting of a wooden box and an angled sliding mirror, the homegrown contraption lets you simultaneously capture the action in front of and behind you in a single image. It was originally designed in Barcelona to capture two people conversing for a documentary called "The Love Box Conversations," hence the name. The "lowest-tech accessory for the highest-tech phone" is available now as part of a very limited initial run of 100 units, and can be yours for €57.63 (about $77.50) if you hit up the source link below.
App developers skirt Apple's 100-device testing limit
The Wall Street Journal reports that some big iOS developers are having a real issue with Apple's limit on testing devices. According to the App Store rules, developers are restricted to 100 devices for testing via ad-hoc distribution. That may sound like a lot (and it likely is for small or individual developers), but it makes large-scale tests of beta or preview applications difficult. Instagram, for example, is cited in the article as bumping up against the limit so much that the company bought a separate developer account, just for another 100 devices to be able to test on. There are alternatives. TestFlight is an app testing service (which we've used) that allows developers to send out and update apps being tested on the fly*. Other services, like Pieceable, use the iOS simulator built into Xcode to deliver app beta builds over the Web for testing and feedback purposes. Not all the features work in that mode, but enough is there to let testers get the feel of the app. Apple's enterprise developer program works to a different standard, allowing an unlimited number of employees to download and use apps. Of course, that's meant for enterprise software, not necessarily testing of standard consumer apps, and Apple's rules are clear that only employees of the organization are supposed to be licensed for the enterprise apps. It's not clear whether Apple sees this as a big enough issue to start changing the rules. While there are more and more scenarios where wide beta testing pools would really help developers, I don't know if there are quite enough, in the larger picture, for Apple to change its tune -- noting that any expansion of the ad-hoc rules will make it easier for some developers to skirt the App Store (and Apple's 30% cut of revenues) entirely. It's more likely (and we've seen some of this already) that developers will change their process, perhaps even using some early post-release time to test and iron out their various apps and games. *Update: Developers remind me that TestFlight still uses up developer UDIDs, so it's not actually an alternative to Apple's program, just an easier way to go about it.
TUAW Best of 2011: Vote for the best iPhone photo and video apps
The nominations are in, and the poll is ready to go! The TUAW Best of 2011 awards are all about you -- the readers -- and what you think is the cream of the crop of Apple or third-party products and software. To vote, select one entry from the top nominations made by readers. We'll be announcing the winner in just a few days. Vote early and often! TUAW is asking for your votes for the best iPhone photography and video apps of 2011. The iPhone is one of the best point-and-shoot cameras possible. That's not because it has stellar lenses, great low-light capabilities, or high shutter speeds -- because it doesn't -- but because it's always with you. Developers have stepped up to the plate with some of the most innovative apps for iPhone, all in the photography and video app categories. In the photo app category, readers nominated FX Photo Studio (US$0.99), the ever-popular Camera+ (currently on sale for $0.99), social networking / camera app Instagram (free), new photo editor Snapseed ($4.99), and panorama powerhouse 360 Panorama ($0.99). For video apps, we have iVideoCamera ($0.99), Filmic Pro ($0.99), Silent Film Director ($1.99), Apple's own iMovie ($4.99), and the fun TiltShift Video ($1.99). As with the Mac video and photo apps, I've broken out the voting into two polls. Please feel free to vote for one video app and one photo app, and we'll announce the winners in a few days. And now, let the voting begin! %Poll-72151% %Poll-72157%
Daily Update for November 11, 2011
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen.
Instagram CEO hints at video sharing
Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom spoke at TechCrunch Disrupt in Beijing last week, and hinted that video sharing would be coming soon to the popular mostly iOS-driven photo sharing service. "We really want to go after something bigger than filtered photos," he said, explaining that the service really wanted to let users share their entire lives, not just photos. That's likely music to many Instagram users' ears -- there are more than 9 million people using the app already, and it's been praised quite a bit for its ease-of-use and excellent interface. And while, yes, there are plenty of ways to share video from the iPhone and the iPad as well, lots of users already have Instagram built into their social flow, so having video available on the service will be that much easier. Unfortunately, Systrom said that while video is in the plans, it may be a while -- obviously including video on the service would require major upgrades to both the app itself and of course the servers running it. But hopefully such a service would be worth waiting for.
Sina Weibo comes to entice business, not to bury Twitter
Sina Weibo, China's most popular micro-blogging service is on the cusp of launching an English language version. Twitter addicts won't be forced to choose between the two: it's not for them. No, this westward drive is to encourage businesses to connect to Chinese users -- Neil Bush, head of TX Oil already uses the service to drum up clients in the far east. The company has also enlisted the help of Instagram and Flipboard, who will integrate with the service (as long as the latter can charm the Government to unblock it).
Keepsy Calendars: Doing something fun with all those Instagram photos
Every once in a while a product shows up unexpectedly at the TUAW Labs that makes me really, really happy. A flat white box arrived at my door a few days ago, and when I opened it I saw a calendar and something about Instagram. I didn't bother to actually look at the calendar until a few days later, and what I saw absolutely delighted me: a calendar of my personal Instagram pictures from a company called Keepsy. Starting today, Menlo Park, CA-based Keepsy opens the door on a new service that will take photos not only from Instagram, but other services like Facebook, Flickr, and Picasa as well, and turn them into attractive 12-month 11" x 8.5" wall calendars for US$19.95 (or an 18-month calendar for $25.95). The calendars are a new product for Keepsy -- previously they sold books made from Instagram photos. What I was impressed with was the layout and quality of the calendar. My wife makes a 12-month calendar every year from our trip photos in iPhoto, and the print quality of the Keepsy calendar was equal to what we've received from Apple. The layout was beautiful. Every page featured anything from two to 24 photos from my Instagram feed, and whoever at Keepsy did the layout used a great deal of thought in creating clever collections of travel, holiday, food, architecture, and other genres of photos. Keepsy allows customers to gift their friends with the Instagram calendars or books. To keep people from making calendars from Instagram photos belonging to celebrities and other people they don't personally know, Keepsy makes sure that an Instagram user follows the album or calendar creator. For more details, be sure to read the PR blast below, or check the Keepsy website. These calendars look like they'll make perfect holiday gifts for your friends or family. Show full PR text Keepsy launches Instagram Calendars November 1st, 2011 - Menlo Park CA If you're an iPhone user, you've undoubtably heard of Instagram by now. The hot photo-sharing application that has taken the world by storm now has over 10 million users and hundreds of millions of photos uploaded. While some experts are scratching their heads over how the free application will eventually make money, some intrepid companies are diving in head first. One such Silicon Valley startup is riding this wave with printed books and -- starting today -- with printed calendars. "We've been really amazed by the customer feedback on our Instagram books," said Keepsy CEO Peter Weck. "The print quality has been so high that introducing new products with Instagram photos was an easy next step for us." The award-winning site now offers 11" x 8.5" wall calendars starting at $19.95. Keepsy's integration with Instagram, Facebook, Flickr and Picasa allows seamless import of photos from these online services. "With nothing to upload or download, making a book or calendar takes only a few minutes," said VP of Product, Blake Williams. The first website to allow users to create Instagram books -- Keepsy is fast becoming a leading innovator in mobile-to-print technologies. This is the second announcement in as many weeks from the company, as they gear up for the holidays. Last week, Keepsy announced a new "Gift Book" feature that allows friends and family to make printed Instagram books -- and now calendars -- using each others' photos. To ensure that albums are only printed as personal gifts, Keepsy requires that a given Instagram user follows the album or calendar creator in order to access the photos.* "If you're part of the Instagram community, we can't think of a better holiday gift than getting your friend a surprise album or calendar of their best photos," said Williams. "And now that we're shipping to 22 countries, your friends can be just about anywhere." About Keepsy Keepsy uses the power of social networks to create custom, collaborative photo albums and calendars. People can create their own custom albums and invite friends to add their own photos and messages to the album. Keepsy was founded by Peter Weck, Blake Williams, and Kai Zhao. Keepsy's investors include James Hong, Tim Connors, and Dave McClure's 500Startups fund. To learn more about Keepsy, please visit http://www.keepsy.com *Other restrictions apply. For more information, visit http://www.keepsy.com/faqs#503
Instagram 2.0 now available for iOS
Instagram announced on their blog today that version 2.0 of their popular iOS photography app is now available. Their post outlines a number of additions and changes in the new version, including "live view" of the filters, so you can see the filter applied before you even take the photo. My personal favorite is the higher photo resolution which takes the resolution of the saved photo up to 1936x1936 on the iPhone4 and 1536x1536 on the iPhone 3GS. There is a catch here though: You only get the high-res versions saved to your camera roll IF you have the setting on to save them. What goes out to Instagram is still a 612x612 image. There are also improved controls for sideways photos and options on every filter to enable/disable the borders. Generally in my brief time playing with the update, I've found that the app is overall a little perkier. I did like playing around with the live view filters, even though I don't think I'll spend a lot of time with that function in day-to-day use. I think the revamp of the picture taking interface is nice too; I like the ease of controls and how you don't have to shuffle off to another screen to get the results when you take a photo. (See image.) This is a free update to the free app available in the App Store.
Instagram goes 2.0, gets even more filter-happy
Exceedingly popular iPhone photo app Instagram is celebrating its big (version) 2.0 with the addition of a number of new features. At the top of the list is Live Filters, which let you view images through effects in real-time, before taking a photo. Filters have been sped up post-picture taking as well, as has the tilt-shift function. The revamped app also introduces the Amaro, Rise, Hudson and Valencia filters and high-res photos at up to 1936 x 1936 on the iPhone 4. The app is getting a new icon and a few smaller tweaks like the ability to turn off borders. That long-awaited Android app is still conspicuously absent, however.
Facebook sets sights on Instagram users with photo filter integration
What now Instagram? You wouldn't sell to Facebook and now ol' Zucks is moving on without you. That's right, friends... the social network genius himself is scheming alongside his engineers to integrate photo filters within the company's mobile application. The CEO hopes to lure users away from the popular photography app and keep them tethered to his site via mobile handset. Apparently the tech has been ready for a bit, but the boss wants his team to add more editing options before the feature is released into the wild.
White HTC EVO 3D gets exclusive RadioShack bow on September 9th
If Wall-E's lady friend, Eve, and Spielberg's E.T. were to come together in engineering matrimony, we're pretty sure this white EVO 3D would be the resulting offspring. This "rare and beautiful" unicorn from HTC's beastly, dual-core Android herd hails from the Hesse-led network, and will be available as a RadioShack exclusive on September 9th. The electronics retailer dipped more than just its toes into our 21st century ways (or more likely hired a new intern), getting the message out via its Twitter account, and snapping an Instagram shot of the bleached handset. Pricing for the phone has yet to be announced, but we'd be surprised if this gets a premium over its $199 on-contract twin.
Instagram users have uploaded over 150 million photos
Instagram's 4-person team has announced that the service's users have posted over 150 million photos. Consider that the free, social photo-sharing service now receives about 1.3 million photos per day -- that's 15 shots per second -- and you realize one thing: people really like sharing photos. Make that process easy and convenient, as Instagram has with its iPhone app, and you've got yourself a winner. Kevin Systrom, one of the company's founders, described the diversity he's seen from users: "There are Instagram photos from major events like the World Series and the Grammys, and some Instagram photos have even made the national news. Artists and celebrities have begun to give fans a unique look into their lives." The app is simple and fun. Once you've created a free account, just launch Instagram as you would Apple's own Camera app and start shooting. You can then apply one of several artistic filters or some tilt-shift blur; then share your shot with other Instagram users as well as your Twitter, Flickr and Facebook friends. While you can't view a user's entire Instagram feed in your browser (although you can see individual images), there are plenty of options for interacting with your images without the iPhone app. For example, you can tweak Google+ for instant sharing. Several Mac apps are available, including Carousel (US$4.99, our feature here) and Instadesk ($1.99, our feature here). Finally, take the analog theme to the max with Instaprint, a wireless, location-based printer for Instagram. Imagine...paper pictures! Congratulations to Kevin and the entire Instagram team on your ongoing success. Below you'll see the official 150 millionth photo to be uploaded by Instagram user janefot.
Instagram hits 150 million uploads in nine months, still won't talk about Android plans
For better or worse, Instagram's taken the iOS-capturing world by storm. And if you're wondering what our qualification for "by storm" is, well... let's just say The Biebs blasted out his first image on the service last month. As the story goes, four young lads with a fistful of dollars and boundless imaginations started up the famed app on October 6th, 2010. Today, there's still only four employees, but the user base has expanded just a wee bit. The outfit just saw its 150 millionth photo uploaded (shown after the break!), with the current rate clocking in at around 15 images per second. Naturally, we took the opportunity to ask one of those four what this meant for a future Android release, and while he confirmed that he had nothing to announce right away, he did mention that the (still free) iOS build is just "the beginning of what's to come." So, how's about dropping a link to your favorite Instagram down in comments below? Best one wins!
T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide review
Not too long ago, things were pretty simple in T-Mobile's Android land. For us (the nerds, geeks, power users, early adopters, and other misbegotten social deviants) there was the G series of phones with plain Android, culminating recently with LG's delightful G2x. If you wanted to buy your mom an Android smartphone, you'd point her at the myTouch series of handsets with custom HTC Sense-based skins, like last winter's myTouch 4G. Life got a bit more complicated with the introduction of LG's Optimus T, Samsung's Galaxy S 4G, and other devices that don't neatly fit into the carrier's grand branding scheme. Well, fear not! T-Mobile and HTC went ahead and refreshed last summer's lovely myTouch 3G Slide with a dash of dual-core tech lifted right from HTC's Sensation flagship and a bespoke 8 megapixel shooter said to be "the most advanced camera of any smartphone". Those are fighting words... so does the myTouch 4G Slide (as it's called) beat the likes of Samsung's Galaxy S II, Sony Ericsson's Xperia Arc, and Nokia's N8 in terms of imaging performance? Is the sliding keyboard as pleasant to use as its predecessor? And most importantly, is this your mom's next phone? Read on for our full review. %Gallery-129747%
Sharing Instagram photos on Google+ automatically
Instagram (free) is a lot of fun, although it's often criticized as being the "auto-tune for photography." Google+ is the new social networking flavor of the week, so it's natural that the two services should get together. Wired's Gadget Lab has cooked up a recipe for more Instagram enjoyment by hacking a method of joining the two in unholy matrimony, as well as providing other fun hints. Before I divulge their other hints, let's get to the meat of the matter for those of you who are among the Google+ cognoscenti: getting your Instagrams to Google's Picasa photo sharing site so they can be shared on Google+. Yeah, hopefully this is added to Instagram in the near future. For the present, this is how you do it, folks. To have all of your future Instagram photos sent immediately to Google+, blogger Charlie Sorrel has you set up Instadrop, which automagically connects your Instagram and Dropbox accounts. Send a photo out on Instagram, and it shows up in a Dropbox folder named Instagram Photos. Next, pick up a copy of the free Picasa app for Mac. From the File menu, select "Add Folder to Picasa" and point it at your new Instagram Photos folder on Dropbox. The next step is to have Picasa watch that folder all the time. There's one fly in the ointment here -- this means that if you want true real-time updating of Picasa / Google+, your Mac has to be up and running continuously. Go to Tools > Folder Manager in Picasa, select the Instagram Photos folder, and then tell Picasa to "Scan Always." Finally, find the folder in the sidebar of Picasa, click on it, and then select "Enable Sync" from the Share drop-down in the main menu. That's it. Send a photo to Instagram, and through this complex chain of events the image eventually makes it to Google+, where it is re-shared and commented on by thousands of your friends and complete strangers. Sorrel has some other great tips in the post, including using your "real" camera to take photos, transferring them to an iPad using the Apple Camera Connection Kit, and then zapping them to Instagram. He also recommends the $1.99 Instaplus app to have much more control over the camera and filters.
Visualized: 130 years of GE innovation, accentuated with 130-year old Instagram filters
It may not pay any taxes, but General Electric sure knows how to use an iPhone 4 to upload photos to Tumblr. Hit the source link for a boatload of other shots that probably are as old as they look. But, not at all.
Facebook prepping a photo-sharing app for the iPhone
Leaked information provided to TechCrunch suggests Facebook is prepping a photo-sharing app for the iPhone. From the description, the app is a mixture of Instagram with some of the location information and social sharing of Path and Color. A few surprises are also supposedly thrown into the mix. The app, of course, is integrated into Facebook and ties into your Facebook account. Right now, it is a standalone app, but these features could eventually make their way into the official Facebook iPhone app. The amount of information available now is just a tease and TechCrunch promises more information will be released soon. Stay tuned.
